Chapter 165 – Time to explore again.

“Huh? What’s that sound?”

*Clang… clang… clang…*

A strange sound entered the ears of a couple of adventurers that were standing before the entrance to the Albrook City Dungeon. After many years of exploring the dungeon was finally given a rating of C.

The Dungeon ratings were similar to grades with S being above A for special ranked dungeons. A C-rated dungeon told people that the strongest creatures that they could find there were below tier 3.

A rating of C+ could be given to such a dungeon if, for instance, it produced one final boss that was at the tier 3 level of strength. With the strongest creature being below that level it was given the C rating.

A B rating would be given to dungeons with some tier 3 creatures lurking on the more difficult lower levels. An A rank would mean that the prevalence of tier 3 was quite severe. This didn’t mean that a high graded dungeon couldn’t have low level creatures wandering in the earlier stages.

The new adventurers would have to take into consideration that a stronger creature could appear on the easier levels. Thus it was much safer for them to slowly level up through the easier dungeons unless they wanted to encounter monsters a full tier above them.

This caused this Albrook dungeon to be mostly populated by newer adventurers. The layout caused the easy monsters to stay on the upper levels which left all the new adventurers a safe space to train up.

It was also still enough for the more veteran gold adventurers to find something for themselves. It became a mid range dungeon that could be used by aspiring adventurers almost all the way up towards their tier 3 change.

Normally gold adventurers when approaching the 150th level would form large parties with each other and head out to a B-rated dungeon. There they would attack the lower leveled tier 3 monsters as it was faster than sticking to monsters on their own level.

The group of adventurers that were looking out into the distance here was composed of steel ones and bronze ones. They were quite surprised by the appearance of a man clad in metal.

“What kind of armor is that… are those runes?”

“Never mind the armor, what is that thing behind him?”

“Is it a tamed monster? No… it’s made of metal!”

They continued to murmur while the person approached slowly. The armor that the person was wearing didn’t look like your everyday plate armor. Even though it was mostly covered by a dark robe, the gauntlets were too shiny for them not to stick out.

The helmet was nice and silver and while the visor slit was separated in two it had some sort of dark glass implanted. This caused the people to not be able to see the man’s eyes and worry about the visibility. It also didn’t seem that this helmet had any holes for breathing which made it look even more uncomfortable to wear.

The rest of this armor seemed more streamlined and the breastplate was somewhat angular at the chest area. The pauldrons were a bit more pronounced but not enough to the point that they would limit mobility.

The thickness of the armor also looked unordinary which showed that the person wearing it had to have an enhanced strength number. It was clear to the new adventurers here that the person inside of it had to at least be a tier 2 class holder to be able to move around in that heavy armor.

While the armor was interesting due to its size and runes, what drew the eyes was the thing walking behind this armored person. It looked like some kind of barrel with four legs. To the side, there was some kind of latch and it seemed that it could be opened. By the size of the construct, they wouldn’t be surprised if a person was riding inside of it.

“Hey, isn’t that just Wayland?”

“You mean the Runesmith?”

“Who else would be parading in armor like that?”

The young adventurers nodded at each other while the person in question could hear them talking.

‘I didn’t even make it red this time around, I guess it’s not possible to not stand out when wearing something like this…’

Roland gave out a sigh while walking slowly. The armor that he was wearing was an improved version of his runic armor that was all made from Aether metal. It was still mostly deep steel but he managed to get his hands on some better alloys which would boost the spell casting output of his runes.

It was time to head into the dungeon to get his resources. He had planned and waited for the right moment, now it was upon him. While it was something that he was looking forward to he also realized that his heart was beating faster.

At first, he thought that he was pushed into some of these strange situations. The time with the ant queen or the run-in with the dark elves were some. There was always a safer way of doing things but he realized that he also didn’t like to waste time.

If he took it slowly he would have probably been behind his current level. His stats would be lower and his store might have not even existed yet. He realized that taking risks was just a part of life and running a successful business.

Even now while going down into the dungeon there was more time than he could take. The store money had slowed down but he would be able to gather more with time. Waiting and twiddling his thumbs was not something he liked to do.

Maybe because in his past life he wasted time on doing things that others forced him to that now he was unwilling to wait. It was as if he feared that if he stopped for a second that he would lose his stride and for that he was even willing to put himself in some moderate danger.

A growl knocked him back to reality as he spotted Agni looking at some adventurers. They all quickly backed off after the Ruby Wolf peeked out from behind the chubby walking golem.

“It’s okay Agni, calm down, they are just curious.”

Agni snorted with his nose as some of the new adventurers were so curious about this strange party that they approached to take a look. This made Roland think about the talk he had with Bernir not so long ago.

….

“Be sure to double-check everything.”

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“Sure boss! You don’t need to worry, I’ll keep everything safe!”

“You have all the key cards… Do you need me to explain them to you?”

“No need, I remember everything! You are worrying too much boss, have a great time in the dungeon.”

About thirty minutes ago Roland was looking at his somewhat older-looking assistant. His beard was a lot longer than before and even had some braids. He did not understand the dwarven culture and even though his assistant was only half a dwarf he still loved to tend to this bushy mess.

“Don’t worry Wayland, I’ll keep him in check.”

A womanly voice called out from the side and he saw a rather tall-looking woman which quite the large protruding chest area.

“That’s reassuring”

Dyana, one of the other tier 2 blacksmiths from town was also here. For some unknown reason, Bernir managed to hit it off with this large woman. She was even taller than Roland was so he was somewhat surprised that she decided to pair up with Bernir who wasn’t all that tall.