ShanDeRad
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Book 2: Chapter 9
🕑 Added 2024-05-07 10:53:32 +0000 UTCShaun wasn’t disappointed by his performance in the dungeon, if anything he was impressed with himself. Rodger, the 3rd highest ranked person from this tutorial, had gone into the dungeon with a party of five and had only managed to complete the 7th wave before retreating, not that he blamed him. The sparrow were a hard enemy to win against, their attacks were powerful and they were hard to catch. But when comparing that result to his own, he had managed to complete the first 10 waves, three more than Rodger and his team, and he had done it alone. He wasn’t in the best shape, but he would be back to full health in a day or so if he used his nature affinity to heal himself, besides he had plans to spend the next two days reading and studying his books, hoping to gleam some insight into not just the multiverse but his heritage and affinities.
It didn’t take long for him to appear back in the dungeon room back in the colosseum, right back in front of the dungeon he had entered from. He didn’t know what to expect, probably some more flirting from Louisa, some congratulations from others, questions definitely. When he looked around at the people gathered, he realised that there was more here now than there was when he had entered. Apparently, word had gotten out that he had entered the dungeon and that had driven a lot of people to be here when he exited, everyone wanting to see the results of his dungeon run.
Shaun didn’t say a word to anyone when he appeared, instead he turned around and looked at the leader board. Right in front of his eyes he watch name dropping down and in the number 1 place his name appeared, as well as the information that he had completed the 10th wave.
*Calculating dungeon reward grade*
Wave 10 cleared. Adjusting reward grade.
Dungeon entered alone. Adjusting reward grade.
Dungeon reward grade: D
*Distributing reward at D level*
*2 Silver coin*
*Tranker Root*
*[Advanced] Tranker Root: An ingredient used in alchemical creations, most commonly used in the production of elixir’s relating to body enhancement.*
The 2 silver were nice, especially now that he needed to stock up on potions, the root though was next to useless to him, he couldn’t make potions or elixirs so it was probably something he would either trade or sell. He put it straight into his inventory, not bothering to do much else with it at the moment.
Turning away from the leader board he looked back at the crowd, no one was speaking, everyone was just staring at him, making for a very uncomfortable situation, almost as bad as when he was being hit on by Louisa before he entered the dungeon. He caught Gabe and Eric having already finished their dungeon, standing towards the back of the crowd near one of the exits, not wanting to be up close to him when he exited the dungeon, probably to avoid being caught up in the drama, not that he blamed them for it.
“How?” This came from Louisa, who was standing right up front, the person closest to where he was now.
“I want to know the answer to that as well.” This was spoken by a man that was standing right next to Louisa, he was tall, taller than Shaun at least, had short brown hair and was rather muscular. He was a warrior build, having a sword on his hip, one that looked rather nice, as well as a shield strapped on his back. His chest plate was also better than the one that all warriors were given when they entered the tutorial. Overall he had a lot of good equipment and held himself with an air of authority.
*Rodger Jacobs – Level 30*
So it seems he made his way back here when he found out that I was going to try and knock him from first place. He didn’t look to be in bad condition, at the very least he looked a lot better than Shaun did in that moment. Looking down at himself he was pretty banged up. He had blood on his clothes, or what was left of them from being attacked by the birds and he was covered in dirt, apart from that though he wasn’t too badly injured, externally at least.
“Are you going to tell us or not?” Louisa pushed him for an answer.
“I don’t think it’s the best idea to go around telling everyone what our strengths are, not when we will all be fighting in the colosseum over the next few week.” It was a sound argument, one that no one would be able to argue against. They all knew they would end up fighting each other at some point, going around and yelling to the masses what you were capable of would be the stupidest thing you could do.
“That’s…..more than fair. I even agree with you. If someone asked me to give details of what I was capable of I would say the same.” He didn’t expect Rodger to be so agreeable to what he had said, but it seemed the man was more level headed than not. “I’m Rodger by the way, its nice to meet you Shaun.”
Rodger extended his hand for a handshake, which he quickly met with his own, it was just common courtesy. “Nice to meet you too Rodger. And sorry about bringing you into this mess. I was asked to prove I could do it, taking the top spot on the leader board I mean, it had nothing to do with you directly.”
“Hahaha, there is nothing wrong with some friendly competition. I imagine that over the next month there will be a lot of fighting for the top spots.” This guys isn’t actually that bad. “Do you mind me asking though, the boss on the 10th wave, what was it?”
“I hate birds!” Shaun exclaimed at this, needing to vent about how annoying the damn things were. This got laughs from a few of the people present, everyone in Rodger’s team, including Rodger himself, laughed the hardest, along with agreeing with his statement.
“You and all of us as well. They were the most annoying things to fight! Pinning them down was near impossible. And the spears? The strongest attacks I have ever seen come from a monster.”
“Yeah same here, until the boss that is. It was a Starling Sparrow, level 35, and it could block out the sun, turning the dungeon to night while summoning these small stars that it could send at you. It was devastating, I nearly died multiple times from those attacks.” Shaun told them.
“But you could out run them? Or could you defend against the attack?” This time Louisa popped back into the conversation, trying to dig for information on what he could do.
Rather than reply to her he just nodded at Rodger. “It was nice to meet you, but I need to go heal up, do some shopping and get some rest. The dungeon takes a lot out of you.”
“Until next time, Shaun.”
He walked through the crowd, parting for him as soon as they realised where he was walking, he was heading to the exit that Gabe and Eric were standing at, and as he reached it he just walked past them giving them a head nod when he passed. They followed along with him through the corridor, leading back to the shops.
“Sorry we weren’t up there when you came out, it was pretty hectic. Everyone has been talking about you too, people have come up to us and asked us questions, which we haven’t answered. I hope you don’t mind that we kept some distance.” Gabe said, a bit nervous by the sound of his voice.
“You think I wouldn’t do the same? If I could have I would have just run out of there when I exited the dungeon, but I am getting the feeling that blending into the background is no longer something I can do.” Shaun really thought that that bridge had been burned. Everyone knew he was in the top spot and now they knew what he looked like. Trying to hide would do nothing, if anything it would spark rumours that he would rather avoid. “How did your dungeon run go?”
“Amazing! We both hit level 25 which was cool, although a bit risky to do in a dungeon. We made it to the 22nd wave before we gave up. He got what we needed and at that point the monsters were all level 25 too and just grew in numbers.” Gabe was pretty enthusiastic about hitting E grade, they both needed another shower, although so did he so he want going to complain. “Where are we going?”
“Selling loot, buying potions, showering, reading books. All in that order.” He replied.
After they agreed to come along with him to the shops, deciding they would buy some potions as well, they walked in silence for the most part, knowing the questions they had were not something they should ask in public. As they walked through the shopping lane they got some looks, mostly due to the state they were in, but some identified him and looked at him much closer than the others. When they entered the exchange they saw the same Goblin as before.
“Welcome back Master Shaun, it is a pleasure to see you again so soon.” The Goblin looked them over, and came to the conclusion on where they had been. “Selling loot from the dungeon I presume? All together or separate?”
Shaun looked back at Gabe and Eric who indicated that they would do everything separately. “We will do it individually please Ulorid.”
With that he took out all of the loot from the ants and the sparrow, only keeping the feathers from the starling, not bothering with the crown he had received. It wasn’t like he wouldn’t be getting more anyway.
“This seems like it is all of the loot from the second dungeon, all the way to the 9th wave?” Ulorid raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, uh, yeah. I completed the 10th wave but didn’t get a chance to loot all of the sparrows.” It was common knowledge at this point so correcting the Goblin wasn’t going to having any impact on him.
“And you have all of the loot? You didn’t share with your team?” At this he looked at Gabe and Eric behind him, a slightly judgemental tone in his voice.
“He fights alone. We did the first dungeon.” Eric explained.
“My apologies, I should not have assumed.” The Ulorid looked over the loot, sorting it all out in seconds. “For all of this I can give you 2 silver 6.4 bronze coins, with over half of that being from the crown itself.”
“That’s perfect, and what about this?” Shaun took out the root and handed it over to the Goblin.
“Hmmm, I can give you 2 silver for the root. But if you would take some advice, go to the alchemist store, Alxeria, the owner, will be willing to sell it for more or come to a better agreement.”
Once they had all finished getting more coins they headed out to the alchemist, it was convenient as she sold the potions they needed as well. When they entered the store it was more organised than they expected, there was a board detailing all of the potions and elixirs that one could buy from your standard recover potions to ones that cured diseases and poisons. The elixirs varied but he saw ones that would permanently increase specific stats and also some that would help with ones mana control.
“Browsing or Buying?” From behind a curtain at the back of the store a woman came out, she was tall and lithe, had long white hair and pointed ears. This was what he expected an elf to look like if he was picturing something from Earth myth.
*Alxeria Silverfoot – Level ???*
“We are buying and maybe selling.” Shaun replied for them.
“And what do you have that you think I may want to buy human?” Damn this elf does not seem happy to be here.
Rather than reply he just pulled out the root and put it on the counter. Immediately the elf picked it up and gave it a look over before putting it back on the counter. “You want to sell this? Or have it made into a Physical Enhancement Elixir?”
“What would the elixir do?” Curious as it if it may be worth it.
“Increase all physical attributes. Looking at the quality of the root I would say I could make it increase the attributes by at least 5 each, as many as 10. To make it will cost you 20 silver, or you can sell it for 5. Your choice, I do not negotiate.” At least she is to the point.
“I will think on it for now.” Picking it back up and putting it in his inventory, he wasn’t sure whether it would be worth it in the future so keeping a hold of it until he had more coin might be worth it, but potions were more important at this point. “I need potions, mana mostly, but maybe some stamina and health.”
“Check the board and then tell me what you want, I wont read it for you. Call me back when you are ready.” With that she turned around and went back through the curtain.
“Isn’t she a ray of sunshine.” Gabe muttered.
Shaun chuckled and then read through the list of potions. It was easy to understand, if not a bit disheartening. They sold the basic potions for 5 bronze each, giving 100 in their respective resource. There was three advanced grades, low, simple and high, recovering 300, 600 and then 1000 respectively. The cost also increased considerably, with low being 8 bronze, simple 1 silver and high being 1.2 silver. They then went into Epic grade, again at low, simple and high, recovering 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000, costing 5 silver, 8 silver and then 10 silver.
He had 20 silver at the moment, and he didn’t want to spend it all, but he needed to make some kind of investment into his dungeon runs, even if I was just going to be for emergency use until he could fill the gem in his gauntlet.
That gave Shaun an idea, turning to Gabe and Eric he asked, “What are your plans for the next 2 days? Any more dungeon runs?”
Eric and Gabe shared a look before turning back to him. “Maybe a quick one tomorrow, just to test out the E grade some more, but nothing too serious, we want to be prepared in case we have to fight the first day. Why?”
“How much mana do you guys have? And if I asked you to donate it do you think it is something you would be happy to do?”
Eric gave him a weird look, understandably so, but didn’t seem opposed to the idea. “We don’t use much mana in fights so I don’t see why not. We don’t have much of it though, neither of us have 1000. But why?” Their curiosity was peaked now, and he would answer their question, later.
“I will explain, just later.” He said.
“HA!” Shaun whirled around, looking at the elf who had just made the noise, as if he was caught in the act of doing something he shouldn’t have been doing. “What he wants your mana for, is to fill up that nice looking gem!” She pointed at his gauntlet. “And how rare it is to see much a gem on someone so young and new to the multiverse. A story I would happily hear, hmmm?”
He just looked at the elf, who was now grinning at him, like a cat that caught the canary. “Sorry, not happening. But I know what potions I want. One low epic, three high advanced mana, and one each of the high advanced stamina and health.”
“You do realise, young human, that just because the epic potion recovers 5000 mana, doesn’t mean it will let you go over your cap.”
“That wont be a problem.” I am almost there anyway.
“Jesus christ! What the hell Shaun!” Gabe exclaimed.
“Oh aren’t you an interesting one.” The elf was really looking at him now, suddenly more intrigued by what he was capable of and how he had gotten so much mana. His mana would be less than half of what it was now if it wasn't for his heritage and affinity, it meant he had a large lead on nearly any being at his level in terms of pure mana. “I am very, very interested in your story, something think I would even pay to hear. But somehow I doubt you will tell it. Regardless that will be 11 silver. Pay up and I will get you your potions.”
It didn’t take long for him to pay and get what he needed, Gabe and Eric followed soon after and they quickly left the store, walking back to their apartments quickly. When they got back to their rooms they didn’t go into theirs straight away instead they followed him to his door.
“We have questions, you have answers. Let’s talk.” Gabe said.
Comments
Dylan Suomela
||…he couldn’t make potions on elixirs so it was probably something he would either trade or sell.|| potions or* elixirs ||…apart from that though he wasn’t to badly injured…|| too* || They all knew they would ned up fighting each other at some point…|| end* || Sorry we weren’t up there when you came out, I was pretty hectic.|| it* was || I hope you don’t mind that we kept some difference.|| distance* || With that he took out all of the loot form the ants and the sparrow…|| from* ||…just to test out the E grade some more, but nothing to serious…|| too* serious ||…and one each of the high advanced stamin and health.|| stamina* || His mana would be less than half of what it was now if it want for his heritage and affinity…|| if it wasn’t for
Felix Richards
Please don't have him giving up too much info.
