The dungeon my mom sent me to was about a 30 minute run away from where I was when she called me.

 

When I got there I found a bunch of people surrounding the newly formed dungeon making sure no one entered it.

 

When it comes to new dungeons, the association will send a team in to figure out info from the dungeon, like a layout or a good level for it.

 

If, for some reason, they do not have a team of a good level for the dungeon, they would contract out that dungeon investigation to a guild in the city.

 

But since this one was low level, they only needed someone to deal with the monsters.

 

This means I will be going in with at least a person with mapping and appraisal skills, to learn the layout and how strong monsters are.

 

I could also be seeing something like a healer or crafter to round out the group.

 

When I got to the barricade the association had put up, someone stopped me. “Hey, this is an ongoing hunter association business. YOu need to turn around” they told me.

 

“I'm actually part of the investigation team” I tell him, while pulling up my id to prove it.

 

“Oh, sorry, come right in” he says, letting me into the barricade.

 

Walking in, I see a bunch of people from the association checking things about the dungeon, but then I see them.

 

A group of people wearing hunter's clothing, and one stands out to me.

 

It's been a few weeks since I saw her, since we had that conversation in front of my house. I don’t know why she is here, but from what I remember, she is a healer. So, in some ways it made sense she would join the association's hunter reserves.

 

“Fuck…” I say, not fully sure what I should do. “Mom, what the hell?”

 

And before I could figure anything out, or make a plan, someone walked up to me.

 

‘Excuse me, but are you here for the investigation of the dungeon?” a man asked me. Based on his appearance, I would guess he was around 20ish years old. He was dressed in classic hunters gear, but his only weapon was a knife on his belt.

 

“Um, yeah, I am. I was asked to be the fighter for the group. It’s my first time helping though” I tell him.

 

“Oh, cool. You aren’t the only newbie with us today. Ill introduce you to the group” the man said and pulled me over to the group. “So let's start with the veterans of the group. I am Ryan, the crafter here to analyze materials in the dungeon, as well as the leader of our small group. This is Michal, our mapping expert, and Jessica, our apreaser”. He gestured to the two people I didn’t know in the group. They were both around Ryans age, and wore similar equipment to him, all with little weapons, but stuff that would be helpful in their positions. “And lastly this is Mia, our other newbie, she's a healer”

 

The two of us just stare at each other for a little, not really sure what to say.

 

Shit, I mean, the last time I saw her she told me she loved me and I had a mental breakdown, what should I do?

 

Turns out that we were staring at each other for long enough for the others to notice.

 

“Do you two know each other?” the other guy, Micheal said.

 

“Oh, crap, yeah. We do” I say, “But, hey look, a new dungeon no one has cleared yet. Lets go” and I walk towards the dungeon, without paying attention to anyone else.

 

“Hey, wait up, shouldn’t we plan for being inside?” Ryan called after me. “We don’t know whats in there yet”

 

“Yeah, so hurry up, and we can start investigating” I say back to them. Notably speaking, the only person following my lead was Mia.

 

“Alright then, we can’t let our juniors show us up” Ryan says, getting Micheal and Jessica to follow behind him.

 

And about 10 seconds later, someone else calls out to me.

 

“Wait, there is some stuff we need to check before going in” a girls voice, Jessica says.

 

“Oh, yeah. Well you do that, we will wait” I say, stopping in front of the door for the dungeon.

 

“Yes, thank you. I will get the detailed info we need from the dungeon before we enter.” she says, and pulls out a tablet to write the info down on.

 

SHe was checking for things like minimum level, and the name of the dungeon, but there is also a few things that she can see that might be important.

 

While this is happening, I walk over to ask Ryan a question about Jessica.

 

“Hey, what level is her appraisal skill?” I ask him.

 

“Oh, Jessica had the intrinsic skill of absolute appraisal, at the max level” he told me.

 

“That's amazing. Absolute Appraisal gives all details of everything, without any exception. Even beyond what we can see in our own status right?”

 

“Yeah, she is quite helpful to our group” he tells me. “Same with Micheal. His mapping is the highest level as well, being auto mapping”

 

“And what about you?”

 

“Me, no I just have basic crafting” He tells me. “But thanks to the two of them, I am here”

 

‘You all knew each other before joining the association?”

 

“Yeah, friends since high school. Joined together in college, but only one of our friends had combat skills, so we all joined in associations group”

 

“But I was called since you don’t have a front line fighter?”

 

“They recently joined a guild with a really good contract” Ryan said, with some reservation.

 

“Oh, I'm sorry for bringing it up” I say apologetically.

 

“Its fine, but answer a question for me, whats your relationship with Mia?” he asked.

 

“...” I wasn’t sure how to answer“We used to be friends, or maybe we still are? Its complicated”

 

“Well, as long as you can work together, we should be fine” He says.

 

“We should be fine then” I say back.

 

Shortly later, Jessica calls us over saying she got all the information she needed from the dungeon, and we can finally enter the dungeon.

 

✾

 

The dungeon opens up with what seems to be a jungle cave. Unlike the wolves den I went to a while ago, this should have more diverse monsters inside, as well as slightly more interesting terrain.

 

Right away, Ryan and Jessica start looking at everything in sight, looking for any materials that are used for anything.

 

If they do find stuff for crafting or maybe things that can be sold for decent money, that would increase the value the dungeon has, changing things for the association.

 

Dungeons that have helpful materials inside get changed from public to private use only. Companies rent out dungeons for a certain amount so they can harvest the materials and hopefully make a profit.

 

These dungeons normally sit around a C-A range, since you need to balance the danger of the dungeon in comparison to the value of the materials.

 

Since this is an E rank dungeon, or so we assume, it would take some very valuable materials to get this dungeon listed among those.

 

Also, private dungeons are how guilds mainly train and hunt, so they can do so uninterrupted.

 

Allegedly in Europe, a company tried to hold a contract for a S rank dungeon, only for it to outbreak during the contract, causing the deaths of hundreds of people nearby. After that is when the worlds associations decided that the regular compilation of any S rank dungeon takes precedence over anything else.

 

After a while, we are able to move on a little into the dungeon to a point where I will finally be useful.

 

As Ryan and Jessica continue to work deeper in, we finally run into some monsters. They seem something like real world monkeys, but much larger and stronger then any I have ever seen.

 

“They are called Apekros, low level monsters, around 15” Jessica says.

 

“Got it” I say, activating wind magic and killing all three right away. I poured slightly more magic then I should into the attack, since I was so close to 10,000 mp.

 

Apekros level 15 has died

You gained 25 EXP

 

Apekros level 15 has died

You gained 25 EXP

 

Apekros level 15 has died

You gained 25 EXP

 

…

 

There were only a few of them, and with that, we are able to move forward again.

 

✾

 

It took us longer then it would have normally taken me, but a few hours later, we finally made it to the end of the dungeon.

 

Michael had us go to every corner in the dungeon to complete his map, so that was normal.

 

But Ryan and Jessica had to look at every plant, or slightly different rock. It took them ages to catalog everything.

 

THis left me with killing monsters, and Mia with just waiting around.

 

Since I was at such a higher level, I could deal with any monster without even trying.

 

ALso thanks to the time I spent waiting around, I finally hit 10,000 MP, meaning I could finish making the last few items for absolute creation lv.1.

 

I also learned that monsters will respawn if you stay on one floor for long enough. This could be helpful if I wasn’t constantly looking to increase my SP, not level.

 

The dungeon had a number of different monsters as well, but mostly just monkey like monsters.

 

And now, the boss room.

 

Entering it, we found a jungle room, like the rest of the dungeon.

 

And in the middle of the dungeon was a boss I would recognize anywhere.

 

A sasquatch.

 

Sasquatch, or big foot, was a urban legend for years before the first outbreak, and was a big deal when people started seeing them in dungeons.

 

I read a number of theories about this, like how this means that magic must have existed before the fist outbreak or dungeons.

 

That wasn’t the only evidence, but it was a pretty funny one. OTher evidence included tings like monsters from fantasy novels or demons from mythology, but the constant idea that they want to kill us has changed some of those ideas.

 

Its hard to say this has some mythological answer when everything wants to kill you.

 

“Its level 25, but after everything we have seen from you, that should be fine right?” Jessica asked me.

 

“Yeah, totally fine” I say, starting and ending the fight with a single attack.

 

Compressing wind down into a blade, i send it at the sasquatce and it dies as the wind cuts right through it.

 

Sasquatch lv.25 has died

You gained 250 EXP

Jungle Cave has been cleared

200 SP gained

 

That message confirms the dungeon is clear and the completion of our task for today. Over the next few days, they will open the dungeon up with the condition that any drops need to be documented for the association.

 

But then I got another message that I had never seen before.

 

Apotheosis - You have cleared a new rank 1 area

You gained 2500 SP

 

What the hell is this?