Here is chapter 19, enjoy!

John, Sigrid, and Alice arrived outside the city of Dawn about an hour after noon had passed. With John leading them the guard let them in without any trouble. The first place they headed to was the Adventurer’s Guild as Sigrid’s goal was to become an adventurer and John was there for his promotion exam to rank F.

“Thank you for leading us here John.” Sigrid turned to John and smiled as they reached the Adventurer’s Guild.

“No problem! I have to do my promotion exam for rank F but once that is finished I can show you two around the city.” John quickly replied with a hopeful look on his face.

Sigrid pondered for a bit and said “I’m sorry but after I register as an adventurer I plan to head towards the dungeon tomorrow.”

“Oh…” John looked depressed as they walked to the front desk. The receptionist noticed their group, in fact everyone noticed their group due to Sigrid. She heard their talk so when they reached the receptionist she said “While I appreciate your enthusiasm but due to the increase in amount of people joining the Adventurer’s Guild just to go into the dungeon all new adventurers registered here can only start at rank G and must go through one week of basic adventurer training. You are in luck though because the next session starts in two days.”

Sigrid was a bit startled by this but it was their mission to become adventurers so even though it was going to take a lot longer than expected it was something they had to do. Just at this moment Alice suddenly chimed in “Since we have a day before the basic training I suppose we will need someone to guide and to show us the city.”

John’s face immediately lit up and quickly said “Leave it to me!” What he failed to notice was all the deadly gazes staring at him from all over the room. The receptionist was startled when she noticed Alice on Sigrid’s shoulder. To her Sigrid looked like some daughter of a rich family that ran away for fun and now seeing a fairy as a pet she was even more sure. She couldn’t help but let out a sigh at all the craze the dungeon had caused, at least this girl was lucky that John was the first person this girl ran into.

She focused her attention onto John and said “So John what are you here for and where did you pick up such a pretty girl?’

“What are you talking about Jenny!” John’s face became red after hearing that from Jenny. He managed to recover himself after seeing Jenny’s mischievous smile and let out a sigh. “I was on my way back for my promotion exam when I met Sigrid and Alice. They came across some trouble so I helped them and after that we moved together since we had the same destination.”

Jenny was shocked, not by how they met but by how fast John recovered himself and that he was here for his promotion exam. She has known John for a long time and while she knew that John had talent but his personality was just too weak willed to accomplish anything.

“Congratulations John, you are finally moving up the adventurer’s ranking. Looks like you went through a lot recently.” Jenny said with a warm smile. “So when would you like to have your exam?”

“The day after tomorrow please.” John quickly replied.

Jenny looked at Sigrid and Alice and let out teasing smile and said “Ok, report here at sunrise the day after tomorrow. Now I assume you are here to register as an adventurer?”

“Yes I would like to register as an adventurer.” Sigrid replied as she held back her smile from watching John’s reaction.

“Please fill out this form and the cost of registering is one piece of silver.” Jenny handed the registration form to Sigrid. Sigrid quickly filled out the form with help from Alice to make up their background information. “So Mrs. Sigrid, you are a mage who specialize in water magic and can heal. This is good as every team would like a healer. Here is your adventurer’s badge, please infuse some of your mana into it and it will be linked to you. This badge is made of a special material as there is another badge kept by the guild and if you were to die or this badge get destroyed then the one in the guild will break too. This is to help the guild keep track of adventurers who might be trapped and post rescue missions for them or if they are dead and we should contact their family.”

Sigrid accepted the badge and infused her mana into it linking the badge to her. Once she finished Jenny continued “This badge can serve as your identification almost everywhere and you would also need it to take requests. Currently you are rank G and you would need to complete requests from the guild or have rank A or above adventurer to vouch for you for promotion exam. Restriction has become much more strict due to the new dungeon appearing causing a huge influx of people who want to become adventurers. As I said earlier you also need to go through a mandatory one week basic training so please come back at the break of dawn the day after tomorrow. Basic training is held here at the Adventurer’s Guild and is run by our Vice Guild leader so it’s a rare chance to learn from a rank A adventurer.”

Sigrid thanked Jenny and left the Adventurer’s Guild with John with everyone’s gaze still locked onto her. Alice couldn’t help but sigh and mutter to herself “She really should realize how much attention she attracts.” Soon the news of a beauty registering as an adventurer spread across the town and made people excited for the last day of the next basic training session. The last event of the basic training is a fight against the vice guild leader where the new adventurer shows off everything have. This had been a big source of entertainment for the people of the city since the dungeon craze started.

The three of them went to the Fairy Roost Inn as it was recommended to Sigrid and Alice by both John and Penny. The inn keeper was an elegant and graceful middle aged woman in a simple dress. Although her cloth wasn’t fancy she had a certain air to her and the waitress was like a younger version of her. It is obvious to anyone that they were mother and daughter and why the inn’s name was what is is. When she saw John she greeted him with a smile. “Why hello John my dear boy what brings you here?”

“Hello Mrs. Rain how are you doing today? I’m here because two of my friends need a place to stay.” John politely smiled back at her.

“Oh and is this lovely lady here your friend.” She looked at Sigrid and secretly give John a wink. “So where is your other friend.”

Before John can say anything a crisp voice called out “Right here.”

Mrs. Rain was a bit confused as she focused on the source of the sound and her eyes finally landed on Alice sitting on Sigrid’s shoulder. “Oh my a real fairy! This is the first time the Fairy Roost Inn had a real fairy staying over. I hope you enjoy your time.”

Sigrid cut in and said “I’m sure we will. My name is Sigrid and this here is my friend Alice.” She pointed to Alice who was lazily sitting on her shoulder. Alice hearing this nodded toward Mrs. Rain.

John quickly added “Sigrid, Alice, this is Hellan Rain. She is the owner of this inn which is considered the best inn in the city. She helped me out a lot by giving me a cheaper rent when I became an adventurer.”

Hellan smiled and said “Oh it was nothing, I saw great potential in you my boy and I wasn’t wrong. Only after a bit over a month after you became an adventurer you discovered a new dungeon that sent everyone into a craze!. Now come in you all must be tired and hungry so come in! You too John, Ellen would be happy to see you and to hear more stories from you.”

Alice was shocked at this and secretly thought “It seem this woman is not as simple as she looks. No one would be this kind to a random rookie, that means she was able to see what Sage saw in John too. We’ll have to be more careful around her…”

*Sage’s Chamber When Alice and Sigrid left*

“I hope they will be ok. If only I figured out the voice transmission tokens…” Sage muttered to himself a bit about his worries before he went back to work.

“It’s time to summon some Elementary White Tigers to train. While they are one of the lowest ranked spirit beasts they are also descendants of the White Tiger. If they cultivate properly then they can awaken their White Tiger blood line making them very powerful. However they will need a better environment to cultivate him, I’ll have to make the 3rd floor a jungle.” Sage thought for a long time about what to do before deciding on the 3rd floors environment.

Next he summoned 4 Elementary White Tigers and split them across the current 3rd floor as they don’t do well in groups. After finishing that Sage summoned some orc and find them to be green humanoid hogs. They are however larger and physically stronger than the goblins so Sage taught them all breathing technique and toss them into the 3rd floor. There was also another camp built in the 3rd floor to train more elite monsters once he can summon them.

The rest of the day passed with Sage building the 3rd floor, training the elite monsters, managing the trial rooms, and teaching the Goblin Shamans alchemy. Sage knew teaching alchemy was going to be difficult but this was really testing him. In the short period of less than a day he already lost 4 goblin shamans due to explosions caused by alchemy.

“This is going to take a lot more work…”

*Next Morning, The City of Dawn*

Alice and Sigrid ended up meeting Ellen, Hellan’s daughter, the night before and they hit it off really well. Ellen even ended up deciding to go with Alice and Sigrid as they went around town since she said she knew more places that would interest them than John. Of course since he did offer to guide them already they couldn’t ditch him so everyone decided to go together.

John arrived early in the morning and had breakfast with them all. After that the 4 of them headed into the city. The plan was for John to show them some of the famous location in Dawn in the morning, then they will break for lunch in a shop Ellen recommends, and the afternoon will be Ellen taking them out for some shopping while John went to start his promotion exam.

They first arrived at a square near the center of the city and in the middle of the square is a statue of a young maiden holding a sword and shield ready for battle.

“This is the Statue of Dawn, Dawn was one of the great generals that helped found the kingdom of Zeal hundreds of years ago. After the kingdom was established she moved back to her hometown in the south and founded this city that was eventually named after her. She was master of light magic and considered the most powerful of the 4 generals under the first king’s command. However she had a very gentle nature so she took the southern portion of the kingdom because it was the area with nothing important and thus avoiding the internal conflicts of the royal court. But although she was a gentle person when it was time for war she showed no mercy to her enemy and to this day she is still idolized by many people!” John excitedly explained as they reached the statue in the center of the square.

Sigrid looked at the statue and was completely stunned. She just stared at the status and completely didn’t hear anything else John said. When they were all about to leave they noticed Sigrid’s blank stare so Ellen asked “Hey Sigrid, are you ok?”

Sigrid suddenly pulled herself back and quickly said “Oh, I’m fine. I was just a bit mesmerized by by the statue.” She smiled back and left the area with the rest of them. Alice however noticed Sigrid’s change and decided that they would need to talk but not right now. The group continued to a few more spots in the city like the castle where the city lord lived, the arena where fighters tested their skills, and finally the market district where most of the shop and stalls were at.

It was almost noon by the time they got there so they headed directly to the shop Ellen recommended for lunch. It was a small shop that specialized in grilled food. Although small there was already a line forming outside the shop.

“We are lucky we got here early with the line only this short. If we were any later we might not have been able to get any today.” Ellan quickly pulled the group into the line. “Anyone who visits the city of Dawn has to try out the Dawn Grill or else you can’t say you have been here!” They waited about 30mins before they were seated and ordered an assortment of grilled meat, fish, and vegetable.

“When people talk about grilled food most people think meat or seafood but what’s so special about this shop is that their specialty is grilled vegetables!” Ellan excitedly explained the food they ordered to Sigrid and Alice.

Both Sigrid and Alice have never eaten much before, one of them lived in a snowy mountain living off of mana for most of her life and the other was a spirit that didn’t need to eat who turned into a dungeon fairy that didn’t need to eat. They were very excited to try out all these food they have never seen before and enjoyed themselves greatly. Alice couldn’t help but whisper to Sigrid “We need to get a cook for the dungeon. I don’t think I can go back to not eating food after this.” And Sigrid gently nodded in agreement.

Once lunch was done John said his goodbye and left while Ellan took Sigrid and Alice through the market district for some shopping. Since Sage could literally summon as much money as they needed Sigrid and Alice had a healthy amount to spend. Since Sigrid never shopped for anything before she was like a kid in a candy store. Ellan wasn’t too surprised by Sigrid’s reaction as she thought that Sigrid was the daughter of some rich family who ran away and decided to be an adventurer to see the new dungeon.

While they were looking through some cloth at the 4th shop they went to Ellen suddenly asked “Hey Sigrid, what do you think of John?”

Sigrid was a bit startled by the question but quickly responded “He seems to be a very nice person. Afterall he jumped into a fight and risked his life to save someone he doesn’t even know.”

Ellen smiled “He has always been like that, wanting to be the hero and jumping in to help those in trouble.” She paused for a moment and her brow furrowed a bit and said “So how do you feel about him?”

Sigrid was confused and replied “Feel about him? I think of him as a friend and a nice person but honestly we only known each other for 2 days.”

“Oh is that so.” Ellen seemed a bit relieved hearing this. Sigrid didn’t realize what had happened but it didn’t escape Alice’s eyes. Alice let out a mischievous smile and flew next to Ellan’s ears and whispered “Oh getting jealous are we? Don’t worry though Sigrid won’t steal your John from you but if you keep this up someone else might. Hehe.”

Ellen’s face suddenly turned bright red and she exclaimed “I… I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

Sigrid was startled by the sudden outburst and looked at Ellan questioningly. Ellen’s face became even redder and stuttered “It’s...it’s nothing…”

Alice let out a laugh and said “Oh Sigrid you still have a lot of learn.”

After that they went through a few more stores before it was almost nightfall and they returned to the Fairy Roost Inn as Ellen still had to help out at the Inn during the peak evening hours.

“Thank you for guiding us Ellen even though you still have to work right after this.” Sigrid was very happy as she had never experienced going out with friends before.

“Oh it’s nothing.” Ellen smiled “Once you put your stuff away come down for a nice dinner. After all you got to go to basic training tomorrow!”

“I’ll be looking forward to dinner then!” Sigrid replied with a smile.

Sigrid and Alice ate a hearty dinner before returning to their room. They had a fun day but tomorrow they had to go to basic training for a week and how well they did would determine what rank Sigrid started at.

Sigrid looking out the window and muttered “I hope Sage won’t get too worried. According to the original plan we would have been back to the dungeon town already but now it’s going to take a whole extra week….”

Alice casually said “Don’t worry Sage is more capable than you think.” She paused for a bit and suddenly turned very serious “Sigrid I have a question for you and I need you to answer honestly.”

Sigrid sensing Alice’s serious tone became nervous as she had never seen Alice this serious before “What is it Alice?”

Alice took a deep breath and said “That statue in the center of the square, you seemed to recognize the statue. And considering how out of it you were I say you knew that person very well. What is your relationship with that person the statue depicts? I’m sorry but this concerns Sage’s safety so I can’t just let it go.”

Sigrid remained silent for a very long time but letting out a sigh and finally said “I have never heard about this Dawn before at all. But that status looks just like my mother…”

*In the fancy manor on the other side of the city*

“Sir, the last batch of human “volunteers” have registered to become adventurers. They will take their basic training tomorrow and once they are done we can move to the dungeon town Sir!”

“Good, any news of the Ice Maiden?”

“None sir! It seem she is still hiding deep inside the dungeon.”

“It seems like she might be hiding with the dungeon core but no matter once all our human puppets move to the dungeon town we’ll have about 3 weeks to scout out the dungeon before the army moves. Then once the invasion begins we can use that moment of chaos and take over the dungeon and get the girl! Muahahaha!”

“Sir yes sir!”

“Now let’s see if there are anyone we can use to help our “volunteers” blend in better among this batch of trainees.”

Edited by: Nova