"Sorry, I overslept during the speech this morning." A girl told her team of six with no embarrassment.
A boy with a blindfold asked, "So how much do you know about dungeons as a whole?"
"Nothing really."
"Alice, what the fuck?" Her team member sighed; they had months to prepare.
"First, I'm the leader of our group. My magic is eye magic; it will let me watch this whole dungeon, and our task is to stop any dangerous conflict between the participants." The boy sat on the ground with his hands drawing a shape on the ground.
"There are five total types of dungeons based on who can participate. Solo, duo, and four-member squads. Solo and duos are two groups, those under rank 6 can participate in the S rank dungeons and those above can participate in SS ranks. But for the squad there is no separation."
"You explain way better than others." Alice cleared her throat. "So overall, we will just stand here until something happens?"
A man next to their leader said, "Most of the times nothing will happen; even if underground wants to make some trouble, they are not stupid enough with us around."
The leader started again, "We must know each other vaguely, but first introduce ourselves. I'm Liam, the leader and the support of the team."
One by one they started to tell their names and roles:
"Marcus, Tank."
"I'm Nora; my healing is weak, but I hope I can help you all."
"Jorge, my job is teleportation."
The last two remaining were Alice's team.
"Tifany, we will be the main attack power of the team."
"Alice, I can kill." Her smile proved that she was the missing Cardinal in the team.
"As you may already know, underneath this place is a volcano; that is the reason for the temperature, and most of the dungeon is made out of underground tunnels; currently 2978 are in the dungeon." Liam deepened his vision, but nothing could help him see the center of the dungeon.
They were not allowed to deal with the dungeon themselves; the military would have given them rewards. The rewards for S-rank dungeons were most of the time some dark or white crystals and, at best, a weapon.
"That's a lot of people." Alice yawned, "I'm going to sleep."
Everyone was surprised as she just took out her shirt with no bra under it, using the shirt as a pillow; in just seconds she fell into a deep slumber.
"Her magic is dream magic; that's why most of the time she must sleep."
Liam shrugged; with nothing to do for weeks, he didn't care about it. His eyes followed each team in the dungeon; with them being on top of the mountain, his magic observed each movement.
Hours passed with Liam lying on the ground and the other four playing some card game. "Last year, most of the days ended with two people fucking; this year I should find someone too." He watched the three girls in their group; only Tifany was his type to some extent.
Before he could stand up and join their game, Alice jumped from her sleep.
"Someone wants to kill me."
All traces of her stupid act had left her face.
"What?" Liam yelled. "Everyone is going down in the caves."
Alice wore her shirt again and pulled Tifany to her side. "When someone can enter my dream, that means their state of mind is at least 1000; fooling your stupid eyes is like a piece of cake for them."
"1000 stat in mind? Is that even possible with our levels?" "One?" the boy asked with surprise.
"With niche magics, that's possible."
Meanwhile, Liam went after each eye to look for any problem with them. "Describe the person."
Alice made a picture out of blue clouds in her hands: a girl with white hair and red glowing eyes.
"I haven't seen her at all." After a few more checks, he noticed something odd: one of the women in the upper levels had a huge claymore in her hands. Liam still remembered her background, but after four hours, she was still in the same place.
"I will send you the location. Jorge, pick up Marcus and go check it out." Liam's hands were shaking; after trying to refresh his eye, no trace of her was left in the dungeon.
"No. If their target is us, you want to hand them our teleporter?" Alice walked between all of them; her stance showed signs of stress, unlike Liam's shaking hands.
"So you tell us to leave her there to kill anyone she wants?"
"Mostly yes, most teams are weak, so they don't matter that much, but sooner or later they will face Cardinals from the underground; that's when we join the fight."
Marcus stepped forward: "Although your plan makes sense, I can't let innocent people die."
Alice opened her hands: "Go on then, but if you want to take that boy with you, you have to cross me."
"Guys, I think you should see this..." All blood had left Liam's face; like a frozen statue, he showed them a view of one of his eyes.
A pile of corpses was put next to a wall; just from the sight, Tifany and Jorge threw up on their spots. Above the piles on the dark walls, some words were written in blood.
"I'm coming, dream girl."
"What should we do?" Liam felt lost; an easy mission had just turned into a horror movie.
A sound of shaking took him out of his horror dream. Alice's hands were shaking; with a smirk on her face, he wondered if she shook from fear or excitement.
"You want to go now?" Alice asked Marcus, who had clenched his fists.
"Yes." With that, he just moved past all of them, looking for the nearest entrance to the caves.
"Refresh all of your eyes each minute, Tifany. You and the healing girl make a defense around our camp. You teleport, boy; be ready for any call from me." She returned to her previous spot and sat on the ground.
Blue clouds circled around her head as she fell into a deep slumber.
Tifany explained her magic to everyone else, "She is looking for the person she wants in the dream realm; in there she can find Cardinals. With the identity of underground Cardinals, her plan can work."
Silence took over their small camp as all of them went on their separate duties.
Meanwhile, Liam curses inwardly, "Who is she to think that she can take the place of the leader? I was chosen as the leader by General Hawk."
After a full refresh, he checked the number of participants.
"2683..."
300 people were already dead.