I purchased eight of the embryos for eighty gold, planning to save five for my armor, and three for my weapons when I found decent replacements. Although I could ask Hammerhead to forge me some, we weren’t established enough yet to get reliable high-level materials. Especially since none of the nearby dungeons were good sources of monster components, aside from the Shrine of Greed.
As we were leaving the shop, Diane looked up at me. “Drake, the solstice event is coming up in a couple days, right?” She asked, her tone probing. I knew that she would already be aware of it, so I nodded my head. “Can you explain a bit about it to me?”
That caused me to look over at her in confusion. “Isn’t the information released in advance like the patch notes?”
However, Diane shook her head. “All that the developers said was that there was an upcoming event on Tuesday, and that lucky players would be able to earn special rewards from the sea. Everything else, we have to figure out on our own.”
I blinked a couple of times, before letting out a sigh. “It’s not like it’s a big secret or anything. Like the swarms on April Fools’ Day, there are a few annual events that everyone keeps in mind. The Summer Solstice, the All Hallow’s Parade, and the Two Weeks of Joy are the three events left to take place this year.”
“Like April Fools’ Day, the Summer Solstice event only lasts for a single day. However, you could think of it as the opposite of the former event. There are no waves of monsters that must be defended against. In fact, all monsters in the sea are pacified for a single day. Throughout the sea, glowing bubbles can be found, and will grant rewards to anyone that touches them.”
“I’ve never been able to participate in the Summer Solstice event, naturally, since I wasn’t able to safely go out into the sea, even without worrying about monsters. However, I’ve heard that the quality of the treasure depends on the level of the area, as well as the difficulty to reach the bubble.”
Diane’s eyes widened as she listened, nodding her head firmly. “I see. So, when Bella messaged me that she was going to find Nuoda…”
“I had her go so that she could get a swimsuit.” I confirmed with a small smile. “Once she has it, we’ll be heading east, beyond the mountains. As long as the solstice event affects this realm, we’ll be able to take part there. If it doesn’t, we’ll be able to use the car to return to the original world.”
Diane nodded again, walking alongside me. “Can you tell me about the other two events? I’d like to prepare for them in advance.”
“They’re not for a while yet. Are you sure?” I questioned, but she nodded her head, seeming quite curious. “The All Hallow’s Parade starts on the last day of October, and lasts for one week. During this week, monsters will transform into people and sneak into the cities. The guards have to be on high alert, because the more clever monsters will blend in, and start killing civilians.”
“This parade of death is an annual event that keeps the guard of every city on edge. However, if you manage to identify and slay a transformed monster, you have a chance to receive a special mask. This mask will let you put an illusion over yourself to blend in with the monster type you killed. Some people use these masks to try to sneak into the monster dens and learn their plans.”
“Finally, the Two Weeks of Joy is a rare event that affects everyone, even NPCs. It begins on the twenty-fifth of December and lasts for two weeks. First of all, there are thematic drops from monsters, but the big thing for most is the presents. I’m not sure of the requirements, but it’s said that those who make a wish during the Two Weeks of Joy will find their wish granted, if they have been good.”
Diane nodded her head seriously. “So, it’s like a karmic reward system… as long as the system has not identified any criminal activity, you can make a wish… what kinds of things can you wish for?”
I simply shrugged apologetically. “Sorry. When I became a Chosen, my personal memories were distorted. I can’t remember any of my past wishes, or whether they were granted. You’d need to ask an NPC, or one of the older Fallen like Kelly.”
Diane pursed her lips behind her facemask, but accepted my answer. There wasn’t really anything I could do about it. I remembered the concept of wishes, but I could not for the life of me remember what I had ever wished for.
“By the way, why didn’t she just get the swimsuit from Hammerhead?” Diane asked in confusion. “As far as I know, he’s an omnicrafter. He should be able to make her something decent, right? And probably faster than Nuoda.”
I simply gave a wry chuckle. “First, I thought Hammerhead was still busy studying the mimics when I suggested she go to Nuoda. But even then, I thought she’d prefer to have another woman make it.”
Diane paused, her eyes widening slightly. I saw the faintest hint of a flush creeping onto her cheeks before she shook her head, returning to her stoic demeanor. “Right, that makes sense. Then, what are we going to do while we wait?”
“Honestly? I was just walking around aimlessly.” I confessed with a light laugh. “I was considering whether or not I should spawn another resource dungeon with the funds that we’ve managed to get from the Shrine of Greed. Preferably, I’d like something where we could get a reliable source of food or metals. Right now, Fallcry is in a very unstable position. Thus, I was going to either spawn one now, or wait until we returned from the solstice event.”
Diane pursed her lips, thinking. “Might as well do it now, right? The event isn’t for a couple more days, and it’ll take us at most a few hours to drive to the coast.”
I hesitantly nodded my head, opening my menu to purchase a Resource Dungeon Ticket for fifty platinum. My heart ached to spend this much money all at once, but I had to tell myself that it was an investment. No matter what type of dungeon appeared, it was something that would boost the economy of Fallcry in the long run.
Once I held out my hand, Diane took it, and I quickly took us to the wall of the city before using the ticket. My eyes scanned the surroundings, looking for any change that could indicate the dungeon. I even deployed my Hawkeye-X, getting a view from above. However, I didn’t notice anything at first.
However, just as I was about to bit the bullet and use a second ticket, my eyes caught a glimpse of something. Tucked into the base of one of the nearby mountains was a small crack, a swirling portal hidden within. “Found it.” I said in delight, and began teleporting myself and Diane in that direction.
There were no monsters outside the crack when we arrived, so I didn’t think that this was just a naturally spawned dungeon that we had overlooked. “Be careful, just in case.” I warned Diane. “There might be exploding trees or something like the last one…”
She nodded her head seriously, so I led the way into the crack, bracing myself for any sort of natural hazard that I could.
I felt my feet land on a damp, cold stone. When I looked around, I found a… frankly breathtaking scene. I stood in a large cave, with a tunnel leading out on either side. One contained the portal that I just came through, while the other was dark.
Before me, I saw a shining waterfall that took up nearly a third of the cavern, the mouth of the falls surrounded by a glowing crystal. These crystals were sometimes carried down the falls, landing in a wide pool below. Lining the walls was a silvery metal, spread out in thick veins that reflected the light of the waterfall in a dazzling display.
A moment later, Diane emerged, landing on the floor next to me. Her eyes scanned the cavern, taking in the sights. “Well… it looks like we have our mining dungeon.” She said in a somewhat amused tone. Though, to be fair, there weren’t many types of resource dungeons that wouldn’t be helpful, unless it landed on another wood one.
I took a deep breath, walking over and using Observe on everything I could. “The veins are platinum ore. The stones… mana stones. Some of them are attuned to water or earth, and the water itself is a resource called Mana Water.”
Diane nodded her head in satisfaction. “We don’t need to get Aetra’s village involved in this one, right? It’s too far away from them, after all. Also, it doesn’t take any special skill to pick up these stones.” As she said that, she dipped her hand into the water, casually retrieving one of the mana stones.
“That’s right… the only real challenge would be getting the platinum.” Personally, I was fine with not collecting the platinum right away. It was more rare than mana crystals, sure, but it wasn’t to the degree that platinum could actually be sold for platinum coins or anything like that. We could wait until we had some dedicated miners, so there was no need to rush things right now.
With that thought in mind, Diane and I walked down the other tunnel, finding a similar room on the other side. And another beyond that, and so on. These dungeons were designed to expand, so it made sense that the room repeated, even if it did feel a bit odd.
“I’m going for a swim.” Diane suddenly said, an undertone of interest in her voice as she walked to the edge of the pool.
“Are you sure you want to do that?” I arched a brow, but she nodded her head.
“That’s right. I want to see where these empty out. There might be a secret resource. Worst case scenario, I die and get a free trip back to town.” She said, before taking a deep breath . Without further hesitation, she dove into the water, disappearing beneath its surface.
I shrugged, not wanting to bother her in her little adventure. Thus, I sat down on the edge of the pool to wait, thinking to myself what sort of secret resource she might find. Perhaps there was a way to fish in this pool? Or a rare gem hidden at the bottom of it.
As I thought about that, I sat there and waited, lost in my own idle musings. This particular dungeon didn’t seem to have anything in the way of dangers that I needed to be wary of, so I allowed myself to relax, taking in the beauty of the cavern.
After a while, I lost track of time, assuming that Diane had used her rune writing to give herself water breathing. At the very least, she hadn’t messaged me yet, and I had checked to make sure messages weren’t simply being blocked or anything like that.
Eventually, I heard a sudden gasp from the next room over, realizing that Diane had come up from a different pool than she went in. With a small shrug, I stood up, walking over. Diane dragged herself out of the water, looking utterly exhausted. “Are you alright?” I asked in concern, rushing towards her.
“Yeah… just a strong current.” She explained, shaking her head. “Took me a little while to make my way back up.”
“Did you find anything down there?” I asked, and she nodded her head.
“You could say that. There’s this giant turtle thing with metal and crystals growing off of its back. You have to go down through a few tunnels to reach it, but then there is a giant opening where it just laid there. I used my Shadow Intent-X to mine some samples, and it didn’t move.”
After she said that, she pulled one metal ore and one crystal out of her inventory. When I appraised them, they were the same platinum and mana crystals that were at the dungeon’s entrance. However, the value shown by the appraisal was clearly higher, indicating that they were a higher level resource.
“We’ll discuss this with Nuoda later.” I said, explaining what the materials were. When Diane heard that they were simply stronger versions of what was more easily accessible, her face fell. Clearly, she was hoping to obtain mithril or some other extremely rare resource.
