The following day, after a good rest and plenty of reading in between. Edward was ready for his first quest. The elderly man was standing by the kitchen table, and he was walking down the stairs. The elderly man beckons him to come forward. This first quest is relatively simple. Defeat thirty wolf monsters by the end of the day, bring back their hooves as the proof. The quest is to thin out the number of monsters that exist in the first level of the dungeon. It is a critically important mission nonetheless. Edward accepted it and even looked forward to it. The old man said that the wolves are a simple creature to battle with, there is practically no danger as they are level one monsters and hardly inflicts any damage. Edward nods in agreement, he knew and was willing to put himself in danger the moment he found himself in the dungeon. He runs upstairs to prepare his tools and materials to deal with the wolves. There, he finds a small wand and a curious pocket watch. He looks around and there is no one, so he just pockets the pocket watch. There was a tiny button on this stop watch thing, I wonder what it does. There was also a time dial that adjust the time on the pocket watch. Edward decides to dial it to the current time.
Edward bids farewell to Azel and Beatrice, the two of them slightly worried at Edward because he was inexperienced. However on the way out, Edward reassures them that he would not put himself in danger. That is the promise that he has given to them. No matter how dire the situation may seem, hope will always triumph. At least that’s what he thought in his mind. Edward marches forward from the big house. The quest is starting.
Edward manages to leave the town in record time, and he is in the wilderness of the dungeon again. He takes care not to step on the water puddles. Meanwhile he is revising the magic he has learnt from the books. So far he has only managed to learn the fire magic spells. So not too much progress in that arena, perhaps he needed more time. Edward scours the landscape carefully and looks at his status map. Ahead north of twenty meters seem like there are several wolves there. He proceeds with caution. There is no telling what might jump up at him after all.
Edward finds himself at an open grass patch where the wolves roam freely. He counted in his periphery that there were at least twenty nine. The last one would have to come from further north. He hesitates to go so far as there is bigger dangers moving forward and he is just a beginner. He quickly engages his first target - a lone wolf resting on a rock.
The wolf was completely taken by surprise. “Rawr!” It screamed back. The other wolves in the area take notice. But they don’t go up further. Only one on one battle this time. Edward begins his fire magic spell casting and fires a huge ball of fire into the wolf. The heat from the ball of fire melts everything in its path. It bright light shines and illuminates the entire dungeon. The wolf burns in pain and disintegrates in the fire. The other wolves cower in fear but a few stood their ground. Level up! The status bar shows, Edward receives three points which he can allocate towards his various stats. He allocated one to evasion and two to magic. He promptly makes quick work of the remaining twenty eight wolves. They struggled badly against fire magic. Edward has them pinned to a corner outside a cave. There he blasted against the wall with fire magic. The whole place was practically burned down. Such was the enhancement powers of the wand. No beginner magician could imagine using such immense powers at their disposal. Not from the very beginning that is. Edward inches forward into the cave. It was completely unlit, with no emerald jewels to be seen. It was completely and utterly dark.
Edward walks into the cave with extreme awareness, he knows anything can jump out at him at any moment. Therefore he needs to take the proper precautions in order to not get caught. Each step into the cave reverberated within the walls and echoes ever so clearly within those chambers. The unnerving feeling that you get in the darkness is something unlike anything else that you will ever experience. In it are untold dangers and unknown and unexplained risks. He finds a lone wolf camping out at a corner and makes quick work of it. Then as he was going out he hears a large growl. Oh there was trouble.
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At the precipice of the entrance of the cave, Edward turns around and comes face to face with the largest wolf he has ever seen. This must be the boss of the level he thought. The overwhelming beast was at least twenty five meters tall, hairy and bushy with large canine teeth flashing at him. The creature was obviously very angry at Edward for exterminating his fellow wolves. It takes a step forward towards Edward while Edward inches back one step backwards. They would keep repeating this until they were five meters apart. Then Edward could not take it anymore and decides to run for it. In between he throws fireball after fireball at the beast, but it seems to take no damage. The wolf beast roars so loudly that the ground quivers and shakes under its volume. A cold chill runs down Edward spine as he dashes as fast as he could out of the cave. The boss however, did not seem to want to get out from the comfort of the cave. Hence finally Edward was safe again. That was a close call. He was not sure what he would do if push comes to shove. He is desperately clueless on what to do in situations like those besides running for his life.
The way back to Hillsborough was long and tough. He defeated a few additional wolves along the way but never got to meet the other monsters that appear in the dungeon. Unfortunately, he does have to kill the boss in the dungeon in order to progress to the higher levels. Meaning that this won’t be their last encounter with the humongous wolf. Edward starts to see a glimpse of the town and he quickens his pace. He was late for dinner.
As Edward asks for more rice, he recounts the harrowing experience that he got himself into today. Azel and Beatrice listened with intense curiosity. They were very eager to learn about the creatures that exist beyond their town. I promised them I would eventually defeat the foul beast and make sure I will come out of it alive. But first I needed to get stronger and with this Azel recommended me to read the ice magic books and use the pocket watch. As he explains their usage, I was bewildered by the power of the pocket watch. It could turn back time by twenty four hours. That is an amazing functionality. But the limitation is that it has a twenty four hour cooldown as well. So you can’t keep reversing time until the very beginning, which was a huge weakness. Azel told me that the pocket watch can be potentially upgraded with more advanced magic and crafting spells. He recommends the expert crafter at level three of the dungeon. Perhaps he could have a clue on how to better improve the functionality of the pocket watch. Edward listens intently as Azel goes over the details of the ice magic book. He was seemingly amazed at his depth and breadth of knowledge at such a young age. The old man must have taught them well, he thought. The ice magic book contains spells on freezing and ice manipulation. It was a rare book that can only be found on level one of the dungeon. Therefore Azel told Edward that he was very lucky that he came across them and this book.
Only him has ever been a guest at their town for the past two hundred years after all. Edward spent the rest of the evening joyfully listening to Azel’s stories and tips on magic. Afterwards he would lock himself in his room to study for the ice magic books and others. He takes out the pocket watch and inspects it closely. It did seem peculiar and he really wonders about the powers surrounding it. Perhaps he could use it once before he gets into a precarious situation like today. He truly wants to test it out for fun. Edward studies the ice magic closely as it involves incantation for the freezing spells and ice manipulation as well. Apparently you can make ice crystals rain down from the sky. He can’t wait to use that skill.