Paimon and the Party head through the streets of Greendale and head towards the guild. Nemuri nibbles on some red berries in her hand. Teina hangs in the back of the party.

"I wonder what kind of quests they have here?" Julian questions as he rolls his right shoulder.

"Probably the same as Alsely." Rein says in a monotone voice.

"I know that, but what kind of monsters, type of gathering quests!"

Demai sighs. "I hope we get ranked up soon, then we can take on dungeons."

Paimon tilts her head. "Dungeons?"

"Dungeons are caves that have had lots of mana in them and it condensed down into a core. Then the core starts to form floors, monsters and treasure. The older they are, the more floors and stronger monsters you can find. Some dungeons even have special effects, like low gravity, decreasing spell effectiveness, random teleport spells, and other weird things."

'Oh, so like dungeons from the fantasy books Paimon's read.' Paimon says in thought. "Sounds like fun!"

"I heard that a new dungeon formed a couple miles from here a few months ago." Rein informs. "A weird dungeon from what I've heard."

"Weird, how?" Julian asks.

"Well, it's not a lethal dungeon. The monsters won't kill you, they just knock you out, take a few of your stuff and drag you back to the entrance. But I heard if you don't kill any of the dungeons monsters, when you get to the core, it'll provide you with a reward."

"That is weird." Julian mutters. "We'll have to check it out one day."

"Paimon wants to fight a dungeon now!" She shouts as she zooms up to Julian.

Julian sweat drops. "Only Adventurers Rank D and above can take on Dungeons."

"What, why?!"

"For safety reasons."

Paimon crosses her arms and pouts. "That's stupid." Nemuri pats her head.

Everyone chuckles as Paimon as they arrive at the guild. Finding it mostly empty.

"Weirdly empty for such a large city." Rein mutters.

"I agree." Julian nods.

The party of six heads up to the reception desk where an Elf girl stands. The elf girl has short pink hair with blue eyes.

"Welcome Adventurers!" The Elf girl greets. "How may I help you today?"

"We're just here to take on a quest." Julian informs.

The Elf girl nods and motions to a nearby bulletin board with only a few papers. "Here are the available quests."

The party looks over to the board and walk over to it.

Rein whines. "Most of them are just simple gathering quests. And the one that's not is a quest to take down a Cockatrice!"

"There weren't so few quests back in Aslely." Julian sighs.

"Do you happen to be Julian the party leader, of an adventurer group of six that just came from Aslely?" The Elf asks.

"Uh, Yeah?" Julian confirms.

The Elf claps her hands together. "Wonderful, I happened to receive a letter from Guild Master Lillian yesterday." She grows a large smile. "She told me to inform you all that you know have reach D Rank."

Everyone smiles, even Teina. 

"Does that mean we can take on that dungeon now?" Paimon asks, and the Elf girl nods. "YEAH!"

The Elf girl holds out her hand. "Just hand me your ID cards and I'll update them." Everyone pulls out their ID cards and give them to the elf. "I'll be right back in a few moments." She starts to head back, but stops. "Oh, what happens to be your Party's name?"

"Party name?" Paimon raises an eyebrow.

"Most adventurer parties have names, so Guilds and People can easily identify them." Teina informs. 

"Cool! So what is our name then?"

Everyone rubs their heads as they think about it.

"I've actually had an idea for a few days." Julian informs, and everyone looks to him. "What about 'The Spirits of the Fae'?"

"Why that?" Paimon asks.

"Well, because we are probably the only party with a Fae on their team, so I'd thought we do something in honor of that."

Paimon smiles as she nods with closed eyes. "Yes, yes. It's perfect."

"You only like it because it has to do with you." Rein deadpans.

"You have no proof!"

The Elf girl nods. "If everyone agrees to that name, I'll add it to the card."

Julian looks to his party, and they all nod and he grows a smile. He then pulls out a paper and slams it on the counter. "I even have a design for our group!"

Everyone looks at it an sweat drops, but Paimon smiles.

"Really?" Rein asks his leader.

"What? I thought it was cute." Julian defends himself.

"Paimon approves!" Paimon smiles.

Nemuri facepalms and shakes her head.

"With all this, Paimon should treat herself to a large meal." Paimon drools.

Rein grows a tick mark on his head, and starts to pull on Paimon's cheeks. "Stop spending all our money on yourself!"

"Stwoooowp!" Paimon complains.

The Elf girl sweat drops and gives a forced chuckle. "I'll be right back with your ID cards and badges." She grabs the paper with the party's symbol on it and heads into the back.

"Rein, I think she's had enough." Demai calls out.

"This little mascot needs to learn her lesson!" Rein shouts.

Albuis grabs Paimon out of Rein's grip.

"PAIMON IS NOT A MASCOT!" Paimon shouts as she floats above Albuis.

Rein stomps his feet. "Come back down here you little Faerie!"

"Fuck you!"

"No, fuck you!"

Julian holds his hands out as he sweats. "Guys guys! Let's not fight! It's kinda unprofessional."

Paimon and Rein both glare at Julian and he shrinks down.

Demai grows a serious look and gives the two hard glares. "Calm down now."

Rein and Paimon swiftly drop to the ground and go on their knees. "Sorry!" They yell.

Demai then gives a warm closed eyed smile. "Good, don't let it happen again or-" Her hidden blade shoots out. "There will be punishment~"

'Why is she so scary!?!?!?!' Paimon shouts in thought.

Nemuri sweat drops.

A few minutes later the Elf girl walks back to the counter and hands back everyone's ID cards. 

"Here you go, you are now able to take on D rank quests." The Elf girl then sets six badges and a small pin on the counter, with the symbol that Julian gave the Receptionist. "And here's your Party Symbol."

Everyone grabs the badges and puts them on their armor and it just sticks, which confuses Paimon.

"Oh, these badges have magic on them that allows them to stick to anything. They can easily be taken off only by applying some magic to it, so they don't easily fall off." The Elf informs.

"So cool..." Paimon puts the badge on her right shoulder and it stick. "Wooow~"

Paimon then grabs the pin and goes over to Nemuri and sticks it on her collar. Nemuri gives a happy cry.

The Elf girl smiles. "Now, Spirits of the Fae, please protect this world and the people in it."

Everyone smiles and gives thumbs up to the Receptionist. 

'I can feel that they're gonna do great things!' The Elf girl says in thought.

.

.

The party stands outside of a cave entrance in the side of a small hill.

"Our first Dungeon." Julian smiles up at the cave, a hand on his short sword's handle.

"We should celebrate tonight by eating lots of food!" Paimon throws a hand up.

Rein slams his head on top of the Faerie's head. "We can't afford your eating habits!"

Paimon starts to cry as she rubs her head. "Why are you mean to Paimon?!"

Rein glares at Paimon, but feels a heavy pressure behind him and he slowly looks back to see Demai glaring at him. A dark aura covers Demai as her eyes turn red.

Rein quickly turns to Paimon and bows. "I'm sorry!" He looks up at Paimon, only to see her smirking at him, making his jaw drop. "Why you little-!"

"Okay, let's go!" Julian walks into the dungeon.

Paimon follows after Julian, while giving Rein a smug look.

Rein fumes with anger. 'That damn Faerie!'

Everyone follows Julian in and they come across some Gnolls, a  feral, hyena-headed humanoids that attack without warning, slaughtering their victims and devouring their flesh.

"These don't feel like regular Gnolls." Teina mutters.

The Gnolls point their spears at the party in a defensive way.

"Remember everyone, just knock them out, and this Dungeon Core will reward us." Julian reminds his party as he takes out his short sword.

The party swiftly knocks out the Gnolls and move on.

"This is really exciting!" Demai jumps a little.

Albuis nods in agreement. 

"How many floors does this Dungeon have?" Rein asks.

"Three so far." Julian informs.

"Only a few months old and three floors? Huh, it's growing fast."

"Let's just keep moving."

An hour later the party arrives at a spring of sort with a large green glowing gem above it.

"Is that the core?" Paimon asks.

"Yup, and that spring will take us back to the entrance once we step inside it."

Paimon looks around the smooth stone room and finds a closed door off to the side. She just shrugs her shoulder and keeps looking around and finds a small pile of silver coins in front of the fountain.

"Money!" Paimon shoots forward and grabs a handful. "There's about 100 silver coins here!"

"Hey, share some of it!" Rein stomps forward.

"so the rumor was true, that's nice." Julian smiles.

The party spits 60 of the silver coins among themselves, and Paimon summons a large pouch filled with coins and puts the rest in it. Then desummons it.

"Let's leave and head back to the city, and get some lunch." Julian steps into the fountain. 

Paimon drools as she steps into the fountain. "Paimon's really hungry."

Everyone sweat drops as they step into the fountain. The party disappears in a flash of light and reappear in front of the cave.

Paimon blinks a few times. "That was so-!" She then pukes out rainbows. "-cool!"

"Ewww..." The party mutters, and Nemuri sweat drops. 

Paimon wipes her mouth. "I feel fine! Let's go eat!" She starts floating, constellations flying off her. "Onward!" She swiftly flies off.

"Wait up, Paimon!" Everyone runs after the Faerie.

.

.

.

Moon light shines onto a large map with many areas crossed out. Satheriel smiles as he looks down at the map and stares at a circle around a cliff.

"Found it~" Satheriel chuckles. "Finally, after thousands of years I found one of the Divine Artifacts."

Satheriel backs away from the table and looks at a painting. In the painting is a female in white robes with green hair and a white bandage around her eyes. She has a soft smile on her face as her hands are clasped together.

Satheriel walks over to the painting and gives it a smug smile. "You can't stop me now, Amare, watch as I desecrate what you created for your precious goddess~"

He holds a hand out to the painting and a golden flame appears, burning the painting into a ash.

"Once I get my hands on that sword, I'll be unstoppable!" Satheriel starts to laugh, which slowly turns maniacal. 

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02-25-2024

1830 words