I

In the morning, her foggy funk was gone, replaced with determination to keep her promises. She’d done all she could have done, and now she’d have to keep doing that no matter what happened. With her mind made up, Eva took a stroll towards the dungeon.

Along the way, she looked at the prize she’d gained for being in first place during the monster wave the day before. It was a Wand★, according to Observe★, with the ability to improve spell damage and casting speed. It didn’t really fit with her overall style of fighting, but it was interesting nonetheless.

Her slot wasn’t until 10:30, so she had some—but not a ton of—time to waste along the way. She spent it doing much as she had a couple days earlier: by eating anything that looked remotely like it might be edible. She became immune to several kinds of plant poisons, some of which were attached to rather tasty fruits. As they were poisonous, most people wouldn’t be able to eat them without suffering. That meant more for her.

II

Eventually, she caught glimpses of the wall around the dungeon through the trees. She checked the clock. She had arrived fifteen minutes early. She went to check in. The man in charge that morning had a harsh looking appearance that made her feel a little wary. Observe★ put him at level 18, considerably higher than the average human.

“Checking in for the 10:30 slot,” she said when she had his attention.

“You’re part of Marie’s team? She usually comes here to confirm. Where is she?”

“Dead. She, and several other assholes, tried to assassinate the town’s leaders during the monster wave yesterday.”

“Damn,” he cursed, pausing momentarily. “Do you have any proof?”

“And how would I be able to prove that? It’s not like you can see the experience notifications I saw, nor does it look like any of the leaders are here today. Though that makes some sense considering only a couple survived.”

“I’m afraid that without proof, I can’t confirm you are who you say you are.”

“How about this. I’ll wait by the entrance. If no one else shows up by 10:44, I’ll go in since obviously I am me.”

“No. You weren’t the one who made the reservation. Bring me someone who can confirm what happened—who I know—and you’ll be good to go.”

Eva shook her head and went around the dungeon area to see if she recognized anyone who was at the monster wave. Initially, she had no luck, but five minutes after her scheduled slot time, she saw a team of five exit the dungeon who had been near her on the wall the previous afternoon. After a short conversation, they were willing to help her. Their corroboration of her story was enough to get her through the gatekeeper and into the dungeon with a few moments to spare before the next slot was due to begin.

III

This was it. The Master✷ level run to claim the dungeon. The clearings filled with gingerbread men were easy enough to kill—Fireball★ being sufficient most of the time—but there were a lot of rooms to cover. As she did not know the next time she would be able to access a dungeon at that difficulty level, Eva made sure to take her time to clear everything first. She put all of the shard drops into her ring for storage, a decent assortment of varieties up through Journeyman Shards★.

Eventually, she found herself in a clearing that contained a cottage: the boss room. Before she entered, she made sure she was prepared for the fight ahead. She allocated her experience, gaining a level up in the process. The class point she spent gained her 10% increased air elemental damage, the final element she intended to spend her points on. Air, Fire, and Light were the most useful, she’d found. Eva was sure the others were useful at times—like using earth on a rock so the magic was mostly hidden—but those were more niche as far as she was concerned.

As soon as she opened the door to the cottage, which she was not too surprised to find was made of gingerbread, she saw the boss. She Observed★ the witch, discovering her name to be Rosina Leckermaul. Eva didn’t recognize the name, but then again, she already knew where the System had found inspiration for the theme of the dungeon.

The witch looked like an old woman wearing a brown dress and holding a large wooden spoon in her hand. Next to her was the huge cauldron with which she would boil children. In the background were various odds and ends that pulled the cottage feel together; like the cups hanging below the cabinets on the walls or the copper cookware hanging from the mantle of the open hearth.

The witch cackled and launched herself at Eva, swinging her wooden spoon like a club. Eva Dodged★ and cut at the witch, only to hit a potion bottle thrown in her direction, shattering it. Misty potion vapors created an expanding fog of unknown effect.

Eva Infused★ her sword with fire to burn it away while holding her breath, but the potion was unaffected. Seeing the futility, she Charged★ using her shield as a battering ram and sending the witch flying. As soon as the witch was out of the potion cloud, it dissipated quickly.

The witch picked herself up off the floor before running to the cauldron. Eva tried to stop her but wasn’t able to get there in time. The witch put her spoon into it and quickly stirred. A different kind of fog spilled from the cauldron and pooled on the floor. While it wouldn’t be an issue for a while—unless it was corrosive or something similar—it did put a clock on the fight. She knew she needed to win before the fog could interfere with her.

Eva Charged★ again, dancing around the cauldron and into the witch with her shield. The witch staggered back from the hit, allowing her to get in a Piercing★ attack through the ribs. The fire portion of the attack set the witch’s clothes on fire but also limited the bleeding.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The witch responded by throwing two potion bottles at Eva, who ducked out of the way rather than risk them exploding near her. This turned out to be a mistake as the witch slammed down her wooden spoon against Eva’s head. Without her helmet, it’s likely she would not have survived. As it was, she took a significant amount of damage that left her stunned.

Angered by the beating, Eva Charged★ forward and lit a Fireball★ in front of her shield just before impact. Though she took a small amount of damage from the explosion, the damage done to the witch was grave. Her body was charred in several places and had steam rising from the still-cooking flesh. The witch screamed.

Eva took advantage of the situation and hacked into the witch with her shortsword. Less than a minute later, the witch lay dead on the floor. The fog dissipated now that the boss was gone. She checked to see if there were any drops.

Unclaimed Dungeon Conquered

As the owner, you can now set rules for this dungeon

Quest Updated: Own all the dungeons in the Tutorial. 3/6 owned

The expected System message had appeared, letting her know that she had done what she’d set out to do. However, she refused to be distracted in her search for loot. Not finding any shards struck her as strange. After all, every single boss kill had some kind of loot, even if it was just a mediocre quantity of shards.

She turned her attention to the room around her and began to Observe★ everything more closely. A few objects into her search, she found what she was looking for. It was the cauldron!

Witch's Cauldron★

Quality of potions increased by 10%

5% chance to increase potency by one step

1% chance not to use an ingredient

Preserves potions for 1 day as if they were bottled

Eva picked it up and exited the dungeon. It was too large for her to fit in her backpack, and there was no way she was going to give up something that looked like a real score! It was the first time she’d seen a crafting-focused item, and she wondered what sort of price it would fetch.

It would be even better if she could try making some potions for herself. She used a fair amount of them, and saving herself a bit of currency might be worthwhile. It wasn’t something she saw herself doing professionally, but it might be fun like cooking or horribly boring like chemistry. She’d at least give it a try before selling it off for something she needed over what was essentially a curiosity.

Eva placed the cauldron down and sat next to it to go over her plan of action. She needed to get access to the dungeon that the forseli had, and she needed to control it before the end of the Tutorial to get whatever the prize was for following the completion of the quest.

Now that she had control of the dungeon, access to it was a bargaining chip she could use, as was the cauldron, probably. Nearly everything the System gave was directly for combat, so it was probably pretty rare. She’d rather not part with it just for the dungeon if there were any other way, but she prepared herself for that eventuality just in case.

Eva grumbled. It was going to be a drag to lug the thing around. It wasn’t heavy—not with how high her strength was—but it was rather awkward to carry. Still, it had to be done.

IV

After a small snack of overcooked meat on a stick, she left the walls of the dungeon fort behind and made her way towards the forseli town. She got the daily notification—and a very personalized monster wave—when she was only a couple miles out from the town. Though the monster was her level, she’d just bashed its head in with the cauldron out of convenience more than anything. That had been enough to gain her the blunt weapons skill for some reason she couldn’t fathom. Another half hour of walking later, she saw the forseli town’s walls in the distance.

The guards in front of the gate were assisting with disposal of monster corpses in large burning pits as the daily monster wave had been filled with the inedible, bony kind rather than the delicious and freely given sustenance that happened often enough. Eva waved at the guards when she entered the town. None of them made any moves to stop or question her, much like the first time she visited.

The issue was that she needed to find someone who could answer her questions about where she could find the right people to talk to. With the trio of human towns, it was easy: all the leaders wore colored armbands. With most of the guards outside doing the monster cleanup, she went towards the dungeon, where she hoped there’d be someone protecting it who she could talk to for directions.

Sure enough, there were two guards stationed near the entrance of the dungeon. As she approached, they gave her the same speech about not being allowed to enter the dungeons. Still, she continued towards them, which made them get agitated.

“Relax,” she said. “I’m only here to ask for directions.”

The closest guard moved its hand from its weapon and looked for her to continue.

“I’m looking for the right person to talk to about making a deal for access to my dungeon.”

“Yer dungeon?”

“Yeah, my dungeon.”

The guard gave her a look like he was trying to see every detail about her before taking a deep breath. Eva guessed he’d Observed her and seen her level, which, while admittedly on an elite level, was actually underselling her combat effectiveness by nearly ten levels.

“Well,” the guard said after taking a moment to get settled, “you’ll wantae gang tae th' toun center, whilk is that building thare wi' th' wee tower oan it. You’ll wantae speak wi' someone cried Sun. You’ll notice wha he is immediately by th' gilded armor he wears.”

“Thanks!”

Eva looked in the direction the guard had pointed and saw the building in question. It was the only major structure in the town built from stone. How the forseli had managed that in such a short time baffled her, but that was something she could find out later if the price for such information wasn’t too steep. It was a curiosity, after all.

There were no guards by the door, so she walked in without a second thought. The interior was rather plain, with a few tables in the entrance and a couple of bored-looking forseli behind a much longer, rectangular table. They looked up when she approached. The one she’d chosen to speak with put on its best customer-facing face while the other went back to looking even more bored, if that were possible.

“Howfur kin ah hulp ye, human?” the forseli asked.

“I need to talk with Sun.”

“He's workin'.”

“It’s important. It’s about the dungeons.”

“Braw. He's up th' stairs in his affice. Pat yer weapons awa'. Na violence.”

“Ok, ok,” Eva said.

She unbuckled her scabbard and stuffed it in her backpack. Her shield wouldn’t fit, nor did the cauldron, obviously. She looked at the forseli for help, but it was back to looking extremely bored. She’d just have to carry those two and look like an idiot.

The steps were shorter than she was used to, as was the difference in height of the ceilings. What was grand for the forseli would be standard height for human ceilings. She had to bend over slightly on the second floor to avoid scraping her head.

The office she was looking for was obvious enough in that there was only one office on the second floor. She approached the door and knocked. She heard the forseli say something in their language that she could not understand. Since what she heard didn’t sound like a negative response, Eva opened the door and bent her head a little more to get it inside the office.