D-Rank To B-Rank

In silence, Albrecht led the Grapevine Party to the corner of the Fifth Outerlayer where the Hidden Dungeon was located.

As accurate as its name, the Hidden Dungeon couldn't be seen by naked eyes, nor could it be detected by any aura detection skills.

The only way to access the Hidden Dungeon was through the Black and White Key that Albrecht possessed. Once the Black and White Key was in the vicinity, the Hidden Dungeon would open up.

Even then, one wouldn't be able to see nor detect the Hidden Dungeon. Based on the information provided by the System, the Hidden Dungeon was only discovered after a couple of years. A certain adventurer randomly walked into the Hidden Dungeon after he got the Black and White Key. He had no idea where the key would fit, so he combed the entire first five outerlayers.

It was thanks to that information that Albrecht knew about this Hidden Dungeon. Now, what they need to do was clear the trial, and then get the item he needed. This item would aid them in the conquer attempt for the Seventh Outerlayer so Albrecht had to get it no matter what.

After that, he had to get to the Ninth Outerlayer and conquer it. He would be skipping two outerlayers, but this was the only way to get the Protection Symbol of Gehenna. Fortunately, there's a Zecian Portal from the Third Outerlayer, which would lead straight to the Ninth Outerlayer. He had to defeat the outerlayer boss there— the Regiroth, which was also named the Fire and Earth Mega Golem.

Then it's pretty much uphill from there, assuming that nothing goes wrong. Based on Albrecht's experience as an adventurer, though, he was fairly certain that something would go wrong, especially when they reached an opportune moment in the process.

"For now, I have to conquer this Hidden Dungeon." Albrecht said to himself.

Without further ado, he reached his hand into the Hidden Dungeon. The Grapevine Party watched in amazement as Albrecht's hands disappeared.

At first, they thought that Albrecht was using some form of illusory skill. But after further inspection, they could detect traces of Zecian Aura actually seeping out in the opposite direction of Albrecht's hand.

It was a dungeon, an invisible dungeon.

"Whoa~ there's something like this here?" Asvi called out, also reaching his hand. But it didn't disappear into the Hidden Dungeon.

"What's going on?" Albrecht asked. Once again, he retrieved the Black and White Key from his inventory but nothing happened. The Hidden Dungeon was already unlocked, but he was the only one who could go inside.

"Fioana, can you put your hand out?" Albrecht asked just to make sure.

With a nod, Fioana also reached her hand into the Hidden Dungeon but nothing happened. Her hand didn't even go through just like Asvi.

Confused, Lucius and Sickle tried it out as well, but they couldn't replicate what happened to Albrecht.

"What on..." Albrecht pursed his lips as he recalled the information that the System gave him. In all instances in the other dimensions, the adventurers had a Black and White Key each before they entered the Hidden Dungeon.

Albrecht somewhat understood what the information implied. With a hint of nervousness, he opened up the information of the Black and White Key.

[Item: Black and White Key (B-Rank)— a key used to access the Undead Hidden Dungeon in the Fifth Outerlayer. It is an exclusive key. Can only be used by one person.]

"I knew it." Albrecht let out but honestly, he didn't know anything up until now. Had he checked the item information of the Black and White Key, he would have known that each of them needed one before they could enter the Hidden Dungeon.

"So, I'm the only one who could go inside, huh," Albrecht muttered to himself. Somehow, he jinxed himself into thinking that something would go wrong.

And now he had to solo clear the Hidden Dungeon. It would take a longer time, but it's not like he's got that much of a choice.

— — —

Recently, with the sudden spike of Gold Rank and Platinum Rank Adventurers, the kingdoms have decided to improve their technology by putting a chat function into the tags worn by adventurers.

Before, these tags only display the rank, name, age, and accomplishments of the adventurer. But now, they decided to put a useful function so the adventurers could have a better close-knit communication with each other. Most kingdoms use the same type of tag except for a select few, so the upgrade was easily accessed by most adventurers.

Of course, you could only contact someone who's exchanged contacts with you— this rule doesn't apply to guild masters though since they could also contact anyone in their guild.

—

Somewhere in a dungeon, Fifth Outerlayer,

A group of Gold Rank Adventurers gathered together in a dungeon. Since they could only take care of F-Rank to D-Rank Dungeons, they were glad that they got a hold of a D-Rank Dungeon from the Rilegarthe Guild who sold it to them for cheap.

Of course, who wouldn't jump on such an offer, especially when the guild was barely making money?

The Guild Master of the Caharsa Guild, Yulie Rosethorn, was the one who received the offer. This was a normal occurrence since the kingdoms usually monopolize a lot of dungeons.

There were times when they couldn't deal with all of them at once and they have to sell some of them for cheap. Of course, it was better to monopolize the dungeons since some of them might contain priceless treasures, artifacts, and relics.

She didn't hesitate to buy it from Azura, the Guild Master of the Rilegarthe Guild. With this, they could finally replenish the guild's financial reserves, even if it was just a little bit.

—

—

However, they regretted that decision now as Yulie and her party fought off endless waves of Ghost Metal Knights. As it turned out, the reading for the dungeon was actually inaccurate, and they have to deal with its consequences.

"This is not a D-Rank Dungeon. It's a B-Rank!"