Chronicles of the True Wizard

"How the hell did you get your hands on these anyways?" Alan asked.

"Dungeons." Felix said shortly.

"What are you? Some kind of super high level craftsman?" Will wore a confused expression on his face.

"Enchanter ish and no. These are from Quest dungeons mostly." Felix sighed.

"Wait what? I thought they were all profession dungeons?" Will said.

"Nope. There are also combat dungeons too." Felix answered with the remains of his rapidly shrinking patience.

All three of them looked at each-other excitedly at the mention of a combat dungeon.

"If you lead me to the dungeon in the caves, I will handle all the Mole-Ants, you can keep all the gear, plus I will mark down every dungeon I know about on your maps. How about that?" Felix offered.

"Woah woah woah, what makes you think you can have these back? I'm never letting this thing go." Alan held his bow tightly in his arms.

"Look, we appreciate the whole lone wolf act, but we gotta test the new equipment out, what if it's an illusion, you know?" Will added

Felix was very close to punching him harder than he ever should, "Can we go now?"

"Yeah alright, we can give this a shot. We go carefully though and you gotta listen to me, got it?" Benjamin ordered.

"How long will it take to get there?" Felix asked.

"Normally takes less than a day, but with combat, camp and watch, shouldn't be more than a few days, five at most." Benjamin answered.

That is WAY too long.

"Can you reveal some of the way there to me and I can clear out the caves ahead of us? Try to speed this up a little?" Felix asked hopefully.

"Fine, don't kill yourself and come back when you get to the end." Benjamin relented. He shared a partial map of the tunnels with Felix, which filled in his own map.

Felix nodded to them before jogging at normal human speeds down the cave and out of sight. As he was leaving, Benjamin yelled behind him, "Remember, the Mole-Ants likely changed the layout and your map won't update down here."

As soon as Felix was sure he was out of sight, he ran at full speed down the cave. He made it to the end of the partial map he was given then began clearing all of the side caves and tunnels around him to make sure there were no Mole-Ant's hiding. He managed to find a handful of them and quickly wiped them out with a single overpowered Fire Bolt each before stowing the bodies to hide his proficiency. He waited a few more minutes then ran back to where he had left his burden.

When he heard them just down the cave, he slowed down to a normal human's pace and rejoined them.

"It's all clear all the way to the end."

"Did you run straight there?" Benjamin contorted his face.

"He's gonna kill himself." Alan said to Will.

"You need to clear the side tunnels, what if they ambush us?" Will added.

"Is there any way I can get you all to move faster?" Felix asked bluntly.

"Look, we appreciate the gear, but we aren't gonna just throw our lives away cause you don't have any patience." Benjamin said.

Felix looked at him for a few moments, then dropped six Mole-Ant corpses with singed holes through their heads on the ground in front of them.

Alan knelt down and inspected them before turning to his friends, "Fresh."

"Alright, you got lucky and they were low level. They won't all be like this, don't let it get to your head." Benjamin said unsurely.

"How many?" Felix asked.

"How many what?" Benjamin shook his head with confusion.

"How many Mole-Ant corpses do you need me to bring you before you let me set the pace to the dungeon."

"That's not-"

"A hundred." Alan cut him off.

Felix was already around the corner before he finished.

It took Felix about twenty minutes total. It helped a lot that he came across multiple large groups all bunched up together.

This is kind of like revealing my level, but I think this will be more believable. At least I hope so. They will probably assume I have some crazy magic items from dungeons and that they are missing out, which hopefully makes them lust after the dungeon locations even more.

Felix ran back to the three of them then started dumping bodies at their feet before they could even open their mouths. After twenty bodies, the cave was completely full, so they started to stow them in their inventories to make sure Felix wasn't cheating with Alan inspecting each one for freshness.

"Do you really have a hundred of these?" Will asked after Felix had dumped about forty of them in the cave.

"Oh yeah, and you're gonna take them all. I don't want a single one in my inventory." Having already inspected their bodies with his ring, Felix had decided there was nothing of value to him on or in them, which made them just a large waste of space.

After Felix dumped a hundred and twelve fresh bodies in front of their feet, and having collected them in under a half hour, Benjamin finally relented.

"Alright, we'll run there. Let's go. I'm not giving you the whole map cause I don't want you to just leave us behind, but we'll try to keep up with you."

Felix sighed in relief and started running, trying to keep his pace achievable by those running with him. After getting fed up with their speed, he also filled the cave with a strong tail wind.

They ran like that for a few hours, with Felix dispatching any Mole-Ants they came across, making sure to use multiple Fire Bolts so he wasn't killing them in a single hit. The dispatching of the Mole-Ants let Felix blow off some steam which let his frustration slowly fade. He was feeling a little bad for being so short with them earlier so he guiltily started a conversation with Benjamin, using a simple barrier of mana to keep the wind out of the conversation.

"What's up with Emma?"

"Uh, good question." Benjamin thought for a moment. "Let me just start from the beginning. I was the one who found and claimed the fort originally. I lived a good life, fighting Mole-Ants and chilling with Will and Alan who showed up about a week later. We mostly leveled and explored the caves, eventually finding the dungeon. Will and Alan hadn't chosen a profession yet, so I completed the dungeon while they stood guard. After that I had met all the requirements so I officially claimed the fort. At this point, the Mole-Ants were mostly docile. They only attacked if you walked right up to them, but you could walk by as long as you kept your distance. They didn't bother us and we didn't bother them. Then, a few weeks in, Emma shows up."

"Her dad was a veteran in the army but died when she was young. She wanted to join the army too, follow in his footsteps. Her dad's commanding officer swore to her dad, on his death bed, to keep her out of the military, so he'd been blocking her ever since. She arrived here and kind of took over, not literally, I was still the leader but she started to set up platoons and scouting parties, organizing the whole camp. While I might not agree with her on everything, she is a good leader and she's keeping us mostly safe. The platoons she sends out are majorly overkill but they keep everyone relatively safe. Eventually I gave up on fighting it and named her my successor."

"Best decision I ever made by the way. I don't feel responsible for people anymore and I went back to just grinding and hanging out with friends. The platoons allow people to level in relative safety and everyone has food, water and shelter. So thing's are pretty good overall."

"What do you guys eat anyways?" Felix asked.

"Mole-Ants and marketplace goods."

"Gross." Felix said with disgust.

"Yeah but most of us down here are low on cash so… It's survivable though. How many of the other forts have you been to? What are they like?"

"I've been to Icewatch, Tri-peak and Tiki Kahuna, all the others were closed."

"Woah, those are far apart, how did you get all the way over here then?"

"The boots make me very fast." Felix slightly lied, not wanting to get into specifics.

Benjamin looked down at Felix's boots, possibly trying to identify them. He gave up after a few moments and Felix continued, "Icewatch is run by Broxus, they hunt every day and try to push levels as hard as they can. If you fall behind on level, you are kicked out. It's just constant hunting and grinding."

"Tiki Kahuna is just a big resort. Giant tiki hut in the middle with any drink you can imagine. Everyone just dances, surfs and relaxes all day. Run by Mike, good guy."

"Tri-Peak is my home. An old stone fort city in the valley between three mountains. It's open to anyone which made it kind of profession focused when none of the other forts wanted non-combatants. You can buy a house or have one custom built to your specification, if you have the cash. Oh and the castle was turned into a System run university or college where you can study anything you want. The streets were all open markets last time I visited where you can buy anything you want. They're all profession focused so you have farmers, blacksmiths, cooks and even an alchemist."

"Who runs that one?"

"Uh… Not sure." Felix lied.

"So Tri-peak is your home, why not the resort? Wouldn't that be sweet?"

"I can't vacation permanently, I need to do things, like to focus on tasks and grind. Plus if I want to visit Tiki Kahuna, it's less than a day's travel from Tri-Peak, with my boots at least."

"That sounds too good to be true."

"I mean, there was a wait list for houses when I was there, but there are barracks so no one is sleeping in the streets."

"What are the taxes like?"

"5%"

Benjamin whistled, "So anyone is welcome?"

"Yup, just don't hit people, steal or kill and you should be fine. At least, last I checked."

Benjamin nodded, a little lost in thought.

Felix interrupted his day dreaming after a few minutes, "So, have you explored around here much? I mean outside of the caves?"

"There isn't much to explore outside of the caves, it's all mostly the same with water on every side except the wall to the west. That and the giant bird, but it doesn't seem to give a shit about us."

"It's water on every side? Even to the south?"

"Yup. To the west and north west is the edge of the map but otherwise, yup."

Shit, I'm gonna need to cross it to get back, that's a pain in the ass. Hopefully it's not too long of a swim.

After a few moments Benjamin spoke up, "So enchanter ish, you any good?"

"I will enchant your armor for you if you are still there when I leave the puzzle dungeon, how about that?"

"Really? Thanks… I'll be there."

It took the whole party a total of 10 hours to get to the Puzzle Dungeon. The caves were relatively clear with just a couple dozen or so Mole-Ants per hour that Felix dealt with.

The dungeon was a large door in the side of one of the caves, in an out of place, perfectly shaped cave.

When they arrived, Felix turned to the group, "Well, this is me. Let me mark your maps real quick."

Felix marked Benjamin's first before marking Alan's and Will's. He marked the puzzle dungeons in blue, the combats in red and the quests in yellow.

"Wait, you've been to them all?"

"This is the last one. Thanks for being good sports about all this. Feel free to go back on your own if you'd like, I'm not sure how long it'll take me. I can manage on my own."

With that said, Felix touched the door.

Puzzle Dungeon B

You have found a dungeon. Would you like to enter?

Yes

No

Yes. . . . . .