Jason frowns, “Wait a second. If they can’t tell the level of other monsters, how do they know when one is about to hit the fourth bottleneck?”

Gregor rolls his eyes, “The same way they will be figuring out that you are at the same level of power. The fourth break might not be as big a jump in power as the third, but there is certainly a ramp up in power there. While a fourth break monster might not be able to rule the area by itself, they could take control with even a moderately sized following of third break monsters.”

Courtney fake coughs, “So what about our side of the trip?”

Gregor shrugs, “You’ll be travelling on a road. Not a main road, mind you, but still a well-travelled road. Now you could follow that road straight to the dungeon town, but you wouldn’t be picking up too many levels. It isn’t like the road has a difficulty set for it. You have a few options such as just diving a bit at the dungeon or exploring around the town, but I don’t advise that. Instead, you and Rosha should take a couple of detours on your way.”

“These alternate routes are less travelled, but most of them are there specifically for people like you. Technically, they aren’t even real roads and instead are just well worn dirt paths. At the end of them you will find various hunting grounds. Though calling it the end is a bit wrong. The way they work is the dirt path diverges from the road, goes through the hunting ground, and then reconnects to the road. So you can take as many or as few as you want and still end up where you were going.”

Courtney nods, “Makes sense. You wouldn’t want a normal road to go through a monsters nest if you can’t help it. But that doesn’t tell us what kind of monsters we would be fighting, and for some reason I don’t think they will be quite what we asked for.”

Gregor laughs, “Well you got me there. About the only kind of monster that would fit everything you want is in the dungeon you’re heading to. For this I erred on the side, less intelligent as compared to more humanoid. After all, if it was goblins they would just follow the dirt path to the road itself. Maybe even put up a few ambushes and traps. Really annoying to deal with, so people just don’t bother with real paths in their regions.”

“I decided you two would be best served with monsters more on the animal side of things and mostly below your levels. Along the way you will have a nice selection of various boars, some territorial deer, and even some carnivorous squirrels if you’re up for it.”

Rosha sighs, “Well, at least they don’t sport an exoskeleton or some other nonsense. That and the neck and head should be lethal enough for all of them, so I have a target.”

Gregor’s lips curl into a cruel yet mischievous smile. “Oh don’t worry! Peter has some training for you during the back half of the week. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding weak points. In fact, you might even get a skill depending on how suitable it is for you.”

Rosha squints her eyes at him, “Well. That sounds pleasant.”

Jason snorts, “It sounds like you will be busy. So Gregor, is there anything else we should know about this trip you’ve planned out for us?”

Gregor shrugs, “Not much else to tell you. Though I do have one last surprise. Here, have a System quest!”

{Journey to the Dungeon “Invasion from the Deep Sky”

Gregor Grey-Tail, the Enchanter and Illusionist, has heard your plea to plan out a path to the 3rd bottleneck. Through his wisdom he has agreed to assist and so has laid out a path for your party. While this path may split you apart, the end goal is to bring you together once again to face the challenges in conquering your first real dungeon. Though for some of you this path will be tougher than most souls can handle.

Difficulty: 2nd Break(3rd Break-)

Goal: Reach the town built up around the dungeon “Invasion from the Deep Sky” after having followed the path laid out for you by Gregor after having reached the 3rd bottleneck

Rewards: Peak 2nd break weapon that will automatically upgrade to entry level 3rd break if the dungeon “Invasion from the Deep Sky” is used to breakthrough the 3rd bottleneck}

Gregor shakes his head, “Been a while since I could do that. While I do meet enough travellers in my line of work, most of them want an enchantment. Sure some of them need to be sent a questing, but overall I just take money. A lot easier and more dependable that way. Never know if they will actually come back. Though at least the System alerts me to when they abandon the quest. I do wish they would come back and tell me to my face. Way too many slink away into the night.”

Jason looks up from the blue screen, “What is up with the weapon upgrading?”

Gregor frowns and takes a look at the screen. “Oh, huh. I haven’t actually personally seen that one. Though I guess it makes sense for you guys to get it. This is basically a quest to break through even if technically it isn’t.”

“Anyway, it isn’t quest specific. Some items can upgrade over time or under certain circumstances. Though I must admit that quests are the largest source of them. The only catch is that upgrading quest items are quite limited. For instance, the reward for this quest can only upgrade once.”

“Oh, and the thing I hadn’t seen was one of them as a quest reward. I have seen a few upgrading items. Important to note is that these growth items are the items that can grow on their own. If someone takes a bow and restrings it with a higher quality string, despite the bow being better, it is not a growth item. If instead the bow absorbed the higher quality string and its current string got better for it, that would be a growth item.”

Akhier

Thank you for reading! Next two chapters are free on my Patreon ( 273 and 274 ), five chapters beyond that for only a dollar, and many more for five dollars (two chapters release a week at this tier).