Chapter 31 - Explanations

Day 43

Mike's POV:

It didn't take Mike long to return to his village. He went home immediately and asked his sister and Gunthar to accompany him to the chief's house. They gathered themselves in the chief's living room and Mike started to explain his story.

"Ok guys, I think it's time for me to explain things to you. To make it short, I found a dungeon!"

"What, where, are you sure?"

"Please Anna, let him finish his story first."

"Ok chief, I'll wait with my questions for later."

"Good, so almost four weeks ago, I hunted a bear. It fled into a cave but, before I got to it to get the bear's corpse, it disappeared. I immediately was reminded of mom's and dad's stories about dungeons and how they absorb the fallen. I was scared shitless at first and thought I would die. After all, I stumbled into the cave like a moron without knowing how dangerous it was. Whatever, I was addressed by someone who introduced himself as Neo. He thanked me for bringing the bear into the dungeon and gave me a lot of silver. He explained, he would give me more for other animals. I had to swear an magical binding oath that I would not tell anybody about the dungeon for 30 days and until I brought him another five types of creatures.

That's why I was in the woods so much, I hunted some easy prey and earned more silver. When I just killed a panther and was on my way to bring it to the dungeon, I was attacked by at least 20 goblins. I was wounded and had an arrow sticking in my back, so I decided the only chance for survival was to get back to the dungeon and Neo. I was successful, the last I saw before passing out, was Neo dispatching all of the goblins. When I woke up again, a day later or so, all traces of the goblins were gone and I got the book plus more silver. When he gave it to me, he said he'd put some basic techniques, spells and cultivation method into it and that he added some notes and tips for a new adventurer that could be helpful for a newbie like me. Neo then sent me back home and advised me to use the next weeks for training."

"Where is the dungeon, boy?"

"That's the good news, it's on our land, only four kilometers north of the village."

"You know what this means?"

"We're rich, adventurers will come and spend their money on goods and fees in our village."

"Yes, Anna they will do that, but meant another issue."

"Yes, I know. If the wrong kind of person gets wind of this before we register the dungeon with the guild, we'll probably all die. Neo explained this much to me and asked me to come back before I go to Geldern to notify the guild."

"And what was his advice for you?"

"He told me to get you, chief. Then I should go to the guild and request the advanced entrance test."

"Never heard of that, you're sure he didn't tell you some kind of crap?"

"Yes, he explained that it costs ten gold and a higher up member of the branch has to be present for it. He even gave me the money for it."

"What I don't understand is, why this Neo guy, isn't going to the guild himself? Isn't there a reward for finding a new dungeon?"

"That's easy Gunthar. From the contents and concepts of the tome, this person should be at least SS rank maybe even higher. If a guy like this is suddenly interested in a new dungeon, it will cause a lot of people to take notice. But if a local finds a dungeon near his own village, nobody will think twice about it. I can't guess what his plans are, this is on a far higher level than I've ever reached during my active time. But even if there is some nefarious stuff going on, we wouldn't be implicated. People on that level don't care about small fry like us."

Mike felt a little bit bad for leading them to believe Neo was a guy and not the dungeon. But he couldn't change it, he'd sworn an oath and if his connection to the dungeon should be somehow found out and backfire, it was probably better if they were not involved in it.

"But isn't it pretty weird for a powerful man to give a country bumpkin so much silver, just to get some animals? Couldn't have this Neo guy just gotten them by himself?"

"Hahaha, Gunther you don't know much about high level adventurers do you? I've heard of people in the S ranks who wouldn't care to pick up gold coins from the floor or collect the change from the platinum coins they spend. It would be far below them to go to hunt some bears or deer. If a dungeon needs these kinds of creatures, it's probably pretty new and can't handle real monsters. It would probably pretty bad for a new dungeon to only have access to titans, hydras and dragons. I don't know much, or why, but all of the dungeons I've been to start relatively easy on the first levels. Maybe because low level adventurers die more often? Like I said, I don't know. But a newborn dungeon with a few floors, that only has very powerful monsters, would not attract low level adventurers and would be far too small for the more powerful ones to bother."

"There is another thing, Neo wanted me to bring him metal samples. He gave me 1000 silver and promised me 100 more for each normal element, and at least 250 for the rarer ones."

"I can get you some metals, Mike. I've some in my smithy for creating high steel, but what does a dungeon do with them?"

"He explained a dungeon can only create materials it absorbed."

"When do you leave? Gunthar and I will come with you!"

"What why?"

"Anna is right. If we expect adventurers, I need to get more materials for my forge. If I can't meet their demands, they will probably get another smith from the city. Normally, most of the stuff I do only needs iron or steel. But to repair and make good weapons, I need at least high steel and orichalcum. Sadly I'm not experienced enough to create real high end weapons and armor, so they'll probably get a high level smith sooner or later anyway. But it would be good for your sister and me, if I can claim a good part of the market for low and medium grade weapons."

"Ok, let's get our stuff and meet here again in one hour."

After leaving the chiefs house, Mike accompanied Gunthar to his smithy. They were able to gather samples for nickel, cobalt, vanadium, manganese and chrome. An hour later, they were on their 25 kilometers long way to the city of Geldern.

"Chief, do you think the stuff the book said about dungeons is true?"

"You mean the stuff about dungeons being essential for the human race to evolve? I thought about that. It's probably right. You should've noticed that it far faster to train your skills in sparing than sitting at home. I can tell you, experiencing a life threatening battle, will let you grow on a whole other level. So yeah, I think it's correct. Without dungeons, humans would've probably fought a lot more wars to evolve or they would hunt any dangerous creature out there to extinction. Even if that was not the case and we would stay peaceful, we would've just become a weak race, living in a world ruled by other more powerful beings. Hell if I think about it, a proper demon invasion, like that one a few hundred years ago, would wipe us out, if we didn't have people, who are constantly risking their life to improve themselves."

"At what price, most of adventurers die young!"

"As hard as that sounds Anna, that is the way of nature! Survival of the fittest. Another thing is the higher mana concentration in dungeons. If you cultivate in a large dungeon, you meet mana concentrations dozens of times higher than on the outside. Dungeon diving isn't only improving your skills faster, it's helping a lot with your cultivation too."

They spent the rest of their way to the city talking about more benign topics. When they reached the city on the next day, they decided to split up. Anna and Gunthar were going to get tools and materials for the smithy. and they would get as much metal probes as possible. While Mike and the chief made their way to the adventurers guild.

It was Mike's first time to enter the guild. Inside was a large reception counter with a young woman sitting behind it. The rest of the floor was stuffed with tables and chairs with a lot of hardened looking people sitting there, chatting and drinking. When he asked the chief about it, he was told a lot of people used the guild to meet up with their group or a customer. Others used it to meet other aventurers between jobs and to exchange information and rumors.

After letting his view wander over the room, Mike went to the woman behind the reception desk.

"Hello, I'd like to register as an adventurer."

"One gold."

"I want to attend the advanced entry test for ten gold."

"Advanced entry test, never heard of that."

The woman got back to her book and ignored Mike. Then the chief decided to intervene.

"Girl, if you are too new to know anything about it, maybe you get somebody who is more experienced?"

The unfriendly woman looked up again and she seemed to notice the chief for the first time. She probably guessed he was a higher ranked adventurer, because her behavior changed immediately."

"A good idea, Sir. I'll get into that. Just wait for a moment please."

With that said, she left the counter and went up the stairwell next to the entrance door.