Return to the Caverns

Upon hearing Jarid's sorrow at the fallen Caverns Eidiri replied enthusiastically, "Sure thing Master Jarid, I'll try and help reclaim the Caverns."

"Really?" asked Jarid. "If you actually clear 'em I'll have no idea how to repay you."

Jarid then shook his head, clearing his thoughts, "Well that's enough of that for now. I got some jobs that require my personal attention right now so I'll be busy for a bit. You can go ahead and do whatever."

After hearing this dismissal, Eidiri understood what Jarid was hoping for and as such called up Edgar and Ken.

"Hey guys, so I found this dungeon called the Caves of Laroshia, you guys wanna run it or something?" Eidiri asked.

"Yea sure, we'll be down. I'm with Ken right now grinding Giant Rats, we'll head over right away," Edgar replied.

"Okay, just meet me where we met last time, kay" Eidiri said.

"Yep yep," was all that Edgar sent back in response.

A brief walk and Eidiri was at the village gate, seeing as how Ken and Edgar weren't here yet, he just stood there idly, waiting for them to arrive.

Eventually, Edgar and Ken ran over, waving their hands in greeting, slightly out of breath.

"So where we going?" asked Ken.

"The Caverns of Laroshia, I found the first dungeon. Not to mention I got this sick shortsword as a reward. If we help clear out this dungeon we'll get more rewards. Then Master Jarid will be able to reclaim the caverns for mining."

"Wait, but if we clear out this whole dungeon, won't we be cutting off our own rewards then?" asked Edgar.

"Because if we clear the dungeon, then there'll be no reason for Jarid to keep rewarding us," Edgar pointed out.

"Based on what I've found out, it seems that this sort of dungeon isn't permanent, right? He specifically asked us to clear the dungeon. It wouldn't make since for the game to issue a quest that could never be accomplished with a dungeon that keeps resetting," Eidiri said.

"Therefore, the Caverns of Laroshia should be a one-time dungeon. After it's cleared, it should disappear or be 'purified' or whatever," Eidiri explained.

"Pretty logical, sounds about right," Ken commented.

"Oh cool then, so we'll just head off then. Nice. Which way are we going now Eidiri?" asked Edgar.

They now started to head out to the Caverns of Laroshia, Eidiri leading the way of course.

The journey there was largely uneventful, Eidiri just mainly complained about the difficulty and struggles he had to go through to clear the path they walked on.

To pass the time, they talked about their contracts of Protinus, Eidiri urging them to also consult legal advisors themselves, not knowing what their contracts entailed.

Soon enough the time passed quickly, the bright morning changing into an idle afternoon.

They took several rest stops along the way, overall their speed was much faster than Eidiri's initial journey, largely because they didn't have to cut their way through the woodlands.

As such, they were able to make it all the way to the Caverns of Laroshia before night had struck.

They then waited and rested, sleeping through the night under the same rocky outcrop that Eidiri had previously taken shelter under.

The night passed uneventfully, not much really happening. The lone cries of crows and the haunting whispers of the wind kept them up until they slowly passed into the realm of unconsciousness.

In the morning, as dawn broke and the sun rose, the cheerful chirping of birds greeted them, and their eyes slowly cracked open.

Stretching their limbs from the rigidness they had gone through from sleeping on the floor, they readied themselves to finally conduct the exploration of the dungeon.

"Be careful guys, we're going to be fighting spiderlings, they primarily use their webs for combat. Remove them from their webs and their combat ability is almost neglible. Just be careful of their paralyzing venom and their numbers," Eidiri informed them.

Nodding their heads along to what Eidiri was saying, they then proceeded down the ramp, slowly heading down the caverns.

When they reached the bottom, Eidiri immediately took note that the spiderlings he had defeated previously hadn't respawned.

This meant that the hypothesis they had suggested earlier was right, The Caverns of Laroshia wouldn't reset after they cleared it. Instead it would be 'purified' cleared of all the monsters within.

Seeing that the spiderlings hadn't respawned, he lead Ken and Edgar to the minecarts, "Come on, this is Shimering Low Tier Magical Ores, they're pretty decent forging material, at least for our levels. Now load up on it," Eidiri said.

They pretty much ransacked the 2 minecarts that were there, completely emptying them of their contents.

After that matter was settled, Eidiri wanted to move on.

However, he was met with slight resistance from Ken.

"Okay, let's move on now," Eidiri said, calling out to Edgar and Ken and he started to proceed further into the caverns.

"Hey wait up a minute," replied Ken, "there's an old house/cabin thingie here. I wanna take a look at it. Maybe there's some sort of loot in there."

"We're wasting time, let's just go ahead," Eidiri said, pushing the point of continuing forward.

"Nah, let's just go with Ken here, the Spirit of Adventure dictates that when exploring everything must be collected and gone over. That includes this hut," Edgar said.

Eidiri sighed in response, then relentingly, he waved his hand over, signaling his assent. They then all proceeded to go to the little worn down house, almost on the brink of disrepair.

When Ken pushed to open the door, he realized that the door didn't budge at all. In slight frustration, he pushed again, this time harder.

The door still didn't budge a single inch. Standing almost mockingly towards Ken's efforts.

"Having trouble opening a door Ken?" asked Edgar. "Come on it's just a door."

Walking away with mild amounts of frustration, Ken said, "Well then you try it then, the lock's pretty strong by the way."

"Well then I think I will take a stab at it then," replied Edgar. "Now watch and be amazed. You see young Ken, the error of your ways is when you haven't kneeled down and called me your God. Now receive your teachings."

With that piece of banter finished, Edgar simply walked to the door and grabbed the handle.

Then with an easy motion, he pulled the door wide open, the hinges squeaking in protest after the many years of disuse.

Ken's face flushed with embarrassment, ashamed of himself, slowly hitting his head with his palm, muttering to himself why he didn't think of that.

"Well then gentlemen, I think it's high time we took a look inside of here," Edgar said, holding the door wide open.