Chapter 19 The Normal Dungeon
Explorer's House
Explorer's Residence
A cozy two-story small building, with one room on the second floor brightly lit.
Kane, dressed in pajamas, sat cross-legged on the bed, his eyes focused on the air, as if something in the air was attracting him.
Suddenly, his gaze sharpened, he rolled off the bed, rummaged through his bag, and took out the charging materials he had just purchased today.
[Core of Kcz]
[Charging Material]
[Color: Copper]
[Attributes: Slight Increase in Magic Stone Energy]
[Explanation: The core condensed after Kcz's death]
He removed the pendant from his neck, which had just a hint of copper color in the magic stone, while the rest was mostly transparent.
Placing the magic stone on the core, it was completely silent, without any movement.
A system alert suddenly sounded in his ear
[Obtaining someone else's trophies is immoral behavior]
[If you need more trophies, please team up to obtain them]
What do you mean by immoral behavior, I spent money to buy this.
Looks like it's unrealistic to spend money on materials to charge skills.
This prompt he encountered in his previous life while playing games, when he forgot to turn on offline mode and went on a spree, receiving a warning from the officials.
So, only magic materials dropped from either himself or his teammates' kills can be used for charging?
Then the question arises, how do I activate this team system.
In the game he played in his previous life, it would automatically activate the first time he went online.
Now it's the real world, how do I turn it on.
Forget it, pondering over something without any clue would only bring unnecessary trouble.
Turn off the lights
Go to sleep
············
Oh dear, how exactly to activate it.
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Morning at the Explorer's House is the busiest time of the day.
Accept, review new commissions, and throw the nonsensical ones into the trash can.
Classify some new commissions and post them on the notice board.
Next to the front desk, there's a magazine rack open to the public, filled with the latest newspapers and magazines issued by various countries and official organizations.
Today is the first Friday morning of the month, the time for all weekly, monthly, and daily publications to be updated.
What? You say yearbook, even a dog wouldn't read something that updates that infrequently.
As for why dates in this other world are the same as in the previous life, who knows, maybe the person setting the dates was just lazy.
Kane was sitting at the front desk reading today's Splendid City Daily.
The headline on the newspaper was a specially bolded title [The End of the Old, The Beginning of the New]
It was basically talking about the local signature novice dungeon disappearing, but a new red-marked signature dungeon had appeared.
This was the mist's award to the City of Brilliance, under the wise leadership of the City Lord, how they should strive to build the city, and so on.
What otherworldly capitalists.
At this moment, Adoma came over, shaking her cute horned head.
It's early autumn, and there's a slight chill in the air.
She was wearing a high-neck white sweater on top, covering all the way down to her thighs.
Despite the snug clothing, there was a diamond-shaped opening at the collarbone, just enough to reveal a hint of depth.
Her straight and slender jade legs were wrapped in a pair of chocolate-colored, silky smooth stockings, squeezing a bit of flesh from her thighs.
Moving his gaze upwards, Kane focused on the tray held at her chest level, on which lay his upcoming breakfast.
Just as Kane came over to read the newspaper, he coincidentally ran into Adoma starting her shift, and upon learning he hadn't eaten, she volunteered to buy him breakfast.
She said she was new and didn't know what was good, so she would recommend something.
"Hehe, is it delicious?" She shook her cute little head, the ornaments on her horns jingling.
Looking at this woman's inexplicable attentiveness.
"If there's something you want to say, just say it," Kane said a bit helplessly, "This makes people feel embarrassed."
Hearing Kane's response, she excitedly said, "Then can you tell me about your first time, I want to hear it, hehe."
"Alright, it's not like I have anything else to do right now." Kane began to tell her about his first time exploring a dungeon while eating.
His gentle voice, narrating at just the right pace.
As he reached the thrilling parts, she couldn't help but gasp and asked what happened next.
Adoma's enthusiasm spurred Kane on, making him more engrossed in his storytelling.
As time passed, the explorers around them gradually noticed the unusual situation unfolding.
Although Adoma was a chatterbox, she always kept interactions with males strictly professional, and any attempts to make advances were met with swift rejection.
Combined with her exquisite appearance and figure that made men's hearts race,
her endearing personality made her very popular among the explorers of Sokayamas.
When had these explorers ever seen her so intimately with a man?
People around them seemed absorbed in their own tasks, but their attention had long since turned to the affectionate pair.
The scent of lemon surrounded the area.
Yet Kane didn't notice anything amiss.
As the story gradually concluded,
Adoma also came back to her senses.
"Kane, what is your next target dungeon?"
This was when Kane remembered why he visited the Explorer's House so early: to gather intel on the [Arena of Crystals], not to tell stories.
Damn, this woman disrupted my focus.
Indeed, women only hinder my dungeon exploration speed.
"Ahem," Kane cleared his throat, "I'm planning to tackle the next dungeon, [Arena of Crystals]. Do you have any detailed intelligence on it?"
"So, it's that dungeon, of course I do," she nodded her head.
When it came to her area of expertise, she straightened up, speaking clearly, "The [Arena of Crystals] is considered a very standard Copper Dungeon.
The average completion time for an Explorer Squad is about 2 months, depending on their strength and targeted setup, the completion time may vary by about a month."
Kane abruptly interrupted, "You said an Explorer Squad takes an average of 2 months to clear it?"
An Explorer Squad generally consists of 4-6 individuals, of course, exceptions exist.
The squad's setup typically follows the classic tank, DPS, healer combination, corresponding to melee tank, ranged DPS, and support healer.
Such a setup taking 2 months perplexed Kane.
"Of course it takes 2 months," Adoma said, looking puzzled, not understanding why Kane had a question there.
Seeing her expression, Kane finally understood.
Indeed,
The quick clear times of the previous two dungeons made him assume all Copper Dungeons were like this.
In hindsight, the previous two were actually exceptions.
In [Giant Wood Forest], Kane leveraged both his Eagle Eye and the Spider Nest Weaver to bypass large numbers of humanoid plants at the periphery, directly reaching the core region to discover the abnormal withered tree.
Afterwards, relying on his high mobility, he kited the leader monster to defeat it.
Most explorers can only discover the humanoid plants' weakness to fire at the periphery,
slowly advancing toward the core while avoiding alerting multiple plants to prevent facing a corpse tide.
[Commerce Ruins] was a small map, with a completely linear clearing path.
Coupled with the fact that the monsters were few and weak, with extremely mechanical behavior patterns bestowed by the dungeon.
Thus, it became very suitable for newcomers' first dungeon, but such dungeons are extremely rare. In Copper Dungeons that generally need over 10 years before disappearance, most are cleared out in just 4-5 years.