Apinsig
patreon
Chapter 272 Homesteading in a fantasy world
🕑 Added 2023-07-13 12:48:10 +0000 UTCWhen I got downstairs, I decided to go straight over to the meeting point, which was a tavern at the edge of the city. It was quite a large place, obviously meant for travellers. There were already quite a few people here, and meals were already being served.
I ordered myself two meals called the "Three-Day Breakfast". The server even looked at me funny, as if questioning whether I had read what it was called. But I didn’t regret it, not even for a moment, as multiple plates piled high with all kinds of foods were brought to me.
The server said, "This is your first meal. We will bring you the second one when you are finished with the first, simply because there's not enough table room for the second one." I laughed at that as I was eating a large piece of garlic bread with a generous coating of butter.
When I was close to done with the first meal, Arabella showed up and ordered for herself. Soon after, the other three made it here as well. They watched in horror as the second meal showed up, but I scarfed that one down almost as fast as the first one.
When everyone was done eating, Horus took out a map to show us our route. "We will stick to the main road that goes to another academy’s main city, but about halfway we will need to take this less travelled road that will sneak past this mountain range and go through the jungle afterwards, so we could finally make it to our destination."
It was definitely a long way to walk, but seeing the mountain path, I could understand why we couldn’t take a faster form of travel. Although I could probably run there in a few hours, the others didn't have a quick move ability that could cover such a large distance.
We checked everything one last time, as each of us was carrying at least one expanded bag so we would have all of the food and consumables we might need, not to mention all the tools we might need to bypass traps.
The place here was quite beautiful and quite foreign to me. Although I did have a few trips to tropical areas back on Earth, I was mainly in the northern hemisphere and in a temperate climate. It didn’t take long for the temperature to start rising as we moved away from the coast.
The main road was quite boring. I stared, bored, as there really wasn't much to see other than farmland and plantations. But when we got to the mountain range, the nature became quite beautiful, and I was thoroughly enjoying myself, unlike the rest of my party.
Apparently, they weren’t that used to walking, and while their bodies didn't tire quickly, their minds certainly couldn’t take the boredom walking can cause. Conversation helped, but I was rationing my stories as much as possible, as we had a lot more boring times ahead, and this one actually wasn't too bad, at least for me, as the sights were quite wonderful. Adam was the first one to show exhaustion, so I proposed that we take a break at the highest point we were going to reach on the mountain and have a good lunch.
Everyone agreed, and I was just glad we were able to find a nice plateau that overlooked the jungle below. I was sitting at the edge, letting my feet suspend over the edge while others rested a bit further away. I also used this time to check up on my land and my nation.
Everything seemed to be going well, but I was also quite worried about going into the dungeon. I wouldn’t be able to escape from there if something went wrong and they needed my protection. But I couldn’t be a guard dog all the time, otherwise, I wouldn’t be able to get stronger, and that might lead to ruin even if I was there.
The walk down the mountain was obviously easier, and I started to train the others in the art of talking about nothing so they wouldn't be bored. It was hard going at the start, but when we were out of the jungle, I felt they were starting to get used to it. It will still take a while, but eventually, we will be able to talk about the weather for hours without getting bored. It was now getting quite late, but with me leading and others needing to keep up with my pace, we made it there way before Horus predicted.
The place itself looked like a simple town and it didn't have any tall buildings. The largest feature was, of course, the dungeon entrance, which looked like a collapsed castle. We were able to relax for quite a few hours in the tavern and get a good night’s sleep in our own rooms, thanks to getting here so quickly.
In the morning, we started to approach the dungeon entrance. I was glad that we didn’t have to deal with any people, as we needed to constantly speak with new people and show proof that we had permission to go closer to the dungeon entrance and eventually enter it.
We were all standing before the half-collapsed main gate of the castle when Horus spoke up. "We will officially be inside the dungeon as soon as we get past the broken gatehouse, but we will not be officially inside the dungeon proper until we take the stairs downwards further inside the castle.”
“The first floors, as mentioned, are quite simple for us, and everyone should be able to solo it, so currently there is no need to be in proper formation, but we will do so anyway as we don't have experience fighting with each other. Now, Rich, you will be in the lead, and as soon as we get to the first floor, we will light torches to try to find out which area we ended up in."
I didn’t answer back but just walked in front and entered the dungeon. Light peeked inside from the numerous holes. I located the stairs down quite easily as they were just past the courtyard. I felt Horus activate some sort of ability, and I immediately knew where the other party members were and what their status was.
From that information, I knew that everyone was healthy and well-rested. He had also activated some buffs, but the most interesting was the boost to our low light visibility. For me, it really didn't matter, but I could see how useful it could be.
I pushed forward a bit and others followed. Just before I started to step downwards, I looked behind me. "Ready?" I asked, and everyone gave an affirmative in their own ways. We descended downwards, and I could feel the moment when space warped and the very next step, I felt the stone underneath me be a bit different than the stone the castle was made out of.
I immediately looked around as soon as I stepped off the stairs, and I quickly figured out where we were thanks to the stone pattern, moss, vines, and tree roots. As soon as I felt others behind me, I spoke up. "We are in the Wolf Forest Ruins."
"Well, that’s appropriate as we did have to fight wolves to get access to this dungeon," Arabella spoke, but right after that, we heard some movement down the hall. Almost immediately, a torch was lit by Adam that illuminated the place even more and allowed me to see far enough to see the pack of four wolves that were trying to sneak closer to us.
As soon as the torch was lit and their cover was blown, they started to rush towards us. They were able to take a few steps before one of them was killed with an arrow and another one with an ice bolt. I didn’t have to do anything as the other two were killed just a few moments later.
The wolves disappeared almost immediately after they were killed, but they didn’t leave behind anything. "We will only start to see regular drops after floor 50, so don't mind that they didn't drop anything," Horus explained.
That’s right, it had slipped my mind that mature dungeons dropped loot consistently, but what they dropped depended on the dungeon. I wondered what kind of items we might get from a dungeon that has lived for 1000 years or more.
