"I knew it…" Mul whispered in the sudden chaos.

Well, damn, Nar thought, frowning down at their one-eyed professor. Things had just taken a turn, hadn't they?

"Why would anyone do something like that?" Cen asked her brother, horror lowering her tone into a hushed whisper. "To-to attack other people..."

Mul shrugged. "People suck, and they're greedy. Haven't you realized yet what kind of place the Nexus is? It's all about their precious XP."

"To kill for it, though. That's dark…" Rel said, from Cen's other side.

"But can you deny it?" Mul asked her. "Remember what happened to us."

Rel didn't reply, and within, Nar nodded at the brawler's words.

"Yes, apprentices!" Professor Thim said loudly. "You can attack and be attacked within the dungeons. Usually, this doesn't happen, due to the threat of the dungeon guardian's vigilance and reporting, but it can become a common reality in dying dungeons, where the dungeon guardian starts to malfunction and behave erratically due to the decreased flow of aether going into the dungeon."

"Why would someone even go in there, then?" Tuk asked, his tone just as horrified as Cen's.

"There has to be a reason," Kur mused. "There's always something to be gained from risk. Always."

"Continuing on, a domain will usually have several portals to enter from, and their arrival locations within the domain can either be fixed or variable," the professor continued, before the class could devolve into chaos again. "In case the arrival point is variable, it will always be variable within a certain zone, or group of zones, inside the domain. And like the dungeons, these arrival locations will always be close to the domain's boundaries."

He clasped his hands behind his back, and regarded them all with his single, large eye.

"What's with the dramatic pause?" Mul said.

"Mul!" Cen hissed at him.

"And lastly, you have raids," the professor said, his tone ominous. "Raids are usually domain sized dungeons, with also several entrances that can be fixed or variable, but the one big difference that sets them apart is that raids are built exclusively for combat and little else. Yes, beasts and monsters within are a great source of profit, of course, but you won't find much gathering of note within. Instead, raids are meant for either of two things… One, to accumulate vast amounts of XP and gains in a short amount of time, and second, to obtain specific and rare components and materials from downed enemies, which are crucial for forging gear and weapons of epic and legendary grade. Or, to acquire said epic or legendary gear and weapons directly."

"Legendary…" Nar breathed. "You can just get those?"

"Apparently so…" Kur whispered. "Though a raid is not an easy thing to beat."

"Of course, because of this, the raid is filled with monsters and beasts that are all incredibly tough," Professor Thim said, raising a hand before the auditorium could go off again. "A monster of level 100 in a raid could easily defeat ten monsters of the exact same type and level from a dungeon or domain. And this is because their attribute density is usually at least five times higher, if not more. And if we're considering the raid bosses… Then, those are even stronger. Much, much stronger!"

The screen above them changed, showing a list of names with two corresponding numbers attached to each entry displayed.

"Just to give you an idea, these are the ten most popular raids close-ish to the Scimitar's usual delving route," he said, looking up directly at the screen on the wall. "And as you can see, at number one, we have the Well of the Damned… Now this is a raid filled with undead monsters and beasts, and which usually takes an average of about eight million delvers to clear, with the mortality rate averaging about 2%."

He paused and looked up at his apprentices, waiting for the calculations to be run in their heads.

"That's a hundred and sixty thousand people!" Cen said, arriving at the solution first amongst their party. "By the Crystal!"

"Yes, a hundred and sixty thousand people die, on average, for the raid's yearly delve," professor Thim said. "And as you can see through the list, other raids hover at around the same range. 1%, 2%, 3%, and 5% usually at the highest… But these are just averages. And in the worst of the worst of the worst scenarios, you can have what is called a raid wipeout."

"No…" Tuk breathed.

"Yes," the professor said, and a new column of numbers appeared. "In this era, in nearly sixty-five thousand years, the Well of the Damned has suffered four raid wipeouts. Meaning, complete and total death of every single delver that went inside."

"Crystal," Nar whispered.

Eight million people dead? Just like that? From a dungeon?

"Raids are not for the faint of heart," the orange man continued, his gelled down hair gleaming from the light of the screen up on the wall. "Going into one is to accept that your death is a very real possibility, but of course, the benefits are tremendous to match that! Not only do you gain massive, massive amounts of XP, any levels you gain will be incredibly dense in attributes, and you are highly likely to gain at least one new skill or skill upgrade of the rare or higher variety! You may even find yourself stumbling onto amazing materials for gear and weapons that will help you for decades to come in your careers as delvers. And you may even gain titles due to your heroic feats, earning you prestige, further attributes, and even incredible skills! And when you complete a raid, it goes onto your permanent, personal record… Meaning, your prospects as a delver increase tremendously, as everyone wants to hire seasoned, raid completionists into their guilds, and the pay increases in appropriate measure."

That does sound good, Nar thought, begrudgingly. I wonder if Tsurmirel will take us to one.

"Unlike dungeons, which reset back to their pristine, original condition once a party exits them, or dies within them, and domains, which operate resets under certain conditions and even seasons, raids follow their own schedules. Some open once a year, others once every ten… And some may go for thousands of years without opening, and some others haven't opened in eras," the professor said. "However, whenever one of these raids opens, especially the ones that stay closed for longer periods of time, it always sparks a frenzy amongst the guilds and noble houses to get their delvers inside. Since the gains are guaranteed to be tremendous if you survive, entire geo-political and influence structures can shift overnight in the Nexus."

A new table of names with a single, descending number associated with them, appeared.

Tsurmirel, number 6, Nar immediately found at the top of the list.

"This is the current ranking of the delving guilds in the entire Nexus," the professor explained. "You can see us, Tsurmirel, currently in rank 6th. However, what I want your attention for, is on these three."

Three names became highlighted in green, number 17th, 19th and 20th in particular.

"The Daughters of Nothilia, the Druids of the Red Fang, and Gallantia," he enumerated them. "These three formed an alliance a few years back, and pushed almost the entirety of their delvers into the Fortress of the Stone King. And I don't need to tell you that this was an extremely risky, extremely bold endeavor… Not only did they have to pool all of their reserves of XP together and take on significant loans on top of that, risking bankruptcy and the end of their guilds, they also had to risk the lives of nearly 90% of their delvers in a raid known for its extreme difficulty, with an average of 7% fatality attributed to it."

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"Shit…" Tuk whispered. "Why would they do that?"

"To go up the ranking," Kur whispered back. "Listen."

"And why, you ask, did they go through such a risk? One that could've resulted in three guilds being wiped out in one go?" the professor asked his rapt audience. "Simple. To go higher in the ranking! A higher rank means higher status, influence and gradings from the Office of Delving. It also means better and more contracts and deals, and that doors once closed will now be wide open. It means, in short, a significant increase in XP influx, which in turn translates into putting more aetherships in the Labyrinth, hiring more delvers, harvesting and gathering more, which leads to even more XP and so on and so on… Those in my Delving Guilds module will learn a whole lot more about the importance of the ranking, the politics and power plays going on both hidden and in plain sight, but for all of you here today, it suffices to say that the Ranking of Delving Guilds is everything!"

He looked up at the screen and pointed.

"Supremacy at number one. The Time Lords at number two. The Ten Thousand Martial Peaks at number three. The Eternal Glacier at number four, and lastly, The Raging Black Flames at number five," Professor Thim read out loud. "These guilds have comprised the top five not for millennia, but for entire eras! And Supremacy in particular boasts to be the oldest guild in existence, purporting to be in existence for over a thousand eras! That's ten million years reigning at the very top of the Nexus guilds!"

Mul whistled.

"And while Tsurmirel stands at number 6th currently, the gulf between us and the Raging Black Flames is one that we are unlikely to ever surpass with our infant nine eras of existence."

"That's still nine hundred thousand years!" Tuk whispered.

"Yeah… But it's not millions, is it?" Mul said.

"We are much more likely to crash and burn and disappear, than to ever make it onto the top five," Professor Thim said, shaking his head. "The best we can do is make sure that no one takes our place, and even at 6th, we keep trading places with number 7, Charysma, and there are more guilds behind it viewing for our place as well… We can only hope to hold our position by maintaining at least a steady rate of growth, as no guild can ever afford to stop growing. And that means going into raids, commissioning ever more ships, pushing ever deeper into the Labyrinth, and searching for those dungeons who have yet to be found or rediscovered, in search of any advantage we might get our hands on."

He grimaced. "I tell you all this so that you understand that raids are a serious business. For you, if you want to reach the highest peak possible of your delving career, and for the guilds, who seek to either maintain or elevate their ranking."

"But why can't they just be happy with what they have?" Tuk asked. "I mean, we're probably talking about more XP than I'll ever see in my whole life!"

"More than if you were to live forever," Kur corrected him, shaking his head. "More than anyone can ever spend in their whole lifetimes. But like I learned in Finances of the Nexus, greed pushes everything ever onwards… It's never enough, and the whole of the Nexus is built on it."

"Damn…"

"A raid usually only has one exit condition," the professor said, raising a single finger. "Defeat all raid bosses, or no one is going home... Tsurmirel has never pushed their apprentices into a raid, not even elites, and I doubt it ever will, as a raid is no place for the inexperienced. However, Tsurmirel does of course participate in two or three raids a year, and if you stick with us, and you reach a stage where you're good enough to be considered for joining, that's something you can look forward to in the future… If that is the kind of path you wish for yourselves."

Professor Thim sighed.

"It would have been great for dramatic effect to end our session today here, but there's two more, and much less dramatic things to mention before we end what I'm sure has been a heavy hour," he said. "The first one is leveling. In dungeons, you will only level once you leave, as all of your gains are calculated at the exit based on your performance. While in domains and raids leveling can vary, it usually occurs throughout the delve and after its exit, just as it usually does… And the last thing to talk about is dungeon tickets and slots."

The lights came back on, and the screens disappeared.

"I told you earlier about dungeon exit conditions, and you might have wondered how we know about them," the professor said. "The answer is simple, and it's two-fold. First, whenever a new dungeon is detected, people can do either of two things. One, they will report the discovery of the new dungeon to the Explorers and Cartographers Corp, and get a substantive reward for it, or two, they will brave the unknown themselves, and gain the right to make a map of the dungeon, which is then sold to the Explorers and Cartographers Corp. This will earn them a tidy sum, and, more importantly, a 5% share of all the subsequent maps sold by the Corp of that dungeon. Some delving guilds make their living exclusively from discovering and exploring new dungeons, or those whose records were whipped in Great Resets."

He smiled up at them. "And yes, I know it's confusing. Bear with me, yes? So, the Explorers and Cartographers Corp, also known just as the Explorers, is a subdivision of the Office of Delving. They not only hold the responsibility of exploring every dungeon discovered in great detail, for the Outer Reaches and Deep Zones only though, but they also own the sole right and monopoly to control every single dungeon and Labyrinth map for these zones in existence. That means if you need a map, which you do, you need to pay them for it. And even if you've done the same dungeon a thousand times, the policy is, you still need to buy a map, as that is how you know how to prepare and what to expect in any dungeon. Even raids. And if you're found delving without the appropriate map license, well, let's just say that the full might of the Law will be coming down hard on you."

The professor paused to take a quick swing of a bottle he took from his inventory.

"I'm thirsty just listening to him," Mul said.

Cen tutted at him.

"What?" he asked, confused. "The man hasn't even stopped to take a break!"

"Oh. You mean like that…"

Below, the professor indeed took a second and third swing of whatever liquid he had in his flask.

"Apologies for that," he said. "Dungeons 101 is a particularly dense topic that unfortunately doesn't lend itself to much questioning and class participation. It simply is what it is."

He stored his bottle away again, and grinned at them. "Almost there, though! Anyone passed out yet?"

Laughter erupted amidst the rows of apprentices.

"No? Amazing! Alright, to finish up then, tickets and slots," he said. "99% of all dungeons in the Outer Reaches and the explored areas of the Deep Zones are known, mapped and maintained by the Offices of Delving. And what does this mean for us? Simple. Guilds compete for dungeons, therefore, the Offices of Delving step in, and assign time slots that you can buy. These are the tickets, and if a ticket says you can go into dungeon X, on First the 22nd of the XYZ year, for the hours of 9AM to 5PM, then that's the only time you can go into dungeon X. And that's because any other time slot has been purchased by someone else, and you would be stealing their time in the dungeon. If caught, the consequences can be quite severe, and at the very least you'll need to pay a hefty fine to the Offices, as well as reparations to the other guild you stole from."

"Wow… Didn't expect it to be so bureaucratic," Kur said.

The meaning of the word filtered into Nar's brain and he frowned at it. The new knowledge felt both heavy and morose in his mind, and yet, it somehow convinced him that it was crucial to society…

"Therefore, even before setting out, sometimes years in advance, aethership captains and their guilds will aim to set their ship's delving itinerary way ahead of time, to make sure they have the tickets for all the slots needed. Even just one such ticket being missing can cause a significant loss of profit for any ship. And…"

He smiled guiltily. "This brings us to the actual last thing I want to talk about. I promise!"

Laughter once again rippled through the auditorium.

I like him, Nar thought. The stuff is heavy, but he doesn't make it boring… Of course, it helps that we need to learn this stuff if we want to survive.

"Thing is, the higher you are in the ranking, and the better your ratings are with the Offices of Delving, the easier it is for you to purchase these tickets," he explained. "Say, the Braetis Mining Guild has a lot more ease in securing several million tickets and effectively monopolizing a number of mineral rich dungeons in our area, than much lower ranked guilds. Likewise, the top five have no issues whatsoever in booking whatever dungeons they need for their apprentice-ships, or for any other purposes. Of course, they cannot just take already purchased tickets, but when a top guild comes asking to purchase your tickets, most lower rank guilds find it wise to just sell them over."

And here, the man grimaced slightly, his one bushy brown frowning heavily over his red eye. "And this brings us all the way back to those dying dungeons, remember? Well, dying dungeons are fickle… Sometimes they will reset to their full, original, profitable state, but most often than not, they won't, which means that there will be less resources, and less beasts and monsters, meaning, the delving of these dungeons is not as profitable. However, one sapient's trash is another sapient's treasure. The budget is the budget, and guilds of all ranks will often scoop up these dying dungeons as a sort of gamble at a discounted deal. But the vast majority of guilds running dying dungeons just don't have any other choice! For the desperate and the criminal alike, low rankings and rates can keep any other option out of their hands and means, and that's why one must always be extremely careful in such dungeons, as you never know if the other delvers are there for the dungeon, or for you."

"And I bet they'll throw us into one," Mul said.

"What? Why would they?" Cen asked him aghast.

Mul shrugged. "Elite training and all that… If not the raids, then those dungeons are the best next thing! Plus, you heard the man. It's cheap."

"Alright! That's it! Thank you for your time and patience!" Professor Thim said. "And I wish you the best of luck delving into your very first dungeon. I can guarantee you, it's an experience you will never forget!"

"That can be both good and bad," Nar said, as they rose.

"Please be good. Please be good," Tuk pleaded.

Yes. Please be good, Nar thought.

Despite everything, his master, and now Professor Thim, had managed to reawaken some of his original wonder and curiosity about delving. And if he was to be honest, after the den and the confluence, he truly hoped that the both of them were right, or his years as a delver would be a painful drag indeed.

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