However, Darius hadn't been able to sort out the mystery of why the Adventurer's Guild of Andrato used such a foolish method to handle their adventurers. Of course, the information he learned made these actions make sense in one aspect.
After all, to contend with these kingdoms that had longer histories and more fleshed-out dungeon diving abilities, they had to toss whoever they could in and hope they would make it out with something.
This was what Darius was hoping to find out by checking this undiscovered dungeon, as he could explore it freely without being beholden to anyone.
Its distance from the Divine Glade was a whopping 10,543 kilometers to the west. Poleria Homestead was only about 70 Kilometers to the east, yet the dungeon was so far.
Darius preferred it this way though, as he didn't want to build a faction anywhere near this location that housed his only method to return to life if he ever encountered something beyond his power.
After he and Gunner exited the forest, they came upon the grassy plains that seemed lively as always. The Plains of the Green really was a picturesque grassland, almost bordering on the loveliness of a healthy meadowland.
Darius and Gunner stood side by side as they breathed in the smell of life and freshness. They stood there for almost three minutes, just getting themselves used to being outside.
Darius then used this time to check his and Gunner's character sheets before they officially headed out.
[Name: Darius Stone
Race: Human
Stage: Journeyman
Class: Itemancer
Subclass: Magus
HP: 440/440
MP: 1,050/1,050
STA: 462/462
Level: 21
Experience: 0/2010
Strength: 20
Agility: 30
Endurance: 22
Intellect: 50
Charisma: 15
Luck: 50
Physical Status: Healthy
Mental Status: Calm
AP: 0
SP: 0
Active: Analyze - Lv.6, Combine - Lv.1, Lightning Bolt - Lv.21, Thunder Strike - Lv.1, Fireball - Lv.1, Flame Pillar - Lv.1, Group Teleportation - Lv.1, Void Cut - Lv.1 etc
Passive: Mageward Barrier - Lv.1, Spirit Barrier - Lv.1, Spell Mastery - Lv.1, Spell Enhancement - Lv.1, Channeling - Lv.1, Weapons Mastery - Lv.1, Unarmed Mastery - Lv.1, etc
Abilities: Transmutation (Intermediate), Mind Power (Basic), Deflection (Basic).]
[Name: Gunner
Race: Half-Human, Half-Giant (Royal Blood)
Class: Vanguard
Stage: Journeyman
Subclass: Anti-mage
HP: 600/600
MP: 735/735
STA: 504/504
Level: 21
Exp: 0/2100
Strength: 25
Agility: 25
Endurance: 24
Intellect: 35
Charisma: 16
Luck: 20
Physical Status: Healthy
Mental Status: Calm
Affection: Friendly lvl max
AP: 0
SP: 0
Active: Engage - Lv.4, Earthen Stomp - Lv. 1, Earthen Punch - Lv.4, Gigantic Smash - Lv.1, Gigantic Stomp - Lv.1, Earthen Wall - Lv.1, Solid Defense - Lv.1, Unbreakable Ward - Lv.1 etc
Passive: Energy Ward - Lv.1, Mageward Barrier - Lv.15, Weapons Mastery - Lv.1, Unarmed Mastery - Lv.1, Earth's Guardian - Lv.20, Extreme Speed - Lv.1, Spirit Barrier - Lv.1 etc
Abilities: Explosive Strength (Basic), Fast Regeneration (Basic).]
Their stats had made absolutely no progress, but their skills and spells? Uncountable. Seeing as there was nothing worth dallying over, Darius then activated Group Teleportation once more, and the duo were off towards their destination.
At 10 mana per cast and with only 1,050 MP, Darius could not go too far. Fortunately, he had recently transmuted an extremely valuable passive skill called Spell Mastery.
This basically allowed him to reduce the MP cost for all spells based on the level of the skill. Currently, at level 1, it only reduced the cost of spells by 1% which wasn't anything to talk about, but Darius had placed it on the list for skills he planned to increase.
There was incidentally another skill called Spell Enhancement that increased the base power of spells, and it was also at 1% at level 1.
However, these two paled before the skill Darius had acquired called Channeling, which allowed him to continually maintain a spell or infuse it with power over time for higher MP costs.
With it, he could make a typical fireball twice its size after channeling mana into it, or make a flame pillar erupt and burn for longer with the same skill.
Unfortunately, Darius was still unable to learn skills like Double-cast, Triple-cast, Double-Spell Channeling, and the like because they were Adept and above skills. Being a Journeyman widened his skill and spell pool, but it wasn't yet unlimited.
Thanks to his passives he moved 101 meters per cast, each one taking the usual 0.3 seconds between each other, for a total of 106 times. This allowed him and Gunner to traverse 10.7 kilometers in a matter of only 31.8 seconds before he needed to rest.
Since the MP regen rate was set at 21 points per second, Darius then had to wait for exactly 50 seconds to recover his entire bar. Once that was done, he and Gunner were off once more, moving in that bizarrely horrifying way into the sunset.
It took a total of 10 hours to eventually reach their destination, 8.7 hours spent blinking and 1.3 spend recovering MP. Since the duo were not in a rush, Darius didn't drink any of his mana potions and the like.
Eventually, they landed some 400 meters away from their destination. Darius stopped here so that he could survey the land around the dungeon and get a feel for its surroundings.
What pleased him to note was that a branch of the Lost River ran through here, meaning that there would be a natural water supply. Even though it could not be used for drinking, it could certainly be used for every other purpose.
The duo walked closer to the dungeon's area and noticed that there was a small forest around it with spaced-out trees. In fact, it was less of a forest and more of a jungle.
Darius even heard the roar of tigers and the hissings of snakes once he entered with Gunner, the duo subjected to the presence of untamed wildlife that had likely not seen human interference in a very long time.
After walking the remaining distance to their goal by meandering through the jungle, they came upon a short but wide cliff that looked to lead towards a plateau. In front of them and embedded into this short cliff, was a large cave that could not be looked into, its mouth black like the abyss.
