In front of us, the entrance to the E+ Rank Dungeon "Ogre's Den" was open. Dungeons in the Stronghold City are maintained by the Academy itself and are used by their students and professors for both growing stronger and farming materials and even equipment that sometimes drops from the dungeon's monsters or bosses.
The low rank dungeons are simple in structure, usually being in either the shape of a large cave or a labyrinth ruin.
However, the higher ranked dungeons can take any sort of internal shape, from open fields to forests, sometimes they're completely underwater, or right around an erupting volcano. There are many theories of Dungeon's origins. Some say they were brought to the world by the demons.
Due to their miasma, not only spirit beasts became monsters, but the land itself and its elemental components distorted, fragments of the forgotten past, special areas of the world where many living beings perished, etcetera, suddenly emerged as pocket dimensions of their own.
They absorb miasma from the environment like vacuums, and are both dangerous and a blessing in disguise, as they can clean areas with too much miasma, leaving the surroundings of a dungeon unusually clean from it, despite its internal structure being a nest of monsters.
In the city there are over ten dungeons, and to enter we need to make reservations, they're always being used by a party of either students, adventurers, teachers, and the like.
Reservations are done exclusively through the Academy's headquarters, Instructors are usually the ones that take care of doing them, and security is very tight around the dungeons, there are over a dozen guards guarding their interior, with fortresses and more, all built around them. The dungeons are obviously outside the city's walls. The walls keeping the city interior safe from the exterior.
If there was ever the case of a Dungeon Break, where too many monsters would remain inside a dungeon until they would be forced to go out of it and rampage as they desire, the walls would protect the people.
So, to get in there, we needed to buy a reservation. Thankfully Elite Student Parties get a discount and also preference, so we got ourselves an E+ Rank Dungeon reservation for the rest of the day with ease thanks to that. The entrance slowly opened, as the guards protecting it wished us good luck.
"Already going in? Good luck kids, if you get into too much trouble, don't be afraid of running for your lives."
"Yeah, come back as soon as possible if something happens to you which you cannot handle."
The two guards seemed very worried about us getting into an E+ Rank Dungeon, which was several times harder than E Rank Dungeons, apparently.
"Don't worry about us, we'll be fine." Erika smiled, walking inside and slowly going downstairs.
"Alright, you lot, do your best! It usually takes around a few hours, probably three to four to complete the dungeon! The path is almost straight from the entrance, the monsters inside are Goblins, Hobgoblins, and-" Evelyn said, as I interrupted her.
"We get it. Calm down, weren't you confident?" I asked her.
"I-I am but still!" Sighed Evelyn.
"Heeeeey! Come on down! There's a bunch of little green guys here!" Erika began to laugh, as we heard the sound of slaughter from down there.
Of course, it was the agonizing screams of goblins being sliced apart into pieces by her large sword, which I've enchanted using Alchemy and Forging together.
"Shit, we gotta go!" Chris ran down, grabbing Eric.
"Erika don't you dare steal all the EXP!" Chris cried.
"Uwaaagggh! Don't pull be down like that you big dumbass!" Eric complained, his vocabulary certainly showed itself when he was being harassed by the dumbass of Chris.
"E-Eric!!" Alberta ran downstairs with everyone else as she felt worried about Eric being pulled down into the middle of a dangerous battle.
"See ya." I said to Evelyn, as Elizabeth quickly walked down at my side. I quickly summoned all my Spirits as well so they could watch our backs. Inside dungeons anything goes, so all our spirits were out. With them included, we were easily a massive part of over twenty members.
"Erika just got them all herself?! Geez that girl's really greedy!" Elizabeth sighed, at the same time as we felt EXP flowing into our souls and bodies.
[Your Party has slain [Goblin Scout (F Rank)] x16!]
[Your Party has slain [Goblin Fighter (F+ Rank)] x11!]
[EXP has been multiplied thanks to [Hard Worker]!]
[You earned 235000 EXP!]
[Your Level has increased from Level 14 to Level 15!]
[All your Stats have increased.]
[You gained Stat Points and Skill Points.]
Would you look at that, Erika already gifted me a level. However even after that, I still heard the sound of battle, when we finally arrived down at the first floor. We found ourselves surrounded by an enormous army of goblins, over thirty of them were still standing, several of them looked taller than the rest. They were Hobgoblins, E Rank Monsters.
One of the fell into the floor, suddenly trying to escape Erika's vicious blade.
"Where are you going, bag of EXP? Boys, catch him!"
She ordered a large group of Dolls to catch the Hobgoblin, Little Warriors, Paladins, Mages, and Archers attacked with their smaller blows from afar, decimating the Hobgoblin like a vicious swarm.
"There's tons here! Is this just the first-floor out of four?!" Chris wondered, feeling fascinated. His flames burned a small group of goblins alive the moment he arrived here. His two spirits dancing and spreading the flames with him.
"I-I think so! There's indeed a ton!" Eric said in amusement. His vines trapped some goblins while his large Treant worked as his shield while he shoot down goblins from afar using magic arrows. All while protecting Alberta so she could get some EXP.
"Nice! Things are finally getting interesting!" Erdrich celebrated, bursting the head of a goblin with his bare hands. He continued hitting them with a barrage of punches, pieces of flesh and bones flew everywhere.
It was finally time to have some well-deserved farming, and what's better than with the Hard Worker Skill at Level 10 boosting my earned EXP by 200%? Not only does it makes up for my curse, but it even adds another +100% on top.
This means I can grow stronger even faster than normal people… Is this why I just leveled up from some pitiful goblins? Interesting…