Unexpected Healer Book 2 -- Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Waking up the next morning, Thaden opened his eyes and looked up at the stone ceiling above him, before stretching his arms out in a big yawn.  His room didn’t have any windows, but he assumed that the magical lights inside gradually got brighter as the day started.  They were already quite bright, meaning that he had slept in by a few hours, but that didn’t matter too much to him.  He thought that he deserved it after everything he’d gone through.

Well, that, and the fact that he had stayed up fairly late poring over everything that Veronia provided him.

He now had a better idea of how large the world of Tarth really was, and it wasn’t surprising that it was rather large.  He wasn’t an expert on geographical distances, but he didn’t think it was nearly as big as the entire Earth, but he thought that it might be as around the size of the continents of North and South America combined.

There also wasn’t a lot of detailed information of areas more than a few hundred miles away from the region that included the city of Forgestone, as it seemed as though that kind of knowledge was something that needed to be discovered by the Contenders.  What he was able to determine, however, was that there were a total of 35 populated regions, each with approximately a million Contenders in each of them, and each region contained anywhere between two and four major cities and hundreds of towns.  His current region, Region 1, contained 400 different Sectors, which he remembered from the Ranking lists, of which the Town of Ashcleft had been in Sector 11.  It was apparently similar in most of the other regions, with some having a few more or less, and they were marked out on the map he was given, but as far as information of what they contained, there was very little.

In between the regions were areas that were considered uncharted territory, and from what he could understand from the maps, these were likely to contain the strongest monsters and the hardest dungeons.  None of the information he was given explicitly said that, but he was able to read between the lines well enough to deduce that well enough. 

As for the current region, there was a lot of information, which was what it took him so long to dig through the night before – though even that was limited somewhat.  Details about weaker dungeons around most of the towns, including the Vogmite Tunnels and the Mausoleum of Despair near the town of Ashcleft, were present, though he quickly learned that the books he was given only contained information on difficulties that had been completed. 

Going back to the Vogmite Tunnels, there was detailed information about the location of its entrance, the monsters that could be encountered inside the dungeon, the recommended Levels, and even a common loot table (he didn’t see the Epic staff that the Vogmite Queen had dropped, at least) – but only for Minimal difficulty.  It appeared as though no one had completed the Medial difficulty yet, because there was no information about it at all.

But when he looked at the entry for the Mausoleum of Despair, there was information for all three difficulties: Minimal, Medial, and Maximal.  It was seeing that which led him to conclude about the updated information only pertaining to dungeons that had been fully completed – because there wasn’t a single other dungeon that had information on the Medial difficulty.  This theory was only further strengthened when he saw that there were a number of dungeons that only had their names listed, their location, and the recommended Level for the Medial difficulty.  Seeing that all of them started, at minimum, at Level 25 and ranged up to Level 50, made it fairly obvious why there wasn’t any information about them – because no one had been stupid enough to even enter them, let alone complete them yet.

Thaden also learned that his mind had changed to the point where he was able to absorb the information he read and remember it with fairly accurate recall.  He knew that his Mentality made him able to think and react faster, but its memory capabilities were proving to be equally as incredible.  He know had an encyclopedic knowledge of the different dungeons that could be found within Region 1, as well as their locations and recommended Levels; he studied the Minimal difficulty information for everything that had it available, if only because he wanted to see if a higher difficulty might be worthwhile to explore. 

Of course, many of those dungeons that had information about them were close to many of the towns and cities within the Region; those that only had their locations and recommended Level listed were found further away from populated areas, but still within the sectors that made up the region.  There was absolutely no information on anything inside the uncharted territories between the different regions. 

What was most important to him, though, was the knowledge that within range of the city of Forgestone, as in within 10 miles, were a whopping 30 dungeons.  A half-dozen of them were located inside the same mountain where the city was located, though further inside and down below ground level, while the others were relatively accessible within a few-hour walk to the east, west, southeast, and southwest.  As he had previously noticed, no one seemed to be heading south when he arrived, and he now knew the reason – because there wasn’t anything there to interest the Contenders.  There were dungeons near the towns he passed while coming north, of course, but they were just outside the range of being able to reach and then delve through them in a single day if coming from the city.

That left Thaden a lot of options, which was what he was hoping to discover when he came to the city.  This was especially true when he looked at the Bronze and Silver Quests he was also given, though there weren’t as many as he was expecting from such a large city.  Still, it helped him decide on a plan of action going forward.

It basically boiled down to visiting the nearby dungeons and using them to continue his development.  Simple, right?

On paper, it was the most obvious of plans, but there was some strategy involved in it as well.  The main reason was because there weren’t any other undead-type dungeons within at least a week’s travel, and he’d rather not venture that far out if he could help it.  Instead, he had to think about what would be the most beneficial for him to delve through, both in terms of earning PICK, loot, and Rank Progress via Quests that he could complete. 

Of the 30 dungeons near Forgestone, two-thirds of them seemed to be similar to the Vogmite Tunnels when it came to their Level recommendations.  For example:

Goblin Mine Dungeon

Difficulty: Minimal

Recommended Party Size: 5

Recommended Party Levels: 5 – 10

The Goblin Mine Dungeon, located with the mountain itself, was recommended for Levels 5 through 10, which made sense when he looked at the list of monsters and their potential Levels that could be found within.

Monster Catalogue:

Goblin Miner – Levels 5 to 7

Goblin Brawler – Levels 7 to 9

Goblin Taskmaster – Levels 9 to 10

Goblin Prince (Boss) – Level 12

The Goblin monster catalogue was so similar to what he remembered from the Vogmites in the Vogmite Tunnels Dungeon that it was almost uncanny.  When he looked at the other 19 Dungeons with similar recommended Levels, there was some variation with a few of them having higher Boss Levels, but overall they were fairly similar.

What this told Thaden was that they would be virtually useless to him for his development.  The only way it would be worthwhile is if he tackled the Maximal difficulty of these dungeons, but he expected that most of the monsters even at that difficulty wouldn’t give him any PICK.  Based on his experience at the Mausoleum of Despair, it was entirely possible that only any Boss-type monsters might give him any PICK, as most of the others would be a lower Level than his own 45.  He could be wrong, and he figured he would at least attempt one of them to confirm this, but in the end they wouldn’t be very beneficial to him.

Except when it came to Quests. 

There were Bronze Rank Quests to kill the monsters found in the Maximal difficulty version of these dungeons, as well as bonus Completion Requirements to clear it completely.

[Quest Type: DUNGEON MAINTENANCE

Rank Requirement: Bronze

Quest Time Limit: 30 days/Repeatable every 20 days

Quest Difficulty: High-Medial

Minimum Recommended Level: 35

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 5

Quest Description: The Goblins in the Goblin Mine Dungeon are a menace and need to be stopped before they become strong enough to break out!  Delve through the Goblin Mine Dungeon (Maximal) and kill at least 1,000 Goblins to halt their eventual advance into the upper world near Forgestone

Completion Requirements: Kill 1,000 Goblins in the Goblin Mine Dungeon (Maximal)

Quest Rewards: 5 gold, 5,000 PICK, and 10 Rank Progress up to Silver

Bonus Completion Requirements: Completely clear the Goblin Mine Dungeon (Maximal) of all Goblins

Bonus Quest Rewards: All prior rewards in addition to 10 gold, 15,000 PICK, and 30 Rank Progress up to Silver]

The rewards weren’t as great as the SPECIAL Quests he’d completed before, but they did provide quite a bit of gold and PICK.  As far as he understood it, however, this only applied for as long as he would actually obtain PICK from the monsters inside; unlike Resource Collection or Item Retrieval Quests, which could be completed no matter your Level, Dungeon Maintenance and Monster Extermination Quests didn’t provide rewards if you essentially out-Leveled the challenge they represented.  So, while he might be able to complete a few of these, eventually he’d acquire enough PICK to make delving through these “weaker” dungeons essentially a waste of time. 

More than that, the Rank Progress he would receive from them only allowed him to advance to Silver – which he’d already achieved.  If a side plan was to acquire more RP, then these particular Bronze Quests wouldn’t work toward advancing that goal.  And based on the advantages he’d already experienced that came with being a Silver Rank Badge member of the Coalition, that was definitely something he wanted to advance.  Unfortunately, after he acquired his Silver Rank Badge, his RP toward Gold was only 30/540, so he had a long way to go.

As for the remaining 10 dungeons near Forgestone that weren’t lumped into the prior category, 7 of them were similar to the Mausoleum of Despair as far as recommended Levels went, if not slightly more difficult.  One good example was the Bear’s Den Dungeon, which had starting recommended Levels that were higher than the Mausoleum, but not abnormally so.

Bear’s Den Dungeon

Difficulty: Minimal

Recommended Party Size: 5

Recommended Party Levels: 12 – 17

With monsters that ranged from 12 to 20, the latter of which was the Boss, which also told him that there were already some parties of Contenders out there that could kill a monster that high of a Level, he extrapolated that the Maximal difficulty would probably be more appropriate for his own Level.  There were also Bronze Rank Quests for the Medial difficulty version of these dungeons with Low-Medial Quest difficulties, but there were none for Silver Rank and the Maximal difficulty for some reason.  Either he hadn’t been given all the Silver Rank Quests, which was definitely a possibility because there were only 5 in total, or they just didn’t exist at that Rank. 

Given that there weren’t any Quests for the Maximial difficulty of these seven dungeons, and it was unlikely that the Medial difficulty would give him much in the way of developmental progress, that meant he had to turn to the last three dungeons, all of which had Silver Rank Dungeon Maintenance Quests attached to them.  The other two Silver Rank Quests were Monster Extermination Quests that he thought about and discarded after he discovered he'd have to travel nearly a week for each one to hunt down the monsters that the Quests wanted him to kill; they were still a possibility, but he figured he could wait and see if his other plans worked out first or not.

These three dungeons he was contemplating delving through were different from the others, as he didn’t have any information about them other than their recommended Levels, their names, and their location.  The first of them was located deep inside the very mountain Forgestone was located, past all of the other dungeons nearby. 

Magma Dungeon

Difficulty: Minimal

Recommended Party Size: 5

Recommended Party Levels: 40 – 50

The Magma Dungeon was one of the stronger dungeons that hadn’t been cleared yet, as its recommended Levels were in range of his own Level – for the Minimal difficulty.  There was no information on what monsters he would be going up against there, so all he had to go off of was the name: Magma.  He could only assume that would be something related to fire and magma, obviously, but what exactly that meant wasn’t something he was all that clear upon.  He was hoping that the Dungeon Maintenance Quest for it would give him some hints at what might await him there, but it only had a simple clear objective without stating what kinds of monsters he might end up fighting.

The second dungeon he was contemplating was located to the east in a large forest, past all of the weaker dungeons and would take Thaden at least a few hours to run there. 

Forest’s Wrath Dungeon

Difficulty: Minimal

Recommended Party Size: 5

Recommended Party Levels: 45 – 55

With a name like Forest’s Wrath, he had even less information on it than the Magma Dungeon.  Its Level range started right at his own Level, which meant that there was a chance to grow with it for a while at the Minimal difficulty.  The Quest for Forest’s Wrath was similar to the Magma Dungeon, in which clearance of the dungeon was its only objective, so it again didn’t help to clarify what he might expect.

The last of the dungeons was something that he immediately disregarded because it was too dangerous. 

The Stone Burrow Dungeon

Difficulty: Minimal

Recommended Party Size: 5

Recommended Party Levels: 80 – 90

Thaden’s Field spells protected him from up to Level 80 sources, and with his Even Harder Protection Advancement thanks to his Defensive Spellcasting Competency, he could block up to Level 90 sources.  With the recommended Levels for the dungeon at the higher end of that range, it was entirely possible that he would encounter something that could actually hurt him.  With the other dungeon possibilities nearby, he decided that it wasn’t something he wanted to risk, so he therefore crossed it off his list.

With the all the possibilities considered the night before, there was only one thing left to do once he woke up: figure out which dungeon to try first.  Both Silver-Ranked Quests were nearly identical in their rewards, so it was more of coin flip than anything else.

[Quest Type: DUNGEON MAINTENANCE

Rank Requirement: Silver

Quest Time Limit: 45 days

Quest Difficulty: High-Medial

Minimum Recommended Level: 40

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 5

Quest Description: The Magma Dungeon needs to be explored more thoroughly so that a threat assessment can be undergone to determine the danger to Forgestone

Completion Requirements: Completely explore and clear the Magma Dungeon (Minimal)

Quest Rewards: 10 gold, 10,000 PICK, and 15 Rank Progress up to Gold]

[Quest Type: DUNGEON MAINTENANCE

Rank Requirement: Silver

Quest Time Limit: 45 days

Quest Difficulty: High-Medial

Minimum Recommended Level: 45

Minimum Recommended Party Size: 5

Quest Description: The Forest’s Wrath Dungeon needs to be explored more thoroughly so that a threat assessment can made to determine the danger to Forgestone and the surrounding environment

Completion Requirements: Completely explore and clear the Magma Dungeon (Minimal)

Quest Rewards: 10 gold, 10,000 PICK, and 15 Rank Progress up to Gold]

The choice was fairly easy in the end, as he was tired of traveling – at least for a few days.  As a result, he decided to try out the Magma Dungeon since it was inside the mountain he was already at.

Now all he had to do was figure out how to accept his new Quest without calling too much attention to himself…

…and then figure out how exactly to get to the dungeon entrance.