Chapter 114 – Knights in a dungeon.

A group of annoyed adventurers was standing outside the Albrook Dungeon. They had to stop as a large group of knights forced them to remain behind. They surrounded the whole entrance and were keeping people from going in or even from coming out.

The thought of going over and pushing through never crossed their mind. The noble crests were a clear indication of trouble. No person with an inkling of intelligence would ever involve themselves with nobles unless it was work-related. Without much to do, some decided to wait while others listened in, curious about the meaning of them being here.

“Lord Percival, you may start.”

“Thank you Sir Bertold, I will do my best to finish this mission with haste.”

They could see two men in full body armor talk to each other. One was old while the other quite handsome and young. After the little talk that the two had with each other it seemed that something was happening.

“Everyone get in formation, we will be descending into the dungeon. Follow after the adventurer scouting party!”

With that order given the people could see a party of adventurers entering into the dungeon. There were some unknown members in this party but some people recognised Armand and the crimson armor of a certain person that was gaining notoriety.

“Interesting… that guy is also part of this…”

A shadowy figure whose face was mostly covered commented from the side. He and a few of his party members were sitting in some shade while examining the situation.

“Is something wrong?”

“Don’t know… it might be a gig… I’ll have go ask my contacts to be sure…”

“Oh?”

The robed man started rubbing his chin while grinning. His eyes followed the large armored man in red and how not far from him the noble knights descended into the dungeon as well.

Back in the dungeon Roland and everyone had taken up their positions with their porter hanging out in the middle. Whenever the fighting started he was tasked to search for cover and hide.

All of the party members here were silver grade so the dungeon monsters that were below the 50th level didn’t prove much of a challenge. They were more annoying than anything and mostly fell to Lobelia’s arrows. Roland let the fighting up to their two warriors in the front without wasting any runic spells.

Armand and Korgak were actually quite proficient at taking out any monsters that they came across. The half-orc’s weapon of choice was something that looked like a very large cleaver. It only took one swing of his weapon to kill a monster that came his way. Armand on the other hand used his hands, the monsters were either smacked away into a pulp or thrown to the side where they were finished off by Silvio or Lobelia.

‘Don’t really have anything to do here…’

Roland was somewhat relaxed while not having anything to do. Agni on the other hand was gaining some experience from finishing some lower-level creatures. His level had risen to 32 but he had a long way to go till his tier 2 evolution.

He knew that if he showed the shortcuts they would be able to cut the travel time dramatically. However, he decided to keep this secret for himself. It was better to have an escape route for himself that no one else could follow in case of unforeseen circumstances. Even though there was a low chance of betrayal, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Damn those knights are slow… what’s taking them so long?”

Lobelia commented from the side while pulling out her arrow from a less evolved salamander-type monster’s head. They all were seasoned adventurers that had gone through dungeons since a young age. The knights on the other hand were rarely forced to travel through tight corridors like this maze.

Roland attributed their slow-moving speed to a few things. One was their choice of armor that in a volcanic region like this was mostly a liability. Without something to lower the temperature someone with heavy armor would become fatigued quite fast. Due to this they had to make some stops and have their frost mage cast a cooling spell from time to time.

The second problem were those lady mages. They were clearly not used to long expeditions into unknown regions. Roland was sure that their physical stats were not much better than a tier 1 warrior. With low endurance they would need constant stops and the heat would only get worse with time.

“It’s fine, Sister Kassia can use a break as well.”

“Oh, I’m quite fine thanks to Mr. Wayland here.”

Silvio called out to the nun that replied. Roland was just standing there while waving that large magical rod of his. From time to time he would produce a chilling effect to make it more comfortable for the party. Thanks to it being a runic spell there was no waiting time and he could do it easily while walking.

“Wayland, want to come party with us after we are done with this mission?”

Lobelia nodded, Roland could see that she was serious. He only started doing it after he noticed some of his party members sweating. This section of the dungeon wasn’t that hot but when some salamanders showed up the temperature always increased. The dungeon wasn’t that well ventilated so fighting a fire-based creature always made it uncomfortable to be in.

“I’ll think about it…”

He replied while not really thinking that it would be such a good idea. Bernir and Agni were enough as he was able to maximize on his experience gain. The other problem was the person he was looking at, he certainly didn’t want to work with a certain punch crazy brute. The only reason he took this mission were the costly crafting schematics he wanted.

“I’ll take that as a yes, oh they caught up!”

Lobelia answered while notching an arrow into her bow once more. Roland glanced at this arrow for a moment and started wondering if he could add a runic effect to it. Regretfully without the proper wood, it would be impossible. The only other option would be a fully metallic arrow which costs outweigh its uses.

‘Maybe if we find one of those ash trees in the lower levels I could actually make some…’

They descended down while Roland thought about what he would do for the weeks they were there. At the moment they had some work to do but after getting to the second level they would be nothing more than lookouts.

What would normally take a couple of hours turned to eight as they finally arrived at the 10th level of the dungeon and were now right before the boss chamber. A group of angry adventurer’s greeted Silvio that could only apologize for taking so long.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

The adventurers here were task to block the dungeon chamber from being cleared out. This of course led to some pushback from the other adventurers but they could do nothing more than wait.

‘They must have paid quite a bit for this offer… the longer this chamber isn’t cleared the more money the guild loses.’

While Roland contemplated on the noble’s deep pockets the battalion of knights arrived soon after. He moved himself to the side as one of the first people here was Robert. Their first task was over now, the ones going inside would be the nobles first and they would remain in the back. This would be their first test, to beat the 10th level boss monster.

The knights looked slightly tired but they were still tier 2 class holders. Their high physical stats would allow them to somehow recover in a short amount of time. On the other hand, the two mage ladies were not looking that well.

Roland could tell with the help of his mana sense skill that they were using some cooling effects even at this very moment. Even when not affected by the heat that much they still looked tired. There was no way to fit the carriage into this dungeon which forced everyone to walk.

The constant usage of mana to run magical trinkets was also probably taking a toll on them. The two more than likely had lower amounts of mana than him and not many classes had skills that lowered the mana usage when using magical items as his did.

“Heh, are those two okay? Maybe they need to take a cold bath.”

Lobelia and Armand were to the side smirking a bit. Roland noticed that these two didn’t seem to like these nobles that much. They constantly commented on their slow pace. It seemed like there was some bad blood here but that was quite the common occurrence.

Most commoners either feared or disliked their noble overlords for one reason or another. Finding a common person that favored a noble was like finding a rainbow unicorn. Which was a creature that actually existed in this world.

“Lady Charlene, Lady Lucille how do you fare?”

“It’s so stuffy in here, someone give me some water!”