Chapter 1892: Transformed For Stealth
Chapter 1892: Transformed For Stealth
"Well, now that I’m transformed, and I should be able to blend in with the crowd, where are we off to? Distances in the Chaos Plane are a bit odd."
Cara took his hand and smiled. "Follow me, into a world of wild adventures!"
Then, she moved them out of the Chaos Plane, and into a crowded city’s shopping district.
There was magic everywhere. That was the first thing that Karl noticed.
The second thing that he noticed was that everyone was turning to stare at him.
Everyone.
So, he took Cara’s hand, and led her toward an ice cream shop. If you wanted to bribe the badger to do things directly, it worked better when she wasn’t hungry.
They stepped up to the counter and Karl smiled at the clerk, who immediately blushed, then swooned, nearly fainting at the force of his smile. Karl checked [Fox Charm] and found that it was suppressed to the absolute minimum, as low as Dana kept hers on a daily basis.
So, that shouldn’t be the issue.
"Good morning, Miss. Can we get two waffle bowls of chocolate, raspberry, mint with marshmallows?"
The other clerk on duty, a young man of a floppy eared dog type bloodline, frowned at the order. There was something wrong with that man’s taste buds.
But he began to mix the ingredients for the order, while the cashier tried to recover from Karl’s presence.
She would be fine, as long as he didn’t smile at her again.
Yes, that was the cause of the issue, she was sure of it.
Karl handed her a golden Darklight Host marked coin as she stood frozen, and then gently closed her hand around it, trying not to laugh at the stunned expression on her face.
That was it, the little half smile was too much.
"And she’s out. I’ve got her. You just finish our ice cream, and I will lead the Karl away so he doesn’t cause more trouble." Cara insisted.
The clerk nodded and moved as fast as he could to finish the order.
His day had gone incredibly sideways if he was being assured by a badger that she would be the one keeping others from causing trouble. It really didn’t get more surreal than this.
But a moment later, Karl and Cara were back on the street, among the crowd of shoppers, who were doing their best to make a space around the pair.
"I guess sitting and talking is out. Let’s just find that dungeon you wanted to see," Karl insisted.
Cara happily crunched on the bowl of the snack, turning the whole thing sideways to eat it without using a spoon. How she kept the ice cream from falling out was a mystery, but Karl didn’t try to stop her, as she was attracting a bit of the attention away from him.
"It’s just over here. Right on the edge of the shopping district, but there are guards, and I didn’t want to appear right in front of them and cause a misunderstanding."
Karl nodded and followed her lead, until they got to a pair of Forest Elven Supremes, standing in front of the entrance to what looked like a park.
"State your business."
"We would like to enter the dungeon for training," Cara insisted.
The man looked back and forth between the two of them for nearly ten seconds before he spoke again.
"There are only two of you, and no healer. I will advise against this, but the rules say that if you pay, you enter. Standard System Rate, fifty coins per group."
Cara handed over fifty Darklight Host marked coins, and the man shook his head.
"We have a healer on duty outside the portal. Don’t be shy to user her services when you get back out. Her healing services, mind you. Healing ONLY."
That last part was directed firmly at Karl, who gave him an elegant bow.
"I can assure you that I will be a perfect gentleman."
The other guard winked at him. "That’s the part that he’s worried about."
He might have a point. The combination of good manners and fox charm was a deadly one. Even Dana had started learning to be more assertive with people, just so they didn’t misunderstand her.
Being a fox was hard.
They walked through the immaculately manicured Elven Gardens, and stopped at the short line for the dungeon, where Karl immediately caught the attention of the groups in line.
"Sir, are you here to join one of the pickup groups? We can arrange for you to go with a more powerful team, if you’re here for experience building," a kindly looking Elven Supreme asked.
"Oh, I had intended to go alone with my badger. But if there are open groups, I don’t mind entering with some others. It might be a fun experience to do new things with new friends."
The man smiled at Karl’s enthusiasm, knowing that pick up groups for Peak Immortal Dungeons were guaranteed to be a mess every single time.
But this dungeon was worse. It scaled with the members, all the way up to Mid-Supreme.
Supreme Ranked Bosses got 99 percent damage reduction against Immortals, just like any other Supreme. So, if an Immortal Group was too close to peak, they could pull an advanced boss and end up in huge trouble, running for the exit.
But on the other hand, they could deliberately send Supremes into the dungeon to bump the difficulty, and have a dungeon that would work for two distinctly different groups of fighters.
That was a rarity anywhere.
"Alright, we have a group of six, who are fairly confident in themselves at mid ascended. How is your combat power, they’re looking for damage."
Karl nodded. "I am an Avatar of the World Dragon, and I have many summoning-based skills."
The group cheered as they heard the news. That was precisely what they were short on. More damage to deal with the Giants.
"Oh, and I can do group defensive and support buffs as well. The basics, like strength, damage, [Eternal Lightning] barriers and such."
"Well then, friend, welcome. Let’s get this started before we lose our spot in the queue."