System Change

Leon pulled out a chair and had a seat. Now, sitting at the table was Derek, Rayna, Leon, and Richard. Rayna spoke. ”Okay, now that we are all here, let’s get down to business.” Derek could still the glow in her eyes that she had from receiving her new sword. She turned to Derek. ”You wanted this meeting. The floor is yours.”

Derek nodded. ”First, I wanted to ask you all something.” Derek waited for the group to nod before carrying on. ”I had an interesting conversation with Bart earlier. While we were chatting, he informed me that the most likely candidates to be sent from the Adventurer’s Guild will be of silver rank. Is that correct?” He asked.

Richard was the one to answer. ”That is likely the case, yes. And that is if Davis gets lucky in convincing them that the need is dire. It is also possible that he ends up returning with adventurers of the bronze rank.” He said.

”Hmm...” Derek trailed off. ”If that’s the case, then they will die.”

”What do you mean, ’they’ll die?’” Rayna asked.

”Well, on my journey, I found the dungeon. I say that the silver ranked adventurers will die because the dungeon was level 100.” Derek explained.

With that, the room was quiet. They did not appear to be shocked, but the looks on their faces said it all. This was a worst case scenario.

Leon broke the silence. ”Gold, we need a team of gold ranked adventurers.”

”Davis has most likely made it to the city by now. He may already be on his way back to the village.” Rayna said.

Derek spoke. ”I fought one of the creatures that came out of the overflow. It was an Acidic Ghoul at level 115. I’m not sure of the levels inside the dungeon, but it makes sense that it was at level 100 when it broke out, and leveled up outside the dungeon. If there are more of these monsters in the dungeon, and they are at level 100, even a full group of gold ranked adventurers will have a problem.”

”Ghouls.” Richard muttered. ”So, it is a dungeon with undying properties.”

”Yes, and it is in a state of extreme overflow. That means that there are likely more undying creatures outside of the dungeon. Though, it will probably be pretty clear around the dungeon for a while. The fight between the ghoul and me ended in quite a few casualties.” Derek responded.

”Anyway, you have the information. Do with it what you will. I suggest sending whatever adventurer comes back to the city to request aid. Though, I don’t know if they will believe anything you tell them without proof.” Derek hoped the adventurers would heed the warning, but he seriously doubted it. From what I know of the majority of guild members, they will not give any thought to what ’lowly’ villagers say. Hopefully, there will be no noble adventurers sent out.

”That’s all we can do for now.” Rayna sighed. ”Is there anything else you wish to discuss?” She asked Derek.

”Actually...” Derek looked at Richard. ”You wouldn’t by any chance have a map of the surrounding area? Maybe one with dungeons on it?” He asked.

”I do, it’s not very detailed, but it has some of the level 25 and 50 dungeons on it. I’ve also marked where the villages are on it too. If you give me a few minutes, I will go get it.” Richard responded.

Derek nodded. ”Go ahead.” Richard stood up and dismissed himself. While waiting, Derek spoke to Rayna about their upcoming training session. ”Did you have enough skill points to purchase Meditation?” He asked.

”I did. My class allows for some extra skill points on upgrade, so I had been saving a couple of them. I hope this skill is worth it.” She answered.

“Oh, it will be.” Derek thought for a moment. “You use wind magic, correct? Are your magical skills at an advanced level?”

“I’m not sure what you would consider advanced, but the three that I have are at level 5 or 6.”

That was slightly disappointing, but still fine for what he was planning. “That’s good enough, I guess. You will probably benefit more than anyone with what I’m planning.”

“Oh, and what is it that you are planning?” Rayna asked. Derek just gave her a mysterious smile.

“Wait!” Leon interjected. “Training? What are the two of you talking about?” He asked.

“Oh, I just invited the chief here.” Derek motioned toward Rayna. “To a little training with me and Thomas.”

“Thomas too?” Leon asked. Derek could feel the worry radiating from the ex-chief.

“Don’t worry, they will both be fine. In fact, I’m sure that they will both appreciate it.” Derek tried to assuage Leon’s concerns. “The kid wants to use daggers, so I figured I’d see if he has what it takes to not die in such close range. I happened to find out the Miss Chief over there has some wind magic, and it will be rather useful to me.”

Leon stopped speaking. He did not seem entirely convinced, but he had no choice but to accept it, anyway.

About that time, Derek heard the door open. Richard entered the room with a rolled up parchment in his hands. This time, he was not alone. Thomas was trailing behind him. “Thomas wanted to know if I had seen Derek today. I told him that you were here, so he insisted on coming along.” Richard laid the map onto the table and began to spread it out.

“That fine, I was going to look for the kid once we were finished here, so bringing him just saved me the trouble of hunting him down.” Derek gave Thomas a knowing look. “Though, I suspect it wouldn’t be hard to figure out where he was.”

Richard smiled at that. “Not hard at all. He’s spent more time with that little Leatherworker than he has with me or Delilah since he got back.” Both Derek and Richard chuckled at Thomas’s red face. “Here is the map. As you can see, it’s not the best in the world, but it has been useful to me over the years.”

The map was crudely drawn, but easy enough to make out. Derek saw the marking indicating the villages. There were a few with lines through them. “I assume that these villages no longer exist?” He asked Richard. Richard scrunched up his face and nodded his head.

Derek found Leon’s destroyed village, then found the one he was currently at. “Is this map to scale? Is the distance used in the forest the same as what is used between villages?” He made his question clearer.

Richard nodded. “Yes, though, as you can see, there is only a portion of the forest on the map, as it is vast.”

The map had most of the right side covered in forest. It ended a little before reaching the bottom of the map. At the bottom was a drawing that said ‘Torith’ over it, it was the location of the city. There were small, filled in circles dotted throughout the map, drawn in after it was originally purchased, these were the nameless villages. Surprisingly, there were fewer than Derek thought.

Closer to Torith were a few house-like drawings, they also had names. These had to be the villages that were recognized by the city lord. Then, there were red X’s with some writing underneath. Derek focused on these markings.

Derek looked at the one closest to Rayna’s village. 25… Insects… Support Skill… 6 People… Derek read the words. “So, I assume this is a dungeon?” He asked. After receiving a nod, he continued. “So, it’s level 25 with insect monsters, and the reward for clearing it is a support skill?”

“Yes, that is one of the favorite dungeons of adventurers. The insects are easy to fight, and the reward is great… if you have the skill points to buy it after unlocking it. It’s also the dungeon that I lost my son to.” Richard spoke the last part with a waver in his voice. Derek looked at Thomas to see his eyes beginning to fill with tears.

“I see.” Derek pulled out a red marker from his bracelet. “May I?” He motioned to the map. Richard nodded. Derek focused on Rayna’s and Leon’s villages to get a sense of the distance. Then he traced his hand into the forest, remembering the directions that he traveled to get to the undying dungeon. Finally, his hand stopped moving and he marked it with an X. Underneath, he wrote: 100, Undying, ???, and 5. “This should be pretty accurate, but I may be off by a little.” He said.

“No worries” Richard replied. “The ones that I have marked are only estimates too.”

Derek pulled out a large sheet of paper and began placing marks along it, the size was smaller than the map, but he reduced his drawing to scale the best he could. Under the dungeons, he only wrote the level and rewards. He was no artist, so the result of his drawings looked like something a parent would hang on their refrigerator. But, others did not have to understand it, only he did.

Richard was looking at him oddly. “Well, it’s the best I can do. It will have to do until I can get to the city and buy a real map.” He said, embarrassed.

After thinking for a minute, Derek asked a question to the table. “So, I imagine, other than a few rich people or nobles that are carried, not many people are able to complete more than one dungeon. At say, level 25, if you go into a dungeon, you would surely level up while inside. I mean, it takes what, 10 kills of something the same level as you to level up if you have a common class? So, how do dungeons with shitty rewards keep from overflowing?” He pointed to a dungeon which read: 25, beasts, lesser mana potion.

Richard smiled at that. “Lesser mana potions are still somewhat valuable to mages. But, I get what you’re saying. The Adventurer’s Guild gives out quests to clear those dungeons every once in a while. Since the adventurers will be giving up the opportunity of clearing a dungeon with a great reward, the rewards that the guild offers are usually quite nice.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” Derek stored his makeshift map inside his bracelet. “Well, is there anything else?” He asked everyone.

“Nothing that I can think of.” Richard spoke. “Thank you for the information, and for that.” He pointed to the new marking on his map.

Derek stood up. He looked at Rayna. “Are you ready for some training?”