Chapter 90 - Going Solo

With that information, Arthur had to hurry. No more fooling around and hoping to clear the dungeon first. The special title that added bonus damage inside dungeons was too good to let go.

They ran through the forest, using the same land mine tactics as before. Point Blank helped a lot, shouting orders at the rest of the group alongside Arthur. The two were the only ones who had cleared the dungeon before, so Tower, Suzy and Shadow Cloak followed their every command.

Once the three keys were in their inventory, they went straight to the boss. Arthur explained how the fight worked while they stood at the entrance, and then they went in without losing a second.

The boss fight went smoothly for the most part. Tower almost died, but that was normal for a tank, so he wasn’t too shaken by it. The drops were different this time, and no blueprint was found.

Point Blank consoled him, or at least tried to. "We’ll get the blueprints next time."

She knew how much Arthur wanted the blueprints, so she thought he’d be sad about missing the drop. But after the spell creation, his mind was somewhere else, and he didn’t care about those blueprints that much anymore.

"Thanks," he said, smiling, "but let’s move. We can’t waste time."

They didn’t linger in the arena and went straight to the dungeon underneath the castle to fight the mosquito boss. Obviously, they all had bug spray in hand to hit that thing for massive damage.

Tower wanted to be the one using the bug spray, so Arthur handed him one and they just waited for the boss to die. It took a while. It wasn’t instant.

The mosquito flew around inside the cell, crashing into the walls, its body so big and powerful that the whole place shook. A mighty creature, killed by bug spray.

Shadow Cloak was leaning against one of the walls, scrolling through the forum for news. She was always reading something, trying to stay as up to date as possible on everything happening across the game. The team that was close to clearing the dungeon near Snow Pine City popped up in her feed again.

"They posted something new," she said. "The leader says they’re fighting the boss right now, and they claim they’ll win this time. There’s even a live stream."

She opened it to take a look. The group was fighting a massive three-headed snow wolf in a snowy forest. The wolf had only 15% of its HP remaining, so they weren’t joking about being close to killing the boss.

Shadow Cloak looked up and saw the mosquito boss’s HP drop from 20% to 19%, then 18%...

It was dropping much faster than the wolf’s HP. Once again, Arthur and his team would come out on top.

"The team leader said during the live stream: ’Take this, Cinder. We’re the better team, and I’m the better player.’"

Arthur, on the other side of the cell, chuckled at that.

"Did he really say that?"

"He did."

"Dumbass."

Shadow Cloak, still watching the stream, heard the players start celebrating when the wolf hit 10% HP, acting as if they had already won. They were so sure they’d be the first group to clear a dungeon.

But the mosquito died first, and the system notified every player.

[A full group managed to clear the first dungeon in the game]

[Cinder and his Lackeys will receive bonus rewards for the clear]

Arthur had used the same group name as before. This time, though, nobody was angry about it, especially Tower. Now it was an honor to be Cinder’s Lackeys.

The first two notifications were shown to all players, but the ones detailing the rewards weren’t.

[+100 gold coins]

[+1 Level]

[Title: Dungeon Delver I (Ultra-Rare)]

The player who holds this title gains 3% bonus damage against all monsters while inside a dungeon. To upgrade this title, the player must clear more dungeons.

Those were only the bonus rewards. They also got the regular EXP, gold coins and items from the mosquito. It dropped a shield, which Tower took. No one else could use a shield, so there was no reason not to give it to him.

They were teleported back to the dungeon’s entrance. Everyone wanted to try it again. Arthur didn’t. The only reward left for him was the solo clear, but that wasn’t possible anymore. After all the levels he had gained, especially from the exploration with Leonard, he was too high level to get that reward in this dungeon.

He was level 22 now, which was already too high. A level 20 dungeon could be cleared at any level, but the special rewards for soloing it were only granted to players at most 1 level above the dungeon.

The idea behind the solo clear was to prove a player’s skill by beating a dungeon close to his level alone. Clearing one while being way stronger was just silly.

"I won’t be going again," Arthur said, "but you can go with 4 people, no problem. Or find someone else to join the group. Do you have anyone in mind?"

"Why?" Suzy complained, stepping closer and grabbing his arm. "Did we do something?"

"No, of course not. I just have other things to do."

They tried a few more times to convince him, but it didn’t work, obviously. In the end, they decided to do the dungeon without him. But just like Arthur, they would eventually get way less EXP from it as they leveled up.

The reason Arthur wanted the dungeon to be close to all players was to get his blueprints first, but now? He didn’t care much. His mind was set on becoming a mage and creating his own spells. That was the real deal.

Arthur left the dungeon. Point Blank followed him outside to talk.

"So, what did you find down there? Was there something?"

A few groups of players were in the area, along with the NPCs. Arthur summoned his pegasus and they took off, circling above the place. This way, at least, he was sure no one could listen in.

"I learned spell creation. That’s why I don’t want to clear the dungeon anymore. I don’t care about those blueprints, because I’m planning to change paths and become a mage now."

"Oh, really? But are we still going to do some quests together? Or will you play solo for a while?"

Point Blank was looking down, fidgeting with her fingers. The poor woman was sad that Arthur was parting ways with the group.

"I think I might play alone for a while, but not forever." Arthur noticed the look on her face and tried to calm her down. "After mastering my first spells, we can do some quests together. Maybe that one to invade the fortress Tower has."

"W-We don’t need to wait until then. There are plenty of quests for two people, right? Or we could do something else, maybe level up a profession? Explore the world?"

Arthur hadn’t expected her to act like that. She was really looking forward to doing things with him. A thought crossed his mind.

’Is she in love with me?’