Rage slowly opened his eyes, it was still sensitive to light so he quickly got a slight sting before shutting them again.
He paused momentarily, then slowly blinked his eyes open, attempting to sit upright; he looked around to find himself in a big room, lying on a very soft bed; a faint ache throbbed in his head, and his limbs felt heavy, yet he summoned his strength and pushed himself upright, rising from the bed.
Glancing behind him, he saw Sensei asleep in another nearby bed, his head and chest wrapped in bandages. His status window suddenly appeared:
Hidden dungeon cleared - The Dwarven Mountain Pass.
Dungeon Contribution points: 218
Rewards: 10,000 Gold. 25,000 EXP.
The dungeon boss wasn't defeated, no extra rewards.
"Huh, it counted as a dungeon?" Rage mumbled to himself, "Looks like rewards were distributed based on contribution; that's new" he continued looking back at Sensei, "A tough son of a bitch ain't he" he chuckled to himself.
"Also, holy, 10k and that much EXP is insane; I should check my stats"
Player: Rage.
Class: Eldrich Knight.
Level: 42
Unique skills: Demonic Authority.
Unallocated stat points: 81
"Gah damn, 27 levels in a day? That's a bit OP" he thought, a bit of shock and excitement visible on his face.
He distributed his stat points, putting 35 points in Agility, 30 in strength, and 16 in stamina.
"Ugh" he groaned before sitting back on the bed, his head still hurt and he hadn't fully recovered yet, so he decided to lie down for now.
A moment passed before a maid entered the room with some meds and a drink, "Your Majesty, you're awake! I'll inform the elder right away!" she exclaimed, leaving the medication on the table before swiftly exiting the room.
"Hey bitch, wakey wakey" Rage yelled to Sensei, who reluctantly opened his eyes after a few shakes.
"ugh, wussup, what happened" Sensei mumbled, his voice exhausted as he rubbed his eyes and sat up.
"Looks like the pass counted as a dungeon; I guess you have the most contribution points; what did you get?" Rage questioned turning his body to face him.
"Contribution poi.. What?" Sensei mumbled in confusion before looking at his stats window, his eyes widened as he looked at it before turning to Rage "You won't believe this!" he exclaimed, a slight chuckle escaping his lips.
"What di-" Rage was interrupted as Thaddeus and Cedric barged into the room, followed by Jimmy and Madeen.
"Your majesty are you okay?!" Cedric yelled, "I swear I'll hunt these bastards down one by one and-" He tried to continue before Madeen dashed by him, jumping onto Sensei's bed.
"How you feeling, drama queen?" He chuckled awkwardly, a worried smile etched on his face.
"It'll take more than a couple dwarves to kill these fuckers" Jimmy approached from behind, offering Rage a small vial filled with red liquid.
Rage eyed it hesitantly, glancing back at Jimmy, who nodded reassuringly before he downed it in one gulp.
Rage's body began emitting a vibrant green glow as his wounds started closing on their own. Gradually, he sensed a surge of energy coursing through him, revitalizing his body.
The heaviness that had weighed down his limbs began to lift as he was able to move more freely now.
"It worked!" Jimmy yelled in excitement before composing himself.
"YOU BASTARD YOU WERE TRYING IT ON ME?" Rage yelled at Jimmy, throwing the empty vial at him.
"Relax, I'm just messing with ya; we did start producing and selling it yesterday; I transferred 2k to your inventory" Jimmy said before handing another vial to Sensei.
"Hoooly, 2k, how many did you guys sell?" Rage was surprised at the large amount of money they earned in such a short duration.
"We sold each potion for 3 gold pieces, net profit was around 18K since we sold close to 6000 vials, I gave 1k to Nyx's party for their efforts, and 5k to the townhall alchemist for helping me in production and teaching me the recipe, which left us with 2K each" Jimmy replied.
"Elder Oakbrook, Cedric, I thank you both so much for looking after me and my companion; I am in your debt" Rage said to Thaddeus, bowing his head in gratitude.
"We are the ones in your debt, Your Majesty; you didn't only save the village, but alerted the empire to a threat that has to be dealt with immediately; as for now, here are the rewards we promised for dealing with the wolf and the mine, since the mine had an unexpected encounter, I took the liberty of adding in another 1000 gold, although it is not enough, it is all we can offer, Your Majesty" Thaddeus replied, "I'll leave you all to catch up, I have things to take care of at the moment, I wish you a quick recovery your majesty" Thaddeus continued before making his way out of the room.
"Also, where are Varon, Phoenix, and Hunter? Are they okay?" Sensei questioned looking around the room. "Don't worry, they're helping train the guards at the moment since they are expecting hostilities against the town soon after what happened with the dwarves; we'll meet them in a bit" Jimmy replied, sitting on a chair that was beside Rage's bed.
"Hunter training people?" Sensei giggled before he continued, "That's a sight I wanna see".
"I pity those training with Varon; I saw the hell he put the sentries through before back in the clan house" Rage added, "By the way, what did you guys get from the dungeon? It looks like we all got different rewards based on contribution," he asked.
"I had 156CP. I got 4K gold and 18k EXP" Jimmy replied.
"278CP here, 15K gold, and 36K EXP" Madeen said, a look of dissatisfaction on his face.
"Damn, those hell hounds really did a number on the dwarves, didn't they" Rage scoffed, "I had 218CP, 10K gold, and 25K EXP" he continued before turning his head towards Sensei.
"Uhh, so I had 480CP" Sensei said, his eyes jumping around in excitement, "It's better to see for yourself" he continued before standing up.
Sensei took out his shield and held it before him; after a second, it started glowing a familiar dark violet glow, "I got my old shield aura back!"
"Holy fuck, that's an SS skill, isn't that OP?!" Rage exclaimed, shock visible on his face.
"Speaking of skills, when we were looking for you, me and Phoenix got new skills as well; I regained detection. It's still low proficiency, so it can't be compared to my previous True Sight skill, but it's something I can check off the bucket list" Rage added before standing up and putting on his armor.
"So Cedric" Rage called out to Cedric, who was visibly confused by the room's entrance.
Cedric didn't know what EXP or levels were, nor did he know about the system or dungeons, so he had no idea what they were talking about.
"Y-Yes, Your Majesty?" He replied hesitantly.
"The last thing I saw was an entire platoon of soldiers before I passed out; what was that about?" Rage asked.
"Well Your Majesty, I was in the barracks that day, doing my night training; I heard a sudden commotion at the gate so I rushed out to investigate; I was shocked to see the miners that I recognized to be the ones from the mine that the two surviving miners said to be dead, they told us about everything and how you were fighting against an army of dwarves to secure a safe passage for them, I was shocked but I didn't hesitate to blow the horn and order the soldiers to gather, it took an hour to prepare before we rushed out for your aid only to find you at the gate"
"That day? Wait how long have we been out for?" Sensei questioned, visibly worried.
"Around 2 days, Your Majesty."
"Oh, thank god, it's not that bad" Sensei let out a sigh of relief before sinking back into his bed.
"And the two dwarves what happened to them?" Rage questioned.
"We immediately sent out a warrant to arrest them, but they were nowhere to be found" Cedric replied, a look of disappointment on his face.
"The news about you fighting the dwarves on your own spread like wildfire; a lot of rumors started to form around you and your companions, Your Majesty" Cedric said.
"Can we stop with the 'Your Majesty'? No need for formalities we are roughly the same age" Rage replied, a touch of annoyance in his voice.
"But your maje-" Cedric tried to reply before Rage interrupted him.
"If you keep calling me Your Majesty, I'll just call you Sir Knight Cedric then"
Cedric rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment, "Well then Vaaa-lerian" Cedric replied hesitantly, Rage was confused for a second then remembered the name he made on the spot on the day he arrived at Oakbrook.
"Vaaa-lerian does sound nice" Rage chuckled before turning to look at his friends.
"Well then, shall we?"
The group made their way out of the room, they seemed to be in the town hall judging by the familiar corridors Rage recognized.
"I made 10k from the dungeon, 2K from potion sales, the bounty on Fangmaw was 4k divided between me, Sensei, and Madeen; we decided to split it 1k each and give 1k to Jimmy for his efforts with the potions, the mine's 1k went to Sensei since he made most of the effort so I'm left with a total of 13K" Rage thought to himself as he walked through the corridor, "I need more for my blade aura, but saving will do more harm than good, I almost died at the mines because I wasn't strong enough, it won't be bad to get kitted for now until I make more money in the future"
Rage opened the shop, scrolling through the plethora of potential skills and equipment he may need; he recognized a lot of them, but one particular item caught his eye.
You have purchased "Memory Fragment" for 10,000 gold.
Memory fragment: Allows you to regain one ability at full proficiency from Phase 1.
Warning: F Class abilities and above, doesn't guarantee a high-level skill.
"Well then, let's pray the gods of luck are on our side today" Rage thought nervously before using the memory fragment.
Verifying player data.
Data verified.
Skill obtained: Aura (SS)
"Holy shit! My aura! I was going to spend 20k on Blade Aura, but now I got my full aura back!" Rage jumped in excitement as his friends were surprised by his sudden surge of energy.
"Guys, just spam memory fragments. It needs some luck, but I just got my full aura back which saved me a shit load of time and money" he told them before showing them the item in the shop.
"That's hella handy; I'll give it a shot, too, I guess" Jimmy replied before realizing he was short on gold.
"Here, I already regained my shield aura, so I don't need to buy something expensive for now" Sensei said before transferring the lacking money to Jimmy.
"Well, here goes nothing" Jimmy said before using the memory fragment himself.
Verifying player data.
Data verified.
Skill obtained: Abyssal Grasp (A+)
"Oh nice, a group CC skill; that'll be hella handy"
"Madeen won't you give it a go?" Rage said to Madeen, who seemed uninterested.
"I'm saving for something I need; it costs around 40k" Madeen replied.
"40K? What the hell is that?" Rage exclaimed.
"Don't worry about it" Madeen chuckled before they continued on their way.
After exiting the town hall, they spotted the rest of their friends at the barracks training grounds, drilling the soldiers, literally; just a couple of seconds of watching made Rage pity them.
Fangmaw noticed Rage, he let out an excited bark before dashing towards him and leaping in his arms licking his face excessively, his tail wags were so violent he almost fell.
Rage laughed petting his head before putting him back down on the ground, Varon noticed Rage standing at the town hall before rushing towards his lord.
Varon kneeled in front of Rage pulling out his sword and holding it to his throat, "My lord I have failed as a guard and my lacking abilities have put your and the other lord's lives in danger; I will immediately accept my punishment by executing myself on the spo-" Varon yelled before Rage put a hand on his shoulder.
"Varon, you did your best; I am proud of you" Rage smiled at Varon, who paused for a second, then stood up and sheathed his sword with a look of shame, unable to meet his lord's eyes.
Rage could hear the other soldiers mumbling behind Varon's back.
"So this is Prince Valerian? If sir Varon respects him that much he must be so powerful"
"He is; I heard that he ripped open the wolves' king's belly with his bare fists."
"His companions are no joke; how strong is he? I heard he beat sir Cedric in one move in a duel"
Varon turned around and glared at the soldiers, who quickly looked the other way, terrified, pretending to be training.
Hunter and Phoenix approached them, with Hunter looking as emotional as ever.
"Alright, drama queen, calm down" Sensei patted his back as Hunter leaned in for a hug.
"God, why do we bring him along again?" Phoenix chuckled before Hunter let out a laugh through his tears.
"How goes the training, my good sirs" Sensei said sarcastically before chuckling to himself.
"They can't aim for shit" Hunter replied, annoyance visible all over his face.
"They are rough around the edges, but a lot of them have potential, actually" Phoenix added.
Rage looked back and saw Nyx and his party training with the soldiers, "Oh, Nyx is putting in some effort; is his party the only ones who took part in the training?" Rage questioned.
"No, a lot of other players wanted to but we recognized they only wanted the passive EXP without actually intending to learn anything, so we put in a a condition that you have to block or dodge one attack from Phoenix if you want to partake in the training" Hunter answered.
"Oh, excluding Nyx's party?" Rage asked.
"Nope" Phoenix answered proudly.
"Don't tell me" Rage replied excitedly.
"All of them"
"Even the mage?"
"Even the mage"
Rage laughed in amusement before he turned around to Cedric. "And you?"
"I'm being personally trained alongside the other three knights in the town by Sir Varon himself after the general training" Cedric answered.
"Good, good" Rage replied, "For now, we need to fortify the town and gain more info on the dwarves' plans, but fortification should be our top priority" he continued, as he made his way down towards the soldiers.
The soldiers were divided into three groups: Soldiers, Rangers, and mages.
According to Varon, there were roughly 300 soldiers in town, 4 of them being knights, including Cedric, 100 horsemen, and the rest were footmen; there were also 80 Rangers and 10 mages.
"Just ten mages?" Sensei questioned.
"From what I've heard mages and magic users in these lands are very rare, these ten were 'third circle' mages sent by the capital" Jimmy said, looking at the mages, "I'm the one training them for now but i heard there is a 'fifth circle' mage that regularly stops by for training, i assume third circle would be on par with a 3 star mage in game terms" he continued.
"Well then, let's check out the quality of the empire's soldiers" Rage smirked as he made his way towards them.