You received 15 experience points.
You received 15 experience points.
You received 15 experience points.
We remained on the first area of the floor and waited for some fire crows to come at us. Clarice, Rebecca, and I tried to dispose of them fast, but since the corridor ahead was long, they had the chance to attack our arrows with their fireballs. As weak as they were, it was enough to make our attacks lose some power.
“I guess we aren’t that good as snipers.”
Clarice said that while furrowing her eyebrows. Still, that much was fine for now. We can think of something to deal with later. Still, staying one hour there was our limit… even I felt my chest heavy thanks to the heat and the hot air.
“Let’s return.”
Everyone nodded after Jalal’s words. Staying there for more than we have to would only cause problems in the long run. The first experience in the new section was just to prepare us for the next run as well.
We could have stayed in front of the boss’ chamber to rest properly, but the group decided to keep going for a bit longer and then take turns guarding the camp on that floor. We had plenty of energy in stock…
“Let’s do the same as before. Clarice and Clive will guard the camp at first together, then we will take their place a couple of hours later. Sleeping a couple of hours will be fine, since we will be leaving the dungeon before noon tomorrow.”
After we had dinner, Jalal declared that. Then we immediately went ahead to guard the dead end that we were using to camp for the night. I used roll a couple of times while we fought together to get a good feel of the skill. It was pretty useful, it was at least two times faster than when I tried to roll without using the skill. I could cover fifty percent more ground too…
“You appear to be having fun. I got the Rogue class too, but I would rather not roll on the hot ground.”
“Is that so?”
I barely made any noise when I rolled on the ground and used the skill… Considering my tendency to avoid getting hurt and picking classes that increase my dexterity, I was on a clear path to the famous Stealth Archer Build. Still, I lacked the strength to sniper targets, so I was considering increasing my strength again. I probably didn’t have to worry about that if I used my bone bow or my hand crossbow, my bolts could fly two times faster than my arrows thanks to the wind enchantments, but I didn’t want to show them yet.
“What do you think we will have to do in order to explore the second circle of the dungeon and reach the boss in the second run?”
Clarice’s question made me consider my decision… It was hard to imagine that we would be able to do that while I tried to keep my cards hidden. Information about the dungeon was valuable, so we wouldn’t be able to find a solution that easily by asking around. We had to come up with solutions by ourselves.
“... I don’t know, maybe buy some helmets and enchant them with flames for resistance to heat, or wind to make the air easier to breathe.”
“Dungeon diving is quite expensive work, huh?”
I could only nod… we could make decent money by staying in the first section of the dungeon, but that wasn’t our goal, none of those guys wanted to just make a living as an adventurer, they wanted to get stronger and test their might.
“I heard that some weapons, when they have multiple slots of the same effect, tend to affect the environment quite a bit. Do you think that you can make one like that?”
I looked at Clarice and wondered if she knew about my bone bow… she had a blank expression on her face for a moment, but then she smiled and winked. She didn’t know what I had, but she knew that I had a trick up my sleeve.
“Who knows? I will see what I can do, but I won’t guarantee anything.”
“That puts me at ease. If you need money, I can give you some.”
“... That money of yours really came easily, huh? If you are willing to give away so easily as well.”
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“More or less, I had to do some annoying things to receive it. Do you want to hear it?”
“Nope.”
“As usual, you are so cold.”
I considered being more friendly to Clarice to learn more about the things she knew, but it wasn’t within my plans to head to the Aeloria Dominion, and I also felt bothered by being so calculating. Being friendly to others just because it would benefit me wasn’t something I was willing to do.
Eventually, Clarice got bored with the silence and began to play with her arrows while I was rolling on the ground and trained to assume a shooting position as fast as possible afterward. I frowned when I saw her moving two arrows between her fingers of a single hand and making them spin in opposite directions. That was a neat trick… useless for fighting, though.
In any case, a couple of hours later, the other three took our place and began to guard the camp. Since Rebecca had the chance to use my mana again and since they all had gotten stronger after getting new classes, they had an easy time doing their job properly. Then, just as planned, we left the dungeon at noon the next day.
“Phew, I never thought that I would feel so glad to enjoy the clean air like this.”
Clarice headed to a nearby tree and hugged it. It looked like Elves knew the importance of trees when it comes to weather and air. Trees play a crucial role in keeping the air clean through photosynthesis. They also filter pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter, trapping them in their leaves and bark, thereby improving air quality.
At the same time, trees help reduce the urban heat island effect, which lowers temperatures and reduces the formation of ground-level ozone. This combination of reducing carbon dioxide, filtering pollutants, and cooling the environment makes trees vital for maintaining cleaner air and a healthier atmosphere. Perhaps things were a bit different since this was a magic world, but it shouldn’t be totally different.
“It is lunchtime, let’s trade the materials and mana cores at the guild and then have a warm lunch together to celebrate.”
Clarice put her hands together as if to say this was a great idea… It was probably fine, but I wanted to take a shower before eating anything. Still, people walked around smelling like sweat and that was even more common among adventurers, so perhaps I was being picky. I rarely sweat… even though I am supposed to be a half-undead. Still, there were tons of things in this world that didn’t make any sense.
Regardless, thanks to all the materials we traded and the mana cores we got, we earned a bit more than ten aqua coins, a pretty decent sum, which was split among all of us. I got some extra coins for enchanting their gear. We got ten thousand points for everything… we couldn’t help but furrow our eyebrows when Clarice showed her stone guild card, but then she received the copper one. I couldn’t help but ask a question about that bizarre thing.
“Didn’t you have a guild card in the Aeloria Dominion?”
“We have guilds, but I never joined one.”
This girl couldn’t be weirder even if she tried. Regardless, we headed to the closest restaurant and then asked for some food… everyone aside from me asked for ale as well. Aside from Clarice, they didn’t even look fifteen, so they sure were being reckless.
“Aren’t you going to drink, Clive? Don’t be a downer.”
“I have things to do and preparations to make. I will also leave as soon as I am done eating. It is also a bit too early for someone to be drinking?”
“Is it?”
Clarice looked around and she found everyone with ale in their cups. Maybe drinking water wasn’t a thing in this city and they made it do with ale instead. Regardless, I had no reason to follow the trend.
Regardless, the food soon arrived, and it tasted a lot better than the rations that we had inside the dungeon. Preparing food was a lot of work and eating hot food when everything was hot around was also troublesome.
Everyone began to eat a lot and fast. They chugged down everything with the ale. They soon asked for more. I decided that it was time to retreat before trouble arrived.
“Well, see you guys in three days at the guild.”
“Hey, come on, Clive! Let’s party and celebrate our first successful run in the dungeon.”
“Maybe I can join the next time you guys won’t have to drink that much.”
“Where is the fun in that?”
Oh, boy… she was on a one-way path to becoming a drunkard at her age. I certainly didn’t want to stay too close to someone that unhinged.
“Well, until then.”
I moved in a hurry and ignored Clarice’s complaints. I wanted to buy a bunch of supplies for the next run, after all. All in order not to have too much free time and to maximize my experience gain.
I bought two times more magic ink and then checked the shops for any magic tool that could give me some interesting effects. I didn’t find it… it made sense since I had only half of the afternoon to look.
‘Perhaps I should look for another job… someone rich and influential that can grant me skill books with enchantments periodically.’
Finding someone like that and working for them would be a massive pain in the ass, though. Even though my skills may be decent, individuals like that are quite irritating and can only accept things their way or not at all.
“Oh, you are still alive?”
The old lady greeted me with those words when I returned. It looked like she didn’t have much confidence in me. Maybe it was my meek behavior or aura. People who are more assertive and sure of themselves have more confidence, after all. Still, I was fine in being underestimated. It would be fun to surprise others that way.
In any case, as soon as I got in my room, I began to carve a bow using the parts of the two-headed wolf. I bought everyone’s share by offering them some free enchantments and they readily accepted. A bow like this would only work with fire or perhaps wind-related enchantments, but that was fine with me since I only wanted that bow to be a specialized one like the other weapons that I had and make them the best option against certain types of monsters.
“I guess I am trying too hard to hide what I can do… hiding my appearance is fine and all, but I am essentially fighting with my hands tied if I can’t use all the gear that I made.”
In any case, after finishing the base of the bow, I wondered how I could change it with some functionality, but I stopped when I heard someone knocking on the front door of the house.