Chapter 173: The First Year.

Chapter 173: The First Year.

Happy Birthday!

The atmosphere was perfect.

A clear blue sky without any clouds while my hair was fluttering lightly from a cool breeze. Saori, Tasianna, and Ellaine were sitting before me, smiling brightly as they finished their congratulations, only now beginning to sing the Happy Birthday song translated into Common. To the right sat Grimnir, helmetless, looking relaxed as he drank some of Saoris wine, while on my left were the garms, all four napping peacefully.

The cake was perfect.

It was a simple one us girls made using my transportable oven, only covered with pink fragassa frosting and decorated with a large white 1 made from whipped cream. For the majority of Artorians, the normal day-to-day people I see on the streets, this sugary goodness would probably be impossible to get since yeast by itself was still a luxury and sugar was heavily monopolized by the nobility, despite sugar beets being farmed in this kingdom.

Yeah, everything is great. Feels so normal.

Well, almost.

Thank you very muchOh jeez, the wind is blowing in the blood smell again, urgh. It was normal until you realized I was celebrating my first year of being in Peolynca in a murderous dungeon, willing to send goons of monsters to kill people for their mana.

But it didnt bother me too much.

Saori shrugged, agreeing with me as I giggled at the absurdness of the situation. Well, you reap what you sow. You knew your birthday was coming up and you still chose to help Mister Drunk over there. She pointed at Grimnir.

Yes, it was my birthday. I finally became one year old, and the way I learned this, despite being in a dungeon and unable to count the passing days, is 'cause of my profile. It recorded how many months has passed since I was born and, two nights ago, it informed me my birthday had arrived.

Now, the four of us had decided to delay the celebration our little party here until there was a more opportune moment, like after defeating floor 14s boss. After all, with how frustrating floor ten was, we just wanted to get through this whole place as soon as possible. Floors one to nine were tranquil, since you could see the dungeon was trying to recreate a natural ecosystem.

However, floor ten to 14 really showed the dungeons real intentions. There werent any traps; nevertheless, all the monster ambushes and the treacherous cliffside, which you could fall down from and probably disappear forever in, made this whole place annoying. I bet, if a normal adventurer party had gone through that place, then theyd have found it even worse.

Dungeon Masters, being the assigned master of a dungeon, have the ability to transport themselves to the core without any issues. In addition, monsters created from the dungeon are forced to listen to them while they are inside the dungeons premises. For this reason, dungeon masters were able and encouraged to increase defenses to prevent invaders from arriving at the core, was something the dungeon book explained.

If the first nine floors were intended to be the money-making floors, then it would make sense why the later floors were just hard. The Adventurers Guilds forbad adventurers from stealing a conquered dungeons core while the Origin Gods made destroying ones containing mana a sin. However, I could understand why the owner the duke still wanted to protect their gold mine, their cash cow, their golden goose.

Then again, despite the danger, our party wanted this sort of training. That is why we stayed in Cedaraille in the first place, so yeah, Saori was right. We reaped what we sowed.

Now, come on, come on, birthday lass, open up your treasure chest. Thats the only reason Im even waiting around, Grimnir slammed his tankard of wine on the table, grumbling once again as if he couldnt live without complaining. He then picked up a large wooden chest from underneath the table and threw it on the table, almost hitting the uncut cake.

Hey, my cake! Watch it! I yelled. My heart nearly skipped a beat.

Could you please drink your wine quietly? Saori grumbled to herself.

Mister Grimnir, we worked hard on this cake. I would like to ask you not to ruin My Ladys celebration, Tasianna protested.L1tLagoon witnessed the first publication of this chapter on Ñøv€l--B1n.

Yes, please, Ellaine agreed, looking a bit nervous to talk back to the grumpy dwarf.

Chest. Thats right, treasure chests. The dungeons way to entice adventurers into facing dangers for the pursuit of rewards, despite not knowing what would be inside of them. They were like surprise easter eggs, just a bit more dangerous to get, and in this case, we found the chest after we defeated the felgheist nightlord.

This was the third one we found. Our first only gave us a simple dagger while the second one I accidentally destroyed when I freaked out from the toad that illusionist created to scare me, so I really hope this one will be good. I mean, this was the chest given to us after we defeated a boss type monster. On our way to floor 14, our party has been incredibly unlucky with finding treasure chests, to the point even Grimnir remarked how unusual it was.

I dont want to say my luck was bad, cause it couldnt be. Absolutely not. However, considering we wandered on floor ten for two days without finding a single chest was just baffling to me. Adventurers wouldnt be adventurers without a chest or super loot here and there to keep them motivated.

After Saori cut a slice of cake for everybody in attendance, including the garms, I clapped my hands together and began praying. Saori tilted her head in confusion while Tasianna and Ellaine followed suit, praying to Plesia, Zephira, and Aurena respectively. Grimnir was the only one who was rubbing his hands, looking impatiently at me to open the chest.

I bet Tasianna and Ellaine were thinking I would pray to Aurena, but, unfortunately for them, they couldnt be further from the mark. I wouldnt pray to the Origin Gods for everything like a Peolyncian. No, I prayed to somebody far more powerful than them!

Oh, Gacha Lords and RNGesus, please, hear my prayer! Give me something good, please! Please! I bet Aurena will complain about this later on.

Without any further hesitation, I tore off the lock holding the chest closed and pried it open with my claws. As everybody looked inside, Grimnir nodded with approval at our findings, telling me to take items out since smaller gear could be hidden among the larger ones. After I did, I let Grimnir appraise them.

Hmm, three large pieces of treant bark. Tougher than the barkwraith we met, so I guess this belongs to a C rank. Can be used to make some good armor or a bow, but I recommend using it as an ingredient for alchemy or runecraft. Some eoriant bars. Nice to have, saves you some money for future blacksmith requests, Grimnir then set the material loot aside, his beard went up in a smile as he gazed at a shield and a necklace. Perfect timing. A shield resistant to fire and magma, even has a rune here to create an aura shield to protect you from unbearable heat. Good scales, from flame-spitting slazzanbals. Hmm, this amulet, on the other hand, needs an [Identify] to reveal its true ability.

Got it.

Mana Eyes.

Grove Treants Magic Bark

A large chunk of bark from a [Grove Defender Treant]s trunk, which has retained the quality mana of the giant woodland monster. Dismantled from a C rank monster, this bark is extremely durable, not only providing high defence, but also it increases its holders Health regeneration proportional to the owners Mana

Slazzanbal-scaled Shield of Heat Resistance

A shield created from steel fortified with slazzanbal scales and bones, increasing its fire resistance.

Skill: [Fire Resistance Lv. 8] [Lava Resistance Lv. 1] [Durability Loss Reduction Lv. 2] [Shield Mastery Lv. 3] [Enhanced Vitality Enforcement Lv. 3]

Rune: [Defensive Rune: Heat Barrier]

Necklace of Vampiric Undying

A necklace made from a felgheists bones and claws, with an alchemical stone created using a C rank felgheists heart as a base placed in the middle. An owner can be registered by feeding this necklace some of the owners blood, storing it inside the alchemical stone until it is used. Prevents the owners Health from being lowered below 1 when worn, healing them proportional to the amount of blood stored inside the alchemical stone. Will break once used

Ooooh my.

That is not bad, Ellaine exclaimed once the four of us finished appraising them, explaining it to Grimnir afterwards. If we were to sell this to any noble, we could negotiate for a considerable price.

You could? I tilted my head. Couldnt people just recreate this through alchemy? The description even stated a felgheists heart is needed for the alchemical stone, and we just harvested a C rank one from that felgheist nightlord.

It isnt that easy, sadly, Grimnir chimed in. Sure, it is theoretically possible for us to make one of these necklaces but we arent vampires.

Saori raised a brow as she heard this, asking, What do vampires have to do with this?

No idea, Grimnir shrugged. All I know is that if the item has a vampiric or sanguine modifier, then only a vampire can create it. There are enchantments called Life Steal, even a rune called Passive Rune: Life Steal, based on the Dark spell [Enfeebling Winds]; however, even I have to admit that we runesmiths cant best a vampire in their own forte. Ha, and good luck getting the Vampire Goddess spawns to help you out. Imagine a high elfs pompousness, magnified by the fact they know theyre better than the high elves. You got yourselves the vampires.

So this thing is pretty rare.

What about the dungeon? Considering it just dropped for us, shouldnt the hunters guild get Quests for adventurers to continuously grind floor 14 for this drop? I wondered.

I actually never heard this existed until now, neither from my father or mother, Ellaine answered. Maybe Lord Duke Greenveil knows all the different drops from the dungeon, but considering how treacherous its been these past floors, I do not believe most adventurers would risk their lives for an uncertain treasure chest drop. After all, did the book not state that rewards were random?

It did. The book did state that treasure chest rewards were one of the few functions the dungeon master could not control, which the author presumes the Divine System had made in place to prevent overabundance of certain items. They could create a treasure chest manually or let the dungeon determine where to spawn it,but the former option would cost more mana to use.

I thought that a dungeon master could just control what resources they wanted the dungeon to produce, like making grinding a certain boss drop easier, but I guess that was a pipedream. Nothing is easy and the Divine System tries to keep some semblance of balance, I presume.

With that answered, I asked Grimnir how runes worked, since this was our partys first piece of equipment with a rune. Essentially, pouring mana into the rune like a magic circle was all that was needed. If the gear could conduct mana easily, then pouring mana into it anywhere was all that you needed to do, otherwise, a simple touch on the rune was needed. The shield was made out of steel, so it was fortunate that the rune was placed behind it, making it easy to touch.

Let me show you. Grimnir stood up and picked up his blasthammer, showing us a single rune underneath one of its heads. He touched it, causing it to glow before creating a defensive barrier around him. This is [Defensive Rune: Pavise], the physical counterpart of [Defensive Rune: Auracoil], which protects you from magic. To keep it up, you need to keep pouring mana into it.

Isnt it similar to magic? How are dwarves able to use it? My question was just harmless curiosity, but it seems like Grimnir didnt like that my common sense was lower than he thought.

Lass, this isnt like your fancy spell casting. Its an adaptation we tazongs made to overcome the fact we cant become mages. Although we cant expel mana away from our body, we can circulate it around us or through a conduit, like an eoriant weapon, making it possible for us to use skills like [Mana Strike]. We can also charge mana batteries with the same concept. And with this concept, we made runes, which are essentially mana batteries that cast spell-like effects.

After he finished his explanation, Grimnir told us we could keep the rewards of the chest. When I insisted he should take something, he shook his head and told us his only goal was the magma rock we promised to help him get. I guess Saori influenced me a bit since I happily accepted them and gave the two pieces of equipment to Ellaine.

Oh, there is no ne-

It was a dungeon break.

A note from AbyssRaven

Happy Birthday, Hestia! Did anybody forget it?

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About the author

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Wednesday, June 16, 2021 1:15:26 AM Germany [Member of Zard Skwad]

Bio: Hey there, AbyssRaven here. I'm just an avid Light Novel and Fantasy story reader who randomly thought of a story and began writing about it.

I eventually found out that I've been spending a bit too much time with building, planning, and researching for the story, that I've decided to just share it with others.

Writing is mostly a hobby for me, but I would still love any kind of criticism to improve on it.

I'm also german, so please excuse anything that sounds a bit weird...I wouldn't mind you pointing it out though.

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