Waking up in a strange place was a weird experience because I couldn’t see the sun right away, so I didn’t know exactly what time it is. Getting up was a bit awkward simply because I was still wearing my armour. There was no way in hell I was going to remove it in a place that I didn’t know. But I was quite used to sleeping in body armour, so it was not a problem.

I did some stretches to freshen up and I used my energy to clean all the sweat off me. Going outside I was greeted by the sun being high up and a person next to my tent waiting for me. “Good morning, I hope I didn’t make you wait here for too long,” I said in a sleepy voice.

“Good morning to you as well. I did not wait for too long. Technically you would have an hour before I needed to wake you up for the meeting. My name is Ash, and I will be your helper until you leave.” He said in a customer service voice. He was quite a lot shorter than me but the youth in his face was starting to fade so he was probably in his mid 20s.

“Well, that's good to hear. I am guessing that there would be no problem if we got there sooner.” I said fully awake now. I got a nod in return. Ash didn't wait for a moment longer and quickly started to walk somewhere. My longer legs had no problem keeping up with him, but I didn't start with any small talk.

While we were walking, I was thinking back on what happened yesterday and one thing I was happy about is that I kept Salazar so busy with all the revelations that we didn't dive too deep into my class. He did get some information, but it wasn’t anything too important. Hopefully, this will be enough that they won't be too interested in the class.

While the sun was up the weather wasn't the best and I could smell the coming rain. We finally got to the biggest tent which was made out of multiple connected tents. Its size was impressive, and I couldn't even see the entirety of it. When we got inside Ash spoke to me.

“Since there's almost an hour to the meeting I suggest we go to the quartermaster. I believe he will have some,” He looked up and down my armour with a disapproving look. “Better items to give you.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my armour. Stop making that face.” I tried to keep the anger out of my voice, but I don’t think I succeeded. Why the hell did he have to say that? Perhaps there's some truth to it if you didn’t know what abilities I have. Still, that was quite rude and my opinion of him dropped quite a lot.

After a few moments of awkward silence, he just turned around and started to walk towards the right side of the compound. Following him, it did not take us long to reach the quartermasters. Behind the counter was a huge room filled with all kinds of items and inside the room, I also saw a lot of people working on repairing armour and sharpening weapons.

The quartermaster first saw Ash and I could see a flicker of annoyance on his face. Perhaps Ash was a dick to everyone. Then he looked towards me, and I could see a smile come onto his face. “If it isn’t the Rich Dirt that I have heard about. Welcome to the quartermasters I have something to give to you. My name is Will Hargan, and I am responsible for equipping all the sorry excuses that will be raiding this dungeon.”

He had quite a loud voice which I think was a requirement for being in this line of work and it brought back some good memories. I could see that Ash wanted to speak but I didn’t let him. “It is good to meet you, Will Hargan. I heard that you might have some items for me but honestly, I am completely clueless about what they could be.” He smiled at that and lifted up a part of the counter and invited me to come behind the counter.

We both had ignored Ash, who didn't seem to like that. When he tried to come with us Will slammed the counter back down and gave him a deadly glare. We left without Ash. I gave Will a questioning look. He started to whisper his answer. “He is a complete dick and will report anything that's not done by the book. I am in no mood to deal with him today.”

Then he started to speak in a normal voice at least for a quartermaster. “I was told that you would be needing a shield and a better weapon. While I can see that you need a shield because you didn’t have any that blade of yours seems to be good enough.” He was looking over all my equipment and commenting on all of it. “Although your armour does seem to be just steel and that simply won't be enough for this dungeon which is a problem because I haven’t accounted for this.”

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“If I understand it correctly you need to tank one of the minotaur’s on the 4th floor and that thing will shred your armour. But perhaps you’re good enough that only the shield will be enough. Well, anyways I will speak with my superiors. But first, let's get that shield into your hands and let’s see how you feel about it.” He snapped his fingers and yelled at one of his workers who quickly ran off and came back with a metal kite shield.

I was given the shield and I started to examine it. It was made out of an alloy of iron and some kind of animal chitin. On the shield were runes and a quick inspect allowed me to figure out that those are to give it more durability. I was quite certain that the shield could handle even my attacks, at least for a short time.

I put my hands through the straps and tested the shield out. One thing that disappointed me was its size as it was on the smaller side. But I was most worried about my ability and if it will work with a shield that had runes on it.

I allowed my armour enhancement ability to run into the shield. It worked like it always did but I could feel how much stronger the shield now was and I was impressed. It seems that my ability truly did enhance the shield to a large degree. I might need runes on my armour as well if the boost works so well.

I could hear a boisterous laugh coming from Will. “Ha ha with that ability the shield will survive this dungeon with no problems. Honestly, I was a bit worried as normally and shield like that would need to be replaced after a few delves. Wait, is that why you’re wearing such normal armour does this ability of yours work on your armour as well?” I let the ability enhance my armour as well and he laughed even harder.

“Good lad you have no idea how much headache you just lifted off my shoulders. But I will still recommend that you buy yourself a better set of armour. With that ability of yours, you could be a proper tank, not just the side tank. But I do have a weapon for you as well perhaps you would like that more than your current sword. Just give me a moment.” Before he could walk off, we could hear loud arguing coming towards here.

“Why didn’t anyone tell me that he was equipped so badly I almost wished that we could hire some of the adventurers it might be cheaper. Like we don’t even know if he could handle this dungeon. I still don't understand why we are giving him this opportunity.” There was a moment of pause before the same voice continued. “Ash why are you here weren’t you supposed to be with Rich.” I don’t know what Ash told him, but I could hear a swear word and then everything was quiet after that.

Then suddenly Will yelled out. “You don't have to be so worried Mark the lad over here has a decent defensive ability that works on his entire armour and from the look of him he can handle himself quite well. So shut the fuck up and let me do my job and then let Rich do his job and if he fails then you can start complaining.” At the end of it, he was shaking his head in disappointment and soon after that we heard two pairs of footsteps quickly going away.

“Everyone’s worried about every little thing. It's so annoying. The best way to learn is to do it and if you fail you know what not to do. All these meetings are so annoying just talk talk talk.” He then looked up at me. “Sorry about that lad I guess I just don’t like how big we are now. I liked it when everything was personal now it’s just meetings and policy.”

I had to agree with him. “Oh, don’t even start me on meetings. Even the necessary ones are annoying.” He nodded and then showed me a big sword. It was a bit bigger than my old two-handed sword but the grip was a bit smaller so you could wield it with one hand. This one also had runes on it and was made out of a similar alloy although the mix seemed to be a bit different.

I picked it up and it had decent weight to it same with the shield, but I didn’t feel like it would be a problem. I was strong enough so that it wouldn't matter. I did need to flare my counterweight a bit when I did some big swings with one hand. I was amazed that I was able to apparently quite effectively use such a big sword even if one of my hands was occupied with a shield.

Will let me through a tent flap that opened up to a closed-off area that was surrounded by tents. In one of the corners was a smith where someone was making or repairing something. But now I had enough room to do some proper forms with speed. I flared some of my abilities that weren’t destructive and ramped up my speed by quite a lot.

I liked the reach and the weight of the weapon, but it didn't quite fit the way I wanted it, but it would still be good enough. Will was quite happy with my demonstration. Eventually, we moved back to the counter, and I had to do some paperwork. I needed to sign some papers, some pretty standard stuff and I was quite happy that there wasn’t any need to write anything down with blood.

We had spent quite a lot of time just speaking while I was testing the weapon so while we did paperwork Ash was quite expressive that we needed to move because the meeting will be starting soon.

Luckily the paperwork didn’t take too long, and we were soon on our way to this meeting. Ash didn’t follow me in just opened a tent flap that revealed a really big room where a lot of people that were fully armoured and ready for battle were socializing.