When Anna and Daniel arrived back at the other travelers, they shared their discoveries. With the new information, a discussion about what to do going forward started.

“I think it would be prudent to scout out the village first. We don’t know what language they speak, if they are even human or how they would react to us. Especially, we shouldn’t tell them that we are travelers or anything about the dungeon.” Daniel suggested.

“Sounds like a plan, but I think our clothes would make us stand out. Maybe, Fedor could be mistaken for a normal adventurer. However, the rest of us only have our normal clothes from Earth or goblin fur.” Azza responded, and the rest was quiet for a moment.

“Well, let’s scout first. We can decide the rest later. If there are no humans in the village, this discussion is useless anyway.” Fedor suggested.

“Fedor is right, we need to scout the village. I’m used to sneaking around in the woods and Daniel is the fastest one of our group. I will go with Daniel to gather information. We will come back in a few hours to inform you about our progress.” John decided, then he continued. “ Oh and Daniel, put on goblins fur clothes. They are a good camouflage.”

After changing his clothes to a set of goblin fur that he had gotten from Azza, Daniel followed John back to the village. As they walked through the forest, Daniel was impressed that John almost made no noise. He tried to copy the American and was slowly getting better himself.

They decided to get in a watch position behind a few bushes on a little hill with a good view of the village. After ten minutes, they were able to spot the first activity in the village. Someone had just left his house.

“Well, looks like they are human.” John observed with a relieved expression.

“Yes, seems weird that there are humans on another world, but it beats meat eating insect people, I guess.” Daniel commented with a serious expression.

They continued watching until a notification popped up in front of Daniels face.

Congratulation for making first contact with the native population.

As a traveler the system will give you a language package to assist you in your endeavors!

You have made contact with a person from the village of Northhill and learned the trade language of the Kingdom of New England!

Getting implanted the knowledge about a new language in his head, felt weird. But, before he was able to think about content of the popup, someone addressed them from behind.

“Look look, what do we have here? Two bandits scouting out our village. Turn around, slowly. No fast movements.” A male voice behind them instructed.

Daniel and John were shocked by the man that had sneaked up on them and obeyed the order.

They saw a man that was dressed in an exquisite looking chainmail armor behind them. While the man had no weapons in his hands, the information from the system gave them pause.

Human – D rank

Thoughts rushed through Daniels head. The man was at a level where his system wouldn’t identify him. At their first dungeon run, the boss had been six levels above them, but it was still showing its level. That means the man was at least level 21. While he looked young, maybe only 25 years old, that would have given him years to raise his stats. He was better protected than them and had probably better weapons. Deciding the only thing he could do was to follow Anna’s advice, he took a risk.

“We aren’t bandits. We are travelers that were summoned to a dungeon nearby. You are the first native that we met. We wanted to gather information before we establish contact.” Daniel explained in a language that was very similar to English and the man seemed surprised. It took a moment before he responded.

“That is quite the claim. While it is probably not something a poor bandit that is clothed in shitty goblin fur would come up with, I hope for your sake that you have some evidence of your claim.”

Daniel thought for a second and then removed his notebook from his inventory. He pressed the power button and turned it on.

“Ok, that is something new. While it would probably be possible for a rich person to have this kind of gadget, someone like that wouldn’t come to our village. Get up and march toward the village. No fast movements or you will regret it!” The man instructed.

When John and Daniel marched through the village, they were surprised by the hatred the people had in their faces when they were looking at them. The good news was that most of the villagers were around level 10.

“Why are they all looking at us this way? We didn’t do anything to them.” John asked and the man just looked at him with a thoughtful expression on his face before he gestured them to keep moving to the big house in the center of the village. It looked sturdy and was made of wood standing on a foundation of stone. What was surprising was that it had real glass windows.

They entered and they saw that the good building quality continued on the inside. It was not looking like wooden shack from the middle ages, more like a rustic hunting lodge of a rich person.

“Sit!” The man instructed and pointed to the table in a room next to the entrance.

They obeyed and when they sat down, the man continued.

“So, you are travelers. Are you alone?”

Daniel paused, but John responded without hesitation.

“Yes.”

“A capable liar, but while you didn’t give anything away, your partner hesitated. I don’t like being lied to and you should probably think about your situation before answering the next question. While I’m no expert on travelers, in the stories I’ve heard, either nobody survives the dungeon or most do. How many of you are there?” The man asked.

“You are right, there are more of us. But, you won’t find them before they move on. If we don’t make regular contact, it was decided that something happened to us and that they move on. While you are at a higher level than us right now, there are some really capable people among them. They want to continue fighting dungeons and it will only be a matter of time before they are far stronger than anyone in this village.” John bluffed with an implied threat.

The man didn’t react for a moment and then grinned.

“I can’t really tell if you are bluffing or if what you said is true. Showing so little reaction to a threat of your life, I don’t think you had a regular life before you arrived here. Otherwise, you would be more like your partner here.” The man gestured at Daniel. “While he is holding himself quiet well, he seems far more effected by the situation. Is your group still complete, or did someone leave early?”

Thoughts rushed through Daniel's head.

“The burned out building.” He observed.

“Yes, the burned out building.” The man confirmed.

Daniel thought about it for a moment, before he decided that they didn’t owe the bearded man anything.

“There was one more person that we know of. He didn’t talk to anybody. He just leveled up in the dungeon until he reached level 10 and then left.” Daniel explained paused and then continued. “Oh, and there was another man. He had a panic attack when he saw the first goblins. He ran out into the snow. But, I don’t think he could’ve survived. He was only level one.”

“Can you guarantee for the behavior of the rest of your group.” The man asked.

“No, while there was nobody that made any problems or was violent, we only met the others five days ago.” John explained.

“Fair enough, if you agree to one condition, your group is welcome to trade in this village. We don’t have an inn, so you have to organize a place to sleep for yourself. The name is Jacob by the way.” Jacob decided.

“What kind of condition?” John asked warily.

“Well, of course you’ll help me find your missing person. I don’t know how he looks and only found out from his traces that he made his way to the next village. But, there are living over 800 people there, so it would be impossible to find the right person.” Jacob explained.

“And after we find him?” Daniel asked fearful of the answer.

“We’ll kill him. He murdered the Millers, raped and killed their 16 year old daughter, stole their money and burned down their house.” Jacob outlined in a cold tone.

Daniel hesitated, he had killed three people a few days ago. But, he’d been betrayed before that and it was while his life was threatened. John didn’t.

“We agree. We’ll need some clothes. It is probably not a good idea to be recognized as a traveler. Where we came from, you do better if you try to blend in. The dungeon boss dropped some silver on each run, so we should be able to pay for it. When do you want to leave?” He asked.

“In two hours. We should be able to make it to Crossing before nightfall.” Jacob answered.

Daniel was a bit shocked by the fast changes to their situation. Five minutes ago, he thought that he might be killed or tortured for questioning. Now, he was a volunteer of a manhunt. John had handled it far better. It seemed like he had been unmoved by their whole situation. Maybe, he should ask him for some tips later, Daniel thought.

“You can gather your people, I’ll keep the boy here.” Jacob told John.

“Boy? I’m 21 and you don’t seem much older than me.” Daniel objected.

“I don’t know how it is where you came from, but here looks can be deceiving. I’m the oldest person in this village and I’m 91 years old.” Jacob’s explanation stunned Daniel and John.

“Experience was described by the system as life force. So, you can be immortal if you gather enough?” Daniel asked curious.

“To a degree, but let’s discuss that later. You get your people, I’ll talk to mine and see if I can get some other clothes for you.” Jacob responded.

John and Jacob left and Daniel remained alone. He thought about the last minutes a bit. It seemed like they had vastly underestimated the people of this world. They’d thought themselves hidden, but Daniel should’ve known from his own domain skill, that the rules were different here. The bearded man must have been very lucky to get away with his actions.

Ten minutes later, Daniel was interrupted in his thoughts. Jacob had come back and with him was another man that wore the heavy leather apron of a smith. Jacob removed a sturdy leather armor from his inventory and put in on the table.

“You said you collected silver from the dungeon boss. It is normal that they drop only ore or nuggets. This armor is 20 silver coins. Albert here has the license and tools to create silver coins. He can help you convert your wealth.” Jacob explained.

Daniel thought about the situation for a moment, but he came to the conclusion that Jacob could have just killed him if he wanted to rob him. He removed his ten pounds of silver and his gold from his inventory. The smith whistled in an approving tone.

“Nice, that should be over 200 coins right there. I can’t do anything about the gold. I have not the right molds for that. Converting the silver will cost you 10%. While you could get it done cheaper in a larger town, I’ve heard that you need new clothes and have no money.” Albert explained with a huge grin on his face.

Daniel felt ripped off, but then started to think about it. To be honest, it didn’t really matter to him. He could probably make his way back to the dungeon in less than a day. A few boss runs and he could get another ten pounds of silver.

“For 8% I’ll take the deal. While I could get more silver without much problems, I’m not a pushover that lets himself be exploited.” Daniel answered.

Albert grinned and stretched out his hand in agreement.

“Oh, and you probably should rip off the others. Most of them aren’t able to get more silver from the dungeon as easily as me.” Daniel added and shook the hand. Albert face contorted in astonishment.

“You are a traveler! You discovered a dungeon nearby! If you can repeat the boss hunt, that means it is has more levels. You could get a first clear!” He ascertained and Jacob got an annoyed look on his face.

“Albert, you will swear to the system that you won’t tell anybody about them being travelers and the dungeon, now!”

Albert looked reluctant and then gave in. “I swear.”

After Albert left with the silver, Daniel turned to Jacob.

“Swearing on the system? What is so special about a first clear? All I know is that it is annoying that you can’t leave without losing your gains.” He asked.

Jacob took out a bottle of wine and two glasses out of his inventory. After pouring Daniel some of the wine, he stated to explain the situation,

“Yes, there is a mechanism in the system to uphold oaths. If you go against your word, you'll lose levels. But, it only works if the one swearing is the lower leveled party. Might makes right with the system after all. Now, about your other question. You are above level ten, so you have gotten the attribute increase from your class. It is very powerful, especially at higher levels. The main problem at getting a higher level is that your attributes don't keep up with your level. To challenge equally leveled opponents, you should have at least 20 attribute points for each of your levels.”

“But, you only get 10 at each level.” Daniel pointed out.

“Yes, that is the problem. If you focus on leveling, at some point you’ll run ahead of your attributes and your only way to level up safely is to kill larger and larger groups of weaker enemies. If you are level 30, killing something at level 20 is barely worth it.” Jacob continued.

“So, you have to make up the ten points either by training, your class bonus or by other buffs. I got some attribute bonus for destroying a F ranked dungeon on the way here, but what has that to do with first clears?” Daniel asked.

Jacob was surprised by his announcement of clearing another dungeon.

“You are truly lucky. Got a rare class, too?” Jacob asked.

Daniel hesitated, but he decided to be honest.

“No, most of the others got a rare one. Mine is epic.” He explained.

Jacob was just shaking his head in disbelieve.

“I know nobody who got an epic class at level 10. Congratulations, if you are lucky and dedicated, you might even rank up to legendary at level 25.” He took a deep breath and continued. “It doesn’t really matter right now. What is important is that a first clear gives you points to level up a perk. What level was the boss of the first dungeon level?" Jacob asked.

“The boss was a green goblin chieftain at level 15.” Daniel answered.

“Above level ten means an E rank dungeon. A clear gives you two points. Together with the other dungeon, you should have three points. If you get five, you’ll get the first level of the perk. It gives you plus one percent in every attribute.” Jacob continued.

“So a bit less than half of a basic class.” Daniel determined.

“Yes, but that is only level one. If you level up this perk and have a good class, you’ll have to train a lot less to challenge monsters on the same level. It will speed up your progress a lot and you’ll live far longer.” Jacob added.

“Ok, I understand that training stuff. But, why would you live longer?” Daniel asked, while he decided not to mention his training bonus from his traveler perk.

“After reaching a certain age, you’ll start to lose experience day after day. The older you get, the faster you’ll lose experience. If you reach zero, you’ll die.” Jacob explained.

“So, if you are at a high level, you can make up for the loss far easier with killing monsters. Is this the same with extending your inventory with experience?” Daniel asked.

“Yes, if you don’t recover the life energy fast enough, your body will age!”

This made Daniel look sick for a moment. He had spent more than half of his XP on the inventory upgrade at one point. If he hadn’t kept clearing the dungeon, he could’ve been a middle aged man right now.

He drank the rest of his wine and didn’t say anything for a moment. Jacob just looked at him in understanding.

“So, the first level were green goblins. Were there blue ones on the second level?” He asked after a short while.

“Yes, but they started at level 16 and we decided to withdraw.” Daniel told him.

“I’d be interested in clearing that level. I’m at level 29 and should be able to do most of the work alone. What was the name of the dungeon? Maybe, we could get another bonus for destroying it.” Jacob asked.

“Goblin fortress.” Daniel answered and Jacob smiled.

“That means it is probably the last floor.”

“How would you know that, for all we know there could be and an endless amount of floors with stronger and stronger goblins.” Daniel asked.

“The dungeons are named after the last level in most cases. After blue goblins, there are hobgoblins and black goblins. If it were the first kind, it should have been called ‘Hobgoblin Fortress’.”

“And if it were black goblins?” Jacob shuddered when Daniel asked that question.

“Pray that you’ll never meet black goblins. They are smaller than the green ones, but way stronger. They can rip apart steel with their claws. The worst thing is that they swarm you even more than green ones. I've heard of a level 50 party of elite adventurers being wiped out by a black goblin attack. Fortunately, they are always led by a king and the dungeon should’ve received a different name.” Jacob explained.

“I can’t decide for the rest. Right now, the dungeon is the only way for us to make money. If we destroy it, we’ll have to find another income source.” Daniel answered and they quietly drank another glass of wine, before Jacob left to get some other stuff done. Daniel had many more questions, but he'd decided not to annoy Jacob, for now. Finding out how the kingdom could be named New England and why the language was almost the same could wait. With nothing to do, Daniel decided to put on the heavy leather armor. It was a good fit and he was still able to move mostly unhindered. With a smile he decided that he would buy it.