' So that's the dungeon huh.. '
Standing not far from it's entrance, Arthur couldn't help but think it was anticlimactic.
By following the flow of adventurers that came here after hearing a discussion, he finally found his way to the dungeon, but..
' ... Where is the tower that reach the clouds ? The entrance paved with precisely cut stone along with it's inside, or even the set of stairs in the middle of nowhere ? '
That's right, the dungeon, which everyone talked about, had his expectations raised for nothing, as it looked nothing like what he expected.
A dense forest, where he couldn't see more than twenty meters ahead due to the concentration of trees that would cover his sights.
' .. At least, those guys are here. '
Merchants and other groups of adventurers, who gathered in front of the forest, replenishing materials, buying antidotes and bandages, or even arrows and more.
There wasn't a single healing potion being sold, and he obviously guessed the reason from the story and fighting system in the game.
From the start, there was only two ways for a summoned character to be injured, and it was during dungeon fights and / or explorations for ressources.
If a character died in those, you could only wait a few hours before you could use it again, and it was obviously possible to ' heal ' instantly by using credits.
As for injuries, while it wouldn't stop you to send them back, they wouldn't regain the lost health ' magically ' like in the story or pvp mode, and like a death, you'd have to wait for the character to heal inside the infirmary, or accelerate the whole process by using credits, once again.
' In the end, everything was resolved because of that currency, but now I can just wait.. '
With a sigh, he then thought about the only thing that could help him heal characters.
It wasn't about unsummoning cards and letting them rest for a certain period of time, but about another type of character.
' I really need a priest class. '
The moment he could merge another card, even if it was only a blank one, he knew what he would summon.
' There's a bit more than a hundred female priests with a blank grade, and I have to play it safe if I want a three star. '
That's right, while blank cards had less tags than gold or rainbow ones, they came in numbers, overwhelming so, to the point that a black card was mocked as the equivalent of a white one.
To explain how lucky he had been to summon Mariane with one, it was only one chance against more than fifty of them, though he didn't knew the number exact, but he was sure that there would be at least a few dozens of blanks cards in there sharing the same tags.
And that's taking into account the fact that he knew which set of tags to use to reduce the chances of getting it wrong, if he only replaced the ' stockings ' tags for a ' warrior ' one, the odds would go up to at least 1/100.
While it was a bet that could have turned for the worst, he was so glad that he succeeded, and that was also one of the reason he cherished her so much, as he didn't knew what he would have been doing without her.
But that asides..
' I guess I'll have to summon a beastkin again ? Humans, elves and angels have too many of them, and dwarves and spirits doesn't have any, demons are.. special, and the same goes for the monster race. '
" Master, are you okay ? You've been staring in the void since earlier.. "
Finally stepping out of his bubble when he heard the voice of Mariane, he just shook his head and exhaled deeply.
" .. I'm okay, I've just been thinking for a bit, shall we go in ? "
" I'll follow you to the end of the world if I have to. "
Her undying loyalty apart, he couldn't help but think that she was cute as she spoke those words, and since they were still a bit far from the gathering of adventurers ahead, he used this opportunity to lift his hand and pat her head.
" Thanks Mariane, without you, I wouldn't have be able to come so far. "
Caressing her silk like hair and her fluffy ears at the same time, he spoke his heart to her, ignoring his thoughts to tease her about her blushing face.
" .... "
" Alright, let's go inside, and also, you'll summon your artefacts when you're sure no one can see you. "
" .. I understand, master. "
Lowering his hand with a tinge of regret, he then turned around and started walking towards the forest, ignoring the loud chatter of people requesting to form parties to go in or even merchants trying to sell their items.
Remembering the monsters of the first floors contained by this dungeon as he traversed the blockage of trees, they were all low level monsters, some even weakers than the kobolds and wolf he saw outside of it.
Following the principle of increasing difficulty, there should be only weak monsters at first, and then it would gradually spawn stronger ones the deeper one would go.
And the monsters were so weak that even Arthur could deal with them if he was somewhat armed, but since he wasn't..
" Mariane, you take the lead from now on, we'll hunt a few monsters first and then try to head towards the stairs. "
" Yes, master. "
Stepping in front of him was his maid and summon.
If it was just a normal girl, he wouldn't let her ever try to get in front of him, as a matter of pride, but knowing her stats and what she was able to do, along the fact that she was part of his power, he wasn't bothered by something trivial like pride, at least with her.
Following her around, at one point, she transformed into her battle maid form, or to say, she equiped her gear and got ready to fight, and soon, they found their first monster.
' Horned rabbit.. how nostalgic. '
Such a weak creature, didn't looked like anything cute.
With long ears that would touch the ground, red eyes and a grey fur, it seemed possessed or enraged with foam coming out of it's mouth, covering it's two front teeth and nose.
It's body, which was elongated, seemed almost unnatural, and the long horn on it's forehead could pierce through a male adult from one side to the other.. Well, that was if the creature had such strenght to begin with.
' To think I'd found the tutorial boss here. '
The tutorial, explaining how the prince, or the player, would use the cards he summoned to fight, started with a two star cards, and would end by gifting a three star ones, with a forced summon that guaranteed a three star right after it.
' If only there was a way to have the three star guarantee here.. '
Thinking like that, he didn't knew when, but Mariane had already slain the rabbit with a clean cut on the throat.
" Let's grab the end of the horn before searching for another monster. "
Nodding to his words, Mariane used her razor sharp sword and in a single movement, the horn was properly cut in half, to which he grabbed the pointy end and held it in one hand.
' I wonder if it'll stay in the inventory.. '
The answer was obviously, no, as only items generated by the system could get inside and out freely.
And while rabbit horns would count as materials dropped during a hunt, seeing that the prompt on the system window didn't said anything besides for the given experience, it clearly didn't recognized his loot, and in fact, the rabbit she killed didn't dropped anything.
' I'm okay with the drop rates being low, but isn't that too much ? '
Considering the 8 kobolds that she killed, the single wolf and now a horned rabbit, none gave a loot, was it trying to reproduce the game low percentages ?
' Fucker, it's real life now ! '
Swearing at the creator of the game that sent him here, he closed the system prompt and decided to see the end of it, and how many monsters he'll have to kill before actually receiving a loot.
But at one point, he started to think, maybe it was wrong to insult the creator of the game, as the further they went, and the more monster they killed, the more he had to wait before actually seeing a different message.
Killing more than twenty rabbit, even he was sure that Mariane had probably leveled up by the time he received a single rabbit horn, and of course, the quest given by the guild was also completed.
" Alright, Mariane, can you find the stairs ? "
" I'll try my best, master. "
Nodding to her words, just on his way to them, he received two rabbit horns, as if to mock him for being impatient earlier.
' Fuck, was I really unlucky this whole time.. ? '