"Hello," Seungwoo waved his hand.

The two-party members near the entrance of the caverns conversing amongst themselves turned. Upon further inspection, Seungwoo realised that one was a female mage wearing some skimpy orange attire, while the other was a knight with a circular shield. He had standard armour equipped, but he didn't have a helmet. Rather, it was a red bandana instead.

"What's up, bro," The knight replied, nodding his head, "We finna do this dungeon, you down?"

"I think so?" Seungwoo asked hesitantly, "You need two more, right?"

"Yeah, we've been trying to do this dungeon for about an hour now," He clicked, "Not a lot of players around."

"It is pretty far from the spawn area," Seungwoo noted, "Why are you here, anyway?"

"The Crystal Scorpion drops some good ass minerals," He explained, "They're used for item crafting." 

"That's the boss?" 

"Yessir," The knight nodded, "We've been trying to do the dungeon, but it's too hard!"

"We should be able to help with that," Seungwoo nodded.

"Sweet," He replied, "I'll send you both an invite."

"Insignia?"

"That's me!" He nodded.

Seungwoo accepted.

They were then introduced to his party member, Emblem. Seungwoo learned that they were close friends from a young age, so they preferred to play together. He could understand that sentiment, but at the same time, meeting new players to play with and exploring the world together was also something he was interested in.

"Anything we should know before entering?" Seungwoo asked.

"Mm, not sure, bro," Insignia shook his head before shrugging, "The homies from my guild already did it, but they said it wasn't too hard. But they also like being lil bitches, though, so I couldn't tell you for sure. They could be capping."

"You have consumables?"

"Nah," He shook his head, "Those are for pussies. Ain't nothing wrong with pussies, but I ain't no bitch."

"Where are you from, again?" Seungwoo raised his eyebrows.

"States, baby!" He exclaimed, "I'm playing on VPN in this motherfucker."

"You can do that?"

"Yup," He nodded, "That shit's easy, bro. Not that hard to set up."

"She's from the states, too?"

"Yes," Emblem chimed in, "Greetings."

"Alright," Seungwoo nodded, "I guess we can just enter and then go from there. Does anyone wants to set anything up before we go in?"

"Nah, I'm good, broski," He replied, "I gotta tell you, though, it's also a material dungeon, so I suggest you get pickaxes."

Material dungeon?

Seungwoo looked at Woo-jin.

Woo-jin: It's a dungeon with drops you can gather through your professions. 

Seungwoo: So, I should bring a pickaxe?

Woo-Jin: I got some already, so I can just lend one of mine.

Seungwoo: Sweet. Thanks.

"Yeah," Woo-jin replied back, "We're ready."

"Alright," nodded, "I'll lead the way."

Upon walking into the Crystalline Caverns, it only took them a few minutes to find a cave entrance to the side of the main tunnel. 

After confirming, Seungwoo has whisked away into the deep caverns. All around them glowed a hymn of dark blue light, an indication of the giant glowing crystals that hung on the dungeon's ceiling. The room also contained a large rune at the bottom of the floor, but it was partially in dirt and didn't seem to be doing anything. Looking around, the slow dripping of water down the cave's stalactites gave a disturbing aura that caused Seungwoo to feel somewhat uneasy. 

"Why is it so creepy?" Seungwo shivered.

"No idea," Woo-jin tasted the murky air, "Although, I can probably guess they added an invisible debuff."

"What does that mean?"

"Well, everything is information here," He replied, "They could affect brain waves. They were a medical company that focused on brain development before becoming a games company."

"Really?" Seungwoo replied, "I didn't think it was possible."

After grouping up, Insignia opened up the mini-map for everyone to see.

"So, the caverns are divided into small rooms," Insignia replied, "You just go through each room, loot whatever is available, and then gather as many materials before going on. There are two bosses, but the second one is significantly harder than the first. You only need to clear one for the dungeon to be marked complete."

"I can see both boss rooms," Seungwoo replied, "Why is everything else covered, though?"

"This is like a labyrinth dungeon," He replied, "It shows the boss room, but the other rooms are randomised. Each dungeon clear will be different than the last, but there will always be boss rooms."

"Does that mean the drops we get from each room might be different, too?"

"Yes," He replied, "This dungeon has a weekly clear cap of three."

"Ah, I understand now."

Seungwoo realised it must've meant that the item they were looking for in the quest might not be in a particular dungeon but a set of dungeons. He didn't know if the item was tradable, but if the item they were looking for wasn't in this one, he would have to reclear it with Woo-jin. There was a possibility he didn't find it at all, having to wait until next week to complete the quest.

After leaving the first room of sorts, they entered another entrance with an abundance of crystals and minerals. The glowing ores and the floating nametag above them meant they were harvestable. The room was littered with rock golems and black scorpions the size of a horse, but the two other party members led ahead.

"Aight, stick with me," He walked forward, "I got a skill that increases health."

A small circle appeared under him, glowing light blue. The ring spread to fit everyone inside, and his maximum health doubled whilst also ticking upwards slowly. It was a buff that increased HP and regen. Insignia was careful to saunter through, not grabbing any other mob's attention. Usually, mob groups had an aggro range based on distance.

"Don't get hit by the scorpion's tail," He breathed slowly, "Otherwise, they drag you to the rest. We don't wanna be fucking up the run by aggroing the whole room. These monsters are beefy as hell."

Emblem nodded, raising her staff. Three fireballs appeared behind her. They floated in mid-air, standing still and not directed anywhere. It was only when Insignia aggroed the first scorpion did she react. As he directed the mob closer to the group, a fireball would be thrown at his face every time the scorpion would raise his pincers.

Seungwoo applied pressure by assisting Insignia, and Woo-jin also started to the frontline. Within a couple of minutes, they managed to carefully aggro each monster without upsetting the rest. Woo-jin suggested that they began to aggroing three mobs at once, but Insignia was hesitant to comply. After some talking, they agreed to do it only if Woo-jin would lead the next room.

"Are you sure it's a good idea?" Insignia asked, grabbing his pickaxe to collect the materials scattered across the room.

"Of course," Woo-jin confirmed, doing the same.

After some more convincing and Seungwoo mining the rest of the materials in the room, they divided all of them equally. They were all tradable, and most of them were Rare or Common grade materials. There was one Epic grade material, which everyone rolled for. He, unfortunately, got a low-end number, so Emblem was able to steal it with a 92. 

After moving to the next room, Seungwoo was the first to throw attacks. Since his arrows had a good range, he could forcefully aggro three at a time without walking up close to them. This let the team breathe a little easier, as they did not have to juggle between moving and attacking. The mobs would come to them instead of the other way around.

The arrows flung out of his bow with grace and found their mark.

This room had gotten easier since everyone was now getting in the zone. There was a little bit of trust, so Woo-jin decided to play a bit more aggressively. Instead of waiting for attacks against the scorpions, he would take some hits of its pincer, but he would cut off the tail before it could deal significant damage.

"Sweet baby Jesus," Insignia exclaimed, "Nice moves, bro!"

"Thank you," Woo-jin replied.

He had gotten brazen with his attacks, going under, over and weaving his spear beautifully. Like an intricate tapestry, his ability with the spear was amazement, even to Seungwoo. He had gotten much better since the last game he had played with him, and the thought of him even matching his current skill level was quite hard.

After several more rooms of rinse and repeating, they had gotten a fair amount of materials and EXP. The dungeon level was in their range, so Seungwoo levelled up a few times during the task. He was sitting at a comfortable level of twenty-five (25). They headed towards a larger room with no mobs, one with a metal gate on the front. The entrance had a set of six runes, which all glowed a dim red.