Chapter 42 Downfall III

"Welcome to the Golden Feather and Investment Management, how may I help you today?" She asked with a smile on her face.

Blake placed the five copper pieces on top the desk and slid them closer to the woman. "I'm just here to get a dungeon pass, I don't need anything else"

Currently, Blake was at the Golden Feather and Investment Management, otherwise known as the Golden Feather for short. It was a bank, or more specifically, it was a whole system of banks, scattered across Atinen. Every bank had the same tasks and the same three departments: financial services, capital, and investments. It was a successful and ambitious idea, founded by one of the mysterious beings, the blessed.

Every Golden Feather bank offered its service for a small fee depending on the service and the amount of money worked with. You could just put money into the bank for savings, which it was the most utilized for, since even peasants did it.

You could store an amount of money into the bank and let it work for you, which means that the bank takes your money and do trades with it; your earnings is the profit made out of those trades, excluding the fees.

The last option was to invest into small and big projects around the area the bank is located in and get the return of investment later down the line. Most of the projects were buildings, farms, small settlements, reconstruction, archeology projects, and area developing projects.

Not to mention that, you could exchange the currencies of whatever kingdom, Empire, or Dynasty at the bank of your choice. It was irrelevant which currency you had and which you wanted to get, the bank could exchange it for you. Additionally, the banks sold items like swords, armors, artifacts, and even ingredients for potions.

The old woman grabbed the five copper pieces, taking a quick glance at the boy in front of her before nodding her head. She then reached for a small golden box and pulling out the paper that was in it, it was covered in sigils. After that she stamped it, then slid it to Blake.

"Here you are sir, one dungeon pass~" She said with her smile still standing.

However before Blake could grab the pass, the old woman dropped her hand on top of it, blocking him from getting it. Blake looked up, his face contorted from annoyance. The old woman simply ignored his expression, she pushed up her glasses with her index finger, causing them to glisten slightly, then she spoke.

"We, the Golden Feather and Investment Management, will like to thank you for you purchase… Certainly since you've purchased a dungeon pass you'll need a dungeon a Ascent cure, correct?" The woman said staring directly into the eyes of Blake. Although she asked a question, it sounded more like a statement to Blake.

The most recent change within the Golden Feather was the addition of Ascent cures and dungeon passes. Dungeon passes were self explanatory, they granted people the right to enter dungeons, they wouldn't need a guild's recommendation nor the Enforcers approval.

"No, I'm fine. I already have Ascent cures, it'd be a waste of money to buy more" He retorted.

This was a lie, Blake didn't have any Ascent cures, however, he couldn't afford to buy them since he was tight on coinage. Besides, he was only heading to the first stratum anyway, the only defect he'd be burdened with was light dizziness and nausea, which he could handle decent enough.

The woman looked surprised as if she hadn't expected that, then she lifted her hand allowing for Blake to grab the pass. As soon as she released her hand he grabbed it off the table as quickly as possible; It seemed like this place would be more expensive if he were to stay there longer than a few seconds. When he left the reception, he made sure not to look back or stop walking until he found himself outside again.

The fresh air did wonders to clear his mind, and soon enough, he started walking towards a stable to rent a horse.

His goal like every other day since his departure from the Tremblebane guild was to earn money, enough for him to survive. Life was much different outside of the guild, working was a necessity.

Blake was going to the closest dungeon near by, The Elzic Dungeon, which more southeast of Snowspell Village, it was about a hour's time away. He was going to enter the first stratum, hunt some monsters and collect their hides, pelts, hearts, claws, etc. These materials could be sold back to the Golden Feather.

The only issue was that they'd only buy it for a quarter of the normal price, then profit themselves off of it by selling those materials for at least double the price they purchased it. They had a base limit on things they buy from you, and they normally had the coin and the space to buy it from you, unlike merchants. So if you wanted to sell a lot of your goods at once, the Golden Feather was the best choice.

The snow-packed streets were bustling with people. A man pushing a wagon through the thick snow, then calling a couple more men for help. Another, more younger guy, leading his horse to hitch it onto a temp stable. A group of kids running, bumping into adults in the process from their excitement, then having to apologize.

Blake walked with his head down as he maneuvered through the Village, he had to keep a low profile to not bring any unwanted attention. He chose to avoid going to the stable where he rented and lived to prevent provoking Mr. Hartelle, his landlord.

As he reached the stable, he spotted a young guy who looked to be no older than 25, brushing a black horse.

Blake ducked his head slightly, allowing his long white hair to drop over his face in a attempt to hide conceal his identity.

"Pardon me sir, I'm here to see if I could rent a horse." He stated in a higher pitch voice, one different from his own.

The guy paused brushing the horse and turned around to look at who called for him.

"Sorry, I couldn't hear what you said, could you repeat it?"

"I said do you have any horse available for me to rent?" Blake asked once more.

The man saw how odd Blake looked, however, he didn't mention it, there were tons of weird people in the world, but right now a customer was just a customer.

"Sure, do you have a preference of which horse you want?" The man asked.

"Not really, any horse would do. I just need one to get somewhere and come back"

"Okay well that will be 4 copper please" the man stated holding out his hand.

Blake took out the 4 copper and passed it to the man, who in turn, lead him to a healthy brown horse. Blake gave his thanks, then got on the horse and began following the road heading in the direction of the dungeon he was heading to.

After about 45 mins the path he was following diverged and split, one continuing to head southeast, while the other turned left, heading into a forest. Without hesitation Blake steered his horse left, heading into the forest.

As he rode he'd routinely look around at the trees to make sure nothing was following him or directing any sort of malice toward him. The trees were drenched with snow but he could clearly see the red leaves underneath the white snow.

Finally making it to the checkpoint of the dungeon. He hitched his horse at the temp stable, which was specifically created for dungeon delvers to leave their horses. As he hopped off, he rubbed the horses side easing and calming it.

Moments later he walked to the guards who were guarding the checkpoint, unlike at the cities where the Six Great Guilds are, places such as this where there aren't any other powerhouses to keep watch of a dungeon, Enforcers are stationed there.

He quickly withdrew his dungeon pass and showed it to the guards before they could even say anything. Seeing the pass the guards looked at each other before allowing him to pass.

From here on, he had to walk the rest of the way. Fortunately, the walk was pretty short, he made it to the dungeon entrance within a few minutes. The large rectangular opening in the mountain was extremely similar to the Great Aeternus Labyrinth, which brought back haunting memories.

Blake instinctively shivered thinking about that time he entered the labyrinth with the other two boys. Shaking his head, he snapped himself out of it, he had forget about that. He would be entering the dungeon a lot more than he used to in order to keep money in his pockets.

Blake took a deep breath, then entered the dungeon.

***

[You have defeated level 4 Spectans Lupus Cub]

[You have gained XP]

[Amateur Swordsman has reached level 20]

[Amateur Swordsman has reached the level cap, advancement is available]

'It's not my magic swordsman class but it's good enough' Blake thought.

A wolf cub large enough to be considered a adult wolf on the surface laid lifelessly on the ground, sword cuts were engraved deeply into its body. Blake had been hunting for approximately 2 hours now, he had successfully killed and skinned over 18 different monsters so far. Of course none of those had cores. He had ran into other delvers during his hunting, however, he chose to avoid them.

And finally, one of his classes had reached level 20 and was now ready to be advanced. He looked down at the monster corpse on the ground, and decided to skin this monster first before he advanced his class.

He kneeled on his knees, placing his large backpack onto the ground, and started dissecting the corpse. Once finished, he moved the materials to his backpack.

Unknown to Blake, a monster was blending with its surroundings, basically becoming invisible to everyone else, it had been watching his travels for quite a while now. It's yellow vertical-slitted eyes stalked his every move. As soon as he began stuffing the materials into his bag it rushed out swiftly.

It's large mouth grabbed his leg and hit into it. Blake was caught off guard, he immediately tried reaching for his sword which was place a few feet away from him. Unfortunately, the power of the jaws that bit him was insanely strong, it yanked him and slung him away, hitting against one of the large trees.

*Cough*

*Cough*

With the air being knocked out of his lungs, he coughed uncontrollably and gasped for air. He got up grabbing his leg, waves of pain surged through his body. He felt a burning sensation flowing through his leg, trying to move higher up his leg. Blake immediately ripped his pants open, revealing his white leg. Black veins bulged thick, trying to stretch further and further around his leg — almost like it was trying to strangle his leg. It was venom!

He quickly tied the ripped pants around his leg tightly stopped the blood flow from going anywhere else in his body. He looked up, his heart beating extremely fast, almost missing a beat. However, he couldn't find anything. No creature. No person. Nothing… But there wasn't any need for panic right now. He just needed to get back on his feet first. He just had to reach his sword.

Blake sped off running toward his sword, he could feel some kind of strange presence coming closer to him. That's when his eyes widened—

An invisible force of strength accompanied by a sharp pain digging into his skin, tearing his flesh assaulted him, sending him flying again.

He suddenly fell flat on his face and heard something hit against the ground beside him with an echoing sound of a loud thump. He snapped his head in that direction only to find a giant cyan colored lizard, it had four legs and a extremely long tail. This monster reminded him of a monster he was terrified of, a monster that almost took his life. His mind blanked, and his PTSD from his past experience rushed up.

Blake was scared. Extremely scared. He was going to die. The ripped pants he tied tightly around his legs had loosened, and pain billowed in his body.

Suddenly the lizard hissed and rushed toward him with its mouth open. Blake ran his fingers across the grass reaching for his sword which was now closer then before. Luckily, he reached it, then he turned it toward the lizard and it stabbed into its torso.

This caused the monster to hiss in pain. It large mouth that hung over Blake dripped with saliva onto Blake. He then twisted the blade, making it hiss even more.

It pushed itself off of the blade and retreated, leaving a trail of blood behind it. Blake, however, continued to hold the sword in the same position, before dropping his arms on the ground on his sides. He panted heavily and sweat ran down his body.

"Ha….ha…haha!" He let out laugh in between the his gasps for air.

He was happy, he won. Although the monster didn't die, he still made it flee, and he was still alive. However, he still couldn't shake how similar in appearance the monster looked to 'that' lizard.

Sweat began to build up, to the point where he was drenched in it, and soon his heavy breaths was fading. Blake couldn't feel his legs anymore. He didn't even peak at his HP because he was scared of what he would see. Tears began to fill his eyes. He could feel it, he was dying. The venom had come back to reap his life.

"I don't want to…." He muttered.

It had become extremely hard to breathe, like someone was strangling him.

"I don't… want to die…" Forcing out these last words, he breathed his last breath.

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.

.

.

Seconds flew by, then minutes, until finally a hour had passed. Suddenly the body of Blake fidgeted. Then the finger jumped slightly. A couple more seconds went by and the body jumped off of the ground!

Blake opened his eyes with vigor and he put his hand on his chest, feeling it up and down as if looking for something.

"Am I not dead?" He mumbled

He glanced around at his surroundings. A confused expression appeared on his face.

"Where am I? I was just crossing the street wasn't I? What the hell is going on— Argh!!

A huge migraine suddenly began hurting his mind, and all sorts of memories surged. Blake held his head tightly, trying to process the excessive information until finally it stopped. He blinked blankly, reflexively he followed the steps the memories showed him, pulling up his status. Suddenly, something caught his eye. A new area highlighting titles was created right in front of him. It read:

[Title(s): Blessed of Oz%#*]

He had become a blessed.