Taking a moment to calm his thoughts, Michael looked around and saw no more monsters.

He was also very close to the Boss room, with the Dungeon fully explored. It was slightly surprising that he didn't encounter any Events except for the trap room, but it made sense.

Helen chewed him out once he mentioned that one of the runs in the Nevesk Dungeons had no Events.

[Do you think it's normal to meet Events in EVERY Dungeon!? Furthermore, multiple of them in the same one!?](Helen)

"Uhm... it's been pretty normal to me so far..."

[It's not! Blockhead! Some Wanderers clear Dungeons their whole lives and don't meet Events even once!](Helen)

"What!?"

[You heard me! Not.even.once.in.their.entire.lives! You're the weird one!](Helen)

"Ugh... I guess so..."

[Events are... a way of increasing the difficulty of the Dungeon. Yes, you can choose to avoid them, but in that case, you'll lose out on possible equipment and experience. But you need to understand that your situation is strange...](Helen)

"Isn't it because of the preferential treatment?"

[Not exactly... I've been researching with my father, but your situation seems... too much.](Helen)

"Too much? What do you mean? The frequency of Events?"

[Both that and the Quests. They are too often, Michael. You need to understand that I wasn't lying when I said it takes a long time to move between levels after your first Class Awakening. You, on the other hand... Have a high chance of breezing through them.](Helen)

They talked a lot on the subject, and Michael finally realized that even though the accounts Helen could find about Wanderers whom the Sanctuary favored, they didn't go through so much in so little time.

The conclusion they reached...

"The Sanctuary is bolstering my growth. In a hurried manner at that... As if it's pressed for time. But I'm just one person, for fuck's sake! I'm not a god, nor do I have a hero complex. If there's huge trouble ahead, I'd rather let someone else handle it instead of dipping my toes in the troubled waters. I'm not some damned main character of a novel, and even if I was, my fucking plot armor is lacking too much!"

Complaining and cursing, he opened the door of the room with the final journal he needed for the Side Quest.

Taking it from the Archivist's Lectern, he browsed it after confirming there were no more monsters around.

[I tried to convince Soliana to leave with me.]

"Oi! What the hell!? Did I miss something here? When did these two hook up!?"

[I told her that her son would rather grow up with a mother, and we could start over, away from this frozen wasteland.]

"I mean... that makes sense. Still..."

[She refused.]

"As expected. He did say her faith in the Light was unwavering..."

[Soliana said to run would be to abandon the Light and a better world for her son. Perhaps...she's right.]

Flipping through the pages, he saw no other paragraphs translated so that he could read them.

This meant that... he wouldn't know more details unless he had someone read them first and then tell him what happened.

[ Quest updated - Legacies of Light's Watch

Objective: Return to Zalan Coste in Margrave. ]

"Well, that takes care of that. All that's left is the Boss Room."

Stopping in front of the Healing Well to replenish his used potions, Michael calmed his mind and inspected his body.

His condition wasn't perfect, but it was good. Adding his minions on top of that would make things easier compared to other Dungeons where he went in solo.

Furthermore, he didn't have to worry about his minions dying, as he could just revive them when he noticed it happen.

Strolling confidently in the Boss Room, Michael was speechless.

[ Dungeon Quest updated - Light's Watch

Objective: Defeat Den Mother. ]

The Den Mother was about three meters tall, making its size unremarkable compared to other Bosses. However, its reduced size worried him even more, implying a much higher mobility.

To describe it, it would be a much fiercer-looking Vokldak, with longer arms and claws. It only now dawned on Michael that this Dungeon's initial 'theme' should've been Vorgen.

But with the foolish bandits happening to be inside the moment it was taken over, it became a dual-type with both Bandits and Vorgen.

'Then... that Desmond Blightcall or whatever... was he one of the bandits? Given how he could summon villagers and was a Blood Mage... it was likely that he massacred at least a village with these retarded subordinates of his. No wonder...'

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

He asked himself if the Knights Penitent somehow found out that their outpost would be taken over by the devil noble and relocated so that they were out of harm's way.

But at the same time, he wondered why they wouldn't mention or put up a board saying that the place would be turned into a Dungeon. What if ordinary villagers would take refuge from a snowstorm inside and become like those bandits?

The answer was that... they didn't want to. Villagers wouldn't hide in such abandoned places; even if they were, it would be one or two of them: collateral damage, but minimal ones.

On the other hands, such prime 'real-estate' would pose an incredible attraction to the bandits.

"Throw the bait and let the devil noble clean out the pests. Judging by the size of this bandit gang, they were many. Also, those three 'Watchmen' and Desmond Blightcaller were stupidly strong. If the Knight Penitent had wanted to deal with them, they would undoubtedly have suffered heavy damage and lost plenty of lives. However, through this method..."

*ROAR*

"Oh, right! Sorry... I forgot you were there for a moment. Shall we?"

The answer he received in return was an even louder roar and the beast charging at him.

Seeing how he had the Boss's aggro and his minions were ignored, Michael sighed and wished he could bring out his Golem.

The speed of the charging monster was too fast, and he couldn't afford to take the incoming claw. Therefore, once the Boss was in front of him, he directly used Blood Mist to evade.

"Mostly physical damage, it seems. Decrepify! Corpse Tendrils!"

Michael tried stacking up the damage using his normal combo, but the Den Mother wouldn't have any of it.

Strange fog-like, deep-red flames appeared on its claws and charged at his minions after losing sight of their summoner.

One pummeled with the strange flames, the Reapers turned into dust, even though Michael summoned them back into play only a moment later.

The stranger thing occurred when the Boss's claws hit the floor, effectively bouncing those flames everywhere in the room.

'They don't vanish, it seems. Tsk! Annoying! I need to deal with it quickly before my fighting space is even further reduced.'

During the fight, Michael had no choice but to play the tank's role as his minions dished out damage. For whatever stupid reason, whenever the Den Mother saw him, she would pounce angrily at him.

Furthermore, he couldn't continuously use his Blood Mist, so he alternated between his dodging skill granted by his boots, using Bone Storm, and simply taking the hits head-on as long as the weird flame wasn't in sight.

Turns out that just a simple swipe or swing of that monster's claw dealt around 150 damage to him. He was proud he could tank until the Boss hit him with a combo that would put boxers to shame, leaving him with less than 100 Life Points until he was forced to use Blood Mist to run for dear life.

"Fuck... annoyingly hard..."

Twenty minutes later, he stood on the floor of the Dungeon, panting and hurt. He was surrounded by flames in all directions, but the Den Mother was also gone.

He defeated her, but just barely. Not only did he use up all his consumables, but he also lost all his minions and was down to 230 life points.

Looking at his Elixir, which vanished a couple of seconds after the Boss fell, Michael breathed in relief.

"Without that extra resistance to fire, I'm honestly unsure how things would've played out. Furthermore, I don't know if those are flames or something else. There's no heat increase in this damned room..."

The strange flames died out about a minute or two after he cleared the Dungeon. Unfortunately, even with the field of vision being enhanced now that there was no obstruction, Michael couldn't see a single item on the ground or gold coins.

If not for the 'official' message of the system notifying him that he completed the Dungeon, Michael would think that there's still a Den Father or something as a Hidden Boss.

With the corners of his mouth twitching in anger, he walked back to the Healing Well and restocked his potions. He made a mental to do that in the future after each Boss fight, as it would cost gold coins to do it in the city instead.

"Mhm... that's it for the day. I'm done fighting these bastards!"

Annoyed after killing a couple more monsters outside the Dungeon, Michael avoided all other monsters in the wilderness and made his way back to Kyovashad.

He still acted responsibly and killed those close to the main roads, as he knew there might be merchants or villagers passing by. Also, if he could make the City Guards' lives easier by cleaning the monsters with his minions, he would gladly do so.

[You look properly battered, Michael. Done with your Quests for the day?](Sloan)

"Ugh... don't remind me, Sloan. Had to go through two Dungeons today."

[Oh? Which ones?](Sloan)

"One that appeared out of nowhere in the old smuggler's tunnels east of Margrave but disappeared after clearing it..."

[Oh, a temporary one. That's good.](Sloan)

"Temporary? What do you mean?"

[Eh? Oh, right! I almost forgot you're still somewhat of a newbie with the pace you've been going at lately. Hmm... Riley? Can you? I'm bad at explaining things...](Sloan)

[This bastard... *Sigh* Sometimes, when you do a Quest, or even during Events, the Sanctuary might transform a specific place in a temporary Dungeon. It happens in order to isolate everyone but the one doing the Quest from entering.](Riley)

"Thank you, Riley! I'll treat you to a drink later."

[No, thank you! I don't want Captain Helen killing me because she thinks we might have an affair...](Riley)

Speechless at how to continue the conversation with the overconfident woman, Michael awkwardly turned back to Sloan.

"The second one was Light's Watch."

[Huh!? How did you get there!? I told you to stay clear of it! We haven't cleared it this month, so it was probably swarming with monsters...](Sloan)

"Yeah... I barely managed to clear it."

[You... huh!? You cleared it!?](Sloan)

"Yeah... I had a Quest related to it, after all. When I was done with it, I was already in front of the Boss Room. That Den Mother was a major pain in the ass..."

Seeing the two City Guards look strangely at each other, Michael scratched his head, wondering if he had done something wrong.

In the end, Sloan ran to make a report and bring a superior over as Riley sighed and looked grudgingly at him.

"Uhm... is there a problem?"

[Problem? *Sigh* Not really... If anything, you've done us a great favor.](Riley)

"By clearing the Light's Watch Dungeon? How so?"

[Did you see the bandits inside?](Riley)

"Yeah."

[And the Vorgen, right? With the Boss being a Vorgen herself, don't the bandits stand out?](Riley)

"Mhm. They do, but I figured it was a double-type Dungeon with a mix of creatures."

[I guess... that can be said about it...](Riley)

"Is it because the bandits were trapped there when the Dungeon was created?"

[That... Sorry, but I don't have permission to talk about that. Ask Captain Helen later.](Riley)

"I see."

About five minutes of awkward silence later, Sloan returned with a higher-ranked officer who took Michael's statement.

The officer thanked him profusely after confirming he indeed had the Aspect of Conflagration in his Codex of Power.

[ Aspect of Conflagration (Sorcerer restricted)

Description: While channeling Incinerate, your burning damage increases by 55%. ]

While clicking his tongue at the stupidly high roll for the damage increase, the officer thanked him again and sent Sloan and Riley to head to the Light's Watch Dungeon and confirm his words.

[That's a Dungeon we need to clear monthly. Furthermore, because of the odd combination and the Elite monsters' strength, we do not allow access to Wanderers under Level 40 who hadn't gone through their first Class Awakening.](Bronson)

"I see. I wasn't aware of that; my apologies."

[*Sigh* It's not like it's illegal to do so. It's just ill-advised as one can lose their lives in there. Make sure you come by the office tomorrow morning, and I'll get you a list of Dungeons and their ratings. That way, you won't make mistakes like that in the future. Especially since you like going solo, like the Captain did.](Bronson)

"You have my thanks."

[No, no! You have ours. Because we clear it monthly, it's also the hardest whenever we deal with it for the first time. More monsters, stronger attacks, more Elites, and a higher chance of Events popping up. Now that you dealt with it, we don't have to worry about casualties anymore.](Bronson)

Michael turned speechless at the officer, who patted his shoulder to show appreciation.

So it seems he took the full brunt of the Dungeons so that these bastards could take it easy in the upcoming days, huh?