Chapter 17 - Mushroom Town

Having to leave 4 bodies in his first-ever dungeon dive left Theo in a bleak mood, after what he´d gone through he was proud of himself for being able to withstand the pressure and push through, but he was despondent about leaving 4 dead teammates there.

"We have to be strong Theo, I know this is your first real experience, but this is the way of the world, only the strong survive, now we must hurry or we´ll be adding to the body count" Ferdinand whispered to Theo.

Everyone was carrying someone with them, the 6 trainees that were paralyzed were all stable, only Ariel who the Queen had wounded after being hit and thrown across the room, and Fester who was getting weaker and weaker as his breaths became stagnant and irregular.

It took them a day to climb out of the dungeon, they were all very tired, "We made it out, now the closest we have is a town farther north it's about 1 hour away, let´s go", right now time was ticking, Ariel was in critical condition with internal bleeding and Fester had been unconscious for 4 hours now, his breathing extremely slow.

When they got to Mushroom town they rushed both, Ariel and Fester, to the healer, Ariel was in bad shape but Fester was cold and you couldn't even tell if he was breathing anymore, everyone did their best to get there as quickly as possible, Everette went in with Ariel and Ferdinand with Fester, the rest would wait outside exhausted, Theo was panting for breath having carried a teammate for the entirety of the dungeon and then to Mushroom Town.

Amber, Orlan, Flynn, and Theo were patiently waiting, hoping that Fester would be ok, Theo had seen enough death, as a kid he always envied adventurers and kids that got to go to the fancy academies, being able to be part of adventures and see the world.

He realized now that these were all kids' thoughts, make-believe, and fantasy, but the reality was much scarier, as in just a 14-year-old he had seen life being extinguished in the most unbearable ways.

"Prim is this normal? in our magic world, how much death will I have to face?" Theo asked, Prim could tell how hard this had been for Theo, she had to be careful how she answered this, she couldn't put it bluntly, even though in this world death was a daily occurrence it was not an easy thing to understand, she didn't want to take all of his innocence away so quickly, the fact that he cared so much is what will make him plenty strong in the future, but this had to be protected until he was able to mature to the understanding of the world.

"Well Theodore, it won't always be like this, this situation could have easily been avoided if the dungeon had been properly examined and labeled if the garrison had been properly trained and if the team captain had made different decisions, this wasn't chance but an unfortunate accumulation of events and decisions, but this doesn't have to keep happening, if you want to make a difference you will need sufficient strength and work for a change in the world, I believe you are capable of this, take the boss room if it weren't for you there was a very good chance you would have all died" Prim consoled Theo, the way she explained things made Theo understand that in the end, he was just an unfortunate bystander in a whole operation where he had no chance to alter the events, except for killing the Queen and helping everyone survive the one thing where he could make an impact gave everyone a chance.

As he was talking with Prim Everette and Ferdinand walked out, Ferdinand looked downcast but Everette seemed fine, "Ariel will be fine but will have to remain here for about a week, unfortunately, trainee Fester was DOA (died on arrival) there was nothing the healer could have done" Everette announced,

You could immediately feel the drop in morale, the main reason they all worked so hard to get back was to save their teammate, their friend, Amber began to cry, and Flynn had to walk away.

Theo could not hold it back, he was the youngest of all of them and still understood who was responsible, he stood up and walked straight to Everette, Everette´s other aid got in the way and held him back from getting too close.

"This is all your fault, you manipulated us! We should have stopped after arriving at the 3rd floor, this is on you! You killed all 5 of them!" Theo exploded, he couldn't hold himself back, Everette was taken aback, no one had ever spoken to him in such a way, especially not low-standing trash like Theo, Everette was of noble blood a highborn, and his family worked for the royal family, he will not be berated.

"It is best if you stand down trainee, insubordination can be punishable by death!" Everette threatened, and this only enraged Theo even more, all Everette cared about was his standing, his greed killed off a quarter of the garrison, and Theo wanted to hurt him.

Ferdinand sensing Theo was becoming, even more enraged, rushed to him and pushed him back, "Now is not the time, come with me" Ferdinand whispered to him, "We will be back after the trainee has calmed down" Ferdinand addressed Everette, Everette nodded.

Ferdinand was glad to see Theo reprimand Everette´s actions, Ferdinand felt the same but as a cast-out noble he had to be careful and pick his battles.

"Why didn't you say anything? this was all his fault!" Theo questioned Ferdinand.

"Because, all that would happen is us getting reprimanded, expelled, or punished, and it's not worth it, not now anyway, I'm glad you said something and I tried for us to pull back in the cave, but as you said Everette manipulated them, this is on him but we need to move up in the ranks right now we are only trainees, we are just cannon fodder to the officers they won't care even we had all died down there" Ferdinand tried to explain their predicament as best he could.

"What Ferdinand is saying is the truth Theodore, I know you are frustrated, but the strong rule the weak" Prim said to Theo.

Theo began to understand more and more the ways of the world, right now all he could think about was his family and what they were doing, if it wasn't for his Dad being a healer what would they be up against, Theo pondered as he realized that the key to getting justice and fairness was for him to be able to call the shots, he knew he had to become stronger.

After things cooled down, the remaining 6 paralyzed trainees were brought in, the healer was able to provide an antidote for all of them, they had to rest for a couple of days, Everette said they would be staying in town until everyone was ready to depart.

The next day Ferdinand woke Theo telling him to go with him, Theo wasn't in the mood to do anything but still went with him, they did their morning routine.

"We must not forget to condition ourselves, discipline is the key to improving and becoming stronger, now I have something for you," Ferdinand said, Theo was a little curious as to what Ferdinand was talking about.

Ferdinand then pulled a big fang from his bag, "What is that?" Theo asked.

"This is one of the tusks from the Spider Queen, when my dragon burned her it destroyed her tusks and this is one of them, I went to find it before we left" Ferdinand spoke a little enthusiastically.

"Ok, but why do we want it?" Theo asked, not understanding the importance of it, "Well Everette took the Queen's core, and it´s not likely he will share that with us, but all monster parts are usable, to craft or produce items and consumables" Ferdinand explained

"So we can use this to craft something?" Theo asked, "Yes, I already looked and there is a 3rd Rank Blacksmith here, so we can go see if he will make you something," Ferdinand said

"Make me something?" Theo asked "Yeah, I got this for you, you were the one that killed the Queen, also you need better equipment, my lance is of B-rank peak quality, and your daggers are good but we need to give you something better," Ferdinand said.

Theo followed Ferdinand to the blacksmith's workshop, they could hear him hammering away before they could see him, as they got there the blacksmith was hard at work forging something.

When he noticed them he put his hammer down and went to greet them, "Good day, what can I do for you?" He politely asked.

"Good day, we would like for you to forge a dagger from this," Ferdinand said as he showed him the Queens tusk, the blacksmiths' eyes widened, "This is a high-grade material, I'm afraid it won't be cheap to make something Ill have to use my best steel" the blacksmith explained.

"How much to craft your best weapon?" Ferdinand asked, "I can do it for 10 gold pieces," the blacksmith said a little uncertain.

Theo was a little shocked he had no money on him and with 10 gold pieces he could buy a small house, Ferdinand simply nodded "how long will it take you?" Ferdinand asked, "Come back in a week it be done by then," the blacksmith said, Ferdinand gave him 4 gold pieces "you get the rest in a week," Ferdinand said and they left.

"Ferdinand, I can´t pay you back for that, it´s a lot of money" Theo muttered, "Theo, this is an investment the better the weapon the safer you´ll be, don't worry about it" Ferdinand assured Theo.

For the rest of the week, Theo and Ferdinand would do their morning routine and spar in the evenings, Amber, Olan, and Flynn would join them, and at night Theo would consume the mana cores he'd gotten.

By the end of the week, Theo had consumed all his mana cores, he had reached 5.4k total mana, he was 10 times stronger than when he had arrived at training camp, and he was very happy with his progress thus far.

All the other trainees had already recovered, they were all staying in a barn that Everette had paid for to have them use, while he stayed at the best inn in Mushroom Town, Ariel was being released by the healer today.

Ferdinand and Theo went to see the blacksmith to check if he was done with the dagger as this was their last day when they got there the blacksmith was polishing a dagger, "good you're here I just finished it" the blacksmith said.

The blade looked beautiful, it was slightly shorter than the dagger Theo had crafted and it looked different, the hilt was made of wood with a leather grip, the rear bolsters that curved slightly, and the blade had a metal spine that ran up the non-cutting part of it and the blade had a slight curvature, the metal was shiny and had a green color hue, it was an incredible item.

"So I managed to produce a C rank peak grade dagger, this is my best work so far, so I'm very proud of it because you found it in Kasaga´s dungeon, I call it Kasaga´s Venom Fang, also I was able to produce an on use effect for it, you can paralyze your opponent," the blacksmith said enthusiastically.

"Prim what does it mean that it has an effect?" Theo asked, "It is an on-hit effect, meaning when you use it against an opponent if you manage to cut them depending on the scenario you can produce a paralyzing effect, it will be like the Spider Queen´s quills that would slowly paralyze" Prim explained.

Theo was very excited by this, he now had a great weapon to help him in his quest, Ferdinand paid the blacksmith.

"I appraised the dagger, it will boost your strength by 25 hit points and improve your speed by 2%, good luck," the blacksmith said.

Theo was very excited to use his new dagger.