"Since this is officially our first day here, let’s establish some rules of operation," Cassian said as he walked towards the lit flames and took a seat.

Adrian said nothing else, merely adjusting his gloves as he stepped slightly behind Renelle.

"The outskirts are already saturated with lower-ranked beasts," Cassian started the moment everyone was sat, "If we want stronger cores, better resources, and actual progress then we head further in."

That was true, after all their main objective here was to get a lot stronger than they currently were and to do that, they needed cores for their spirits and saturated mana to help them breakthrough.

Both of which were available would be found deeper into the red zone.

"You," Cassian glanced at Darius, "will handle mid-range engagement and direct combat support."

"Gladly."

"Adrian," he paused, looking at the butler for a while before saying, "you’ll handle reconnaissance and rear guard."

Adrian simply nodded.

"I’ll handle long range and assists," he continued, a bit surprised that the damn butler hadn’t said anything, "and lady Renelle will remain in the center."

In other words, protected.

Renelle frowned at his words before saying, "I can handle myself."

"Yes, but it’d be—"

"I. Can. Handle. Myself," she interrupted his words causing him to go silent.

Cassian thought of it for a while, he thought she’d be pleased to see that he was thinking of her safety,

After all, what woman wouldn’t like a man dedicated to keeping them safe? Seems he was completely wrong about Renelle.

"Fine, you’ll handle mid range," he gave up.

"Second, engagement rules," seeing that she said nothing else, he raised a finger, "we avoid prolonged fights unless necessary, since we want to always have enough mana for unexpected scenarios."

Again, there was no comment since he was right.

"Third, objectives," he lifted another finger, "alongside getting stronger, we also gather information."

"This part of the corrupted lands isn’t just dangerous, it’s unexplored," he explained, "If we can map even a portion of it, identify patterns in beast behavior, or locate anything unusual, then we’d be rewarded by both the kingdom and the academy."

Since this was a largely unexplored zone, the academy granted points accordingly. This meant that those within the ’green zone’ though safe, barely earned any extra points.

Meanwhile, those in the ’red zone’ earned the most points.

This was important because the higher your point was, the more resources you had access to.

That is, if they survived this place for thirty days, else it’d all be for naught.

Seeing no one had questions, Cassian stood up and added, "we’ll start moving, soon."

"Finally, something fun!" Darius stood up, obviously excited.

Since he had removed all traces of Noctis’ mana within him, he was itching to fight again.

Adrian, on the other hand, walked towards the tent and his shadow extended, wrapping around the entire thing and the next second it completely disappeared.

"That’s strange," Darius’s words pulled their attention towards him, and they noticed that he was standing close to the cave wall, "I could’ve sworn this wall was a lot farther yesterday."

Cassian frowned andhis first thought was to dismiss the idiot’s words, but again, as a good leader, he couldn’t.

"What do you mean?" He asked .

Darius scratched the back of his head, still staring at the wall.

"I mean exactly what I said," he replied, stepping a bit closer, "this cave was bigger yesterday... or at least it felt like it."

"And what makes you think that?" Cassian asked again.

"My bag was a lot farther from the wall yesterday," Darius pointed towards his bag.

Renelle also looked at him with a frown before asking, "you’re certain?"

"Yeah," Darius nodded, then added with a shrug, "well, not completely certain, but something feels off."

Slowly, he extended his hand towards the cave’s back wall, with a small frown on his face, "it’s almost like—"

The moment his hand landed on the wall, a couple of texts lit up and before he could react, a sudden force pulled him.

"IT’S MOVING?!"

was the last thing he managed to let out before the wall completely swallowed him and the glow dimmed just after.

The three froze at the sight and it took the a couple of seconds for them to realize that the wall just ate (?) Darius.

Adrian walked closer to the wall with a frown on his face and Noctis’ voice immediately echoed in his head.

«An entrance to a dungeon,» it informed.

A dungeon being here was nothing strange since there were large amounts of mana all around.

The strange part was how well the entrance blended with the cave. Usually, an entrance to a dungeon was very obvious but this was anything but.

He tried extending his [Shadow Sense] beyond the cave wall only to sense nothing.

Slowly, he also lifted his hand and before Renelle had the chance to stop him, he rested it on the wall and it immediately lit up again.

The next second, he was pulled in.

"That idiot," Renelle muttered as she watched her butler get pulled into the wall.

It was just the previous night that he had promised not to put himself in unnecessary danger, and yet, here he was.

With a sigh, she also walked towards the wall but before she could place a hand on the wall, Cassian spoke up.

"Wait!"

His voice came out a lot louder than he intended as he stepped forward, his hand instinctively reaching out to grab her wrist.

Renelle paused just before her fingers could touch the wall, her expression immediately turning cold as she glanced at his hand... then at him.

"Move your hand," she said, her tone dropping several degrees.

Cassian hesitated for a bitbefore withdrawing his hand, but he didn’t step back.

"That’s clearly a dungeon entrance," he said, forcing calm into his voice, "and not a normal one. We don’t know what’s on the other side, how it works, or if it’s even stable."

"And?" Renelle replied flatly.

"What I’m saying is, it could be dangerous," he clarified, "and following those two in will just put us in danger."

She continued looking at him for a while before letting out a sigh and saying, "you can stay back if you like, I’m going to get my Butler back."

Before he could say anything else, Renelle placed her hand on the wall and she was immediately pulled in.

Left alone, Cassian’s expression got darker and he clicked his tongue, "that damn butler really needs to be removed."

With that, he also walked towards the wall, placed a hand on it and a second after, he was pulled in.

***

«Wake up you idiot," Noctis’ voice was heard in Adrian’s head, «or you’ll die again.»

Slowly, Adrian opened his eyes, only for them to fully snap open and he took in his surroundings.

He was currently laying on a piece of wood but the most terrifying part was the fact that he was floating in a large sea of darkness and there was a large wave approaching him quickly.

"The hell?"