Chapter 082: Dungeon

May 25, 2022 - 3 minutes read - 461 words

I decided it was time to visit the capital of the Newgarden territory.

“Two silver coins! Overnight stay only! If you don’t have the money, get moving!” Gate Guard

This is what I heard when entering the city.

“Far from being lively, there’s nobody here, right?” Soldier

That was the impression we encountered on entering the city. The sun was still high in the sky, so there should have been plenty of people around.

I wasn’t registered as an adventurer, so I had Mirko visit the Adventurer’s Guild. Many commoner soldiers will work in the guild before joining the army. It helps them to pick up weapon and camping skills.

When Mirko got back, he had an astounding report.

The dungeon has overflowed.

So, magic is present in this world. Magic is in everything and anything. Living things, rocks, even the air! When magic builds up in caves, it turns into a comfortable place for monsters. In those places, the monsters breed and multiply, growing steadily. It falls to soldiers and adventurers to exterminate the monsters regularly.

It seems Major General Newgarden had gotten too greedy and failed to put enough money towards eliminating monsters.

It costs money to move soldiers and the Adventurer’s Guild needs reward money to incentivize taking on unprofitable monsters. Keeping the monsters in check is a necessary expense for a territory with a dungeon. As soon as the monster numbers have gotten dangerous, the ruler is paying ten times or more what it would have cost in periodic culls. Notwithstanding the increased peril posed by the monster count, of course.

Apparently Newgarden dispatched his militia and a bunch of adventurers hurriedly, but they seem to have suffered a large number of injuries and deaths. It seems he has refused to report the situation to the Adventurer’s Guild and is hiding it from the Kingdom leadership.

When a merchant travels, they use escort adventurers, so the wider Guild is learning the truth, slowly. He can’t keep this information secret forever. So that’s why he was trying to restrain movement…

“There’s no way they could keep it hidden.” Receptionist

Mirko was able to find a Guild receptionist willing to give us the information. I handed him two silver coins to pay the receptionist for the rest of the information.

It seems the dungeon wasn’t subjugated, it is still full of monsters and the remaining soldiers and adventurers are keeping the monsters from invading the city, but it won’t last.

“I’m going back to the Royal Capital. Mirko, bring the Eighth Army to this city while I report to His Majesty. I’ll be back soon!” Pat

I left Mirko and one soldier while I took the other two from his squad as I left the city in a hurry.