88 Passive Grinding
Jay exited the dungeon, stinking like a sewer once more.
“At least I’m not completely covered in filth this time…”
Jay headed back to Losla, smiling as he approached from the South side.
“Huh, there’s no guards this time? I guess they aren’t training today.”
Jay still didn’t know that the guards were there last time because of a monster report – the monster being Jay covered in grime after he first left the marsh.
Since Matheson had been regularly going to the stink-rat marsh, people grew accustomed to the filth-covered humanoids.
Still, after looking harder, Jay noticed one guard – but he was sprinting away, and at quite a fast pace.
“How odd…”
Jay made his way to the snakeraven inn, entering the building, he was greeted by frowns from everyone there.
“…not again.” Devin thought, seeing the filthy Jay walk into his establishment as he was at the bar, serving a drink to another customer.
“15 gold for laundry and the ruby-bath.” he pre-empted Jay’s order, hoping he wouldn’t come closer to the bar as he pointed towards the hallway..
Jay nodded with a smile, pulling out 15 gold and placing it on the counter before heading to the room. He remembered where it was so he didn’t need Tamara to come show him.
Devin poked his head into the kitchen.
“Tamar–”
“I know dad, I can smell him…”
“Mmh” he nodded and went back to the bar.
Devin returned to the bar, “Shit… where did my customers go…” he pursed his lips, leaving to get his mop and bucket after Jay left a small trail of grime.
Jay put his dirty clothes into a basket in the hallway and closed the door to his room, jumping straight into the ruby-bath.
“Ahh~” he smiled with half-closed eyes and fell asleep.
Jay marinated in his own juices for the next thirty minutes until finally he was woken by a knock at the door – his laundry was done.
Tamara simply knocked and left the basket of clean clothes outside the door. It was standard practice, but she really didn’t want to endure more of the smell he brought with him.
Jay sighed “Ah, I better go check on Trenly… then I can leave the business in his hands and focus on getting to level 10” his eyes glowed with anticipation.
An idea suddenly flashed through Jay’s mind.
“I wonder if I can drop the skeletons off at the dungeon and get home before Trenly is ready…”
A cold, calculating smile began appearing on his face. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense – but he would have to leave immediately.
Jay quickly grabbed the clothes basket from the hallway, got dressed and left his room before running out of the snakeraven inn.
“Thanks Devin!” he yelled without looking towards the bar area.
“Mm.” he grumbled back, putting the mop and bucket away.
Jay immediately ran north, crossing the bridge and turning into the forest. He was sprinting through the north forest towards the mist keep dungeon.
“Looks like he made it back.” Jay smiled as he ran past the rock that he left Stephen on.
As he got to the ruins, there were still a few adventurers outside. Each of them had hopeful eyes as Jay dashed into the ruins.
Jay ignored them and ran straight past, entering the dungeon.
“There he goes again…” an adventurer said hopelessly, thinking that he was weak as he watched the level 9 adventurer run past with zero hesitation.
Getting into the dungeon, he was greeted by the dark shadowy landscape once more.
[Shift] His bone ring floated and a thick curtain of blue and white bones floated around him.
“Rise.” he said four times, raising all his undead companions.
Before him stood his four skeletons. For once, Jay’s energy matched theirs as he was moving fast with a single goal in mind – to get them out onto the killing field.
Jay brought out 4 bone hammers, handing one to each of them before giving a single order:
“I want their soulstones piled up here.” he pointed next to him.
Before he dismissed them, a thought crossed through Jay’s mind.
“Hmm… what if I put Blue in charge. Would they behave differently?”
With a shrug, he decided he might as well try it. “Blue’s in charge while I’m gone.”
Each of the skeletons looked at Blue for a moment.
“Weird. Can Blue even give orders?” he wondered.
The skeletons knew exactly what Jay wanted; with no hesitation, they rushed off to ruthlessly carry out their task.
Jay nodded, seeing that everything was in order before willing to leave the dungeon.
A large pillar rose next to Jay with a door in it – the dungeon exit. He quickly entered, finding himself back in the ruined courtyard once more.
“What the…?” an adventurer saw him come out right after he went in “But he just went into the dungeon?” he said to one of his party members.
“Perhaps he forgot something.” the other shrugged.
“Sucks to be him, having to walk all the way back to Losla.” someone else added before taking a drink of water.
Jay left the same way he came – running at full speed.
He ran all the way back to Losla, and it was around late afternoon at this time.
“Trenly won’t mind, It will be fine.” he thought as he ran back home.
He did say he would be back after lunch, so he was quite late. However, Jay took his time because when he checked previously, Trenly still wasn’t back from the market.
[30 Exp][30 Exp]
The experience started rolling in, and Jay had a grin on his face as he ran through Losla.
Many of the people he passed gave him strange looks; he looked like a lunatic as he sprinted through town with a wide grin.
All in all, it only took him about twenty minutes to drop his skeletons off at the dungeon.
“Well the trip was worth it” he smiled to himself as he finally got home, looking forward to waking up to a massive experience point notification tomorrow.
As Jay entered his house, he found Trenly with a glade deer carcass lying on the counter. He had taken off the hide, as well as the hooves and head.
“Hey Trenly, nice work. Looks like you’re ready?”
“Hey. Yeah… Sorry I took a while, but I was looking for a good deal… the price was still a bit higher than expected.”
“Wow, he’s the one apologising for being late?” Jay thought to himself “Well, fine with me.”
“It’s alright mate. Let’s get started butchering.” Jay smiled.