Soul of the Warrior

Reivyn and his three friends dismounted from the horses they had ridden to the Cobbled Ruins Dungeon. There was a small outpost just outside of the outskirts of the Dungeon that reminded Reivyn of the Dungeon Town. This Dungeon was considerably less valuable, though, so it wasn't a booming startup or anything like that. Most of the people present were on the younger side, gaining their first bit of experience.

The residents were mainly employed by the Crown or the two Academies, and there were places that specially catered to the students. The young Adventurers had to wait in line for a chance to delve into the Dungeon, despite it being quite large from what Reivyn could see. It's at least twice the size of Magron from what I can tell.

The Dungeon got its name from the broken-down fort aesthetic it had. There were crumbling walls and other stone buildings that could be seen in the distance. The roads were just dirt paths created by the many people wandering the Dungeon to find monsters to fight, and grass and weeds had taken over with other flora. It was a mix of ruined fort-city and grassland with some sparse forests.

"This is the famous Cobbled Ruins Dungeon," Tom said, extending his arm out to indicate the Dungeon in the distance. "We can board our horses at the Academy stables. There's room and board for staying overnight, and you can pay money or school credits to extend your stay."

Reivyn had kept the horses that he had purchased at one of the stables managed by the Adventurer Guild when they had arrived in The Capital. He had taken the opportunity to increase his Adventurer Rank when he picked the horse up for the journey to the Dungeon.

There wasn't that much change from being a complete newbie to the Adventurer's Guild with just one increase in Rank, but he was assured that he could take on more jobs and requests that required a higher level of responsibility. It was practically assumed that someone who had Adventured long enough to increase their rank also came with an increase in wisdom and common sense. One couldn't just wait out the time in grade and expect to go up in Rank, one also had to actively participate in adventuring or other similar situations. Reivyn had plenty of accomplishments to fuel his Rank increases for another three or four Ranks, and it would only get more as more time went on.

"Sounds good to me," Reivyn said. "Let's get our horses taken care of, and then we can just jump right into it."

"I'm sure this place isn't nearly as interesting as the Dungeon you ran out near Magron," Trick commented.

"It's not about that," Reivyn said. "I'm not here to gain Levels or seek Life Experience. I'm here purely for the School Credits."

"So are you wanting to separate and go our own ways when we go in there?" Vane asked.

"Not at first," Reivyn said. "You said that the recording artifacts given by the Academy will record our progress, right?" Tom and the other two boys nodded their heads. "How does that work, exactly?"

"It works in two ways," Tom said, holding up his fingers. "It will integrate with your mana signature and record your Spell Casting, so it makes a record of that. Then it also integrates with the System somehow and records the Experience you gain. So it keeps a personal record of how you Cast Spells as well as the enemies you defeat."

"So if it integrates with our mana signatures and the System, does that mean that if we form a party, it will record how well we act together?" Reivyn asked.

"Yes," Tom nodded his head.

"Ok, then our task is to form an official System Party and practice working together to fight monsters and Cast Spells. Once we've worked together and formed a cohesive system, we can split up and do our own thing." Reivyn glanced at his System clock. It was just after 1 in the afternoon. "It's still toward the end of summer, and the sun will go down around 8ish or so, which gives us about seven hours to explore the Dungeon. I say we spend about four hours in a Party and then break up for the last three hours. We can do some more exploring in the morning before we leave if you guys want to."

Tom and the other two roommates shared a look and nodded their heads.

"Sounds good to me," Tom said.

Reivyn formed up the Party through the System interface and invited his roommates. The four boys handed their horses over to the stables and immediately made their way to the large opening in the crumbled walls surrounding the Dungeon.

"This Dungeon has been here for as long as anyone in the kingdom can remember," Tom said conversationally. "Nobody knows the origins of the ruins, and it would usually have broken down and faded into obscurity by now, with how old it is. They say it doesn't completely collapse because it has been integrated as a Dungeon by the System."

"The monsters here are all low-level," Vane added. "We'll mostly encounter goblins, either alone or in small groups, and wild beasts that have become stronger due to the higher ambient mana in the localized area."

They stepped through where there were obviously once gates in the walls of the fort, and Reivyn noticed an obvious uptick in the mana density. It's not nearly as much as the Dungeon - Can't keep calling it that, it doesn't have an official name yet, but I'll call it the Revenant Dungeon until then - near Magron. I can see how over time, though, it would warp beasts and animals beyond what can be found in the Tier 1 Region.

"Yeah, if we use the ambient Mana through Mana Absorption to assist in our Spell Casting, we should be able to sustain free-hand weaves longer than we normally could in the Academy," Trick said while looking all around as they walked onto a path. "That's another thing the higher Tier Regions have on us. It's not to the point where they can continuously cast without repercussions, but they definitely have an advantage. Mana Absorption becomes more and more important the higher the rank of your Spells, and it gets more efficient the higher the Tier of the Region."

"Yeah, the Revenant Dungeon had a higher mana density than here, and I never felt like I was going to run out of mana when exploring that Dungeon," Reivyn chuckled.

"That's not saying much," Trick said. "You have a ridiculous mana pool."

"I didn't always," Reivyn pointed out. "Even when I had considerably less Mana, it was always enough."

The boys traveled for several minutes on what was apparently the main road. There wasn't a lot to see yet, as they didn't encounter any beasts or monsters of any kind. They occasionally passed by other people, though. Some of them were seen off in the distance, and some were heading out of the ruins, walking opposite to Reivyn's party.

"So how is the Dungeon managed?" Reivyn asked. "I noticed that we didn't have to wait at all, but there were apparently a lot of Adventurers in the outpost waiting to go in."

"The students get priority," Tom answered. "We don't have to wait at all, and we can come and go as we please. The other people have to wait their turn, though. There are only so many monsters that can spawn in a given amount of time, and it never exceeds an upper threshold of about two thousand or so."

"Yeah, we don't have to worry about a Dungeon break with this one," Trick said. "The reason Dungeon breaks are so dangerous is that they release multiple instances at once, greatly increasing the number of monsters one would normally face. The monsters in the open-air Dungeons are still somehow bound to the perimeter of the Dungeons, and even if they could be broken out, their numbers would be limited to what was currently spawned."

"Also, this Dungeon is only goblins and other weak beasts, like we said," Vane added. "If there was somehow a break, they'd be wiped out in less than an hour, even if they spread in all directions from the Dungeon."

"Hmm, I can see that," Reivyn said.

Something tickled at his awareness as they had their conversation, and he swung his head around looking for the source. He noticed a faint shimmer a little ways in front of them on the main road. It kind of reminds me of when I saw the faint outlines of the System Notification when Teilon got an Achievement, Reivyn squinted at the spot. He activated his Mana Sight and focused his Veridical Affinity into his eyes. The faint shimmers immediately became clearer, and Reivyn saw the shadowy outline of four goblins walking together.

As he watched them move towards the Party, he noted that they were slowly becoming more corporeal. He held his hand up and pointed at the location where the four goblins appeared to come into full view from his estimation.

"We got four goblins about to appear right in front of us, right there," Reivyn said. As he finished speaking, four goblins suddenly came into existence, walking along the path like they had always been there. "We'll each take one. Pick the one in the same position as yourself," Reivyn subconsciously Commanded.

The four boys swiftly created their weaves as the goblins spotted them almost at the same time. They screeched and charged forward, just like Reivyn remembered them always doing. They had no care or thought for anything other than getting to the humans and attacking them.

Four Spells materialized from the focuses the boys carried and launched at the goblins. They smashed into their heads almost simultaneously, and the four goblins dropped down, dead.

Enemy Defeated

Exp + 5 (50% for 1 Tier below)

Exp +1

Exp +1

Exp +1

Oh, I didn't know there was an Experience penalty for killing things of a lower Tier. It hasn't been an issue until now, Reivyn thought as he examined the Notification. I guess +1 is the minimum.

"So what's the penalty for killing things even lower than one Tier below you?" Reivyn asked.

"It's 50% per Tier," Tom said. "These guys are equivalent to Tier 1 Level 10, so they give 10 Experience. You get 5 Experience for being Tier 2, and if you Level up to Tier 3, it'll be another 50% less for 2 Experience. The System always rounds down, but there's a minimum of 1."

So once I'm Tier 4, killing the Revenants will only grant 190 Experience, Reivyn tapped his chin in thought. Mom killed a couple of thousand Revenants plus some Tier 4 Demons, but if most of her Experience gains were cut in half, it makes sense that she didn't skyrocket in Level. She was Level 40 when she showed me her Status, so that means if she was in the 30s before the battle, she would need over 50,000 Experience per Level. I guess she gained five or six levels from destroying the army. Dad would have only gained 85 Experience for each of the Revenants he killed, and he only killed a couple hundred on the wall.

"By the way," Vane said, "how did you know those goblins were going to appear when and where they did." Reivyn shrugged.

"I'm just special like that," Reivyn replied nonchalantly.

"Fine, keep your secrets," Vane shoved Reivyn on the shoulder playfully. "It actually is fine."

"Alright, let's keep going," Reivyn said. "We should practice on teamwork and using synergy for our Spells. I'll also act as a vanguard sometimes so you can get some experience Casting around a melee ally."

"Why do we need to try so hard?" Trick asked, an eyebrow quirked. "This is the easiest of the easy." Reivyn clapped a hand over Trick's mouth to keep him from talking any further.

"Shhhhh!" Reivyn said, looking around like he was checking to make sure nobody else heard him. "Do you want it to be harder? Never say that it's too easy out loud. Don't even think it. Every time I've ever had that attitude, something has gone terribly wrong." Reivyn straightened up as Trick eyed him suspiciously. "Trust me. Don't talk like that.

"Anyway, the point isn't about this Dungeon at all," Reivyn explained. "The point is to use this opportunity to train for the next Dungeon. During the summer semester, we'll have a lot more time to go and explore other, more dangerous Dungeons. We can team up with my friends from the Knight Academy and get even more training in with them.

"All of that will be necessary if you want to go to the Revenant Dungeon," Reivyn said. "You guys all want to get the quota to move up to the 2nd Tier Region Academy, right?" The three boys nodded their heads. "Completing the second floor of the Revenant Dungeon will definitely be a huge boost towards that goal. It's not a joke down there, so you guys need to practice these things."

"That makes sense," Tom said with a thoughtful look. "But if you're with us, how much training do we really need?" The three boys laughed, but Reivyn just shook his head.

"I haven't decided if I'm going to go with you guys or not," Reivyn said. "I should already have credit for doing so, even if I don't get the associated School Credits. It might be better for me to get more variety and roam about to get my School Credits than to go back and do the same thing over again.

"The same thing goes for my friends in the Knight Academy. You can count on us to go with you anywhere else in the kingdom to get Life Experience and School Credits, but we'll need more thought on spending the time to go all the way back to the Revenant Dungeon. It's all about opportunity cost for us."

"Sure, don't let us hold you back," Vane said. "Just helping us get the proper training to strike out on our own with our own acquaintances is more than enough."

"Ok, ok," Reivyn said. "Let's continue. We're burning daylight."

The Party spent the four hours they had decided on going through various permutations of combat. Reivyn was quite pleased with how well they picked up on the different responsibilities associated with the different tactics.

He was able to lead the group of four around in a very efficient manner with his ability to detect monsters and beasts about to spawn over from wherever they came from. They witnessed several other groups or individuals waiting around in supposedly "hot spots," waiting for enemies to spawn. Reivyn's group didn't have that problem, as he constantly led them forward towards new enemies to practice on.

Experience: 2,021/3,200

Despite only getting 5 Experience per kill, and mostly only 1 Experience for each enemy, I still managed to get around 400 Experience in the past four hours, Reivyn mused as he pulled up his Experience tab. Gaining Experience isn't the point of this excursion, but it's still not terrible, all things considered.

"Alright, this is where we should break up and go solo," Reivyn said to his Party.

"Aww, man," Trick complained. "How are we supposed to fight anything with you running around snagging up all of the monsters that spawn?"

"I'll head toward the far side of the Dungeon," Reivyn chuckled. "I'll stick to that side and not cross the halfway point, so you guys have a city-sized zone to explore."

"We know," Vane said, pushing Trick who was looking at Reivyn with puppy-dog-eyes. "He just doesn't want to slow down to almost crawling after roaming around with a monster magnet for so long."

"Yeah, let's go," Tom jerked his head to the side. Vane pulled Trick along as Trick held his arms out like he wanted to grab ahold of Reivyn. Reivyn just snorted and shook his head.

I'll be able to focus more on my own weaves, now, Reivyn thought as he headed off towards the far side of the Dungeon.

He picked his way over the broken stones and occasional tree littering the paths. The pathways were much less distinct further away from the entrance to the Dungeon, and he also saw fewer people moving about.

He kept his Mana Sight going with his Veridical Affinity, and he made his way from one group of spawning monsters to another, cycling through his different weaves to deal with them. He entered a state of concentration as he focused on weaving death throughout the dilapidated ruins.

"...feel?" a voice heard on the other side of a broken wall intruded on Reivyn's concentration as he moved down a path between collapsing stone buildings.

"I feel great, Your Excellency," the second voice sounded very familiar to Reivyn. He frowned as he came fully out of his concentration and focused on the voices, trying to remember where he knew that voice from. He slowed his steps and activated his Stealth Skills with Eavesdropping. He wasn't particularly trying to hide, but he also didn't want to get entangled in anything right now.

"That's only the beginning," the first voice said with a laugh. "Keep following me, and there's more to come."

There was a small hole in the wall that Reivyn was walking alongside, and he peeked an eye through the crack. On the other side of the wall, he saw six people, four males and two females. He didn't recognize four of them, but two of the people stood out and rooted Reivyn in place as he took it in.

On the other side of the wall, the prince from Eldiar was standing with four other people behind him, and Ren, the man who had caused him so much trouble and tried to have him killed in the skirmish, was standing opposite them. He was looking down at his hands in wonder, and he constantly gripped and un-gripped them.

"It feels like I never lost it," Reivyn heard him whisper. Reivyn focused on Ren's actions. He has a new hand, he realized.

"Come on," the prince clapped Ren on the shoulder. "We're only here to get you familiarized with the differences. This is low-Level stuff, but you need a proper understanding if you plan on sticking with me."

"Yes, Your Excellency," Ren said. He stopped gripping his hands and got into formation with the other five people behind the prince.

Reivyn took a closer look at all of those present, and he noticed that the other five were students from either the Magic Academy or the Knight Academy. Their student tokens hung on their waists were a dead giveaway. They each carried another token, though, one that held an unfamiliar sigil on it.

That must be some representation of the prince and his House, Reivyn surmised. He looked around himself and at the buildings, searching for the bodyguards that Reivyn knew would be present, but he didn't see anyone. Either the prince's bodyguards are just that good and I'm about to get ambushed, or he left them at the outpost. Honestly, it's probably the latter, but I should move about with caution, assuming it's the former.

Reivyn wasn't intending on spying on the group, but there just seemed to be something off about the situation, so he wanted a little bit more information. He tailed the group that moved about the ruins in high spirits. The prince occasionally looked at a device in his hands that Reivyn couldn't see, and he apparently chose which direction to move based on what the device told him.

Reivyn noticed that the group of six was heading towards some monsters that were about to materialize, and he watched as the prince held up his arm to stop his group.

"Should be another group of goblins appearing nearby," he said as he looked around. Whatever he's looking at must somehow detect the monster spawns, Reivyn thought. I can see them clearly with my Veridical Affinity infused Mana Sight, but it looks like they only get an approximate location from that magic item.

Soon, the goblins came into view, and Ren pulled out his sword and attacked the goblins. Most of the others just watched, but one of the Magic Academy students unleashed a few free-hand Spells as well. There was something odd about the Spells, but Reivyn couldn't quite place his finger on it.

He followed them for a bit longer, but they weren't really doing anything other than hunting monsters like everyone else in the Dungeon. Why am I still following these guys? Reivyn thought. He was about to give up when he had an idea.

He focused once more on the Spell Caster that joined Ren in attacking the monsters, and he flipped his Veridical Affinity infusion off. The Spell weaves still looked exactly the same, but there was still an odd sense that came from the mana. He switched his Abyss Affinity on to his Mana Sight on a whim, and he saw creeping, shadowy mana merging with the regular mana weaves.

They're using Abyss mana! Reivyn thought in shock. He noticed the token with the prince's sigil on it flare up with Abyss mana as well, and it managed to block all of the Abyss mana from seeping out beyond what Reivyn could see when specifically looking at it with his own Affinity assisting him. That token somehow mixes their Abyss mana in a way that hides it from outside observers. I can only see it because I can specifically see Abyss mana while focusing.

Is the prince a member of the cult? Or maybe his entire family? If it's his family involved, how much of the Royal Family of Eldiar are cultists? I need to tell my parents about this.

Reivyn lost interest in exploring the Dungeon further and working on his weaves. He backed away from the prince's group and headed toward the center of the Dungeon. There was nothing more to learn from the group, as they just appeared to be practicing their Spell weaves with Abyss mana. There's probably something involving Abyss mana mixing with Stamina for the Martial Classes, as well.

I still need to record a bit more for the School Credits, Reivyn thought to himself as walked in contemplation. I've already done a lot more than most people because of my unique advantage, though, so I'll just snag up any monsters I spot on the way. I have too much to think about to worry about fighting monsters right now.