Chapter 20
"There are a lot of people here," said Ethan.
After two hours of traveling from Eplia city, Ethan, Lilia and Mateo reached outside of the slime dungeon. Outside and around the gate to the slime dungeon were a lot of people. They were adventurers, merchants, sightseers and many other people. It looks like a small town.
"They sell many things here. I can see food, equipment, potions," said Lilia.
"How about we go around here and see if there is anything we can buy," suggested Mateo.
"Go by yourself, we already prepare everything before coming here and I can expect the price here will be much more expensive than the city," said Lilia.
"If you need to buy something, you can go buy them. We will wait in front of the dungeon gate," said Ethan.
"Okay, thanks Ethan. You are a nice guy not like that one commoner girl," said Mateo who then immediately went to buy some stuff for himself.
"Ethan, are you going to let him joins our party?" asked Lilia.
When Mateo asked Ethan if he can join their party, Ethan didn't say he agree or not. Lilia strongly disagreed with Mateo joining them but Ethan said he will think about it.
"I told you that I will think about it," said Ethan.
"If he joins us, what will happen with the special skills. He will know about it," said Lilia.
"I know but if needs access to the special skills, he needs my permission. So, if we don't say anything about the special skills, he won't know anything about it even if he joins us," said Ethan.
"But he will know it sooner or later if he joins our party and I don't think keeping the skills a secret from our member is a good idea. We need our party to become stronger, but if we keep the skills a secret, how can we increase our party strength," said Lilia.
"We will just observe him for now before we make any decision," said Ethan.
While they were talking, they walked towards the slime dungeon's gate. They reached in front of the gate and amazed how big the gate was. While waiting for Mateo, they saw adventurer going in and out of the dungeon. The adventurers who came out either looked tattered or looked totally find. A lot of people going in and out of the dungeon and Ethan wondered how can many people fit inside the dungeon. Won't it be crowded?
A dungeon was a closed space naturally appeared randomly without any warning. It can appear anywhere in the forest, desert, canyon, cave, towns, cities and many more. There were currently around 10 000 dungeons all around the world. Not all body of the dungeon appear but only the gate into it. The gate came in many sizes but the size of the gate did not affect the size of the dungeon. When a dungeon appeared, a group of people will be sent inside to scout the dungeon.
Dungeons have their own rules. Not everyone can enter a dungeon. Dungeon have their own level limit. If an adventurer strength exceeds the limit, they can't enter the dungeon. This limit helps gauging the difficulty of the dungeon. The slime dungeon's limit was Rank 3 level 4. Higher than this, they can't enter. If the adventurer advance in level inside and exceed the level limit, they will be automatically kick out of the dungeon. There was another rules too, if an adventurer already completed the dungeons, they can't enter too after that. It might seem disadvantages to complete a dungeon faster but there was a reason many adventurer wants to complete a dungeon. The rewards they get will be tremendous. The rewards were not fixed, it was random and each person who complete the dungeon will get rewards even if they were in a party.
"Ethan, Lilia, sorry you need to wait," Mateo finished his shopping.
"Storage ring?" asked Ethan while he looked at Mateo ring.
"Yes but I don't see any storage item on you guys," said Mateo.
Storage item comes in many types. Rings, necklace, bracelet, earring and many more. The size of the item did not determine the storage size.
"We both upgrade our system with the storage upgrade. So, we don't need any storage items and it is safe from theft," said Lilia.
After Lilia joined Ethan, he decided to upgrade Lilia system too. He decided to make another loans from Haruto but after he bought the land for his party base, he already started paying back the loan. It won't be long before he finished paying back all the loans.
"Really? That upgrade is really expensive. How rich are you guys? Did someone supporting you from shadow," asked Mateo while looking at Lilia when he mention the supporting parts.
"We are not that rich. We take loans from someone we do business with. Who in their minds wants to support a newbie like us?" said Lilia.
"You really take loans? It will take a long time for you to pay it back," asked Mateo again.
"It will be fine, we almost finish paying all of our loans," said Ethan.
Mateo just stared at Ethan when Ethan mentioned they will have finished paying their loan soon and said, "You guys are rich okay. Now I really want to join your party Ethan."
"I do want a new member but we need to think about lots of things if we want to accept new member," said Ethan.
"That's right and you are totally not someone we can easily accept as our member especially since you are a noble," added Lilia.
"Then, I will be waiting for your answer, Ethan. I know you are wary of me because of my status but I hope I can convince you during the time we will spend together inside this dungeon," said Mateo.
Ethan smile and said, "Then, let's not waste time here and enter this dungeon," Ethan put their wagon inside the storage and they all went inside.
'Ting~ You and your party member enter the Slime Dungeon. You and your party will be send to the dungeon first floor. To advance to the second floor, you must complete the mission
1. Defeat 10 000 normal slimes
2. Collect 1000 slime fluid (0/1000)
3. Collect 1000 slime core (0/1000)
4. Collect skills Null: Tackle (0/1) and Null: Physical Resistance (0/1)
5. Defeat floor 1 boss
While receiving the information from the system, they were transported to the slime dungeon first floor. In front of them was a huge field of grass with few trees grows on it. The blue sky stretched far wide and a nice breeze blowing around them.
"Is this a dungeon? I thought it will be a cave and full of people but I don't see anyone around," said Ethan.
"Dungeon is like a small world in different dimension. There are many adventurers here but we will rarely meet them," said Lilia.
"This place is beautiful," said Mateo.
"Do you see that huge tower of light over there?" asked Lilia.
"Yeah, we see them," said Ethan and Mateo.
"That is the gate to the next floor," said Lilia.
"It's huge," said Mateo.
After talking to each other a bit more about the dungeon Ethan asked them, "Did you get the mission notification?"
"Yes," said Lilia and Mateo.
"Is this mission needs to be complete individually or in a party and do we all get the same missions?" said Ethan.
"I got 5 missions. First, I need to kill 10 000 slimes. Second, collect 1000 slime fluid. Third, 1000 slime cores. Fourth, skill drops and lastly, defeat the boss," said Mateo.
"I guess we all got the same missions," said Ethan.
"The system didn't say if we need to complete it in a party so maybe this is individual mission," said Lilia.
"I think we will see if this is individual or team mission after we kill a slime," said Mateo and continued, "But man, the fourth mission is the hardest,"
When Ethan and Lilia saw the fourth mission, they thought it will the easiest.
"I think this is the reason it takes a lot of time for people to complete a dungeon. This mission is ridiculous. The other floor will surely have this kind of missions too," Mateo complaining. "If we get out we need to this all again."
This was another rule of dungeons. No matter how many floor adventurers complete, if they get out of the dungeon, they need to start back from floor 1.
"Let's try our best," said Ethan.
"I want that too but I don't see any slime around," said Mateo.
"Ethan, I think it is better if we use our wagon. We will just sit in the wagon conserving our energy while Wafu pull the wagon looking for slime," said Lilia.
"I'm sorry Wafu, you might not be able to fight," said Ethan to Wafu apologetically. Wafu show the face of 'I don't mind' when Ethan said that.
Ethan, Lilia, Mateo and Gooey get into the wagon and Wafu pulled the wagon to find some slimes. After moving for about 15 minutes, they a found a group of slimes.
"How many of that? A hundred?" said Mateo while looking at a group of around 100 slimes that they found.
"Looking at their size… This will be harder than we thought," said Ethan.
"We need to plan carefully," said Lilia.