Soon enough they found themselves in shouting range of the group outside of the mountain and building, having gotten close they could now see everything better. The building was a two-story building, solid timber construction and was larger than a decently sized home. Looking through the large front windows he could see a bar and several tables where some people were eating. A few signs outside listed prices, one listed that a bunk-bed slot was $300 a night, breakfast included. So Sam could see what Janik meant by the prices being insane. But if the rewards from this dungeon were as good as he mentioned, comparably it shouldn’t be hard to get that value... Thought could be argued that getting resources here and all that, It still felt a bit much.
The people had been calling out things for a while now, but now that they could hear what was being said it was just a simple Looking for Group callout, stating what role they would fill, or what role they wanted in addition to how loot and rewards would be divided.
Janik shook his head and denied all questions for grouping up, being polite and smiling as normal he didn’t make a thing out of it, just a simple “No, thanks. We already have a group.” Solved most of the questioning.
Having spoken about getting more daggers had Sam interested, it would add to his weight but would also make him much more practical in battle.
He entered the building without stopping, just the simple comments to the people wanting to go into the Dungeon. It was still relatively early before noon so they had plenty of time. Making things easier, having now spent a full day in Aetheria’s first floor, Sam noticed that the passage of time was the same as on Earth.
Entering the building after Janik, Sam got a confirmation of what he saw through the window outside. It was as simple as one could expect, the timber walls were the same on the inside, stacked and insulated, but no real wall panelling or anything to make it smoother than needed. Save a few specific things made of stone, like a currently not-in-use fireplace, everything was made of wood. The tables and chairs looked heavily used but maintained, the floor showed clear wear and tear, and the stairs going to the second floor were getting somewhat concave after copious use. And all in all, there was a heavy rustic cabin feel to everything. A few people were sitting in there, eating, and a small group was being rowdy at another table, talking loudly about how this and that monster did this and that, recounting events in the Dungeon. In another setting, Sam would be very interested to hear their stories.
A dramatic contrast to this was the man running the place, he was a middle-aged man in a tailored suit. His greying hair was oiled back and some small wireframe glasses were on his nose. As they walked over to him standing behind the counter, working on a digital tablet of all things, he lifted his eyes and greeted them.
“Welcome to my Cabin, how can I help you today?” His smile and question flowed as naturally as someone working in a reception for years.
“We’d like to sell and buy some stuff.” Janik replied without much extra in his voice, handling this like he had done it many times before. And without waiting for a response he had already started pulling the extra armour out of his bag.
“Certainly, just place everything on the counter and we’ll get started.” The man replied as he picked up his tablet.
The process was similar to the one in TAC, a plaque behind the counter explained that they would match the pricing to TAC as best they could. Which made sense, if they bought things too cheap people would just wait until they got back to TAC, and if they sold things with the same markup, or even cheaper, they would get all the money themselves.
All in all not bad logic.
Janik sold the Armour he got from the bandits, Sam kept his as he was wearing it but he sold the old one he wasn’t wearing anymore. The sad thing was that it only went for $100, he currently had 9 daggers and he wanted the full 20 so he needed 11 more.
The cheapest daggers still had a purchase price of $125 each, he was willing to lower them to 100 each as Sam was buying in bulk, but this still meant that it’d set him back 1100. He was glad to hear that they were connected to the TAC network, allowing him to use his account to pay for things, though the money could be delayed up to a few days before they disappeared from his account, just so he could plan around it.
This would consume about a third of what he remembered having in his account, which still meant that he would be set for quite the time as far as survival and living was considered. But, if things were as lucrative in this dungeon as Janik stated, this would be returned after two kills, so not a problem.
It still felt weird blowing a thousand dollars in one purchase.
All the daggers came with simple sheaths, that he needed a few minutes to place around on his body. He felt a bit dumb being covered in 20 daggers, but if this was to become his style he didn’t have much choice. The alternative could be to shove them all in a bag or make some specialized sheath bag where all of them are put into a massive knife block of sorts in there. As dumb as that sounded it could perhaps be a better choice down the road.
The daggers he got were the cheap kind, none having anything fancy and in the 5-damage bracket. It was fine for now as this now totalled 20 daggers, 15 of which were in the 5-damage bracket, 4 were in the 10-damage bracket and the last was the Vampiric Dagger with 15 damage and the Life Drain.
He was feeling good about this, he still felt dumb with 20 blades strapped to his body, but it was a necessity for now. The combined weight was also less than he expected, he could feel some difference but it was quite manageable.
“So, you good, then?” Janik asked as Sam moved around, crouched and stretched after all the daggers were in place.
“Yeah, I think so. This feels weird but until I get a better solution it’s just gotta do.”
“Great, let’s head in, then.” He smiled before walking to the door.
Sam followed and they were back outside soon enough, walking towards a cave-like opening in the mountain with cruder but similar ground markings as in the TAC dungeon room. There was no line and they could just waltz in like it was nobody’s business.
The familiar System window popped up and once they accepted it the white light brought them somewhere else. Taking a look around this place it was very different from what you’d expect. Though Janik explained that this was an open area, it was still somewhat weird entering the mouth of a cave to trigger the Dungeon entering, only to be placed in a forest.
The forest was similar to the one they slept in last night, landing in a clearing at the very end of it Sam could see the open plains behind them, stretching out to a mountain range not unlike the Floor 1 Plains. In front of them, considering the angle they landed, was just a forest of thick bark-covered trees.
“So.” Janik started to get Sam’s attention. “This is going to be much harder and more dangerous than the others. As I said; they can kill you with two blows, one if you’re unlucky, it’s already a risk with just the two of us going in here but... I want the money to be split as few times as possible so here we are.”
He walked over to Sam properly and faced him, his smile completely faded and in its stead a serious face Sam hadn’t seen much of on him. “Don’t hesitate to just exit the Dungeon if you think it’s too bad. Even if you think it might get bad, just leave. Do not risk it.” He put heavy pressure on the end of his statement, having it sound like a hard order more than a suggestion. “If you pop out, I’ll join you right away, so don’t hesitate.”
Janik’s warnings, and expression, put a heavier weight on this than Sam expected. Or, rather than unexpected it was more that the ‘extra’ nature and contrasting expressions of it made it weigh more. Sam had no intent to die in here, so he simply nodded.
“How do I actually lea-” Wanting to confirm how he could leave the Dungeon outside of the Exit portal, just thinking about it had the System open up a window.
[ Do you wish to emergency exit the Dungeon? ]
Not accepting it for now had it close, but it did explain exactly how that worked. “Ah.. never mind... a window popped up...”
“Good, now, I’ll stress it again. The things in here can kill you with one blow. If you think they will attack you, you fucking run and pop out. I won’t question it if you do it by accident, or just at the sight of whatever’s in here. I just don’t want you to take a risk and die, you know?” The end of his sentence had his expression soften considerably, with a hint of sorrow like he had seen it happen more than once.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“It’s already a risk bringing you in here, but I think it’s going to be better if we take some outskirts or single targets and pop out for a reset a few times, rather than sending you through the starter Dungeons more times. Both for experience but also for Experience.” Janik smiled surprisingly widely at his correct, though joke-like, statement about experience.
Sam agreed, that if the XP, possible loot and just learning proper tactics were that much better in here, it would be worth choosing their fights and just leaving to reset several times rather than doing the easier dungeons that Sam could solo....
As they were nearing the end of their talk and started moving around, it didn’t take long for the Dungeon Clear Window to pop up.
[ Dungeon clear conditions:
Kill the Frogman chief. 0/1
Optional: Kill all monsters
Monsters killed 0/20
Rewards:
1500 xp
1x Healing potion - D
Bonus rewards for optional step:
1000 xp
Random Box - X
Chance (1%): C-tier weapon (25%), gear (25%), skill crystal (25%) or misc item (25%). ]
Sam was intrigued by this. There was a 2500 XP pool for completing the whole thing, with a chance of a powerful weapon... compared to his level, of course. Now, if you were fast, stealthy and assassin’y, you could just rush the Chief and leave. If you knew where to go to find him that could be a fast and effective way to just farm XP. You’d forgo the bonuses but in some cases, the speed could make it worth it.
[ XP to lv.11: 237 / 5120 ░░░░░ ]
As he considered XP and math, his bar blinked under his health in his view, he needed about 5000 XP to level up again, which was dramatic compared to earlier levels but, it also meant two complete runs of this, not considering how much he got from killing, would alone be enough.
“Now.” Janik again said a word to get Sam’s attention, breaking him out of his train of thought. “You should try to hide, it sounds weird if you’re not used to it but just do your best to sneak, tread lightly and focus on sneaking. That should activate the mode in the System and trigger your items. A slight distance between us is also a good idea. I’ll get their attention and you just do your thing.”
Sam could see his smile as Janik turned his head slightly to look behind him towards Sam.
Trying what Janik explained, Sam focused on being stealthy, he didn’t even need to crouch or anything weird, just focusing on how he stepped and wanting to be sneaky opened up a small window.
[ Stealth activated ]
Focusing on the window opened up an explanation window that had a percentage explanation. It listed +10% from items, but it also gave minor percentages based on skill, how he moved and things like light and if he was standing still. The total percent fluctuated dramatically as he walked, going between negative percent up to 15% and above when in shadows, standing still or crouched. He became more mindful of how and where he stepped, avoiding branches and leaves, crouching ever so slightly to keep his movement speed but hiding ever so slightly better in the brush. It all helped and stacked, though he had some minor skills in sneaking from his earlier life, he was by far not a professional and the percentages backed that up. A deeper thought on how Stealth worked in the System was simple, the percentage bonus he had at the moment of potential discovery would make him harder or easier to notice, meaning that a 100% stealth chance didn’t mean that it was impossible to spot him, just making it two times as hard.
Janik decided to talk and explain things as they went, specifying that Sam shouldn’t reply unless specifically asked to do so, as it would help draw attention to himself and keep it away from Sam. Which was a good idea in a strange suicidal, but Tank-like way. He went through thoughts and ideas for how they should do combat. Single target was easy, just throw everything at the target, aiming to do damage to them before they get in range to do the same. Ranged targets would be a priority, the easiest way to handle that was to stop them from attacking when possible, if not, redirect their ranged weapons and return to sender. Though Sam’s weight limit was ‘just’ 4 kg/8.8 lbs, this was more than most combat spears were, so it should be plenty... Tactics and ideas for different setups like multi-target fights, with and without ranged were explained. Now and then Sam was requested to comment, which was done through whispers for safety’s sake, but that didn’t happen much.
This walk and talk only lasted for a few solid minutes before Janik motioned for them to stop. He crouched as well and looked in a specific direction. Sam snuck up next to him and was pointed towards a lone frogman.
Sam was surprised when the quest info listed Frogman, parts of him assumed just a bipedally walking frog of sorts, but this was very different. The frogman was standing bipedal, but he was also about as tall as Sam was and built very strong. There wasn’t much in the sense of a neck, making his head look like a part of his shoulders. His hind legs were powerful as were his arms, he didn’t wear much in the sense of clothing but he was carrying a stone-tipped spear as he looked around, almost like he was looking for something specific.
Janik nodded towards the frogman, then looked at Sam, making a stabbing motion to wordlessly explain his plan. And Sam agreed, this was kind of his territory. A surprise attack ‘from nowhere’ was an effective first strike, and if they kept hidden it would make a second attack possible before they were discovered.
Using a brief moment to produce all 20 Psyhands and grabbing the daggers, he was glad to confirm that he could pull them out without the need for his normal hands to pull them out as before, making the process much smoother, and perhaps more terrifying in the correct scenario.
This was his first attack with 20 daggers, and it was surprisingly easy to move them around the brush, trees and branches, much like he would his normal hands. Getting all of them aimed before he struck was a different story. Feeling confident in the daggers being in good points, hiding behind trees, above the target and around like that, he brought them around and sent them towards the lone Frogman.
Out of the 20 attacks, even though he was taking his time to aim, five attacks missed. One of the 10-damage daggers and four of the 5-damage daggers.
It seemed to be more than enough, the poor unaware creature had no chance as he was sliced apart, his body sending out a splurt of blood in every direction. A single grunt left his lips as he fell, blood stopping to pulse only a second later.
[ Experience gained +100 ]
Sam’s eyes widened in surprise, he got a hundred XP from that single attack. Though it wasn’t on the same level as the Player he got earlier, it was far beyond what he got from the Goblins earlier. And the 100 was just his share so the beastfolk here gave 200 XP a pop.
This increased the amount of XP obtained in this Dungeon from 2500 per person by at least 2000, plus whatever the Chief gave. So a total of at least 4500 XP per person for a two-man group. This was amazing.
“Oof.” Janik let out a reaction shortly after the Frogman fell. “That looked brutal.”
Sam agreed, though five of his blades missed, this was still 15 deep cuts happening at once.
“Let’s get his core and move on.” Janik added as he snuck his way over to the corpse.
Sam followed and they went through the normal process of digging into the body to get the core. It took a short moment as Sam was the one doing it, not needing to dirty himself that much due to his Psyhands, but he wasn’t experienced with Frogmen so he was a bit slower than with the Goblins.
They continued after, Sam choosing to bring the primitive spear the Frogman had, it wouldn’t do him that well in throwing or fighting with it normally, worst-case scenario he could use it to stab something charging him, but he planned to Force Launch it at something.
Keeping the process of Janik talking lowly with some breaks, and Sam sneaking behind him, seemed to work very well. As Janik rounded a surprisingly thick tree he pulled out both his swords in a single movement and stepped in, out of view for Sam.
Sam hurried up, keeping low and silent, as he tried to see what was going on.