The next day, on a canopy bed, sleeping peacefully, lays a handsome boy with platinum hair. Sitting on the bedside beside him is a cute maid with black hair, bangs covering his eyes, and hair tied to pigtails.
Her cute hair style, along with her petite frame, conveys an aura of innocence that can make people desire to protect her from the world. But hidden from her innocent face was her mischievous personality.
Coming closer to Nicholas' ear, the maid, with a hushed tone, said.
Maria: "Young master, please wake up; today is a big day for us."
Without hearing a reply from Nicholas, she then said it louder with a more coquettish voice.
Maria: "Young master, please wake up, or else I'll..."
Nicholas: "Mmmmmhmmm... 5 more minutes." he replied clearly not wanting to wake up from her call.
The girl then pouted slightly but waited patiently. After a while of waiting and clearly losing her patience, she approached Nicholas again, proceeded to climb into bed, and straddled his master.
Then, slowly, she leaned into his shoulder, then... bit him.
"Ouch..." Nicholas wakes up with tingling pain on his right shoulder. Seeing a maid straddling him and nibbling on his shoulder.
Nicholas: "I'm awake now, Maria. Can you stop biting me?"
Nicholas protested while he grabbed and kept holding to her waist with one hand and patting her head to calm her down while raising his torso up to the bedframe.
Nicholas: "Maria, what will be our schedule for today?"
he said afterwards in a bland, monotonous voice while still yawning.
Maria: "We will be having a recall lecture about the dungeon before proceeding to our first dungeon diving."
Maria said this after retracting her fangs from her shoulders. After saying that, she nimbly she also got out of bed.
Maria: "The bath and breakfast have been prepared; please prepare quickly since we will be departing shortly after."
She proceeded to walk outside the room afterwards.
He sighed. "What am I going to do with her?"
Nicholas got up to prepare, but before that, he opened his system panel to check what the daily mission the system assigned him for today was.
[Daily Mission]
-Make an entry in your journal.
-training by running 10 laps around the Curtana mansion
-Use 20 earth elemental skills today.
-Make somebody laugh with a joke.
He took note of his daily mission to accomplish, then checked the story mission.
[Story Quest 01 Tutorial]: Completed
[Story Quest 02: Venturing to the Portals]
Awakening a spirit core was the first step to knowing and experiencing what this game world has to offer. The next stop is to learn more about the world by exploring the portal that pops out all over Asterik. Explore your first dungeon and defeat the creatures dwelling inside it. ]
[Quest: Clear a dungeon (0/1)]
[Rewards: Promotion Slot Scroll]
He completed the first story quest and proceeded to read the second chapter of the story quest.
'He has to clear a dungeon? ' He thought about the dialogue written in the story quest. He was delighted; the story quest he received was on time for their very first dungeon exploration.
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After that, he closed the translucent panel and began to prepare for the day.
After Nicholas prepared, he went downstairs to the dining area to eat breakfast. He always stays in bed later than the rest, so most of the time he had breakfast alone, but today was different.
He will dine with Maria and Clarice this morning since they would be leaving together right after. Also, it was customary for nobles not to dine with commoners at the same table, but Nicholas strongly insisted on making an exception for the two of them.
Clarice: "Good morning my liege!" she greeted Nicholas as soon as she saw him arrive at the dining room.
Nicholas: "Good morning! How are you today, are you ready?" he looked back and replied to the voice.
Clarice: "Of course my liege! We have been training and preparing ourselves for this. We can't back down now!" she said in a cheerful voice.
Nicholas: "Cheery on the morning as always Clarice..." he said as he looked at the girl with a red-orange curly hair, cute round face, and her orange eyes shimmering in excitement on the incoming dungeon exploration.
Clarice: "You should wake up earlier my liege, its best to soak up the morning rays!"
Nicholas: "By the way, where is Maria. She said that she will be waiting for me at the dining room earlier."
Clarice: "Ahhh, she just went to the kitchen to fetch the food earlier since she heard your footsteps coming down."
Nicholas: "Ohhh, she shouldn't have." he sighed since he already said it to her that she didn't need to always fetch the food. She can always asks the servers around the kitchen to do it.
After a minute, Maria came back to the dining room with a tray full of dishes. She didn't forget to greet her Master before placing the food down and sitting down herself.
Nicholas: "Okay, let's say grace!"
They then thanked the goddess as a customary ritual before eating, and dined while chatting energetically. Following that was their journey to the church stationed in Curtana.
...
At the lecture hall in the church
This place is where the people who recently awakened learn about dungeoneering, basic survival methods and tactics, and team formations.
The church takes on the task of informing awakeners and teaching them the basics of tactics, skills, and knowledge about the dungeons.
They also explained the history of dungeons; it was summarized quite vaguely. It is said that the dungeon was both a blessing and a curse for the goddesses; they provided the dungeons to the people of the world to grow stronger and to be able to protect themselves.
According to the teachings, there are two types of dungeons: permanent dungeons and fluctuated dungeons. The dungeons manifest themselves as portals, both of which give rewards such as experience to level up, loot, raw materials to strengthen awakeners, and other rare and valuable stuff.
Fluctuated dungeons can only be cleared once, which can be done by completing the quest issued when entering the portal. The quest issued can vary from killing the guardian of the dungeon to exploring and taking an item from the depths of the dungeon. This type of dungeon manifests wherever and has a time limit starting from the first time it manifests in the world.
If the time limit passes without being cleared, the dungeon collapses, and the monster inside will escape from the portal, causing destruction and death.
On the other hand, permanent dungeons have the same conditions of clearing as fluctuated dungeons; however, the only difference between the two dungeons is that they don't collapse even if they are left unattended for a period of time.
...
The seminar for today was only a recap of the important things to consider when entering and clearing the dungeon. Well, all of the people inside the lecture hall were newbies to dungeons. So it was essential to remind them multiple times to be careful, since before these kinds of lectures were implemented, There have been a significant number of deaths and major injuries in people's time inside the dungeons.
After the lecture and reminders about the dungeon, the people in the lecture hall proceeded to a low-level permanent dungeon located near the edge of the city. Each team is divided into groups of 3–5 people. The lecture group arrived at their very first dungeon experience.
According to the information provided by the lecturer, the dungeon is called the 'Kobold Quarry'. This low-level dungeon was infested with little creatures called kobold; they often carry old weapons, and the unarmed ones are very nimble. So a preemptive is a suitable tactic when engaging in combat against these creatures. The goal or quest given when entering the portal is to defeat the guardian of the quarry at the end of the cave. It was a simple and basic dungeon that was quite suitable for beginners.
After 30 minutes in the carriage transport, they arrived at the location of the dungeon. What they saw was a huge blue portal with an obsidian frame surrounding the portal.
The group went down the carriage; some went closer to the portal to stare at its awe-inducing appearance, while the others inspected the details of the dungeon.
It was truly an out-of-this-world view.
[Kobold Quarry]
[Level Recommendation: 1–3]
[Party Size Recommendation: 3–5]
[Scene: An abandoned quarry, occupied by feral creatures that lurk in the shadow.] [Find the Kobold leader at the depths of the quarry and eliminate it.]
[Clear Reward 0/1]
After a while, a loud voice resounded from the back of the crowd, saying
"Listen up, people. Each team leader gathers here and gets a token to enter the dungeon."
He began to explain the use of the token he distributed. The token serves as an entry ticket to enter the dungeon; it was provided by the Adventurers Guild for free this one time as a trial. This token will be given to the guards on duty who are watching over the dungeon.
"Okay! Everyone! Form a line and enter the dungeon in an orderly manner. Don't worry about being last; a permanent dungeon allows simultaneous clearing."
Nicholas also went along with the line, teaming up with his subordinates Maria and Clarice.
Nicholas: "Let's go." he said in a confident tone as they went up the guards and gave the token, then stepped inside to the portal. Suddenly, a blue light enveloped the three of them, taking them to a different location.