Dungeons (1)

Eating something light and coming out of the house, Ellis was reminded of his mother's state, while she seemed happy; she also looked troubled.

So, looking at his sister, the source of her trouble, waking beside him, Ellis decided to start with business things first, and when they were alone after entering the dungeon, he could tell her slowly.

"So, when is Father coming back from the dungeon?"

"I don't know when exactly, We can pass by the checkpoint in front of the gate he went to, and ask there."

"Checkpoint?" Ellis asked.

"Actually, the dungeons are dangerous, but they still need management. So, people from the policemen and the military are looking at them."

"They are allowing nearly everyone's entry to dungeons for now, but I think when the situation of the country as a whole stabilizes, the state of things will change."

Listening to what she said, especially about the policemen, made him remember what had happened before, and he felt some itch in him; he knew that they were not the same, but some grudges don't die easily.

As for the dungeons, of course, things will change—they are precious resources, after all.

"Well, we can go there first," Ellis said, "but what about the gates? Which one will we enter?"

Then continued, "Actually, tell me about them first. I still haven't come even near one yet."

"When you go near the gate, a system window will appear telling you basic information about the dungeon inside. But that aside, do you want to go to a high-rank dungeon or low-rank one?"

Hearing about the system window at the gates, which would likely not appear in front of him, Ellis deliberated whether he should tell his sister that he couldn't see them. And he came to a decision quickly.

"I will likely not be able to see the system window at the gate, so tell me what these basic information are exactly. And after that, I can decide about the rank of the dungeon."

"And of course," he added, "don't tell this to anybody."

Seeing how she started to look at him with surprise and hesitation, like she wanted to know why he couldn't see the system window, Ellis felt that it was not time yet to talk about his situation. So, he said before she expressed her curiosity.

"I will tell you later about the reason."

"...Okay, The information that appears on the system window are the dungeon's name, its rank, the maximum level allowed for entry, the maximum number of people who can enter together, and the percentage indicating how close the gate is to going berserk."

"But of course," she continued, "not everything about the rank is absolute. Like some lower-rank dungeons can be more dangerous than high-rank ones. There are dungeons that can accommodate up to a thousand people; so when we enter it with a small group, it will be very difficult."

Hearing what she said about the basic information and ranks, Ellis thought a little and concluded that the most important aspect is the level restriction. According to the maximum level for entry, what is the level of difficulty will be the rank. He couldn't be certain, but it's probably pretty close to the truth. And thinking about what he had heard before, his question about why the gates had not been cleared became a little more clear. But he still decided to ask more.

"What about the gate going berserk?" 

"Actually," his sister said, "even we don't know; but because it's written in red and killing monsters inside will make it go down, so we are doing it."

'Then,' Ellis thought about asking another question: 'What is speed of parentage raising?' But feeling that it won't matter to him, he changed his mind and asked another one.

"What about clearing dungeons?" Ellis asked. "I'm always hearing they came back from dungeons; but I still haven't heard anything about clearing a gate. Why?"

"Hmm," his sister said. "The higher-ups are assuming that when the percentage of going berserk becomes zero there will be change; and it will be cleared. But there aren't enough people challenging dungeons for now. When we had some leeway, the situation in the capital came up, so I think it will take some time to test things out."

Hearing what his sister said especially seeing how she still had not said how they came back from dungeons; Ellis couldn't help but ask again.

"Then how do you come back from other side?" 

"Naturally, Because of Return Stone, when you kill monsters in dungeon aside from normal magic stones there's possibility of Return Stones appearing; and from strong monsters even weapons and sometimes skills will appear."

Finally getting to know the information he wanted desperately; Ellis felt like a knot in his heart got solved; but hearing about magic stones, he got reminded of the crystal core from the cat, so he still asked again.

"What is this magic stone?"

"You don't know?" seeing how his sister got surprised and asked back. Instead of saying- if I knew why I would ask- he said patiently.

"No, I don't."

"But even zombies have them," 

"All zombies?"

"Of course not, but sometimes they will appear in their corpses, and monsters in dungeon have a higher possibility to have them. I heard they can be used as an energy source, and they are now used more for trades that normal money."

While she said so, she opened her backpack and brought a white stone- transparent a little in front of him, Ellis while looking at stone noticed immediately that it was different from his precious crystal core, and felt relieved.

"Well," Ellis said. "It's okay, we can just hunt more monsters from now on."

"And I thought about which gate to enter, Is there a gate where only two people are allowed to enter at most?"

Ellis's train of thought was that if dungeon allows fewer people to enter; it should be smaller in size; he wanted to clear a dungeon not just defeat monsters.

"The fewest number of people required to enter gate I know of is five, And its rank is B."

"And what about maximum level entry?" Ellis asked.

"It's sixty."

"Then it's decided." 

"That's good, As it's near gate Father and brother entered."