Episode 5: Old Wood Caverns (1)

Stepping foot onto the mountain path of Old Wood Mountain, the two were greeted by the sight of many crossroads around the area. It was clear at first glance that this area wasn't just only for the dungeon.

Compared to Black Fang's Forest which enclosed itself over to a corner in the northern regions of the Kingdom of Hak, where, upon reaching the end of the forest was the vast sea, Old Wood Mountain had a variety of pathways leading to many areas.

For one, the most active pathway wasn't the dungeon path, instead, it was the path that led straight to the town of Heim. Directly opposite the bustling path, was a small ravine that directly connected to the mountainous regions of Gaveln.

"Alright. So, for the dungeon... Taking the left path should lead us right into the entrance," Shinto muttered to himself in thought as he and Kon began moving toward the farthest path on the left whilst passing by a few players.

Although Shinto had avoided the town so that they wouldn't attract any sort of attention, he didn't need to do so here. After all, the player count in the area was far lesser than that of a town. At the same time, he didn't need to worry about getting crowded around in the open area.

As such, Shinto only just casually strolled past the players.

Even though there were a few curious eyes on Kon, they wouldn't go out of their way to ask about him, much to the convenience of Shinto. In the end, he couldn't completely avoid players, but he could at least go to a place where there were fewer of them.

...

After a short while of walking, Shinto's footsteps stopped, now in front of more fork pathways. Unlike the last one where the roads led to different areas, these pathways led to only one: the Dungeon, [ Old Wood Caverns ].

"Ah? There are more roads here?" Kon raised his brow in question. "We're not going to get lost, are we?"

"Nope," Shinto shook his head. "This is just how this place is."

Old Wood Caverns was a famous dungeon for having many entrances. No matter where a player chose to go, they would end up at one of the many open caves around the mountain.

"Oh? Then which path do we go?" Kon asked.

"Just any," he casually said. "Do you want to go up higher into the mountain, or just go into the main entrance?"

Although there were many entrances to the dungeon, there at least was one main entrance. If one just walked straight from here, they'll be at the forefront of Old Wood Mountain, where they can enter the first floor of the caverns.

"Uh..." Kon thought to himself. "Let's go to the main entrance?"

"Alright," Shinto nodded his head, beginning to walk up ahead.

After passing by a few more crowds of players, they were finally at the entrance of the dungeon. Just like back at the entrance of Black Fang's Den, there wasn't any lack of players here.

"We're a level 20 party looking for players to tackle the underground tunnels!" 

"U-Uh, level 6 newbie player looking for a party!"

"Someone, anyone! Donate equipment or gold! Please... I'm so poor!"

However, compared to last night, Shinto didn't need to loiter around in search of a party. Instead, without even idling about for even a second, he immediately entered the dungeon. After all, he wasn't alone this time. He had Kon.

...

Entering the dungeon, the two were instantly greeted by an extremely different atmosphere from the outside. Unlike the drylands of the mountain path with little to no greenery anywhere, the caverns contrasted it with moss covering the surface of the walls, as well as branches and plants growing out of it. This was where the name "Old Wood" came from.

"Woah!" Kon's eyes lit up in excitement at the sight of the caverns. "This... It's such a different feeling! Why's it so humid and bright in a cave of all things?"

To add to all the plants around the walls and on the ground, the caverns weren't dark at all. Instead, countless small bugs glowed a bright blue hue as they stuck onto the walls of the caves. Though, they weren't the only creatures around.

In front of them, they could see that multiple players were attacking the monsters of the dungeon. It had to be noted that although the area they were in felt surreal and beautiful, it was still a dungeon where monsters would attack you at any time.

"Hmm..." While Kon was amazed by his surroundings, Shinto was glancing around the area, looking for a place where they could start hunting. "Let's head up while fighting whatever monsters we come across. You can sightsee as we go."

"Alright!" Kon said as he excitedly jumped off Shinto's shoulder. "Over there! I think that's a good spot!"

With the two moving forward, Shinto began to wave his staff around, sending about a mana spark over to an unoccupied lizard monster nearby. In the next moment, after gaining the monster's aggro, he swiftly switched targets to another mob.

"Heeyah!" Each time Shinto sent out a basic attack, Kon followed up with one of his own, completely demolishing the mobs that Shinto aggroed. "Okay! The pack of monsters are cleared away! What's next?!"

"We're going to go underground," Shinto said. "The current enemies here are far too easy for you."

Though this may be a different dungeon, Kon's damage output was still above the average. However, that won't be for long as they make their way deeper into the dungeon.

"Go underground? Not higher up the mountain?" Kon blinked.

"Well if you want to go up, that's no problem," he replied. "The enemies vary depending on where we go, but the difficulty will rise in the end."

"Ah!" Nodding his head, Kon began to look around his surroundings once again. "Then, since these monsters are easy, I'll continue sightseeing!"

Nodding his head at Kon's eagerness to sightsee whilst battling monsters along the way, Shinto shifted his attention over to his status window. "While you do that, I'll allocate my stat points."

[ Player Profile ]

Player Name: Shinto

Level: 9

Rank:

Class: Shadow Diviner

-Class Attribute-

...

-Titles-

[ Altric's Discoverer ]

[ Blessing of Duality I ]

-Stats-

HP: 150/150 | MP: 212/212

Strength: 1 | Stamina: 12

Intelligence: 26 (+1) | Agility: 23

Shadow: 10 | Divinity: 4

Wisdom: 1

Weight: 81/150

Stat Points: 30

...

From last night until now, Shinto had levelled up 8 levels, which was a good progression. Though, it still left him feeling rather iffy. "Sigh... Seeing my current level feels odd..." he sighed. He was originally level 201 after all. It would take some time to get used to his current level. "But whatever... I'll focus on allocating my stats points instead."

For the first 50 stat points obtained from levelling up, he had focused them on intelligence and agility to focus on supporting the party. Now with only Kon whose stats were way above his own, instead of intelligence, he would focus on increasing his agility, stamina and strength.

The focus on agility was simple. He needed to aggro and dodge attacks to let Kon run wild. As for strength and stamina, he just wanted to increase his sustainability. At the same time, he needed to increase his weight limit.

Thus, with a split of 12, 8 and 10 on each stat respectively, he used up all 30 of his stat points.

"Alright." Nodding his head at his newly updated profile, he now turned to look at his Shadow and Divinity stats. "Now then... As for these two, their growth rate is... uh, rather imbalanced?"

He was unsure of what to make out of the two stats that he was eyeing. For one, the disparity between the two stats was six. However, although the difference was small, it had to be noted that Shinto was currently in a dark cave. Thus, his Shadow stat would grow much faster than his Divinity stat later on as he continued with the dungeon.

This would create a problem in the balance between the two.

"If I continuously use Shadow skills like last night... My Shadow stat will increase steadily," he thought to himself. "But for Divinity... Even if I use the Divinity skills, the growth rate would ultimately fail in comparison to Shadow..."

There was no helping it at the moment. Shinto was currently in Old Wood Caverns where it was dark enough to proc his class attribute. As such, he could only make sure to use his Divinity skills whenever he had the chance. But, with only two skills, there was only so much that he could do.

"Sigh..." Sighing out to himself, Shinto continued walking through the caverns whilst Kon was fighting against the roaming monsters in the vicinity. "Well, there's no point in thinking over this issue. Let's just continue with this dungeon."

At the moment that Shinto muttered his words, he heard a cry for help in front of him. "A-Ah! M-Master! The monsters are getting stronger!"