The dearth of coins in various villages showed another way of the game being more complex. In most games, novice villages were flash in the pan. You come, you conquer, you leave. From the looks of it, this game wanted to push out all the habits from previous games and would not let players enter game proper before it. Ever seen a game where you had to stay in novice village for more than a week?
Here, in
The meetings happening didn't have any good endings. All knew it, all just went through the procedure. You need to show that you spend efforts to find other ways before asking for more investment. The quotes of coin to credit conversion from Money plant group would be held as standard and maximum of 10% increase in payment was acceptable. Few places harassing the manager till he accepted the range of upto 20%, limited for next week. They had to, absolutely had to find better ways of earning coins or learn to using aids within the budget. Huh! No one knows the pain and toil behind the bright picture of guilds.
Sun Lord was happy. He was not scolded. On the contrary, he could get coins a bit cheaply too, at least compared to other villages. But his expenses were high all the time. The amount these people had spent in last 2 days, he had spent that much and more in last week. He had some talks with other players who had entered the dungeons, picking up the details. He had a feeling that his village would open a dungeon soon. The most noted, most probable parameters were met. High level players - check. Proportion of players in high levels- check. Lifestyle players - check. Pioneering new maps - check. Maybe he should stock up few more scrolls and potions. Time to utilise the power of tier 1 customer, he mused.
Atharva had no idea of such things happening when he had slept. When he woke up, he entered the game and did the routine. He still had no inkling of a deal waiting for him while he gave impromptu viva voce exam to Zoya.
Sun Lord 's prediction was actually right. It was only the previous night that the NPCs in the village gathered again and had decided to loosen up a bit. The dungeons and the areas beyond were hidden by arrays and formations. Without NPCs opening them, it would be impossible to find the dungeons. The formations were loosened up, the mana kept gathering. It would take just one person to discover the first dungeon.
What a luck! It was actually the expert from Glorious Knights, Gloria's blessed who found entrance to the dungeons. After a long time, the blockbuster announcement came again. The sonorous voice. The fireworks. The message in the sky. All the shenigans. Apparently the expert still felt sore of losing a spectacular announcement and felt the need to compensate now. Whatever! Just like previous times, the branding and marketing paid off wonderfully. On top of it, this was related to dungeons. Something that all players had looked forward to.
He was grinding with Bloody Rose when the announcement came. The ladies he was with swore so much that even sailors would blush. It was understandable though. All had been trying for so long but someone else got the first prize. And the charm of the games was that they would let go of their inhibitions and be however they want to be.
The spiritual leaders, the agony aunts pacified them and they all continued to grind the map with increased vigour. Artha was confused.
"Wait! Aren't we going to dungeons now?"
"Not us, duh. Others will enter and estimate the danger level and try to map the areas. Only then will we enter."
"You mean Glorious Knights will let us enter the dungeons? Won't they hold on it and prevent their competitors from entering?"
A eye roll. Ever noticed that how much pretty the lady is, that worse is the feeling when she rolls her eyes?
"It's a basic dungeon. Are you expecting rare item to drop from there? Why should you hog such a simple dungeon?"
Another lady chimed, "And it was announced that there is a dungeon. How can you hog it when such a huge announcement was made? You can hog only the untold ones. It takes less people to barricade and control the entrance. If it's unknown, not many will be in the vicinity, so less burden on those guarding the entrance. But basically, no dungeons in village level will be hogged."
Ah! The wisdom from years of experience. He never thought of it. So he kept on grinding with them while the ladies turned their aggressiveness in their hearts into massacring the monsters. He didn't get enough time to collect items as he would be late to grind with Dragon Slayers. While leaving, he got the list. The dragon, that is to say, the guild was hungry. Basically, they wanted thrice the number of potions they usually ordered and they wanted it pronto. They wanted few single use scrolls, few better potions. Artha's face turned black. Was he a genie? How could they make so many wishes? Did they talk with that black hearted money god Sun Lord. This list borrowed everything from his list and added few more for flair.
He hemmed and hawed. And said, he would reply later. He had to check stocks and had to talk with sellers. Anything to push the matter away. He had a bad hunch.