Chapter 386: Dungeon Shopping Spree [ 2 ]

Gregor pointed at it. "Then why are you picking them up like mushrooms? We’ve found more dungeons traveling with you for a few weeks than most adventurers will personally discover in their entire lives. You don’t search. You don’t investigate rumors. Half the time you just stare at a mountain for a few seconds and start walking."

Mina nodded seriously from beside him. "Because Petty Uncle Sage has a dungeon nose."

Sage’s head snapped toward her. "I absolutely do not have a dungeon nose."

Unfortunately, the rumor that eventually spread throughout Evergreen was not nearly as generous.

Nobles began noticing that an unusual number of newly discovered dungeons were being registered as Adventurer Guild property, and their frustration increased when they realized many of those dungeons had somehow been claimed before fully manifesting.

For a territorial lord, discovering a dungeon could mean years of income from access fees, mana crystals, monster materials, medicinal resources, weapons and rare artifacts.

Some nobles began dispatching scouts into likely dungeon zones, while others hired Mages capable of detecting unusual concentrations of mana. It changed almost nothing.

Their scouts searched places where no visible dungeon existed, their Mages waited for disturbances strong enough to detect, and by the time a forming dungeon reached that stage, Sage had often already walked into the area and taken its core.

Nobody understood how he was doing it, which naturally meant people invented explanations. Some claimed Sage possessed an ancient treasure capable of locating dungeons.

Others believed the Adventurer Guild had developed a secret detectionmethod.

The stupidest rumor claimed Sage could smell them from dozens of miles away, and Mina laughed so hard when she first heard it that she nearly fell from her chair. Sage threatened to charge anyone who repeated it inside the Guild Hall.

Yet dungeon ownership was only one part of the change sweeping through Evergreen. Long before the Adventurer Guild existed, entering a dungeon had been little more than organized gambling with people’s lives.

Warriors might know that one dungeon appeared more dangerous than another, but there had never been a universally accepted system for measuring that danger.

A newly manifested dungeon could attract dozens of warriors who entered based on rumors, confidence or greed without knowing what waited inside.

Sometimes they discovered weak monsters and returned carrying valuable materials.

Other times the first party disappeared completely, followed by a second group sent to discover what had happened to them. There were countless stories of promising warriors dying because they had walked into somethingfar beyond their ability.

Sage had considered that situation absurd from the moment he began building the Guild, and the System had given him access to enough information to actually change it.

Dungeon ranks were standardized alongside classifications for dungeon monsters, and every registered dungeon under Guild supervision received an assessment before ordinary adventurers were allowed inside.

Recommended party strength, known monster types, environmental hazards, expected dungeon structure, retreat procedures, Dungeon Core information, emergency signals and loot regulations were recorded whenever sufficient information existed.

Unknown variables were clearly marked rather than disguised behind confident guesses.

Adventurers could walk toward a mission counter, examine a dungeon’s classification and understand whether entering it wasreasonable for their current strength instead of relying on tavern gossip.

Most of that knowledge eventually found its way into the Adventurer Guild’s dungeon guide and updated Rule Book. Sage had written the original manuscript himself, although "written" was perhaps generous considering how shamelessly he interrogated the System whenever he reached information he didn’t understand.

The System supplied explanations, Sage translated them into language ordinary adventurers could actually use, and once the manuscript was complete, he had the System reproduce copies in bulk.

Naturally, he sold them. When Boren had asked why information intended to keep Guild members alive wasn’t simply handed out for free, Sage had looked at him as though the answer should have been obvious and explained that printing knowledge did not magically stop it from having value.

Boren had immediately changed sides after seeing the sales figures and declared the Dungeon Guide one of the greatest educational achievements in Guild history.The important result, however, had nothing to do with book sales.

Casualty reports began falling. They did not disappear, because adventuring remained dangerous and no classification could prevent someone from making a stupid decision inside a dungeon, but fewer parties were being wiped out simply because they had unknowingly entered somewhere far beyond their abilities.

Branch Guildmasters could refuse obviously unqualified parties, experienced adventurers could select dungeons appropriate for their strength, and emergency teams knew far more about what they were entering when rescue missions became necessary.

For Sage, that alone justified the entire system. The Guild needed living adventurers who could grow stronger, complete missions and spend their money in Guild facilities, not corpses produced by avoidable ignorance.

Several weeks into what Mina still stubbornly called their dungeon shopping trip, the three of them arrived outside another Guild-controlled city after completing yet another branch inspection.

Gregor was already looking forward to finding an inn, eating something hotand sleeping in an actual bed when Sage stopped on the road without warning.

Mina immediately recognized what was happening and turned around with an excited grin while faint light gathered within Sage’s eyes.

The landscape changed before him.

Mana currents stretched through the earth and air, intersecting across valleys and disappearing beneath distant hills.

Sage ignored the smaller concentrations and slowly raised his gaze toward a mountain standing several miles beyond the city. Something beneath it was wrong.

An enormous amount of mana was flowing downward, gathering deep beneath the mountain and folding inward around a spatial distortion far larger than the ones he had discovered previously.

Sage’s lips slowly curved upward.

Gregor saw the expression and immediately groaned, all thoughts of dinner disappearing from his mind. "You found another one, didn’tyou? Please tell me you’re smiling because you remembered something funny and not because we’re about to spend the rest of the day crawling around another mountain."

Sage was already walking toward it, the grin refusing to leave his face as Mina hurried excitedly after him.

"We’re going shopping."