Chapter: 57

“Sir, reporting. It was as the hunter said. Only fifteen minutes south from the village, the remains of a glade deer has been found. Another animal corpse was found nearby too, an ox-badger – it appears that it was beaten to death with the glade deer’s head. I’ve never seen such violence.”

“Hmm, I see. You’ve already had the forest marked as a no go area for now?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. I want teams of five at least, patrolling the forest, and focusing on the south side of town”.

“Sir.”

With a salute, the man begins to leave. He places his hand on the doorknob but doesn’t turn it. Looking back as he asks “What do you think it is, sir?”

“For now, assume it’s a ferocious animal. No need to start rumors and scare the villagers.”

He nods as he leaves “Yes sir.”

—

Margie smiled at Jay as he exited the building “Take care of yourself dear.”

Jay smiled and waved as he went out the door.

Entering the courtyard, he found all the new recruits lined up in their respective disciplines – melee, ranged, manacraft – before them was the same man Jay had seen at the gate with the crossbow girl.

He was currently standing on a small wooden podium just in front of the administration building holding a green crystal – similar to the one Sullivan had. They were all faced towards the administration building that Jay just left, and Jay momentarily froze from the stage fright.

The muscular man turned around, frowning at Jay.

“Get into formation” he said in a cold voice.

Scurrying into the melee formation, Jay hoped not to trip over – he felt like he might even forget how to walk from all the mocking eyes glancing at him..

Waiting for the crowd’s attention to come back to him, the man at the podium began.

“Congratulations on learning some basic skills during training today recruits. I trust it was enlightening.” He said as his eyes momentarily drifted onto Jay ‘Hmm, I wonder if we should teach him about his system before he leaves today… hmm, nah. He’s level five, he’ll be fine,’ he thought. After a pause, he continued with his speech.

“Today, we will be putting your skills to the test.” He said in a confident tone “We will be heading to an unlocked level 2 instanced dungeon called Carter’s Demise. You will pair into parties of two or three – one melee, one ranger – and some of you will have a manacrafter in the party too. You will have one hour to find a partner and add them to your party so you can share experience points. Manacrafters, since there are less of you, you will be able to pick which duo you would like to join.”

Jay had a confused look on his face ‘Experience share? Huh? How am I supposed to join a party?’ but before he gave it any more thought, the man continued.

“Now, usually we would head out into the forest and learn some basic bushcraft so you can all learn how to make some basic weapons, such as wooden spears – however, for undisclosed reasons, the forest is currently off-limits. Your weaponry is not our responsibility, and you are not permitted to use the wooden training swords as they are specially made to deal zero damage, so if you don’t have a weapon yet, you will have to buy a weapon from the village.” He pointed at the gate.

“Lastly, about the dungeon. You’ll be fighting monsters called bayring’s, which will be anywhere from level two, all the way up to level 7 – but you won’t get that deep into the dungeon so don’t worry.” He hushed the crowd with his hands and continued.

“It is an instanced dungeon, meaning each group that goes in will go into a separate, private dungeon – this particular one is named Carter’s demise as it was discovered by an unfortunate man named Carter Bushley. Upon entering the dungeon, there’s a small chance that some of you may trigger an event which sends you into a different level four dungeon. If this happens, exit straight away – then you will be able to retry entry into the level two dungeon. Do not attempt the level four dungeon.” He said with a stern expression.

“On an unrelated note, we are in no way responsible if any of you perish. After the dungeon you can either return here if you’re wounded, or head straight home. Your one hour to find a dungeon partner starts now.”

A cold shiver went over the audience on the last part of his speech, but was soon replaced by talking, chatting, then eventually laughing.