Rise of the Archmage Alister

Alister returned to his father who had a large grin on his face, excited for what was to come, and tried to get his mind off of the sensation that just occurred. “Father,” he said, pushing his silvery white hair out of his face, which was starting to get long enough to be annoying, “What are these dungeon classes that the door mentioned? I feel like that’s important, and I’ve been left in the dark about it.”

“That’s a fair question. I haven’t purposefully left you in the dark, merely forgotten about it,“ Blas answered, “Dungeon classes are just a simple way that the system organizes dungeons by way of risk. Low class dungeons are relatively safe and have very little risk associated with it. They aren’t the lowest class of dungeons, but they’re close. Let’s see… I believe the progression of dungeon classes goes: lowest, low, mid-low, mid, mid-high, high-low, high-mid, high, dangerous, warning, and impossible.”

Alliana jumped in on the conversation smiling a little worriedly at her son for his terrified reaction to the dungeon’s teleport, “There are also modifiers that can be added to a dungeon, but that’s the general class system for dungeons. It’s not really something that you have to worry about right now. Lowest class dungeons don’t have any monsters in them, or if they do all monsters in the dungeon are passive unless attacked and are easily slain if provoked. People also call those gathering dungeons. This one, on the other hand, is low, and the monsters on the side you’re attacking are of course aggressive out of the gate. But, the monsters in this dungeon on either side are paltry. They don’t have any form of armor and are probably no more difficult than the crabs you had slaughtered the other day.“

“Well that’s a harsh way of putting it…,” Alister said pouting slightly, “I don’t like how slaughtering sounds. They were causing problems for the slums, it was a mutually beneficial situation. We merely acted as population control. Plus we fed people!“

“All the more to the point,” Alliana replied, “Mass death, for food and convenience… is a slaughter else but that? You are being far too sensitive about such a thing, sweetheart. Livestock are slaughtered, BORN for the slaughter no less, and no one thinks anything strange about that. Death isn’t meant to be pleasant. If it is then there is something to be concerned about. Yet, it is sometimes necessary all the same.“

Alister rolled his eyes. That was hardly what he meant, but when she spoke so eloquently it was hard to dispute her. Half the time when she spoke he just felt like he was in the wrong for whatever he said, regardless of whether or not it made sense.

“Well, what sort of modifiers exist?” Alister asked, shrugging his hands, “How do you know if a dungeon has any?”

Alliana took the opportunity again to explain, “Well, there are so many. There could be a modifier like… poisonous, for instance. I don’t know what all of them are, but there are some more common ones like heated, freezing, secret, ancient, one-time, etc. You can tell if a dungeon is modified because it will tell you in the notification. Like how this one said Bees and Their Honey - Low Class. It would say Bees and Their Honey - Low Class - Venomous, or whatnot. It just adds to the title. Quite simple.”

“I guess you could call that simple… so strange…,” Alister replied with a sigh.

Blas cleared his throat and in an instant took control of the entire group. “We need to maintain order while we’re in this location. Even the simplest dungeons can go wrong if you get lackadaisical about it. Hopefully this will lead to some tasty treats for the whole of our caravan, but I don’t want anyone here getting greedy. Is this understood?” There were of course no arguments, just a chorus of ‘yes sirs’, and he continued, “Alright since we’re going for a generally positive experience for my son, and for better rewards, we’re going to be sitting with the hive on this one. Siding with beasts is generally considered to be the easier option, but because of that it leads to fewer rewards and less honey as a reward.”

He began to walk calmly toward the forest, expecting the party to follow him, “All we have to do is aid the giant bees in resisting the intruders. In all truth they do most of the work, we just have to turn the tide when it matters most. Because of the dungeon, they acknowledge us as soldier bees, but they don’t actually speak or have greater intelligence. If we, as a group, can take out approximately thirty of the invaders, then we win the dungeon. If we take out fifty, then we will get a greater reward. The attackers come in waves of five or six individuals at a time, and there is a chance of a mini boss, a boss, and if you continue to attack enough of them, then there is a field boss that spawns at the very end. Only up to the mini boss is actually required to complete the dungeon, but provided everything goes well, we will be going all the way to the field boss.”

“What are the levels of the monsters and then boss going to be?” Alister asked, all the more curious for it in the end. Honestly, he hoped that the levels of the monsters would be a bit higher than what the crabs were. At least that was one thing that the system made possible that he thought was convenient, if not equally irrational as everything else with the system seemed to do. The system would allow you to see the levels of other people and it gave a sense of danger because of that. There would be no question whether or not what you were going up against was too difficult for you, or at least it lessened the risk. He imagined that a level one could beat a level 100 if they were clever enough, but that was beside the point.

“The common enemies should be between levels six and eight,” Blas explained, “The mini boss should be around ten, the boss around twelve, and the field boss all the way near twenty. They’re meant to be risky and difficult but they aren’t meant to be much of a challenge as long as you’re not being stupid about it. When you’re in a party of multiple people a single level 20 boss is paltry unless you’re incredibly low level and don’t have your class yet. Not to mention the fact that when in a party this large your xp gets split thinly. There is only so much to go around.”