"The Hidden Quest was achieved for the first time..."
"Calculating Rewards for the 'Hidden Quest: Finish reading the Terms and Conditions of the Event' is now processing..."
"Calculating... 23%"
"50%"
"90%"
"Calculation Completed"
"Hero Kash Firebrooks will receive quest rewards:..."
Ping!
"...Ash."
"Kash... "
"Kash!"
"Oh my gosh, Kash Firebrooks wake up!" A painful slap on the head from Aries forced him to wake up, jumping straight out of their makeshift bed.
"Aaahhh!!!-" Kash yelled
"-Ahhhh!!!" Aries yelled as well for being startled by his pal's reaction.
"What's with you?"
"The city! The city's in danger!" He scratches his head as if not knowing what to do while the other lad watch him in frustration and just offered him a cup of coffee for a breakfast.
The cold breeze of morning air, the tall wild grasses and a variety of surreal plants around the valley where they randomly went when entering the portal, the emptiness of the land indicating that there are no residents around, and the horizon that's not separated nor shrouded by thick and cold walls like those in Cube City, means they are now really inside the Portal for a Tower and Dungeon quests.
"What do you mean the city's in danger? Hey, bro. You were acting weird since we entered the portal yesterday."
Kash calmed down a bit and starts telling his friend about what he knew.
"So the city will be in danger if all the [.....] that's why [.....], and [.....] - wha-?!"
Confused and shocked, they look at each other. Some of the words being censored, preventing Kash from speaking significant information he knows.
"What is that? A glitch?"
Kash tried explaining once again but still, like earlier, unknown force is censoring his words and never managed to tell anything to Aries.
"If the system is going out of their way to shut you off from spilling what is it that you know, then I guess it really is a valuable matter." Aries resigned. "You keep it in yourself for a while until the system allows you to disclose it. Then tell me. For now, let's just set out."
A level 1 normal dagger as a weapon for each of them, and a bag of complimentary essential rewards such as food and potions that they received yesterday for participating are carefully packed by Aries while Kash was sleeping earlier.
"Are we clearing a dungeon today?" Kash tied his shoelaces, getting ready to set out.
"Of course!"
"Just us two?! Aren't we suppose to meet other heroes and form a party in order to clear a dungeon without casualties?"
A party is a group of heroes that raids dungeons together, the more people there is in a party, the more easy it is to fight monsters, thus clearing the dungeon. However, gaining experience points will take longer and there are more members to divide the loots for.
Each member have a role according to their type. A swordsman or a fighter that attacks on the rear, archer who attacks on long range, a tanker that shields their comrades, a mage that heals or boosts their selves and other members. The Cube system houses countless types of Heroes who uses skills to conquer this dungeon tower.
"Well, I need you to level up fast first. So we'll gonna need those monsters by ourselves to feed you up." Aries explained and started walking. The dark-haired gulped and followed him. "You're not literally gonna feed me a monster, right?"
The two of them entered their first dungeon. A Normal level dungeon on Floor 1 which houses 'calydonian'. A savage boar that destroys anything oh its way head-on.
Aries, as an S-Class, didn't struggle a lot like Kash who is an F-Class. The latter always ends up chased by a boar, and sometimes gets butted by its horns.
Aries always heaved a sigh before helping his friend out, but fortunately, the system isn't that stingy so Kash still gained a lot of experience points and eventually leveled up a little.
Aries : currently at level 11
Kash : currently at level 7
"Here, Kash. Say aaahh~" Both of them are now sitting in front of the fire, roasting boar meat.
"You really... you're really feeding me monster meat!" Kash cried, feeling down and disgusted with tonight's menu. It is the meats of those calydonian monsters they defeated, although rich in protein, iron, and other monounsaturated fats, it really looks disgusting and hard to chew.
"Don't be picky now! We don't have much food." Aries shove the meat into Kash's mouth, making the man choke to death.
"Blegh! How do you know if this thing is edible?"
"Dad told me when he was still alive, that monster meat are edible as long as you cook it immediately." Kash fell silent as he heard Aries talking about his father. He knows exactly how much heartbroken Aries was when his father died six years ago.
"Greg knows so many things, huh." Kash just said and chew his food, forcefully.
"Of course! He was also a Hero, idiot."
Both of them ate and went to sleep that night after raiding their first dungeon.
It seems just like a normal raid and expedition, but Aries felt something is wrong ever since God-knows-when.
They didn't spot any other Heroes since yesterday.
Supposedly, when entering the portal, Heroes of each Cube Cities are designated into different locations near a dungeon. The holographic interface on their map view only shows the positions of the nearest unclear dungeons, aside from their stats of course, so they often gets surprised when meeting another Heroes. Upon the meeting, they can either form a party or go their separate ways on clearing the dungeon.
The next day, they continued to explore the other level of the Floor One. The Cube Tower which houses hundreds of thousands of Dungeons has a total of 100 Floors. Each Floors have three dungeon difficulties: Normal, Hard, and Hell. In order to get to the upper Floors, Heroes needs to clear those three stages on the current Floor. If wished not to enter into the next Floor or Stage, Heroes can explore other unclear dungeons on the current difficulty, they can also level up using this method before going to the tougher stages.
"Are we really going to enter Hard stage with just the two of us? We might pulled that off on the Normal stage, but Hard is another story." Kash obviously didn't have the confidence, he may leveled up after yesterday's raid but he is still an F Rank. In Cube System, once you're classified into a rank, no matter how much you level up and gain EXP, you will forever be stuck at your classification.
"Even if I want to find a party members first, we can't do that... We can't even find other Heroes since yesterday." Is what was on Aries's mind.
"We have no choice, Kash. Let's go."
"Don't worry, I'm here. I'll protect you." Aries assured.
"Who's protecting who?" Kash rolled his eyes that made Aries laugh. The former started walking, entering their second dungeon when a mythril blade appears before his sight.
He turned to Aries who's holding the blade and is smiling at him. "Wha-?"
"Come on, take it! This is for you." Aries shove the blade onto him which made him speechless as this is the first time he will be receiving such grand item, a mythril Karambit daggers embued with carnelian stone. You rarely see this type as mythril ores can only be mine inside the dungeon. This is one of the reasons why Heroes who had been in a dungeon raid could gain wealth, they sell ores and other loots they obtained inside to when they comes back to their cities, as items from the portal costs a lot of money.
"A-aries!" Kash jumped on his friend from too much happiness and they both landed on the ground.
"Ah! Kash, you're heavy! Get off!"
"I'm so happy, thank you! I'll treasure this, I'll even make this a family heirloom!" Kash didn't even budge even though Aries is trying hard to brush him off. The last mentioned resigned and just smile while patting his friend's back.
The pals were enjoying the moment when a bunch appeared before them.
"Ah-! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Did we ruin something?" Asked the guy with a soft voice yet have a muscular build.
"Oh, no. It's fine." The two stand up and faced the newcomers.
"Are you two dungeon raiding now? I'm Liam, by the way."
Apart from having a muscular build that can't be hide in his black tunic shirt and burgundy woolen vest, this guy have a long wavy golden hair that reaches down to his elbow. With his unfairly long eyelashes that hides those beautiful pair of blue orbs, he directed his gaze to his three other companions.
"This is Theo, a B-Rank." Liam followed, introducing the man in black cotte and have black neck-level hair.
"That tall one is Art. Also a B-Rank." Pointed to the man with a gloomy aura wearing an azure cloak, he slightly nods.
"And that one is Percy. Better not give any attention to that idiot." This person stands out the most after Liam, a brunette with a lean body that shows off his leather jerkin over a doublet, and the way he talks after Liam's remark is also striking. "The fuck does that mean?!! Are 'ya looking for a fucking fight, huh Liam you fuc-hmmph!"
Art covers Percy's mouth before he contaminates the area with his unconstrained cussing habit. "I'll cut his tongue."
"Y-you don't have to go that far..." Kash and Aries also introduced themselves, and both parties engaged with a conversation. They learned that the four came from Cube City: 14416 and been together for ages.
"If you're raiding a Normal stage dungeon now, let us go with you." The other three nods in agreement with Liam. "You see, we're all magicians and we will somehow need a fighter for direct combats. And you two said you're blade wielders, so it's perfect!"
"Hmph! Didn't this guy said he's an F-Rank?! What's the point of having new members if they're just weak." Percy blurted, pointing his finger to Kash. Insulted by this remark about his friend, Aries glare at the brunette intensely that made him stepped back a little.
"Its fine, we don't need baggages as well."
"Err... Aries, stop."
"Ha?! What was that?!" Percy recovered and matched Aries's glare with his intimidation.
"Okay,stop. Let's all calm down. And Percy, better apologize to them. Especially to Kash, you started this, you moron." Liam intervene and stop them.
"Tch!" The two hot-headed guys grunts in unison, making them glare on each other one more time with flaming eyes.
"Percy!" Art raised his tone, scolding the brunette.
The latter whine and started cussing before going to Kash and apologize.
"So...so...r..ry." Percy said while blushing with embarrassment and irritation like a typical spoiled brat. Kash just smiled at him and turned to Aries. "You say sorry too, Aries."
Aries looked at him with disbelief, an expression which says 'Are you kidding me?!' is quite readable on his face.
"You called them 'baggages'... and I don't think they're bad guys. I think we can trust Liam and the others. Percy is just honest with his feelings even if he comes out rude, and that's a good thing." Kash explained. "We also need a party, we can't go on raiding with just the two of us forever."
Aries sighed in resignation and stepped forward to apologize to Percy. But of course, half-heartedly.
"So now that the two of you made up, can we form a party?" Aries nods as a reply to Liam. "Even if I refuse now, we still need companions to clear the Normal stage. We can't do it with just me and Kash alone."
Kash face palmed after hearing Aries. "If you knew, then why picked a fight earlier and almost told them to back off?"
Aries faced Kash with an innocent smile. "Because of my pride, of course."
"I'm the one who got insulted! What pride are you talking about?!!"
"You are my pride, Kash!" Aries declared with a proud tone, making Kash beetroot red from embarrassment.
"Enough!" Kash cried with a plea.
"Woah, a father-and-son bond! It's so touching." Liam exclaimed as if watching a tear-jerker moment.
"ENOUGH!" Kash, who just wanted to explore and raid dungeons with his one and only best friend, started calculating if his decisions in life is worth taking the risks as this moment of mortifying shame unfolds before his eyes. "Let's just start raiding, shall we?"
"Yeah, let's go!"
"Liam Skyfreed, Arthur Evergreen, Aries Ravenheir, Kash Firebrooks, Percy Whiteflare, Theo Larker has formed a party"
"Raiding Normal Stage Dungeon, Floor One: Starting..."