One of the good things about going to Rowan City is that Richard could take the train. Though it wasn’t any faster than going to New Burl, since unlike the bus, it stopped at every station in between. Maybe he would be able to afford a car if his alchemy takes off. It would also mean that he would need a place to park it as well… Something to think about for another time.
The train rolled into the Outer Station in Rowan City. It used to go all the way downtown. But the dungeon break had taken care of that station. Instead it connected to the edge of the city, and from there the incoming people would scatter onto other public transit routes.
What had been an empty car when Richard entered it, instead was filled to the doors. And it disgorged its many passengers from a few doors all at once. It took some time for him to finally step his feet onto the platform proper. And from there it was a quick line up to get onto the dungeon buses. He scanned his dungeon ID and was away to the Guild District where the Crafter's Union was located.
With the appearance of the dungeons technology had to advance, otherwise humanity wouldn't have been able to keep up with the threat of the monsters. And while tech wouldn’t work inside of the dungeons for some reason, all the tech used outside of them had jumped by leaps and bounds. It also led to the stark and utilitarian building style that Richard hated. Tall buildings. Glass. Metal. No charm or character.
It was a long winding trip, oftentimes going near or through the land around dungeons that had been abandoned. The ruins were almost a treat after having gone by the buildings built in the new style. And Richard found it strange to see how nature had reacted. Some places were teetering buildings about to collapse. While others had started to be reclaimed by nature. Grass growing through the cracks in the pavement and concrete. Trees having taken hold in odd places or growing out and over small buildings. The withdrawal of humans had allowed nature to try and heal. Back to a time before there were humans.
Richard was surprised when he finally spied some change in the ever present and tepid building style. The guild district looked like something out of an old sci-fi movie. The same towering steel buildings were there as everywhere else. Only they were plastered with screens displaying neon colors. s for the guilds housed inside or what services they offered. It was a refreshing, if gaudy, change of pace. There was also a large amount of vehicles and foot traffic such that it was easy to feel crowded even before he got off of the bus.
Richard stepped off the bus, dodged some people, and got glares from others walking past him as their paths intersected. It was loud. People were talking and their feet were scuffing on the ground. Vehicles moved along the major road just behind him. Cries of sales from the bussers and small shop fronts that spilled out from the buildings. He took a moment to look up at the building housing the Crafter’s Union. Right above the door was their emblem, A white hammer crossed with a white needle and thread on a blue conical flask outlined in white. There were screens around it advertising services and sales. Higher up were emblems that must have belonged to other guilds that must be sharing the building.
When Richard ducked inside the Crafter’s Union he was surprised by how the hustle and noise of the outside was cut off by the double doors. Of course it was instead replaced by a different kind of noise. The inside of the Union building looked somewhat messy. Instead of being closed up, the entire first floor was open and looked like one big flea market. Tables everywhere piled high with knit knacks, junk, and dungeon goods. Potions, armor, weapons, monster drops, crystals, and more. There was a low murmur of conversation as people spoke and bargained.
Richard loved the open nature of things and he dived in right away and started browsing. He didn’t have a lot of spare money at the moment. But it wouldn't hurt to look right? And if possible he would try and touch a number of items to see if it would give him new recipes to work with.
Only things didn’t go as Richard had hoped them to. While it was possible to inspect the goods arrayed before him. One needed to touch the item in order for the System to display the identification window, so it was foolish to even try to bargain for something without confirming one’s hands first.
He found a red version of the carapace, the System showed that it was a Red Insect Drakes Carapace when he touched it. Another looked like a slime core which turned out to be a Greater Green Slime Core. He also found several potions, an Antidote one as well as higher level ones of the healing and mana potions. They used Strong and Ex in their names. There was also something called a Restoration Tonic which appeared to regenerate both health and magic.
Only no matter how many things he picked up there were no new recipes. Why was that? Did it need to drop from a monster that he had defeated himself? Or was there something else at play? He looked around the rest of the market, there were still countless stalls and tables to visit. But was there even any point if he couldn't get new recipes? It wasn’t like he was going to be buying anything.
Richard sighed. Since he still wanted to get to a dungeon today he decided to leave the market for another time. The information booth was located behind a pair of glass doors that cut out the sound of the market. Inside he lined up and hoped to be able to get some answers about the Crafter’s Union. While he was pretty sure that he was going to join, he wanted to speak with someone about it first.
“Hello and welcome to the Crafter’s Union. How may I help you today?” a woman said with a bright smile. All of the staff were dressed up in white clothes with a solid teal line running from around the collar, down their shoulders, and then to their wrists. She also wore a small pillbox hat with a teal line that looped around its crown on top of her short blond hair. Her name tag read Sarah.
“Yes, I’m interested in information about the guild and its workings,” Richard said and then looked towards the market. “Is it possible for anyone to get a table? Or just guild members?”
“While it is possible for anyone, the fees will be less for guild members. Are you looking to join the Crafter’s Union?”
“I’m still undecided,” he needed to see what kinds of freedom they had first, “is there training available for crafters?”
“That depends on the crafters themselves. If you wish to enter in an apprentice contact with a crafter that is something outside of the guild and will be between the two of you. There are internal postings sometimes. The numbers of people willing to do training fluctuate as well. It all depends on the demand and time of the ones looking for apprentices.”
“What about fees for joining? Or any requirements?”
“There is a small fee each month in order to keep the guild hall running. As well as a percentage taken as commission should you entrust anything to the guild to be sold. As for requirements there aren’t any. Though I suppose that you would need some way to craft. So obtaining a skill like that would be based upon your own luck or finances.”
“Oh, would it be possible for non members to use the guild to sell items?”
She shook her head. “Sorry to say, but the market is the only way for non members to sell items.”
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They chatted a bit more and Richard learned that the guild had been created by a group of crafters that were tired of being pushed around by the larger guilds. The connections that were created by selling to smaller guilds were used to fight back. And it was generally considered to be a bad idea for outsiders to bother Crafter’s Union guild members. In the worst case they could get themselves or their guilds blacklisted.
He thanked her for her time, grabbed a quick shawarma from one of the stalls outside, and then hopped onto the bus towards the closest ‘safe’ dungeon. There was a lot of information to go over. But not a lot of info from those inside of the guild. Richard remembered what Mark had warned him about. That information about the guilds was tightly controlled by them. And how it wasn’t always a good idea to trust reviews or the company themselves. As that often good reviews were bought and bad ones were deleted.
Given the size of Rowan it still took 30 mins to get to the dungeon. One look at the King Street Dungeon Center was all he needed. It looked the same as every other Dungeon Center he had seen. The only difference was the number of people milling around. It appeared that dungeons in the big city were in higher demand. While there was a long line to check into the dungeon. All reception desks were staffed, which he hadn’t seen before. And It didn’t take long and he quickly checked in and entered the first floor.
The dungeon reminded Richard of the Slime Dungeon back in Welf. It was another plains floor, only instead of being green, the grass was brown and the air felt dryer. More of a savannah plains than a temperate one? He watched as groups of people all headed off in the same direction. The grass had been beaten down into a path, something that Richard had seen before. As parties would need to trudge through the 1st floor in order to get to the 2nd.
He picked a destination in the opposite direction as everyone else and walked until he found his first monster. It looked like a cross between a rabbit and a cat, which people had started calling cabbits. While it looked cute at first, its fur was white on the legs and more like a tabby on its back and head. It also had a long white tail that ended in a ball of fur. As soon he noticed the giant rodent’s teeth that jutted from its jaws Richard shuddered. It was clear that anyone thinking that it would be an idea too close or for cuddles would soon regret it.
Richard slowly stepped forward until the beast noticed him. It hissed like a cat and used its powerful hind legs to leap at him. He stepped to the side and brought his club down on its spine as it passed by. The beast screamed and writhed on the ground for a moment before he was able to follow up.
He was surprised at the sound that had let out and quickly reviewed the surroundings. It wouldn't be good to be ambushed by another cabbit before the first one dropped loot. When it seemed clear Richard looked for the drop and found a small white pelt. It was soft to the touch, was a little larger than his opened hand, and the System identified it as a Cabbit Pelt.
How did the system know to use a word that humans had coined for the monster? Was it always a Cabbit? Or did it become one after interacting with humans? Or was it using the expectation of the person to create the name? Richard shook his head and stowed the pelt in his satchel. There were too many questions of late, ones that he didn’t have the answer to. He pulled out the journal that he had bought and jotted down the questions that had just occurred to him. It's possible that others have done the same and figured something out. At the very least there should be some theories floating around.
The rest of the afternoon was somewhat leisurely. The cabbits were easy to fight and it wasn’t like he was in any danger. Maybe if he had started with fighting the cabbits first. But with the 2 levels from fighting slimes Richard felt that he was more than strong enough for the level of the dungeon that he was in.
In the end Richard felt that he had a good day’s earnings after about 5 hours. He planned to trade in all of the items that dropped. It should be more than enough for him to spend the night in Rowan. There were always cheap hostels and hotels around the Dungeon Centers. And he felt that it would be a waste to head home and then come back again to check out the other ‘safe’ dungeon. Really it would be nice to get out of the apartment, even if it just was for a night.
The cabbits tended to drop pelt more than anything else. He also found some teeth and bones. From the screens outside there were even rarer drops like eyes or magic stones. But Richard wasn’t that lucky. Though he was pretty happy as the pelts sold for $2,550 each. From what he understood that since they came from monsters it was considered a cruelty free option for animal fur and leather.
While the teeth were pretty cheap at $50 each. They always dropped between 3 and 5 teeth at a time. Which still wasn’t great given how they were a rare drop. Instead of adding value to the day, they took it away since they weren’t the more profitable Cabbit Pelts.
The Bones were a little rarer and had a lot more demand. Due to that they sold for $3,750 each. Which meant that his total for the day was $27,100 from 9 pelts, 8 teeth, and 1 bone. That amount didn’t consider the $10k that he had spent on equipment rentals. Given how much he had made in 5 hours it was no wonder that the Cabbit Dungeon was so popular.
Once Richard finished selling his drops he jumped on another bus and found a place to stay near the Ward East Dungeon. It was the other ‘safe’ dungeon that he was planning on visiting while in Rowan. And after he got a quick bite to eat at the pizza place next door he called it an early night.
***
The Ward East Dungeon was named so because it was one of two dungeons in the Ward section of Rowan City. It made it easy to remember. Though Richard kind of liked referring to the dungeons by what spawned inside of them. Cabbit Dungeon. Mushroom Dungeon.
That was right. Mushrooms. Walking Mushrooms. From the information Richard gathered they were meter high walking mushrooms that would try to bludgeon explorers with their cap. The ones on the first floor all had red caps speckled with white spots and looked somewhat like a fly amanita.
There was a twist to fighting against the mushrooms. If they weren’t killed right away they could shoot out poison spores from under their caps. But that would only be a problem for level 1 explorers who were either too weak or lacking the determination to finish the mushrooms off before they counted with the spores.
It wasn’t as busy as the King Street Dungeon and Richard was able to check in quickly. The environment of the first floor was one big dimly lit forest. It was rather eerie, the dim lighting led to a sense of the unknown. The forest floor was covered with leaves and a slight dew had fallen making them slick. And there was a slight scent of things left to rot about the floor.
Richard had a hard time finding the walking mushrooms as they would often hide in the shadows of the trees. And would lumber out once someone came close enough to attack. A quick club to the noggin was enough to render them loot.
When compared to the Cabbits the Walking Mushrooms appeared less often. And Richard found that he spent most of the time wandering around the first floor. Walking around trees and checking the shadows. He soon fell into a routine. Which was wandering around listening for anything trying to sneak up on him. Dodging should he hear anything, give it a slap, pick up the drops, and continue forward.
The drops weren’t anything fancy. And Richard was either unlucky or they just had a small drop table as he only got Mushroom Caps. From the screen outside in the center there should have been things like twigs or spores. But they were so rare they didn’t even have an estimated drop percentage.
As for the Mushroom Caps they had a brown cap about the size of a $2 coin with a small white stalk. Why did they look totally different from the monster that dropped them? Richard had no idea. He was also frustrated with the dungeon. It had taken him a moment to find the first Mushroom Cap that dropped. It blended in with the dead leaves on the forest floor and he wondered if there was a chance that nothing dropped. Combined with how few monsters he was finding it felt like it was a dud dungeon for him.
While he could have kept some of the mushroom caps that dropped Richard once again decided to just sell it all. He didn’t want to keep having months where he was barely in the black. Which meant that something had to change. Yes, there was the option of dumping potions on the market. And there was the option of finding a party and diving deeper into the dungeons. But wouldn’t those go against the life that he was trying for? Something easy and slow. Pursuing what hobbies caught his eye. While not having to worry about too many things.
A part of him knew that he was being naive. And that someday he would need to start crafting more. But Richard, at least the one at the moment, wanted to live his current life just a little longer.
Which would have been in the Mushroom Caps didn’t sell for $1,000 each. He only found 7 and ended up eating a loss due to the equipment fees. Worst. Dungeon. Ever.
