Begin!

The crunch of a stick being stepped on resounded throughout the forest floor.

Jason sneaked out from behind a few bushes cringing internally as the broken stick sat on the floor behind him. Perseus and Rocky emerged right behind him, giving Jason eyes of judgment.

Jason avoided their gazes and continued on sneakily stepping through the forest, Rocky was tiptoeing, being careful to not touch even a single stick or dry leaf, while Perseus casually walked behind him stepping in the exact footsteps Rocky made.

Jason in the front was taking 1 step every few seconds, the three of them got closer and closer to their target. Jason checked his map one more time to confirm.

Sure enough, 20 red dots were displayed 20 meters in front of him. And as he slowly peeked out through some bushes he saw a bunch of loud bandits cheering and laughing as they dug through their newly earned goods with their blood covered hands.

Perseus was very familiar with the place the bandits set camp in. It was a clearing in the forest, with a very large cliff behind the bandits. If one were to get closer to the campfire where most of the bandit surrounded, you would see a tunnel that lead deep underground.

It was the old bandit camp that Perseus and Jack had found the guild members at. It was where Jack sneaked in and poisoned the bandits that lived there.

Perseus had gained some nice stuff at that place and had plans to expand it into a sort of hideout or camp for the silver wings guild when they had more people.

But now bandits seemed to regain the camp.

Perseus looked at Jason.

Jason grinned and nodded to both Rocky and Perseus.

Perseus tried to restrain the evil laughter that was about to escape his lips as he saw Jason's nod while Rocky looked a bit confused.

In a sudden burst of speed Perseus jumped out and rushed towards the group of bandits that were sitting around the campfire, they were all lazily eating from the stolen goods, while one of them twirled a skull around his finger.

One of the bandits suddenly gave a loud gasp, his eyes rolled and he fell to the floor dissipating into blue flecks.

The bandits all simultaneously turned to see a blond-haired boy holding a steel sword that shone in a deadly light. The blond-haired boy seemed to have a slightly crazed look in his eyes, he lowered his stance and leaped at the group of bandits like a predator on prey.

A few of the bandits just looked up in wonder as Perseus fell towards them at a tremendous speed while a few realized what was happening and scrambled to their weapons.

One of the bandits reached out to his trusty mace that was a few meters away from him. He was about to destroy that mysterious blond boy he thought to himself as he reached out.

But a cold steel sword quickly landed on his throat and promptly stopped him.

The bandit froze and looked at the holder of that sword. It was a handsome black-haired boy wearing a dark iron chest piece and tanned leather tunic underneath.

A single rose emblem was shown on the chest piece and if the bandit looked closer he could see a rose engraved on the hilt of the sword also.

Jason grinned at the bandit

"not today"

and saying that he pulled back and watched as the bandit dissipated into blue flakes.

One of the bandits who had reached his weapon let out a yell as he charged towards Jason's unprotected back.

The dirty dagger caked with blood and dirt shot down at Jason's back. But a huge bald man dove between them, his shield outstretched blocking the dagger.

Rocky pushed against the bandit with his shield shoving the bandit to the ground. Rocky then took up his mace and let it fall. Blue flecks rose up to the sky once again.

Rocky turned around to make sure that Jason was okay, but turned around to see dropped loot and blue flakes flying into the sky. Jason turned around his sword sheathed and gave Rocky a small smile and wave.

Rocky turned back, amazed, he knew that Arch was at a much higher level than him, but to be at a level to annihilate those bandits that players got destroyed by. That was really something.

Rocky as he turned away from Jason looked up and saw Perseus sitting on one of the fallen logs the bandits were using as a seat carefully cleaning his sword. A few cracks could be seen on Perseus's sword and he gave a regretful sigh as he looked at it.

He gave Rocky a nod and then went back to polishing his blade.

Rocky was slightly proud of his power, many people had sought him because of his obvious tank build, but it seems that he was completely dwarfed by the sheer strength and power of the brothers in front of him.

Rocky bent down and started to collect the item drops hoping to at least be slightly useful in some way. By no means did he want to be carried as badly as he was now.

Perseus hopped off the log with a small bound and walked over to where Jason stood.

Rocky also walked over his hands filled with dropped items and loot. Jason gratefully took them and put them into his inventory for later investments giving Rocky a share of the bandit's loot.

Jason asked Perseus when he finished gathering everything from the fight

"do you want to explore the abandoned mine?"

Perseus grinned and took out an old parchment from his inventory

"I mean I have the map for it, and besides their might be some good loot"

Both of them turned to Rocky. He nodded his head furiously. Rocky originally thought that this was a trip to find some of the monster baits, but this was much better. Exploring and having fun with friends. That was what a game was all about right?

At this point Rocky trusted Jason. Though they had met only a bit ago, he really felt like he was a trustworthy person, like something about him made him feel so magnetic and cool to him.

Rocky shook his head to get hid off all of these thoughts and entered with Jason and Perseus in front of him.

The three of them descended down a narrow slope. Perseus took the lead as if he knew the entire place. He guided them into a large room underground. It seemed to be a dining hall or something since a huge table was in the middle with a few seats tucked into it.

A large majority of the seats looked to be smashed or broken. Perhaps in a fight or something Rocky said to himself.

They passed through the dining hall and into another small corridor this time Rocky noticed that there were small doors on the sides of the halls. He didn't know what were in those rooms but for some reason, he smelled the ever so familiar smell of blood.

Rocky avoided those rooms getting increasingly worried as they passed the hall and down into another tunnel that seemed to slope at a low angle.

Both Perseus and Arch seemed to be looking at something in the corner of their eyes probably a system notification or something Rocky thought to himself as they descended deeper and deeper into the earth.

Just when things started to get kinda weird and Rocky wondered if they were ever going to reach their destination.

The tunnel leveled out, and soon it was just a simple straight path with smooth rocky walls around them. As they continued down wooden planks framework supporting the tunnel started to appear.

Things started to get darker, instead of the bright beaming magic stone lanterns that light up the entire place. They soon got replaced by smaller regular lanterns and torches.

Jason took one of the lanterns and took the lead all three of them cautiously maneuvered into the abandoned mine.

Rocky could have sworn that he heard the sound of critters moving. He saw Perseus also stop and Jason almost pull out his sword at the exact moment when he heard it, so it probably wasn't just his imagination. His grip tightened around his mace and shield.

The tunnel suddenly started to widen out until about 6 people the size of Jason could walk side by side comfortably.

Cobwebs and wooden frames that were clearly gnawed on greeted them.

A notification went up in front of all three of them

[you have discovered a dungeon!]

[you are the first to discover the (abandoned mine) dungeon]

[+10% EXP while in the dungeon for 1 day!]

[you are the first to find a dungeon!]

[rewarding title: (dungeon explorer)]

[dungeon explorer: +10% loot in dungeons]

A notification went out to all of the players in the territory of the rose household.

[an unknown party of players have found a dungeon in the forest outside of Herdita!]

Jason and Perseus looked at the territory-wide notification with surprise and a bit of glee.

Things were starting to pick up.