A New Day

"Alright, today's the day that I find something that'll make the city praise me!" shouted a young man as he exited his house, to which his mother called back from inside, "Just be careful, sweetie."

The young man huffed, "I'm already an adult, don't call me that!" And ran off before his mother could reply. The young man was a beastkin, specifically a rabbit-type with floppy ears and a small fluffy tail on his posterior. His beastkin blood gave him a limber body with good agility, evidenced by the speed he bounded through the streets with.

He met up with a few other beastkin at a fountain in a busy district; they all smiled and waved to him when they saw him.

"Well, if it isn't Ace, another few seconds and you would have been late!" A larger man with bear features and a massive shield on his back gave a hearty laugh.

Ace scoffs, "Yeah, well, you know how my mom is; she wouldn't let me leave until she made sure I had everything I needed," he gestures to the over-stuffed backpack on his shoulder.

A young lady with white curly hair, side-slanted eyes sighed, "Well, there has been word of traps appearing in the Labyrinth now, so it doesn't hurt to be careful," she taps the staff she's holding to the ground. Her white robes flutter a bit, showing the use of wind energy control, a nervous habit of hers.

The bear-man laughs again, "Don't worry, Valentina, just stay behind me!" His voice was rather loud, but the group was used to it.

"Oh yeah? And what if you tumble into a pitfall, Toki?" A fourth member pops out of the crowd, an elven archer, a rare sight in the beastfolk city.

The bear-man, Toki, jumps a little, "Gah, why do you always have to sneak up like that, Christoph!?"

Christoph rolls his eyes while Valentina fidgets and frets, "Toki, if you fall in a pit, you'll get hurt, especially at your size!" she exclaims.

Toki rubs the back of his neck, "Alright, I get it, and I'll be careful," he says, looking at the ground.

Ace puffs his chest up, "There's no need to worry about traps; I can take care of them!" He shows off a multitool from his backpack, "My pops taught me how to use this when I was a kid, and I've disarmed plenty of traps in other dungeons!" He brags.

Christoph sighs and shakes his head, "We know, we were there, and you made a big fuss every time we found a trap."

Ace deflated a bit and quickly changed the topic, "A-anyways, I thought we should head to Floor 3-M in the Labyrinth," he suggested.

Christoph nods, "Well, it would be the most profitable, but also the most dangerous; I'll agree to that."

Valentina shudders a bit, "But didn't they say that every monster on that floor can cast some form of magic?"

Toki brightens up again, "My shield can block most forms of magic, and Ace is too fast to get hit. You two can stay behind me!" He laughs.

Ace puts his fist to his palm, "Then it's settled, we'll go to 3-M. My mom also gave us a bunch of potions and some stomach medicine for Valentina," he says, taking his backpack off and pulling out glass bottles full of a thick red liquid topped off with corks and handing them out.

They each take their allotted potions, and Valentina is handed a bottle with a brown syrupy sludge alongside her potions. She frowns at this, "But... It tastes awful," she cringes a little, remembering the taste.

Christoph smiles at Valentina, "I'll get us some sweets after we come back, it's better than you getting sick again, and with the potions, you might not even need to cast spells," he tries to cheer her up.

Once everyone takes their potions, they sound their readiness and head off towards the Labyrinth, weaving through the crowded streets with Toki at the lead to make way. The large stores near the Labyrinth entrance were bustling with activity. Some were merchant companies that bought monster cores at a competitive rate. Some were restaurants that adventurers would spend their newfound wealth and relax after a dive into the dungeon.

A new avenue of business was monster parts; the auto-piloted Dungeon Core didn't reclaim monster bodies, meaning they could be taken out of the dungeon and dismantled. The parts were of high quality, the dungeon did not skimp on creating monsters, so the economy boomed, drawing in merchants from other cities.

It had been two weeks since the Dungeon Core went to sleep, and the difference was already like night and day. The dungeon entrance had to be widened in order to not cause overcrowding, and the adventurer's guild hired several mages to operate the teleportation circles, ensuring smooth entrance and departure to and from the Labyrinth.

Ace paid the fee for his group and went directly to Floor 3-M. They hadn't beaten the boss for that path yet, but as long as you paid the fee, the mages could send you to any floor that they had been to, and so all the mages had gone around in a large group in order to ensure they could send people where they wanted to go. A few groups managed to pioneer into the fourth floor of some of the branching paths, but nobody had cleared 3-M yet; the boss had some sort of anti-magic barrier but could still cast magic itself.

The group of four disappeared in a flash of light, and soon after a different group popped out, they looked ragged and had burn marks on their clothes. Their leader got the attention of a guard and seemed afraid.

"Report, the monsters on floor 3-M are in a frenzy, they're running about and firing off spells at nothing, we got caught by a stray fireball!"