The peaceful Arbor town was peaceful no more. The residents had gasped in surprise when they found out the should be triumphant adventurers returned empty-handed.
With great shame, the adventurers returned to the freedom union. There, Khal and Miller were waiting. Those that needed to mourn their friends and settle related matters were absent. The injured were also naturally excluded. A potion couldn't exactly fix a broken bone, at least not any they could afford.
"The losses were… unexpected." Said Khal as he pondered on the best ways to word this.
"Regardless, we learned a valuable lesson..." Khal said solemnly. His facial expression showed that he empathized with them, he wasn't blaming them. What followed was a solemn bout of silence, the adventurers could only keep their head down in shame. It was especially so for those that had cowardly thoughts.
"Ah, here it is." Khal muttered silently as he flipped through a couple of paper cards ruining the atmosphere.
"Yadda ya, erm. Ahem, no matter how you prepare. You can never be truly ready. Keep this in mind folks! An adventurer lives a life fraught with danger! There will be losses and there will be setbacks but never, I mean never, shirk away when faced with death. Because THAT is the same as giving up." Khal's words resonated with many of the B-class adventurers, as scripted as they were. Khal's top-notch acting skills made every word feel as though it was being said from the heart.
"Folks, you succeeded. Your mission wasn't to defeat anything so stop looking so glum. You survived! Celebrate! Hey, I have a couple of good drinks we can share over a starry night. Won't that make you all feel better?" Khal's few words were said with unparalleled seriousness until he inevitably revealed his usual behavior.
Seeing this, Miller who was standing behind him, decided to take over things.
"We will send each of you your owed sum as well as a small bonus. We failed to properly gauge the danger of this dungeon even with all of the underlying signs so take it as an apology. As far as the distribution of loot, I presume there wasn't much, right?" Miller jumped straight into business. Unlike Khal who was acting, Miller was truly saddened by the events.
It revealed the blatant corruption and overall incompetency of the Freedom Union as well as the uninvolved kingdom. Miller was extremely disappointed. But as a man of humble origins, he had no avenue to vent. He could only try his best to seriously tackle the matter.
Samuel raised from his chair holding up a sheathed sword.
"This is the boss drop." Upon hearing this, some of the adventurers' eyes shone with greed.
"I am willing to pay remunerations to all of you to keep it. Any objections?" Samuel's next words poured cold water on their fantasy, however. It would be extremely shameless to want to keep the sword when their contributions didn't match up to Samuel's.
The room was simply silent and they all stared at Samuel who was still holding the sheathe up in the air.
"Alright then. Thank you, everybody. I'll have it appraised and have Miller send you the money as soon as possible." Samuel said with a short bow. Unlike what others expected however, he didn't sit back down.
"I hate to say this but… I would appreciate it if anybody is willing to return to the dungeon to scout the fourth floor with me." Samuel's words surprised some of them and Miller frowned visibly.
"Mr. Oakley, I think it is best we leave the meeting at this. I am sure you everybody else needs to rest" Miller called the meeting to an end before anybody had an opportunity to respond to Samuel's query.
Samuel reluctantly nodded and sat back down on his chair.
"All dismissed." Miller said. Everyone including Khal started to leave the room, Miller rolled his eyes in response.
After a short while, the room had no one other than Miller and Samuel left in it.
"How was the situation?" Miller asked clearly. He was referring to the potential of an outbreak.
"The situation in the three floors seems stable. However, there were signs of spatial expansion on the third floor and the situation on the fourth floor is unknown." Samuel briskly reported.
"Which is why I think it is a good idea to return as soon as possible. We only suffered casualties because of the boss spawn, we should try to avoid the same thing happening twice." Samuel added while also explaining the reasoning behind his earlier request.
"I agree." Miller solemnly nodded.
"Be ready to set out in the next two days at the latest. I'll force Khal to cooperate." Miller said while still pondering on the matter.
"That's perfect then." Samuel said enthusiastically. It seemed he would be able to see what lied beyond the third floor.
Miller was about to leave when Samuel suddenly remembered something.
"Oh right, there was actually another drop." Samuel dug through his pockets and pulled out a relatively small pristine white bone.
It was the first time he had seen such an item so he naturally had no idea what it could be used for. Its small size also made Samuel throw it to the back of his mind without noticing it.
Miller grabbed the inauspicious bone and closely examined it.
"I can't say how it might be useful but I'll have someone look over it. It could be an alchemic material." Miller said after careful inspection. It wasn't unusual for monster parts to be used for magic devices or potions. For the undead kind, it was even far more likely to be the latter.
Samuel simply nodded. He had never put much importance on the piece of bone, he was instead more focused on how he should retackle the dungeon.
***
Ed finally made it back to Duma's settlement. The orcs who were guarding the gate warily were greatly confused when they saw the carts carrying sparkling crystals. It was the first time they had seen either of those things.
But since Duma was also present it was all smooth sailing. The group and their entourage made it inside without issue.
"Where are we storing these things?" asked Duma after they made it past the gate.
"I think we should leave them near the walls. It will make it easier to create arrays and also mount cannons." Vorgarag answered.
Ed mindlessly nodded as he was preoccupied with his own thoughts. He was currently considering what to assimilate. Having gotten a deeper understanding of thought manifestation opened up a lot of possibilities after all.
'Making this trip back would have been pointless if I decided to simply return.' Ed, therefore, decided that it would be a much better idea to assimilate something nearby. Especially if it was something that could help him reinforce the village.
[Name: Edw#&!]
Type: Orc
Health: 1200/1200
Mana: 271
Vitality: 8
Strength: 3
Agility: 2
Constitution: 7
Dexterity: 1
~Skills~
[Transmission lvl. 3] -Show info-
[Mental Fortitude lvl. 4] -Show info-
[Assessment lvl. 0] -Show info-
[Assimilation lvl. 5] -Show info-
[Thought Manifestation lvl. 1] -Show info-
[Language lvl. 1] -Show info-
[System Link lvl. 1] -Show info-
[Instinct lvl. 3] -Show info-
[Adept Throwing lvl. 0] -Show info-
[Mana Manipulation lvl. 6] -Show info-
[Axemanship lvl. 3] -Show info-
[Eloquence lvl. 2] -Show info-
Currently, his stats were leaning more towards things like vitality and constitution which, while useful, were not very practical. Tanking was a very passive position that Ed wasn't willing to take.
If he planned to help as many orcs as possible survive it might be a good idea to try and pindown and take enemy attacks but that wasn't Ed's goal. Taking notice of his active system link skill, Ed was reminded of the soul calling sub-skill. If its words were true than the more death that happened on either side would actually benefit him.
Now, he wasn't willing to take the path of letting his allies die on purpose but it was worth mentioning. His goal wasn't to protect others but to eliminate the enemies. This was probably in line with the dungeon's own thinking and Ed couldn't help but go with it.
'I should probably assimilate an axe then.' The only problem Ed had with this approach was that he felt it was prioritizing short term benefits over the long term.
His previous plan was to use books and knowledge to help the skill level up as fast as possible which was obviously not happening if he chose to upgrade his stats. He had already proven that the assimilation of books yielded more experience for the skill.
"Ed" Vorgarag called out to him waving his hand in front of his face.
"Yes?" He looked back and asked. He then realized that Duma had gone off somewhere and that he had been walking forward without a goal for a bit.
"I was just wondering if you were willing to learn to make arrays. As my disciple, I haven't really taught you much now have I? While we are at it, you should share the spells you learned from the boulder with me. A knowledge exchange, how about it?" Vorgarag said casually
"You are right, you do owe me." Ed said with a smile.
"That's not how one speaks to their master's" Vorgarag replied seriously.
"You don't seem much older than me." Ed said hinting that he wasn't qualified to be his master.
"You really are a rascal. I should look for a better student then." Vorgarag said and immediately turned around to leave.
"Hey! What- wait!" Ed had to yell back towards Vorgarag's retreating figure.. He was obviously joking around.