"Heroes! Saintess! Please save my daughter from those goblins! They are going to sacrifice her! Please! I beg you! Please save my daughter!"
The cold wind rustled against the dirty brown hairs of that man. Though he looked fairly handsome, the dirt all over his face, and that pitiful expression makes one wonder how desperate a man can get for his daughter.
Hearing that man's words, I looked at the direction from where the family came, though other than a street filled with a dozen goblins, there was nothing else present there.
"Calm down, sir! We will help you out but… at least explain properly what happened," Mark reached out to the man, separating him from Alice. Though the man was still having a heavy heart, unable to listen to Mark, as he kept begging her.
It troubled Mark greatly as he was unable to come up with the right words to calm the man. The sad atmosphere consumed most of us, as I saw even Alice feeling sorrowful for the man, while Mark already was on the verge of running towards the place where they came from.
I looked at the female NPC, who was doing better than the man and asked," where did they take your daughter?"
Her sober eyes looked deeper into mine with slight hope, before answering," In that direction."
Turning around, she pointed out where they came from and I nodded at her as I continued," will it be all right if you take us there?"
Her eyes shone brighter as she nodded rapidly and said,"please follow me." Despite being calm, her steps were hurried. She didn't even ask her husband or look at the two children as she rapidly started walking back towards the place she was running away from.
"Alice. Mark," I spoke out before following behind her as well. Mark helped the man stand up before moving behind me, while Alice was already beside me, observing that female NPC.
While the children were scared, they didn't speak anything and joined the three NPCs behind us.
The situation was desperate for the NPC family, hence there were more actions than words spoken. On our way, Mark and Alice protected us from the Goblins, while I reached beside the female NPC and asked,
"How did you end up in this situation?"
She turned her head slightly before speaking,
"We were escaping from the goblins that attacked our village and after crossing the forest, we somehow ended up in this strange place. My father, the chief of the village, was captured while protecting us, but he said that there will be heroes in this place who will protect us."
"As we searched for those heroes, a group of goblins found us. Even though we were able to escape somehow, our daughter ended up being taken by those goblins."
She briefed the situation to me, while my eyes widened as I heard her words. Wasn't there a hidden quest regarding that chief?
[Tutorial Level 3 Hidden Quest 2: Save the Chief!
Difficulty: Insane!
Objective: The chief of the lost tribe has been captured by the monsters. Find the den of the monsters and save the chief!
Reward: 25,000 Points; +3 Attribute Points; [Random Earth Blessing!]
"Do you remember where your chief was captured?" I asked curiously, barely able to contain the smile I was hiding within.
"Back when we were escaping the forest, I think he was captured there," her eyes turned solemn as she repeated the same words and I nodded before saying," sorry you had to face that."
While I do want to save the chief and complete the quest, it would look extremely odd if I focused more on the chief than the child that we need to save immediately. So for now, let's focus on that child.
10 minutes of running, and we reached the place where the goblins took the girl.
[You have discovered an F-Grade Dungeon dungeon!]
[Dungeon: Subway Underground Dungeon!]
Difficulty: Easy
Grade: F
Dungeon Clear Conditions: Protect the target from the monsters and reach the exit before they kill the target!
Monsters Expected: [Goblins - F-Grade] [Boss Monster - E!]
Number of people that can enter the dungeon: 1
Rewards: Based on selected difficulty and clear rate!]
All three of us looked at the dungeon with a fixed gaze before Mark and Alice looked at me. Alice was the first one to speak,
"I should go. I have the maximum chance of survival inside there."
Though I shook my head as I spoke," you can't see in the dark and with your spells, you will be a shining target in the dark. If you had any spells that allow you to see through the dark then you would have been perfect but you don't."
She simply looked at me for a moment before she sighed as she agreed. The dungeon was located underground and with the lack of any proper light source, the chances of her dying are pretty much 100%.
"Then, should I go-" Mark wanted to speak but I just gave him a deep smile making him pause. A ranged unit in a closed space is asking to be killed.
"Give me 15,000 Points. Since the main goal is to survive and not kill, it shouldn't be too hard," I said, making both of them look at me with their eyes widened.
"You aren't joking?" Alice spoke with her face still in doubt but I explained,
"You remember the first quest where I undid most of the traps?"
She nodded recalling that before I continued," I cleared a [Hidden Quest!]"
Her eyes widened while Mark was a bit confused about what I was talking about. I knew what she was thinking about so I added,
"The reward was 10 attribute points."
Her eyes shook a little, as she was baffled. I smiled putting a finger on my lips making a hush smile before saying,
"My agility is 10 right now. If I add 2 more points in it, I can outrun all the goblins in there without breaking a sweat. So don't worry. I will also take a dagger along just in case of an emergency."
She looked at me with a deep look. She had seen me killing a bunch of goblins as we hunted so she knew that I was capable of protecting myself. I wasn't as great as both of them, but I wasn't defenseless by any means.
And thus after thinking things through, she nodded and spoke," all right. But run away if things get out of hand."
Looking at the concern in her eyes, I felt happy as I spoke out," yes, mam!"
She chuckled at my response before I turned to Mark who more or less understood what I was going to do. He wanted to stop me, but looking at my determined expression, he held back and spoke,
"I will kill you if you die."
I laughed as I shook his hand and took 15,000 Points from him before nodding," Sure, buddy."
And then looking at the dungeon, I then walked closer to it and began selecting the difficulty and the settings around it.
[You have selected the Nightmare Difficulty!
-All Goblins will have one grade up!
-The Boss Monster will have one grade up!
-Time limit of 60 minutes has been added!
Rewards will be based on:
-Time left after you finished the dungeon!
-The number of monsters you killed!
-Whether you killed the Boss Monster or not! ]
Since they couldn't see what settings I was choosing, I could freely choose the highest difficulty. I smiled as I turned towards Mark and Alice before speaking,"will be back in an hour."
And then I selected [Yes!], before the blue translucent gate opened up the path way down to the underground and walking down, one step at a time, until I reached the bottom of the stairs.
I then stretched lightly before changing my equipment. Despite being pitch dark, I could see as clear as day, plus I don't think [E-Grade!] would create any difficulty for me so I doubted I would have any real problems until I reached the [Boss].
And with that in mind, I took the first step of my first ever dungeon hunt.