As Jay woke up the next day, he immediately stood up, washed, and went to eat with King Aether and the royal family in the dining hall, escorted by a maid.
Then he followed Prince Theron, as he planned on making Jay and some of his men explore the dungeons of the kingdom today. Jay was first stunned as he had heard nothing about dungeons since he came to this world. Even Princess Emily said nothing about this, Jay thought.
As Prince Theron saw the stunned expression on Jay's face, he spoke, "Well, the reason you weren't told this is very simple—it was to prevent any form of uneasiness between all of you. Imagine being told you will be left to face powerful monsters that are way beyond your level to level up both your classes and skills, even before facing a single demon.
But that is just one of the reasons. The other reason is because when a hero enters a dungeon, the dungeon infrastructure will rapidly change. It will become a new dungeon entirely, suitable for a hero to level up. It also becomes a spot for the accumulation of new resources for the entire kingdom, as new resources will be generated by the dungeons depending on the potential of the heroes. The only downside to this is that you are only allowed to take a certain number of people, depending on your potential."
He then paused and looked at Jay, allowing him to digest the information. Then he continued, "A hero with a high potential will be able to bring more people inside the dungeon and accumulate resources faster, but they will mostly be low-level resources that might not really cause significant improvements to a kingdom.
But they are still resources nevertheless. While the opposite happens for the ones with high potential" but the limitations for the amount of people allowed to be brought inside the Dungeon disappears as your level and class increase.
As he said that, he made a sad expression on his face, which Jay noticed. He continued, "Since this is our first time getting a hero, this will be the first time our dungeon infrastructure will ever be changed. So, we will need to first explore it slowly to prevent any accidents from happening. We'll first stop at the blacksmith shop for some equipment and then stop at the barracks to take some worthy men as aid for you during your exploration. At your level, you will only be able to bring at least two at best."
As he said that, he sped up, urging Jay to quicken his pace. Jay grumbled silently, We could have just taken a wagon.
As they reached the blacksmith's huge shop, Jay greeted the elder Goblin Garrack. Prince Theron told Garrack to assemble some light armory for them. Jay also started checking for any equipment that was suitable for him. As he searched for a while, he realized all the weapons there were just above average, and none of them suited him. He sighed, Why don't I just wait till Elder Garrack has completed the ones he is making?
After up to an hour, the weapons were done. Garrack came out with an exhausted expression but a satisfied smile plastered on his face. He ordered one of his apprentices to bring the finished goods. The apprentice ran to the back of the shop to complete the task he was given. Just as the apprentice went away, Elder Garrack almost fainted. It looked like he had exhausted almost all his strength from creating them.
Jay smiled when he saw this as he vowed in his heart to pay Garrack back double the amount of effort Garrack put into this. The apprentice returned from the back of the shop and brought back the equipment as he was told. As his eyes turned to Elder Garrack, he let out a little shrill as he saw his condition. He immediately ran to him to carry him up and took him to the temple for healing.
As they came out of the workshop, Prince Theron ordered six men from the barracks and two carriages—for the weapons and for transportation. As Jay followed behind Prince Theron into the carriage, they set off for the dungeon outside the kingdom.
As they reached a big gate leading to the entrance of the dungeon, the carriage stopped. Prince Theron explained that due to the circumstances of the dungeon, no carriage was allowed to enter. Jay nodded to show his understanding as he followed Prince Theron into the big gate at the entrance of the dungeon.
As he entered the gate, he was surprised to see an entire camp at the front of the dungeon. Seeing his confused look, Prince Theron explained, "The kingdom sets up camps at the entrance of the dungeon due to the daily mining of resources for the kingdom. The camps also act as our first line of defense in case of any dungeon breaks occurring." Jay nodded his head.
As they reached the entrance of the dungeon, Prince Theron ordered the guards to get some other equipment as they prepared to raid the dungeon. After everything was done, Prince Theron led Jay and ten more companions to the very front of the dungeon. A big white portal awaited them. He told Jay to move to the front as he waited for the color of the portal to change so he could determine the difficulty.
As Jay stepped closer to the portal, fascinated by it, a system screen appeared in front of him:
[Dungeon gate detected, customizing the dungeon based on the hero's potential....]
As he saw the message disappear, the color of the portal gate turned dark red, giving out an ominous aura that made one's heart shudder. As Jay snapped out of his surprised gaze, he turned to look at Prince Theron, who was still stunned by what he saw.
As Jay was about to speak, a system message suddenly appeared:
[Error .... Error ... Sudden interference detected. (Dungeon accommodation reduced to one, detected required entry hero Jay. Begin teleportation)]
The message suddenly turned red as Jay was teleported into the dungeon. Prince Theron snapped out of his dazed expression and quickly tried to follow Jay into the dungeon, but he was immediately repelled back. He stabilized himself mid-air as he landed back on the ground.
His guards came to him, asking if he was okay. Prince Theron immediately told them to report to the king about what happened. As he thought about what just occurred, he also told them to close the entire dungeon to prevent it from spreading.
As Jay suddenly appeared inside the dungeon, he slowly opened his eyes as his consciousness began to recover. Where am I? Jay thought as he stared at the crystal-like walls emitting bright light, which seemed to illuminate the entire dungeon. He looked around, clearly amazed by his surroundings.
Wait, am I inside the dungeon? He started recalling what happened. As he remembered the system message saying "error," he thought, Hmm, something about an external interference occurring...
Jay snapped out of his thoughts as a sudden realization hit. Wait, am I the only one here? He searched around, trying to find Prince Theron and his companions. When he saw no one, a look of helplessness appeared on his face. Well, I guess I was really the only one sent here, huh? Curse my stupid luck.
As Jay was feeling hopeless, a new system message appeared:
[Detected hero has entered a dungeon. Rules clarification begin.]
(a) The Difficulty level will be set by the potential change of the dungeon due to the hero.
[Difficulty level Access: Hell Fire]
(b) All rewards will be allocated based on the assessed level:
[Easy] (*)
[Medium] (**)
[Hard] (***)
[Very Hard] (****)
[Detected high access level]
[Hidden level revealed]
[Hell Fire] (******)
(c) All deaths will not be permanent,
[Except for the Hell Fire difficulty level].
[All recruitment for dungeon exploration complete. Dungeon exploration begins.]