Chapitre 10: The First Dungeon Exploration Party
I had stopped dead in my tracks staring at a large blue oval that grew darker the closer to the center it got until it was almost black in the direct center. The oval seemed to lightly pulse every few seconds and if you looked close enough you could also tell it emitted a faint glow
"What the hell is that thing?!"
"That, my friend, is a dungeon portal, or at least what the one here looks like," Ren replied.
'So that's what the entrance to a dungeon looks like huh?' I thought.
"Has anyone gone in the dungeon yet?"
"Not unless they went in after we left, and we haven't been gone that long. No one really seems like they want to be the first to go in with all the unknowns waiting on the inside, and the couple who are can't get enough people together to feel comfortable going in themselves," Isabell answered.
The dungeon portal had appeared right in the middle of the main street of Wild Wood Village, right in between the local diner and the small mom and pop grocery store. Unsurprisingly, there was a large crowd surrounding the dungeon portal having hushed conversations amongst themselves. There were a couple people who were more animated than the rest, and I could tell they were the ones trying to talk people into exploring the dungeon with them, but for the most part people seemed to be cautiously observing and anxiously hoping nothing came out of the dungeon portal itself.
"How long ago did that thing appear?" I asked.
"About an hour after the Voice of Calamity," Ren said.
"The Voice of Calamity?"
"Oh, right, I forgot you live out in the middle of nowhere and aren't n the loop, or, well, as much as a loop as this small as town can be anyway." Ren replied, "The Voice of Calamity is what us townsfolk have been calling that menacing voice that announced the Awakening when the sky turned red."
"Makes sense, that's a lot better than what it could've been called. What happened, did you guys take a town vote on what to call it or something?"
"No, when the Dungeon Portal first appeared everyone gathered around it like they are now petty quickly, but they were a lot more panicked. It reached a point where it seemed like things were about to devolve into a riot, as hard as it is to believe that a riot could ever break out in this tiny town. Finally, Mick yelled out to get out everyone's attention, but he didn't really know what to say so that's when Jenna stepped in. She told everybody that we were told that things would change by the Voice of Calamity and that things like dungeons would appear and that everyone needed to calm down because turning on each other purely out of fear and panic wouldn't help anything. After that the name 'Voice of Calamity' pretty much stuck. After that Isabell and I decided that we should go get you and Mick and Jenna agreed, I mean you are our ring leader after all," Ren said.
"What about the particles, have you guys given them a name yet?"
"Eh, no those we still just kind of awkwardly refer to as particles or the particles," Isabell replied this time.
"What do you guys think of the name Ethereal? That's what I've been calling them and it works a bit better than particles."
They both looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders, "Beats calling the particles so I'll take it." Ren chuckled
"Where are Mick and Jenna anyway? Are they down in the crowd still and I'm just not seeing them?"
"No, they're waiting at mine and Jenna's apartment, that is if Mick is done getting all of the possible weapons from his and Ren's places."
"Wait, you guys are gathering weapons?"
"You really want to act surprised when a magical demon voice spoke from a blood red sky basically telling us we're under attack and that we have to fight to get stronger, right after Ren and I just got attacked by an Elk, all while your standing there with your bow in hand and your hunting knife on your belt?" Isabell asked half rolling her eyes.
"Well you don't have to be so snarky about, sometimes I forget you guys aren't like the rest of the townspeople" I chuckled lightly, "Let's go meet up with Mick and Jenna and get this show on the road then."
I slung my bow over my shoulders, not really seeing the point in having it out now that I was in town, and we started walking through town together. We made it past the crowded ring of people, getting only a couple of glances thrown our way, most people to busy talking amongst themselves or ogling the Dungeon Portal to notice or care that we were passing by them. It was a short walk to Isabell and Jenna's apartment, though while they call it an apartment it was really more of a duplex. We walked three blocks down the main street and then turned right and walked two more blocks and arrived at the apartment and walked straight inside to see Jenna and Mick waiting for us in the living room with a pile of potential, and some questionable, weapons piled in the middle of the room.
"Well that looks like a prime apocalyptic arsenal you guys have there, think it'll get the job done?"
"Connor!" Mick yelled as he jumped up from his seat on the couch with a toothy grin, "I figured grab everything that might work and we can sort through it and see who's comfortable with what. Besides, we should have some better gear soon right?"
"New gear?" Isabell asked.
"Ya, don't you remember what the Voice of Calamity said? We can get weapons and armor and stuff from dungeons, and we just happened to have one here in town. It'll be great to gear up and get some experience before we go out to find more dungeons and creatures to fight."
"Are you nuts! Forget about going into the dungeon, much less the rest of the world, Ren and I almost died less than a mile outside of town when we left to try and get Connor!"
"Isabell, I'm fine, by the time we made it back to town I was walking on my own. We were caught off guard and didn't think to bring weapons, but we learned. Besides, look at my cuts, besides the worst ones most of them are already mostly healed thanks to one of my abilities I gained after the awakening." Ren tried to calm her down and it worked enough to get her to stop yelling at least.
"I have some stuff to share with you guys about some behavioral changes in animals I've seen since The Awakening, but first I want to know where you stand on all this right now Jenna, you haven't had a chance to say anything after all." I said
"I've been talking about it some with Mick after he got done with his trips to his and Ren's places. I think it's a good idea to go into the dungeon to try and get some better equipment, even if we decide to stay here since the animals here will supposedly be getting stronger and more violent. As far as going out into the world and adventuring around, I'm not sure how I feel about it. On the one hand it's probably a lot riskier, but maybe not. We could also probably get a lot stronger, but maybe not. I think we have time to decide whether or not to leave Wild Wood Village but I think we should go through the dungeon as soon as possible."
"That's a fair assessment," I nodded to Jenna.
I spent the next few minutes filling everyone in on the changes I had seen in the behavior of the wolf, hawk, and elk, which brought a shine to Mick's eyes and a grim resolve to everyone else's. I then suggested that the three of us who had been on the road got cleaned up before we continued started going through the pile of weapons. Ren went first so that he could get the residual blood rinsed off so that his wounds could be properly assessed. Isabell went next, while Jenna took care of Ren's superficial wounds, so that she could tend to any of Ren's wounds that went beyond simple first aid since she was a nurse. After Isabell was done I grabbed a change of clothes out of my bag and left the rest of my gear in the living room. After I got out of the shower and got my change of clothes on, which consisted of a black t-shirt, jeans, and my normal boots, I looked in the mirror and straightened my medium length dark brown hair, took a deep breath. It was weird seeing my own blue eyes staring back at me considering I didn't have a mirror at my cabin.
I walked back out into the living room and Ren had all of his wounds tended to. He only had two that needed stiches, one on the outside of his left arm and one on the inside of his right forearm. Everyone but Isabell had also picked a weapon, Ren had picked a large sledgehammer that required two hands to hold which fit his large 6'3" tall muscular frame well. Mick had somehow found two machetes, both of which he claimed for himself, I wasn't sure how he planned to wield them effectively, but at 5'11" with a lean athletic build he had the best chance out of all of us to do it. Jenna found a half inch thick wooden rod that would act well as a quarterstaff, I wasn't sure how well she would do with a blunt weapon with her smaller frame but the added reach would be good for her with her only being 5'6". Finally, Isabell settled for a slingshot and a bag full of metal balls seemingly not able to find another choice that made her happy that she was able to wield with her petite 5'4" build.
"Well, looks like the start of a formidable dungeon raiding party to me!" I laughed.
Suddenly a line of text appeared in the top right of all our vision simultaneously.
'Would you like to take the System Party Function Tutorial now?'
'Yes.' I thought immediately.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone