章 21: Grizzly Hollows

The group stopped at a big gate. It had been 8 hours since they had entered the grizzly hollows and they were finally entering the dungeon's boss battle. This would be the first boss battle for everyone except Erin so even the 3 guides were nervous.

"Children, you guys stay at the edge and don't try to participate in this fight. Dungeon bosses are beyond your capabilities." The children nodded as they heard this. They now knew their limitations and they did not argue with their teacher. Wallace stepped up with his shield.

"What do you need us to do sir!" Wallace and the other two smiled as they pulled out their weapons. Erin shook his head as he saw this.

"It fine I will do this on my own." The 3 were surprised at this statement. Erin smiled as he saw this.

"I am a wanderer remember? I am good at fighting solo." Although the three could not believe that he could solo a D ranked dungeon boss, he had not failed them before this.

Erin opened the gate and allowed the others to come in. He took out the bow in his hand and pointed it towards a large creature that was sitting at a dark corner of the room.

~Ding~

~ You have entered the dungeon room. Dungeon Boss King Grizzly's Dome.

After the ding was heard, the grizzly who was at the corner of the room sprang out from his hiding spot and launched himself towards Erin.

As this occurred, Johanne suddenly had an epiphany. She turned towards Vince and Wallace.

"Hey, isn't Lightning strong against wind?" As she said this, both Vince and Wallace saw Erin pour raw wind energy into his arrow and set it free.

The one Arrow pierce through the large bear's brain and went out of the brain through the other end. The momentum of the arrows's movement made it fall backwards. The echos of its fall were heard for miles.

The children and the 3 guides were struck dumb. Erin had not even moved a step and he had only used one arrow. Vince turned to the other guides after he got back to his sense.

"I think the Wanderer is so strong that any weakness against a monster of the grizzly's level does not affect him."

"If even a D ranked Monster that he is weak against can be killed in one blow then...how strong is he?" Johanne asked this hesitantly.

~Ding~

~ You have killed King Grizzly 3500 exp

~ You have finished the awakening trials

~ 24/ 24 participants have survived

~ trial was done within 8 hours

~ rewards will be given once all participants have left the dungeon.

The children cheered as they heard this. They had done it! They had passed the trial. Erin smiled as he saw their faces full of victory. He rarely raided with others but he understood the charm in it. Fighting with your allies and then cheering and hugging each other after you defeat the boss. The feeling of winning with others gives you a bigger sense of accomplishment.

"Ok, guys lets go home." Erin waited a little while before he calmed the children. He knew that it would not take long for the cave to either attract monsters, regenerate or collapse on itself and so he pushed the kids forward. Since they were not fighting monsters and were not looking out for cubs, it only took them 45 minutes to leave the cave.

As they left the cave, the children heard multiple dings as the system gave them skills and stats. Since they were kids they did not hide any of these as quickly shared their stats with each other. Erin did not eve have to Examine them.

Most of the Classes did not come as a surprise to Erin. Dean was a guardian, Sally was a warrior, Chi was a monk and Brook was a ranger.

Out of the 24, 15 of the kids gained D ranked class, 4 gained a C ranked class, 3 gained a B rank class while 2 gained a A ranked class. These two were Brook ad Sally. This was also within Erin's expectations.

When Erin told the 3 guides this, they were gobsmacked.

"C,B even A ranked!? I have been out matched. " Vince quickly admitted defeat.

"How did the quality of classes increase so much?" Johanne asked. Erin just smiled as he whistled along.

"Hmmp, don't tell me then." Erin laughed at Johanne's response. The group then arrived at the village. The villagers were ecstatic when they saw that everyone came back alive and well. Erin had kept his promise. Chief Luther gave his daughter a warm hug. He was not used to his daughter filled with armour but she still looked cute to him so he was not mad.

Erin looked up to see that the sun was going down. They had been in the dungeon all day. Before Erin let go of his reign on the children he brought out the earnings for the raid. He had been collecting it all in order to give them out properly.

In total the trial group had made 123 silvers. He gave the D ranked kids 3 silvers each, he gave the C ranked kids 5 silvers each, he gave the B ranked kids 6 silvers each, he gave sally and Brook 9 silvers each and gave the guides 7 silvers each. Whether it was 3 or 9 silvers, this was the most that many of the children had ever seen at once before. Although there were some that were jealous due to the difference in pay, they all thanked Erin for his kindness. He did not take a cent of the earnings even though he would pay for the buses that would take them to Wellington.

The family of the children and the other students also thanked Erin for his services. Erin did not let this go to his head and humbly received their gratitude. After everything was said and done, the village was excited to leave the slums. Many of them had been stuck there for more than 4 years like Chief Luther while some came to the slums after they realized they had no where else to go like Mrs. Sawyer.

As the children were celebrating, Mrs. Sawyer reminisced of old times with Mr. Sawyer to Erin. When the apocalypse occurred, She had just finished paying off her student debt and was planning a trip in the future with her husband and children. The two of them were shopping for groceries when the announcement was made. After heads started to explode, She found herself on deaths door many times. At crucial times, her husband had protected her. Her class did not really help the situation either since she was a [Blacksmith] but had no tools to use.

After the tutorial ended, they quickly went to the elementary school to find their daughter who was confused at the sight of her bloodied and haggard looking parents. It took them 3 days to find Brook. The preschool that he went to was in a completely different location due to the earth expansion. They found Brook wondering around aimlessly around the ruins calling out for her.

For a while, they stayed at their apartment. With the landlord dead and many residents gone, home did not feel like home anymore. Her husband decided to stay in the grocery store party and tried to earn money by going on raids but like many other overconfident parties, this one did not survive very long. Mrs. Sawyer found herself at a point where it felt like there was no one she could count on. It was then that she decided to move to the slums where she knew that one of her old friends had gone.

Little did she know how hard life was in the slums. She had stayed here for far too long. She knew that. When ever Mrs. Sawyer started talking about the hardship she faced, Erin could not help but feel saddened for her. Many people could not cope with the changes and Mrs. Sawyer was a prime example of someone who could not cope but still held on to hope.

When the Sawyers plus Erin came home, they saw that a feast was already made. Everyone turned to Mrs. Sawyer.

"It is the last day. I did not want to waste any ingredients that I would not be able to pack." Erin smiled as he grabbed a chair. He would not let any food go to waste. Suddenly as everyone was eating and enjoying the meal, Brook spoke up.

"What is your class Mr. Silver?" Erin turned to Brook and almost choked on his food. Johanne and her mother were also shocked. Brook had been ignoring Erin for the last week. They expected Brook to continue ignoring the man's existence.

"cough cough. Um.. Ranger." Brook's face brightened as he heard this.

"I am a ranger too although I got lightning instead of wind..." Erin smiled as he heard this.

"That makes sense. You are American so it is most likely that your attribute would be lightning." Brook nodded as he heard this. As if the last week had not happened, he started to ask questions just like before and Erin answered them with ease. The two girls just looked at each other and looked at the two guys before shrugging and eating. Tomorrow was going to be a big day for everyone.

After a hearty dinner and a good rest, the town woke up to the sound of engines going. The bus had arrived. There were around 30 families in the village and each Bus could fit about 5 families so Erin had rented 6 Buses. The morning in the village was abuzz as the villagers carried their luggages to their designated bus. Since many of them did not own much, There was much more room then expected and so the 5 families in a bus was not very crowded.

With the village being so loud, it was not shocking that some people from neighboring villages snooped around to the what the fuss was about. When they heard that the village would be going to the city, some looked at them jealously while other ridiculed them for their brazen actions. Either way, the chief continued packing his things without giving them much thought. By the afternoon, the villagers were ready to go.

Chief Luther had one more look at the village that he and the villagers had built for the last 5 years. He smiled as he said fair well to the place in his mind. All the villagers were now on the buses. Erin had paid before hand and let the bus drivers take them to their destination. Due to the use of mana stones instead of energy, gas stations had been replaced by Mana energy stations. Luckily, they did not have to refill the tank since Wellington was not that far away on bus.

As the 6 buses reached the front of the gate, the families had to get off. The guards were overwhelmed by the sheer amount of people coming in at once. Wellington was not a large city like Toronto or Creekway so they were not used to long lines of new people trying to enter the city. Erin came in front in order to talk to the guards.

"Call your citizen administrator. There are 29 families here who each have at least one person who would like to take an entrance exam in one of your academies. As by the Law of education and accommodations. Since they are applying to your school, you will have to accommodate for their family in your city." One of the guards quickly called for the administrator to come.

Once the administrator had arrived, Erin had a good discussion with him and paid for the entrance payment for the villagers was ended up being a bit over 100 silvers. The villagers also had to write documents in order to get an id card. It appears that while they were in the slums, Id cards had been created for the new era.

These Id cards were special as they identified you in the continent. The id would show your level and some of your basic stats which can express rank and allow you to enter cities in the continent and special places if you qualify. The villagers would also get examined by a machine in order for their basic statuses to be imprinted into a physical card. This allowed for less fraud in the new era.

When all was said and done, 2 hours had already passed before the villagers were allowed to enter the city. Everyone celebrated as they went in. Erin sighed as he saw this. His drunken promise had cost him a lot of time but he did not care. He enjoyed the company of the Sawyers and the villagers were very nice. Although he ended up hurting a boy's feelings a bit, everything ended up being fine in the end. Erin put up his hood as he walked the opposite way from the city.

"Wait wanderer!" He turned around to see Brook standing behind him. the boy handed a small bag to Erin.

"My possessions." Erin was speechless.

"Keep them. That was just a joke." Brook smiled.

"I know. This is my payment in order to be your disciple. Along with the 10 silver and the fact that I past the threshold in the speed training exercise." Erin felt tongue tied at the moment.

"Brook I told you before I am n-"

"I know. You are not a hero. You only helped us cause you were in the mood to help us and you are not some leader in a hero guild who has cool armor and a large sword. " Brook smiled as he said this.

"A while ago this was what I thought a hero had to be but I was wrong. Being a hero is more complicated than that. Maybe to others you are just a wanderer or a selfish person or a bad person but, to me and to our whole village, you are a hero." Erin's eyes widened as he heard this.

"And as my idol, there is no one else I would want to be taught under." Erin finally laughed as he heard the end of the boy's speech.

"Jeez kid, your are really warming up to me. How about this, finish your 2 years in adventure academy and get a Adventurers license. If I am still looking for a disciple, you know where to call me." Brook smiled widely.

"Yes sir! I will definitely be your disciple in 2 years!" Erin nodded to the boy as he waved the boy goodbye and left. Brook smile did not leave his face as he wildly waved his hands. He was still smiling giddily as he entered the city. When his friends wondered what had happened to their friend, Brook quickly told them how he would be Erin's disciple.

The Dean and Chi was cheering for him when suddenly Chi had an odd look on his face.

"Wait, how are you going to contact him?" Suddenly Brook's smile froze. He had been tricked.

Erin snickered to himself as he remembered the boy's gullible face.

"Hahah sorry kid. If fate truly allows it, I will definitely go through with my promise." He quickly changed to a dark blue robe as the sun began to set.