After around ten minutes of waiting, a light flashed in front of the entrance of the Wolf Den. Jack and his group appeared simultaneously in front of Roy’s.

“Damn, that was good!” Parker jumped with excitement. “Monsters that can throw spells are so cool.”

Hassan shook his head, “You say that because you didn’t get hit.” He then showed the side of his forearm that was burned and wounded. “That thing stings.”

Robb walked towards Jack while looking at Hassan’s arm, “How was it? Did he get hit?”

Jack nodded, “Yeah, he got scratched by that lightning attack. If it hit him fully, that would have been bad.”

While Hassasn’s injury looked bad, it wasn’t fatal or too crippling for an awakened. After a few hours, it should be healed.

Robb looked back at Jack before gesturing with a smile to the shield that the latter held. “Is that the reward you got?”

“Yeah,” Jack raised the shield with a proud expression. It was fairly large, with dark and white patterns that drew a moon’s crescent.

“Its name is Crescent Shield, very imaginative,” Jack smirked. “Its rank is Sentinel like your sword. So it should be pretty good.”

Looking at Jack’s shield, Roy couldn’t help but ask, “You’re gonna use it?”

“No, it’s not my style,” Jack shook his head. He then looked at his teammates and asked, “Hassan, you want it?”

The knight shrugged his shoulders, “I can use it, but it’s not going to be good on me. I’m normally a spearman.”

Jack then looked at Hawk, “What about you?”

“Even less,” the knight responded. “I did train to use a shield like everyone else, but I’m normally an archer.”

Jack raised an eyebrow, “Damn, you were born for that job.”

“You’re not the first one to make that joke,” Hawk let out a dry laugh.

Jack then looked at Daven and Parker, “Do you guys want it?”

“If the knights didn’t want it, how can we take it?” Daven responded while Parker just shook his head.

Jack then looked at Roy with a wry smile, “Guess we got unlucky.”

“No, it’s alright honestly,” Roy shook his head. “You can just exchange it with Marth or Alfonse’s group if they got something you want. I’m sure Fred would love that since it would work well with his new skill.”

“Fred got a new skill?” Jack raised an eyebrow.

Roy nodded and explained, “Yeah, it’s some barrier thing. It blocks almost all attacks.”

“That’s a… very useful skill,” Hassan looked at Roy with surprise.

“Yeah, it is,” Roy then looked at Jack before smiling. “Well, congratulation on your first dungeon. We now know that we can get stuff other than swords from here. This should be very useful against the Red Bear.”

Hassan looked at the sword Jack was wielding, “Yeah, if we can all get a sword or a shield like that, the Red Bear would be nothing.”

Jack smiled and looked at Robb’s katana, “Yeah, this thing is very good. You didn’t lie about it.”

Jack took out the Moonlight Katana and gave it to Robb, “There you go. Don’t worry, I didn’t break it.”

Robb smiled and put the sheathed katana in between the layers of a torn shirt he had tightly wrapped around his hips. Coupling this setup with his oversized jacket gave him a true devilishly homeless look.

“Well then, let’s go back and bring Alfonse’s group here. They’ve been waiting all day.”

Jack nodded, “Yeah, Tyler is waiting for his turn too.”

The two groups swiftly made their way out of the forest. Even though they did encounter big lynxes and foxes, they were able to swiftly deal with them with their combined strength. Once they got back to the village, they brought Tyler from Roger’s house before joining up with Alfonse’s group at Jeff’s place.

“Well then, good luck.”

With those words from Jack, Roy and Alfonse’s groups marched back toward the dungeon. As they walked through the forest, Alfonse looked at Roy with a puzzled expression.

“By the way, we have two people that can’t join. We already talked it among ourselves, Brian and Thomas are going to join you guys.”

“Okay, sure. What’s the problem?” Roy raised an eyebrow.

“I mean, count wise it doesn’t make sense,” Alfonse responded. “Your group will be you, Robb, Jaimie, Tyler, Thomas, and Brian. That’s… six people.”

Roy looked blankly at Alfonse for a second before clicking his tongue. “Damn, count problems again.”

Roy bit his fingers before Robb voiced out a suggestion, “How about we do it this way? I go with Tyler, Thomas, and Brian, and you and Jaimie go on a group of your own. You can handle it, right?”

Roy thought for a second before nodding, “Yeah, probably. I saved up most of my mana so I can handle the boss pretty well.” He then looked at Jaimie and scratched his head playfully, “Plus this kid here is a great help. Those wolves won’t know what hit them.”

“Hehehe, that’s gonna be fun.”

As they walked further into the darkness of the forest, Roy used his fireball skill to illuminate the area around them. After around ten minutes, they reached the Wolf Den.

“See you in an hour,” Fred gestured at Roy with his head before holding hands with the rest of his group. With a flash of white light, they were all teleported into the dungeon.

“Wow, they really disappeared,” Tyler raised his eyebrows in surprise. “If this was before the apocalypse, I would have screamed sorcery.”

“Truly,” Brian affirmed. “The world has flipped on its head.”

“Yeah, nothing makes sense anymore.” Robb walked in front of his group and turned to face them. “Anyways, do you guys know what we will be fighting more or less?”

Brian nodded, “Wolves. Alfonse told us that there would be a huge wolf at the end that shoots lightning.”

“Yeah, don’t worry too much about that one,” Robb scratched his head. “As long as you focus on dodging and keep moving, I will be able to deal with it with no problems.”

“What about the other wolves? Are they weak?” Thomas asked.

Robb tilted his head left and right, “Most of them are, there are some big ones though. They’re like the leader of a pack of five, and they’re very fast. You should be able to deal with them if you don’t lose track of them.”

All three nodded at Robb’s words. Seeing their response, the young man said, “Well, no need to speak too much. You guys are used to fighting now. Let’s go.”

After the new group of four held hands, Robb gestured to Roy and Jaimie with a two-finger salute, “See you guys later.”

“See you in a bit,” Roy returned the gesture.

After Robb’s group disappeared into the dungeon, Roy looked at Jaimie, “So, should we go?”

“Yeah, I’ve been waiting,” the young boy smiled.

With those words, Roy and Jaimie held hands and walked toward the entrance of the cave. Once again, he was welcomed with the same wall of text, but this time, he was not confused. He chose the easy difficulty and entered through the transparent film that blocked the cave before.

“Oh, that felt weird,” Jaimie touched all over his body after entering the dungeon. “It was like a bubble.”

“Yeah, it does feel weird, right?” Roy let out a soft snort. He then looked at the long cave in front of them. “Let’s go, those wolves are waiting for us.”

Jaimie nodded before looking at the dark cave with an excited and resolute expression. As they walked further into the dungeon and darkness took over, Roy used a minimal amount of mana to light a small fireball on top of his palm.

After a few minutes of walking, they found the two wolves that they have been expecting. Hmm, does it not change? Thoughts ran inside Roy’s mind, but he pushed them to the back. The wolves were baring their fangs and about to attack at any moment.

Before the beasts could pounce, Roy inserted more mana into the fireball on top of his hand before launching it toward them with a slight arc. Seeing the spell flying toward them, a look of terror escaped from the beasts’ eyes, but it was too late. The fireball burst into a small explosion that engulfed the wolves.

Dust and debris covered the air making Roy and Jaimie close their eyes. Once things settled down, they found the two wolves’ charred remains thrown in every which direction.

Roy walked toward the nexus of the explosion and dusted off the layer of ash and dust from the ground.

“Huh, no cracks, no damage.”

Roy looked around the cave to see if his spell had any lasting effect on the environment. It did not.

Damn, the more I look into this dungeon thing the less sense it makes.