Chapter 102 - Caves of Lukriag

As soon as he reached the city teleportation point, he made his way to the Adventurers Association. He had already contacted Rudra to get him the money to buy a new place in the city where they could sell their goods. Rudra was collecting the money from the Blackrock Town shop and they managed gather close to 800 gold which was currently more than enough to buy a shop in the market street.

Shadow got into the adventurer association to report about the fort. He knew that it would be an extremely difficult task for the guild to monitor the fort continuously and though they were the first to reach the city, super guilds like Foedus Rex would have a large amount of manpower and once, a good number of their members reached the city, it would become harder to hold on to the fort and also a lot of effort and resources would be wasted into it.

So, he wanted to make use of the situation to capture the fort on behalf of the Adventurers Association. Any such constructions which would help the adventurers and provide a sanctuary outside the cities, could be claimed by the Adventurer Association.

Once, at the Adventurers Association, he waited till Rudra reached the place and they immediately went to the receptionist. "I have something to inform to the adventurers association," said Shadow to the receptionist.

"Sir, you can inform anything to me. Based on your information, you will be directed to the responsible authority," said the receptionist looking at him.

"I have information on a fort that is currently being occupied by trolls in the forest to the left of the grassland. It is about a few kilometres away from the gate," said Shadow.

"Hold it. I will direct you to acquisitions," said the receptionist. In a couple of minutes, an NPC came to the receptionist and directed them both to the inside of the complex. They went to the first floor of the complex and into a room which read acquisitions. As they entered it, Shadow noticed that there were 5 NPCs in the room sitting at their workstations shuffling doc.u.ments.

The man directed them to an empty table and gave him a doc.u.ment to fill up the details of the new location. He provided a description of the fort and directions and also a picture of the map. He took the doc.u.ment and went out of the room asking them to stay for a few minutes. After a couple of minutes, he came back into the room.

"This is a small fort and the location is quite near to the city. We have also had information of goblin in that area and we will reward you for your information and this quest would be put up at the reception hall," said the NPC giving them a paper specifying the quest.

"Adventurers Association Reputation +10;"

"Adventurers Association contribution points +20;"

Balthazar had already expected the reward already due to his experience and gave the paper to Rudra directly. The quest was to clear and occupy the fort, but it required 10 gold as the association would send an NPC to check it out. The rewards were contribution points and certain administrative rights to the fort.

"Well, you know what to do now," said Shadow handing over the paper with the quest to Rudra. "Accept it and take the NPC to the fort. You will get certain administrative rights to the fort. Give me the amount and I will get a shop in the meantime," he continued.

"That is a good, but what can be done of the fort. I doubt we would have exclusive rights over the fort now. Why did you do this. I kind of expected something more when you told that you a solution against the others occupying the fort," said Rudra confused.

"This is the best that we can do in this situation. We both already know that Foedus Rex guild are also at the White Heart City. They are a super guild. This would have the city protecting the fort and not much effort from us. They wouldn't go against any NPC organization so early in the game for this," explained Shadow.

He took the gold from Rudra and went out of the room to head towards the city hall to register the shop that he chose previously. It was a shop which had three floors and cost about 500 gold. Once, he was done with it, he immediately contacted Lizzie and provided the administrative privileges to both her and Rudra. He also had the shop name changed to "Crimson Realm Wares and Consumables".

With this done, he went through few shops in the city to by few necessary consumables and then, he contacted Merlin. After they reached the city there were a few dungeons available at level 10-12 range. With his knowledge, it would be an easy work to handle elite mode of the dungeons too.

There were two important dungeons before level 15. One could be done before level 12 and the other after level 12. The dungeon before level 12 was something called the caves of lukriag and were filled with a bunch of goblins and trolls. This was the first goblin dungeon and having experience with goblins in the fort, Rudra and the Crimson Realm had already attempted it previously but failed to complete it only due to the traps in the dungeon.

Shadow accessed the teleportation point of the White Heart City and teleported to the dungeon entrance to meet with Merlin and the other members of the team. The dungeon entrance was in the middle of a forest area covered with trees.

The caves were in a small mountain in the forest. As soon as he teleported, he found himself in a large clearing before the dungeon entrance. The Caves of Lukriag was a 5-man maximum dungeon. When he reached the place, Merlin was waiting with the three new players of the team to greet him.

The others were already attempting the dungeon. This dungeon area was quite sparse when compared to the other dungeon entrances that he had seen in any game. "The low population of the city at this time has this advantage too," thought Balthazar as he realized that he almost missed a large chance at getting first clear. With him being ahead of the rest, a first clear of a dungeon was an easy way to get good equipment for his level and it is best to get it if possible, to also increase his fame in the game.

As soon as Shadow saw the summoner, he messaged Merlin about him. He hadn't come across a summoner player till now and he wished that a summoner player also attempted the test at the shrine if he was someone that could be trusted. So, he inquired Merlin about the details of the new player.

"Yeah, he used to play a necromancer in the War god's tempest and thought that it was the closest thing to it. So, he chose summoner. He is a bit disappointed, but he is a bit of a proud and wouldn't change it to warlock. They are old friends from Magus Shrine who came out along with me. If Mob managed to come to the city a bit earlier, I would have definitely contacted you to stop so that he could also attempt the test. He is good and worked with me for a long time. He was on my side all the time when I was in Magus Shrine," said Merlin.

"The other two, I am not as much in contact with them, but they never gave me a reason not to and are both good friends with Mob," Merlin continued to explain in his message.

"Cool, I am fine with it. It is not that much of an issue. If they were to be attempting the test, I would have had issues but not now. Let us get to the dungeon," he replied on the message.

As he looked at them, he found their equipment somewhat familiar. "Did they also come to the fort and help loot it," asked Shadow as he realized that their equipment was from the fort.

"No, I just got this equipment from Rudra. I promised to tag the guild name, if we manage to get the first clear. It is easy to make such deals with guilds that are on the rise. I had a lot of experience in this area," said Merlin remembering his past.

"So, I am thinking that we attempt the elite mode of the dungeon," said Shadow looking at the four of them. Mob didn't have any reaction to his words apparently didn't consider it much of an issue. The same was with Bitter Beast, but Grenadier was a bit taken aback. "Well, it is to be expected of someone Merlin likes. I guess you like taking risks as much as him," he replied with a small grin.

"You seem to have made quite an impression on your friends here," said Shadow looking at Merlin.

"Anyone who plays with him for some time would have the same impression," said Grenadier looking at him.

"So, all up for the elite mode, right?" asked Merlin confirming as he went towards the dungeon entrance. The dungeon entrance had a small cabin with a portal which would transport them inside. The setting was quite similar to that of the Cave of Wargs dungeon with the only difference being that the surrounding areas was green and part of a forest rather than a rocky area as in case of the other dungeon.

As they reached the cabin, the NPC in the cabin was also selling torches as the NPC at the Cave of Wargs. With the previous experience in mind, Merlin immediately bought a set of ten torches before they paid for teleporting into the dungeon.

This dungeon was quite similar to the goblin camp which Merlin had previously visited with Quiet Fire and others. He immediately lit a torch as soon as he entered the dungeon and passed it to Bitter Beast. As usual, Shadow went ahead of the others to check out the dungeon. In truth, he didn't need to actually scout as he had already known of the layout of the dungeon.

The start of the dungeon was a large cavern, with had six hollows starting from it. These were all smaller than it and had height of 5 feet and width of 3 feet in the smallest hollow and the largest hollow had a height of 6 feet and width of 6 feet. These were filled with goblins which were very smaller and adept at making sudden attacks from dark corners of the cave. Moreover, these goblins were small and had the advantage against other players due to their size in these smaller spaces.

Merlin had already gathered information from Rudra and others who have attempted to go through the dungeon. They have already realized that with the goblins tactics it was best to explore the largest way so that it would be easier to survive through the dungeon.

Balthazar knew that this wasn't the most dangerous path but moderately hard. This path had the highest number of goblins compared to the other paths, but it provided a decent amount of space for the players to maneuver which allowed the players to survive the dungeon. From the perspective of a player who hadn't have much details about the structure of the dungeon but had attempted the dungeon, the widest path was the best option as it allowed them decent room to move around.

Though Shadow knew that it wasn't the best path and that it would be a dead end, he went in the path so as to avoid suspicions. More than three players would find it hard to move in the path beside one another. Shadow made sure that he was not too far ahead and maintained a distance that would put him at the edge of the region that is illuminated by the torch in Bitter Beast's hand. A few meters behind Bitter Beast, the remaining three followed beside one another.

The tunnel had smaller holes on the sides at random spots. Looking at it a person would be liable to think that they might be in a giant anthill made by giant ants. With Shadow at the edge of the light and in stealth, he kept informing via the chat of the various holes near him where a goblin might be able to hide. Bitter Beast, who was a druid held a shield as his secondary weapon and played the role of tank along with healer.

Along with Bitter Beast, there was a spirit wolf that had been summoned by Psychotic Mob. Though it didn't have much defence, it was a summon that was fast with quick attacks and served to handle any sudden attacks to tank as well as make a quick counterattack.

In case, any of the goblins made past these two, the three mage class players all had long distance attacks to support them and with the distance between them, any mobs would also be controlled by the time they manage to reach those three.