Chapter 14: Red Goblin
"Hello! We'd like to create a temporary party." William approached the reception inside the guild and said to the woman behind the desk.
"How long?" The woman asked.
"Just for today."
"Alright. Please fill in this form.
The woman then handed him a piece of paper and a pen.
William took a minute to sign his information on the form before handing it to the young lady and Lucas.
Once they all signed it, the woman said, "Let me see your guild identifications."
The three of them handed in their identifications.
"Thank you. Give me a minute to create your party card."
A few minutes later, the woman returned their cards and handed them their party card.
"The party card will expire within 24 hours," she said to them.
"Thanks! Let's go, guys." William said to the other two before leaving the guild.
After leaving the guild with their party card, William and the team went straight to the public dungeon.
Once the guards protecting the dungeon verified their identity and their party card, they entered the dungeon.
"Alright guys, this is it. Good luck in the dungeon and stay safe." William said to them.
The red-haired beauty didn't say anything and disappeared into the wilderness a moment later.
William left shortly after, leaving Lucas alone in this dungeon.
Lucas looked around. The environment of this dungeon looked similar to the previous dungeon, but the atmosphere was a little different, and the temperature was noticeably colder here.
He then retrieved a sword from his backpack and started wandering the dungeon, slaying every monster he encountered.
A few hours later, Lucas took a seat on the ground to rest, and he looked at the pouch that was filled with Mana Crystals. In just a few hours, he'd hunted twice as many goblins as he did before, obtaining 43 small Mana Crystals.
'There's a lot more goblins in this dungeon compared to the last one. Maybe it's because this dungeon is still very new while the other one had most of the monsters hunted.' Lucas thought to himself.
When a monster is hunted inside a dungeon, the dungeon will not spawn any more monsters to replace the dead ones, and only when all of the monsters inside a dungeon have been killed would the dungeon close permanently.
However, if they cannot kill all monsters in the dungeon within a certain time, the monsters inside the dungeon will be teleported out of the dungeon and terrorize the world.
Lucas looked at his Character Status.
"I have killed over 40 goblins, but my level only increased by one... Looks like it will become increasingly hard to level up if I continue fighting low-leveled monsters..." He mumbled to himself.
This is also why there are people who have decades of experience as a Player but are still only around level 20. These are the types of Players that only dare to fight low-level monsters and spend their entire lives in low-level dungeons, as they do not want to risk their lives in harder dungeons.
However, Lucas wasn't too concerned about leveling up right now, as his priority was combat experience and money.
Once he's farmed enough money to properly gear himself for higher-leveled monsters, he will start going to harder dungeons.
After he rested enough, Lucas continued to hunt monsters under the night sky.
Since he'd slept for three days straight, he was filled with energy, allowing him to fight for the entire night.
[You have leveled up]
[You have acquired 5 Stat Points]
The following morning, Lucas reached level 7 and decided to leave the dungeon temporarily to sell the Mana Crystals he'd obtained, as it was getting harder for him to move around while carrying around so many Mana Crystals.
After exiting the dungeon, Lucas asked one of the guards there, "I am going to buy some supplies for my party that's still inside the dungeon. I can return later by myself, right?"
"Yes. As long as your party members are still inside, you can go back inside alone." The guard confirmed.
Lucas was relieved after hearing this, and he quickly made his way back to the guild to sell the Mana Crystals.
"74 low-quality F grade Mana Crystals will be 2,960 dollars. Are you okay with this amount?" The guild staff asked him after counting his Mana Crystals.
"Yes." Lucas quickly nodded.
Sometime later, Lucas left the guild with 2,960 dollars, making his total wealth 3,885 dollars, the most money he's ever had at once in his life thus far.
He then quickly returned to the dungeon and returned to hunting more monsters.
However, Lucas quickly realized that there were fewer monsters than yesterday.
"The outer areas are probably already cleared out by other Players. If I want more profit, I should enter deeper into the dungeon..."
After pondering for a moment, Lucas decided to go deeper into the dungeon.
An hour later, he encountered a monster.
It was a goblin, but it looked different than the green goblins he's encountered before.
'This goblin has red skin... so a red goblin? What's the difference?' Lucas wondered to himself as he watched this red goblin walk around aimlessly.
It was at this moment that Lucas realized he has little to no knowledge of monsters.
'I should probably buy a monster encyclopedia later and study more about monsters and dungeons if I want to continue doing this...' he thought to himself.
'But for now, let's see if I can obtain a new skill from this red goblin...'
A smile appeared on Lucas' face as he tightly gripped the sword in his grasp.
[Vanishing Steps]
Lucas used Vanishing Steps to instantly close in on the red goblin and prepared to strike it.
However, to his surprise, the red goblin suddenly turned around and blocked his attack with the small dagger in its hands.
'What?!' Lucas was shocked when the red goblin reacted to his sneak attack, and he quickly stopped his attack and distanced himself from the red goblin.
He has used the same strategy against other green goblins, but none of them were able to notice his attack, much less react and defend against it! Just what kind of goblin is he fighting against?