PenguinKills
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Chapter 145 - Not a Ranger
🕑 Added 2024-09-30 20:00:07 +0000 UTC"God Damnit! It's a tease!" I screamed in frustration at the empty tunnel ahead of us.
Austin and I had just finished the seventh-floor guardian and were making our way down to the eighth when the tunnel abruptly ended. As we neared where it ended, the tunnel took on a rougher and more unkept look which should have made the end less abrupt but my mind didn't want it to be so.
The seventh-floor guardian was a great fight where Austin and I had to go near full power to defeat and it promised a fun time on the eighth but it wasn't to be so. It had teased us with a good fight only to leave us stranded looking for more.
"It still has seven floors, Christopher. What did you expect from a new dungeon?" Austin tried to soothe my frustration but it did little.
I was eager for a good fight but it seemed I would be denied, which was annoying.
"I hereby name this dungeon Tease, for being a jackass and not giving me a good fight." I declared in the barren tunnel.
Naming the dungeon wouldn't actually do anything but it felt good to spite it. Even if it was inanimate without a clue that I was cursing it.
Dungeons didn't have names, not really anyway. Civilizations still gave them names to refer to them better but those were by no means System enforced. It was just people collectively agreeing to call it the same thing for convenience's sake.
We marched all the way back to the surface and my frustration bled out of me as we hiked back. It was hard to stay mad about it while taking a half hour to get back.
Overall, the whole dungeon run took a few hours and we were only a few coins richer along with various bits of material. The dungeon loot was lackluster but we were warned it would be such.
When we got back to camp, I made sure everyone referred to the dungeon as the name I bestowed upon it, if only for my own amusement.
After it was scouted out, and the difficulty level for the floors was known, people started to sign up to go down into it. Where these dungeons differed from games was they weren't instanced or anything like that.
They only had room for a few groups and everyone couldn't rush down into it at once.
A signup sheet was made and people gathered together in groups to go down into it. Each dungeon was a touch different in how long before resets, based on mana level and intake, but this one reset in about an hour.
I didn't know if that was fast or slow, but we were able to send a team every hour or so into the dungeon to get some experience.
Most hadn't passed the E-rank threshold yet and they wouldn't be able to get anywhere near the end of the dungeon which made it a good spot for them to level up, even if I couldn't.
During this time, some of the major adjustments we had put off were starting to take place. Normally, we only had roughly 10 hours of downtime on the wagons to work on them while they weren't moving.
From sunset to sunrise with a few breaks throughout the day. I didn't count the breaks in the 10 hours because those weren't consecutive and it was hard to do anything substantial to them during the short time we stopped.
But now, when we camped in the same spot for multiple days, major repairs and upgrades were happening. Brayden and Vinny both had thought of different ways to improve the wagons and were quickly doing so while they had the time.
There were a few other Builders and Carpenters we picked up along the way who helped out as well. Plus, I took some time to carve a few Runes in them for added measure.
We were traveling through what used to be Indiana right now which was mostly flat with only a few hills, but we would eventually reach rougher terrain. We were still having problems on flat ground and I wanted to beef the carts up a bit before we ran into anything too difficult.
Least Runes of Durability were my main work as I put them at various places along the cart. We ran a few tests and found that it worked best if I engraved every spoke of the wagon wheel separately, as doing so strengthened them the most.
Which meant I had to carve 8 spokes per wheel, on a 4-wheeled cart, in a multiple-cart caravan.
I didn't want to see my carving tool or another spoke for a long time after that.
Still, we made the upgrades and it gave people enough time to have their fill of the dungeon. Each group managed to go in it a few times and most came out with a good chunk of essence.
It was the first time our caravan leveled up as a whole and multitudes of people were sporting new skills they were showing off. Whether they worked on the upgrades and had new Builder skills, or fought in the dungeon and had new combat skills.
Sarah took this time to get acquainted with the group and came out of her shell a bit. She spent most of her time with the other parents or caretakers since she wouldn't let her little brother out of her sight.
I could tell she had the urge to go into the dungeon but didn't want to leave her brother alone with people she didn't know. It was both admirable and sad what she was going through.
Abigail was the person I designated to be her 'handler'. That word sounded wrong but that was essentially what she did. Being a mother herself, it helped her deal with the barely 15-year-old girl and her young brother.
It helped that Sarah's brother, Zach, was the same age as Josh, Abigail's youngest. They got along decent enough and it was nice to see Josh playing with someone his own age.
We had a smattering of different age groups of kids but few had multiple at the same age.
We stayed for 4 days before I felt it was time to present the question. Sarah seemed more relaxed and a lot of the tension she had been carrying was released.
Zach and Josh got along during the day and she internalized she didn't have to do everything alone anymore. She wasn't the sole person who had to feed, watch, protect, and take care of a 6-year-old child.
While it was satisfying to see her transition, I still waited a bit longer than I should have. The importance a Beastmaster held was tremendous and we still had to do a lot of work to raise her up.
Austin pressured me to hurry but I was unswayed. He and Hal had found an abandoned ranch a few hours away that held the promise of horses. The signs were all there but the animals themselves were missing.
It looked like a ranch from before had been there and that meant there were horses somewhere in the area. Unless they all ran away, we were hopeful to find at least a few.
The stable they found had the capacity for a good number of them and we were searching for a decent sized herd of the creatures in the area.
I felt he had ranged far and wide to find something like it that would satisfy my condition. His pressure didn't sway my decision but it was time to pose the question. I couldn't delay it forever.
The first thing I did was bring Abigail with me. Both to have a friendly face along with the person she had grown closest to while among us. I had been too busy to spend much time with her and we remained distant.
I had more than just work to eat up my time. Everyone needed me for something or another which made my time fleeting. I was actively refining what my authority was needed for so I didn't get called for superfluous things but we were still new and starting out, and people still didn't know what to do.
"Sarah, can you come with me?" I asked when I reached her.
Her eyes flicked to Abigail behind me and nodded hesitantly. She seemed fearful of me, like she knew how powerful I truly was.
Most who joined hadn't seen me at full power. Only my family knew what I was capable of and they hadn't witnessed it firsthand. None were there to see me fight the waves but they knew the aftermath.
There wasn't a need to bring that part out and most remained ignorant, but Sarah knew she didn't have the capability to hurt me from experience, which was more than most.
I didn't wish to intimidate everyone so I kept it mostly light-hearted and personable while we traveled but she knew for a fact that there was nothing she could do.
Our trio walked back to my tent and I sat down in a chair set up for the occasion. I faced two other chairs with a small table in between us which was a clear indicator of the conversation we were to have.
Sarah tentatively sat in one while Abigail slid into the other next to her.
"How have you been these last few days? Are you settling in alright?" I tried to ease into the conversation but it didn't seem to work.
Even as she tried to casually answer, her tenseness was clear.
"Fine, everything has been wonderful. Thank you for taking us in." She stuttered through some of it but that was fine.
Seeing how she was going to remain tense no matter how much small talk I tried to use, I jumped into the meat.
"I must admit, I had ulterior motives when I took you in," Her face morphed at my words but I pressed on, "You are the only Ranger pre level 10 that we have found since our return and you hold the capability to be a tremendous asset to us.
"The reason I didn't tell you this before was that I do not wish to force you or pressure you. I wanted you to get comfortable before offering this to you so you knew you could say no and nothing would happen.
"We aren't going to kick you out if you decline so don't worry about that at all, feel free to do so if you don't want to do what I say." I declared.
Watching her face as I spoke, I saw the different emotions she battled through but the biggest one was surprise.
"You need me because I'm a weak Ranger?" She asked curiously.
"Yes, I need you specifically because you are a Ranger who hasn't evolved," I answered.
"But why? I'm weak, probably the weakest here who was a class. Ranger sucks and I could barely kill anything before you came around." She vented about her Class.
I wasn't sure why she felt that way but it did make things easier. If she wasn't tied to her class, maybe she would slide to a different one with less convincing. I knew some wouldn't.
Like me, I loved my warrior class and I didn't think I would switch if given the chance.
"You are weak only because you are low-level. That will change in time. Especially when you get a Profession." That had been a surprise to find out. I didn't know why, but I assumed that everyone already had one even though that wasn't the case.
I should have known based on her low level but it only clicked when she admitted it.
"But that isn't what's important. I need you because I don't want a Ranger. You haven't gone through it yet, but Classes can change dramatically during evolutions and that is the reason I need you.
"We need the class Ranger evolves into and you are our best bet. We aren't sure of the specifics, but it should be easy enough to accomplish." I said.
"You need me to not be a Ranger?" It was hard not to smile at the hope I heard in her voice. Like she just now realized I wasn't asking her to be a Ranger, but something else entirely and hoped it was true.
"Yes, I need you to not be a Ranger," I confirmed.
I could see her thinking about what was said for a second before she nodded enthusiastically, "Okay, I'll do it!"
I chuckled at how fast she was nodding her head, "Slow down there buckaroo, I haven't even told you what the Class is yet!"
"It doesn't matter! Anything is fine as long as it's not Ranger!" She nearly shouted with joy.
"Alright, alright, you can calm down now. I take it that it's a yes." Both Abigail and I smiled at each other, "The Class we need is called Beastmaster. You're level 9 so we only have one more skill to work with but it should work. If you pick up an animal companion skill or a Bond skill it should push you in the right direction. You'll have to put off your evolution for a bit but we can make this work."
Abigail took this chance to jump in, " Maybe talk to Hal. His brother explored those skills extensively and he can help point you in the right direction. I know Kyle was looking to go in this direction."
She brought up a good point. We were hoping getting Sarah's level 10 skills to be something like that would add an evolution option towards Beastmaster but we weren't certain.
The plan was to have her stay at level 10 for a while to get comfortable with the skill and experience with handling the companion/bond she picked. None of this was certain but we felt that gave the best shot at getting what we were looking for.
Sarah just nodded along to everything we said, happy that she didn't have to be a Ranger anymore.
"Well first, let's get you to level 10," I said while getting up.
The first floor of the dungeon was the perfect place to get her last level.
~~AN~~
I felt like the dungeon part was a detour I don't want to make yet. If the change feels abrupt, that is why. I will be editing most of it before it reaches RR but I felt like I should mention that here. It wasn't hitting for me and felt like filler. As compensation to you guys, I'm going to put a few extra chapters out this week, most likely this weekend that hopefully makes up for it.
All of the information in the chapters will stay, I just want to condense it down and simplify so it doesn't take the same amount of space so we can get moving to other things quicker.
Comments
BelligerentGnu
Yep, keeping the dungeon short feels correct.
Demonlord
Thanks for the nice chapter 😊
Thomas Issa
I wonder what profession she will be inclined towards taking If she’s going beast master and wants to diverge from a ranger path I would say to learn enchanting so that she could learn enough magic to become a summoner Learning enchanting would allow her to become Chris’s apprentice Would be really cool if both her an Gabriel became his apprentice enchanters, advancing the craft on earth
Tyler Babcock
One thing that I think would be nice for the group would be for them to add a quick sign stating the rough levels of the dungeon and when they tested it (if dungeons do change in difficulty) when they leave. No one in the group seems to be the kind that want to horde useful information like that, and leaving that for others would be a nice gesture. And as always, thanks for the chapter.
ItWasIDIO!!
Appreciate think you did fine with this even if it is filler
PenguinKills
When I said detour, I didn't mean hitting the dungeons specifically, just the sheer time spent detailing all of them and the amount of words dedicated to it. They will still hit more as they travel so don't worry about that.
Artman
Hitting dungeons as you travel makes since, I imagine groups will start trying to monopolize them or charge fees like the groups did in the other tutorial. Tftc
Thomas Issa
Yay chappie!
