The first day in the local dungeon of the infernal capital was met woth difficulty.
Searching for any teams that would accept a male devil was impossible but even worse than this was the fact that he had wanted to go in without the knowledge the queen could provide.
He hid his features as usual but his deeper voice did not hide his gender and his lack of knowledge of the dungeon meant teams would view him as a liability.
And so Ezekiel was forced to return to his solo dungeon crawling.
The dungeon itself was very close to what he expected. Find your next read on m_v l|e-novelhall.net
A dungeon that was full of water and poison mana due to the swamp that made up the interior.
This dungeon specifically required him to absorb the poison element as quickly as he could because it was dangerous for s low level to be inside without the poison resistance skill.
The swamp was dangerous due to not only the monsters within but the environment.
Deep mud pits could drown an unsuspecting dungeon crawler while the toxic mana filled every last inch of certain regions in the dungeon.
Aside from these basic descriptions he could only guess based on the dangers found in real swamps, though a magical world had very unique dangers.
~
By watching the area with his mana sight Ezekiel was able to avoid some very dangerous areas filled with water and poison mana, he even noticed traps due to their heavy mana density with the purple glow of poison.
The water was mostly visible under the moss floats that acted like carpets of danger.
There were so many pits full of water that he began to wonder if the whole swamp was actually a floating mass.
For such a swamp to have so much water it would be unstable due to the mud filling the areas left behind.
Deep pits like monstrously large sinkholes, vines coated in poison, plants with tantalizing fruit that held dangerous roots covered in barbs.
The swamp was a maze of pain and death but if one knew where to go then they would be safe.
Ezekiel did not know where to go.
When he respawned outside of the dungeon he was cursing up a storm.
"A fucking venus fly trap?! SERIOUSLY?!"
He had gone through the swamp on foot and had avoided each trap he saw through his mana sight but he did not anticipate danger from the trees.
A sudden snapping sound was all he heard before he saw a green and red skin close around him and the one slaying him was a "Toxic Venus" that crushed him.
He respawned outside of the dungeon and got ready for another attempt but then someone put a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey need a team?"
He turned around and saw a group of five women that all looked roughly his own age, young infernals that had just gotten to adulthood.
"Yeah I do... I might not be very useful though because I just got killed by a toxic venus."
"Oh yeah those are... uh yeah don't worry about it, we just need someone that is good at scouting and our mage isn't able to focus on everything at once."
"Oh scouting? Yeah I can do that. You don't mind having a male ally then?"
"Nope we have a mate back home and he's tending to things so we needed a sixth member to balance our party back out."
"Yeah he usually scouts things for us with Astra while we kill the monsters from a distance."
"Killing from a distance huh? Well then that's something I can get behind."
'Let's see if they mock this.'
He cast the frenzy wing spell and began to shred the serpent above the group.
The snake hissed loudly and fell to the ground in front of the group, he smiled down at the beast but with the veil of shadows in his hood it would not be visible.
He then began to cast the frenzy star spell.
'Overkill maybe but I don't give a damn.'
The mana in the area surged, flooding into this ball of darkness as each layer was made while the beams caged the viper in.
As the beams coalesced and made the viper shriek in pain he released the star with the hope of seeing it fall into the gullet of the screaming beast as it had before when he used it on the serpent.
The snake avoided the star sadly but it did take the full force of the explosion on itself as it tried to flee and since it was coiled up it clearly did not have the chance to speed away.
It was able to get a portion of it's body away when the star fell on the coils of it's body, the explosion shredding through its trunk and killing it.
"I think this scouting role is pretty easy, what do you girls think?"
He saw their faces had looks of astonishment in various forms from fear to awe but as he approached they ran over.
"That was AMAZING!"
"You're a shadow mage? Yes! I can't believe i got to see another one!"
"I've never heard of another infernal shadow mage besides the queen."
"Uhh yeah it was an affinity I started with.."
"So it's your bloodline affinity? Cool!"
The only one that seemed to be uninterested was Astra.
"Such a powerful affinity is wasted on a male, it's a shame really but at least you seem to be putting effort in your growth unlike the rest. When you marry your affinity will go to waste though."
"Oh come on Astra you just saw that amazing spell, can you match that?"
"My point exactly. He will be raising the young of the coven he marries while such power is wasted by not being used... at least his children may inherit it."
He was disgusted by her reaction and shook his head.
"Tell me where the boss is, I don't have to listen to this nonsense."
"Wait what?"
"I said tell me where the damn boss is, I want to leave and stop listening to this misandry."
"Watch your tongue male, I will make sure to tell your coven that they need to train you better."
"ASTRA STOP!"
The largest demoness if the group grabbed her friend by the arm and yanked her back.
"Stop acting like that with him he clearly told you it makes him uncomfortable!"
"Why should I care about his comfort? He is not our Luca."
"You must respect the wishes of others did your mothers teach you nothing?"
The others were silent during this and other than one of them looking at him with an apologetic expression they did nothing else.