Chapter Seventeen
Mourning
First, before going to the dungeon I had in mind, it was time to pick up my new armor from Tabitha.
“Here ya go!” Tabitha said, trading all of my new gear to me. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen anyone use this set. Most folk would rather get a specific dungeon set instead.”
“I get it,” I said, accepting the trade.
The specific dungeon sets were better for specialized builds while the Adventurer’s Set was more general, not really offering any special synergies.
We also bought Lupa some generic armor better than what she had since I wanted to make sure we buffed her total defense for where we were going, even though I had a feeling she didn’t actually need that much defense since she just…
didn’t get hit in the first place. Oh, and I upgraded to the level ten common sickle, which was just called a Sharpened Sickle and otherwise the exact same as the other one but with significantly more damage, and we made sure Rosie’s armor was up to date for her level.
As for my new armor:
//Adventurer’s Hood
//Type: Armor [Head] (Uncommon)
//Requirements: Level 5
//8 Defense | 10 Vitality | 5 Charisma
//A stylish hood for that rugged, cool look perfect for adventurers looking to make a name for themselves.
//Adventurer’s Jacket
//Type: Armor [Torso] (Uncommon)
//Requirements: Level 5
//8 Defense | 15 Vitality
//A leather vest with some chain underneath, not that anyone will see it underneath the jacket that looks as good as it protects.
//Adventurer’s Bracers
//Type: Armor [Arms] (Uncommon)
//Requirements: Level 5
//8 Defense | 10 Strength | 5 Dexterity
//Sturdy bracers for protecting your arm that come with built-in, fingerless gloves.
//Adventurer’s Pants
//Type: Armor [Legs] Uncommon)
//Requirements: Level 5
//8 Defense | 5 Dexterity | 5 Intelligence | 5 Luck
//They might just look like normal pants, but they go nice with the rest of the set.
//Adventurer’s Boots
//Type: Armor [Feet] (Uncommon)
//Requirements: Level 5
//8 Defense | 5 Intelligence | 5 Wisdom | 5 Luck
//Knee-high boots for that rugged rogue look, even if the stats aren’t for a rogue.
The attributes really were all over the place for this armor set. The boots’ flavor text even acknowledged it. The attributes weren’t what I wanted the set for, though.
One, it was the style. It looked great. Like someone took a slightly edgy, rugged adventurer look—like the kind of starting armor someone might wear when traveling to hunt monsters in the wilds, without being too edgy.
It had a serious, almost rustic look to it despite how overdesigned it was with the extra belts and straps in nonsensical places.
It even came with some pouches hanging off to my side that I could access my inventory from just by sticking my hand into them.
I wasn’t expecting that, but it was cool.
My total defense practically tripled, though. It was the highest total defense attainable at this level outside of getting an armor set meant for tanks. But, more importantly, I liked the set bonus.
//Adventurer’s Spirit
//Set Bonus
//2: Increases Health regeneration by 2 per second.
//4: Deal 20% more Damage to enemies you have not defeated before.
//5: Guided by the desire to explore the unexplored and to hunt the unhunted, treasure chests have a higher chance of spawning while you are present in a dungeon for the first time, and enemies you kill for the first time will drop a bonus item.
Basically, when going to any dungeon that I had already been to or while fighting monsters I’d already killed, the set bonus was worthless outside of gaining a little bit of HP regen.
But I planned on doing every dungeon and killing every monster, so I’d get more use out of it than most people.
“Master, cool,” Lupa said, checking me out now that I had my new armor on.
“It does look cool,” Rosie said. “I’m kind of jealous. I’ve seen girls equip this armor before, and… it looked way less cool.”
Yeah. In the game, when this armor was equipped on girls, it had the same sort of vibe, but… again, made sure to sure off skin. The pants were replaced by a skirt, the boots were thigh highs, the arms weren’t so covered, and there was—of course—cleavage displayed.
But the hood remained the same, at least.
“I’m pretty dashing now, aren’t I?” I asked. “Maybe I should have given myself a more masculine appearance to go full rugged rogue.”
Lupa shook her head. “Master, hot. Don’t change.”
Even Rosie agreed. “I—I like how you look, so…”
My girls were way too cute.
I reached forward to pet them both on their heads while leaning between them to look at Tabitha. “Thanks for the gear,” I told her. “You need anything from Forgotten Cemetery by any chance?”
Tabitha thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “Don’t think so, but I’ll take any mats ya get like always. Gotta spend money to make money!”
“I’m sure I’ll have more for you soon.” With that, I walked between Rosie and Lupa, spun around, and then wrapped my arms around them to hold them against my side.
I was feeling cool and wanted to live up to the style of my new armor.
… was it normal to want to change my personality based on how I was dressed?
I had no idea.
“Mm… Master is bold today,” Lupa said.
Rosie groaned. “I think we gave him too much confidence last night.”
That helped, too.
While I wasn’t sure what to do about a secondary class, I knew I wanted Vampire as my main class now.
I wanted to live—I wanted to explore dungeons until the end of time.
Even the beginner dungeons took hours of real time to complete when they only took about ten to fifteen minutes at most back in the game.
So, once we got to the late-game dungeons with tons of branching paths, floors, and where a single run could take hours, it would take me years to thoroughly conquer every single dungeon.
And that wasn’t even counting the post-endgame dungeons that took much, much longer.
And that wasn’t counting the hundreds of dungeons that existed in the lore but were never implemented in the game that had to exist out there.
The world was far too vast to experience all of its dungeon beauty in a normal lifespan.
Maybe I could listen around for rumors to discover secret dungeons I’d have to go explore for that didn’t exist in the game. That sounded like a fun adventure.
Anyways.
There was also the fact that Vampire had so many great combinations.
There were options for tanking, DPS, healing, buffing and debuffing—Vampire was an extremely versatile class.
On its own, it was mostly a DPS class that blended melee with magic and also provided some great sustainability options for the party.
Almost every party in the game was made stronger by having a Vampire in it.
I could also get it without making the girls important to me cry.
So now, knowing that Vampire would be my main class, the hunt for Dracula’s daughter began.
Hunting her—well, finding her… well, being found by her required a very specific condition in the game.
The player needed to return to town while under the effect of any kind of bleeding-related DoT, whether it was Bleeding, Heavy Bleeding, or something else. As long as it was a DoT related to bleeding in one way or another, it worked.
Randomly getting the DoT wasn’t enough, so it couldn’t be done while already in town.
Leaving town, getting the DoT, and then returning wasn’t good enough, either.
There was technically a chance that it would work since the world behaved differently now, but how would I even get that debuff in the first place?
I’d have to get it from another player. None of us had the ability to inflict it on me, so that meant I would need to run around asking random adventurers if they could attack me in broad daylight to inflict a bleeding DoT on me.
It… probably could have worked, but I wanted to test ourselves in the dungeon I had in mind.
But I did try cutting myself with my sickle. It didn’t do anything.
Back to how it worked in the game.
The condition in the game was specifically tied to returning from a dungeon with the effect. And “returning from a dungeon” meant successfully doing so by using the portal at the end.
That meant getting into a fight with the final boss of a dungeon, letting it inflict the effect on me, and then returning to town before it wore off.
There were quite a few bosses throughout the game that could inflict such an effect, but only one that was close to our current level, and it was actually a boss that came from a secret path in Forgotten Cemetery.
The boss was going to be level twenty, but I had full confidence in our ability to defeat it, especially with Lupa.
But I still made sure everyone was stocked up on healing items. Especially me for my plan.
First, before going back to the dungeon, I checked with Stella at the guild to see if that invader was still there.
It wasn’t. Apparently, someone killed it the night before and it was a big deal, but she wasn’t working when it was reported.
But that was alright. Even if I thought Lupa would be able to kill it, the invader wasn’t our target. The optional, secret boss at the end of that side path we tried taking was.
Unfortunately for Lupa, though, she really wasn’t a fan of the dungeon.
“Stinks,” Lupa said, again. “Bad scents everywhere.”
“We’re almost done,” I told her.
“Mm. Taking bath after.”
“Wow, you’re actually consenting to taking a bath yourself.”
“Don’t like this scent. Need to wash it off then cover myself with Master’s scent again.” Lupa looked at me. “Master, too. Take a bath so I can cover you in my scent.”
“We might just have to take a bath together in that case.”
“Mm. Good idea.”
Then there was Rosie who was up ahead sighing and saying, “Ahh, must be nice, getting to flirt in the back while the tank takes point waiting to get ambushed by zombies. I wish I could be flirting instead of getting zombie guts all over me.”
“Sorry. Rosie stinks. Don’t want to get close.”