Felix replied, exasperated. 'Do you think I'm so incompetent? I have the dagger artifact my father gifted to me when I was fifteen strapped to my waist.'
Harry 'I wasn't trying to insult you, I just didn't notice the dagger. I was worried you would get us killed trying to fight a monster bare-handed.'
Felix 'Your worries are unfounded, all elves taught to fight from a young age. You would have difficulties finding an incompetent elf who can't hold their own in a fight.'
Before Harry could reply further Felix heard his name being called out by a purple haired guard.
"Felix Rakki, Lily Everstone and Ebony Woodheart! To me please!"
Felix and two other adventurers, a girl with long brown hair and a boy with curly black hair, moved their way through the thinning crowd and approached the purple haired man calling their names.
"Alright kids, my name is Venny and I will be escorting you to the dungeon today. Before we get started I want you ,in order from left to right, to introduce yourselves and tell me what role you want in combat." Venny gestured his hand toward the curly haired boy and asked him to start "you first kid"
The boy fidgeted with his fingers as he spoke. "Oh I'm err Ebony and I can place a shield that acts like a second layer of skin on myself and others. I prefer to erm use a bow from the backlines and act as support."
Venny "Good! You next girl."
The young girl smiled with excitement as she said. "Hi, Im lily! I can grow and manipulate plants to tangle up my opponents. In combat I use a spear to keep my enemy away from me as I tangle them up with plants."
Venny gestured for Felix to speak "And last but not least."
Felix's voice remained neutral as he spoke "My name is Felix and I have a danger sense Skill that I use in close combat with my dagger."
"Alright with that out of the way, we can discuss everything else on the way to the dungeon." Venny turned and started walking out of the training yard "follow me."
The trio and their leading escort made their way down the streets of Entwood where almost everything was made of wood, the street lights, the houses and even the transportation artifacts (cars). The houses had walls of flowers growing out of the walls and the street lights had blooming vines hanging from above.
Harry 'This place is so beautiful. You could say it's… out of this world.'
Felix let his calm facade slip as the edges of his mouth curved upwards slightly.
Venny addressed the young adventures as he walked. "You kids should know already that when killing another being you can choose to gain some unrefined soul essence or five times less refined soul essence but what you might not know is that when splitting soul essence in between party members you have to choose whether you want refined or unrefined ahead of time. I suggest you guys put it to a vote amongst yourselves."
There was a small awkward silence."..."
Felix was the first one to break the silence "I possess a small bag of holding, so I would prefer we collect materials to sell for unrefined soul essence and get refined soul essence from the monsters."
Ebony stammered. "I… I'm okay with that."
Lily questioned. "How big is your bag of holding and how will we split the money we will get from selling the materials?"
Felix replied. "The bag of holding has roughly one meter cubed worth of space and it halves the weight of anything inside. I think we should split the money equally, we should do the same for the refined soul essence we get from the monsters."
Lily relented her questioning. "That seems fair, I'm okay with that."
Venny cut in "I'm glad you kids could get that sorted without any arguments, it's always awkward when that happens. I'll create the party now and send you three an invite, don't let the invite block your vision you might walk into someone.
A small blue rectangle appeared in Felix's vision, Asking him to join Vennys party.
You have been invited to Vennys party, do you accept?
Felix thought. 'Yes.'
In the top left of Felix's vision are four small blue bars containing the names of his current adventuring companions and himself. A moment later another notification popped up informing him of his soul essence distribution.
Party leader Venny has set your refined soul essence share to 33.4%. Do you accept? Please note that if you refuse to share your soul essence your party leader will be notified.
Felix thought. 'I accept. The notifications are annoying. Please miniaturise them and put them in the top right of my vision, System.'
With all the formalities out the way the group fell into idle chatter as they made their way to the Entwood dungeon, though it was mostly the brown haired girl talking to Venny about his life as a town guard, with the younger boys being more comfortable with silence. It wasn't too long before the young adventurers found themselves in front of a small stone castle that greatly contrasted the more vibrant surroundings.
As the group strode forward through the open gates of the castle, they bore witness to a grand wooden arch that looked as if it grew straight out of the ground within the center of the castle's courtyard. The wooden arch contained a swirling blue portal that stretched to the inner edge of the arch. Surrounding the centerpiece of the castle's courtyard were several town guards all keeping a close eye on Entwood dungeon gate.
Venny paused and turned sound to address the young adventurers. "I trust you have all done some basic research on the monsters you can encounter on the first floor of the dungeon?"
The young adventurers gave Venny words of affirmation.
Harry 'I was born like twenty minutes ago… I didn't know there was homework.'
Felix mentally sighed 'You are not the one fighting the monsters, you will find out when we get there.'
Harry tried to roll his eyes. 'Excuse me for wanting to be well informed.'
As Venny and the three newbie adventurers walked towards the swirling portal, an ordinary dungeon guard approached them.
"I need to see some identification before I can let you in. Including you, Venny."
"Aye, no problem Spruce." Venny pulled out his adventurer's badge from a small pouch tied to his waist. The newbies following him followed his lead and did the same.
Spruce "Alright I don't sense any issues. Go on through."
Venny And Lily walked through the wooden arch without any hesitation but before Felix could follow them he noticed that Ebony seemed to hesitate. Felix turned his head towards Ebony and asked.
"Are you coming?"
Ebony squirmed "I… have never gone through a dungeon portal before. What if there's a monster on the other side?"
Felix replied swiftly "A small military camp protects the other side you will be fine."
Felix grabbed Ebony by the arm and pulled him into the dungeon portal
"Hey! Wa-"
There was no stomach turning sensation as they traveled through a dimensional gateway, nor did they feel any disorientation from moving from one plane of existence to another. It felt more like they simply stepped through a door. The two appeared on the other side with all their limbs attached.
Felix bluntly stated. "Sorry about that Ebony but quite frankly I would much prefer to fight with a safety measure like your shield Skill. I can't have you psyching yourself out of it.
"You… I… Whatever…" Ebony sighed.
Felix ignored his cowardly teammate and took in his surroundings. He noticed he was in a small military camp located in a small plains surrounded by extremely tall and thick redwood trees. The clear sky above seemed to hang low as the trees bent at the top and hit an invisible wall. Felix stopped staring at the lowered sky as he heard Venny shout for him and Ebony.
Venny shouted. "Over hear you two!"
A disgruntled Ebony and an uncaring Felix approached their escort and fellow adventuring companion lily.
Harry questioned Felix. 'Dude… Was that really necessary? The poor kid was nervous. Have a little empathy.'
Felix replied, frustrated. 'He knew ahead of time he was going to enter a dungeon. If he wasn't prepared mentally he shouldn't have come.'
Harry tried to sigh but had no lungs to use. 'I mean, you're right but that doesn't mean you can just drag him through a portal. You need to apologise to the poor lad.'
Felix thought. 'Your right. I let my anger get the better of me.'
"Ebony, I'm sorry for dragging you through that portal. It was uncourth of me, I should have let you prepare yourself."
Ebony replied, still a little bitter. "It's fine. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be."
With the atmosphere still a little tense, the two boys caught up with Venny and Lily.
"Let's head deeper into the woods, the ents are cleared regularly around the gate so we won't find much to kill around here. We will adopt a diamond formation with Felix at the front with his danger sense Skill, Lily, Ebony you will take center. In combat Lily will move forwards to support Felix and Ebony will stay behind giving support with your shielding Skill and bow. I will take reaguard and intervene if I deem it necessary. Any objections?"
"..."
"Good then get in position and Felix just head away from camp don't worry too much about getting lost, I have a cheap artifact that always points to the camp."
Lily and Ebony moved a few paces behind Felix and followed his lead as he headed straight towards the woods. The group weaved through the giant redwood forest in alert silence as they moved over the unnaturally flat terrain, only occasionally having to overstep a large root. They walked past many trees but Harry couldn't help but notice something strange about them.
'Hey Felix, is it just my imagination or are all the trees identical? There's no splotches of random moss or random vines laying around. Even in the grass I don't see any random weeds, it's all just plain grass.'
'Mm, Most Dungeons are a poor imitation of the real world but I don't really know much more than that. I have always trained to survive in a dungeon. I don't need to know the ins and outs, I'll leave that to the scholars.'
Before Harry could try to get more answers out of Felix, he felt Felix's instincts flare as they alerted him that something was wrong. Felix held his fist up to motion his party to stop and quickly alerted them.
"Be careful. I sense danger nearby."
Before the party could look around for danger they all heard a loud thump to their left. They all turned to see a large two meter tall wooden man. The center of its face held a large green eye with a void like pupil that drew in those that looked into it. At the center of the ents hollow chest lay its exposed, pulsing green heart. The ent spotted the four intruders and immediately moved in their direction with its stumpy wooden legs.
"This is it kids, I will intervene if somebody's life is in danger but other than that you're on your own."