A day later, when Griffin was leaving the market district, he was impressed. Truly, positively impressed by a non-magic related phenomenon.
Griffin could appreciate generosity, but even he felt like Shen-Ya and Jun-Ra had gone a bit too overboard. He had arrived in Aeldfane completely penniless and even clothes-less, for that matter. Just about a day later, he was equipped with a brand-new set of full armor, complete with a chestplate, hardened beast leather leggings, beast leather combat boots, a thin yet durable pair of Qi-Conductive gloves and a multiple layered metal coif that was supposed to be resistant to blunt force attacks.
The goodies didn’t stop there, either. A new sword was clipped by the sheathe at his waist and it was an enchanted one, at that. The enchantment wasn’t all that strong or powerful from what Jun-Ra had told him, but Griffin was delighted to have something that could call upon the mystical power of Qi.
Finally, a small cloth bag dangled from his waist belt, within it contained three adrenaline pills and three minor healing pills. Griffin wouldn’t have to bleed out to death from a minor to medium-ish wound and the adrenaline pill would supposedly flood his musculature with Qi, temporarily increasing his Physical stat by roughly 50%.
All in all, Griffin was pretty sure that all the purchases had pretty much exhausted the two women’s financial solvency. He should have been grateful, but in all honesty, he wasn’t. The very fact that they were willing to go this far meant that the task they had planned for him was going to be more challenging and he wasn’t sure what value he would hold towards them after it was done.
Still, for now, he was the one greatly benefiting from their working relationship, so there was no need to try and break free of the status quo.
The walk back to the Martial Law Sect was a largely uneventful one, but Griffin was still rather intimidated by the prospect.
The time had come to walk his talk, which was a bit awkward considering he didn’t really know how to speak the language the system was auto-translating for him.
The anticipated or perhaps, dreaded moment finally arrived as they came to a stop before the entrance of the Martial Law Sect, before all three of them bowed before the elders.
“You may rise,” Elder Shirong commanded.
As Griffin readjusted himself back to a standing position, he noticed Elder Shirong studying him from behind her face plate with a perplexed glimmer in her eyes.
“Elder Shirong, Elder Ma, Greetings. I have come here to make a request,” Jun-Ra explained.
“Ask, Guardian Jun-Ra,” Elder Shirong said.
“I have arrived to request for your medallion of identification, Elder Shirong. We need it for passageway into the Gilded Dungeon,” Jun-Ra humbly requested.
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There was a momentary pause as Elder Shirong considered the request.
“I see you have not left any preparations to chance, Guardian Jun-Ra,” Elder Shirong dryly remarked, her tone seeming more amused than not.
“If my cousin brother is not up to the task, I do not wish to see him die a futile death in the Gilded Dungeon, Elder Shirong. Forgive me for my selfishness,” Jun-Ra replied, bowing again.
“You need not seek forgiveness for your filial nature, Guardian Jun-Ra. Though I would much rather see him succeed, things will be more interesting that way,” She replied with a twinkle in her gaze, before reaching out to an empty space before her and fishing out a metal medallion that depicted a five petalled flower on it’s circular surface, each of its petals shining in a different color with the center being a healthy green.
Jun-Ra received the medallion with both her hands cupped together, almost reverent as she took possession of it.
Not long after, they departed.
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“So,” Griffin began, after they had walked for about twenty minutes with no end in sight. “Each floor of the Gilded Dungeon has a hundred rooms. I can choose any one of the rooms and if I reach the end, the exit door will take me to the second floor. And you can’t help me because of a sect rule, is that right?”
Jun-Ra vehemently shook her head. “That is not what I meant by a ‘rule’. Every dungeon has a rule. Most have one. Some have multiple. The Gilded Dungeon only allows one person to enter at a time and the difficulty of the scenario within is calculated according to your strength.”
“How is that even possible?” Griffin asked, incredulous. “I thought that the dungeon was a physical place, but you’re telling me it evolves according to the person that enters?”
“It is more a portal than a place,” It was Shen-Ya that took the explanation over. “Or maybe it really does fabricate the location the moment we enter. Dungeons are so beyond my present understanding of Qi, that I do not know how it is possible nor do I think too much about it. Think of it like the system— it was present centuries, even millenia before me and it has always been there ever since.”
“Huh,” Griffin found himself thankful for the analogy. Humans took thousands of years to question why the sun gave them heat and the moon illuminated the night sky and the principles involved in this dungeon seemed a fair degree more complex. Or maybe Shen-Ya was just too below the totem pole to know.
“How long can I stay there?” Griffin asked.
“A month. Beyond that, your door will gray out and be replaced by another. You will never be seen of or heard from again.”
“Charming,” Griffin sarcastically replied. “So basically, I have no real idea of knowing what is going to come for me until I enter the dungeon, have a month to get to the second floor and die if I chicken out. Assuming I can’t go back the same way I came in from?”
“You cannot, but your statement is not entirely true. The general theme of the dungeon is beasts. You may encounter variation, but the first floor should not be that difficult to survive with the gear you have. And once you exit at the second floor, there is no compulsion to re-enter.”
“Oh,” Griffin muttered. “So that’s the grand play here. You want me to steal a skill.”
“A powerful skill, hopefully,” Jun-Ra added. “The equipment and pills should let you survive long enough to make a choice instead of picking one out of desperation.”
“Alright, I get the gist of it. Besides, I really shouldn’t be complaining, it’s me who will die if I don’t get the job done. Final question though, if the theme is beasts, then why is it called the Gilded Dungeon?”
Shen-Ya pointed towards the massive, twenty storey tall gold and silver pagoda that they had been walking towards all this while, before saying, “It’s below that.”