I was sitting in Adventurer guild and drinking ale. All around me adventurers were discussing news about arrival of the knights. They were guessing the reasons for it, not all of them flattering to town lord. If I would have to guess, I would say that they brought news about the approaching army.

  But for now that was not my primary concern. My concern was the dungeon. Today I was supposed to meet with adventurers who accepted my quest. Time was short, and I needed strong allies to conquer the dungeon in short amount of time.

  First one to appear was Nelly. She came inside and looked around. Ten years ago she was thirteen years old. Still a child, but already very powerful mage. She grew up, but still looked like a sixteen years old child. She was wearing a cape, which I gave her. It was made from monster feathers and looked like something made by savages. Not something that capitol's mage would wear. But it was made from mid ranking floor guardian materials and was more expensive than any mages rob or silk. Back in the day, cloak was too big for her, but now it fitted her perfectly. She noticed me and smiled. An archmage was supposed to slowly walk towards me, but she run to my table, happily grinning.

  - Avone, I am so happy to see you.

  - And I you Nelly. You look great.

  - Thanks. This is my favorite cloak, - she turned around, demonstrating her unusual cloth.

  - It gives you a look that is for sure, - I laughed.

  She sat down, looked around and smiled.

  - Master Mesmer told me that we are going to new adventure. This time deep in the dungeon.

  - Not just deep. But till the end. We are going to conquer it.

  - Master Mesmer told me that, but I thought that he was exaggerating?

  - Not this time. I heard that you visit dungeon regularly.

  - Yes. I even reached floor seven.

  - That is impressive.

  That was, considering that previous official record was floor six.

  Leone came to our table and we looked at her.

  - The adventurer who accepted your quest is waiting. Also guild master decided to recommend someone for your party. He would like to talk to you, if you please. They are waiting for you in our back room.

  Recommendation? That was unusual. But no harm in listening. Probably.

  - Very well,- we stood up and followed Leone. Three persons were expecting us. Two of them were the last ones that I expected to see. My familiar, guild master Fiord was a dwarf who did not changed at all, even after ten years.

  Second person was a royal knight. Wearing custom made adamantium armor with greatsword behind his back. He was tall and looked like a hero from children tales. Trevor, my former party member, and also a man that Myne was in love with.

  Third was a panther-girl. Scout and adventurer Luara, our former party leader. Still armed with the same adamantium sword and dagger that she had back then. She was wearing short chainmail, similar to mine, and had several rings, which were probably artifacts.

  They smiled at us and Fiord stood up.

  - Lady Avone. Sorry that I am interfering with your business, but I needed to talk to you. Important news reached us and I am her to ask you a favor.

  - Fine, - Nelly and I sat down, but I was not happy. Too many memories. And one really bad.

  - You already know Trevor. I would like for him to join your party as a warrior. He is strong enough and because of some news that I received, your quest to reach dungeons lowest floor, became a matter of a town.

  - Is that so? I do not remember accepting any quests. Nor I asked for your recommendation or interference. I was planning to clear the dungeon on my terms. Using my pace and now you want me to accept a royal knight as my party member. Probably to say that royal knights were the ones who cleared the dungeon. And what about the urgency? Is that how the Grimsburg guild works these days? - well, he did not mentioned all these things, but I will milk him for all he got.

  For the first time I saw uncomfortable dwarf.

  - Yes, I understand. And I was never going to claim that royal knights cleared the dungeon. But it was special request from town lord. Please excuse me, but I must insist. I will make sure that you are fully compensated, if you agree to help us out.

  - Really? Fine, but I will have my conditions.

  - I understand.

  - I have my conditions as well, - smiled Luara: - I do not want the promised reward. I want something else.

  - What is it? - I turned towards her.

  - Personal favor from you. I will name it after we are done with the quest.

  - If I join you, as a member of your party, I also want something from you, - nodded Trevor.

  - And me as well, - added Nelly.I could understand Nelly. She will risk her life and deserved reward. But what did Trevor and Luara want.

  - Fine. But nothing unreasonable. And if I accept you as party members I will need you two to disclose to me your skills and levels. That is not negotiable, - we were not party members anymore. Adventurers kept their skills secret for a reason. Their lives depended on them. No adventurer would disclose their skills to a stranger. And Trevor was a royal knight, his skill were probably national secret or something. I needed allies, and my former party members were strong and skilled adventurers. Just what I needed, but Myne...

  - I do not mind, - nodded Luara.

  - Neither do I.

  - I agree too, - smiled Nelly. I did not ask her to reveal her skills?

  Leone put a small wallet on the table.

  - I am sorry, but since no one accepted your quest, at least not for the reward that you offered, and since your posted quest was time limited, guild will return money that you paid as reward for the job.

  I looked inside the wallet and placed it inside my magic bag. I left the guild four orichalcum coins. My last ones, as reward for the quest. Reward also was supposed to be equal shares of magic stones and monster materials. At least now I had money, but things did not go as I expected.

  - Fine. First, - I looked at guild master: - If we successfully clear the dungeon in less than a month, you will officially make an announcement that it was done by a royal knight, and will not mention our names. Also you will owe me a favor.

  - That is acceptable. And thank you.

  Did he even notice that I mentioned the time frame that he needed?

  - We will leave you then, and good luck.

  - Thank you.

  After Fiord and Leone left, I looked at Luara.

  - It has been a long time, - she smiled.

  - Yes. I am sorry, but as you heard we are short on time.

  - Of course. I think that you already know my skills, - I nodded: - My level is nine.

  I looked at Trevor.

  - My level is eighteen. My new skills are Night vision, Magic resistance, Knight, Increased speed and Armorer.That was not bad. Perfect set for a warrior.

  - My level is twenty nine I have all four elemental magic skills, Wisdom, Mana rapid recovery, Increased maximum mana points, Intelligence at novice level, and Lesser mana use skill.

  That was impressive. Nothing less to expect from archmage.

  - Did master Mesmer provided you with potions?

  - Yes, many of them. Nearly thirty nine anti-sleep potions and one hundred seventy eight stamina potions.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  - Good. We are short on time. So we will use shortest way in and will continue our descend almost without sleep or rest. Still sure that you are willing to go?

  Luara and Trevor looked at each other and nodded.

  - We are, - they said simultaneously.

  - But why the urgency? - asked curious Nelly.

  - We should ask Trevor that.

  We all looked at him and he blushed slightly.

  - I am not sure that I am supposed to tell you that. But you are risking a lot. So I will reveal you the reason, but please keep it secret for a while.

  - We are going to the dungeon right now. Who are we going to talk to? Monsters in the dungeon?

  - Right. There is an army approaching Ashgrin. Grimsburg will probably be the first town that they will attack. By destroying the dungeon, we will limit their ability to level up and become stronger.

  - An army? - exclaimed Nelly.

  - Not our concern, - I patted her head: - Just concentrate on the dungeon. Besides, that army could attack any other town. Or not come at all. Right? - I turned to Trevor and squinted my eyes.

  He coughed: - That is true.

  - Good. Let us go then. Everyone has their gear. Food supplies were already prepared for us by the guild and will be enough to feed us for fifty days. Even if we do not succeed in one month, we will not be coming back.

  - Why? - asked Trevor.

  - Because if the army will come. It will be between us and Grimsburg. What do you think will happen if we meet them during our return?

  - I did not think about it.

  - You should have considered everything. But it is too late now. So is everyone ready?

  - Yes, - they all nodded and we left the guild. Grimsburg dungeon was located an hour walk from the town and we had time to catch up.

  - I see you are using the greatsword? - asked Luara Trevor: - Not your adamantium sword.

  - Had to use all adamantium that I had, including my sword, to reforg my armor, after I grew up a little. Several times actually. Had to spend all my money on that. Knight salary does not cover expenses on custom made armor. Because of that I was the poorest knight in all army, - he grinned sadly.

  - Ou. And I thought that knights are paid well?

  - They are. Just not well enough for a commoner to afford adamantium armor. I think that I was the only one who had it. We got lucky back then, to get all that adamantium.

  - I still have my adamantium dagger, - Nelly showed her possession to Trevor.

  - That is impressive.

  - What about you Avone? What were you doing all this time? - asked Luara.

  - Adventuring, - I shrugged: - Saw Trevor's ceremony, when he became paladin.

  - You were there? - he blushed again: - That was not such a big deal. After all I already had a level that was necessary to be awarded paladin's rank even before I joined the knights.

  - Everyone in the capitol was talking about that. Commoner becoming a Paladin. There was biggest crowd that I ever saw in capitol, gathered in front of the church.

  Well I was exaggerating, but I did not want to talk about myself.

  - Wow, you have paladin rank? That is very impressive; - Nelly looked at Trevor with admiration.

  - What bout you Nelly? What have you been doing all these years? - asked Trevor.

  - Luara and me went dungeon hunting. Blacksmith Ashurga and general Evan also joined as often. I even reached level twenty nine, just like Luara. Luara is now strongest adventurer in Grimsburg.

  - And richest, - said proudly Luara: - But you are doing even better than me? Posting a quest and paying four orichalcum for it. Even I cannot afford that.

  - Not really. That is all the money that I have. Not enough money for retiring, far from it.

  We all felt chills, and saw dungeon's entrance.

  - We are here. Keep talking to minimal, - I took out my bow and an arrow: - Luara take the lead. Then me and Nelly. Trevor takes the back.

  Nelly was the only one among us who needed to use the bracelet with glowing crystal. That was a disadvantage. Comparing to the rest of us who had Night vision skill.

  - I will use a potion, that allows me to see in the dark.

  - No, keep it ready, but use it only when we encounter strong monsters or packs of them. Luara tell her when to do it.

  - Understood, - nodded our scout, and we got in our formation.

  Grimsburg dungeon did not change much. Still dark, with wet air, long corridors and caverns with monsters waiting for us around the corner. In the past we almost got killed many times, even on the first floor, but now the monsters on upper floors were no match for us.

  Luara led us through the shortest way and we encountered only few level one monsters.

  - Not as many monsters as I remember, - said Trevor.

  - We use this way regularly. So we will not encounter many monsters. At least we should not. Not until floor six.

  - Have you killed floor guardians?

  - Two of them. Saw another two, but we used Nelly's combination of Slow and Haste spells to run away from them.

  - What were they and on what floor? - I asked.

  - Another flaming tiger and on floor five. And wyrm on floor seven.

  Wyrm, that was bad. Wyrm was a dragon like creature, but it had no legs, and no wings. It was like a massive snake. Strong, possible poisonous and hard to kill.

  - Let us hope that we can avoid the wyrm.

  - Should we not kill it? To prevent the goblin warlord from killing him? - asked Trevor.

  - Single floor guardian at high level will not give him much life force. Far from what he needs to level up. Do not concern yourself with small stuff. Our goal is to get to dungeon core. If we doo, he probably will kill the small fry on upper floors, but monsters with greater amount of life force should start to disappear along with the dungeon. That is what is important. We are not here to level up, so avoiding battles is more preferable.

  - I see.

  Trevor may be a lieutenant, but he was still lacking strategic thinking, not when it concerned the bigger picture.

  We managed to get through first four floors with minimal amount of monster encounters, and I decided to take a short rest before going to more dangerous floor five. We may avoided battles, but still needed almost all day to get this far.We ate dinner and prepared to go deeper.

  - Nelly, when you get sleepy, drink anti-sleep potion. The rest of you, ask Nelly for one, when you get sleepy as well.

  - I am still good to go.

  - I do not doubt that. But do not try to spare any potions. We have enough of them, so use them the first moment you need to. That goes for everyone.

  - Understood, - nodded Trevor and Luara.

  - Let us go then.

  Before getting to floor six, we killed two packs of armored ants, monster bees and several horned bears, but did not encountered the floor guardian. That was lucky. Floor six we managed to went through just as easy. Nelly's spells were more powerful than in the past. Her casting speed increased as well. Trevor was much stronger and experienced fighter. He could even use heavy sword with one hand. Luara's sword skills could not be compared to her past. She used her adamantium short sword and dagger as a pair and her fighting style reminded me a dance.

  Our first strong opponent was a drake. We encountered him on floor six. In the past we hunted down a pack of them, but we were not alone then.

  But it was long time ago. I casted lightning spell and drake fell down, with smoke coming of his burned body.

  - Impressive, - Luara looked at me.

  - If all of you cannot kill a drake without help, then you should go back. Do not forget, the deeper we go the stronger monsters we will encounter. Drakes are weak, comparing to monsters that we will have to face.

  I looked at their faces, but everyone's eyes were filled with determination.

  - Let us go then.I looked back at drake's body. In order to conserve time we did not collect magic stones. That was such a waste, but timing was everything. At least until we get dungeon core.

  After encountering three packs of fire breathing wolves and two tiger like monsters we descended to floor seven. By then we each used an anti-sleep potion and two stamina potions. First few caverns were empty, but then Luara stepped away from the entrance to avern and signaled us to stay quiet. We retreated deeper in the corridor and gathered together.

  - It is a wyrm. He is sleeping in the middle of the cavern.

  - Can we go around?

  - It will take us at least three hours. We explored most of floor seven, and this is the fastest way through.

  - Fine. Nelly cast support spells on Luara and Trevor. Then cast Slow spell on wyrm. Luara and me will be bait. Trevor kill it with single attack. Take his head or cut his body in two.

  - I will do my best, - Trevor squeezed hilt of his greatsword.

  - No. Either you can do it or not?

  - I will do it, - he nodded and straightened his shoulders.

  - Good then. Nelly your first, but before that give everyone stamina potion.

  - But I am still not tired, - objected Nelly.

  - No arguments.

  Nelly got scared a little by my rough voice, but everyone took a potion without further arguments. Nelly looked behind a corner and casted her spell. Wyrm woke up and hissed. We run inside cavern. I already used my Haste spell on myself and was first one to reach wingless dragon. His head was more that a meter tall and his body was at least six meters tall. He had horns and I noticed poison dripping from his fangs. He tried to bite me striking with his head from above, but I avoided his attack and used my sword to slice his neck. In the past my attack would only make a scratch on his scales, but now my sword break his natural armor and left a deep cut. I used my attack in passing, but even that was enough.

  I jumped aside and run by his body leaving one more cut on it. Wyrm turned around and followed me. Then he jerked and turned his head. Probably Luara joined the attack. Wyrm turned around and I cut off the tip of his tale. He hissed and again turned towards me. By my calculations it should have been time for Trevor's attack. If he does not finish the job, we will have a problem in the future, and I will have to consider sending him back.

  But knight did his job. Wyrm hissed and turned around. I jumped on his body and noticed deep wound on his belly. Wyrm was heavily bleeding.

  Trevor and Luara were retreading, waiting for better opportunity to attack. I jumped of the wyrm and stabbed him. Wyrm again hissed. Nelly's Slow spell was more than effective and Wyrm's long body turned out to be a disadvantage to him. Wyrm again turned his attention towards me. I run towards his head, and after avoiding his attack cut his eye. Wound was deep, and monster suffered loss of one of his eyes. I run away and he followed me. I run to the side, making his long body a better target. I did not see what happened, but wyrm curled up in agony. He was still alive, but did not followed me. I took my breath and used lightning spell on its body. Soon after that another lightning hit his head and wyrm finally stopped moving.

  - Everyone all right? - I shouted. After receiving affirmative answers I took out my dagger: - Luara take the other side, and cut out magic stone.

  We needed ten minutes to find magic stone inside wyrm's big body. I decided that leaving behind the prize that was magic gem was too wasteful. Trevor in the meantime carefully removed wyrm's fangs, while Nelly stood on watch.

  We took a short brake, but thanks to the stamina potion, no one was tired so we continued our path.

  We needed two more hours to reach the stairs that led to floor eight.

  - We were planning to go down, after breaking the level cup, - said Nelly.

  - Well, we will need to do it now. Let us take a break, eat and take a shirt sleep. It is safer to sleep here than in the deeper floors.

  No one argued, and we stepped inside floor eight next day.