Jay walked through the city, leaving the north side of town and heading for the dungeon.
Since it was daylight, the path was much easier to see - and there were even a few other adventurers walking just ahead of him.
“Hmm…” Jay noticed something off to the side of the path. “I thought so.” he eyed some familiar plants.
He walked off the path, ripping a small plant from the ground and adding it to his inventory.
[Bondtussle Root] x 4
“Awesome, I thought I recognised you.” he looked around, noticing a few more plants in the area.
“I might as well pick them while I’m here.” he shrugged.
Jay briefly scoured the forest, adding the plants to his inventory as he collected more of the mana-regen plant.
“This will be enough to last me quite a while,” he thought with a smile, having collected twelve of the plants so far - each giving him multiple roots.
Thanks to his adventurer strength, ripping them from the ground was an effortless task.
Content with his stockpile, he continued on to the dungeon. A few other adventurers had seen him picking the plants, but ignored it; they only cared about getting stronger and levelling up - why waste time gardening?
Clearly none of them had realised the hidden feature of this plant.
As Jay approached the courtyard of the destroyed tower, he found that there were roughly three groups of adventurers waiting to go into the dungeon.
“Huh, I guess this one is pretty popular… I wonder why people don’t do some of the other non-instanced dungeons though? It would let more people party up at once… they could even form two parties and work in tandem.”
Non-instanced dungeons were simply dungeons where the monsters would all respawn after a certain time. If two different groups of adventurers entered the dungeon at the same time, they would end up in the same dungeon - rauther than having their own version of the dungeon to fight through.
Jay leisurely walked through the crumbled gateway.
“Hey, it’s him!” a girl called out, tugging the arm of another adventurer.
“Ooo! Quick, recruit him!” another said.
“We saw him first!” someone else called out.
A small commotion broke out among the crowd of adventurers as they all noticed Jay.
Somehow, word had gotten out that Jay was soloing the dungeon.
This was inconceivable to most, seemingly impossible, as it was a level 3 dungeon and most of the adventurers were only level 4 or 5.
Many of them didn’t even believe Jay was level 8 until they analysed him today - and now he was level 9!
Surely he was being power levelled by someone, but now there was no doubt about his strength as he came here alone.
Normally, adventurers of their level require a party of at least 3 to even have a chance against this dungeon - yet Jay was coming and going into it like it was the snakeraven inn!
It was inconceivable, they couldn't believe their eyes.
Most doubted this was happening - but here he was again with some brand new boots. Clearly he was making a profit, and since he was alone, he would get all the loot to himself.
Jay paused for a moment, seeing all the other adventurers looking at him.
“Weird... he thought.”
Most were smiles, but if he looked closely into the crowd, there were even glare’s filled with animosity towards him.
“...what the…” Jay raised a brow, continuing to walk slowly through the crowd, wondering what the commotion was about. It didn’t take long for him to realise the commotion was about it - the crowd swarmed around him.
“Jay, would you like to join our party? We’ll give you 50% of the loot?”
“Don’t listen to him, we’ll give you 100%, we just want someone to show us through the dungeon! That’s a pretty good deal right?”
“Fuck, he’s level nine? How??”
Jay was harassed by the recruiters of different parties, but he kept walking; he had a quest to complete, and he wasn’t their babysitter either.
“No thanks. I haven’t gotten far anyway. I barely only make it past the gate.” Jay held his hands up, hushing the crowd.
Jay rejected them politely, and even though he was sounding humble, the jaws of adventurers around him dropped.
“He made it past the two gate guards on his own!”
“How? Just how!? I nearly died from one those damn things!”
“No, I don’t believe it…” another scoffed, “He’s probably picking off some weak isolated guards.”
Jay continued to walk forward, but a short adventurer with glasses blocked his path.
“Jay was it? How about you join us? I’ll pay.” he said with a proud voice.
“Hmm, he’s not a noble…” Jay thought as he looked at his clothes “So I guess I can reject him without repercussions.”
“No th-”
“Don’t be stupid,” said the short man, a party invitation notification appearing before Jay’s eyes “I don’t invite everyone into my party. You’ll be missing out. Besides, if you don’t,...” he leaned closer to whisper so only Jay could hear.
“I’ll tell everyone that you love Anya”
Jay stopped walking for a moment, smiling with a headshake “...clearly this pathetic little worm doesn’t know me at all.”
The little worm had a smirk on his face and his arms folded before Jay replied.
“Go fuck yourself.” Jay said with a laugh and a big toothy grin, making sure he said it loudly enough so everyone could hear, walking away to the dungeon door.
The little worm had his mouth open, shocked. Clearly his manipulative strategy sounded better in his head.
He was powerless against someone who simply didn’t give a shit about what others thought. His face turned red with embarrassment as he merged back into the crowd - though not before Jay analysed him, remembering his name.
[Stephen - Level 5]
[HP 100%]
[MP 100%]
“Yikes, what a shell of a man, he really should grow up… I’ll remember his name in case he tries to mess with my life.” thought Jay as he finally got to the dungeon door, entering it and disappearing, leaving the crowd with a level of humour as some of them still smirked at Stephen.
“That little bastard...” Stephen stomped with a scowl “I'll make him pay for this embarrassment...”
He folded his arms as he looked into the forest “hmm, but how... perhaps a little trap in the forest? Yes... that will be good. I am a sentry trapper after all.”
He proudly smirked to himself “That little bastard won’t know what hit him...”
Stephen marched off with his arms folded.
