Dove POV

“It stinks…” I said, as I followed my nose towards the location where the stench grew worse and worse.

There were two plausible reasons why we could not leave town. First was a Hidden Quest, but there were too many Characters to check with one by one. Second was a Secret Dungeon. Narrowing down the possibilities, a Secret Dungeon located in Naut City would be limited to… a haunted house, or more probably… the sewers.

After my conversation with Liza, I headed straight for the slums of Naut City. I learned that the sewer entrance was located at the end of the slums. In the slums themselves, there were little to no Players, but as I drew closer to the sewer, even Characters became scarce.

After about an hour of walking, I found the entrance of the sewers. It was basically a manhole located on the last dead end of Naut City, but what surprised me was that there was a Player leaning on the wall near the manhole sleeping. He was wearing a cloak like I am so I could not recognize him. He was not part of any Party

“A Player? A girl at that.” said the Player without even moving from his body or looking at me.

“Who are you?”

Still covered by the cloak, the Player stood up and stretched his hands.

“Congratulations. You have found the secret dungeon.” said the Player in an uninterested and sarcastic voice.

“So it really was a sewer? Have you confirmed it?”

“Yes. I already went it and checked it a bit.”

“How was it?”

“Same monsters as those in the alley ways, but more in number.”

“Have you reported it to other Players?”

“No. Why would I?”

What a selfish Player… did he not want to go back to our world? Did he not want to help his fellow Players?

“Hey, want to go into the dungeon together?”

Ehh? I thought he didn’t want to acquire the treasures in the dungeon by himself? Why ws he contradicting himself? Was he planning to lure me into the dungeon and let me die now that I know this secret dungeon?

Temporary Party Request

Condition(s): Cooperate in clearing the secret dungeon: Naut City Sewers

Total rewards (money, treasure, item drops) will be split evenly

I received a Temporary Party Request. Unlike a normal Party Request, a temporary one did not exchange any information about the Players and can be broken in any City or Town easily. The purpose of Temporary Party Requests was to prevent Player kills.

Help System: Player vs Player

When in Cities and other Safe Zones, Players cannot damage other Players or afflict Status Ailments. However, since friendly fire existed in Reality, you could attack other Players in Dungeons.

I recalled what I remembered from the Help System. Killing other Players had its consequences. The killer’s green icon became yellow. While this change in color had no meaning by itself, other Players would see the icon. Yellow icons disappeared after a month. Only when another killing was performed again by the same Player would there be consequences. First, the Icon of the Player became red. Second, red Players could not acquire Quests from the Quest Guild. Third, it prevented the killer from gaining money from killing Monsters. Last, if the killer was killed by another Player A, then Player A would acquire all Equipment and Money from the killer without changing color.

Pardon for killing could only be granted by any one of the Nine Elemental Gods. If they judged that the killer did not commit the crime intentionally or had repented and suffered enough for the killing, they could return into having a yellow icon, which as mentioned, returned to green after a month.

“I thought you didn’t want to share the Dungeon.”

The Player faced towards me, as if he was reading me, but I could not see his face due to the cloak.

“It seems you’ve misunderstood me. I don’t want to share the Dungeon simply because spoon-feeding other Players does nothing. I have no intention of being a hero. If they truly wish to complete the game, then they should not rely on others and work hard themselves with their Party.”

A reward system point of view… those who were undeserving did not reap any rewards. A point of view that was definitely not-wrong; however unsympathetic it may be.

Come to think of it, his actions were logically correct. If he were to announce the existence of a secret dungeon, people would begin to rely on an information network among the Players instead of thinking about clearing the game themselves. The information network itself would be a problem in itself since it was not part of Reality’s system, meaning no control was exerted on it, making it possible to manipulate and abuse.

“Your answer?”

I had no reason not to accept. The Player’s voice was blunt. Although it was slightly cold, it held no hidden intentions.

“Fine let’s go.”

The Player opened the manhole and was about to go in.

“Wait! Let me go first.”

“Why?”

“It’s a girl thing…”

“You’re not even wearing a skirt…”

“Geez… just let me go first already.”

“Fine.” replied the Player with an indifferent tone.

As for why I wanted to go first, I was a little paranoid of sexual harassment after being hit on while ago. I know I was not wearing a skirt, but if the Player looked up, his eyes would naturally be drawn to… Was I too conservative? Whatever, that’s not important.

I now began the exploration of the first "official dungeon".