Vol. 7 - Chapter 362 - The Tower of Trials Debut!

As a RPG games fan, one shouldn't be unfamiliar with the term 'grind spot', a typical location for the players to, as its names imply, grind for levels.

You know, like the Metal something area from the game where a certain famous hero defeats the demon lord. (T/N - It was actually a censored word 'Me*l', so I am assuming Mc is referring to the metal slimes area from Dragon quest.)

Like other games, <Dungeon Activity> was of course not without its own level farming spot. The name of the said location was <The Tower of Trials>, an allow-for-all Extra Dungeon—from total LV0 newbies to LV90 veterans, there's no restriction in who could enter this Extra Dungeon.

But don't be mistaken though, just because it was allow-for-all doesn't mean it was free-to-enter, one of the reasons why newcomers couldn't take advantage of it in the early game period.

Also, there was only this <Training Hall (Dojo)> which didn't have any restriction on who could enter. I mean, even <Beginner Dungeon> had <LV5> requirement to enter, that's why it was an outlier. Well,having not a single unrestricted grind spot in a RPG game would have been like a treasure hunter without a map. (T/N - Going to use training hall instead of Dojo)

With this, we didn't need to be stuck with the repeated tiresome journey from the beginning so that the new character could become as strong as the main team members.

Naturally, a significant place like this wasn't without its restrictions. In this case, it was an exorbitant amount of QP required. It's not a hyperbole to say players were practically cashing out their QP to Lv.

The setting in <Training Hall> was also significantly different, like a shortcut teleportation circle was available from the get go.

There were a total of 18 shortcut teleportation circles, dividing into multiple ranks of <Rank 1> to <Rank 18>, with the difficulty level of opponents going up with each passing rank—along with the QP amount to pay.

As an example, <Rank 1> opponent ranges from LV0~LV10.

Also, the restriction states that your character's level cannot increase beyond it. (Note that having companions is allowed.)

<Rank 2> ranges from LV10LV20.

<Rank 3> ranges from LV20LV30.

And so on, each being the room for raising the level of respective strength, with the teleportation circle there being to instantly teleport them to their respective rank room. You defeat monsters in those rooms that generously provide experience points, which in turn raises your level.

It goes without saying as well, but both the monsters encountered and the experience points awarded differ depending on the chosen <Rank>.

Following that, the limit for basic job holders was <Rank 8>, with the opponents ranging from LV70~LV75.

From <Rank 9> onwards, the monster level reset again to LV0~LV10, but this time for advanced job holders.

The last of the rank, <Rank 18>, had opponents ranging from LV90~LV100 for advanced job holders. LV100 was the level cap for it.

As for how much they cost, the price is as follow;

<Rank 1> ~ <Rank 4> - 10,000QP.<Rank 5> ~ <Rank 8> - 30,000QP<Rank 9> ~ <Rank 12> - 100,000QP<Rank 13> ~ <Rank 16> - 300,000QP<Rank 17> ~ <Rank 18> - 500,000QP

The only way to describe this price was just... mind blowing.

By the way, this is the price you pay each time you use the teleportation gates to the rooms, so you'll have to pay every time you visit the next or another room. The total cost to visit every room from <Rank1> to <Rank 8> was 160,000QP (160 million Mir). (T/N - 410,000 + 430,000 —if anyone doesn't get it)

What's more, the teleportation circle operated on the unit of party of 5 members, so if I want to raise the level of whole guild members...... Let's just say it would be morbidly expensive.

Developers have really put a one heck of system to prevent leveling so easily, as it's related to game balance.

Last, but not least, one must also need to have the <Mark of Dungeon Conqueror> to use the shortcut teleportation circle.

The mark of the dungeon conqueror was the mysterious proof that suddenly appeared in our hand the moment we cleared a dungeon. In absence of it, you can only use the teleportation circle till Rank 2, LV10~LV20.

But it sounds like we have a lot of crowd going here eh, as expected of Dungeon Week. Most of the guilds were just that loaded, especially in money.

"Thanks, Pamela. Now that everything is ready, let's start our adventure, everyone! I will make sure everyone has leveled to 40 today for sure!"

"Yay!"

"Y-Yay!"

Misato, the outgoing one, raised her hand in excitement after me when I announced we were going to start. Rina, who saw that, followed after her, albeit awkwardly. I was happy to see them enjoying themselves.

On the other, Mert had his arms folded. Uh-huh, how I wish he could be more upfront.

We passed through the dungeon gate and took a step toward the entrance of <The Tower of Trials>. Soon, our destination was visible to our eyes.

Misato raised an astonished yell upon seeing it.

"Woahhh. I didn't expect it to be this huge!"

In front of us stood an enormously massive — in fact, it was so huge there was no word in my vocabulary to describe its sheer size — tower adorned with innumerable tile roofs. Though rather than a tower, its grandiose and shape was more befitted to be called a castle.

There was nothing beside the grass as far as our eyes could scout, with just the tower standing tall in the center.

"It seems to be reaching beyond the clouds. The top is not visible at all."

"There's nothing around at all-desu!"

"So, the dungeon is inside that tower?"

Rina tried to grasp the extent of the tower as she looked overhead, Pamela scurried around the surrounding area while Mert stared at the tower with squinted eyes.

"This is the <Training Hall>. You can see the entrance but there aren't stairs to lead anywhere, everything is done through a teleportation circle. And the said teleportation circle is inside that."

At my explanation, everyone's eyes turned to that one spot my finger pointed at.

The massive gate on the ground floor of the tower was swung open, revealing a view of the interior even from our current location.

Inside, a multitude of teleportation circles were shining in a pink glow.

"We will go through them, though let's go through reception first."

A small structure had been set up on the ground floor of the enormous tower, and a few silhouettes were present there.

They were the ones managing this tower. We just need to pay QP and we would be good to use the corresponding teleportation circle. It was yet another abrakadabra system that I don't know much about.

"A reception inside the tower......?"

"Marvelous!"

Misato and Mert's eyes gleamed as they stared at the tower. I just nodded to their queries and began to walk towards the tower.