A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

"There\'s much we still don\'t know about Dungeons and we continue to learn about them. One of the most recently discovered information was the revealed the existence of \'Evolving Dungeons\'.

Yes, Dungeons continue to appear in increasingly higher floors but an Evolving Dungeon is different; An Evolving Dungeon\'s floor gets higher in real time and when its Gate appears, it unleashes a powerful wave of challenge to announce itself.

That wave is the Wave Of Challenge."

The bald man paused and murmurs broke out again. Now there was more information but there was still confusion. The man let the murmurs continue for a while before he interjected. The first word that left his lips called for silence again;

"Evolving Dungeons have been a rarity. Some cities in Valaeren have experienced it and only a few have survived without falling prey to an outbreak.

You see, as said earlier, an Evolving Dungeon\'s Floor gets higher in real-time. It\'s not an exact science but by calculations, it takes less than a day for the difficulty to jump from one floor to the next in which case, the Dungeon boss and its minions evolve to match that difficulty.

If the Boss is not defeated soon, it evolves again. And again, until the third day when the portal keeping them within the Dungeon finally gives way and allows them to troop out of it and trample all that is in their path."

"So we must clear it before that happens—," A Knight not far from where Eloise and Aurelius stood started to say.

He was tall, his face hardened and his lips pursed at this challenge.

"Yes, Sir Boyle, we must clear it but you\'re sounding much too agitated," A second Knight cut in to say.

The second Knight took a step forward with his eyes now on Marcus before he continued,

"No offense, Commander, but it\'s merely a Fifth Floor Dungeon. I see no reason to fuss this hard."

Marcus nailed him with narrowed eyes but said nothing yet.

The Knight continued.

"It\'s simple. We assemble a team of well-trained Knights. Aurelius…" he stopped to call out suddenly.

"Yes, Sir Doran?" Aurelius said with a tone of respect and stood at attention.

"You will be in my squad. Do bring your A-game. I will not be as lenient with you as you are with your Squires."

"Yes, Sir!" Aurelius announced and there was a look of pride in his blue eyes. Clearly, serving under this Knight was a matter of great esteem to him.

"And Eloise," Sir Doran announced.

"Yes?" Eloise answered with a more cautious tone.

"You will—" Sir Doran continued before he was interrupted.

"Sir Doran, you forget the meeting is not yet over. You have not yet received orders and are in no position to amass yourself a team," Commander Marcus said in an even voice.

"I apologize," Doran said with a bow, "I got carried away. It\'s just that I realize we don\'t have much time. We must storm the Dungeon before the matter grows critical.

I have heard a bit about Evolving Dungeons and the monsters within them charge in waves and swarms. The goal will be to keep us away from the Dungeon Boss and they\'ll attempt to overwhelm us with numbers which already will be a dangerous ordeal and it\'ll only get worse if we dilly-dally.

Again, I apologize."

Marcus sighed,

"I applaud your initiative," he said, "Indeed. We must act fast. We must act now."

Doran returned to his spot in the Hall to join the others to continue to be briefed on the task at hand. But he snuck a glance at Sir Boyle and when the two pair of eyes met, Doran smirked smugly.

Boyle frowned at being cut off but he then scoffed and looked away.

Marcus continued,

"It\'s as Doran said. The natives of Evolving Dungeons attack in swarms so we will need numbers. We also cannot take the chance of getting caught lacking so Knights who have taken their oaths will take priority in selection. I.e there will be few or no Squires involved in this Raid.

We will also employ outside help. We will call to the Temple of Selene to see if they will allow us a few clerics. Their godly connections will prove vital for this task.

And I know for a fact that Lord Ralph Gribbo will be more than happy to offer us a squad of his Mercenaries as well as some of the Slaves they have in their command…"

"No!" Eloise said suddenly and so much more loudly than she had planned to.

All eyes were suddenly on her.

"Is something the matter, dear?" Marcus asked gently but his eyes were glaring at her.

Eloise ignored the eyes on her, collected herself, and raised her chin more defiantly,

"We shouldn\'t include the Slaves, Sir," she said.

"And why not?" Marcus asked.

\'Because they\'re slaves,\' Eloise thought.

In a sane society, that should be enough because being slaves meant the victims had no choice but to act and put their lives on the line without reaping any benefit from their actions. That should have been enough but she knew it wouldn\'t be enough here.

No one here cared.

"Is it because you think the slaves won\'t be all that strong?" Marcus offered when Eloise was still silent.

"No," Eloise said but she must not have said it loud enough because Marcus continued,

"Don\'t worry, dear, they\'ll be fodder anyway. Their meager strength will do for that much."

Eloise was disgusted by the callousness of those words and she would have said something more but the pulse of the \'Wave of Challenge\' hit her then just as it had hit her many times since it first began but this time, it had intensified.

It was no longer at the Fifth Floor but was idling toward the Sixth.

There was a silence in the hall now.

She wasn\'t the only one to have felt the change.

"By the gods," Marcus gasped out," It\'s evolving."

Faster than any of the Evolving Dungeons that had ever appeared in Valearen, this Dungeon was already breaking through to a whole new level of difficulty. If left alone, it would grow even more.

"We must enter the Dungeon today," Marcus announced and glanced at others sitting at the Table and they all shared the graveness in his tone.

"Assemble the team. Sirs Doran and Boyle will lead."

"Yes, Commander," Doran said with a bow faster than Boyle could react and was already breaking the Knights in the Hall in two.

The best of the bunch that had to come along and the slightly mediocre ones that were to make up the numbers.

At the top of the list of the best of the bunch were Aurelius and Eloise.

"Sir Doran, we are both in charge," Sir Boyle said, "At least let me have a say in who we bring along."

"My name was mentioned first!" Doran retorted.

"That doesn\'t matter!" Boyle countered.

"We don\'t have time for your petty squabbles," Marcus said suddenly, "How about you both just lead separate teams?"

And so, they separated.

"Eloise, will you join my team?" Boyle asked.

"Sure," Eloise answered a bit absentmindedly. She hadn\'t stopped thinking about the slaves and was hardly paying attention.

Boyle smirked at Doran at that but his gloating was cut short when it became clear that the majority of the best in the Hall had decided to join Doran\'s team.

Whether it was because Doran\'s team had technically been assigned first or the best just wished to stick together, most of those drafted into Boyle\'s team were bottom of the list of promising Knights, and some were just plain mediocre.

Boyle frowned but there was little he could do.

"Shit," he let out as secretly as he could so as not to lower the morale of the already slightly morale-less group he had been forced to put together.

Eloise seemed to now be paying attention and she noticed Boyle\'s distress as well as noted the reason for it.

"If we need numbers—" she said.

"We need quality. Quantity is a close second though."

"I know a few," Eloise said, "And outside help is allowed, right?"

Boyle brightened up,

"Oh thank heavens, Eloise. How many?" He asked.

"Two— Maybe Three," Eloise said.

"Two?" He repeated as though he was hoping she\'d tell him she was joking.

Aurelius, who had decided to remain in Doran\'s team, was close enough to hear the conversation and he frowned knowing who Eloise was referring to but she didn\'t notice.

"Two," she repeated, "Great pair of Dungeon Raiders. They\'ll do great."

Boyle eyed her for a while and then shrugged,

"Fine. We\'ll take what we can. We don\'t have much time though so you must have them here for the briefing within the hour."

Eloise nodded and said with certainty,

"They\'ll be here."