1 Forsaken City

As the last squadron, Lucas' squadron, finally entered the mystery dungeon they were greeted with an extraordinary sight.

What stood before them was the entrance to a vast city landscape, each building built out of ancient mossy stone brick. A massive Aztec-like temple stood out in the center of the old city, covering a fourth of the city all on it's own.

The only strange part about the dungeon, was the blue sky that hang above their heads. It almost felt like they were back on earth for a second, casually raiding a regular dungeon.

However Lucas knew just how the appearances of dungeons, especially high ranked ones, could be very deceptive. So he didn't even think about letting his guard down for a second.

'Whoa…'

Lucas looked around in awe, wondering just how long such a huge place had stood for. Everything seemed quiet at the moment, so whatever sort of creatures had inhabited the city were either long dead-

Or were hiding, lying in wait…

Clap!

Clap!

Clap!

Everyone's attention was drawn to Captain Jarl as he started giving out his orders.

"We have a total fighting force of eight squadrons. Nine if we count myself", he said, "We'll form four pairs of squadrons to explore each part of the city, leaving the temple for last"

Captain Jarl then raised his hand, holding up a small white crystal no bigger than his finger.

"I shall distribute Panic rune stones to each squadron leader. Crush them and they'll will send up a flare to alert everyone", Captain Jarl explained as he distributed the stones, "Be sure to only use them whenever you feel your lives may be threatened"

Lucas stepped forward and accepted the rune stone for his squadron. The stone looked very fragile in the palm of his hand and knowing that he was the damage-dealer of his group, Lucas knew that the stone wouldn't stay intact for long if it remained with him.

"Hey there, Mr. Leader!" a large beefy arm slung around Lucas's shoulders, "Don't you think it's about time we head in?"

"Gerroff me Benny!" Lucas grumbled as he struggled under the iron grip of his tall dark-skinned friend, who proceeded to start ruffling his hair with no remorse.

Standing a few feet away was the third member of their squadron, a beautiful young lady clothed in velvet colored robes and hat. In her hand, she held a long staff topped with a shard of vibrant green crystal.

She walked up to the duo, sighing helplessly at their childish antics as she said, "Em guys? Everyone's already moving into the city now. And the other squad we're supposed to team up with has already gone ahead of us"

Hearing this, Lucas and Benny stopped what they were doing and looked around. Sure enough, they were the only ones left standing by the gate entrance.

"Huh…wonder where everybody ran off to", said Benny, scratching his bald head in confusion.

Lucas finally broke free from his grip in this brief moment of distraction and smacked Benny on the head.

"In the city, dummy! Caitlin just said so" said Lucas with an exasperated sigh, "Come on. Lets catch up or else we'll miss out on all the loot"

"Oh yeah, here Cait", Lucas handed the panic rune stone over to Caitlin, "It's probably best if you kept it. You're more responsible than me anyways"

Caitlin flashed him a warm smile as she accepted the rune stone, "Alright"

With that all done and settled, Lucas and his friends proceeded to head inside and begin exploring their section of the city. They quickly managed to regroup with their partnered squad as well and along the way, encountered a few powerful stone golems.

Hulking stone figures towering about fifteen feet tall, welding massive stone weapons. The aura that these golems emitted put them on the level of early deity ranked beasts. Creatures with enough power to easily decimate whole cities. However, with the combinations and coordination between the two squadrons the golems stood no chance.

The standard of every party or squadron consisted of a balanced three man team. A damage dealer in the form of a swordsman, assassin, archer or brawler in the front lines. As well as a tank to draw monsters' attention and a capable mage who specialized in healing magic.

In Lucas' case, as the swordsman he was the damage dealer of his team while Benny was their tank and Caitlin was their mage and healer. Having spent decades of training and hunting together back home, their teamwork was nearly flawless.

As Lucas decapitated the head of his fourth monster, he wiped the sweat off of his brow and stabbed his great sword into the ground for a minute in order to catch his breath. So far they had managed to search and loot every building they had been assigned as well as the loot dropped by the stone monsters.

The loot was pretty good too. Heaps of treasure with gold, silver and even some rare mana shards. In addition, the monsters sometimes dropped powerful weapons and codex that ranged from legendary grade to divine grade.

All in all, it was a big win for Lucas' group. However…

'Something's not right…' thought Lucas as he stared off into the distance at the massive temple in the center of the city. The uneasy feeling he kept feeling in his gut told Lucas that something was amiss with their current situation.

For starters, the level of the monsters in the dungeon didn't match their age. Monsters become more powerful the longer they live with the experience they accumulate during that time. Looking at how long it looked like this city had been standing, the stone warriors should technically be higher in level. Was it because they weren't sentient lifeforms.

'The monsters in this mystery dungeon are no threat at all even though it's seems like they've been around for ages', thought Lucas as he sheathed his sword, 'That means the real threat must be inside the temple'

Lucas swallowed nervously just thinking about it, but he wasn't discouraged. Come what may, Lucas was going to make sure he and he's team came out of this dungeon alive.

"Hey-", a light tap on his shoulder shook Lucas out of his thoughts.

Caitlin was standing in right front of him, eyeing him with a look of concern.

"Are you okay?" she asked softly, "You've been pretty spaced out the past couple minutes. You know you can tell me if you're feeling a little off, right?"

Putting aside his earlier feelings of unease, Lucas smiled and answered, "I know, Cait. Just a little tired that's all"

"If you say so then", said Caitlin before grabbing his hand and pulling him along, "Now come on. We're down searching our section so it's about time we go and meet up with the Captain"

°°°

The walk to the temple was a rather quiet as it seemed that nobody felt the need to strike up conversation. Lucas' group kept a few steps away from their partners who gladly led the way towards the temple.

"Maaaaaan, could I go for some good booze right about now!" sighed Benny loudly.

"Of course you of all people have to ruin the silence with your whining", Lucas grumbled in complaint, "Do you always have to have alcohol on your mind?"

"Hey, I'm not always thinking about alcohol!" said Benny in defense, "There's also these two fine chicks back home who-"

SMACK!

"Ow ow ow!" Benny yelped as he rubbed his poor head, "Why'd you have to hit me Cait?"

"Perv.", that was the only thing Caitlin said to him.

"Come on, Cait. Don't be like that", Benny pleaded with her.

Lucas lightly chuckled and shook his head helplessly at his friend's silly antics. However, their lighthearted moment was quickly interrupted-

"AAAARRRGH!"

A shriek of terror suddenly cut through the air, coming from just up ahead in the direction of the temple. Lucas felt a spike of fear and adrenaline course through him all at once but made sure to keep calm.

He unsheathed his massive great sword before turning to the others, "We have to hurry if we want to have any chance of helping them"

Cait and Benny nodded in agreement and the other group fell in line too. They all charged towards the temple, hoping with everything in their hearts that they weren't too late.

However, when Lucas' group arrived at the temples entrance a bunch of teams were already gathered there with no sign of danger in sight. At least, that's what it seemed like at first.

"What was that scream about?" Lucas asked, his voice carrying a sense of urgency, "And what are you all staring at?"

Lucas looked closely and noticed that everyone seemed to be staring in horror at something that was inside the temple. Since they were all too stunned to speak, he pushed his way past a few of them to have a look for himself.

As Lucas finally got a view of the sight, his body froze in shock and horror. His mind went blank, with the only words he could hear being his own thoughts from way earlier.

'Something's not right…'

His own body had warned him that something had been off with the dungeon. If only he had listened and just said something.

'…real threat must be inside the temple'

And it had been, as lying a few meters away on the floor of the temple was the lifeless bloodied corpse that was once Captain Jarl.