F-Grade Dungeon: Winning the Bet

Pushing open the vibrant door of the funhouse, a young woman staff dressed in a harlequin getup greeted the four with soaring energy.

"Good day, brave ones, thank you for checking out our Dungeon Funhouse where challenges await the brave princes of the Dufan Kingdom! Challenge the dungeon and win one of these princess stuffed toys as a reward!", the young woman tossed her bat in the air, pointing toward a line-up of toys in the corner, mirroring diverse famous Indonesian women Awakened.

Normally, she would get excited responses, but faced with these foreigners, silence filled the air as their expressions etched dull reactions.

*cough

"Ahmm, how many tickets would you want, Sir?", the staff straightened her posture and feigned a smile.

"Two tickets", Arthur replied, nonchalantly.

The woman staff skimmed through the drawer in the table and took out two tickets. After receiving the payment, she stepped out of the counter and went before the glittering portal situated in the center of the funhouse.

The house was bleak with only a counter, stuffed toys, and a portal filling its interior.

The portal stood 2 meters in height and from her gestures and aura alone, Arthur could feel that the young woman was a strong awakened.

'If that's the case, then dungeon breakout of this caliber is of no concern.', Arthur pondered.

At much, about 50 F-grade monsters would pour out of this portal which could easily be warded off by D-grade awakened.

The woman then deliberated on the quests of the portal. As she was about to state the strategies for conquering it, Axel swayed his hand to halt her.

"We can manage it. Stop with the nonsense, kid. Keke", Axel sneered as he then stepped forward.

"I will take the challenge first, ke!"

Looking at Axel's behind who didn't even look back at him, Arthur involuntarily curved his lips as he expected this already.

In fact, he had already foreseen this exact situation unveiling. From seeing Axel to making a bet, and finally clearing the dungeon. He had it schemed.

"I will start the timer then", Arthur muttered, clicking on the timer on his phone.

'He would clear it in about 20 seconds.', Arthur pondered.

And as he thought, 21 seconds later, Axel stepped out of the portal, carrying a light red-hued mana stone which was part of a reward for successful clearance of the dungeon.

"T--- this?! It's insane!", the young staff was bewildered by this new record.

It was the fastest ever recorded since the establishment of the funhouse.

Axel combed his hair, highlighting his forehead with no stains of sweat.

"A child play, Keke", Axel snickered.

Ignoring his taunts, Arthur walked toward the portal. Echo warned him for a second before he fully disintegrated into lights, absorbed by the F-grade portal.

[Main Quest: Sacrifice a "Golden Cloves" herb to the Altar.

Restriction: Level 5 and below

Reward:

- 10 gold coins

- 10% exp

- F-grade mana stone]

Opening his eyes, an open area stretching for miles quenched his sight.

Towering weeds of quarter a meter height danced with the breeze of peaked noontime.

Dungeons were isolated spaces, disconnected from Earth in terms of time of the day. Nonetheless, time runs in this space runs at the same rate as Earth's in a 1:1 ratio.

Arthur was still in the safe area, loitering in wait for the 3-second countdown to end.

Looking around him, the weeds made it difficult to locate the herb "Golden Cloves". Concealed in these weeds were the one-horned rabbits, looming to ambush their prey.

Three meters from the safe area, an open spherical altar adorned with runic engravements, with a base rooted in its core was situated.

To clear the quest, one had to find the herb and place it in the base.

"This is the same as last time.", Arthur mumbled as the scenery and quest were identical to the quest he took before regression.

"It seems that there are no significant changes yet."

The interception of the returnees would eventually result in irreversible changes in the future. Most especially with 10 returnees making their own diversions from the initial trajectory they took before regression.

"I should expect changes soon.", Arthur was open to alterations.

Finally, when the countdown hit 0, Arthur pulled out a golden herb from his inventory.

Supposedly, one had to find the herb from these plains, however, as Arthur had foreseen this event, he had already asked Echo to prepare the herb beforehand.

Now, he only had to run toward the altar and sacrifice the herb as stated in the quest.

In just another 7 seconds, Arthur made his way into the alter, with little interceptions from ambushing rabbits.

As expected, a system announcement resounded the moment the herb was planted in the base.

[You have successfully cleared the quest!]

[You have received 10 gold coins!]

[Exp has increased by 10%]

[Exp acquisition failed due to unawakened state]

[You have received an F-grade mana stone!]

[You will now be transported out of the portal!]

[Congratulations! You have cleared the portal within 10 seconds!]

[You have cleared the hidden quest: F-grade Pioneer!]

----

Axel was a pioneer in clearing portals. He never failed to set new records in clearance time even before regression.

His godly speed overthrew the records of the army of undead and summoned alike.

With his speed, he had set his all-time best record at 15 seconds.

However, he was the pioneer on the surface.

Pre-regression, Arthur had been clearing dungeons in aim for the hidden quest which could only be achieved by clearance time of within 10 seconds.

This method was only applicable to specific dungeons as clearing methods vary significantly.

In particular, he had never cleared the hidden quest for the D-grade dungeons and above.

He speculated that he was the only one who knew that such hidden quests existed.

Pre-regression-wise, he relied on his SS-grade item, Blood Burst, to set a 10-second record or take advantage of quest holes such as in this F-grade dungeon.

In raw strength, he could only dream of clearing dungeons the same way as Godspeed.

'He is a monster after all.', Arthur viewed Axel's raw strength and speed as monstrous.

Outside the portal, white lights integrated materializing into a figure of Arthur.

In his hand was the F-grade mana stone as a clearance reward.

Axel, glaring at him, wore an expression of disbelief. Echo exerted a similar demeanor.

"10 seconds?! You cleared the dungeon in just 10 seconds?!", the young woman screamed, pinching her cheeks to pull out herself from this daydream.

"Well, a child's play.", Arthur reinstated the words of Axel a moment ago.

"Keke, my butler has told me what you did.", Axel closed his eyes to contain his fury. The nerves in his head bulged.

Earlier, his butler saw Echo handing over the Golden Cloves to Arthur. Hearing the quest from Axel, the butler was quick to relay what he witnessed.

*sigh

Releasing a sigh, his irritation eventually resided.

"You... Where did you get the item Golden Cloves?", Axel queried.

The herb was highly used in crafting rare medicines. There was a scarcity of this herb in the market.

Another use of this herb was in adding perfected golden pigments in various technologies...

Monopolizing such items was the advanced company...

"Where else, in Lightning Development Company of course.", Arthur stated.

"I see...", Axel was shunned in defeat.

Their own company spelled triumph for Arthur. In other's view, Lightning Development Company supported Arthur...

It was a cunning way of experiencing defeat.

Axel, discontent with stimulating battle in this populated area as he still had a name to uphold, eventually decided to succumb.

"Keke, I didn't think that you have me play along with your schemes. Keke. Well done, brat!", Axel snickered.

"You better prepare, tricks won't work on me the next time, brat."

"I will be stronger by that time."

"KEKEKE! Very well, we'll see who will get the next fragment!"

'There will be more competitors next time.', Arthur inferred as other returnees would join the competition in the coming months.

'I have to be stronger by then.'

"We still have much time left before my key fragment materializes, care for a talk?", Arthur suggested a discussion.

'After all, it is rare to encounter simple-minded returnees. I should exchange words about regression as much as possible.'

With much time on his hands anyway, Axel agreed to a discussion.

"Ahem, would you choose a Princess as your reward?", the young staff intercepted.

---

Renting the Dungeon Hunting funhouse with their excessive wealth, Echo and Axel's butler guarded the funhouse outside, whilst Arthur and Axel stood facing each other inside the house.

"Before we begin the discussion, I will be sending my assassin on the roller coaster else someone betray his words and steal the key fragment.", Arthur deliberately stated.

His shadow then began to fluctuate as a human cloaked entirely with a dusk-hued hooded robe appeared, one knee kneeling on the ground. His aura alone emitted demise pervading the tranquility of the night.

"Dusk, go and retrieve the key fragment in the roller coaster, topmost part, at 1:00 am. I won't entertain failure.", Arthur intensely commanded.

"As you wish, young master.", Dusk muttered as his figure then vanished into nothingness.

Shifting his gaze to Axel, Arthur muttered.

"Now then, did you also get the invitation to guild battle to the death?", Arthur directly headed to the pressing topic, uttering in the language of gods.