- 2,000 Credits
- Rare or Epic item
- Epic or Legendary raw materials or natural treasures in line with this dungeon’s theme
They briefly exchanged thoughts on what to take, but in the end, everyone except Ben chose the item. This time, they all got the same thing: a Greater Healing Potion said to restore even those on the brink of death.
Ben was quite happy with that level of added safety to the team, though they convinced him to carry a couple in his bag of holding for safety.
He was equally happy with the set of seven bones, teeth, and hide he received, all of epic quality, plus one set of legendary rarity. It would be interesting to see what the crafters would make out of this.
After collecting their rewards, they quickly left the dungeon.
***
“Thanks for coming over, I appreciate it.” Adam glanced around at the four people seated at the table. “The reason I asked for this meeting is this.” He pulled a small gleaming marble out of his pocket.
“How did you get this?” Luz, one of the invited crafters around the table, asked.
“How do you think? Ben’s team found it in the new dungeon,” he explained.
“How many do we have?” Deepika asked.
“Just this one. And Ben said that they would get more, but not regularly. Apparently, you need to defeat a mini-boss in the dungeon, which is feasible but also exhausting, and the dungeon has only a three-day average break time, which means they need to run it quite frequently…”
Carter leaned back in his chair with a grin; he seemed to have an idea of what was to come.
“These are quite valuable, and we could just sell it, but as you know, we want to push our crafting forward, so the question is, who should get this? Do you have a concrete idea for which it would be worth using our first—and, for now, only—Tier 2 Energy core?” Adam asked.
Marcus grunted. “I’m more limited by materials right now, not Energy Tier.”
Carter nodded. “I have all those epic and legendary rat materials to deal with. I also don’t want the responsibility to mess this up,” he said with a laugh.
“Alright, that leaves you two,” Adam said, glancing at Deepika and Luz.
“Mhh, I have two things that I could do with a Tier 2 core. Both would require Marcus’ help. The first is moving from a Bag of Holding to a Storage Ring. It would need a ring forged from at least epic Tier 1 metal—Tier 2 would be ideal. I expect a pretty significant failure rate, though, at the beginning.
“The second would be working on an idea one of my grad students had. It is about using a spatial enchantment on a blade’s edge. He hypothesized—and I agree—that we could create an edge so sharp that it cuts through lower-tier material like a hot knife through butter.”
Both Marcus and Adam leaned forward at the latter suggestion.
“So that edge could be put on, say… an axe?” Adam asked.
“Yes, but it would need to be based on very robust metal alloys. I am unclear how long the enchantment would last, and there is no guarantee that it works on the first try—or at all.”
Adam turned to Marcus. “Would need people to run the mine, bring the actual ore, and also take resources as a completion bonus, then maybe…”
Adam nodded to himself, then looked at Luz. “Anything you want to propose?”
The alchemist laughed. “Even if I promised a rejuvenation potion, I doubt I’d get that core… But seriously, I am OK right now. I could benefit from it, sure, but it is not urgent.”
Adam smiled at her gratefully, then moved the Tier 2 core over to Deepika. “Let’s not tell our leader yet, but feel free to use this for the edge once Marcus has created a worthy axe. I’ll talk with Allison for people to bring more ore back.”
***
Ben had just wrapped up the first full council session in quite a while. Among other things, they had agreed to stockpile SCs for the moment, since nothing was truly critical. Of course, they could make use of another greenhouse, especially given that they now had cold storage, and Simonston would be grateful for any surplus they could deliver. A House of Healing was also attractive, as were many other things, but they could wait.
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They had also agreed that the Buddhist monks would, in collaboration with Luz as well as Zack and Liz, take responsibility for the Energy herb farming that was unlocked by the manual they had gotten from one of their last missions. Ben was eager to see what would come of that endeavor. It required a constant supply of Energy cores, but given that they were mostly self-sufficient on the food side, and they also increasingly covered their armor and weapon needs with the help of their own crafters, their drain on cores had decreased somewhat.
They still bought plenty from the System Store—like toothpaste—but it was a far cry from the early days when they’d have struggled without it.
He walked over to the training ground as another blue notification appeared in his vision.
Mission alert – Saving Earth’s Talent
Two of Earth’s most powerful talents are about to be overrun by Energy-born creatures; their loss would weaken Earth significantly.
Attempt to rescue them—without dying yourself.
Once you are ready, find and acknowledge this mission under your [Knight Protector] perk, and a portal to the settlement will be opened on the central plaza; it will remain active as long as the mission is ongoing.
Target: Cass Lemon, Sebastian Winred
Importance: High
Urgency: Immediate (15 minutes)
Ben immediately reached out to his team with his telepathic armband. Fortunately, he had made it a habit to wear his armor and axe at all times, so he was ready to go, even though he would have appreciated a day without an emergency.
He jogged the few meters to the plaza and called up the portal right away, even though the rest of the team wasn’t there yet.
While the portal rose from the ground, he asked a citizen to call for two Protectors to guard the entrance.
On the other side of the portal, he saw something like an inner courtyard surrounded by a modern-looking building as the rest of the team came running.
Without hesitation, Ben stepped forward—it had just taken two minutes to react to the mission.
As they arrived on the other side, Ben saw that the portal had risen in the middle of the courtyard. There was nothing between their side of the portal and an entrance to the building before them. On the other side of the portal stood and sat a group of children of various ages as well as a bunch of old people. Given how Energy slowed aging, they must have been truly old to look that frail.
All of them looked at Ben and the team with a mix of awe and fear.
Before Ben could say anything, a young woman with long red hair and a complicated-looking composite bow in her hand and a quiver on her hip rushed into the yard. She had been led into the courtyard by a girl of perhaps ten, likely alerted by the portal’s sudden rise.
She had an arrow nocked as she approached them cautiously. “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”
“We have been sent by the systems to rescue Cass Lemon and Sebastian Winred,” Ben said.
The woman looked like she had been slapped. “I am Cass, and I don’t need saving. These people do.” She pointed toward the kids and older folks.
“The systems seem to think otherwise…” Ben insisted.
“The systems can go where the sun don’t shine!” the woman exclaimed. “I don’t have time for this; we are being attacked, and Seb can’t hold much longer. If you want to help—help.”
With that, she turned around and ran back to where she had come from.
Ben turned to his mother. “Can you talk with them,” he pointed toward the group that seemed in need of rescue, “while we see how we can help in the fight?”
Allison nodded, and Ben and the rest ran after Cass.
Judging by the rooms and cheerful wall decorations, the building seemed to be a children’s home. They quickly passed through it and came to the front door, which opened into a lawn that was circled by a brick wall. At the broken gate stood a lean, tall young man with dark hair in a ponytail. As Ben stepped out of the building, he could see the man throw a burst of fire out of his hand toward enemies that Ben couldn’t see from where he stood.
Cass had taken up position on a crate behind him, loosing arrows over the wall and gate.
To get a better view, Ben leaped on top of the wall, which startled the man—likely Sebastian Winred—slightly. From his vantage point, it was clear why the systems believed the duo would be overrun.
Dozens of small humanoids with turtle-like armor on their fronts and backs and grayish skin pushed toward the building, especially now that the mage’s flames slowly sputtered out. They carried crude weapons, and though barely one and a half meters tall, they looked deadly—taut muscles rippling beneath natural armor.
Katdrahs. Turtlekin. Warrior. Energy-Born. Tier 1. Uncommon Challenge.
This looked eerily similar to the Retskul problem they had to deal with. A local dungeon had broken and spilled its monsters into the area.
Beyond the walls, Ben saw a sparse suburban neighborhood—quiet, empty, and desolate. The buildings around them looked abandoned and ransacked. The compound the mage and archer defended stood like a lone island amid humanity’s downfall.
It was obvious the duo wouldn’t be able to defeat the creatures—not because they were weak; the opposite was true—but because, without frontliners and without the ability to withdraw, given the young and old they seemed to be defending, they weren’t playing to their strengths. For Ben and his team, however, this looked like a doable challenge—particularly with the two other fighters backing them up.
Anne, Jamal, and Michael had already joined him on the wall. He looked at them and nodded toward the Katdrahs. “What do you think?” he asked with a smile.
Instead of an answer, the others jumped into the fray.
Ben called out to Cass and Sebastian, “We’ll help—let’s finish this together!”
Compared to the giant rare, epic, and legendary rats they had fought last, the Katdrahs did not pose a challenge. There were quite a few of them, but with their practiced teamwork, the challenge was manageable. At some point, Allison joined them from afar as well, adding roots to their arsenal.
Ben was impressed by the damage output that the archer and mage were capable of. A relentless volley of arrows pierced the Katdrahs’ tough hides, sometimes splitting apart and hitting multiple enemies at the same time. Flame lances and bolts burned through the Turtlekin so frequently that the surrounding temperature rose. It was an interesting contrast for Ben—the two were clearly lacking frontliners, but he and his team would probably also benefit from more ranged damage output.
Barely fifteen minutes later, the fight was over. Ben was keen to understand more about Cass, Sebastian, and their situation.