Risen World

Chapter 197: Finishing a Grind Fest and Being a Good Samaritan

For the next couple of days Joshua's group grinded the dungeon rather efficiently as they made their way down the path that they had jotted down as the quickest way to get through the dungeon. Henry was able tweak it a bit after seeing the new little secrets that Kalvin had pointed out to them the last time they came through and it made their trip much quicker. They were able to make their way through the dungeon twice in a day so after two days they had completed the dungeon four more times.

As they went through it over and over again they were able to find quicker ways to finish off the sub-boss, but it was still quite difficult to take down the final boss even if they were getting better at killing it. At one point Joshua was able to level up his blink skill and Heroic shout since he was using them so much throughout the dungeon. Lilly was also able to level up her empower skill as well which made her boost her allies skills or abilities by sixty percent instead fifty at this point. Their other skills were still a ways away from leveling up since they had gotten them more recently and Joshua's reset skill wasn't even close. It showed how much harder it would be to level up a special skill like that, but Joshua was definitely looking forward to when he would be able to stack resets.

Amy was able to reach level fifty half way through the last time they decided to clear the dungeon and they could all tell that they weren't getting the most out of grinding at the place anymore. The first run gave them a ton of experience in accordance with the system since it was more challenging at the time, but the second time through the system was giving them less and less. Adrian and the others didn't even gain another level even though they were starting to get close to that point. Joshua and Lilly both reached level forty eight as well, but they knew it was time to stop grinding the place and head back.

One thing that Joshua did do before leaving the place was create a sign board outside of the platform entering the dungeon. He knew that now that the place had been cleared and that it would be shown on the map for everyone and anyone to come over and give it a try there were going to be a lot of over confident people rushing to the place at the sight of a level sixty dungeon. These people might be in the level fifty-five and up range and in large groups, but in the end that wouldn't matter if they went in there recklessly and got themselves slaughtered. So being a Good Samaritan Joshua put up a large warning that read as followed.

[For all of the explorers that are coming to this dungeon for the chance at clearing it and gaining the rewards, or simply for a challenge I want to put out a warning. This dungeon is not for people that are under level sixty. There are many reason for that and just so you don't question me I will tell you plainly I am from the group that cleared this place first. I won't give you all the answers to how to clear the dungeon, but I will let you in on a few things in the hopes that it will save some of your lives. In this new age we need as many powerful explorers to survive as possible to reclaim all of the things that we have lost in the future. I already saw the group that was trying to clear this place ahead of my own get slaughtered by the boss so if you want to live I suggest you heed my words.

1.) The dungeon is worse than a maze so if you go into this place without a large amount of supplies for survival then the beast inside won't be the only thing that you have to worry about. I won't tell you the right route to take otherwise I might just help some people that aren't ready for this place get all the way to the sub-boss only to die, but I will say that the dungeon is filled with platforms that move at what will seem random, but you must use them to progress throughout the dungeon. There are rooms all over the place filled with scorpions that are far more heavily armored than the ones you will see outside the dungeon so you better have a means to break through their armor.

2.) The sub-boss of this dungeon is a large challenge to take on and if your group struggles with it then you might as well take the lit up platform that leads to the exit of the dungeon afterwards because there is no way in hell your group will survive the final boss if you struggle with the sub-boss. This sub-boss doesn't care about numbers since it doesn't move around much and its main two damaging abilities are large area of effect skills. So if you think you can clear this dungeon simply by using large numbers then this boss will wake you from those stupid dreams. The poison it gives off into the surroundings is trouble enough, but its control over the crystals all over the room are what you really need to watch out for. Don't let it kill off all of your mages and healers because you weren't paying attention to this fact.

3.) The last and most important part of this dungeon is the final boss. If you struggled with anything at all up to this point then you need to pack your equipment and take the lit up platform that leads out of the dungeon. No ifs or buts, just do it if you want to live. If you can't take the sub-boss down within an hour then leave, if you're running low on supplies and have spent days running all throughout the dungeon then leave. The boss is human-like to an extent and is somewhat intelligent in comparison to the sub-boss or other bosses you may have come across up to this point. It will not just target your tank or the last person that hit it, but will go after whoever it feels is the biggest threat or easiest to take out first. This means if it's beating up on a tank and sees a healer heal them back to top fighting condition then you can expect it to go after that healer out of pure annoyance and ignore the tanks. Everyone in the group has to be able to handle themselves in combat to a good enough extent or have a way to protect themselves or else the weaker members will be torn apart first and then it will go for the rest. The boss has a large aura and gives off waves of killing intent that can greatly influence everyone it is fighting against. To kill the boss you have to break through its aura which will take a long time and it makes the fight a contest of endurance in the end. Just make sure the boss doesn't tear you apart during the long exchange.

That's all I have for you guys to watch out for while entering the dungeon. If you're not prepared for such a challenge then just avoid the dungeon as a whole and go somewhere else. I hope that you all heed my warning and come prepared. Good Luck.]

Joshua let out a deep sigh after he finished writing out everything on the sign board with a heavy marker so that it was clearly visible and wouldn't get eroded away by any type of weather conditions in a quick fashion. He didn't explain everything that happened in the dungeon, but he explained more than enough for people to have a good idea of how things worked and how to judge their capability of completing the dungeon.

"You think you explained enough already?" Adrian said while patting Joshua on the shoulder and taking his attention away from the sign. "If they can't avoid the danger after all those warnings then they just weren't meant to be an explorer in the end."

"Either that or they're just so arrogant that they ignore the warning anyways. Some people you just can't explain things to." Henry said with a frown. Joshua thought he must be thinking about some other groups they had come in contact with before. It would make sense and would explain why Henry, Adrian, and Aito didn't seem so unnerved when they found out somebody was ambushing people in the dungeon or when they found the group ahead had all been killed by the boss. They had been exploring for longer than Joshua so they had probably seen some things at this point.

"Well I just want to give people a chance to know what they're up against. It's kind of like showing people how to clear a level in a game after you've done it yourself already. There's no easy mode in reality so I'd rather they actually know what to do instead of going in blind and getting torn to shreds." Joshua explained.

"What about when it's our first time trying to clear and we're racing other groups?" Henry asked.

"Then I'll let them know after we've cleared it already and have grinded the crap out of the place. I don't mind helping others, but I'm not a charity either." Joshua said with a smile that got the others to chuckle a bit. "Well let's go back and check on James Town before heading back to the hub city for a little break. Lilly needs to decide on a sub-job and pick it so that it could help her out in the end while the rest of us make sure to keep up our training so that we can continue to get full potential out of our levels during our next dungeon run."

"What kind of sub-jobs did you three take? It'd be good to know so that I can have a good idea of what kind of jobs I should be looking into." Amy asked as they opened a portal that lead them back to James Town. They went through the normal shifting feeling of going through the portal before they found themselves standing outside of the walls of James Town. At this point the construction they had going on was finished and all of the districts had been set up with the foundation for all of the major buildings in place. Now all they needed was to get some architects for the last phase of designing the buildings for the town. Henry might be able to set up the town structure and design, but he wasn't very good at putting together individual buildings.

"Well for me I decided to go with strategist as my first sub-job." Henry said plainly to get the conversation started and pull everyone out of their thoughts after looking over the town. "It works well with my combat job and can go a long ways when it comes to preparing for dungeons or territory battles in the future. Of course I plan to get another support job as soon as possible, but for now one will have to do."

Adrian rolled his eyes at Henry's final remark before deciding to explain the sub-job he decided to go for. "I on the other hand decided to go for blacksmith in a similar way to Naomi, but of course not to the same degree since it is her main job in comparison to mine basically being part time when you think about it." Adrian said with a shrug. It made since to Joshua to hear that Adrian went for black smith as a sub-job since he was already aiming to be a sword master. It can only help him in the future if he can understand the intricacies of the blades he uses or maybe even make his own weapon in the future.

Everyone turned to look at Aito see what sub-job he decided to go with, but by the fact that Adrian was grinning while looking at his friend Joshua was certain Aito's choice wouldn't have been something that he was expecting. "I decided to go with cook for my sub-job. The benefits seemed worthwhile." Aito said simply leaving it at that and leaving Joshua and the two girls of the group completely stunned at his choice. Joshua decided to put that conversation on the back burner before turning to look at his little sister once again.

"So, have you got any idea of what kind of sub-job you want to go for?" He asked as they all prepared to take another portal back to the hub city after Lilly had dropped off a few beast she had tamed in the stables.

Amy looked at all of them for a moment before giving the most nonchalant answer under the circumstances. "Nope."