I am Ray, the protagonist. In this chapter I shall tell you guys of my view of the situations. Next time, I will give them in between the story.
So basically, I have to work together with a party of adventurers to explore a newly found Ruin. Though I am usually a solo adventurer, I need to work together with a party to explore my first Ruin or Nest after my rank updated.
This system is ensured by the adventurer's guild and is mandatory. It was made to prevent the death of adventurers with rank recent updation.
Thus, I temporarily joined an A rank party led by Kyle, a young but experienced adventurer. She was quite famous among men for her beauty.
Her party consisted of Matt, a dwarf and the shields man. Lily, a human female and the archer, she had an enchanted bow. Tidlen, a wolf man and the magician, he also had a gift that made it easier to detect and weave mana. And lastly, Kyle, the leader of the party, she wielded the dagger. It was a pretty balanced party.
After introducing ourselves, we headed towards the Ruins in a jeep. The jeep used mana to turn the wheels. This mana was provided by either the mana crystals or a magician. There were many mana devices attached to each other to provide comfort and also control over the vehicle.
While some of the devices provided things such as cool air or play recorded music, most of the other mana devices were used to give the drivers more control over the vehicle.
The Ruins were not that far from their town, Bani. It was refugee town with all sorts of people. Though the town did not have that many facilities, it still had the basic necessities that one needed. These Ruins were newly discovered as they were hidden in the forest cliffs.
Supposedly a gatherer had mistakenly activated the entrance to the Ruin causing a landslide resulting in his death.
Kyle explained that they had fought very hard to acquire the Ruin passes from the guild. These were given by the guild to prevent conflicts between adventurers inside the Ruins or the Nests. All parties wanted Ruin passes, even more so it was a newly discovered Ruin with untouched treasure. The competition would be fierce. I dare say that it was a great achievement acquiring the first Ruin pass.
We arrived at the entrance and had to fight a subspecies of dragons called Drossi as we ventured deeper into the Ruins. It seems the rumours that the Ruin were the Ruins of the Dragons were true.
The party was performing quite well. They had good timing and position which made it easier for the shield man. I just had to fit in appropriately and not cause any troubles for the others. I covered whenever some minor mistakes happened but all on all it was quite an easy fight.
Our next hurdle was the door at the end of the corridor. It would only open when the correct rune magic was used. There were also many tiles with rune patterns hidden, but I could sense their mana thought it was very faint. I would help them acting like I 'accidently' discovered a tile if they could not find them, but my worries were unnecessary.
Matt found a tile and informed the others of the rune patterns on them. He explained that as a dwarf he had been taught rune magic and that we needed to arrange all the tiles in a certain order and channel mana to open the door.
Kyle also figured out that the some of the tiles had illusion magic on them to make it seems as though they were broken.
I also observed the different personalities and tendencies of my party members. Matt was friendly and humble but determined at the same time. A good personality for a shields man. He bravely defended against the attacks without hesitating. One could tell he was experienced, he parried the heavy blows and pushed forward at the quick blows. Most shield men know this strategy but it is difficult to actually use it skilfully in real battles.
Tidlen was also friendly and was very curious and interested in magic. His gift allowed him to easily find the rest of the hidden tiles. Also, he was quite skilled at timely magic casting. Meanwhile kyle was more observant and quieter. She skilfully used her dagger and perfectly aimed for the Drossi' s weak points while manoeuvring between the attacks.
Lily had a more outgoing personality. She was skillful at using her bow. She had perfect timing and good accuracy. For an archer timing is essential. Her arrows supported the attack whenever needed adequately. But her curiosity sometimes leads to her asking more than necessary about others (a more polite way to put it).
Though the party greatly balanced and the members had good individual skill as well as team skills, they were terrible at using the terrain to their advantage. The terrain usage can greatly ease the exploration. But as they rarely used the terrain it meant more physical work and pressure for the party.
Second was that even though the party was well balanced, (excluding myself as I am temporary) the damage dealing mostly took time. This was due to it taking more time to kill using a dagger. Daggers had a shorter range and so dealt less damage if used to slash, but an experienced and skillful user could negate the cons. But it still took more time than other weapons. Maybe they had another damage dealer before.
The drawbacks of the party were not that serious but these small things slowed down the efficiency and led to the exhaustion of the party especially in continuous battles.
Anyways, we managed to open the corridor door and there more Drossi inside. We slowly ventured inside taking down Drossies after Drossies. We had no rest for hours as we were constantly being attacked by the Drossies. The party was visibly very tired.
After a long time, we came across a small room with no Drossi inside. After checking for any traps, we decided to rest. The party's gear was in bad shape. Everyone was exhausted. Though the room looked ordinary on the outside it was anything but an ordinary room.
While resting we made some small talk. I was asked by Matt when I had become an adventurer. I replied that it was when I was 11 and that I worked as a porter.
I can't roam around telling that I was the demon lord and my powers are also sealed. Moreover, I like being an adventurer. I get to travel to different cities and experience the changes and development. I also can fight monsters to increase my strength even more.
When you kill monsters, you gain part of their mana. This permanently increase one's mana capacity or strengthens one's body. The chances of mana gain and body strengthening have approximately equal chances. The effect can also wary from person to person. The stronger you are the lesser the mana you get. So, I, the demon lord basically gets no mana from them. This is a limiter to getting stronger, to overcome this I found a way to keep getting stronger. I will talk about that in the future as you would not understand the many complications.
Anyways, after that question I was asked more questions as to why I worked solo by Lily. I also had a party once. Though that was a long long ago. I brushed of the question.
We decided to move, and our party navigator, Tidlen, used his magic to find the place with the most mana concentration. But it showed that the place was this room. (I told you that it was anything but ordinary).
Lily 's bow also resonated with a broken handle that contained mana. After this finding we all decided to try channelling mana into the handle. A hidden passage way opened. And a bright room was seen at the end.
We went through the passageway into the luxurious hall. It was so grand that we all were left in awe (But I more concerned as I felt the presence of Anudrix, the dragon king). He was someone who was very arrogant and had studied about a few ancient events that should not be shared with the present. Such things are better left in the past. But even he knew only a few things about that past and misinterpreted it in a very dangerous way. He threatened my kin and managed to anger me at our very first meeting.
Though after that he was quite fine.
The hall contained mountains of gold and many artifacts. One artifact in particular caught my eye and I ran to get it. I said that whoever touched it first got it so everyone also joined me in looting the hall.
The artifact I took was a dimensional storage artifact, a very powerful one at that too. It could only be opened by the person whose mana signature was registered. I t also contained many high quality potions and gold inside. I could store more than 100m square of things. I quietly looted a lot of gold.
In actuality the gold could not be looted and the Guild would verify it first and then distribute it among the party members to prevent conflict. But I prefer to do things my way.
After the looting, my party was still curious of the peculiar mana coming from the centre of the room. I tried to stop them but they were TOO curious to stop.
After channelling mana into the centre, a book suddenly fell. It was a small book made of leather.
When Kyle opened the book, it glowed brightly and a recorded message was played out. It was Anudrix. I could not do anything to stop it as he had sacrificed his remaining life to secure the message.
Well, I did not mean to do anything in the first place. I also wanted to hear what he wanted to say. And I guess it was fate that it WAS 'bout me.
[To be continued]