Chapter 18: Entitled Adventurers
“You must be a new adventurer.”
Bandit didn’t deny her target’s claim, but she didn’t confirm it either. Honestly, it wasn’t clear whether or not it was dishonest to call herself a new adventurer anyway. She’d reached a moderate level quite quickly by leveling up in DM’s dungeon. She was new according to the calendar, but not according to her level.
Based on what Bandit had been told by Thaw, the girls who disappeared in the capital were newbie adventurers, so it was beneficial for Bandit to pretend to be the same. Bandit was a little younger than the other likely victims, meaning she might not get targeted. Still, if she did get targeted, it would make things easy. She’d have cause to bring this guy in for questioning, and not the kind of questioning a normal staff member of the Guild would be made aware of. In fact, not the kind of questioning Bandit wanted to watch or participate in, either. She was willing to defend herself or capture this guy, if needed, but she didn’t want to watch anyone suffer.
“Do you have a party yet?”
No reason to lie about that. It would be too obvious and it wasn’t really necessary anyway. “Yes, although my friends are busy with other things today.”
“Ah, just like some of the others who are here.”
“What about you?” Bandit thought the question was natural enough.
“I tagged along with another party from the capital; I don’t have a formal party. I’d suggest maybe we start one, but if you already are in a party then that’s probably not going to work.”
“I see.” Perhaps Bandit’s honesty had come back to bite her. Thinking, she then realized that the other suspected targets were all in parties as well. Either this guy wasn’t the perpetrator, or something else was going on.
“When will your party meet up again?”
“Not for a few days…” Bandit was neither lying nor telling the truth. She didn’t know when they would meet up, so she picked a convenient answer.
“Ah, well, good luck with today’s mission. Let me know if I can be any help.” He nodded and split up from Bandit.
Bandit couldn’t decide if his behavior was suspicious or not.
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Vera was back in the dungeon again, eager to learn. DM couldn’t tell if she was being driven primarily by her mission or if she just enjoyed learning this stuff. He couldn’t blame her if it was the latter, honestly.
“…Are you ready for gravitation?”
“Yes!”
With some prompting from DM, Vera came up with a proposed formula for the force of gravity based on proportionality and the concept of the inverse square law which DM has previously drilled into her. She was missing a constant of proportionality, so DM helped her out and explained how to add it to the formula. Of course, the formula was only as useful as the numbers which were punched into it. DM remembered the gravitational coefficient, but wasn’t sure if it was exactly the same in this world. It probably was?
Also, he didn’t know if the mass of this planet was the same as Earth’s, and heck, he couldn’t remember the mass of Earth anyway. The radius of Earth he could figure out since he remembered that the circumference was roughly 25,000 miles. This planet could have a different radius. The acceleration due to gravity seemed about the same as it was for Earth, so perhaps the mass and radius were similar as well. Alternately, the planet could be smaller but denser or vice versa.
After confirming with Vera that a day in this world really was 24 hours and a year really was about 365 days, he led Vera through a calculation to model the planet’s orbit around the sun assuming a simple circular path, for now. Since time to complete one orbit was known, he could relate the radius of the orbit to mass of the sun by setting gravitational force equal to centripetal force.
“…Vera, if we can find out the distance between the planet and the sun, we’ll be able to calculate everything else. This is the hard part, though.”
“I see…”
DM only had limited knowledge of how early astronomers actually figured out reasonable numbers for the Earth-moon distance and Earth-sun distance. “…I’ll need to spend some time outside at night inspecting the sky to come up with any ideas for what to do next.”
“Really? You’ll go outside?”
“…Sure, why not?”
DM proceeded to explain elliptical orbits. The math was more complicated and he couldn’t remember or just didn’t know some of it, so he kept it conceptual. “…And so, the planet might actually get further from the sun in summer. The tilt of the planet’s rotational axis would explain the seasons.”
Next, DM introduced the physical concepts of work and energy to Vera. After going through some simple examples, he applied the theory to gravitational force. Together, they derived the formula for gravitational potential energy between two objects, such as the planet and the sun or the planet and the moon. Vera struggled with the concept of energy being negative, but DM remembered finding that confusing as well, so he didn’t hold it against her.
The pair agreed that DM would perform some astronomical observations before they attempted to continue any quantitative analysis of the solar system. As they were discussing what would come next in a typical physics course, DM received an alert.
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Lately, an alert wasn’t particular exciting. It typically indicated that a young party from the Guild was sent in for training. This time, he glanced at the first floor and noticed a kerfuffle between Olivia and the party that entered. He listened in.
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“You four need to report to the Twin Cities Guild branch first.”
“Since when do we need permission to enter dungeons? We can do whatever we want so long as we don’t raise their level stupidly, right?”
Olivia frowned. What the adventurers were saying was true, at least under normal circumstances. The relationship between the Guild and the Lower Gordu Dungeon was quite unusual. Still, Olivia was a Guild employee, and these adventurers needed to listen to her. The fact that they journeyed here from the capital didn’t change anything.
“That’s true normally,” Olivia admitted. “But here, you need to go to the Guild branch first. That’s why I’m here.”
“Sorry, Ms. Olivia, was it? We aren’t from the Twin Cities and we have no desire and no need to go there. We heard there’s an incredible dungeon out here for leveling now and we’re going to take advantage of it.”
“Okay, but do it after you get permission from the Guild!” Olivia pleaded.
“If you have a problem with us going into a dungeon, you can tell the Twin Cities about it.”
With that final remark, the party of four entered the dungeon over Olivia’s continued protests.
“I’m sorry DM…” she whispered to herself.
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“All right, remember what they said. The monsters won’t kill anyone in here, so we can afford to be a little reckless.”
The party didn’t even have a mage, but they carried healing items to compensate so they should be all right. They began exploring floor 2. On account of their levels being around 5, they didn’t have any trouble vanquishing the monsters they encountered.
As they descended to floor 3, they further lowered their guard. As far as they could tell, the dungeon was treating them kindly. Its recent reputation as an easy and safe place to level was ringing true. They could understand why the Twin Cities Guild would want to monopolize this dungeon but it set a terrible precedent. Dungeons existed for all adventurers, not just the ones who happened to be attached to the nearest Guild branch.
The four decided to split up for a short while. They were still a couple of levels higher than the monsters on this floor, and they could each individually defeat a couple of weaker monsters without issue. One of the advantages of their party composition was that they didn’t have any members who need to be protected at all times the way a mage would. Still, they were a bit jealous of parties which had someone who could attack or heal with magic…
The floor was conveniently laid out with four paths, almost as if it was inviting the four adventurers to split up. The first adventurer passed through a door and encountered a level 3 spider, which he struck down without difficulty. After exploring the room, he continued through a hallway and into another room.
In the corner, he noticed a dryad with a dopey smile on its face. Hesitant to hurt it for some reason, he walked over to take a closer look. He had never seen one before and it was actually kind of cute. So long as it didn’t attack him, he saw no reason to defeat it. He’d just continue with his exploration in a moment.
“Hey there little thing.” He’d never tried talking to a monster before, but he figured why the heck not. The monster couldn’t understand him but so what.
Or could it? They dryad pointed in the direction behind the adventurer. He looked over his shoulder to see several more monsters approaching. They looked like a cross between a lizardman and a human, but he wasn’t sure what they were. Raising his weapon, he prepared to attack them when the dryad suddenly wrapped its vine-like arms around his waist and giggled.
As he struggled to break free, trying not to hurt the dryad in the process, the other monsters reached his position and grabbed him by his upper arms, pulling him away from the dryad. He was laid out and pressed face down on the floor with irresistible strength. While he struggled meaninglessly, his weapon and armor were confiscated. Once he was down to little more than his underwear, he felt a new sensation.
Craning his head to look, a small leech-like creature had latched on to his arm and was sucking something out of him. He wasn’t sure what was going on until he got the notification that his level had decreased by one. As he screamed in fear at what was happening, a spider approached and carefully wrapped him up in webs as his captors rotated his body to ensure he was fully enveloped.
He was then hoisted on to one of the lizard-like monster’s shoulders and carried out the way he came.
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The adventurer exploring the second path had no idea what was going on with the others as he entered a new room. Atop a small pedestal in the middle, a tier 1 slime sat unmoving. He drew his weapon, approached, and stabbed, easily defeating the slime. A tier 2 slime landed on his head.
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On the third path, the adventurer was surprised to encounter a goblin shaman and two normal goblins. They were tough to defeat all at once, but he just barely managed it. After downing a healing potion, he decided to continue on. That grouping of three monsters was likely the most challenging encounter along this route. Still, he was looking forward to meeting up with everyone again soon.
In the next room, he saw a large fountain in the center, with several fish of the monster variety swimming around. While he was distracted staring at the fish, a goblin snuck up behind him and stabbed his arm with a poisonstrike dagger. Grunting, he spun around and struck down the weak goblin with his weapon.
He was poisoned, but his party was prepared for such an event. He fumbled with his pockets to remove the antidote he carried for such a situation. Before he could get it out, he was struck simultaneously in the back of each knee and fell. Still poisoned, he could feel himself being held down by multiple creatures. Raising his head, he could tell they were goblins, and one of them even had a priestly appearance. Realizing he was going to die from the poison, he started to panic.
Then something unexpected happened. The goblin priest actually cast healing magic on him. It would seem the poison wouldn’t kill him. Before he could make sense of what was happening to him, his gear was taken from him. A leech approached him and grabbed onto his arm with a ‘nom.’
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The fourth adventurer had been exploring for a while. He was the most cautious of the group and had been proceeding only very slowly. Honestly, he would have preferred not to split up, but he didn’t want to be the only one to complain.
Peering around the next corner, he noticed an altar of some type. At least a dozen lesser demons faced the altar, all down on one knee. Atop the altar was a slime. He thought he was well hidden, but the slime wiggled a bit and then the lesser demons all rose, turned towards the hidden adventurer, and charged, swords drawn.
Screaming, the adventurer turned to run the way he came, only to find his path blocked by a whole bunch of lizardmen. Rather than strike the adventurer down with their weapons, the monsters tackled him from multiple directions, disarming him and then dragging him back to the altar where he was forced to prostrate himself before the slime. The slime then hopped on his shoulder and began assaulting him with its acid ability. It didn’t do much damage, but his clothing and remaining gear was dissolving before his eyes. He was too distracted to even notice the leech grab his leg and begin sucking out experience.
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Olivia watched with the eyes of a dead fish as the four delirious adventurers were carried through the entrance hall and up the stairs by various monsters.