The fact that there were private dungeons that we couldn't access confused me. However, it wasn't important as there was a dungeon we could go into. It made sense in a way that some large group of adventurers or knights that were rich could buy all the property around a dungeon and monopolize it if there were other entrances close by. I couldn't imagine the local government standing idle if all the entrances were occupied by various factions and kept others out.

We dived back into the maze of people in this chaotic city and after being sidetracked a few times we ended up somewhere around the center of the city. There, we found a food market selling exotic ingredients along with some food stands selling hot food probably made from the ingredients being sold everywhere there. There were stews filled with a variety of ingredients and also meat being grilled up.

I ended up grabbing a couple bowls of the stew for myself and Jerry since it was fairly cheap but the grilled meat was very pricey. The price of a few strips of meat was the same as an entire chicken back in the town of Coip. Thankfully, the stew was filling and had plenty of fruits, grain, and veggies in it. Some of the chunks of vegetables and fruit were bad and I ended up spitting out some pieces onto the ground. After all, the reason why it was so cheap was because it was made from ingredients that didn't sell and were either about to go bad or already bad. I was already starting to miss Tom's bar.

As we wandered the markets, we started to find flags being hung over some of the stands and rather than food, they were selling weapons and metal ores. The weapons, whether an ax or a spear, were made completely out of metal, no wooden handle. That was a waste of metal but might be useful in a dungeon run as a metal handle could be used to block attacks without too much damage and the weapon would be less likely to break from a big impact.

Still, it was a bit unnerving to see them being sold in pretty much every stand with a flag over it, especially with their price tag. They were even cheaper than a farming utensil at Jeff's place, not even talking about his weapons. Something was off with this situation. Either metal was so plentiful that weapons were mass produced and drove prices down or there was something fundamentally wrong with the weapons. The ores as well were sold in piles of three through five for a silver each, while iron back in town was worth somewhere between one and two silvers each.

"Do you know what's up with these weapons and ores?" I asked Jerry, hoping he knew more about the topic than me.

"No, but I'd like to avoid having to use these weapons if they're this cheap and plentiful. Seems like they would break in half at the first sign of trouble. Then again, if they're legit it would make our stay in the city a lot easier. At these prices, I'm tempted to buy one just to try it out in the dungeon," said Jerry.

I agreed with his sentiment and stopped by one of the shops selling stuff for cheap and picked up a metal staff almost as tall as me. It was surprisingly light yet it wasn't hollow. I tapped against my fingernail and didn't hear any noise beyond the usual metallic tap. Jerry paid the man sitting at the stand a single silver and picked up a small ax. That silver accounted for both of our weapons amazingly enough. There was a bit of laughter from our surroundings during the sale.

That laughter alone confirmed our suspicions about these weapons. I looked around and saw some adventurers walking down the street and none of them had these sorts of weapons, having the usual wooden handles on spears and axes, or if they were metal, it was a lighter grey color and shiny, likely being of steel or silver make. Very luxurious and expensive weapons that were never up for sale in Jeff's shop. Steel weapons were more durable and stronger than iron but apparently require more cleaning to prevent rust. Meanwhile, a silver coating over a weapon, iron or steel will keep the weapon from rusting and rumors say that it makes it more effective against some monsters.

If not for the fact I had two enchanted weapons, I might have been jealous, or not. I still wanted a steel or silver spear and maybe a club or ax. My enchanted weapons seemed to be quite situational in their use so some high-quality weapons other than them would be nice. This staff wasn't too bad either with how light it was, even if it was low quality or faulty in some way. Adventuring as a profession would be a lot easier if all weapons were as light as this yet were still able to dish out some damage. As long as it didn't break in the process, light weapons like this should be able to hurt or kill monsters as long as I swing them hard enough.

Further into this area filled with flags, more and more shops cropped up along with the occasional blacksmith making weapons in front of everyone. The constant yelling of the shopkeepers mixed in with the noise of the crowd and blacksmiths hammering was deafening. Eventually, we found a building taking a central position in all the noise covered in flags. Upon closer inspection, the flags had symbols on them and probably represented divines so the flags belonged to knight orders. Not only knights entered this building, but ordinary adventurers like us also came and went as well. There was a constant stream of people going in and out, more than the building could feasibly fit. Which meant the dungeon was likely inside. Before we could enter, we had to look around to see if we could find Matt.

By the side of the entrance, I found Matt surrounded by a group of adventurers talking to him. He looked a bit uncomfortable from the attention so Jerry and I rushed over. The reason why he was surrounded was due to the shield in his hands that the adventurers were trying to buy off him. It was my shield that I had left with Stephen so he could use it to heal. Why did he bring it here instead of leaving it with Stephen at the place we'd be staying at for the night? As soon as I came close, Matt rushed over to me and pushed the shield into my hands and I slipped it onto my left arm where I usually kept it.

"Doesn't Stephen need this?" I asked.

"Stephen said that it's more important for you to use it if you're going into the dungeon and that he'd just have to endure a bit of pain from its absence. He said to just give it back to him later tonight," said Matt.

"Hey what's going on? I, Bismuth, was negotiating over the sale of that item to me. It's rude to take things that are about to belong to me," said one of the men that had been harassing Matt. He seemed to be the leader of the others as they stood behind him and kept silent as he talked.

"It's not for sale and the item is mine, not Matt's so you couldn't have negotiated a sale with him anyway. That looked more like coercion than a negotiation," I said.

"Whatever you say. The great Bismuth has lost interest in buying it at your loss. It's got a shit enchantment on it so not like it could turn much of a profit," said Bismuth while walking away. That pissed me off more than it would have if he had continued to insist on buying the shield. He could have just apologized for his mistake instead of making a show of it, narcissistic bastard.

"How does he know the enchantment on the shield?" asked Jerry. I hadn't even noticed until Jerry had mentioned it, but he somehow knew what enchantment was on the shield. That or he was just calling it a shit enchantment because he couldn't have it.

"That's my fault. They approached me while I was waiting for you guys and started asking about the shield while being really friendly. It wasn't until they insisted on buying it and I refused did they start ganging up on me like that," said Matt. He really should be more careful about random groups of people walking up to him out of nowhere, no matter how friendly.

"Whatever, the situation is done and over. Hopefully, we'll never bump into them again and this will amount to nothing. I'd rather not have an adventuring group with a grudge against us floating around," I said while thinking of the possibility of facing a situation similar to back in Coip with a knight order or adventurers.

"Oh right, I managed to get a hatchet for a ridiculously cheap price. Left me and Stephen with plenty of cash for the room. Unfortunately, those were super expensive, especially ones with multiple beds. The best we could do was grab a cramped room with one large bed for a single night. It's either that or sleeping outside the city. I see that you guys managed to get some weapons at a good price as well," he said while gesturing towards my staff and Jerry's spare ax.

"We're pretty sure there's something wrong with these weapons and that's why they're cheap so we're going to test them out then fall back to our usual weapons if they're shit. Where's your old hatchet? Even with it's crack, it'll be handy if your current one breaks in one hit," said Jerry.

"Uhh, I may have sold my old hatchet to help pay for the room rent," said Matt while looking at his new hatchet nervously.

"You still have your spear so you'll have to make do for now. I already gave you a quarter of our budget so we're looking at four nights or less at an inn, with that difference between three and four nights probably going to be made from having to buy you a new, proper hatchet if that one doesn't work out for you," said Jerry while holding up four fingers and curling one to make his point extra clear.

"I'm sorry, vice captain. I wasn't thinking things through. I'll do my best to earn enough money to stay longer and possibly even upgrade to a better room or have multiple rented at once," said Matt, which also happened to be my plan. I didn't want to sleep on a bed with three other guys and I was already planning on sleeping on the floor.

With that out of the way, Jerry explained our end of things to Matt with the garrison and how they wouldn't be helping us and why. Meanwhile, we took our place in the back of the line leading into the building holding the dungeon. The line moved fairly fast with only five to ten-second pauses before the line moved up. Within five minutes we were already at the front of the line and entered the building. There wasn't much in the way of decor or anything inside other than a hill and a hole on the side of the hill bearing the entrance to the dungeon. Right as we entered the building, a man exited the dungeon covered in blood. He left the building before I could decipher if it was his or from the monsters.

There were two guards lining on both sides of the entrance wielding spears that they lowered and crossed over, blocking the entrance while a third guard walked up to us with his hands outstretched. Another fee was asked of us as if paying the enter the city wasn't bad enough. No wonder there were private dungeon entrances, knight orders and adventurers wanted to avoid paying a fee every time they had to go into the dungeon. What made things worse is that it was an entire silver coin per person. And based on the prices I saw on the ores outside, that meant we'd likely have to wheat grind or fish for hours and hours to make the dungeon trip worthwhile.

We paid the fees for all three of us even though it was probably a bad idea to come here and entered the dungeon one by one. Hopefully, the fact that there were so many adventurers and knight orders running about meant that entering the dungeon was worthwhile even with the fee.

In the first room of the dungeon, I felt a sense of familiarity. After a few days of traveling, this was the first time I felt welcomed and at home. As welcoming and homely as black walls and a walking skeleton could be. Despite how dark the walls were, the room was well lit and I hoped it would stay that way. As for the monster, it kept its distance from me, hugging the back perimeter of the room. This was odd as usually, monsters would either move to attack me or stay still until I made some sort of move. As I walked closer to it with the staff in hand, moved from one side to the other, trying to find a way to get around me. Perhaps it wanted to ambush me but the room was too small for it to get around me.

As soon as I got close enough, I lunged with the staff in hand to bash the skeleton over its head, or skull. It hit spot on with a resounding crack. Not from the skeleton's skull but from my staff as it got deformed where it hit the monster along with snaking cracks spreading around the area. Just as I thought, this weapon was shoddy and of no real use in combat and dropped it. Since I had my doubts on whether my spear would work with the monster being all bones and no nice soft flesh to poke, I unsheathed my sword and slashed downward with a wisp of flames leaving a streak in the air. Not only did my sword split its skull open, but it also caught the entire monster on fire and it collapsed into a pile of broken bones and ashes. This piled swirled and recombined itself into a blackish ore.

When I sheathed my sword, I noticed that my hands were blackened as if I hadn't washed them in weeks or handled coal. The same color as the staff I had been using and this ore that dropped. It all fell into place now. This ore, whatever it was, was incredibly common because it dropped so often and as a result, it was super cheap and used to make really shoddy weapons. It was also a really dirty metal for some reason. Curious about what it really looked like, I picked up the ore and wiped it on my shirt until its sheen shone through. It was actually quite beautiful and was as shiny as silver but with a darker grey color. It wasn't a metal I knew the name of, but without the black dust all over it, it looked valuable while it was actually close to worthless with its overabundance.

After throwing the ore into my shirt and picking up and tying the staff beside my spear on my back, I went to the next room. There I found another cowardly skeleton looking to ambush me. As I reached to unsheathe my sword, I noticed something strange with my shield. Normally, it would occasionally light up with a sharp glint to reveal its status to the world as a divine item, but now it was flashing on and off constantly. Coupled with the flashes was the skeletons reaction. Every time the shield flashed, its head jerked back a bit and it tried backing off more. Could it be that the skeleton wasn't acting this way to try and ambush me but because it was scared of my shield?

Remembering how the shield affected the dark elemented snake, I decided to test out the same thing with this skeleton by trapping it in one part of the room then touching it with the shield. There was a possibility that I didn't even need to fight in this dungeon, just shield bash everything to death. While I thought bash, it was really more of a careful press. All it took was moving my shield back and forth to keep the skeleton from slipping away to the sides while confirming it really was afraid of my shield. In that dominant position, I shoved the shield into its face and it lifted up its hands to grab onto the sides of the shield. Its finger bones gave off smoke as it did this, but it prevented me from pushing the shield any farther until I put more strength into it.

Creaks rang out in the room as the skeleton's arms were pushed back and the shield pressed against its ribs, letting out a large plume of blackish smoke. Seconds later, the skeleton fell apart, becoming scattered pieces of bones while its ribs and forearms collapsed into smoke and dust onto the ground. My shield turned the dead and could even purge them while my fire sword could split their skulls and burn away their bodies. This was the perfect dungeon for my current equipment if there ever was one, that is if things didn't get harder and the environment didn't change in a way that inconvenienced me.

It took more effort to pin them down with my shield than it took to cut them down with my sword. Room three was ended with one slash and one less skeleton in the dungeon. And like the first room, a blackish ore dropped that I cleaned up somewhat by wiping on my shirt then throwing it in with the other one. To break even, I needed at least three more like that, preferably more since merchants sold at higher prices than they bought things for. Even then, it seemed like most knights set up a shop under their name to sell through directly rather than selling wholesale to some random merchant in the city.