Leaving the dungeon, we went to the inn that the group of night owls stays in, to meet with the other members and have a late lunch, of course before eating we would have to clean up even if we can only get rid of the superficial dirt and more than enough to take out the blood and dirt, we got from going through the dungeon.
After a few minutes the five of us were sitting at a table in the tavern waiting for our lunch and Captain Raven, but she only arrived a few hours from now as we left the dungeon much earlier than we expected. The top floors were easier than we expected.
"Vera, how was my and Raziel's participation during the expedition?"
"It was different from what I expected, let's start with the lucky boy. Your strength is at the level I thought it would be and your control over your element and aura are above average, but it's still a while before you can be considered a real warrior you still can't release your aura away, which is an obvious weakness."
"Vera, you're forgetting that they're both only in the beginning stage of the gray core and not the end stage of it. It's unrealistic for you to ask that they can control his aura like a full fighter, the fact that Ulric achieves this only shows how controlling him is completely abnormal for his level."
"You shouldn't compare him to ordinary people, Martin. They are the elite of their generation in the kingdom, even the capital must have a few dozen warriors with control and arts superior to them, the geniuses of the capital will have a more advanced stage of the gray core maybe even have some monster that has already reached the core green, we shouldn't compare them to people of our level, who have already been surpassed by them, but compare them to the one who is stronger than them, Martin."
"I can't deny their words Vera, when they were their age, I wasn't as strong as they were the only thing, I could match and the level of their cultivation, and I think the rest of the team is just like the captain can say no and less talented than both."
"Did the captain have the same strength as me at my age?"
"Not! She was stronger, our captain has the same origin as you Ulric, she is a low-level nobleman because of her father's deeds who earned the status of nobleman, but she comes from the capital and not from the south region the competition there and harder and average and much taller than here in the South so even if she is not a genius of her generation, she has already reached the yellow core at her age which makes her an elite."
"Interestingly, I didn't know the difference between the capital and the southern region was so big."
"The capital is fed by a part of the resources of the entire kingdom, not only the resources of the central region, which is the richest region in the kingdom, so it is normal that the noble families there are richer if they were not, there would be no way to exist a monster that has a green core the same age as the two of you, no talent that can reach that level without relying on an absurd amount of high-level and rare resources, and such a massive amount that it makes an orange core warrior like the captain be jealous."
"Cool. I'm very excited to meet this type of person in the future."
Before Martin or Vera could start talking about my performance in the dungeon I heard the captain's voice, once again she snuck up behind my back.
"You shouldn't worry about the young people in the capital, but the ones you're competing with now, and I'm not just referring to people your own age, you two are competing with all the gray-core warriors and most of those who it has a green core. You should focus on your path to success rather than worrying about comparing yourself to people from other regions, you're not even participating in a real tournament yet."
"Captain! You arrived earlier than we had agreed."
"I can say the same for you, Dumah. Why are you already resting? Didn't you kill the guardian of the twentieth floor?"
"Captain we killed the guardian on the twentieth floor, it was a level three boss type manticore. It was quite exhausting to kill him, we only arrived earlier because floors after fifteenth were easier than usual."
Captain sat between min and Raziel, she basically pushed us both to the side and placed a chair on mine so we could sit.
"Why were these floors easier?"
"They were narrow tunnels, not big caves."
"This is quite unusual for such low floors, this type of corridor usually only appears after the twenty-fifth floor, and it is to make the dungeon difficult for large groups and be lacking for groups with people weak in formation. But it turned out to be an advantage for you."
"How was the participation of the two newcomers?"
"We were discussing this before it ended up diverting to a different subject. The two were useful during the dungeon, they were able to keep up with the team and help effectively during the fight, but between the two Ulric was the one with the best performance even though he does not have the shadow element and cannot strengthen the element of others during a fight difficult."
"I thought that would be the result in the end, but I'm not dismayed by your strength Raziel. More like you two were helpful in the dungeon, you are part of our team now it's official."
"Thank you, Captain Raven."
"I'm glad they can join the group, even though it doesn't have the shadow element, now I know how strong it can be in a dark environment and with the union of several warriors."
"Don't worry, Ulric. The reason you join the group is because you are useful, we had more applications than just Raziel, but only he was qualified to have you join him and just luck, it's difficult to find qualified people without affecting neutrality when joining the group. "
"Neutrality?"
"Yes, to several warriors who were strong enough for us to consider joining the group, but accepting one of them into the group would make us lean towards a noble family, the family of Raziel and one of the few families that really is neutral in the city. And that's only because, they've kind of been trying to move to the capital for a few years."
"But now that we are part of the team, what do we have to do?"
"This is a complicated question, you are part of the group, but you are also students of the institute and your priority is the institute. So, your obligations are slightly different so it doesn't disrupt your classes, so basically you have to come train with us a few times a month and go into the dungeon these are the obligations that won't change."
"Normally we would do missions outside the city as well, but as they are disappearing, we are staying inside the city which is a good thing for both of you, but for Ulric the extra training in unarmed combat so as not to embarrass us during the next big meeting of my club."
"I don't have a problem with that, but I'm curious about the club I will have to attend, what will the first meeting I attend be like?"
"Relax Ulric, the club is not a secret society it's just a club that we form to pass the time, it has become quite popular in recent months and the part about betting on the club fights I expanded it. To several nobles who are enjoying watching the fights and betting on them and this is yielding a good profit for the adventurers who are part of the club."
"Before the fights were just a lively competition that was sometimes used to bet missions and rare resources that teams had possession, but now with the entrance of more spectators the fights can yield a fair amount of gold for everyone involved in them, even if you lose the fight, you still gain a share of the winnings from the fight. But that last part and secret so you can't tell anyone about it to a lot of nobles who might not like that part, that's because to a lot of idiot idiots who like to see the loser of a fight being humiliated."
"These types of nobles are very problematic, that's why I prefer not to appear in their vision, captain."
"I understand your concern, but the club protects the fighters well so if one of these nobles is to upset and tries to get revenge on a fighter, he will be attacked by some noble families that we have contracted, several groups of adventurers will target him and the Adventurers guild itself will protect the club. So, you have to be really stupid or crazy to try to do something stupid like that, that's the least amount of protection the club had to have for me to agree to open the fight to the public. We're in trouble for a lot of adventurers who are depending on the club to keep their expenses steady, as out-of-town missions will decline."
"To various groups of adventurers who have moved to other regions of the kingdom, the guild has kept it a secret, but there has been a decrease of at least thirty percent of adventurers who have moved to another city. If this trend continues, the guild without adventurers will affect the entire city, which is why even the guild is protecting and supporting the shadow club."
"Well, it looks like I have to put in a lot of effort in training to be able to join the club."
"That's the spirit! Let's start training tomorrow."
"Poor thing."
"I hope he doesn't die."
After Vera and Martin's false and exaggerated comments, we went back to telling the captain how the dungeon had gone. And in the end Raziel will also undergo the same training as me, the captain decided it would be good for him.