Impenetrable Dungeon 7 Chapter 7: The First Adventurers

"Gaia, scan the surface of the Dungeon World now that we have access to the outside world. I want to know what rank the strongest adventurer in this world is," Marcus ordered as he brought up another Dungeon Interface, it was a blueprint of his dungeon and many blue and red dots could be seen moving on it. "Prepare your troops for battle," he told the Goblin Chief, "I don't want a single adventurer breaking into the 3rd Floor for now."

"Scan complete. Brother, I have found the data you are looking for," Gaia informed him.

"Tell me."

"As you know each Adventurer Rank is broken into grades. They are, in descending order: Z, SSS, SS, S, A, B, C, D, E, F, G and U. In this world, the weakest adventurer is an Apprentice Adventurer Grade U, the weakest Adventurer Rank. Meanwhile, the strongest known adventurer is a Grandmaster Rank Grade B."

"In between Apprentice and Grandmaster is, in ascending order, Amateur then Master. Then it would be Grandmaster, correct?" Marcus confirmed.

"Correct."

"A pretty weak world on average then. This should be a good training ground for my Honour Guards," Marcus said thoughtfully.

"Don't underestimate this world brother. My initial scans revealed old relics that belonged to characters more powerful than Grandmaster Rank. The deeper I scanned the more powerful the relics. However, on the surface, the strongest relic was merely Master Rank. This world has a very deep history and may contain some lumbering giants," Gaia advised.

"The more dangerous the better. It would allow them to build solid foundations. This is also good for us since this means that we won't have to move anytime soon. That would be detrimental to us after all a city isn't built in a day."

As the two were discussing a red warning light suddenly appeared on the Dungeon Interface in front of Marcus. It showed that the 2nd Floor had been breached. This took Marcus by surprise. After all the Mutated Beasts on the 1st Floor were strong enough to fight with any Amateur Rank Adventurer and even some low-grade Master Rank Adventurers. "I really shouldn't underestimate this world. They were able to reach the 2nd Floor so quickly," Marcus said thoughtfully.

"This should be due to pure luck," Gaia said, "Look they are merely a group of five Apprentice Rank Adventurers and the strongest among them is only a Grade C. Other than a fluke what else can this be?"

Marcus smiled, "It seems that this world can also act as a nice grindstone. It seems that our dungeon isn't really optimised yet."

"Of course not! I only had two years to build all of this and you expected it to be optimised? Even if I am an Absolute Rank Dungeon Will that is simply impossible!" Gaia shouted in disbelief.

Marcus laughed as he watched Gaia 'threateningly' float in front of him. The longer he looked the louder his laughter became. It was hard for him to imagine the floating cheeseball in front of him to ever be threatening.

"What are you laughing at?" Gaia asked getting increasingly incensed.

Marcus decided to add fuel to the fire, "I was watching one of the adventurers just now. I saw him talking to his friends and I read his lips."

"How is that funny?" Gaia 'squinted'.

"Because he said that the dungeon was so poorly designed that an Easy Ranked Dungeon Will most likely made it!" Marcus said as he burst into another fit of laughter.

"WHAT!" Gaia said as it slowly turned red to show its anger. It now looked like a floating ball of spicy Cheetos. This just made Marcus laugh even harder. Gaia thought that the adventurer something else so it demanded, "What did he say now?"

"He said: 'This Dungeon Will has no artistic taste and is really bad at controlling the inhabitants of its dungeon. I mean we haven't encountered anything since entering this dungeon.'" Marcus continued his little lie that would result in one very angry Absolute Ranked Dungeon Will. Gaia had turned into an even darker shade of red. It was almost to the point that it was black! Marcus saw this and decided to stop, he didn't want his new brother to die from anger. However, most importantly, he didn't want his brother to suddenly make the 1st and 2nd floors to be untraversable by Apprentice Ranked Adventurers. After all, those adventurers provided his troops with training and the dungeon with mana.

Blinded with rage and unable to listen to any form of reason, Gaia started working. It instantly made fifty Dungeon Interfaces appear in front of it. Each of the interfaces represented a single floor. Gaia then brought up more interfaces which contained the information for each of the creatures inhabiting its dungeon. It sorted out the monsters to only include those that were on the 50th Floor and below. It then started running simulations based on the data it had collected in the short time that the adventurers had entered the dungeon. Then it started using that data to predict what other events and problems may occur in the future. Then it started reorganising the creatures in accordance with its calculations. This way no adventurer would ever be able to get past any floor without encountering a single creature. Even worse, they would encounter creatures every ten minutes even if they are constantly moving or resting. Furthermore, Gaia made it so that the creatures would all hunt in packs and the only solitary ones would stay in one place or have a smaller patrol area as they were stronger. Gaia then altered the ground and surroundings to make it more treacherous for the adventurers. By the time it was done, Marcus had long left. He was afraid that he would say something unnecessary which would provoke Gaia to make the dungeon even harder. It was already hard enough as it is! Currently, a team of Apprentice Ranked Adventurers could still clear the 1st Floor however, the team had to have exceptional battle prowess or enough numbers to sacrifice. Seeing that, Marcus made a mental note to never mess with Gaia as he went to gather his Honour Guards. He was going to a.s.sign them his first mission.