Chapter 73 - Dungeon Run (1)

As soon as they arrived at the elven settlement, Imra came to speak with Arthur and the others. After everything he had done, rallying players to fight for the elves, she saw him differently now.

Not just him, either. Every player received high reputation across all elven settlements and cities scattered throughout the kingdoms.

"Thank you so much for what you did," Imra said to him, dipping her head slightly, which was rare for a ruler to do. "If it weren’t for you, we might not be here anymore."

"It was nothing," Arthur said. "You can count on us whenever you need help."

He took the moment to ask her something else, something that had been on his mind.

"About what we discussed before, has anyone found the dungeon yet?" he asked.

Some players hadn’t teleported back to the city with Ray. They decided to stay and grind, killing monsters in the forest and exploring the area.

That was why Arthur figured one of them might have already found the dungeon. And he was right.

"Yes, a group of players should be there now... Our elves blocked the entrance, but those players are very angry."

Easy to imagine. The moment they found the dungeon, the players knew exactly what it was, and they were desperate to get in and be the first ones inside.

With the elves blocking them, Arthur totally understood the frustration. Imagine staring at a dungeon entrance and not being able to walk through? Their egos had definitely taken a hit.

"I’ll go check it out," Arthur said. This time it was him who dipped his head. "Thank you. I hope we can keep our agreement."

Tower and the others wondered what kind of agreement he had made with the elven leader, but none of them asked.

They left the elven settlement, following a stone path that led toward the part of the forest closest to the Rashk Kingdom. The settlement sat right in the middle of the forest, which was already fairly close to Rashk, though they were still inside the Aldora Kingdom.

On that stone path, naturally, his friends had to ask.

"What was she talking about? What agreement?" Suzy asked.

Point Blank already knew. She was always by Arthur’s side, so she was the one who answered.

"She’s going to block the dungeon for all other players for 14 days. Only Cinder, or whoever he brings, will be allowed in."

Tower and Suzy were stunned. They hadn’t imagined Arthur could pull off a deal like that with a high-ranking NPC like Imra.

Shadow Cloak was clearly just as shocked, but unlike the other two, she tried to keep it to herself.

"And that’s exactly why I called you all here so early," Arthur said. "We need to use these 14 days to run the dungeon as many times as possible and grab as many resources as we can, not to mention the insane EXP we’ll get from killing the monsters inside."

They couldn’t hide how excited they were. At the same time they were nervous, having no idea what this dungeon would be like, they were desperate to get in there and explore it. There was something magical about being the first.

After about 30 minutes of walking, they reached the dungeon entrance. It was a stone structure, like a dungeon entrance that descended underground.

It was completely covered in vines, as if it had been there for a very long time with nobody bothering to maintain it.

Out front, there weren’t just 2 elves guarding the location. There were 5. Imra had beefed up security to hold the players back without struggling.

The players were shouting and arguing with the guards, who ignored them completely.

"Why can’t we go in? Who decided that?" one of the players yelled, brow furrowed and fists clenched. "This is a dungeon. We want to enter. You don’t own this place."

Arthur and his friends walked toward that group of players. The players saw them approaching and quickly recognized him.

"Cinder!" the player who had been yelling moments before said. "Great to see you here. But I don’t think you’re going to like the situation..."

The player started explaining how the elves were blocking everyone from getting in, and that Arthur shouldn’t even waste his time trying to convince those elves to let him through.

Arthur considered waiting for the players to leave before entering the dungeon. If he walked in right in front of them, everyone would know the moment those players spread the news across the whole server.

But why hide it? It wasn’t like players who found out could actually do anything to change it. And the best part was, doing it this way put Arthur’s name out there, which was exactly what he wanted.

"Got it..." he said, nodding along. "Thanks for the heads up. But I’m Cinder, right? So relax."

He let out a laugh at the end, leaving the players completely confused. They were already frowning, trying to figure out what the hell he meant by that.

He walked past the players and headed toward the dungeon. The elves, unlike the treatment they’d given everyone else, smiled when they saw him and let him through immediately.

"Welcome, Cinder," one of the elves said. "You may enter. Be careful."

The elf then looked at the others standing near Arthur.

"Are these the friends you’ll be bringing with you?"

Arthur smiled. "Exactly. Let them through too."

The elf cleared the way for Tower, Suzy, Point Blank, and Shadow Cloak. The group of players stood there watching, and nobody could believe what they were seeing.

"What the hell is this?" that same player shouted again. "Why does he get in and not us? I thought our reputation was good too after everything we did."

It was true, their reputation was solid as well. But Arthur was still ahead in that department, and he also had the agreement, which was currently a secret.

"Unfortunately, we can’t explain that," the elf responded to the player for the first time. "For now, only Cinder and his friends are allowed to enter this location."

Arthur moved forward, his friends following behind him. He could still hear the shouts and curses from the players outside, unable to accept what was happening. It was kind of funny.

"They’re going to post this on the forum any minute now," Arthur said. "Hilarious."

They stepped into the dungeon. It was dark inside. The entrance opened up into a large hall, and on the wall was some kind of portal.

That portal was what took players into the dungeon itself.

Arthur stopped in front of it, reading the information that appeared for him and his friends.

The dungeon could be run in 2 ways: groups of 5, which was exactly the formation they had right now, or SOLO and DUO. Groups of 3 or 4 weren’t an option.

Solo and duo runs were generally brutal, practically impossible to clear. Only players with special classes, overpowered items, and serious skill could pull it off.

Sure, some players could just grind up to level 30 and come back to clear the level 20 dungeon. But that didn’t unlock the good rewards. It wasn’t worth it.

The real rewards came from clearing the dungeon solo while staying at or below the dungeon’s level cap. Once you went past level 20, the rewards dropped off, and the special solo completion rewards disappeared entirely.

Arthur wanted to run it solo, but he’d take his group in first.

Tower pointed at a board on the side wall.

"What the hell is that?" he asked.

"That board shows every group, solo player, or duo that’s cleared the dungeon. Well, not all of them. Only the top 10 fastest clears make the list. Not everyone gets that honor."

"But here’s the special part. Even if everyone else clears it faster than us later, our names will always be on that board because we finished it first."

That was the game’s way of rewarding players who went out and explored dungeons. Finding them in the world wasn’t easy, after all. And clearing them wasn’t easy either.

Even strong players would struggle on their first run without knowing the monsters, the layout, or the boss. Most groups needed at least 5 attempts before they could actually clear it.

Arthur was confident things would go differently for him, of course.

"How hard do you think it’ll be?" Tower asked.

"With me here? Easy," Arthur said.

Tower wasn’t thrilled to hear that, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Ready to go in?"

The rest of the group nodded. Arthur led the way, stepping through the portal, and his friends followed.

They were going to be the first group that entered a dungeon, and of course, the system announced it to all the players in the game.

[A group of players have entered the first dungeon. Their nicknames are:]

[Cinder, Tower, Suzy, Point Blank and Shadow Cloak]

Arthur was quite happy about that, as it was once again a way to make him even more famous. That was exactly what he wanted.