Ludo arrived at Auria’s shop and quickly returned to his room, not sure on what to do next. Auria would surely yell at him for entering the dungeon alone in the first place, not wanting to be subjected to that for who knows how long, he decided to wait a day and sneak past her early in the morning and head to the guild were he could talk with Claus about the dungeon, or that would have been the original plan. Now as things stood, he needed to talk about it with Liam first.
The next day arrived and Ludo went to the guild after having no success in finding Liam. Once inside, he was surprised to see the tavern’s mood livelier than ever. An auction was going on in one corner, a large gathering of weapons was being sold on another and all around adventurers were scrambling for recruits, before Ludo could reach the bar he was approached by a grizzled wolf man wearing an eyepatch and missing an ear and a group of draconics with their fearsome looks and wings both promised Ludo great wealth if he joined either of their parties. Turning them both down, he pushed through the hectic crowd and reached the bar where Claus was busy in his usual glass cleaning duty.
“What’s with all the commotion?” Ludo gestured around. “Did someone kill the giant?”
“No, something better” Claus replied, even he seemed more excited than usual. “a dungeon was found.”
Ludo heard a large explosion and turned around saw non other than Liam and Bergmann at the center of the tavern, flaunting drinks in one hand and a bag filled to the seams in the other, Jana was nowhere to be seen. The two were being swarmed by adventurers of all shapes and sizes, begging them to let them into their party.
“Pretty interesting, right?” Claus said. “Those two arrived yesterday and talked to Bohdan about the dungeon. They were given a very well deserved price for that.”
“How much?” Ludo hissed.
“Twenty-five silver coins each.”
Ludo had to sit down to process what had just happened, a stinging feeling of resentment rose within him. He couldn’t stop glaring at Liam, they had agreed to be in a party and Ludo had kept the dungeon a secret for their sake and now they had gone and reaped the rewards themselves.
“Screw them. You don’t need them.” Ben said at the back of Ludo’s mind.
Ludo wanted to agree with Ben, but Liam’s party had a certain allure to it and now he wanted to prove himself before them. Luckily for him, Liam noticed his murdering gaze approached Ludo, calling out for him, oblivious to Ludo’s newfound hatred of him. Ludo stomped towards Liam, pushing him back.
“What is wrong with you!?” Ludo yelled. “I thought we had a deal!?”
Liam backed off. “Calm down, Ludo. Let’s speak outside.”
At that point Ludo had noticed that the tavern’s jovial atmosphere had collapsed and now everyone was staring at him with cautious eyes. Ludo agreed and followed Liam and Bergmann outside. The three of them walked up to the stables, away from the main street’s curious ears and prying eyes.
“Now, Ludo. Whats the matter?” Liam said giving him a wide smile.
“I thought you wanted to keep the dungeon a secret, and that we—“
“We?” Bergmann cackled. Ludo stopped in his tracks, trying to process what was so funny to the bald man.
“What this idiot is trying to say Ludo, is that there is no ‘we’ here. We aren’t a party… yet.”
“Thats it then.” Ludo scoffed and began walking away from Liam but Bergmann grabbed his shoulder, keeping him in place.
“Yet.” Liam repeated, pulling out a scroll just like the one Emmer had all those weeks prior. A judgment scroll.
Liam unrolled the scroll and aimed it at Ludo, the paper within shined for a brief moment and Liam grinned. Showing him his own stats.
“Archery level 2 and One-handed level 3?” Liam clicked his tongue. “That won’t cut it. But you’re in luck, we need an archer. So let’s say that in a week, if you get that skill to level 5, we will get let you in.”
“And steal my rewards again!?”
“Thats not whats happening. The larger the party the less rewards you’re given for this sort things.”
Ludo didn’t believing a single thing that was coming out of Liam’s mouth but he stayed put for the time been. Bergmann let go of him at that point, joining Liam’s side.
“Look, if you don’t believe me go ask your friend inside. I believe he’s called Claus. But you’re focusing on the unimportant part, both Bergmann and I got forty silver coins, enough to get average equipment to many adventurers! Including you.”
“So you’re saying that you’re going to get me better equipment if I manage to get into your party?” Ludo asked.
Liam nodded.
That was all Ludo needed to hear before storming away back inside the tavern, the adventurers began to whisper again and Ludo responded by yelling at everyone to stay quiet as he sat on the bar again, he called Claus over.
“Ludo I’m working here” Claus sighed.
“Claus, I need to know something about parties.” Ludo said. Claus looked at him with a curious look and placing the bear mug he was content with cleaning away. He sat opposite of Ludo with his eyes wide open.
“I’m all ears.”
Claus listened attentively as Ludo didn’t waste a single breath, bombarding him with questions about the dungeon, parties and the rewards he had given to Liam and Bergmann.
“Very well, but it’s going to take me all day and night if I answered everything you asked… not like I know everything you’re asking but I’ll try my best.” Claus cleared his throat. “Parties are magic bound treaties between adventurers and its exclusive to those with the adventurer title like you and everyone here. The parties can be as small as two or as large as they need to be and can be formed by three ways.”
“And those are?”
“Mutual agreement between adventures, you can pay adventurers to party up with you or you get slaves.”
Ludo inadvertently shuddered at the last one, he heard a certain someone finally wake up from their slumber inside his mind to criticize that option as well.
“Dungeons are a little bit complicated, legends say they are formed by a huge concentration of magic under the land which morph everything underground into a huge series of tunnels and caves filled with monsters.”
Ludo looked around, trying to spot any possible eavesdroppers.
“Relax Ludo, every adventurer worth their title knows this much.”
“Is that so?”
Claus nodded.
“And what type of monsters appear down in a dungeon?” Ludo asked.
“Depends, some are going to appear in various dungeons while others are unique to their respective dungeon.” Claus raised his head and Ludo looked back to see what appeared to be a large party of adventurers making their way towards the bar. “I’d love to continue this conversation Ludo, but I gotta go.” Claus pointed at the group of adventurers. “And what that Liam guy said about the reward is true.”
Somewhat satisfied with the answers he had gotten, Ludo left the guild and made his way back towards Auria’s shop, he had made his mind at that point that he would show Liam that he was not some pushover but an equal to him, as he entered Auria’s shop, he began to think about what he would do if Liam didn’t let him into the party.
“Just to make it clear, if you even think of getting a slave I am giving you a constant migraine for the next month or two.”
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“I’m not doing that!” Ludo replied, earning him some weird looks from the people beside him. “And its not like there are any ways to get a slave in Balessia anyways” Ludo added with his internal voice.
By the time the sun rose the next day, Ludo was already out in the forest, preparing his bow and crafting extra arrows. He was going to get into that party even if it broke his spirit. The forest seemed oddly calm, not a single animal or monster could be seen. Not wanting to be deterred by this, Ludo readied his bow and journeyed deeper into the forest where he soon found the reason for the lack of monsters when a branch cracked and began falling just above him. Ludo jumped out of the way just in time.
Ludo looked around for the culprit and his eyes landed on a group of adventurers eradicating a horde of crimson lizards. The monsters couldn’t get close to the adventurers as even the air was used as a weapon against them, cutting them up into little pieces before exploding into a cloud of dust. The rest of the forest was subjected to a similar fate, with adventurer parties of all sizes roaming around like apex predators, hunting any monster unfortunate enough to end in their sights.
Ludo had decided to plunge even further into the forest and into new areas he had not been before, to add to this, his quests were also interesting, he had to hunt a Gnashers pack and bring back a Darner’s head, two monsters that were brand new to him.
The forest slowly morphed into a swamp the more Ludo reached the center, the air became heavy and moist, insects the size of small animals dominated the sky and the trees became shorter and their roots quickly replaced the ground and what little was left of it had turned into a pool of mud that made it impossible to walk normally.
“Do you even know what you’re looking for?” Ben asked.
“Of course! The quest says that a Darner is a giant-insect like monster with six wings.”
“So you should be checking the sky in case of an ambush.”
“There are trees everywhere!” Ludo swung his arms around. “I would be able to see and hear the bug’s wings any—“
Something hit him on the back, the wind was knocked out from him, his vision was blurred from the force of the hit and his vision blackened. He felt the air hitting him hard on the face, making it hard to open his eyes, but one thing was certain, he was moving fast through the air. Ludo tried to move his arms and legs but couldn’t, as his senses came back from the shock he realized why. Looking up, he saw two large round green eyes glued to a tiny head, over his should, he saw the monster had him on a tight grip with its legs and the thing made a most hideous buzzing sound as it flew quickly across the swamp. Ludo inspected the monster and his worst fears came to be.
DARNER
BEASTLY
LEVEL 8
THREAT: MEDIUM
The Darner perched up on a tree, not letting Ludo escape, all he could hear were the mandibles clicking ever so closer to his nape. Ludo squirmed and threw the monster off balance just enough to cause an opening. Ludo head butted the Darner and freed himself, landing on the ground below. He was about to take out Glass Guardian when he remembered that he needed to increase his skill with the bow.
He took out his bow and aimed at the Darner, but it had disappeared. Ludo turned his head around at every noise, trying to find the monster that had decided to make him its lunch, he turned around just in time to see a red dash coming directly at him. Jumping out of the away as the Darner crashed into the ground momentarily, grabbing nothing but huge chunks of dirt. Ludo didn’t let the opening go to waste, shooting three arrows at the monster missing but them all as the Darner swooped back into the sky, disappearing amongst the canopy’s thick foliage.
Moments later, the sound of breaking leaves gave away the Darner’s position. Somehow flying faster than before, the monster was just mere seconds away from grabbing Ludo again. Ludo was trembling all over, he wanted to jump out of the way, but he had to level up his archery and this was his opportunity. He raised his bow, he arrow pulled as back as physically possible.
“Are you blind!? Get out of the way!!” Ben screamed inside Ludo’s mind. Ludo ignored him as he held his breath and released the arrow.
The arrow went right in between the Darner’s eyes, the monster shrieked and collapsed into the floor, dragging itself with the momentum until it reached Ludo’s feet, exploding into a purple mist. Ludo sighed and dropped to his knees, half chuckling and trembling, surprised he had managed to do such a move and that he had come out of it all still alive.
“Of course I had it in me.” Ludo began saying out loud to reassure himself. “I could do that again if I wanted to.”
“Just for the record, you were thinking that you had no hope that would work and you expected to die from that maneuver.” Ben quickly added in the back of his head.
“Shut up, Ben.”
Ludo checked his status and frowned, he was still level two. He accepted that it would take him the entire week to reach level five and went to grab the loot the Darner had left for him, grabbing an item that peaked his interest in the process. He analyzed it instantly.
ACID SAC
CRAFTING RECIPE AVAILABLE
Intrigued, Ludo began taking out every item he had on himself to see what matched with the acid sac, even grabbing Glass Guardian and trying to somehow merge it with the sac. Eventually, Ludo grabbed one of his arrows and placed the sac at the tip, the arrow changed before Ludo’s eyes, leaving behind an arrow like non other he had seen. The wood had darkened to an almost rotten look, the dark gray tip of the arrow had morphed into a lively orange that burned Ludo’s fingers to the touch. Using his magical eyes he soon found out why.
CORROSIVE ARROW X1
“That seems interesting.” Ben said.
“Tell me about it!” Ludo exclaimed, placing the arrow on his bow, somehow unaffected by the acid, shooting the arrow at the nearest tree. The arrow head embedded itself on the tree for a second and then it melted the tree from within, creating a hole big enough to crawl through.
Ludo was astounded by this revelation and was more than ecstatic on trying to use the corrosive arrows in more encounters. He quickly ran into a glaring problem, that being that the Darners only dropped a single acid sac and that was essential to craft those arrows. This didn’t deter Ludo in the slightest, instead, he had found just what he needed to do for the rest of the day.
The second day dawned with a beaming and warm sun, a perfect day. Ludo woke up with his bones aching from the constant Darner hunting the day before yet the monster hunt had been fruitful, yielding a total of ten corrosive arrows, almost half of all his arrows. In the meantime, Ludo had learned that these corrosive variants broke on use and were unable to be retrieved like their normal counterparts.
Ludo browsed through his quests once his tent had been stored inside his inventory bag, he disregarded the usual fetching and gathering quests and rolled his eyes reading about another slime quest. However, there were two other quests that Ludo was looking forward to.
“A red-eye warhog and a gnasher pack?” Ben said after sensing Ludo’s thoughts. “Are you sure you can even find them?”
“Yea, I’ve been thinking—“
“That’s new”
“—about what I can do with my magical eyes.” Ludo said. He closed his eyes and concentrated, repeating the red-eye warhog’s name multiple times. He opened his eyes and saw a vastly different world than before. Food, changes in the relief and trauma to nearby trees were now highlighted. Ludo grinned.
“I knew it. I can use the eyes to track things as well.”
“Most impressive!” Ben said with a genuine surprised tone.
Ludo proceeded to track the red-eye warhog, leaving the swamp and returning to drier land, a sight he was more than happy to see. His search had been promising, finding footprints early on that lead him to a grassland far away from the rest of civilization. Late in the afternoon he came upon a promising sight in the form of leveled trees, flattened and trampled by some force of nature.
“How do you know it isn’t the giant?” Ben asked.
“Well—I—uh…?” Ludo began to ponder, what if he stumbled upon the giant? What he would do next? “… uh… the giant is actually smart and wouldn’t do that for no reason.” Ludo added, hoping for Ben to take the bait.
“You do know I can read your thoughts, right?”
Ludo wasn’t stopped by the pragmatic and somewhat pessimistic Ben nor the possibility of coming face to face with the giant. He began investigating the trampled trees, with his magical eyes activated in case of any possible giant waiting to ambush him, as he did so he couldn’t shake off a certain sense of nostalgia.
“This reminds me when I had just woken up in the middle of nowhere.” Ludo said to Ben.
“And look at you know, all clad in armor and monster hunting like a pro.”
“Whats a pro?”
“Short for professional.”
Ludo chuckled. “But I don’t understand why I lost my memories.”
“All in time, Ludo.” Ben reassured him. “I’m certain there has to be a good reason as to why.”
Ludo’s pleasant conversation with Ben was caught short as a long and slow growl filled the air around them and the earth shook. Ludo prepared his bow as the growl came from all around him, making it impossible to aim at one direction. The trees began to rustle and were pushed aside by a hulking force, a gigantic warthog with a gray mane, long tusks and bloodshot eyes. The red-eye warhog.
Ludo shot two arrows at the charging beast, but they bounced off, leaving Ludo no other option but to jump away from it. The red-eye’s tusks hit the as the beast trashed around, raising a large cloud of dust and making the ground shake with its fearsome strength. Ludo tried a second time with his normal arrows, aiming at the side of the red-eye, but once again the bounced off the warhog’s thick skin, doing no damage.
With this in mind, Ludo chaow which encrusted itself on the red-eye’s skin and seemingly did no damage to it, instead it finally became fixated on Ludo, glaring at him with eyes that meant nothing but death. The warhog jumped at him, grazing Ludo with its life taking tusks and raising dust once more every time it stepped into the ground, making it impossible for Ludo to use his bow. He backed away, trying to escape the earthly hell when the red-eye stopped on its tracks.
Every now and then Ludo could see through the dust storm, it was attacking the air in a frenzied state, kicking and stomping everywhere while circling around. Opting to stay away, Ludo took cover behind some trees until he saw the outline of the red-eye collapse. Ludo approached carefully, observing every move the red-eye did.
As the dust settled, Ludo saw a gruesome sight. The corrosive arrow had taken effect, melting away at the beasts spine, leaving nothing behind but exposed red muscle and melted bone, yet by some miracle or perhaps sheer determination, the red-eye was still breathing. Once it saw Ludo, it grunted, trying to stand up and fight him, but the corrosion had reached its legs, leaving nothing behind but melted skin and bones. Ludo could barely stand and look at it, choosing to shoot the red-eye straight through one of its eyes with a normal arrow.
The red-eye jolted and froze still, for a second nothing happened as if the beast was struggling with the gods themselves to cling to its fleeting life before exploding into a large purple cloud. Leaving behind only its tusks and meat. Ludo had been victorious.