17 First dungeon

"All of you have the quest Clear the Caves?", Van Bergen asked the group and everyone confirmed it except the girl who just mad a small nod. It seemed like he was used to this and he continued, "This won't be a normal run, since I will be pulling you, so just follow behind me and make sure not to lag behind to far."

After that he walked into the entrance with the group trailing behind. While walking he explained some things to Ivan.

"This is a low ranked dungeon, so it only has one floor, generally a dungeon has an amount of floors which correspond with the rank it has. At the end of each floor there is a mini boss, which will open the gateway to the next floor, while the last floor has the end boss, which has to be killed to gain the rewards for the dungeon. Bosses have generally much better drops than normal monster as well."

While walking he casually waved his hands and some rats, and bats which had come to close fell down to the floor with their body split in half.

"If you finished the first run do the others give some rewards too?"

"Yes, but the first clear reward is always better. If you are the first to ever clear the dungeon the reward is even better."

"How come there is nobody else here?"

"That's because dungeons exists in a separate space which will be there for only one group. For other groups there exist other copies of the dungeon."

"Does anyone knows why it is like that?"

"Not for sure, but it has been speculated that dungeons are living beings which gain their energy from the creatures inside. So if some creature moves around in a dungeon, casts skills and fights they emit energy and this energy the dungeon can absorb. Of course the most energy should be gained if something dies inside the dungeon."

"Then shouldn't dungeons be really dangerous?"

"They are, but at the same time the dungeon can't be to dangerous or nobody would enter it. And besides they should have different strength which manifests in their level."

"Then wouldn't it be useful to make a level cap? Since truly strong people won't die in a dungeon."

"First of all, people would usually not enter much weaker dungeons, since it is just not profitable, and second even the strong people will emit a lot of energy, since their attacks have much more power, even if they limit their strength. If you want to know more about it there are a few good books about dungeons."

After walking and talking they had now entered a larger cave in the center of which there sat a large bat on a stone.

<< Leuren the Vampire Lvl. 30 >>

* So this is the boss, it doesn't look as special as I expected.*, Ivan thought when he saw the bat, which was just slightly larger than the ones they had met on the way here. Even his color was the same.

"Lord Van Bergen, could we please try to fight this boss?", one of the guys which had followed along silently asked.

"You three want to go?"

The three of them nodded and Van Bergen gave his consent but reminded them, "Be careful, even through I am here there, since I won't intervene until really necessary."

One of the guys pulled out his sword from the scabbard on his hip. It was a thin silver blade with a simple grip and pommel. Along the blade there was a faint pattern, which reminded one of a vine wrapping around the blade. It looked quite beautiful in the soft light and emitted a faint aura of sharpness.

"A good sword", Van Bergen praised it after taking a closer look, "I didn't expect that guy to give you his old blade."

The other guy used a spear, which in comparison was much plainer as it was a simple wooden shaft with an iron tip without any patterns.

The staff the girl pulled out stood in stark contrast to the two rather simple weapons. Not only had it a crystal on top which was at least the size of a fist, it even had golden pattern running along the wooden staff. The wood to wasn't simple since it had a inner glow which beautifully accented the red color of the wood itself.

"Wow", the others couldn't stop themself from uttering a cry of admiration. Only Van Bergen stayed calm since he surely had seen something like this before.

* This girl really has to be rich. *, Ivan thought as he tried to guess how much the staff was worth.

His mentor took the opportunity to teach him a bit more, "This staff isn't man made, but a drop from a boss monster in one of the lower ranked dungeons. It is quite rare and has a great amplification effect. Generally you should always try for monster drops, since they are always better than man made items of the same rank and level. Sadly they drops so seldom that we often have no choice but to use man made items."

He then pulled out a simple unadorned staff out and gave it to Ivan.

"Here you go. You try fighting the boss too, it will be a good experience for you but make sure not to obstruct the others."

Ivan took a look at the staff and was quite surprised that a staff looking so simple could be as good as this.

<< Item: Staff: Staff of Smit (D) , Durability: 5/10 , Effect: +20% damage while using staff attacks >>

His mentor saw his surprise and laughed, "Remember, even if things look simple they aren't necessary weak or useless. Quite the opposite, some of the gaudiest things are in truth absolutely useless. So always check an item out before discarding it."

"Ok, now that everyone is ready get going. And remember safety first."