Chapter 13

Crimson walked back to the barracks with the biggest goofiest grin you’ve ever seen.

I just got a girl to say ‘yes’ to a date!

He had never been on a date before in his past life, being only 16 didn’t help, but neither did shutting himself in the house. He’d never even had an online girlfriend before. Despite that it didn’t stop him from imagining what he would do if he had a girlfriend and just thinking about it made him giddy.

He entered the barracks; unlike earlier it was crowded with way more people than earlier. There was a relatively even split between men and women and there didn’t seem to be any prominent individual race: there weren’t noticeably more humans, or Beast-Kin, or Feather-Kin, or Elves, or Dark Elves. There might be more of some than others but it wasn’t a huge difference.

Some were hanging around talking and some were working on equipment, but most seemed to be getting ready to go to bed. While there was a festive air to the common room it seemed to be laced with exhaustion and desperation.

The Tiger-Kin from the front desk earlier walked up to Crimson.

“You’re the new guy right?”

“Yes.”

“What’s with the stupid grin? You alright in the head?”

“I just had the pleasure of speaking with an extremely gorgeous young Fox-Kin and am currently dealing with that high.”

The Tiger-Kin threw back his head an laughed.

“I totally get it brother, and a Fox-Kin too! You have good taste brother. What’s your name?”

“Crimson, Crimson Hokori.”

“Not a bad name. Not a bad name. Since you’re new around here I’ll show you around brother. My name is Lars Tigris.”

“Nice to meet you Lars. What is there for you to show me?”

“Well, it’s not really showing brother. I just need to explain how things work and I’ll answer any questions you have.”

“Thanks Lars! I really need this.”

“Sure thing. What questions do you have for me?”

“Is it usually this crowded in the evenings?”

“Yeah, it’s almost always this crowded. Even more so because the last day of the month is tomorrow.”

“What’s so special about the last day of the month?”

“It’s when your quota is due! A lotta people slack off and wait till the end of the month and have to rush to get it all in. Even the people who properly managed their time are rushing to get a little bit extra.”

“How much is the quota and what happens if you don’t meet it?”

They had walked to the front counter as they talked and now Lars stood behind the counter.

“Well, let me answer that second one first. If you don’t meet your quota you receive worse quality equipment. All the equipment we have here is on loan from the crown; by meeting your quota you can receive equipment appropriate for your level and skills. If you get extra you can get better equipment and even enchanted equipment. So, if you don’t meet your quota you don’t get good equipment. If you don’t turn in ANYTHING you will be booted from the DGs. If you consistently miss your quota you’ll be kicked from the DGs. It’s a fair system that requires that you put in the work if you want to stay.

“Now, your first question is tricky. At the beginning of each month you state which dungeon you believe you will spend most of your time in. We have three of them near the capitol: The Goblin’s Retreat, The Slime’s Cavern, and The Undead Graveyard. I just listed those from easiest to hardest. Now once you state which dungeon you will spend the most time in you will be assigned a certain amount of drops you must bring out of that dungeon. All individual monsters can drop three items: the Common drop, the Rare drop, and the Ultra-Rare drop; boss monsters have a fourth one called a legendary drop. If you can get your hand on one of those the King may let you keep it.”

“Could you tell me a bit about the dungeons?”

“Righty-o. The Goblin’s Retreat is a dungeon for newbies. It is ranked as a 1 to 15 dungeon. Which means that the various areas you come across in that dungeon the enemies will have levels from 1 to 15. There are two mini bosses, the first is a Goblin Chieftain which is Level 13. The second one is a Goblin Champion which is Level 14 The main boss is an Orc and it’s level 15. Don’t ask me why an orc is in a goblin dungeon: I don’t know. Whoever thought it was a good idea was stupid if you ask me.

“The Slime’s Cavern is a relatively nasty place. It is filled with, as you may have guessed, slimes. The variety of slimes is what makes it dangerous. The two mini bosses are the King Slime and Queen Slime. The main boss is an Emperor Slime. The level range of this dungeon is 10 to 30.

“The final and most dangerous dungeon is The Undead Graveyard. The first thing that makes this dungeon dangerous is that you have to use special methods to take down each type of enemy. The best counter is by having a priest or priestess in your party who can use holy magic. The next thing that makes this dungeon so dangerous is that there is four mini bosses instead of the usual 1 or 2 they are all named bosses too which makes it all the more dangerous.

“The first mini boss is called: Jack O’lantern he’s a rouge type who’ll decimate your party in a second if you don’t pay attention.

“The second mini boss is called: Perdita the Dullahan. He’s a cavalryman who’ll run your party to pieces if your tank isn’t good enough; Don’t ever say your name or your comrade’s names around him. If you do he’ll use it to cast a death spell which will kill you after a certain amount of time.

“The third mini boss is called: Vlad. He’s a nasty piece of work. He uses minions to slowly separate your party then hypnotizes them one by one to make you turn on each other. It’s also hard to pin him down because he can turn into a swarm of bats to escape. There have been a few strategies to take him down, but I’m not sharing them with you brother. You aren’t ready to face any of these guys.

“The fourth mini boss is called: Sarla the Banshee. Her screams have a chance of causing instant death, she’s non-corporal, and she can touch you even if you can’t touch her. The adventurers and DG who fight her usually have a 50-50 shot of winning, and those are the experienced ones.

“The main boss of The Undead Graveyard is called: Bloody Mary. Nobody knows how she fights or how to fight her; they all forget after the fight is over regardless of whether they won or lost. 99% of DG and adventurers who fight her lose. She’s bad news brother, and honestly? She scares me. The fact that nobody who fights her remembers the fight means their mind is being tampered with; I don’t want anybody tampering with my mind brother.”

Crimson sat quietly listening though the long explanation. It had been very informative, but it sounded like a memorized speech.

“Is that a speech they tell you to share will all the new guys?”

“You got that right brother; I may have thrown in my own commentary, but for the most part it was memorized.”

Crimson nodded, the fact that these types of speeches exist usually means somebody was stupid enough to go into these dungeons as newbies. He didn’t really have time to ask Lars any more questions so he decided to head to bed; it was getting late.

“Hey Lars?”

“What’s up brother?”

“Thanks for the info and the warnings. I’m gonna head to bed. See ya later?”

“Bet on it brother! I like you quite a bit. Can’t have you wandering off and doing something stupid without me there. Good night brother.”

“Good night Lars.”

“By the way brother?”

“Yeah?”

“Be careful on the stairs.”

Crimson shot a grumpy look at him and walked over to the stairs before he firmly grasped the railing and tromped up them. He reached the third floor walked over to the bed he had chosen and flopped down on the mattress. He had a lot of work to do in the morning.