Training in using my magic weapon, which I've started calling "Shaka", after Shaka Zulu, has progressed splendidly. In tandem with my shield, I've improved my attack and defense capabilities; I went to the Mercenary Guild a few days ago and became registered as a Paladin as my official specialty because of my weapon proficiency, and improved use of Light magic. Today was the first day of the Dungeon subjugation; right now, over a hundred mercenaries from around the continent have arrived to participate.

Me and Rana were with our party, consisting of us and Lost Fang. According to the dungeon subjugation rules, individual and groups of mercenaries can form parties that work together to hunt monsters or gather materials for equal shares in the rewards. The flyers the guild staff gave us explained that the mission was to make our way down from the first floor at the entrance of the dungeon to the 18th floor where the dungeon core is being guarded by the "boss", as I call it. The dungeon entrance was at the edge of the city away from the citizens, and it was common for adventurers to go down and hunt monsters for quick money; also, the difference between mercenaries and adventurers is that the former carry out missions under contract while the latter are the name for professional dungeon divers. People known fairly little about dungeons, but their apparently there magical pocket dimensions, like small versions of the Paganish Realm, that spawn randomly in places. They can be destroyed by destroying the core, but this is mainly done with young dungeons that haven't had time to develop; larger ones are served as places of gathering resources for countries, cities, and some villages.

Every year or so, cities near dungeons hold subjugation missions to kill off as many monsters and harvest as much resources as possible to get government funding, economical improvement, and lower the risk of "dungeon rush', when a dungeon overruns with magic and releases monsters to prevent implosion. Right now, me and the rest of the party are waiting for the subjugation to begin outside the hangar door sized entrance.

"Does everything have what they need?" Rana asked the group, everyone nodded in agreement. "Fai, did you remember to check to make sure all our supplies are packed?"

Fai, the porter Rana hired to carry any tools or supplies we might need along with any game we hunt, who looked like an anthropomorphic koala carrying a large backpack gave a thumbs up. While waiting, we shared some sandwiches bought from the Snoozing Guard.

"Excuse me, may we have a word?" I looked behind me and saw a thin, tan skinned man with green hair along with cat ears and a tail. "We'd like to join your party, if possible?"

I looked behind the cat man and saw there were two other people; both looked like dog beastmen, except as different breeds. The shorter one was wearing green overalls over a chainmail shirt and leggings along with leather helmet with goggles and work boots; she had copper blonde hair done short with two Shih Tzu ears on the sides of her head near the scalp, a dog nose on an otherwise human face, a curled tail covered in hair, and big, emerald green eyes. The woman beside her was taller, with a slender build compared to the former's plump, and was dressed in a pirate shirt, leather pants, and boots with a slight heel, and armored in a breastplate, a small shield around her left arm, and carrying a rapier on her waist; she had chestnut hair done in a messy ponytail, cocker spaniel ears protruding from her head, deep blue eyes, and a dog nose on a beautiful face like the previous girl. With the cat ear man dressed like a priest, they appeared to be another party for the subjugation.

"You would like to join our party?" I looked back to my wife and friends, signaling for them to come closure for a group discussion. "What do you think?"

"We might get less rewards, but having more people increases our chances of coming out with a higher haul." Ra'sh was okay with it.

"I agree, also, with the priest as our healer, we can fight longer with less effort for you." Tuca agreed.

Cavadier and Fai nodded in agreement, and Rana gave a thumbs up, all enough for me to respond. "We would be pleased to work with you. I am Aiden Ortega, and this is my wife, Rana, and the mercenary group, Lost Fang." I began introducing everyone. "The larger one is Ra'sh, the wizard is Cavadier, the archer is Tuca."

"Delighted." The priest gave a slight bow. "I am Jo-se, a Saint and apprentice priest at the Church of St. Bow,  I am participating to gather funds for my temple."

The girl in goggles spoke first. "Hello, I'm Lanie, and this is my older sister, Crystal." Crystal nodded but didn't give a smile. "I am an Artificer who specializes in making magic pistols." She removed the two pistols at her waist, both looked like three barrel pepperbox pistols. "There's a magic stone in the barrels that fire light mana, I'm a good shot but each barrel has a cooldown of three seconds. My sister is a magic swordswoman with a specialty in Wind magic."

"Hello." Crystal greeted us coldly.

"Nice to meet you all, I hope we can work well together." I welcomed our new comrades.

The rest of the time before the subjugation began was spent forming a plan of action. Our party was given coordinates of where to hunt, and our plan of attack is to have me, Crystal, and Rana would handle the primary fighting, Tuca and Lanie would give ranged support, Jo-se and Cavadier would provide any magic assistance and heeling while Fai gathered the materials we could sell to the guild as proof of our efforts, and Ra'sh would be our mages' and porter's bodyguard from any threats targeted at them. If an emergency occurs, Ra'sh was in charge of getting them to safety.

A bell rang, signaling the start of the subjugation, our group was one of the first to enter; entering did feel strange, but the inside was different compared to what I expected. Originally, I expected the inside to be cave-like because of the cave entrance we came in, but instead I found myself in swamp, walking on top of a wooden road as wide as a highway. There was water and foliage everywhere, you could hear crickets and frogs in the distance, and a ceiling high enough for clouds to form and cover the crystals along the ceiling to give the appearance of sunlight.

"This is a dungeon?" I asked Rana, puzzled.

"Dungeons can take on a variety of appearances depending on how old they are, this one has been around since the city was founded." She explained. "This dungeon is over a dozen levels of swamp filled with giant bugs and frogs, crocodiles, animals that usually inhabit this kind of place."

"Fascinating..."

Continuing along the road, our group followed the coordinates thanks to Tuca, and I was able to learn more about this dungeon. It's apparently over 200 years old, and the network of roads we travel through were created by mages in attempt to build a town inside the dungeon but the project was foiled due to abundance of monster attacks. Eventually, we reached our destination, a spawning group for giant frogs that shoot poison. They reminded me of a poison dart frogs the size of toolsheds; they're said to be fast and agile, but simple minded and weak to damage from fire magic.

"We attack on three." I gave the order as everyone got into position. "One... two... Three!"

To start, me and Jo-se shot blasts of fire to surprise them; then, while the front line attacked the cluster of frog, the ranged unit shot any stragglers. It took some effort to kill the whole horde, and halfway through we had to deal with some giant mosquitos that needed to be cut down with Wind magic, but after a few hours, we finished the battle with the collected cores of at least twenty frogs and several mosquitos. While Fai aided Tuca and Lanie with collecting the cores, the rest of us discussed plans.

"The guild's plan is to subjugate all 18 levels over a period of two and half weeks, with one flour per level." Ra'sh explained to our group while Jo-se and Crystal were cleaning their equipment. "However, out goal is to reach the deposits of cheranium on the 15th level. The ore is most lively on a plateau that also acts as a safe area in the dungeon; for some reason, creatures with magic stones are repelled from it. If we continue as plan, we should reach level 15 after two weeks."

Everyone agreed to the plan and began setting camp, then a massive rumble shook the floor. We couldn't tell what it was, but it was strong; our party grouped together and unsheathed our weapons for battle but nothing came. We were about to go at ease when the wooden road we were on split open and rising from below was a giant crocodile as big as a football stadium. Panic insured as our group ran to safety from the the unknown threat; during the panic, Rana picked up Fai and Jo-se and rushed them to safety behind Tuca. Me and Crystal grabbed Cavadier and Lanie respectively; I managed to get my friend to safety, but the sister fell behind. The monster crocodile didn't attack, but sunk back down into the whole it made; unfortunately, the slope in the road pulled down on the sisters as Crystal clutched onto a piece of wood while her sister held her tight.

"What should we do!?" I asked my group.

"We might be able to save them, but it would be dangerous." Tuca began. "We might have to let them fall."

"Then we have a chance." I picked up some rope from my bag and tied one end around myself. "Lower me down, I'll grab them and you all pull us up."

"Are you sure about this?" Rana asked, concerned.

"I'm strong enough to carry them, and light enough for all you to pull us up." I gave Ra'sh the other end of the rope. "I'll be back soon." We my support secure, I repelled myself down to the dog beastmen sisters. Crystal saw me and nudged her sister to grab onto me, when she got secure, Crystal herself jumped off and grabbed on. "Okay, pull us up!"

I saw as Rana and everyone helped to bring us up, but them I caught sight of something troubling. My rope was strong, but not very thick and not made of the toughest material, and it got damaged during the frog attack and the croc surprise. Now, I spotted that a section of my rope was now breaking apart.

"The rope is breaking!" I shouted. "We don't have much time!"

Everyone pulled harder, but someone must have slipped because the rope got more slacked and we almost fell before they grabbed on again. Looking at the weak spot, it was only a few seconds from breaking, and then, as I looked at Rana, it snapped.

"Aiden!!" My wife tried to reach but it was futile.

"Rana!!" I screamed as I began to fall down the giant hole created by the crocodile.

We continued falling down, through the floor and more until I got an idea from MHA. 'Bakugo, this better work¹!'

"Hold on as tight as possible!" They listened to me. I stretched my arm out and tried to replicate my plan from the desert dragon attack. Using my mana, I created a blast of fire that thrusted me out of free falling into another floor. Doing the same trick two more times, I fired at the ground to work against gravity, hoping to cushion our landing. It wasn't the nicest landing, I wound up using the shield on my back as sled, but we were relatively safe. "Are you both okay?"

I let them go and they sat down, trying to calm down; Lanie was shocked, so I used my Light magic to calm her mind. "We'll live." Crystal answered, getting up, and looking more composed.

"Do you know where we are?" I asked her, but her younger sister answered.

"I counted 14, so I think we fell to the 15th level." Lanie spoke.

"15?" I looked around, we were another wooden road, one that was hardly used. I jumped onto a nearby tree to get a higher view, and in the distance I saw a giant plateau. "There it is." I landed back to the girls. "That plateau is a safe area from monsters, if we get there and wait for everyone else, we should be fine."

"How would you know that?" Crystal asked, suspicious.

"My friends and I were planning to go there and look for a special ore. Their smart, so they must think I found a way to survive and be looking for us. If we camp out on the plateau, we'll increase our chances for survival." I checked my gear; I had my magic sword, a dented shield and armor, but none of my other gear. "What do you two have, I only have my weapons."

"I lost my sword, but I still have a dagger." Crystal showed me. "I won't have the same reach, but I can still fight, and I have all my gear with me." She showed her rough sack.

"I lost one of my pistols, but I still have one left." Lanie showed me. "I also still have my tools and some rations."

"Alright, if we stay close and watch out for each other, we should be able to reach the plateau in two or three days given how big this floor is." It was considerably bigger than he first floor. "Any questions?"

"Why should we follow you?" Crystal questioned me taking the lead.

"I'm not taking the lead, I'm simply informing you of our best course of action. It's either my plan, or we fight our way up to the rest of the party."

"He's right, his plan is easier and more likely to succeed." Lanie agreed with me.

Crystal looked at me with suspicion. "Don't cross me, or my sister."

"Alright, if we're all in agreement, let's head out." We began our trek to the safe zone, and with luck we might be able to reach it.

He's taking about Bakugo from My Hero Academia.