"Aros, I'll be training with Icarus for the rest of the day. Can I have you tell the Kobolds to work extra hard in bringing in some DP?" I asked as I turned to Aros.
"I would like to, My Lord, but I believe that is impossible," Aros sighed, "I'm afraid we've hunted the areas around the dungeon dry. Unless we intend to move onto the territories of the two nearby cities, there isn't much we can do."
"Shit," I sighed, "How many intruders have we had, recently?"
"Other than the two that showed up a week ago, nothing has happened. It's unfortunate, but one of them ended up escaping. He had some sort of stealth skill that prevented the Kobolds from detecting him," Aros told me.
"Don't worry, I already know about that," I told him, "We ran into him yesterday."
"How do you know if you have intruders?" Jonathan asked, "It's not like you have eyes all over the dungeon."
"I do, actually," I replied as I turned to him, "anybody hostile to the dungeon is considered Hostile while they're inside the dungeon's territory. As soon as they enter, I'm aware of their presence. I'm even able to spy on them if I wanted. If they die, I get some DP, which I can later use to upgrade the dungeon. Usually, we just hunt the animals outside, but it doesn't look like that's an option anymore."
"DP? Like MP or HP?" He asked. I nodded, "You use that to build your dungeon? Cool."
"Yeah. I'll have to wait until Kelvin gets to Hewe to see some major traffic," I nodded, "But I don't want to attract too much attention. Hopefully, Kelvin can only attract a few strong ones, that way they don't pose a threat. If the dungeon core is destroyed, the dungeon collapses and I won't be able to get it back. I want to avoid baiting large groups of adventurers inside."
"I see," Hazel said. I turned to her, "Although, that shouldn't be an issue, right? Adventurers will have to get through thousands of enemies, then Aros, just to reach the bottom of the dungeon. I don't really see that happening."
"Thank you for the confidence in my skills, Lady Conley," Aros laughed, "However, please be aware that the Kobolds above are weak, incredibly so. A low leveled adventurer should be able to fight one head on."
"Right now, they're in groups of ten. If they work together, it'll be hard just to get through a few of them," I said as I turned to Aros, "Plus, there are traps all throughout the dungeon. I haven't seen them work yet, but they should prove to be useful."
"Good. We'll have to prepare, so why don't the twins head back to Hewe," I suggested as I turned to Jonathan. He nodded, then looked to Aros.
"We'll have to talk again soon, Aros," He said. Aros looked at him, then nodded with respect. Jonathan looked back at me, then said, "We'll still need to go through the dungeon, but I don't know the way. Honestly, I'm kind of excited "
"Don't worry, I'll cut the trip to make it easier for you," I said. I turned away from Jonathan and put Icarus on the ground, then looked back up. With my right hand, I brought my palm into the air and quickly casted『 Dungeon Visit 』. Suddenly a portal appeared in the space in front of us.
On the other side of it was a forest with a small river found just next to it.
"There," I said, "That'll lead you to the river where Hazel passed out. It's not far from Hewe, but it's deep in goblin territory. Hazel, I'll get a Kobold to escort you to the bottom floor once you get back. Jonathan and Evelyn, we'll be back at Hewe in a few weeks. I want to make sure I'm here for a while once the adventurers show up, just to make sure"
"Yep," Hazel said as she looked at the portal. Then, she slowly stepped through and turned around to look at me, "Good luck with Icarus."
Then the portal closed.
"Now then," I smiled as I turned to Icarus, "Time to learn how to fly. For both of us."
After the portal closed, Hazel looked around and found herself in the forest- as expected. However, she was surprised to find the area around her destroyed. Trees had been toppled like dominos and the ground was full of scratch marks and small craters. She turned to the river and began to walk across it. Her destination was to her north, but it would take her an entire day to reach it.
"Jesus," Jonathan gasped as he looked around. Both he and Evelyn weren't able to see the fight themselves, so this was the first glance of the fight they were exposed to. Both of them were surprised and a little fearful, as the carnage in front of them was only the side effects of the battle, "You weren't even trying to destroy the environment."
Hazel nodded, then looked away.
She was tempted to transform into her dragon form and fly there, mainly because she was excited about the prospect of soaring through the skies, but then decided against it when she remembered how the rest of the world viewed dragons.
Plus, she was traveling with the twins and she wasn't sure if she was able to fly them safely.
"Let's go," Hazel said. The twins nodded, then began to run through the forest. They ran for an entire hour uninterrupted. Hazel was faster than them, naturally, but she reduced her speed to catch up with them. The group passed by several goblin groups but didn't bother to fight them as they made their way through the forest.
After running for an hour, the group finally stopped and began to rest.
"Crap, I think I ran a little too hard," gasped as he leaned his hand against a nearby tree. Hazel continued to take the moment to catch her breath, eventually standing straight once she had relaxed her breathing. She looked to Jonathan and Hazel, who were breathing hard and attempting to stay upright.
"Watch out!" She suddenly heard. Hazel looked to the source of the voice, then found a young adventurer running toward her. Then, from behind her, she heard an ugly snarl from a beast. Hazel quickly turned around, then saw the figure of a goblin running at her.
The twins moved away from the goblins as they got their weapons ready, but they weren't fast enough. Hazel turned away from the twins and focused on the goblin. Luckily, the goblin wasn't concerned about the twins but instead determined to fight Hazel. This would prove to be it's last mistake.
Hazel moved her body as soon as she saw the goblin, acting on instinct as she unsheathed her blade and swung it toward the little green creature. Her blade cut through the air and landed against the goblin like a hot knife across butter.
Hazel felt no resistance as she removed the goblin's head from its body, creating a fountain of black blood that sprouted from the goblin's shoulders. By the time the young adventurer had reached Hazel, the goblin was already dead and Hazel had already cleaned her blade of its blood.
"Whoa," He whispered in awe as he stopped his sprint. He looked at Hazel, who had finally turned to him, and felt something rising from within him. Love. He had undoubtedly fallen for the black-haired beauty in front of him.
"Nice job," Jonathan said, bringing the attention of the young adventurer away from Hazel. As he looked at Jonathan, the young adventurer clicked his tongue and darted his eyes away in annoyance.
'She's already got a guy? Damn,' He thought to himself. He sighed, then turned to Hazel.
"Hello," He said with a light tone of his voice. Hazel looked at him and nodded with an indifferent expression on her face.
"Hi there," Jonathan said as he sheathed his weapons and walked up to the man.
"You're so strong. What are you doing way out here?" The man asked as he ignored Jonathan, "My name is Fred, by the way. It's nice to meet you. What is your name?"
"Hazel," Hazel replied as she sheathed her sword.
"Hazel, huh," Fred smiled, "I'm on a quest with my party. Why don't you join us? We're on a goblin subjugation quest right now and we'd rea-."
"Sorry, but I'm in a bit of a hurry," Hazel replied.
Jonathan looked from the young adventurer to Hazel and nodded as they conversed.
"Damn, really," Fred sighed as he glanced at Jonathan, "We just got a new member recently, but he doesn't work very well with us, so we've been having a really hard time today."
"Really," Hazel said, not interested in conversing with Fred in the slightest, "Well, see you,"
"See-" Fred said. Suddenly, Hazel began to sprint away, disappearing in a quick blur as she left the man hanging on his words. Jonathan and Evelyn turned to watch her go, then began to chase after her. Fred turned his head to watch her go, sighing in disappointment as she disappeared.
"Fred!" a voice called through the darkness. Fred turned around, then watched as one of his party mates, an archer by the name of Agil, walked up to him, "Marcus and James are at it again."
"What's the argument about this time?" Fred sighed.
"Watch rotations for tonight," Agil replied, "Marcus wants James to go after him, but James doesn't seem to agree."
"I swear, that noble brat has been trouble ever since he joined us," Fred groaned as he began to walk back to his campsite. Agil joined at his side and began to walk back as well, "I get why his last party booted them out. C'mon, let's go."
A few hours later, around five o'clock in the morning, Hazel saw the edge of Hewe's walls peak over the treeline in the distance like a sparkling light in the dark. She had been running on and off for about three hours now but hadn't really gotten tired once.
Jonathan and Evelyn soon caught up with her, gasping for breath as they stopped. They looked up and saw the city of Hewe in the distance, but they were too exhausted to celebrate their safe return.
They needed to take a few moments to catch their breath every now and then, of course, but Hazel otherwise seemed to be completely fine. Currently, Hazel had stopped to rest near the edge of a small pond.
"Alright, we better keep going," Hazel muttered to herself once she had caught her breath. She looked to the twins, then said, "Let's get lunch once we get to the city."