Chapter 23: Dungeons
Time passed by. In the blink of an eye, it had been a month since the opening of the market. In this span of time, nothing really major happened. Quinn did trigger an Impure uprising two times intentionally by collecting all the monsters the elves had killed.
Yes, that really wasn't something considered major for the current Quinn and town. All of them basically saw this as a levelling opportunity.
This caused even more players to join the town which made the population skyrocket compared to before. They came to register to avoid danger and to join in on the craze.
It was also because they heard about Quinn not really giving a shit about ruling the town and only cared whenever there's something that would disrupt its peace.
The school also had more outstanding graduates appear so at least Avelin and Jarvis had managed to form teams to help them manage different parts of the territory.
More outstanding businessmen appeared and made the town's economy flourish even further.
As for Quinn, there weren't any changes to his lifestyle. He taught for some time then idled the whole time.
On this particular day, Quinn decided that to enhance his students' learning experience, he decided to bring them out into the forest to let them see personally the things they were learning about.
Quinn wasn't worried about encountering anything dangerous since with his past attributes, nothing could really pose a threat to him in these areas. Not to mention the fact that because the elves were constantly hunting, Quinn's level rose to level 25, halfway through Tier 3.
Player Name: Quinn
Level 21 -> 25 (Tier 2)
HP: 2240/2240
MP: 2840/2840
HP recovery: 44.8/sec
MP recovery: 54.8/sec
STR:124 -> 224
AGI: 124 -> 224
INT: 184 -> 284
WIL: 174 -> 274
CON: 124 -> 224
CHA: 124 -> 224
Free attribute points: 0
Skills: [SLASH], [IDENTIFY], [BLUEPRINT MAKING], [FIRE ARROW], [HUMAN PUPPET CREATION], [LEVITATION], [HAWK EYE], [TELEKINESIS], [METEOR]
Halfway through his class, a world notification suddenly rang our in every players' head.
[Congratulations to the top 10 players for successfully reaching Tier 2. System Update commencing...]
A couple of seconds later,
[Ding! Dungeons have been unlocked and will be randomly spawning all around the globe. Dungeons are no different to prisons but beasts are attracted to it because of the high density mana inside. Monsters inside dungeons will have a high chance of possessing high levels of intelligence]
"Dungeons? There really are dungeons?" Since this world was so game like, Quinn had been half-expecting them but he really was surprised when the actual thing came out.
Quinn briefly told his students about the situation before carrying all of them back with his telekinesis skill. He then called Lars over and told him to quickly look for any abnormalities appearing in Flatmore Forest.
Lars nodded and gathered his team which was recently just put together. All of them had weird abilities that could be used for scouting such as jumping into a puddle of water and teleporting into another one. Someone had the ability to travel through the interconnected roots from trees and some could transform into insects that could fly at high speed.
Quinn also had all the adventurers outside come back to the town and wait for further news.
It was only after a few hours before Lars and his team arrived with the information in hand.
"Father, there have been portals appearing all over the forest and they seem to be the dungeons that you talked about. They also seem to be of different colors. There are white portals, red portals, orange portals, yellow portals and more. We thought that this might represent the maximum tier of monsters the dungeons can contain. Majority of portals appearing right now are white portals. They also seem to be of different sizes and we also assumed that this could represent the scale of the dungeon."
Quinn pondered for a moment before nodding. He then forwarded all the information to the forums. Quinn didn't really have any intentions doing this. He just felt like sharing. Moreover, it's not like others could have an advantage over them. Half of the top 10 literally came from Sky Town.
Quinn then told the other adventurers to wait first. He'll first lead a team to one of the dungeons and confirm its safety level before letting the others enter.
Quinn decided to go with the elves this time since he wanted to go on another adventure with his kids.
Quinn had Lars lead them to the smallest white portal and starting from there, they would slowly advance to higher levels.
The smallest white portal was conveniently near the town so they quickly headed over it. The portal was glowing white and was 5m tall. Quinn could also feel that mana was slightly denser inside compared to the outside world.
Quinn led them inside and as soon as they stepped inside, they felt like they suddenly transported into another world. The air also felt fresher inside. Moreover, the mana was slightly denser here.
However, the space here was small and was only about as wide as the market place. Quinn could see the end from the other end of the dungeon. He also found that most monsters here were ordinary rabbits. It's just that under the enhancement of the dense mana, they were slightly stronger and faster than their counterparts outside.
After clearing the dungeon, they had received some treasure chests as rewards but they didn't really pay attention to them since they were too low levelled.
They then went to the next dungeon and aside from a bigger area and more monsters, it wasn't any different from the other dungeon. The same was the case for all sizes for white portals.
Then, they went into the red portals. This time, they had managed to meet something interesting. A wolf suddenly appeared and appeared to be frightened their appearance. It then dashed back to where it came from.
Quinn and the others knew that it was just acting and was probably bait. At the end was probably a pack waiting for them.
Despite that, they still played along and chased after it with an average Tier 1 being's speed. So far, this had been the smartest act they had seen from a monster. They just found it interesting and thus played along.
As they all expected, a wolf pack was waiting at the other end. As soon as they appeared, all the wolves attacked at the same time. Unfortunately for them, they just baited death towards themselves.
Within an instant, all of them were wiped out. Quinn didn't have to do anything since the elves were strong enough.
After that, they cleared the dungeon and went to other ones. They discovered that monsters in Tier 1 dungeons had already learned to group up and cooperate so there are probably way smarter monsters in the higher tiers. Quinn wouldn't be surprised if there were talking animals by then.
They formed a preliminary understanding of the dungeons of the dungeons and then Quinn also decided to share it in the forums. While everyone was busy studying his information, he already gathered all the adventurers to brief them before he lets them go dungeon diving.
First, it is not recommended to enter Tier 2 dungeons of all sizes for now since they didn't have information on it yet.
As for other dungeons, it was recommended to go to the ones that match your level. Moreover, one person can enter a 5m tall portal if they like but a 3 man team is the minimum for entering a 10m tall portal. For a 20m tall portal, it was better to have 10 people. If they entered a 30m tall portal, they should take 20 people. 50 people for a 40m tall portal a hundred people for a 50m tall portal and would just keep adding more people the taller the portal was.
100m was the maximum height that could be reached by dungeons of all colors.
With that, the adventurers divided themselves into parties and rushed over towards the dungeons.
As for Quinn and the elves, they had rested for a bit and decided to go for another dungeon run. This time, they were going for the Tier 2 dungeons.
There were few Tier 2 dungeons currently as the numbers would usually only rise as more Tier 2 players appear.
Quinn had Lars guide them to the smallest orange portal and they spent some time just travelling there even when they rode their dragons.
After they entered the dungeon, they immediately felt the difference. The mana here was twice as much as the largest Tier 1 dungeon. Quinn was pretty sure an intelligent monster was definitely living in here.
At first glance, it looked like the place was empty but with Quinn's enhanced senses, he could see traces that were very obvious to him.
They were definitely being watched right now. Despite that, Quinn still didn't care and continued playing along like before.