The subway was pretty quick. In just ten minutes, they reached their stop. However, crossing the doorway took a while, even longer than the ride. Sunset City was almost twice the size of Boothudurn, and it was the most common destination of people who came to the Kobold Road. Many people lived there because the room didn't have any roaming monsters and would only present any sort of danger during a rampage. You could even find schools and children in that place.
When they finally crossed, everyone quickly understood why it was called Sunset City. For some reason, the sky here was in a perpetual shade of orange that you would see during the twilight. Even when the sun was clearly high up in the sky. According to the people who lived there, that color would continue even during the night, but with a stary backdrop.
As Hera had explained, this was just a pit stop, but that didn't mean they couldn't look around for a bit. If the bus in the Flower Road followed the schedule she found online, it should have departed for the first trip just an hour ago. Meaning they still would have close to six hours before the second bus would leave. They stopped in a couple of shops and ate some of the local cuisine, which was basically a lot of pork, bacon, and eggs. It had a southern feel to it, but the people in the town had nothing southern about them. They were mostly humans, but some elves, beastmen, and even children of the sky were present in the city and seemed to coexist without problems.
Time passed, and when everyone felt like they had enough sightseeing, they headed to the Flower Road. There was a stark difference between the two rooms. While one was filled with people, noise, and movement, the other was peaceful, without many people, and everything seemed to be still, almost like it was a painting. With a name like Flower Road, everyone was expecting something like the Kobold Road. A long highway filled with people and buildings on both sides. However, what was in front of them was more similar to the ancient hanging gardens. It was a very tall structure about 50 meters wide, and both sides had massive gardens of various types of flowers. Roses, violets, tulips, sunflowers, and many, many others. Hera wouldn't be surprised if there was at least one of each type of flower in existence here, not that she could tell the difference. The doorway put them on the top of the gardens, and according to what she heard, if someone tried to jump from the edge, an invisible wall would stop them from hitting the ground. The room was just this very long stretch of road about 200 kilometers wide. Hence the need for a bus or something to reach the other side. If someone was going to do that on foot, it would take a long time. This was the second room in a row that didn't have any native monsters on it, and since there were never too many people who stayed here, a rampage occurring was never something they had to worry about.
Oddly enough, the bus here would make 12 stops, the same amount of stops the subway would make in the Kobold Road. However, here there were only 3 doorways. All the other stops were dungeons, with one exception. A small building that functioned as a botany school. Considering the location, it was an excellent place for people to learn about plants, since there wouldn't be a lack of subjects to study. On the edges of the room, there was also a large building that worked as a restaurant, a hotel, and a community center of sorts. There were rest areas and places where one could wait comfortably for a number of hours before the next bus came along.
Close to the doorway, there was also a staircase leading under the road where there was a stone grate that functioned as the entrance to the dungeon with a time limit. Before going down there, Hera double-checked with the people in charge of the bus if it was on schedule, and they confirmed that yes, the bus would take another 40 minutes to arrive on the other side, then there was a one-hour delay before it would come back.
This gave more than enough time for them to do the dungeon, which had a time limit of 3 hours.
"OK, so here is the deal. Do you want to do a dungeon or just stay in there doing nothing?" Hera asked the group.
"You know my vote. We should do the dungeon," Alex said.
"I agree. I think it would be a good experience for us to see how you fight," Amanda nodded.
"I can say the same about you. You guys all trained under the New Dawn, right? You had proper teachers while we had to figure out things on our own or ask around," Hera replied.
"Still. I want to see what you can do. Amanda always talks about you," Cris added.
"Stop that," Amanda poked Cris with her elbow.
"Do you know what the dungeon will be like? If it's something that requires us to talk to a lot of dungeon people, I think I rather stay here," Tim said.
"It's nothing like that. It's basically a defense quest. We need to protect a sunflower, apparently. Some monsters will come to attack it, and we just need to keep it alive until it finishes growing. That should take 3 hours, or at least that's what the compendium says."
"Does it say the type of monsters we will fight?" Amanda asked.
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"Crows and some other birds, but mainly crows. We might be able to do something to make it easier for us, but I think we shouldn't use it at first. That way, we know if we can handle the monsters here without any problems," Hera said.
"Do we need to? I mean, this is the 4th layer. We are already level 19. Things here are almost 10 levels below us," Cris scoffed.
"True, but that doesn't mean they can't kill you. And it's better to have experience in combat. Besides, like you said, they are 10 levels below you. Why would we need something that can make this easier?" Hera asked.
Cris rolled her eyes but agreed with what Hera was saying. Before heading to the dungeon, Amanda told her friends to go to the bathroom so that wouldn't be an issue during the dungeon. The three of them walked off, leaving Hera and Alex by themselves.
"I thought you said we wouldn't be babysitting," Alex asked.
"We are not, c'mon, it's a dungeon. It will be fun. Besides, we can make some money here."
"Yeah, but why are you doing all that? I mean, they were trained, better than us, by the way."
"I don't know. I feel kind of responsible for Amanda. Her grandparents helped me out a lot, and it's kind of a way to repay that debt. But also, if we see them in action and realize that they are awful, I can just stop the trip now and tell them that they are not ready for rooms like these. Not that I'm any kind of reference in that."
"I don't think it will get to that point, but it's good to know that we have an eject button if we need it," Alex nodded.
"That is only the case if they do suck, and considering who trained them, I doubt that," Hera shrugged.
A few minutes passed before Amanda, and the others returned. Cris bought a few cans of energy drinks and some bottles of sports drinks for everyone. Hera took that chance to distribute the potions she got for them. They were all in a similar case as the one she gave to Alex, but these were somewhat simpler. She didn't know everyone's tastes and, because of that, opted for a few simpler designs while Alex's had this sleek black tint with some gold details forming a checkered pattern.
"Thanks! One question, are we doing the dungeon because we need money for the fares?" Cris asked.
"Not really. My intention was to pay for everyone. Like, not hotels meals and stuff but at least any transport fares, and I already have more than enough for that. This is more to get used to each other when we are fighting," Hera explained.
"Yeah, that's a good call. I don't think I ever saw you using spells," Amanda nodded.
"Then can we go?" Tim was glancing back at the rest area, but Hera couldn't tell why.
"Sure. C'mon," Hera guided everyone down, or at least she tried to. Despite acting as the tour guide, it was the first time she came to this room, so the exact location of the places was not something she actually knew. It took her ten minutes of looking over the edge of the hanging garden to find where the staircase was located since it was hidden amongst the flowers.
After that, they all went down the surprisingly well-kept stone staircase, and arrived at the pass under the gardens with a large stone gate on the side of the structure. It was a bit odd since it seemed that there was a long tunnel after the grate, but when looking to the side, the entrance was in a pillar barely two meters wide and walking inside should make them fall from the edge of the gardens. As weird as it seemed, that was how dungeons behaved. Things didn't have to make sense when inside them.
Hera touched the stone grate, and a notification appeared in front of her.
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Would you like to enter the Sunflower Devourer Dungeon?
[Yes] [No]
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After pressing yes, the grates shifted and started to go up, opening the path forward. Hera cautiously stepped inside, she understood that it was a dungeon, but a part of her mind still told her that this shouldn't be possible. However, she walked for more than ten meters, and it was still solid ground. Seeing that the explorer was still there, everyone followed her along. They walked for about 10 minutes until everyone arrived at a wooden door on the other side of the tunnel. Unsure of what that meant, Hera tried knocking. That made the door open slightly and revealed bright rays of sunshine from the other side.
Figuring out this should be the actual entrance of the dungeon, Hera pushed the door open. Beyond it, there was a large farmland without any crops, just the tilled soil. There was even a barn and a large silo on the side. Looking behind the buildings, a massive tree towered over the area. It should be at least 50 meters tall, and its branches were full of life.
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Dungeon quest
Harness the sun
You have entered the sun farm. This is a sensitive moment for the crop, and a single sunflower seed was planted in the middle of the field. Protect the sunflower as it grows and absorbs all the sun that touches the tilled soil. The more sun it absorbs, the faster it will grow.
First time rewards:
30 000 gold, Sun flower seed
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"A sunflower seed as a reward?" Cris asked.
"I guess so, but the name is split. I think that means the seed is special somehow," Amanda suggested.
"That's what I've been told. I'll keep it as a surprise for now, but it's an item that can help you a lot in a pinch if you are lucky," Hera smiled.
"And what do we have to defend the sunflower from again?" Alex asked.
"I think it's against that," Tim pointed to the horizon.
A black cloud moved closer, but it didn't take long for them to realize that it wasn't in fact a cloud, but a mass of pitch blackbirds.