Chapter 15: Grisly Return
Mick and I gathered up the four Ethereal cores, giving us a total of ten. Nine of them were of similar but varying sizes while the tenth one was much larger than the rest, while nine were the size of small pebbles the tenth was the size of a regular sized pebble, the difference wasn't massive but it was enough to be noticeable. I put the three that were similar to the rest in the same area but set the largest one in a different pocket to keep track of it separately.
"Hey guys, were those chests always there by the portals?" asked Isabell.
"I don't think so, maybe they're a reward for clearing the dungeon?" Jenna replied in an unsure tone.
"Are we sure we cleared the dungeon though? I mean, why are there two portals?" Mick asked which immediately darkened the mood and made a grim expression return to everyone's face.
"Let's not worry about that right now, let's go see what's in the chests and then see what we can figure out about the portals." I told everyone hoping to salvage some of the victorious mood.
We walked up to the chests, enough for one for each of us, and tried to figure out if there was a specific one for each of us and if there was how to tell which one was whose.
"Each one has a symbol of our weapons on it to show who it belongs to." Ren said after a few seconds of us looking at the chests.
I turns out Ren was right, where the lock would ordinarily be there was a small symbol that looked similar to the weapons we used the majority of the time in the dungeon. We each went to our chest and opened it up, after opening my chest I immediately had three rectangles with pictures and text pop up in the middle of my vision with several rows of text above them.
'Congratulations on clearing the 1st Floor of Wild Wood Village Dungeon!
Because it is your first time clearing the floor you will have the ability to pick one of three random rewards based on your weapon, System Type, and Skills/Abilities!
Congratulations, because you're party is the first to clear this floor of Wild Wood Village Dungeon the rewards have been enhanced!'
After reading through those lines of information I looked at the rewards that were available to choose from.
The first was a Skill called Mana Arrow, which was exactly like it sounded. It would come in handy when I were to eventually run out of arrows and cost 1 mana per arrow formed, but I have several for now, and I could probably still stock up on more at the store before everyone else rushes to raid the stores for supplies. The second was a short sword, which would really come in useful in close combat situations because it would give me more reach than the knife, but I knew it would be surpassed easily down the road and I could get a machete like Mick if I really wanted to. The third option was an Ability called Instantaneous Shift, which for a certain amount of mana would let me shift into my chosen form instantaneously. It would still take time to shapeshift out of the form but that would make me a lot more comfortable with fighting in my forms knowing that I could wait to shift until the battle started and then have the whole timer to fight. I thought about it for a few minutes trying to decide but finally decided to get the Ability Instantaneous Shift as I wanted to delve more into my shapeshifting abilities in and out of combat. I looked up to the rest of the group and realized that I was the last one to decide what reward to receive and everyone was staring at me while they waited.
"Well, is everyone ready to go back and share the spoils?" I asked trying to brush off the awkwardness I felt.
"We could've been back already if you weren't so slow." Mick jokingly complained.
Everyone else rolled their eyes at Mick's humor not having the energy to engage him at the moment and walked the rest of the distance to the portals. They were both identical and we were trying to figure out which one led back to the village since the dungeon clearly continued due to the reference of this being the 1st floor. We couldn't figure it just from looking at the portals so finally I decided to reach out and touch the portal on the right hoping for some other indication as to where it led. Once I made contact with the portal text appeared in the top right corner of all of the parties vision at the same time.
'Vote Initiated.
Would you like to exit Wild Wood Village Dungeon?
You may return directly to the beginning of any floor you have cleared from the entry portal, but you may not leave the dungeon until clearing your current floor.'
At that moment everyone's faces went pale at the realization that we were unknowingly trapped here until just recently and we all immediately voted "yes". We were all suddenly standing back in the street of the village just outside the entry portal to the dungeon. We looked around and blinked for a couple of seconds in shock at the sudden change of surroundings and at the sudden mass of faces staring at us with horrified gazes. It was dark outside now but from the glow of the portal and some of the outdoor lights that still worked it was easy to tell that we were in a worse condition than before we entered the dungeon. From the dirt and the blood that coated everyone to at least some degree, the various wounds that covered everyone in varying severity, our tattered clothes, and our tired expressions were wildly different from our clean, strong, energetic expressions going in.
Just as we were gaining our bearing and getting ready to make our way through the crowd to head back to Jenna and Isabell's apartment the calm over the crowd suddenly broke. People began screaming and shouting, some demanding answers as to what happened in the dungeon, others casting accusations that we should have never gone into the dungeon in the first place, and others still having a melt down at the situation as a whole. We did our best to push through the crowd but it seemed that they had lost all reasoning as they attempted to hold us in place while the shouting from all parties intensified and more arguments broke out. Too tired to deal with the situation and wanting nothing more than to get back, take a shower and relax while maybe eating something and splitting up the Ethereal cores and discussing rewards I decided to put on a display of shock and awe. I used Instantaneous Shift, spending 5 Mana to Shapeshift into an Unranked form in the blink of an eye, and Shapeshifted into my new jaguar form and immediately let out a loud roar silencing the crowd in shock. Ren was the first of the party to recover from his shock, doing so almost instantly, and commanded everyone in the crowd to clear a path. I led the party through the crowd, who parted in front of us, with my teeth bared keeping up a consistent low rumble in my chest until we were clear of the crowd. The mass of people continued to watch us down the street until we turned the first corner and we finally left their line of sight and we felt like we could relax, however we still remained cautious until we made it back to the apartment and locked the door behind us.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone