"Uhm my name is James." James said.
"James huh. Pleasure to meet you." Rocco said as he extended his hand.
James extended his own hand and met Rocco for a handshake.
'What…. What is this strength' James thought to himself.
"Are you by any chance also a player?" James asked.
As soon as James asked his question the mood of the entire square changed.
"What do you know about players?" Rocco asked.
"Not much, but I am one myself and judging by our handshake your strength is not that of an ordinary human." James replied.
Rocco stared into a fire, pondering for a while. Then suddenly he stood up and started walking away.
"Come with me for a bit." He said to James.
James started following Rocco around the building until they finally entered the great hall.
After James entered the room Rocco shut the door.
"I know you are a player." Rocco said. "I also know your two friends are players as well. One girl who is a summoner and a boy that is a tank, right?"
"Yes, but how do you know that?" James asked.
Rocco didn't answer for a while seemingly being in deep thought. Then suddenly he started talking again.
"Tell me. What do you know about the state of the world right now?" Rocco asked James.
"I don't know that much. I only know that the world has been thrown into an apocalypse in which the game called heroes dimension has seemingly come to life." James said.
"Yes. Partially that is true." Rocco then said.
"What do you mean partially?" James asked Rocco.
"Our world has undergone a change. The biggest of course being that heroes dimension has come to life. However, that is not all, all our mythologies have also gotten more of an influence in our world. For example, in east-Asia there are new mountains appearing, but these mountains are floating in the sky. In northern Europe all kinds of roars and rumbles can be heard coming from someplace far away." Rocco told James.
"How do you know all this?" James asked.
It was then that Rocco called out his champion.
"Odin please come to me!" After Rocco said that a figure started to appear behind him just like arlok would with James.
The figure that appeared was an old man with an eyepatch and a long white beard.
"What? How is this possible?" James said. "Odin is not a part of heroes dimension!"
"No that's right he isn't but like I told you. All mythologies have gotten a stronger influence in our world. The first dungeon I entered in which I got my selection orb was a dungeon overrun by Jötunn. Nasty creatures from Norse mythology. As soon as I saw the search bar in the champion select screen I decided to try and search for gods and other mythological characters. And to my surprise I could also pick those characters as my champion so eventually I decided to choose Odin." Rocco explained.
"This is also why I know so much about the world and you and your friends. One of my skills is summoning Huggin & Munnin. In Norse mythology these were Odin's ravens which would fly all around the world and tell Odin everything that was going on."
"Wow, then can you please tell me what you learned about our changed world so far?" James asked.
"Of course I can. But this is confidential information how do I know I can trust you?" Rocco replied.
"You don't know for sure. But I promise you all I want to do right now is create a haven for the humans that survived until now. And every piece of information will be crucial in achieving that goal." James said.
"I like that answer. Fair enough I will tell you." Rocco said as he started to tell James all that he learned in the past few weeks since the world has been plunged into chaos.
Rocco started explaining everything "In our world dungeons have started spawning. At first the looked random but then I found out different types of dungeon would spawn all over the world. They would all emit a different kind of colour around the border of the entrance. Based on this we made a system judging the difficulty of the dungeon:
Beginner class/ iron coloured dungeon
Low class/ Bronze coloured dungeon
Medium class/ Silver coloured dungeon
High class/ Gold coloured dungeon
"The highest-level dungeon we have cleared up until now is a silver-coloured dungeon." Rocco said. "We tried to raid a gold-coloured dungeon but the monsters in there were too strong for us now. However, we can't wait too long with clearing the dungeon."
"Why is that?" James asked.
"Well, you know how the monsters in our world are much weaker compared to the monsters inside the dungeons?"
"Yeah"
"Well due to my summon skill I found out that if you wait too long the strong monsters from inside the dungeon will start to exit the dungeon and enter our world. I've decided to call this phenomenon a dungeon break." Rocco said. "This is also where I have a favour to ask you. Will you and your friends help us raid the high-class dungeon?"
"Yeah, of course we will. And you don't have to worry much as I am already level 18 so this dungeon should not be too difficult." James said confidently.
"Really? Wow! As impressive as that is it won't be enough as I am level 17 and the rest of my squad is around level 14."
"What you are all that high in levels and still can't beat it?!" James exclaimed.
"Yes, that is why I am asking for your help. Our plan for now is to raid dungeons all day long and level up until we are all at least level 18 and then we will enter the dungeon." Rocco explained.
"Of course, we will help you guys." James said.
"Great, we leave tomorrow at dawn in search for dungeons to raid. Please come meet us at the front gate." Rocco said as he left the hall.
After his discussion with Rocco, James went back to his room and started explaining everything he learned to his friends.
"What they can't clear the dungeon even though they are all at such a high level?" Ella said.
"Damn, that must be one tough dungeon. I can't wait to take it on." Brodin said with a hint of excitement in his voice.
"All right so it's decided. We will join their team tomorrow at dawn and we will help them raid then and focus on levelling up to increase our strength so that we can take on the high-class dungeon." James said.