YM778.TV Chapter 114: Hunting Ground
Alongside him was a huntress in her mid-20s, possessing an enticing figure hidden behind her hunter attire. Her task was a little peculiar, as nobody, possibly nobody, had hired an experienced hunter just to protect a healer.
That was likely the reason she wore a scowl on her face.
"Jason does not know how to talk to girls, Warden thought and sighed. The fellow had gone to take care of the paperwork and legality that comes with going into a registered dungeon in the Hunting Ground, which was more like a business corporation than Warden would like.
Although the Arcane Society held the rein, it was mostly run by business conglomerates, as no organisation, even if they were the strongest, could run without a fund.
And of course, where\'s wealth to be made, there were all sorts of legalites. Like the authority absolutely needed a legal binding to put the blame on others if something went wrong in the other side of the dungeon.
Warden supposed it was fine by him, considering it mostly depended on their expertise unless there had been some wild shenanigans going on inside.
Jason came back with a scroll of signed paperwork in hand, his face showing relief that the paperwork was done.
"Unfortunately, I would not get the easier essence farming dungeon," Jason said. "But then again, Drakes give many more essences, even though they are harder to kill by a long margin."
"Drakes?" the huntress asked. If Warden was not wrong, her name is Nina. "Fucking Drakes? Do you have any idea how tiresome even hunting a dozen of them can be? I fear you lot will only get your bodies battered with wounds and injuries with all the money you spend to book the dungeon and us the helpers."
"Good thing we hired a healer," Jason said with a smile, not taking offence at her words. "Besides, I think it\'ll all be worth it with the loot."
Nina still did not look convinced, but Jason had already paid half of her fee in essence gems for her to argue. Essentially, this was better for her as her task was limited to protecting the healer, not fighting Drakes.
The dungeon was Grade 7, meaning only iron-grade rankers and below could enter it. Apparently, there were great mathematical calculations on how much of a load a dungeon could hold. Perhaps this one could hold a silver ranker, but that would collapse the balance of the spatial law inside, and the dungeon would overflow in no time, spawning the cursed creatures out to set the balance.
Thus, the Archein Society paid great attention to organizing their dungeons and establishing their rules, even if the hunting ground had become more businesslike over the years.
The hunting ground had one of the biggest dungeon-spawning rates in the empire. Perhaps only the wasteland could compare with it. There are various legends and myths about how it formed; the most outlandish among them was that a god and a calamity fought here and put a curse on this land for eternity to come.
But looking at the property of business here, it didn\'t feel like a curse.
While the scientific reasoning was that the special law in the hunting ground was sufficiently weaker for dungeons to spawn there.
"Oh, I forgot to mention that the time ratio inside is 4:1 in favour of the dungeon," Jason said. "Although isn\'t the best rate, I guess we could get four days of good training and hunting in that time. I\'m planning on getting back a third of my wealth that I invested to make myself a gear."
Honestly, Warden had almost forgotten that the time ratio could be different in a dungeon. Apparently, it depends on the grade of the dungeon. The higher the grade, the more dilated time could be inside. Also, it could be the opposite, though that was far rarer. For example, in some dungeons, you could spend just a couple of days while months would pass in the real world.
"Let\'s enter," Jason said as he touched the pulsating ball of energy. The dungeon gate flickered, and his figure vanished instantly. Warden followed up soon with the other two.
As his figure materialized in a different realm of existence, Warden found the temperature of this location to be higher than what it was outside. It was easily over 60 degrees, and it would probably be more as they ventured deeper into it. Volcanic peaks surrounded them from all directions, dwarfed by a lonesome peak at the very epicentre of it.
While most of the volcanoes were dormant, the air suggested that volcanic explosions here were quite normal.
"I guess this is the perfect place for fire-attributed creatures to spawn," Warden thought as his eyes searched for drakes.
"As most of you might be aware, but I will still explain," Jason cut in. "Drakes are not the fastest of creatures, but they are extremely hard to kill, mostly because they come from a dragon bloodline and have tough scales, which they can further empower, expanding their energy. They like to stay in hot places, so we might have to venture into more difficult places.
As for the outskirts like this, we may encounter other lizard-like creatures."
"The drakes, can they breathe fire?" the healer, Zim, could not help but ask. "It\'s my first time facing a drake."
"Most of the iron ranks cannot," Jason said, "but there are a few exceptional ones who could. As drakes have thinned bloodlines from the dragons, they ran on a matriarchy as well. Only the Drake matriarch could breathe fire. You can mostly tell them apart by the distribution of their mass. The fire-breathing ones are usually heavier, built like a boulder."
"Like that one?"