( The Silverpine mine dungeon, Unnamed group of players )
"Watch out! That rat's tail hurts like a whip" shouted a female player as she warned her friend to dodge the rat's tail, but despite her warning, her friend was unable to dodge and was slapped by the rat tail right in her face.
*Skadaadh*
The poor girl was hit hard across her face by the rat tail which left a deep laceration mark across her chin and prompted her to break down into tears instantly.
*Sob*
*Sob*
Her friend rushed to hug and console her, while the rest of the party tried to combat the massive horse sized rat that was living inside a secret tunnel of the mine.
After stabbing it using the beginner common sword and slowly injuring it to death by attacking from all sides, the group finally managed to clear the dungeon.
Apparently, the rat had been scared away by the wolves for the past few months, however, upon their death it returned.
The group of players who were given the quest to clear the dungeon by Leo accidentally discovered a small entrance to its tunnel which was coincidentally the hidden dungeon which Leo did not clear.
It took the players roughly 10 hours of hard work and a very tough boss-fight against the level 7 rat to clear the dungeon upon which they received a special reward.
[ You have received:-
1x Combat Skill Scroll ( Rare )
1x Combat Skill Scroll ( Common )
1x Old Map ( ??? )
5x Gold Coins
120x Silver Coins ]
The party of 20 received a lot of rewards, however, split between so many people it wasn't much.
"We can evenly distribute the money, but we can't distribute the two skill scrolls and the map" One of the party members said as he pointed out the problem with the loot distribution.
"We are supposed to hand over all the loot to the soldier anyways, but I highly suspect that he might only be after the old map" Another adventurer said as an internal strife soon broke out.
Some party members did not wish to hand over the loot while some party members wished to do so.
"This is not a system given quest, we might hand him the loot and get nothing, I say we give him nothing, that soldier has a lot of attitude for his own good anyways.
This map…. Let's use it ourselves and find out what it leads to! If it's so important for that soldier it's bound to be something good" One of the party members suggested, however, his view was immediately opposed.
"This is where you people don't understand MMORPG games…. Fucking noobs" The shortest and nerdiest looking guy in the group said as he flicked his hair and garnered all the attention upon himself.
"I've played all the popular MMORPG games since I was a small kid and this type of situation where you don't get a system quest but rather a verbal test are the missions that are the most important in the game.
These kinds of missions are usually chain quests and bringing the loot to the NPC usually prompts them to give us a linked second quest.
Yes, in the short-term we may have to suffer losses, but in the long term it will pay out to be something legendary!" He said as his simple speech convinced everyone in the room that if they contained their greed for a bit longer they will be able to earn much more.
Although there was still some opposition, the group eventually democratically decided to hand over all the loot in its entirety to the Virex soldier, not even taking out the gold for themselves, fearing that if they did not give him all the rewards maybe the next quest would not be triggered.
*******
( Leo's POV )
Leo was not sure whether he wanted to laugh or cry of laughter at the situation at hand.
He had 0 expectations of the adventurers actually clearing the dungeon and bringing him back the loot as the words that he had spoken to them were said only to look cool and he had no real expectation of his bait actually working.
Yet here they were presenting him with all the loot including the gold they obtained from the dungeon and Leo could barely hold in his laughter.
He was getting ready to move out of Silverpine Village and begin his journey as a true player when suddenly this group of adventurers arrived at his tavern and presented him with the loot.
From their greedy eyes and mannerisms, Leo could see that they were eagerly waiting for some more rewards to be issued for a job well done, however, Leo was not an NPC and did not have any obligations to pay them.
"Sir Soldier, as per your guidance we have completed the mission, we hope that through our measly efforts, we were able to assist a great being such as yourself" The nerdy player said as he kowtowed before Leo making the entire adventurer group behind him feel awkward.
"Yes you lot did a good job…" Leo said as he moved all the presented loot to his inventory before standing up and looking at all the adventurers in their eyes.
Everyone, especially the nerdy leader whose idea it was to present all the loot to Leo looked at him with anticipatory eyes, however, Leo said nothing and presented them with nothing before moving out of the tavern as if they did not even exist.
"Hey- Sir Soldier, please wait….. where is our reward for helping you?" One of them who was against giving the loot to Leo in the first place said as he chased after Leo outside the tavern, however, Leo just looked at him and said "Reward? When did I promise any of that?"
Saying so, he kept walking as at that moment the group of players realized that they had been scammed!
Many of them chased after Leo, demanding that he return their loot, while most others beat the crap out of the nerd whose idea it was to present the loot to Leo.
However, despite their pressure Leo did not crumple and acted like he did not even hear them as he kept walking straight out of town.
Those idiots had provided him with the loot of their own volition….. it wasn't his problem that they were scammed.
Internally he felt extremely giddy, but to not ruin his image he did not laugh till he was well away from Silverpine Village's boundaries and was sure that there were no more players chasing him.
Then and only then did he burst out laughing as he rolled around in the fresh snow and made snow angels.
"HAHAHAHA….. FUCKING IDIOTS" he said as he let out all his excitement by playing in the snow, not able to believe his good-luck in how easily he had scammed people to work for him.
Naturally, while he enjoyed in the snow, the players ranted on global chat about the NPC scam, however, Leo did not give a shit.
They could curse NPC all they wanted, Leo wasn't one anyways.
( Luke's POV )
Unlike Leo, Luke's beginner town was a coastal town which had a very special dungeon in its vicinity.
In Cervantez's previous run, it was this dungeon which gave birth to SkyLion's legend and just like in his past life, even this time around, SkyLion was the first entrant in the Panjim Town's 'Dungeon Of Waves'.
There was a simple reason behind why in the past as well as the present it was only Luke that managed to enter this dungeon and it had to do with Luke's personality as an individual.
As he roamed the streets of Panjim trying to figure out how to earn money just like thousands of different players, he came across the beggars street where several old people, cripples and orphans begged for money to survive.
A normal player would have ignored their pain, avoiding them like they were the plaque or mistreating them for information, however, Luke was different.
Truly compassionate and level headed, he bought lots of food for the poor using his own money and gave everyone a loaf of bread so that they did not sleep hungry tonight.
Some players laughed at his foolishness as they tried to remind Luke that these beggars were NPC and not real while some others pestered him and asked if he was doing a quest to help the poor and what the rewards were?
When those people came to know that Luke was genuinely doing this out of good will they deemed him to be insane and moved along, however, while Luke never aimed for any rewards, when he passed the 100th beggar some bread, he met a hidden condition within the game and was issued a secret quest.
[ System Notification - You have fed 100 homeless people food with your own money and proved that you have a compassionate heart.
But to truly help these poor, you must make them independent and provide them with means to earn a consistent living and to do so, you must clear the hidden dungeon ' The Dungeon Of Waves' in Panjim town.
The dungeon location has been added to your map, it can only be entered during low tide which will last for the next 2 hours ]
[ Quest Notification - Clear the hidden dungeon!
Time limit - None.
Rewards - ???? + ???? + ????
Failure Penalty - You won't be able to alleviate thousands out of poverty ]
Luke was suddenly issued a hidden quest as his eyes widened in surprise watching the system screen in front of him.
He had not helped the poor because he wanted a hidden reward, instead, he had helped the poor because he could resonate with their pain.
While Leo was too young to remember the incident clearly, Luke remembered it as quite clearly as to when they had to leave their old mansion and move into the small apartment back on Earth after their father suddenly disappeared.
Their mother Elena was not always a housewives who had learnt all sorts of skills but rather an inexperienced noble who did not even understand the basics of cooking food herself.
Even then, when their family had lost everything, on the day that they shifted from the urban mansion to the back alleys, Elena donated some 50 dollars to the homeless, enough to buy a warm meal as she smiled at Luke and told him to always be kind regardless of their monetary circumstances.
It was an incident that left a deep impact on Luke and growing up whenever he had money he always made it a point to secretly sponsor a single meal to the poor and it was exactly what he was trying to do today.
He had no idea that his act of kindness would turn into a hidden quest but he was extremely happy that it did.
Although he had no idea what the quest clear rewards were or if he could even clear it alone, he headed towards the location on the system map which told him to venture deep into the sea shoreline towards a particular point in the ocean.
It took Luke about 30 minutes of fast walking to reach his destination and thankfully it was still low-tide so despite being quite far from the safe shore, he was able to find the hidden entrance to the dungeon which was a stone stairwell that suspiciously led one underground although it was constructed on a sea bed.
Naturally, as Luke walked just two steps into the stairwell, his feet felt wet as he stepped into sea water which was filled upto the brim in this dungeon.
[ System Notification - You have entered the hidden dungeon, 'The dungeon of waves' . Since you are the first adventurer to enter this dungeon, you can get a bonus reward if you clear the dungeon in your very first attempt ]
A system notification told Luke that he had entered the hidden dungeon and although Luke did not really want to explore an underwater dungeon, since this mission was for a noble cause and since because he was in a desperate need to improve his evaluation to escape sector E, Luke took a deep breath and dived into the salty seawater and swam downwards into the dungeon.
As Luke barely swam two strokes, he realized that there was a guard railing on the side of the dungeon walls and although it looked like the stairwell was leading downwards, it seemed to have a dramatic U-turn after going down about 10 steps which led to a hidden chamber on the other side, accessible if one just used the railing to go down and then through the partition to the other side.
*GASP*
Luke gasped for air as he crossed the hidden partition and swam upwards to catch a breath of air and much to his joy, the hidden dungeon was not actually an underwater dungeon as after entering and swimming through the entrance compartment, one came out the other side on dry land as apparently this dungeon used the principles of air pressure to create a dry air pocket in the middle of the ocean.