Ch 37 / The Secret Dungeon Part 1

Shin started to narrate as he said:

“I was a highly esteemed prince that was eligible for the throne. I and Respon had equal chances, but he played things dirty and schemed against me.

There was a competition here in one of the oldest game worlds, and I lost this completion for him. He didn’t stop there as he started to spread bad words upon me.

I tried hard to fight back, but it was too late. He had already amassed other princes and princesses around him. He also bought the majority of aristocratic families to refuse to help me.

So, I was stigmatized by a name that became known to everyone, the crazy prince.

I also deteriorated to this state where I have to fight for my life. If I lost my adventure here, I would be doomed, so I’m not a friend of them, instead, I’m their major enemy.”

Shin was saying all this with remorse. I didn’t imagine his status to be this high. He was shoulder to shoulder with Respon, which made him a crown prince too.

I didn’t experience diplomatic schemes and princes’ war in my life, so I couldn’t imagine what he experienced so far, but I was sure it was like hell.

I felt sympathy for him, and I understood the reason behind his earlier advice to me. It seemed he tried to play it slowly with Respon and other aristocrats, and this fair and slow competition made him lose everything.

This safety was dangerous in disguise, so he tried to push me away from my earlier planning as I would fail.

Regardless of the fact of his previous words about his curse and my reincarnation, this advice from him seemed to be logical and practical. The only problem I had now as I lost my momentum.

I planned everything over the resistance movement that I created, and now I lost this resistance and all the players’ support with it. The others went silent too.

Although I couldn’t know for sure what they were thinking about, I could guess it. Anyone would hear Shin would develop sympathy for him.

“As we all have said our secrets, it’s time to think about what we can do next.”

Goda was the one who replied to my words as he said:

“This depends on what you plan to do next princess.”

“First of all, I’m not a princess, so stop calling me that. Secondly, my path will always be against those aristocrats. So, we need to plan things out depending on this fact.”

“It’s a shame that we lost the spear resistance, it would be nice to have the support of all those players from the start of the game,” Mony said with regret while she shook her head.

I also felt the same regret, but I had to move on. This blow from my enemies was strategically surgical, in just one hit they deprived me of all my advantages that I worked so hard to get.

“It’s also a problem as your identity was blown and every player now is angry with you.

They believe you tricked all of them, so they directed their wrath of aristocrats over to you,” Snad expressed his thoughts while he was trying to analyze the current situation. Before I could comment on him, Shin interfered:

“No, you have mistaken something here. What was exposed wasn’t the identity of Agatha, but the identity of the spear lady that wore a cape.”

Goda asked in confusion:

“Is there a difference? She is the only spear lady I know, and also no one had a cap now except a few players. It would be easy to identify her.”

Shin shook his head as he said in a firm tone:

“You are right, but the cap and the spearwoman class aren’t unique for her alone. Here is just a novice village with a small number of players.

When we move to the town, there will be a bigger number of players and many spearwomen players there. Caps are common in town, so when she uses one there, she won’t attract any suspicion too.”

I understood Shin meaning, as I asked:

“Do you mean we need to go to the town?”

“Yes, and we need to do it as fast as possible.”

Goda argued back:

“We still have a long way to reach level 10. We will need supplies and that would lead us back to the village.

We might bump into some players too. If a single player discovers our identity, he will expose us to the forums leading to relentless assault from everyone.”

Shin smiled as he said:

“I have a way to do that without exposing us to all these dangers.”

Shin then took out a key. Once I saw it, I exclaimed in surprise:

“The secret serial dungeon key!”

Everyone looked to the key with interest, while Heda asked:

“What is this secret dungeon key?”

Shin explained with a big smile:

“It’s a magical solution to all of our problems. This is a key that leads to a secret dungeon. We can enter it now as our level just met the lowest requirements of it.

As it’s a secret dungeon, no one can bother us there. we can enter it for as many times as we wish until we cross the level 10 threshold.”

They all looked in disbelief towards this small key while Goda asked with doubt:

“How did you manage to obtain such a thing?”

“I bought it from some NPC. Now it’s not the time to ask these questions. We need to fill our supplies first from potions. I can’t go back to the city or else my enemies would reveal my identity.

You will go back, sell all the trash equipment we got, buy all the supplies we need, and then come back here as soon as possible.

I plan for us to upgrade our levels to cross level 10 without a break, so this is the only chance we have. Buy anything that could benefit us in the dungeons, like potions, groceries, and even scrolls if you find any.”

Shin started to divide work from his own experience. I didn’t interfere as my knowledge here was negligent. Goda exchanged glances with everyone, including me, before saying:

“That sounds like a good plan to me. Give us all the equipment we have and we will sell them and buy all the necessities we need.”

I and Shin gave them all the equipment we got so far from killing monsters. After that they returned to the village while I waited for them with Shin who asked once they disappeared:

“Now sweet little princess, tell me everything that happened with Respon.���

I glanced at him silently while he continued:

“I need to hear his words. You are a foreigner here, so you might neglect some little info that might be useful for us.”

His words seemed logical to me, but I still didn’t say anything. My stand between those two was obvious; I would never prefer one against the other.

I only used Shin here as I had no one else to rely upon, and also I couldn’t neglect his theory completely. I would stand neutral until I held a solid proof on any of the two claims.

“Let’s kill some monsters until they return.”