Appearing back outside of the dungeon, he was greeted by even more people than when he had entered, before there had been about 20 people around but now there was nearly double that, he still didn’t get why they were all waiting, time was ticking down after all, but these people had either given up or were preparing to enter, maybe hoping to get some idea of what was inside from people that completed the dungeon.
His appearance caused quite the commotion, everyone stopped their chatter and started to look on at who had completed the dungeon, there was a mix of reactions from those present, the newcomers looked almost sad for him, having come out alone, probably thinking he had lost his team inside. Those that had been here before knew he had gone in alone and had looks of shock on their faces, that and a good dose of fear. In their minds he was dead as soon he went inside, because who would be able to survive one of these dungeons alone?
Shaun looked over everyone around him, one by one, he spotted Angus and his team, who although looking a little worse for wear, seemed to have gained a few levels since he last saw them, apparently taking his advice to get stronger before entering seriously. He recognised a few others from when he entered but what surprised him the most was a group of people that he hadn’t seen in a while, standing off to the side and giving him a look of absolute shock. He recognised two people in this group, Gabe and Eric were there as well as three others who he didn’t know. Looking them over he saw that they had done pretty well for themselves, he identified each and couldn’t help but be happy for them both. Both Eric and Gabe had hit level 19, and by the looks of it had also managed to upgrade their classes, the feeling they were giving off was different to the standard basic classes. The rest of their team was a few levels lower than them but was still in the upper range of the people present.
It didn’t take them long to start walking up to him, but before they could get far he held up his hand, signalling for them to wait. He wanted to deal with everything else before he had their mini reunion, he knew that everyone present would want to know about the dungeon and he was happy to tell them, but before he even got to that there was something even more important he was waiting for.
*Calculating dungeon reward grade*
Party fully cleared the dungeon of monsters. Adjusting reward grade.
No members of the party died during the completion of the dungeon. Adjusting reward grade.
Dungeon completed by less than the 5 participants recommended. Adjusting reward grade.
Dungeon completed in less than 3 days. Adjusting reward grade.
Dungeon completed Solo. Adjusting reward grade.
Dungeon reward grade: A
*Distributing reward at A level*
*Blank Faction Emblem*
*Nature’s Harmony Orb rewarded*
*Nature’s Harmony Orb: An orb that is made of the most pure element of Nature, greatly increases all effects of healing and connection made with this element if equipped. If the user has an affinity for Nature mana cost is greatly reduced when using their affinity. If the user does not have an affinity to Nature, when equipped may channel mana through the orb and aspect their mana to cycle through their body to offer basic healing*
Because he was actually conscious this time the orb appeared in a flash of light in his hand, causing exclamations from those present, they obviously hadn’t seen awards being handed out from a dungeon yet so they didn’t know what would happen once someone completed it.
Putting the orb into his inventory, he looked back around at everyone present, he wanted to get this over with quickly so decided that running through the dungeon and everything he had seen would be better to do as a full group than with these people individually.
“I don’t want to spend too much time here, so I am going to be quick and to the point, if you want to know about the dungeon, listen in, if you don’t, then I really don’t care.” That sure got their attention.
“I won't be repeating myself so listen closely.” He then went on to tell them about each part of the dungeon, splitting it into the three sections, detailing each type of monster, the number of them, their attacks and also what the bosses were capable of. It took about 15 minutes to go through everything, no one interrupted him during this either, most too scared to be on the receiving end of his wrath if they did. He finished with explaining the reward calculation at the end, and the different things that looked to impact on the grade. When he was done he couldn’t wait to leave, but he decided to give them a chance to ask questions, he was in a good mood from getting another orb as a reward for the dungeon.
“What grade and reward did you get?” Really, this was the first question? It wasn’t going to help them survive in the dungeon at all.
“A grade and none of your business. Next Question” He was regretting this already.
“Any advice on the best way to take out the monsters?” A much better question.
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“You will need to work as a team, focus on physical and magical attacks and be careful with the shields they use, break through them with physical attacks first and then follow up with magic if you can.”
This continued on for a while, some of the questions were really good and would definitely help them if they chose to enter the dungeon, others were just stupid and focused more on him than the actual dungeon, which he chose to give short responses, if he decided to answer at all.
Once he was done with the questions he wished everyone good luck before making eye contact with Gabe and Eric and walking past them into the forest. If they chose to follow he would make sure he was easy to find, if they decided they didn’t want to come after him, he was okay with that too.
He didn’t have to wait long before they started trailing after him, he kept track through his echo and once he has far enough away from the prying eyes of the people around the dungeon he stopped and waited for them to catch up. He wasn’t sure how this conversation was going to go but he no longer held any ill will towards them for what they did back in stage 1, it felt like a life time ago now and he had moved past it.
When they finally came to where Shaun was standing there was a moment of awkward silence, no one knowing what they should say or do to start off their conversation. They had already had enough time to suss each other out and were now just standing around, the rest of their team looked even more uncomfortable than the rest of them, having never met Shaun they really didn’t know what to say.
“I am glad you are okay Shaun.” Gabe broke the silence first, it was a short statement but he meant it.
“Thanks, I’m glad that you are both doing well. You are some of the strongest people I have come across in the tutorial so far, you should be proud.” And he really did mean that, they were strong, and seemed competent in a fight. Their gear was a little rough, and their weapons were still basic but they looked like they knew how to use them.
“I can’t believe you did that dungeon alone, was it your first one?”
“Nah, it was my second, I went into a fire dungeon last week, it was a lot harder than this one, but I am stronger now than what I was then.” He also had an extra affinity which the monsters had a weakness too which also helped. “What about you guys? This is going to be your first?”
Gabe chuckled at this, seeming to find the fact that Shaun had done two dungeons already funny or that he only thought this was their first a joke.
“How the hell have you already done two? This will be our second so we are hoping to finish it quicker than the last but after everything you said before it might be a lot harder than the first one, for us at least.”
Shaun looked them over, outside of Gabe and Eric, they had one mage, a rogue and another warrior, he was right though, this dungeon wouldn’t be easy for them, not without a little help at least. He considered each of their weapons and how he could make them better, stronger, for what they had to fight in the dungeon. He had some ideas, for everyone except the mage that was, he wasn’t going to give up anything of value to help out with their magic.
“I can help out a bit, if you want. It shouldn't take too long but you would need to trust me with your gear.” He was a little hesitant to offer this, both because he didn’t want to expose any of his affinity, but also he was a little scared of being rejected flat out, not willing to trust him with the only things keeping them alive.
“Really, that would be cool! But how can you help out with our gear?” Eric sounded eager to get some upgrades, no hesitation whatsoever, which was a relief.
“My profession is quite useful. I have a sort of crafting profession, I usually make most of my gear or upgrade it depending on what I need. Here, have a look.” He handed over one of the daggers he had made, they each identified it and the look of disbelief on their faces was so entertaining that he couldn’t help but laugh.
“What kind of crafting class can create something like this? It's better than anything we have.” This was said by the Rogue, who was captivated by the dagger, probably because he still had the basic ones he would have started out with.
“I got lucky to be honest, but it has saved me more than once when preparing to fight monsters. Pass me one of your daggers and I can show you.”
The rogue handed over one of his daggers so quickly that it shocked Shaun, they actually trust me this much? Better not let them down then. Taking the dagger, he sat down on the ground and inspected it, as expected it was just the straight up basic rogue dagger from the beginning of the tutorial.
“Do you generally use the daggers by throwing or keep them in hand?” Shaun asked the rogue.
“A bit of both, I also chose the Dual Wielding skill so I can use both at once.” Good to know, very similar to how he started himself.
“Do you guys have any spare metal on you at all?” He looked around at everyone present.
“We do actually, why?” Eric replied instead of the rogue.
“I can make more weapons from it if you want, depending on how much you have. I could probably make a dagger or two, maybe even a sword or shield if you have enough. Up to you though.” He was curious about the metal, where they got it and what kind, but he wouldn’t force the questions if they didn’t want to provide the answers.
“Oh we have plenty of metal. The first dungeon we did was earth based and had golems in it made of rock and metals, when we looted them we got ingots of the stuff. Here, have a look.” Eric pulled one out of his inventory and passed it to him.
*Earth Infused Carbon Steel – Reinforced carbon steel from the body of a golem, has been strengthened through the infused element of earth.*
Before he had a chance to digest the incredible piece of metal he was handed a different type from Gabe.
* Earth Infused Bronze - Reinforced bronze from the body of a golem, has been strengthened through the infused element of earth.*
“How many of these do you guys have?” He was envious of them in that moment, the things he could do with this metal, the ideas he had, were running through his mind like crazy.
“We have nine bronze and twelve carbon ones. We didn’t have any use for them so have just been sitting in our inventory, think you can do something with them?”
“Yeah, I think I can. Actually, I think I can do a lot with these. Alright we can either use your current weapons as a base and just upgrade them or, we can do something completely new and make new gear out of the metal and anything else you may have.” He knew what he would prefer, making something new would do a lot for his profession and making something from scratch would be a lot more fun. “It’s your choice.”
They all shared a look and seemed to come to an agreement pretty quickly.
“If you have time.” Eric said, “Let's go with some new gear and after if you want you can upgrade what we already have?”
He knew he didn’t have that much time, but if he committed a day to helping them out, the growth in his profession would be worth it. He would just need to speed run the dungeons afterwards.
With a smile Shaun’s only reply was “Let’s do it!”