Inside the 6th floor of the "Trials of Beginners", a 3-man party was currently battling against a horde of monsters.

"Lily! Help me out!"

Leonhardt called to Lily.

"Understood! Water Barrier!"

A ball of water began to gather around Leonhardt and soon turned into a thin bluish membrance that covered him.

"Thanks! Take this!"

Leonhardt's sword began to shine as he charged towards the monsters.

He brandished his long sword left and right cutting the monsters along his way.

"Leonhardt, you idiot! You went too deep!"

A golden haired man with tall stature was holding a two-handed great sword shouted loudly at Leonhard.

"Grid, are you scared!?"

Leonhardt shouted at the manー Grid de Cassias, as he charged ahead.

"Bastard! War Cry!"

Grid let out a loud roar and his body began to be covered with red light. After applying a buff himself, he charged at the monsters and chased after Leonhardt's back.

"Kuhahaha! Leo! A man should rely on himself instead of getting help from a woman!"

Grid laughed loudly as he mocked at Leonhardt.

"You two! Stop fooling around in the middle of a fight!"

Lily interjected between the two of them. She pointed her staff into the ground.

"Earth Blast!"

The ground began to rumble and exploded. The sudden explosion killed a group of monsters who were rushing at her.

"Nice one, Lily!"

Leonhardt praised her.

"It would be a sham for a prince to lost against a woman. Crushing Blow!"

Grid jumped and dives with great force. The ground was shaken and clouds of dust rose up. Monsters were crushed under his attack and there were cracks on the ground due to the collide. Monsters corpses and blood were mixed underneath his feet.

"Idiot! If you're crushing them that much then we won't have anything left to sell!"

Lily shouted at Grid loudly.
Leonhardt clicked his tongue as he saw the scene behind him. He concentrated mana in his sword aimed at the enemies rushing at him.

"Light Slash!"

Leonhardt slashed his sword and sent out a blade of light towards the monsters. In a blink of an eye, seven monsters were cut easily.

"Grid, when you kill them, just cut their heads so we won't lose money!"

Lily scolded Grid.

"Ah, my bad"

Grid apologized as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Leo, how much did you kill?"
"16. You?"

Leonhardt wiped the blood from his sword and sheated it.

"Only 13. What about you, Lily?"

Grid turned his head at Lily.

"I only killed 8"
"A total of 37 monsters. It's quite small for a monster house"

Leonhardt said.

"Forget it. We should be thankful we found one. The monsters seemed to be decreasing recently"

Lily shook her head.

"Usually there would be around 50 monsters in a monster house. Maybe the mana inside the dungeon became weaker because of excessive mining. Grid, is the royal family aware about this situation?"

Leonhardt looked at Grid curiously.

"Yes. My father wants to bury magic crystals inside the dungeon to generate more mana in hope it will return to it's former state. However, the principal refused because he was afraid the dungeon will run out of control if we inject magic crystals"
"Indeed. We can't risk the academy and the students lives just for a dungeon. Moreover, I heard the adventurers found a new dungeon in the north. The scale was quite big and the monsters were strong. There were a lot of magic crystals and other materials that can be found inside the dungeon"

Leonhardt nodded.

"That's right. The scale was more than 10 times of this dungeon. Moreover, you need to be at least a B-rank adventurer to enter the dungeon. Otherwise, you're just going to your death"
"With our strength, we should be able to deal with a normal C-rank monster"
"Probably. Well, if we can beat the dungeon boss on the 7th floor we're definitely a C-rank party"
"Forget it, Grid. The last time we went to the 7th floor and challenged it, we almost died"
"Why? Are you scared, Leo?"

Grid smirked.

"No. With our current strength, we're not strong enough to beat it yet. Maybe after 2 months we can try again"

Leonhardt shook his head.

"You two! Stop talking and help me loot the monsters!"

Lily shouted at the two of them in annoyance.

"Sorry, Lily"
"My bad"

Leonhardt and Grid apologized and went to gathered the loots. If other people saw it, they might be surprised and says that gathering the loots is not what the son of the hero and a prince should do.

∆ ∆ ∆

Historia, the royal capital of Laurasia Kingdom.

Inside the royal knight headquarters, a figure with red-hair was currently swinging his sword accompanied by 30 people behind him.

His movement was smooth and elegant. Each swing were done with the same rhythm. It looked like a performance instead of training. However, behind it lies precise control of speed, power and accuracy.

Swoosh.

A gentle wind blows everytime he swung his sword.

The 30 people behind him swung harder than him and generated stronger wind, however their momentum was weaker.

Their differences was like a butcher who only knows how to cut, and a swordsman who knows how to kill.

Tap, tap.

A man wearing royal knight's armor barged into the training ground and walked towards the leader.

"Greeting, Captain Scarlet!"

The man put his right hand on his chest and saluted at him.

The manー Ash Scarlet, Captain of the 8th Division, stopped his movement and sheated his sword.

"What's wrong?"
"The commander asked you to meet him in his office"
"Understood"

Ash nodded and followed him.
The man guided Ash to the commander's office.

Knock, knock.

"Come in"

The sound of a middle aged man was heard from office.

"Please excuse my intrusion. I brought Captain Scarlet with me"

The man entered the room with Ash behind him.

A brown-haired middle-aged man in his 40s was sitting behind a desk with documents piled up in front of him. He has tall stature with sturdy body and sharp eyebrows. A long sword was hanging on his waist.

Commander of the Royal Knight, Reinhardt Elsword. The man who was hailed as a hero after he ended the civil war 20 years ago.

Reinhardt gestured with his hand and the man left the office after fulfilling his duty, leaving the two behind.

"Do you need something from me, Commander?"

Ash looked at Reinhardt with curious eyes.

"Here, take a look at this"

Reinhardt threw a document at Ash.
Ash looked through the document carefully.

"This is...?"

Ash opened his eyes wide in surprise.

"As you can see. It's a report about the dungeon that was found in the north recently. A party of 12 B-rank and 3 A-rank adventurers went to explored the dungeon. The monsters were tough but it's not a problem for them. However, they met with an earth dragon and almost got wiped out leaving only an A-rank and two crippled B-rank adventurers"
"Is this real?"

Ash asked doubtfully.

"The adventurer's guild made an official report so it should be real. And as you know, a dungeon that has a dragon inside is a treasure trove but also dangerous if we left it alone since a dungeon break might happen"
"Can't the guild handle it alone? Wasn't there 3 S-rank adventurers?
"The guild can't contact any of them"

Reinhardt said helplessly.

"So, you want me to subdue the earth dragon? Commander, I'm happy you think of me so highly, but I'm not it's opponent"

Ash shook his head.

"I know you're not it's opponent. The vice-commander will face the earth dragon, so I want your division to support her. I can't leave the capital and the other divisions were busy with their task. Only your division was capable enough and currently free"
"The vice-commander? then, when will we depart?"
"Please depart as soon as possible. The vice-commander already went ahead 3 days ago"
"Understood"

Ash nodded and left the room.
He went back to the training ground and ordered his men to get ready.

"Go and get your equipments ready. The commander ordered us to subdue an Earth Dragon"
"What!?"
"Captain, are you serious?"

The training ground became noisy.

"Be quite! The vice-commander will face it, we only need to support her. Gather at the west gate once your preparation is over and we will depart immediately in 2 hours!"
"Understood!"

They were dismissed and went back to their respective rooms.
Ash went back to his room to prepare his equipments.

"Hmm. Although I'm only supporting the vice-commander, I'm still going to face an earth dragon. While an earth dragon cannot fly, it was still a dragon. Should I send a letter to Rain about how I'm going to become a dragon slayer?"

Ash murmurred in a low voice and began to laugh as he took a blank paper and a pen.