Chapter 4

We woke to find Katie still working diligently, having amassed quite a few potions in preparation for today.

“I hope you didn’t overdo it last night Katie,” I said as a yawn escaped my lips while I stretched. “You need to make sure you get adequate rest to ensure you are properly recharged.”

My voice startled her slightly, as she seemed deeply focused on whatever she was doing, but she turned to smile at me and said, “I know Pathios, I did get more than enough rest, but I appreciate the concern.”

Once everyone was us, we began our morning preparations, making sure we were stocked up with potions this time before heading to the dining hall to meet with the others. Cassandra would no doubt be in the Quartermaster with Brot’k and Fra’tilia working on one of her projects. After a quick shower, to the protest of all the ladies who were in the stall, we dropped the potions at the armory before heading downstairs. We found Ilthvana and Dilbar grabbing food from the buffet as we entered and waved them down to let them know we were there. They grabbed a nearby table, so we grabbed our own plates of food, and met with the others.

“So what is the plan for us today?” Dilbar asked between bites of food. “We aren’t going to be trying the sixth floor again, are we?”

I smiled and said, “No, we learned our lesson from that already. Like I said yesterday, we will focus on upgrading our stats and equipment and hopefully get a level up in the process. Once we finish our food, we will go grab Cassandra and head for the Guild. We will check in with Esmerelda and see if there are any quests for the fifth floor that we could grab for some funds and prestige. From there maybe we can use the on and off approach to our daily planning. One day with us working in the dungeon, working towards getting stronger. One day off working to focus on group tactics, honing our abilities together and also to allow Cassandra to work on her rune smithing. We will see what happens and work from that.”

“That sounds fair, but why do we need to work on group tactics?” asked Ilthvana. “We did pretty well the last time as well as when we were in the Challenge.”

“That may be true, but our group make up will be different.” I explained, as I took a bite of food. “We need to see the way we fight and to find out the best way to utilize it in each situation. It makes me wish we had something more than the training facilities we have available. Sometimes we will be split into different groupings for various reasons.”

Amenthia stopped mid bite and said, “What do you mean Pathios? I do think that the training facilities we have are rather good.”

“Don’t get me wrong they are, but there is one key element missing,” I replied, “tactics practice. We need a way to simulate situations within the dungeon without having to be in the dungeon. It is something that I will need to talk to Tyr about. It could be beneficial for all the pact houses. Given the new risks that are appearing, the more prepared we are the easier we will survive.”

We talked a bit more about what each of us hoped to get out of the next few weeks. We all hoped to build on our skills and hopefully come across some new items and weapons through our exploration. Katie was looking forward to using her new belt on our expedition today. She had looked into it and found out it was a belt of returning. She could pair her daggers or other projectiles to the belt, so when thrown, they would return a few moments after impact. This would increase her damage output and lessen our need to replace some of her weapons, should the need arise for her to throw something. It would also allow Brot’k to focus his efforts on other things, instead of resupplying us all the time. Though it will be interesting to see how the belt works with the rune crafting Cassandra will be doing to our equipment over time.

With our meal concluded, we left to meet up with Cassandra in the Quartermaster’s. Dilbar and Ilthvana had left to get equipped in their gear and would meet us in the atrium. I wasn’t surprised to find her and Fra’tilia working at their respective stations. I was surprised that Brot’k wasn’t working as well, but he was due his own down time. I wondered where he went to rest since his hidden room was now gone. We walked over and caught Cassandra’s attention as she turned to return one of her tools to its place on her bench.

“Ah, I didn’t expect you guys so early,” Cassandra said with a smile. “Give me a few moments and then I can get my stuff from my room and meet you downstairs.”

I cocked my head to the side and said, “Didn’t you store your armor and weapons with our stuff in the Armory?”

She nodded and said, “Yes I did, but I bought some things yesterday in preparation for today and didn’t get a chance to place them in there.”

“No worries,” I replied with a smile. “The rest of our group members will be doing the same, so we will see you there.”

She smiled and we left to meet with the others and were not surprised to be the only ones there so far. It took fifteen minutes before they began appearing, and a full thirty before everyone had shown up. Ilthvana and Dilbar were surprised to see the rest of us in our everyday clothes.

I gestured to them to come close and softly explained, “We were given the option to test a new system called the armory. We have access to it in two places, our room, and the dungeon pact house for whatever floor we have chosen for our destination. It makes it easy to move around and not have to worry about walking around in our armor until it is necessary. I think it is also a way to limit the dangerous weapons that can be worn outside the pact houses and dungeons.”

“Ah, that makes sense I guess.” Dilbar replied. “Have they said when they plan to give it to others yet?”

“We plan to tell Tyr of the good and bad points,” Amenthia said with a shrug. “We can ask him when it can be expected to be given to others. It seems to be more geared towards larger groups, so if this group’s size becomes permanent, then we could just get the size increased to accommodate your gear as well. We will let you know either way, I promise.”

That seemed to placate them for now, so we entered the transit tubes and arrived at the second guild floor. It took about twenty minutes before we made it into Esmerelda’s office.

“Well hello everyone,” She said as she entered the room. “I am surprised to see such a group here. I recognize those two from Darius’ group, so where is he?”

You could feel the energy of the room change, and even Esmerelda’s smile faded a bit as she realized she had mentioned a touchy subject.

“He was injured during the final fight in the Champion’s Challenge,” I answered, surprised that she hadn’t seen it happen. “It was pretty bad and there is a low chance of him returning, but we are hopeful that he will beat those odds. For now they are traveling with us, and should he not return, they can decide what to do then.”

“Oh! I am sorry I didn’t know,” Esmerelda exclaimed. “I didn’t get to watch the finals, as I was hosting some visiting family and showing them around the city.”

I glanced over to see Cassandra get a forlorn look on her face and I felt bad for saying it, but it was the reality of the situation.

“For now we are here to get a quest or two for the fifth floor,” I continued, trying to change the topic. “We got to the sixth floor but were overwhelmed by some mobs that were more than we expected. We want to build our abilities and stats some more before trying the sixth floor again.”

“Understandable,” Esmerelda said with her smile returning. “The difficulty jumps every five floors, so I am not surprised you had issues. Though with your group size, I would have assumed you would have held your own, especially when you worked with your new members to deal with that Manticore quest.”

I shrugged, “Well we had just dealt with a floor boss that was a bit trying and used up a lot of our resources to kill. Given how that floor operates, I have a feeling we would have still had issues even if we had more of our abilities to draw on.”

“So, what kind of quests do you have available for us? Have you saved any juicy ones for your favorite adventurer?” Amenthia asked with her sly grin.

Esmerelda brought up her pad and began sifting through the data, a look of deep concentration on her face.

“We have a lot of quests more designed for smaller groups,” she said as she continued to sort through the information. “Still I am confident that there will be something that will whet the appetite of your group.”

A few more minutes passed before Esmerelda’s smile widened and she placed the pad on the table. After a few taps, a projection emerged with a display of the fifth floor, though only the areas we have gone to.

“There is an issue with a major infestation of insectoids here,” she said gesturing to a point on an undiscovered area of my map. “You will need to travel to this point, where the closest incident to one of the villages. From there you are to find out where they are coming from and deal with the threat. They have injured thirty-seven and nearly killed two. Should you complete the task before you, the reward will be ten thousand per person. Should you show proof of the threat ending, such as a special drop from the queen, then it is another fifty thousand. You have two weeks to complete this quest, if you finish it within the next seven days, the reward will be doubled.”

All of our eyes widened at the value of the quest, as one hundred and thirty thousand gold was no small amount. If we should finish in a few days, instead of two weeks, then it would be double. It would be quite a haul if we did and would help cover the cost of our room. It would also assist the others. While we had quite the reward from the Challenge, sooner or later we would start having more expenses.

Esmerelda picked up the pad and said, “I will ask you all to tap your crystals to the one in the pad, to acknowledge your acceptance of this quest.”

We thanked her for her assistance and made our way back to the transit tubes. I started to begin calculating if it would even be possible to complete the quest in the shortened time frame. I would mean spending a good chunk of the day getting to that area of the map and to the village that was near the incident place. Gathering information would also take a little time, but if we split up, eight could easily cover a lot of ground once we got there. I felt excited about what was to come and looked forward to the challenge. We entered the tubes and were transported to the pact house on the fifth floor of the dungeon. We then diverted to the armory as our two companions waited outside. They were shocked when the door appeared in the wall as we approached and told us it disappeared when we closed the door behind us.

Once equipped we exited the pact house and set our sights towards our destination. Bringing up the quest in the crystal’s menu, I then scrolled to my map and was glad to see the quest marker marking our destination. Everyone else activated the quest and confirmed the marker on their maps. Dilbar and Ilthvana had more of the map revealed than us, though they had not traveled that far either. We decided to have them take point and guide us to the farthest point they had reached. From there, we would adjust our marching order and hopefully reach our destination before nightfall. Luckily, there was at least one village between here and our destination, so we would be able to create another entry point on the floor, should our travels cut things short today.

We entered our discussed formation, with me and Cassandra in the rear, Dilbar, and Ilthvana in the in the front. Between us was Enti with Amenthia behind her to provide each other protection and cover fire for the group. We set an even pace, ensuring that we would engage each mob that we set across. They were mostly the large ants and occasional scorpion creatures that we had fought already, but I knew that as we moved farther North that it would change. I wasn’t that surprised that the volume of the mobs seemed light, but we weren’t the only people that were traveling on this floor. The larger cavernous rooms that we traveled through were also devoid of enemies, but we didn’t allow this turn of events to let us lower our guard. We were about an hour into our travels before we found a safe point and we took stock of our progress. We had made a bit of progress across the map, but there was still a long way to go. The group didn’t take a lot of damage, due mostly in part to the size of our group compared to the mobs we were facing.

Enti, Amenthia, Dilbar, and Ilthvana were making sure to stick to close quarters combat. We wanted to preserve our ammunition and mana for the more difficult encounters we expected to have. After a quick rest, we left the safe zone and continued our trek. As we moved onward, we started to see an increase in the density the various mobs within the tunnels and caverns, as well as the size of the mobs themselves. For the next few hours we were able to make some decent progress and for the most part kept to the melee only rule when dealing with our attackers. We had also cleared roughly forty-three thousand gold worth of gems and orbs.