[NR] Nothing Like Pressure To Bring Out Strength - Chapter 490 (Patreon)

The irl day passes, quickly for some and much slower for others. Some of that doesn’t even have to do with one day becoming five while in VR. Still, by the time Rosha is able to log back into NeoRealm, everyone is in a place to continue their delve. Maybe not perfect, but who ever really is?

However you slice it, the three of them and Lily are once again standing in front of the dungeon. Though this time the guards on duty have a bit more work on their hands as they have one of the worst sort of tasks someone guarding a high traffic door could have. They are being required by the Guild to inform every single party of the problem trap on the ninth floor.

It doesn’t matter if one person on the team had heard the warning. It doesn’t matter if the whole team had literally just heard the warning an hour ago and had only come out for a quick snack. It doesn’t even matter if they’ve been in line and heard the guards say the exact same thing to like five other teams already. You want to enter the dungeon, then the guards have to personally warn your team every single time you do.

Suffice it to say, tensions were running high. Not only did people have to suffer through a verbal run down of a warning sign, because of course someone had put a sign up with the exact same words on it in thirty-seven different languages. They had to wait in a line that only seemed to grow longer.

Any other day and what little line that might have formed during the morning rush, would be long gone by now. Instead it was breaking records for length. Jason, Rosha, and Courtney are overall amused by the situation as while they do want to get back to delving, well, as mentioned they weren’t exactly in perfect condition. The line can’t last forever though and the team are soon enough in the dungeon.

BAM, a tardigroid falls on them from above the entrance. Well, it tries to fall on them and admittedly, the monster partly does succeed. It falls on the trio, but the two ladies are able to duck down and to opposite sides. Jason?

Well, he didn’t feel like dodging at the moment. Jason ducked down a little so by bringing his arms up over his head, the monster hit them instead. Then with his legs braced against the ground, he ran a charge of Energy through his body causing mild burns like what someone would get from electricity.

The pain and damage wasn’t for nothing though. This nearly unconscious use of power mimicked that burst of strength people sometimes get in emergencies like when a mom can suddenly lift a car off of a child. Except Jason is much better trained to handle the sudden burst of strength.

As his very power burns him, Jason manages to throw the tardigroid up over his head and onto its back in front of him. This doesn’t cause all that much damage, but the shape of this particular specimen isn’t exactly designed for righting itself and so it stuck on its back. An easy target for Rosha and Courtney to finish.

Jason sits down hard on his butt and laughs. “So much for being ready!’

Rosha shakes her head, “Who would expect a monster right above the entrance portal?”

Courtney, “The guards outside? This isn’t a new thing or else it would have been added to the warning and while I don’t know how much either of you listened to. I paid attention and cross checked what was being said with what was on the sign.

“There was no mention of ambush tardigroids and for some reason, I doubt we would have been the first to survive that nonsense. I’m guessing this was a newbie killer.”

Rosha huffs, “Wouldn’t they not want that? Like, part of the point of this sort of dungeon within the whole bottleneck thing is to prepare you for future dungeons.”

Courtney, “And you think other dungeons don’t have nasty tricks like this? While it might be a newbie killer, it is also likely credited with saving the life of more than one sixth break delver. To the guild, any number of unranked adventurers like us who aren’t even under contract with them wouldn’t be worth the life of a single person at sixth rank.

“Plus, we don’t know what information is available for their seedlings. We’re unknown travellers to them. We don’t even have the choice to sign a contract with the Guild. That takes being a local and then they have full control of our life until the sixth break.

“Though even after that it isn’t like those under contract with the Guild are free, they just have more freedom. Not that I believe those types would be taught about this sort of thing. Rather, I’m sure they’re run through Guild only dungeons where stuff like this isn’t left up to chance. On the other hand, since I haven’t seen any mention of this dungeon on the net, at least not for this, I’m going to guess that while it might be up to chance, it isn’t an unknown quantity.

“I bet we’ll be greeted by someone with some kind of deal for us not to share. A deal that we should take without asking for more. Sure, maybe ask a few questions about it in general, but trying to haggle for more? No, we take what they give so we can get on their good side. The Guild is too powerful, even for us Travellers.”

Jason sighs, “I must admit, I really wish we could have left such far reaching organizations outside. Why do we have to have this sort of thing here in NeoRealm?”

Courtney snorts, “Because if there wasn’t something like this, society would be in chaos? I’m not saying you need some all seeing organization to keep people in line everywhere. However, when people with the power to literally destroy mountains in a single attack are around, there needs to be something to keep them accountable. It is too easy to head off in one direction until no one knows who you are.”