Gregor laughs, “I’m glad you have a good head on your shoulders. Way too many travellers seem to think that the trip to 25 is still the early levels. Even with the whole not dying thing you have going on a decent number of you guys can’t manage to beat a true dungeon. Level 25 is a watershed moment for dungeon bosses.”

Jason nods, “So, I’m sure at least Courtney knows what you mean. I however am a bit in the dark.”

Gregor shrugs, “To end up as a true dungeon boss, a monster has to have some form of protection against lower leveled foes. The same is true for level 100, but you’ve already gotten that nonsense out of the way. I bet you end up having an easier time fighting level 100 dungeons when you get around to it, then you do level 25 dungeon bosses.”

“Anyway, the protection they have could be just about anything. There is an iron hog in one of the nearby dungeons which can just stand there and let creatures beat on it without being damaged in the least bit. Another nearby monster is a bird that unlike the hog would probably go down in a few hits. The problem, of course, is hitting it. The dang bird can even dodge AoE spells if the caster isn’t skilled enough.”

“So yeah, not only do we need to figure out where you guys want to go. We should also probably look into what kind of dungeon you want to conquer. We can already rule out a few types. Not that there are many undead or slime dungeons around to worry about. Plus most of them would fall under your restriction on sewer style dungeons. Any other things you want to restrict now that you three have a better idea of what a true dungeon represents?”

Rosha shrugs again. She doesn’t exactly have many requirements. Courtney on the other hand nods as she has more to add, but she seems to need a moment to think about it.

Jason seeing no one else has anything to say right away rolls his eyes. “I want to avoid dungeons that are based around the more intelligent monsters. Fighting a goblin warboss when it was alone was easy enough, but I wouldn’t want to try that in a dungeon where they would work together. With this in mind, maybe something with a solo predator as the boss? So not a wolf, but maybe one of the big cats.”

Rosha shakes her head, “Not a cat. All the solo hunters are big on ambush tactics and I want to get a drop on them and not the other way around. My ability to attack from the shadows has not really come up, and a dungeon seems like a good place to start. The restricted space would allow me to hide without worrying about something coming up behind me and spoiling the shot.”

They both turn to Courtney who sighs, “Well first of all, don’t trust that nothing would sneak up behind you. Not only because once out of the dungeon it wouldn’t be true and it would be bad to get in the habit. But also because even with an older dungeon that has stabilized you can still run across new tricks. It would be just our luck for you to try it and suddenly a secret passage opens up behind you, disgorging monsters right into your lap.”

“As for my own restrictions? Most of the important ones have been covered for us. Though I guess I should come right out and say it, don’t face us against any enemies that straight up counter us. You should have a better idea in that regard than us. Until Peter told us, I wouldn’t have realized why swarms are so resistant to illusions. Of course I knew they were, just not why. I guess what I want to say is please guide us on this. We would appreciate it if you would advise us on what dungeon you think would be best for us to dive.”

Gregor smiles, “Congratulations on asking that. Most people who look for advice forget to actually ask for it. Instead going off on what they want to know. Since I work with the government here, I’ve had my fair share of that kind of thing. So many people ask stupid questions like what is the most powerful spell they can learn when the right question is what would be the best spell to learn. Anyway, I think this dungeon would be a good goal.”

And he pulls his finger across the map from the city, away from the forest at an angle. As Gregor’s finger reaches the edge of the map, the map starts to scroll. After a bit of time the map reaches wherever he wants it to and he pokes the display, stopping it. With that, the map zooms out to display the entire path from start to stop.

Gregor nods, “A bit of a distance but you wanted months of travel, anyway. For this first part,” and he points at a section towards the start of the journey, “Jason will actually be taking the shorter route. Mostly because this is still within the kingdom’s borders and since the two of you don’t want to face swarms, you will be skirting along it. He of course can just head straight on though, be good training for him.”

“After that though, you two will basically be following the route my finger traced, heading straight towards the dungeon. Jason on the other hand will be veering off in this direction into this area of rolling hills and small forests. Because the terrain is so broken up and random no one monster has quite taken over like the swarm bears did here. That means that while the high end is lower, the low end is higher. All the monsters have to fight a lot harder, and if any particular monster starts pulling ahead, the others will drag it down. A real cutthroat area. A lot of fun for you, I’m sure.”

Akhier

Thank you for reading! Next two chapters are free on my Patreon ( 271 and 272 ), five chapters beyond that for only a dollar, and many more for five dollars (two chapters release a week at this tier).