Chapter 41 - Just go for it

Day 56

Mike's POV:

Finally he was back at the dungeon. Yesterday, he and the chief went back to the village to inform their people about the dungeon. At first, most had been surprised and fearful, but the chief was able to convince them that it would be a large bonus to the future of their village.

After this, they had a very long discussion about the future land policy at the dungeon. In the end, they settled on a five percent tax on all business transactions. Adventurers wouldn't have to pay a tax on the loot they collected from the dungeon. They decided to sell no land, they would only lease it without costs for fifty years. If one wanted a property, he needed to have a plan for its usage ready and if a building was empty for more than a year, it went back to the village. After this, his sister Anna convinced their people of her position and they forbid selling and renting out properties. This was to prevent property speculations. They didn't want to have the early migrants carving up all the properties, just to earn money by selling them for a higher price later. This would only increase property prices and slow down the development of the new town. At last, the village was obligated to spend 75% of the income on the town itself.

Then they discussed Sonja's request for a road to the dungeon. They decided that every villager would help to build that road and Mike gave out half of his 100 gold coins that he had gotten for his discovery, as a compensation for the workers.

This morning, the work started, but the chief convinced Mike to focus on his training and that he'd done enough for the village. They started to build their construction from the village. With the help of Khadgar's earth magic, they were able to level the terrain and build a road. The villagers only had to remove all trees and bushes. The tree trunks were left on site, later after the road was finished, they would use a horse cart to move the wood to the dungeon, where it could be used for new buildings.

After seeing that his people made good progress, Mike felt a decision. Yesterday, he'd reached rank E4 and now he wanted to dive the dungeon. The first part was for F rank groups and he thought he should be able to reach the fifth level. Before he was ready to enter the dungeon, he saw Sardian leave it with a smile on his face.

"Hello Sadian, how is the dungeon?"

"Haha, hello boy. I think we might have hit a gold mine here. We ran the dungeon again and it changed, a lot! For the first floors, it duplicated them. Now ten groups can enter at the same time, without getting in each other's way. The best news is that the annoying maze on floor twelve is gone and on level five, another exit tunnel appeared, which brings you straight to the dungeon entrance. We've been here only a few days, it's not normal for a dungeon to change this much this fast. If this goes on, maybe in a year it is able to give our group a real challenge."

"Good to hear. Our village has settled on a property policy for the dungeon."

After Mike told Sardian what they decided, the rogue smiled.

"Glad to hear you aren't greedy. You could probably have gotten a lot more, but in the long run it's wiser to make the dungeon as attractive as possible and to not piss of all adventurers. Your village is weak and it's control over the dungeon depends on the Guild and it's complying with this kingdom's policy. But, that only goes to a certain level, so better keep a good relationship to Sonja."

"Thanks for the advice. I decided to challenge the first four levels of the dungeon by myself, do you have any advice?"

"Never go into a dungeon alone, except you are a real powerhouse! Today is your lucky day, I don't have much to do at the moment and if I'm just sitting around, Khadgar will conscript me for the road building. So, I will use my stealth and follow you. If you get overwhelmed and are in risk of dying, I will intervene. Otherwise, I will leave you alone."

"Thanks a lot, I thought about asking the chief, but he is occupied with the road."

Mike took his sword and shield an made his way into the dungeon. The wolf on the first floor was not a real challenge. He just used his shield to block its attack and then activated Windcutter and beheaded the wolf with one blow. Sardian was a great help, he taught him which plants he should harvest and how to do it.

On the second floor, the first fight was against the five wolves. Mike stayed in the small hallway and shot at one of the wolves. It went down, but the other four ran at his direction. Luckily for him, the corridor was only allowing two of them to attack at the same time. Mike used his Tough Body and bashed the wolf to his left with his shield, while he slashed the one to his right with his sword. The one bashed by his shield fell unconscious, the other one tried to bite his leg. Mike reacted fast enough and kicked it with his heavy boot. A third wolf used the distraction, climbed over the unconscious one and hit into his left leg. The Tough Body and the leather pants helped and the pain was bearable. Mike used the opening the wolf showed him and pierced its skull with his sword, whereas the last wolf tried to go for his throat. Mike was able to rely on his reflexes, he went one step back and yanked up his shield to block the wolf's attack. It worked and he was able to dispose the wolf with another sword slash.

He killed the unconscious wolf and the one wounded by the arrow, then had a look at his wound. It was only bleeding a little, nothing serious. He used his Water Regeneration to close the wound and went to the next room.

There were no enemies, only badgers and deer, but he found a few good plants. Then he began to think about the next room. There were seven wolves there and Mike was trying to develop a strategy that would help him against this numerical disadvantage.

The first thing that came to his mind, where to use his superior speed with Haste and to kite the wolves with his bow. Mike decided against it, he wanted to learn how to become a tank and not a marksman. A few minutes later, he developed another strategy.

In the room, there were a lot of barriers and other obstacles. Mike used his bow and shot at one of the wolves, than he moved between obstacles and get ready for the attack. He activated Haste and waited until the last moment. Then he moved a step back, the leading two wolves missed their jump attack and Mike was able to dispatch one of them with Windcutter. When the next wolf attacked again, he switched back to Haste and used his superior speed to go out of its reach again. Mike used this tactic until only two wolves were left. Then he switched to Tough Body and frontally attacked them. He ignored a wolf biting his shield arm and dispatched the other one first. The arm was hurting and the wolf didn't want to let go, so Mike just stabbed its heart with his sword while he activated Flamesword.

This time the wound was worse. The wolf wasn't able to break his arm, but it bled a lot and Mike had problems to move some of his fingers. He used his Water Regeneration again and gained his finger movement back.

In the next thirty minutes, he used the same tactics for the wolves on the third floor. When he arrived at the boss room he activated Tough Body and went in. Like before, the black bear was poking at a bee hive and was then enraged by the stings. The bees were stinging Mike too and he had to use his full concentration to stay focused on the angry bear. It charged at him and he put the lower end of the shield on the ground, put his feet behind it and then used his full strength to block the bear's charge. He was pushed back a little from the force of the bear's impact, but it worked. The bear was a little stunned and Mike stabbed his sword at it while using Windcutter. Heavily bleeding, the dazed bear tried another charge, but this time it was much slower and Mike was easily able to evade it. His next stab killed the bear and he wasn't even wounded except for all the bee stings. He used the Water regeneration to heal them and made his way to the next floor.

The fourth floor wasn't much harder. The panther were faster than the bear, but they were weaker, too. Mike didn't have much problems to block their charge with his shield. He was lucky that they were loners and he only had to them fight one at a time. The only time he got into real trouble was, when one of the snakes bit him. Luckily, he was able to cure most of the paralyzing poison with Water Regeneration before he was attacked by another panther.

When he arrived at the fifth floor, Sardian went visible again.

"Do you want to attack the brown bear on this floor?"

"No, I don't think so. I could probably evade its attacks, but the sword is the wrong weapon to fight against it."

"Wise decision. It's probably best to get a spear if you want to go for it. All in all, not bad for a newbie. Although, I'm a little bit curious how you got this many techniques, but its none of my business and it is rude to ask another adventurer where he got his stuff."

"Thanks for your help. Let's just say I had a lucky encounter and learned a few techniques. I'm cultivating for the rest of the day, I think I will make a run again tomorrow."

After Sardian left, Mike tried to feel his affinities. He'd used a little too much water magic, so he used Flamesword a few times, until it his affinities felt balanced again. Then he started to cultivate his mana.