We had awoken early the next morning, and even though we didn’t need the experience as much anymore, we killed any animals we came across. We would save the bodies for use later, allowing us to have more meat and skins to sell at the village. We were unsure how much it would cost to upgrade our weapons and armor. Unprocessed animals wouldn’t get us very much, but we were unable to turn the skins into leather out in the wild.
I was personally hoping that there might be a dungeon near the village. In Etis online, most towns were created out of a need because of a dungeon nearby. They would start as a rest stop for adventurers and grow from there. Some villages were created away from dungeons as places for people to just live. Such as the one that Eric came from. I didn’t think they had a dungeon or at least very few people knew about it.
Eric told me that there was a low-level dungeon in this village, for levels 5-15. Many from the surrounding areas would come to try their luck, and many pushed themselves too far and died, yet others knew just how far they could go. Even though I was much stronger than the dungeon, I would love to be able to take a look inside and see what they are like. Also, it would give us the chance to earn more money, maybe even find a better item or two.
We would find an adventuring guild house here, but it would just be a branch office. They would be able to inform us of what would be needed to join the adventurers guild. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be anything too hard. It seemed that most of my knowledge had not been helpful yet. Which just made me realize how far I was from being ready to help anyone. Back on Etis online, I was considered one of the best loremasters, but here it seemed I had barely scratched the surface.
Having been walking in a daze, I tripped over a root and crashed into the ground. Eric was asking what attacked me as he circled my body. I only knew that because I could hear his steps moving around me.
“Nothing attacked me, I tripped over a root because I was thinking about home and the differences between here and what I thought I knew.”
“You miss them, your brother,” he asked quietly.
“I do miss him. We were all we had after mother and father died, and now he doesn’t have me. He is all alone with those people.” I could feel tears welling up, just imagining how the board would try to take advantage of my brother. We already had enough money for multiple lifetimes, he would probably end up having to sell the company to that man.
“I wish he was here,” I said looking at Eric, seeing Alic pulse into view for a second then disappear. I took that as a sign that we should get moving. We could talk when we got to the town and a room at the inn.
“Come on, there is much to do and to learn,” I said forcing a smile and walking in the direction I thought we had been traveling. Eric caught up quick and pointed, leading me in a slightly different path.
We moved through the forest, quietly killing any animal we came across. More for their materials than the experience. While there didn’t seem to be an experience penalty for killing low-level creatures, we both needed more experience so it wasn’t really worth it to try and kill them solely for the exp.
When we reached the village around noon, we had gathered 60 animals that we could sell for meat and leather. Mostly rabbit but there were 20 wolves. We should be able to sell them for a decent amount to the butcher and tanner in the village. Which should give us more than enough money to rent a room, so we can try running the dungeon. Which would hopefully allow us to gather better items, before going to the capital. Maybe we would even find a way to join the adventurers guild here.
The Rabbits sold for 20 copper each and the wolves sold for 50, so they gave us 18 silver coins. A veritable fortune out here. But nothing in the capital I was sure. The town lacked any gear we could buy that would improve on what we had. Eric and I went to check the entrance of the dungeon. At level 22, this dungeon would do nothing for me, Eric was still only level 10, though he was getting close to level 11. At 600 out of 1,000 experience.
Alic had been silent for a while, leading me to wonder what he was thinking, though talking to him about it would be hard.
“Eric, did you want to give the dungeon a try?” I asked.
“We can just push on, there isn’t enough incentive to stay here. Though we should stop by the adventures guild before leaving and check the requirements for joining.”
“I agree.”
We walked through the town, finding the guild hall was easy seeing as it was the largest building in the city. Having the dungeon probably helped. Walking in there were some people sitting at tables, but there were not many. This was an out of the way place so it didn’t surprise me. Walking up to the counter I smiled at the young lady there.
“I’m new around here, and was hoping you could help me.”
“Of course, what can I help you with?” she asked. She smiled, yet it seemed a little forced.
“What is required to join the guild?”
“You have to be level 10, that will get you in at the lowest level an F rank. If you have a class, you can start at rank E because you will be level 15 with a class so you will be able to handle the jobs for the rank. For ranks D to SSS you will have to receive enough quest points to take the exam.”
“I’m level 22, but I have not yet unlocked my class, and my friend is level 10.”
“He would have to start as a Rank F, but seeing as you are level 22, you could start at rank E, with the branch managers approval.”
“How would I gain that?” I asked.
“You would talk to him and see what she says, he could offer you a quest to check.”
“I would like to talk to her then.”
“I will see if she is available,” she said walking away from the desk.
She was gone for an hour before she came back into the room. Leading us into a room in the back. It was the grandest room I had seen yet since coming to this world. The master was a woman wearing leather armor. From the two short swords hanging on the rack lead me to believe she was some type of rouge.
“Hello Elf, I hear you are level 22. Yet have no class. How is this possible?”
“My village was attacked when I was young and I ended up living in the woods for years. I only just recently ended up finding Eric’s village and they helped me get a understanding of everything. There were no mage trainers in the city though.” I said sticking with the story I had given the villagers.
“I’m sorry for your loss. What type of elf are you, I could send a message to the capital and see if there are any other survivors.” she asked eyeing me curiously.
“It was a long time ago, I don’t know how far I have traveled from there. If there were survivors they have probably figured me dead, like the rest of them.” I said sighing and thinking of my brother.”
“Being level 22 you should be closing in on D rank so makeing you E rank is within my power. I would like you to clear the dungeon and prove your skill to me. The Dungeon has become dangerous as of late, and I’m fearing it will either jump in strength or something has gotten into the dungeon. If the dungeon gets stronger, it will be destroyed by the guild, because it would be useless to have such a strong dungeon out here. We are too close to the capital to need a stronger dungeon, and our town is to small.”
“So you want us to go into the dungeon and scout it out. No problem.” I said smiling.
“Take tonight to rest, then enter tomorrow morning. If you succeed, I’ll make both of you E rank.”
We left the guild and made our way to the inn. The night passed and we prepared to enter the dungeon at sunrise.
The dungeon was three levels, level one was level 1-5, level 2 was 6-10 and level 3 was 11-15. According to the guild master when I talked to her this morning. The first level was three tunnels nothing seemed out of place and we both fought me with my arcane bolt, Eric with his short swords. We netted 100 exp by the time we finished the first level. Nothing took more than a hit to beat, and nothing seemed unaccounted for.
Heading down the stairs we encountered the second level, the monsters were stronger, but not enough to slow us down. We found some coin and a minor healing potion, but nothing of note. Our skills leveled slowly, only needing one cast of Arcane bolt to end and enemy didn’t lead to a lot of skill progression. Every little bit helped though. We gained 150 experience as we descended to the final level.
Something was different here, I could feel it. My skin tingled and Alic started looking agitated. “Alic is something here?”
“Something is.” he said softly.
“On your guard Eric.”
The rooms we passed though were empty and the chill running down my back was getting worse the closer to the end of the dungeon. When we walked into the last room I froze, my eyes widening.
The was one enemy sitting on a bile of bones. It looked like a human, but it’s skin was black and hardened like it was a shell. As I looked closer I realized it wasn’t black, but a deep green.
Name: The Ravager
Age:??
Level:16
Class:??
Race: Minor Demon
Rank: Elite
Health: 750
Stamina: 630
Mana: 930
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 20
Constitution: 20
Intelligence: 30
Wisdom: 40
Charisma: 10
Luck: 10
Attack:??
Defense:??
Skills:??
Abilities:??
Spells:??
“Alex that’s an elite monster. What is it doing here, finding an Elite at such a low level is rare.” Eric seemed really worried and I couldn’t blame him.
No wonder the town was in trouble, the normal adventurers that came here couldn’t fight against this. It had high health and mana. “Oh Goddess,” I whispered.
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