Hey, yet again another chunky one that covers today's and yesterday's chapters
I'm a bit sick, my body is a bit tired and my head is hurting, so writing this came as a bit of a chore, but I liked the end result.
It took me a while to realize my current condition, but hey, I did it.
Nothing serious really, probably all due to me sleeping on a thin bedsheet with the power of my rotational fan blasting my face all night.
A very weak cold, but enough to make me tired.
Enjoy!
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/Sometime after Dale and Fray's meeting…/
A group of people watched in interest as Dale walked inside the pharmacy once again together with the other NPCs...
"Guess that's it for the event..."
"That was pretty brutal… I wonder what he did to deserve that." A man with blond hair said as he walked down the street
A skinny man on the side shrugged, putting one hand on the tall blond man's shoulders as he smiled.
"Did you see how the Alchemist was looking at Dale as he beat him up, Drey? It was like a… Hm…"
"Like a princess watching her knight?"
"Yeah yeah! Exactly Cecilia."
His smile twisted into something depraved…
"This is golden! Pure Drama I tell you!"
"I think he may have done something to her…"
/Bonk!/
But before he could finish, a girl with short black hair and a pair of glasses knocked on his head.
"Say it any louder and he may hear you."
"I would recommend you to stop before you receive the same treatment as that fool on the ground, so shut your teeth before I make you."
"Y-Yes Ma'am…"
She became annoyed.
"Didn't I tell you guys to not call me that?..."
"You did Ma'am!"
"#!!..."
"Let's go everyone, we're done here."
'That Npc was definitely beyond Level 35, the sword given to him may have looked normal, but it was a Level 25 and of Special Rarity, yet it was destroyed just like that by his fist.'
'I already knew Lord Dale was boundless, but today I have witnessed a portion of his powers...'
'One is the current outlook of the Southern Grasslands, and the other is the outlook of that guy's face.'
'May neither of that ever befall onto me.'
After watching Dale beat the crap out of a man in brutal ways, Rodi and company made their way back to their temporary residence…
In there, they discussed their future plans such as the soon-to-arrive event.
And midway through that, Hina, Rodi's superior, was interrupted by a sudden call.
So everyone stopped what they were doing as Hina talked with their leader…
"Uhum… Okay… That's all from me and… Hum?"
She was a bit stunned.
"I… My apologies for that, I should've been more mindful… D-Don't apologize miss!"
Hina was flustered as she talked, a rare side to this secretary-looking serious girl.
"Wh-What?... I… That may be possible… We definitely can but…"
"That is a bit sudden don't you think?..."
"Uhum… Okay… We have indeed… Alright."
"I'll discuss this with them, but we should properly hold a meeting soon… Yes, I know you're full of stuff to do I'm not blaming you for that." She said awkwardly, even though she herself was also full of things to do
"Hm? Guliver found what?... Lucky bastard… H-How much?..."
She clenched her fist as her expression twisted, she was envious!
"Really?!... Bastards!... Alright, we'll keep an eye on them, but suppressing everyone alone will be a bit too hard."
"Is that all?... Alright Guild Head, I'll let you go back to your raid, make sure to contact us soon…"
/Beep!/
With a large beep, the call ended and Hina was left looking at the wall with a dark expression, but no one knew how to approach her in that state.
It looked as if something had gone wrong...
"Uhum..."
Being the second in command of their Clans operations within Resko, Rodi opened his mouth to ask:
"What did our head want?"
Hina turned her face to meet them, sitting on her chair as she fixed her expression and hair.
"There is good and bad news… Which one of those do you want to hear first?"
The skinny man was the first to raise his hand.
"The good one!"
/Clears throat…/
"So, we aren't tasked with raiding the Catacombs anymore and are now free from that monotonous grind."
/Cheers!/
Everyone apart from Rodi cheered.
Obviously, he was rather thrilled with that as well, however, from the start…
He raised his hand politely so he could have a chance to speak.
"Hina, we weren't hunting in the Catacombs because we were forced to, but because that was the best place available."
"Since no other Guild has access to that area, we are the sole Clan with access to not only the Catacombs but also the Sewers."
"No competition means we always have a monster to fight without interference."
"We have developed a strategy to raid those areas in order to complete as many quests as possible for a total of 110% efficiency, leaving right now would be throwing away that work."
"If we don't hunt there, we'll soon be overcome by the other Guilds that have used more resources here, I perfectly understand the situation of our Clan, but abandoning our leading position isn't the way."
"The difference between me and the Captain of the Thunder Wheel Giants is just that of 6 Levels, it may be big, but if we stop, they'll catch up in another month or two."
"And that will be when we'll lose our position as the leading Clan..."
Hina remained silent throughout his explanation, and she nodded, clearly understanding all of his points.
But she knew he wasn't done, so she allowed him to continue.
"We also can't forget about our responsibilities..."
"If we stop doing that quest, someone else will do it in our stead, and they'll take over our place just fine!"
But Hina was ready for her own counterargument.
"That may be true, but that is one of the reasons why we must start moving."
"First, our current raid area isn't really… Wealthy."
"All drop items are either destroyed, or completely scraped, and even with the Smith Quest of exchanging 5 broken pieces for 1 repaired piece of gear, even after 2 full weeks grinding, we still failed to get a full set of that gear for everyone."
Rodi's expression soured, he knew that feeling very well, and he hated it.
While other players could drown in items, they could do nothing but sell them for scraps in the smithy, which awarded them with extra income and Experience, but Levels aren't everything.
A single item with good stats could cover the difference in levels just fine.
"In order to get better items, we need to go deeper into the Catacombs..."
"But can't even go beyond the 3rd floor due to the continuous debuffs, if you lack Constitution, if you stay more than 10 minutes on the 5th floor you just die."
"You'll even start to take poison damage when you enter the 4th."
"Only Drey who has the highest Constitution stat can somehow resist the Miasma debuff on the 5th floor, but Cecilia and Iroha are support characters, their 'Ct' value is super low."
"Even if we pull the other field linked to the Catacombs, the sewers, into the matter things won't change."
"They aren't that good of an area to hunt in, you talked about that hidden area within the sewers last time, but we were locked from getting there, remember?"
"I... You're correct, we can't only Level up, we need items to more effectively hunt." Rodi said as he started to know where this conversation was being led to
And following his expectations, Hina passed them a small piece of paper.
Written on it were many numbers... Scary numbers...
"Hunting in these fields takes a lot of resources from potions to repairs, all of those cost money, it may be in-game money, but since we can exchange that for real money..."
"I don't really need to finish that do I?"
"..."
/Slam!/
Hina smashed her hand onto the table!
"If that wasn't enough, we get almost nothing back at all, the coins from the quests barely pay that back, which is good but nowhere near ideal!"
"Our Guild has directed 25% of its total earnings to support us… 25% of a major Guild to support only 10 or so players!"
"Things would've been different if it weren't for the massive tax fee of exchanging items through the Church system, but what can we do when the Village is still developing?"
"Even with the new merchants tha have arrived, this will only reduce our future expenses... But so those of our competitors."
"For now, we need to do something else, because supporting us has started to take its toll on the plans of the Guild."
"After all, there are several other departments and each one of them needs its own form of support, we may be one of the most important ones, but without solid gains, it isn't worth it."
"Siiiigh..."
Rodi was really sad, but that was just how things were.
You raid in one area, then you go to the next, grind there, and then to the next one, this is how it works.
They already spent more than enough time here, and given everything that happened recently, this is the perfect opportunity to bail out into a better hunting ground and take the lead for good.
Soon there will be Guild Wars, and they need to be ready to protect themselves...
At least... Until their Guild figures out what to do with Resko, will they abandon it? Or will they stick to it and fight for dominance?
"Don't be like that, it's not like we lost all support, money will still flow to us."
Hina smiled.
"You may like this news, but the Headquarters in the Capital have decided to support us with more personnel."
"Really?!"
"That's surprising, given how serious they all are, I bet they would concentrate everything on themselves in order to strengthen their control in the central parts..."
"Finally! I won't be the junior anymore!"
"That's your worry?..."
Hina smirked at the sight of her companions voicing their positive opinions.
"Yes... With this, we won't need to abandon our position in the Church, and instead, pass it onto someone else."
"Once we're strong enough, we can go back there and fully explore its secrets... It's that fine with you Rodi?"
"I... Have no complaints..."
"We'll return to it eventually… When were actually ready to raid bellow the 3rd floor."
"I understand your fears very well, this is something we worked hard to acquire, but everyone's tired, you included Rodi."
"I know that you are thinking of our responsibilities first, but the most important thing here is to have fun while you do it."
"Repeating the same thing 100 times over will take its toll even on the sturdiest mind."
"She's right rock head, relax a bit more..." The skinny man said with a cheeky expression
"..."
Rodi ignored him as he waited for her to continue.
"With that in mind… I know where we should go now, and why."
/Point.../
She opened a map and let it roll on the table, it was a pretty expansive product they had someone draw over the last few weeks.
"Our levels are high, and even though our gear is somewhat lacking, as long as we can find good items, we can soar even higher and leave most players in the dust."
Her finger slid to the south, the green fields before the dark forest...
"Not so long ago, the Thunder Well Giants' Clan was wiped out during the Unique Field event that happened in the Southern Grasslands, and very likely, their dropped items are going to flood the market soon…"
"And we won't lose that opportunity."
"Using that and our high Reputation, we'll be able to secure materials rapidly thanks to the timely appearance of these new merchants, and secure the new Field!"
Her finger slid toward the North, pointing at the endless yellow desert full of sandstorms...
"You all know exactly what I'm talking about… The Field that opened in the desert… Yellow, Hard-Stone Dessert!"
"Many players have already gone there to check it out for themselves, and according to them, the field is a large fissure of an unknown length similar to a Canyon."
"Its borders are around 100M apart from each other, with sand falling inside of it like waterfalls…"
"Some of those that have gone inside calculate that the Canyon is at least 1Km deep but some say it's way less, while a few affirm to it being deeper."
"There are many caverns that stretch out from the walls of the Canyons, and that is where the true Field starts, an endless circuit of interconnected caves full of rare ores, minerals, and other items..."
"The surroundings are merely a delicacy and where the low-level and unorganized players will hunt."
"Most monsters on the surface are similar to Elemental Golems often seen in other series and places, but there are other varieties of creatures."
"They are all obviously high Level with even the weakest recorded so far being Level 30, the strongest one was recorded by a player not so long ago, a Level 85 spider creature that was entering one of the side cave holes."
/Shivers.../
Some of the shivered, spiders weren't exactly nice creatures to see, much less giant ones...
(Depends on the type of spider, they're mostly pretty chill unless you happen to be a rat facing a tarantula)
"The player that succeeded in defeating some of those weaker monsters that surround the Canyon and managed to collect their drops have shown that in essence, they drop the very same materials scattered inside the caverns…"
"That very something this Village deeply needs."
"A lucky one somehow dropped a rare gem similar to a ruby, managing to exchange it with a merchant for a large sum of money not so long ago."
"We have the Levels, and soon, the gear to raid there… Do you get where I'm going at?"
They nodded in unison.
"So get ready!"
...
/Far away deeper into the Continent, somewhere abandoned for millennia.../
/FWOSH!/
A silent arrow was released from its string, precisely hitting a mechanism inside a door, making it fall inside a hole, opening the way for a man fully clad in dark, oily leather.
"Huff... Huff..."
He breathed rapidly, clearly very tired, but upon noticing what lay beyond the door, his eyes grew a bit calmer.
"Finally, I've arrived."
'The first Piece of...'
'It's mine!'
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Notes
This chapter didn't really show much, but we can already know what Dale did.
Likely, the next chapter will be like this, no Dale, merely POVs, and when we return to him, it'll be either directly with the saint, or with a talk between everyone and the Karkavan warrior.
I wanted to end this "Outsiders Welcoming" Arc, and go to the Exploration of the forest and the subjugation of the Greater Devil Arc, so we can proceed with the story and see what this event is all about.
What are your opinions about it? Do you have anything you would like to see in particular?
An idea maybe?
Make sure to share!
I feel like I say this a tad too much... Makes me look desperate...