So like the chapters are posted as thread in a forum and their position moves as people post on on them. Right now it's like chapter 5, 4, 3, 1, 2 and its bugging the crap out of me for some reason and I'm not even that OCD XD
Chapter 1 and 2 have been edited by mossclaw64, thank you for volunteering to help me edit my chapters!
Also I want some advice with shifting Point Of View. Well take any suggest on how to structure that transition. Thanks! Enjoy the chapter! And any advice on doing the divides too coz right now I'm just spamming *s XD
Enjoy!
----------------------------------------
Sage finally dug eastward from the room he awakened in and after about one hour reached the outside world. It was noon and the sun shined into the entrance of the dungeon. Although Sage had been underground and hadn’t seen the sun for over two weeks, this didn’t really shock him much. Cultivators would go into closed door training in a small cave or room for months to years to decades at a time. However Alice wasn’t an 1,000 year old monster and excitedly flew out of the dungeon and enjoyed the sun.
“So this is what sunlight feels like! I have always dreamed about being able to feel the sun hitting my body!” Alice exclaimed.
Sage couldn’t help but laugh and say “You wanted to experience the sun yet you choose to be a dungeon fairy where you’d spend the majority of your time in underground?”
“Shut up. Being able to enjoy this a little beats not being able to enjoy it at all as a spirit.” Alice stuck her tongue.
Sage pondered a little and said “However once the news of a dungeon spread out you won’t be able to leave as easily to experience this.”
“Oh that’s easy silly, just create a small exit away from the main dungeon entrance for me to use. Then I can safely come out and experience the outside world!” Alice replied.
“Not a bad idea, however you sure it is safe for you to be outside like this?”
“As long as I’m careful I should be fine.”
“So now what?“
“Well we wait until people find out about this and sent people over.”
“More waiting it is… well it’s not like we can’t use this extra time.”
Sage made it so the monsters in the latter half of the dungeon would all train as they were the elite mobs to provide more challenge while the monster in the first 4 rooms are untrained to cater toward beginners. To not be too hard on beginners Sage also set the rule that if someone too weak goes past the first 4 rooms then the monster would only knock them out and throw them out of the dungeon after taking something from them. This rule came to be when Alice noticed that the trained monsters were something far beyond what the beginning Rank G adventurers could handle and it would be bad if the first floor is too hard.
Sage went back to studying monsters to pass the time.
*POV John*
John just started as an adventurer two months ago and was collecting minor herbs in the forest. You might all be wondering why he was still doing such a task even though it’s been two months since he started. Most prepared adventures jump straight into the subjugation of weak monsters and while other would go on safer gather quests while taking basic training from the Adventurer’s Guild which John passed with flying colors.
Now John wasn’t bad at fighting, in fact he was a very talented fighter, but he was kind of a scaredy-cat. If he could just get over it he would be a great swordsman but every time he sees a monster his knee go soft and all his training goes out the window. So there he was, two months into his adventurer life and still collecting minor herbs.
*RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE*
The ground shook for a moment and caused John to fall over and plant his face into the ground.
“What was that noise!” Thought John as he got up rubbing his face. “Should I go check it out? Adventurer’s Guild do award people to bring in new information but what if it was caused by some giant Ogre? Ooooooh, what should I do…”
John struggled with the decision. He knew that he needed to get over his fears or else he’d have to give up his life as an adventurer. After walking back and forth toward and then away from the noise John finally clenched his teeth and decided to check it out. He made up his mind that he will at least to go see what is going on and if there is any danger he would run as fast as he could back to the city.
Slowly John made his way to the source of the noise and, after about one hour of carefully going through the woods, he came to a clearing and saw a cave.
“A cave? I don’t remember there was any cave on the map for this area. From the look of those rocks it seems like something came out from the cave! Dear god, what powerful creature does it have to be for it to dig itself out from the mountain and create that large of an opening! I knew this was a bad idea!” With that John turned around to leave.
After a few step he paused, turned around and looked at the cave again. “Strange there is no footprint outside the cave at all, the grass looks completely undisturbed. Even if the creature went back in it still would have needed to step outside…”
As he pondered he slowly walked toward the cave and stopped at the entrance, “Come on John, you have been an adventurer for two months now! How can be you still be scared of a little cave! How will you ever be like those legendary adventurers if you’re this scared of a cave!” John muttered to pump himself up.
Finally after standing outside mumbling to himself for over half an hour he walked in. As soon as he enter the cave he felt like there was something watching him and the mana density around him increased.
“This is a dungeon…” John said, shocked at the development.
It is very easy to identify dungeons in this world as a dungeon will have a much higher concentration of mana so when entering a cave and mana concentration increase then it is likely a dungeon. Another key indicator is something only people with good perception or good mana affinity can feel which is that they are being watched. Which is true because once you have entered a dungeon you are constantly watched by the dungeon core as the dungeon is part of its body and it can see anything that happens inside.
“That rumbling noise must have been when the dungeon dug a passage connecting it to the outside. That would mean this is a brand new dungeon!” John became excited. “Discovering a brand new dungeon has a pretty big reward behind it in the Adventurer’s Guild! I should head back and report it as soon as possible!”
Just as he walked to the entrance he stopped again “Damn it John, think like an adventurer! A brand new dungeon was just discover by you and instead of exploring it for all its secrets you run off to report it!”
Again he paced back and forth at the entrance, “Ok John, you got this! This is a brand new dungeon meaning that there is no way for powerful monster to be inside. All the monster must be weak and it’s a perfect place to hone your skills!” With that John finally forced himself to walk deeper into the dungeon.
He walked through the tunnel and into the next room, “This dungeon has pretty high mana density for the ambient light to be blue.” John muttered. Dungeons aren’t pitch black because of the high mana density, the rocks are fused with a bit of mana and thus glow. Most dungeons glow white light while dungeon with high mana density glow blue. Of course there are other colors depending on the situation like a Demonic Dungeon would have red ambient light.
John entered the next room and looked around. He immediately noticed minor herbs to the right side and rushed over. “Wow so many minor herbs and with this mana density they’re high quality too! Normally one would have to go at least past the 3rd floor to get herbs like this!” John was very excited and became so completely engrossed in harvesting herbs that he didn’t notice something was closing in on him.
Only when it was within 20 feet of him did John notice something in the corner of his eyes. He was startled and froze on the spot. Then he slowly turned and saw a goblin holding a spear looking at him.
“Arrrrrrggg!” The goblin shouted and charged toward John.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!” John shouted.
*POV Sage*
1 Hour Ago.
Sage was observing the Kobold Lord cultivating and making corrections when he suddenly noticed a presence near his cave. Then he saw it a young man slowly and nervously walking toward his dungeon entrance and then just stood there.
“Alice we got someone at the entrance!” Sage shouted
“Where! Put up a projection of what you see so I can have a look!” Alice replied.
“How do I exactly do that?” Sage asked
“Just focus on a location and then project the image with your mind toward the wall.” Alice answered.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
With that Sage focus on the entrance and soon a display appeared on the wall of the cave for Alice to view what is happening.
They watched this adventurer just standing there outside the cave. After a while Alice couldn’t help but say “What exactly is this guy doing?”
“He seems to be pumping himself up?” Sage said hesitantly.
After 30 minutes the man finally walked into the first room.
“Whoa, that’s our very first adventurer!” Alice shouted and paid extra attention to the screen.
However she was disappointed, the adventurer became very excited and then turn around to leave.
“NOooo!” Alice shouted.
As if answering her the adventurer paused at the entrance and started to pace back and forth.
“Come back in! Come back in! Come back in!” Alice chanted on the side.
Sage was curious about this person and scanned him. He found out the adventurer’s name was John and that he was a G ranked adventurer. From what Alice have told him that was the lowest rank.
“Very fitting person to test our dungeon” Sage thought.
Then after another 15 minutes this John fellow finally walked into the tunnel toward the first real room of the dungeon.
“Yesss!” Alice exclaimed.
They watch him enter the room and immediately jumped upon the minor herbs that were planted on the side of the room.
Alice: ”....”
And this guy continued to gather herbs, not bothering with the rest of the room at all so Sage ordered one of the goblin stationed in the room to slowly sneak up on the guy. The goblin moved slowly toward him and he still didn’t notice. It wasn’t until the goblin was within 20 feet that he noticed and his first response was freezing up. Sage told the goblin to scream and rush the guy. As the goblin did that the guy also screamed and rushed the goblin. Then something peculiar happened. Although the guy was screaming and caught off guard Sage could tell that his form was good and should have no problem cutting down the goblin. But just as Sage was thinking that, John tripped just as the goblin stabbed toward him. The stab missed and John, in an attempt to stabilize himself with the sword, stabbed through the goblin’s heart and face planted into the ground. The goblin died, its body slowly disappeared as it turned back to mana leaving behind some copper coin.
Silence…
“Hahahahahaha…!.” Alice was laughing so hard that tear was coming out.
“There should be an award for killing goblins like this. Hahahahahahaha…” Alice is now on the floor.
Sage couldn’t help but let out a sigh “Not a bad seed at all, needs a lot of work but not a bad seed.”
Sage observed John as he killed the the remaining two goblin in the room with a bit of effort and then John left with the herbs.
Alice seemed to have finally calmed herself down a bit but you can still see her face twitch every now and them.
After John left the dungeon Sage turned to Alice and said “I guess we better get ready for more guests.”
*POV John*
It was late afternoon and John had made it back to the city. He was very excited not only because had he found a newly born dungeon but he had killed three goblins! Well the first one died because he kinda fell on it, but he killed the other two on his own! He felt amazing right now as he realized for the first time that he could really do this.
He rushed to the Adventurer’s Guild and headed toward the receptionists desk. Some of the customers that knew him well teased him.
“Hey John back from collecting flowers? You should come with us tomorrow, we will be hunting some orcs much more fun than flowers and you might finally get a decent meal. Hahahaha.”
These were all nice guys and all have been trying to help John get over his fears. They all saw him perform during basic training and knew that he could be something great but only if he took that first step,
Normally John would meekly reject them but this time there was something different about him, as if he was a different person.
“Orcs sounds like fun but not nearly as fun or as profitable as raiding a dungeon!” John proudly said then he turned to the receptionist and continued “And I just happen to find a newly formed dungeon today!”
There was silence for a moment before the entire Adventurer’s Guild lobby went into an uproar.
“No way a newly formed dungeon?”
“Na he’s just joking, it’s John! He won’t even dare to enter a cave much less a dungeon.”
“But what if it is true? This could be the chance of a lifetime. We don’t have any dungeons nearby so resources are limited but with a dungeon, once it grows, we might be able to make it big!”
“Damn it if it’s true then John sure is a lucky bastard, the reward for finding a dungeon is high, especially in area that doesn’t have a dungeon already!”
Everyone is debating with each other, making it impossible to really hear anything. The receptionist, who is a pretty young girl, couldn’t contain the situation so she went and called the guild master.
“EVERYONE! SILENCE!” A voice boom down from upstairs causing everyone to stop talking.
A buffed middle aged man walked down from the second floor, the receptionist pointed at John while whispering something to him. The middle aged man walked next to John and stared at John. John could feel the imposing aura coming from the guild master, he has felt it many time during basic training and very time he made him cower. However this time was different, he didn’t know where he got this confidence from but he didn’t cower and withstood the pressure.
“Not bad” The guild master muttered, then continued in a louder voice “John, while discovering a newly formed dungeon has an high reward should you be lying to us there will be a severe punishment. Do you understand?”
“Yes!” John replied and then proceed to take out three mana core and the herbs he gathered inside the dungeon. “Here are three dungeon goblin mana cores and some minor herbs from the dungeon.”
Once the items came out everyone’s face changed because they knew that John was speaking the truth. The guild master carefully examined the mana cores and nodded and focused his attention on the herbs. He couldn’t help but frown and said to John “You went all the way to the 3rd floor John?” This cause everyone to be startled.
“No, I found these herbs on the first floor in the first very room after the entrance and the ambient light was blue.” John quickly replied. John knew the meaning behind the guild master’s question as those minor herbs’ quality is something normally found at 3rd floor or lower.
The guild master’s eyes lit up when he heard that and said “Good job John! This is a great find and will benefit us all! Please follow Penny here and give her the location of the dungeon. This is a great find John and you’ll be well rewarded!”
Everyone could tell from the guild master’s reaction it was something big but before anyone could ask anything John, Penny, and the guild master had already went upstairs. They could only talk among themselves as they waited for an announcement.
After hearing John’s full story and getting as much information as he could the guild master sent John off with a reward for the items that he brought back. As for John’s dungeon discovery reward, it would be given to him once the full value of the dungeon had been assessed.
“Penny go find Jake and Ardryll and tell them they got a mission to explore the dungeon.” The guild master said after pondering for a long time.
“You’re sending them? Isn’t that a bit too much?” Penny was shocked, you normally don’t call two C rank adventurer to check out a newly born dungeon.
“This one is a bit different and I want to play it safe. Jake is one of the most talented one handed sword and shield user around, with him holding the front line nothing will get through. I also need Ardryll because elves are much more sensitive to mana. You saw these herbs, they are 3rd floor quality herbs on the first floor and the ambient light is blue so I want to know just how dense the mana is in there.” The guild master explained.
“I got it.” Penny replied, finally realizing just how big of a deal this is turning out to be.
“Also send a request for Alex’s team to do the full dungeon evaluation run.” The guild master added.
“Ehhhh?!” Penny cried “You’re requesting a Rank A adventurer team for this!!”
----------------------------------------
Edited by: mossclaw64
Edited by: The super secret and mysterious masked editor... from space!