Ghaston pulled out of his dimensional storage a large device that had multiple crystals sticking out of the device looking like a pin cushion of different colored crystals sticking out of a box. There was an interface on the box that Ghaston touched multiple times and swiped his finger over it in multiple directions. Suddenly the room started to shake as the boxes' crystals started lighting up. The whole room was illuminated by the multiple colors of the crystals.
The six of us instinctively took a step back as the device did its magic to convert the cavern into a dungeon. I wasn't going to argue what was happening but I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The wall I just destroyed suddenly was rebuilding itself back to normal. The dead bodies suddenly all started to glow and then disappeared. As if the moment they disappeared the process was done, the whole room went quiet and only the light from Glow and my own aura lit the room.
Ghaston touched the interface a few more times then put it into his dimensional storage then looked at the wall that had been destroyed to see there was now a small statue of a dragon. "Touch the dragon and you will be returned to the beginning of the dungeon. This is true for all the dungeons in the kingdom as you will learn this in your fourth year when you get to go on your first dungeon run."
We all looked at each other realizing how Ghaston was being sarcastic with his remark of us doing our first dungeon in two years. Abby touched the dragon statue and suddenly she was gone. Travis and Joey touched the dragon at the same time and they both disappeared at the same time. I finally touched it and it was as if I was at the statue one moment, and the next I was standing outside of the cavern with everyone else. I turned around to see a door now covering the entrance to the cavern.
Turning back towards the village we noticed that there were a group of adults coming our way. They were still working on setting up a pathway but they had almost completed a walled off walkway from the village to the dungeon. They were taking the ownership of this dungeon seriously by creating this pathway directly from the village and they were placing defenses along the way.
Ghaston led us back to the village which we were shocked to find that almost all of the groups were back. The village had several shops that were all offering to count and trade beast cores and the gear from the beasts that we picked up. The students were all surrounding these shops as they wanted to get the credit for the cores but then also looking to get new gear.
We had completely forgotten that we weren't allowed to participate in the event as Ghaston had made that announcement at the last moment. Most of the other students had forgotten it as well as the shop we were getting ours counted at didn't know we weren't eligible either and called out our totals.
So far there were three teams that had almost a hundred points each. The bronze beast cores were worth ten and those three groups were lucky to run into several bronze beasts each. The points hadn't been explained past bronze as we had silver and platinum beast cores to turn in so when the shop owner announced that we had twelve thousand four hundred and twenty points there was an absolute uproar.
Only when someone pointed out that we weren't eligible did the ruckus settle but for a moment it felt like there was going to be mutiny. The cores were handed back to Maddy who divided them up evenly between us when Ghaston pointed out that he didn't need any of them as he had two gold beasts and a third beast who couldn't evolve, he also had access to the fortune of the monarchy so he didn't need any currency.
Maddy then realized she too was in the same boat and split her pile between the five of us. I was shocked that she did this but then again it made sense that she didn't really need them. I placed mine in my storage as I had no idea what to do with them currently. I could sell them for dragbars but I didn't really need any, most would have a forger create more powerful gear but I kind of already had the best money could buy. I ended up with four platinum cores, twenty five silver cores, and a hundred bronze cores.
An older beast master who melded with a squirrel approached Ghaston. "What would you like to call this dungeon as we will need to give it a name and since you created it, it is on you to name it." Ghaston had a pondering look on his face but after several minutes he didn't have an answer. I threw out a suggestion for a simple naming of "Frost Cavern" and everyone liked the idea. The squirrel ran off the shoulder of the beast master and headed towards the dungeon.
Groups of students were surrounding the shops as it appeared that the quest was a success. The infirmary only had one student in it and I was told it was because he had an allergic reaction to something in the wild. The students that weren't interested in anything else in the shops started to congregate outside of the village's Inn where we would all be staying the night. The room that we received was for the four of us guys and only had two beds.
Waking up the next day I felt stiffer than I have ever felt before and I realized I had never slept on as uncomfortable of a bed as what was offered at this inn. My whole body ached and I wasn't the only one to feel it as everyone slowly got up groaning in agony. Walking down to the lobby as we were told the gryphons would be returning in the morning to take us back we saw that everyone seemed to be feeling the same as us. Most students seemed to be stretching their aching bodies more than what one would think eleven and twelve year olds should.
The locals all waved at us as we left. It seemed that we completely changed their village overnight for the good. The walls had been reinforced by a few of the teachers who had earth beasts capable of building up defenses and structures. There was now a clear pathway from the village to the dungeon and as we took off we flew south seeing the layout once again from a height you could see that it was a completely different view than just the previous day.