Joan was nervous as she hurried her son into the dungeon. She had been avoiding entering the dungeon until her husband arrived. He had been slowed down by all of the snow by quite a bit and then they had been struggling with just getting by, so they still hadn't made a trip to the dungeon. A few days ago was the first time in several months they had made the trek through the forest to the dungeon.
As the mother of a rather young boy, Joan couldn't help but worry as she saw just how much things had changed around the dungeon. She had felt like she was holding her breath as they slowly worked their way through each of the rooms, uncertain of when they would run into danger. Her husband, Raphael, had reassured her that there was no way they were going to run into anything he couldn't heal on the first floor of a dungeon. She knew he was right, but emotions were rarely ever logical.
"Mom! Dad! Come on, hurry up!" Adam shouted excitedly, pulling on her hand. Their son had just received his first quest, which was supposed to help him learn a new class skill. Due to the fact that he had yet to choose a patron deity to follow, his opportunities for such things were rather limited.
The current one was for his swordsmanship skill and required him to kill 100 F-rank or higher [Monsters]. That would allow the skill to evolve from being a poor-grade one to a beginner-level skill. There would likely be similar quests in the future to further increase the skill's quality. Just using his skills would allow them to level up, but the quality of the skill could only be increased through quests such as this one.
Joan was a summoner, so she didn't have to worry about weapon-based skills. However, from what little she had learned on the subject, both the skill's level and quality were important. The quality would determine how much knowledge and resources. It was like having years of training knowledge was put in your head the moment the quality was increased. Less stamina would also be needed to perform more complicated maneuvers, ensuring her son could fight for longer. Meanwhile, the skill's level was more of a numerical expression of how much physical experience her son had with using the skill. After all, having the knowledge to use the skill wasn't the same thing as muscle memory.
As her son went off to fight the five slimes in the first [Monster] field room, Joan smiled, feeling bittersweet. She could remember how just the other day he had been struggling to fight just one of them. Now he was confident even facing off against multiple of them at the same time.
"It's okay, love. I was actually talking with the local alchemy shop owner and she reassured me that the first floor is quite safe. Apparently, she has talked with the Dungeon Master a number of times and regularly comes here to collect herbs. There is apparently a system-bound contract that ensures no [Traps] can be placed on the first floor."
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Joan looked relieved as she turned to her husband and replied
"Is that why you seemed so relaxed about coming here today? I remember you were just as worried as I was when you heard how much the dungeon had changed."
Raphael nodded before offering up
"Elivyre is actually really friendly, I bet you two would get along quite well. Actually, she has been running a charity event on behalf of the Dungeon Master. They even have two Dungeon Diplomats helping them. It's quite unusual, really. She was rather forthcoming about information regarding the dungeon, almost like she was advertising it."
Joan frowned as she questioned
"Doesn't that make you worry whether the information is reliable or not?"
Chuckling, her husband replied
"It doesn't seem like that's the problem here. She answered every question I had without any hesitation. Apparently, this first floor only has slimes and non-combatant [Monsters] called kodamas. They're supposed to be some sort of nature spirits that live in trees, so most people never even see them when they visit. Even the contracted [Monsters] on the second floor seem to be fairly harmless, pixies, if you'd believe it."
Joan's uncertainty changed into incredulity as she stared blankly ahead, watching her son. After a moment, she cautiously said
"Maybe we've been worrying about the wrong thing. There are going to be a lot more adventurers come spring, maybe we should make an effort to visit the dungeon more often before then. I worry we might not have the opportunity to let our son train in such a safe environment for very long."
Her husband hummed in agreement beside her. It wouldn't definitely be good to, at least, get her son's class quest complete before then. There is no way to force class quests to appear more quickly, but the faster he could grow strong, the better chances he would stand in a proper dungeon. Goblins tended to be merciless creatures who liked to play dirty and horned rabbits liked to surprise adventurers by rushing out at them from seemingly nowhere. Slimes were rare and one of the only [Monsters] weak enough to not pose much threat to an adventurer.
If the adventurers that came in the spring ruined this dungeon for them, her husband's job offer could evaporate just like that and then they'd have to move somewhere else. Joan wasn't really that worried about their finances. She could easily earn enough for them to get by for a few months by herself and her husband's healing abilities would always be in high demand. The only thing that really worried her was ensuring her son could grow strong enough to live a long life, even with how dangerous a life of adventuring could be.
After staying for several hours, allowing her son to complete a good chunk of his quest, they decided to leave the dungeon for the day. They'd have to come back soon, very soon, but they didn't have to do everything in one day.