After the two groups escorted Lorenz to Roger’s place, Jack turned to look at Roy, “Hey, I wanted to ask you, why are you taking just us to that dungeon? Wouldn’t it be faster if you brought all three of our groups?”
“Someone needs to keep patrolling,” Roy replied. “We can’t be leaving the people at Roger’s and Jeff’s without protection.”
“Yeah, my bad,” Jack closed his eyes in embarrassment. “Then what’s the plan, you will wait for us and then bring another group?”
Roy shook his head, “No, that will take too long. You guys will probably spend an hour there, we bring Marth’s group in that time.”
“Yeah, that makes sense,” Jack looked up in thought. “By the time you bring Marth, we should be around done. We can then go back to patrolling while you bring in Alfonse.”
Roy nodded, “That’s the idea. That way there won’t be a time when someone is not keeping an eye on the people back in the village.”
Just as they were about to walk away from Roger’s house, Roy remembered a crucial detail.
“Ehm, we have a bit of a problem. The dungeon only allows five people at a time, someone will need to stay here.”
Hearing Roy’s revelation, everyone stood dead in their tracks. An awkward silence filled the group as everyone was looking at each other.
“Damn, you said that yesterday but I completely forgot,” Jack tapped his forehead. He then looked at his group with an apologetic face, “I’m sorry guys. I should have told you that.”
After a couple of seconds of silence, Tyler raised his hand, “It’s okay, I can stay here. I’ll have an easier time with Roy’s group anyways.”
Even though Tyler’s words sounded selfish, no one present felt offended or took it at face value. They knew that Tyler was just trying not to make things even more awkward.
Jack nodded and smiled at the middle-aged man. “Thanks, Tyler. I owe you one.”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s alright.” Tyler shook his head. “Tomorrow we can change things up.”
“Okay, see you later then.” With those words from Jack, the group made their way toward the forest. After a couple of minutes of silence, they started opening up more and more. They talked about what happened in their day and their exploits. As they walked through the forest, Jaimie took the job of recounting with great enthusiasm all the adventures that they had gone through in the morning.
“Wow, you guys are lucky,” Hassan looked at the young boy with raised eyebrows. “And those ogres were talking? I honestly don’t know if we should be surprised anymore.”
After hearing Jaimie’s story, Jack looked at Robb with curious eyes, “How strong was that blue ogre you guys fought?”
Robb looked blankly at the ground in thought, “I don’t know exactly, but we’re already getting close to the top of the Sentinel rank. It was so much stronger than us, so I guess the rank that is above Sentinel?”
“That’s Vanguard,” Roy added. “We saw it when we wanted to enter the dungeon. There was a difficulty that mentioned that rank, it’s probably the one after Sentinel.”
“Whoa, it was that strong? How did you guys beat it?” the young boy, Parker, found the opportunity and jumped right into the conversation.
“It was too arrogant,” Robb responded. “It could have just flattened us on the ground, but it wanted to play around with us, make us do what it wants.”
Robb then looked at Jaimie and smiled, “That’s when Jaimie jumped at it from a tree branch. Even though its muscles were strong, its eye wasn’t.”
Jaimie scratched the back of his head with a little “hehe”, while Parker looked at him with impressed eyes.
“Wow, really? Did you use that skill you showed us yesterday to take it off-guard?”
Jaimie smiled at Parker’s question, “Yeah, it didn’t see me at all.”
“Yeah, plus we didn’t beat it, we ran away from it,” Roy added. “From what I understood, it was the weakest in that group of blue ogres. No need to talk about the purple one, that one was beyond understanding.”
The two groups grew silent at the mention of such strong monsters. The idea that these beasts could come and massacre them at any time became more vivid with each second they spent not talking.
“Damn, there were monsters like that this close,” Jack broke the silence. “And here I thought we won’t have to worry about a thing after we kill that Red Bear. Shit just keeps coming out of nowhere.”
Roy took a deep breath, “Well, the good thing is that they didn’t follow us here. They probably won’t bother us for the next few days at least.”
“Why, what makes you think that?” Hawk asked after staying silent for the longest time.
“Well, John was having a full-blown war with their men, but those strong ogres didn’t move at all,” Roy replied. “It would be weird if they came just because we saw them.”
Hassan shrugged his shoulders, “Who knows? We can only hope.”
With the conversation about the blue ogres finished, Roy looked at Jack and asked, “What about you guys? How was your day?”
“It went pretty good,” Jack grinned while the members of his group smiled.
“Yeah, it went more than good,” Hawk added. “We killed ten ogres today. That must be a record amongst our three groups.”
Roy was taken aback by the large number, “Wow, that’s quite a lot. You guys did well.”
“Well, it’s so so,” Jack shrugged his shoulders. “We could have killed more but safety comes first.”
While Jack was happy with his accomplishment, Roy was looking down at the ground, deep in thought. “Damn, these ogres are becoming more common. It’s gonna be a problem to stay in the village if this continues.”
Robb nodded at Roy’s words, “I was thinking the same thing. We need to kill that Red Bear as soon as possible.”
Jack furrowed his eyebrows at the two’s conversation. “Hey, can we go check this Red Bear out tonight after the update? I wanna see just what kind of beast are we talking about.”
“Yeah, I agree with that,” Hassan added. “It feels like we’re just fighting this monster in our head that grows stronger the more strong we become. We need a clear idea on just what level it is so that we don’t overprepare and waste time.”
Roy thought for a second before nodding, “Fair point. We were very weak compared to now when we saw it. There is a chance we overestimated it.”
As they continued talking about all kinds of subjects, the two groups finally reached the Wolf Den dungeon. As Jack tried entering the cave, he hit the invisible wall and fell on his back.
Robb shook his head and gave a hand to Jack, “I told you there was a wall.”
Jack rubbed his red nose before taking Robb’s hand, “Yeah, I forgot about that. It’s not every day that I have to remember about a magical invisible wall.”
Hassan and Hawk looked around with confused eyes at the entrance of the dungeon that looked like the jaws of a wolf. They put their hands on the invisible wall before being taken aback.
“What’s this?” Hawk turned to Roy and asked.
“Are you seeing those words? It explains to you stuff about the dungeon. You guys just choose the easy difficulty and hold your hands together.”
Daven and Parker also followed suit and checked around the entrance of the den. Parker, especially, slid his hands across the invisible wall to see if it covers the whole entry of the cave. It did.
After Jack stood up, Robb handed him his Moonlight Katana. After Jack accepted it, he looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow, “You’re not afraid that I break it or something in there? It’s your precious weapon.”
Robb looked at Jack with a serious expression, “If you break it that means you needed it. It’s fine by me.”
“Aww, what got to you today? You’re so sentimental.”
Robb shook his head at his friend’s antics, “Of course, you would say that.” He then pushed him toward his group that was already holding hands with each other.
Jack grinned and after a glance at Robb and Roy, he held hands with Hassan. After a few seconds, they disappeared.
“So that’s what happens when you enter a dungeon, interesting,” Roy scratched his chin in thought after the initial shock.
Jaimie, who did not completely understand how the dungeon worked, looked with starstruck eyes at the spot from which Jack’s group just disappeared.
“Wow, that is even better than my skill. I can’t even feel them!”
“Yeah, that’s because they’re not here,” Robb replied. “They got sent to wherever the dungeon actually is. This place is like an illusion or something.”
Roy shrugged his shoulders at his friend’s theories, “Anyways, let’s go get Marth’s group. It’s pretty late.”
With the sun close to setting, there was an orange hue in the sky. While they were strong, there was no need to increase the time they spent in the forest at night.
The trio made their way back to the village before reaching Roger’s place. There they found Marth’s group.
“Hey, Marth. It’s time to go to the dungeon.”
Roy’s words were loud and clear, perking up the ears of all his former members.
“What about Jack? Did you talk to him?” Marth walked toward Roy along with his group.
“Yeah, they’re already in the dungeon. They should take another forty minutes,” Roy replied.
“So, are we the second group?” This time it was Clark that asked.
Roy nodded at his words before looking at Old Jeff’s house. “Alfonse’s group should be there. We need to go and tell them to patrol both houses before Jack’s group comes back and takes over.”
“No need to do that,” Marth shook his head. “That’s already part of their routine. They stay around each house for about ten minutes before going to the other one.”
Robb looked at Roy with a smug face. “You neglected your responsibilities so much that you don’t even know that?”
Roy tilted his head and pursed his lips at Robb’s figurative jab. “You, out of all people, shouldn’t be telling me that. You left out your responsibilities even before I did.”
Marth, who was caught between the two quarreling young men, shook his head at the ridiculousness of the situation.
“Should we go to this dungeon now?” Marth said before looking back at his group members. “Everyone has been waiting all day.”
“Yeah, young man,” Gerald added. “You have already sold us on this dungeon opportunity, it better deliver.”
Roy let out a small chuckle, “Oh, it will deliver. As long as you guys are strong enough.”
Hearing Roy’s words, Marth looked at Clark with smiling eyes before focusing back on the young man.
“Don’t worry, we should be more than strong enough. Especially with our new skills.”
