"Which dungeon are we going to go to?" Isadora asked.
We were in my office, with the map of the Empire layed out before us. On the map was several orange dots. These dots were the known dungeons on the continent.
This world has two different unnatural phenomena: instances and dungeons.
Instances are a tear in reality that appear out of nowhere, anywhere, at anytime. They come in the form of swirling magical gates. If one enters these gates you get transported to another dimension with a whole different environment and the only way to come out is if you kill all the monsters in the instance.
Once you cleared the instances you get greatly rewarded. The rewards depends on the grade and the environment of the instance.
Instances have six grades, ranging from S to E, with E being the lowest and S being the highest grade. How you determine the grade of an instance depends on the color of the swirling gate.
S-Purple.
A-Blue
B-Red
C-Orange
D-Green
E-White
If there is no clearance within a week, a monster outbreak will occur. Monster will spill out of the instance into our world and destroy and kill everyone and everything in their path.
Laying waste to entire villages, towns, cities and in extreme cases, even kingdoms.
When an outbreak occurs the monsters' strength increases tenfold than what it was inside the instance.
Since instances appear so sporadically and in the least expected places, there is a constant monster outbreak causing the deaths of thousand a year.
And then you have Dungeons or Permanent Instances.
Dungeons have the same grading system as instances, but they don't disappear once you clear them.
The environment inside the dungeon depends on where the dungeon entrance is located. If a dungeon entrance is in the forest, then the inside of the dungeon will have a forested biome.
The biggest difference between a dungeon and a instance is the fact that dungeons have what we call floors.
Floors are type of zones with different monsters and you have to kill all the monsters on a floor in order to go down to next floor. And the further down you go, the higher the difficulty.
The amount of floors a dungeon has depends on the grade of the dungeon.
A typical E-grade dungeon will have ten floors. And on each of the first 9 floors you will face a variety of different F-grade monsters and then a E-grade boss.
A D-grade dungeon with a green entrance will also have ten floors but there will be E-grade monsters on every floor until you face the D-grade boss on the last floor.
You also receive a reward upon clearing the dungeon, but the reward for a dungeon pales in comparison to a reward from a instance of the same grade.
If a dungeon is not frequently cleared, the monsters will spill out and lay waste to everything in their path in their frenzied state.
This is called a dungeon outbreak.
There is a lot of undiscovered dungeons in the Vampire Empire that leads to constant dungeon outbreaks, and due to the lack of manpower and strength–because we received no blessings from Gods for a couple millenia–we can do little about it.
And the last, and most certainly not the least, phenomenon is monster settlements.
These are scattered remnants of outbreaks who broke free from their frenzied state and formed colonies in forests, woods and near villages where they can terrorize common vampires that can't protect themselves.
These settlements are scattered all over and is hard to find since they are well hidden.
"You know we can't enter dungeons." I said to Isadora, looking at the map.
"Oh, right. I forgot." She said, remembering the dungeon restrictions.
You can only start entering dungeons once you are in your fifteenth year of life.
"We should enter an instance." I said, because instances doesn't have this restriction.
"A E-grade one." Isadora said, but then quickly added. "Or better yet; we should go to an instance that is about to have a monster outbreak. That way we will face stronger monsters."
"Hmm." I hummed in thought. "Froghemoth was a E-grade monsters and we didn't have too much difficulty killing it, so a frenzied E-grade monster should be alright."
"Yes." Isadora agreed. "And this time we shouldn't forget to collect their mana cores."
"Mhm." I nodded.
Every single awakend–be it humans, vampires elves or monsters–in this world has a mana core. And you can collect the mana cores of the death and either absorb the mana inside the core to slightly increase your own mana core capacity or sell it where they will be used in magic engineering.
'Identify E-grade instances that are very close to breaking.' The skill immediately activated.
Three red dots appeared on the map, visible to me only.
The first dot was near the border of the Vampire Empire and the Werewolf Kingdom, the second one was inland, near a mountain region, and the last one was on the coast of the kingdom, on thr beach.
The first instance was out of question. We may run into trouble, trouble that I will like to avoid, for now, at least.
'[Dragon's Eye View].' I mentally called out.
A small circular window appeared in front of me, giving me a aerial view of the second instance.
It was located in a woody area that was steeped in darkness even though it was the middle of the day. Faint fog drifted in the area, further prohibiting one's vision.
The ground was filled with dried black leaves that fell from the high tops of the similarly colored trees. At the back of the woods was a enormously tall mountain that was steeped in darkness as if it didn't get any light.
"Eternal Night Forest." Isadora said, looking through the window. "This region has never seen a ray of sunlight since the beginning of scripted history. No one knows why, but no one also dared to find out. There has been no recorded deaths in the region, mostly because everyone just avoids it.
Some people even claim that there was a voice in their heads that told them to turn around and walk away if they wish to live."
"So, you're saying that there may be unknown dangers?" I asked, and she nodded. "We're going there aren't we?"
"Yep!" Isadora exclaimed and I felt the floor give in from underneath.
"Sigh." I released a defeated sigh as I sank into the portal.
********
–crunch
Dead leaves cracked underneath my boots as I softly landed amongst the woods, with Isadora arriving shortly after.
"You sure know how to use that portal of yours." I said, wiping invisible dust from my shoulder.
"Hihi." Isadora just let out a cheeky laugh.
"This place gives me the creeps." I said, scanning the area. "I can see why everyone avoids it."
Goosebumps appeared on my skin, the hair on the back of my neck raised. I immediately summoned my armor along with Dheadris and Zakhristos.
"The voices in those vampires' heads must have been their instincts." Isadora said, armor on and staff in hand.
"Are your instincts telling you the same thing?" I asked, searching for the instance and for any hidden dangers.
"Yep." Isadora said, next to me. "But I'm not leaving here until all the monsters are killed and I thoroughly leveled up."
"Thought so." I said.
Usually it would have been impossible to see in this darkness, but we both could see just fine because we have [Night Vision], which is an innate vampire skill.
********
[>Night Vision(Passive)–Enhances visual capabilities that allow clear sight in low-light or dark conditions.]
********
"There it is." Isadora said, pointing to the swirling white gate.
The gate was floating in the middle of the woods. There was no object behind, underneath or above it that kept it floating.
It was the gate's own machinations.
A thin crack ran from top to bottom in the center of the gate, a telltale sign that a monster outbreak is about the happen.
The crack widened with every second that passed.
"Seems like it's going to be about a hour before the crack is big enough for a creature to come through." I said, moving to one of the nearby rocks and sat on it.
"I wonder what type of monster is going to come out." Isadora's eyes were full of wonder, like child about to open a christmas present.
"It doesn't really matter." I said. "Just don't forget the battle plan."
"You at the front and me at the back." She said. "Easy."