1% Lifesteal

There were many different types and subtypes of dungeons.

The most common were the ordinary dungeons—these were simply passage realms with some form of structure that appeared to be created by an intelligent lifeform. These were more or less the same as any other realms. If the structure within was destroyed, it would remain destroyed forever.

Then there were the more exotic types.

The entrance to the Fortress Dungeon was pretty close to the entrance into the local interspace. It only took Freddy fifteen minutes to get there.

The realm in which the dungeon entrance was located was practically wholly ruined. It used to be a forest realm, but after being burnt down several times and after every inch of it was unearthed to see whether there was something hidden beneath the surface, no life or valuables remained.

He walked over the barren dirt and quickly reached what looked like a picnic site. There were tables with chairs scattered around, seated by numerous individuals who seemed to be waiting for the dungeon to open.

Surprisingly, there was a pretty diverse cast of delvers present. Many were at the mere beginnings of their first star, with shoddy equipment and poor physiques, but there were also some people who were as far along as halfway up their second star.

Nobody there was more powerful than Freddy.

To Freddy's bewilderment, very few people seemed to be nervous. It was completely unlike a site one would expect to see at a place like this. They would be entering a trial of life and death, yet even the weakest among the people present seemed to be relaxed—no, excited, even.

But he supposed it sort of made sense. The Fortress Dungeon's difficulty ramped up with time. Anyone below a certain level could fight during the early stages and then hide in the fortress later. The dungeon was very well-researched. As long as enough people entered, the odds of anyone dying were pretty low.

As he got closer, many of the people waiting noticed him—and he even recognized some of them. One table was seated by a handful of fighters from the Lapis clan. They were one of the major local powers, a family clan of archs who primarily practiced the water affinity to acquire the ice affinity.

Freddy had no concrete evidence that they were involved with any nasty business in the city, but he had a strong suspicion they were the ones in charge of the local drug trade. The newspapers he identified as belonging to them had a large number of articles trying to pin busted drug operations on fledgling groups.

Among them, Freddy only recognized the young woman wearing azure robes and sitting with her eyes closed.

That was Galaria Lapis, a swordswoman with gathering reaching 150% essence capacity. He had only seen her mentioned twice, and both times, it was when she was a contestant at the Repentawa Interfaction Youth Tournament that happened every year.

Such tournaments were commonplace pretty much everywhere in the world and were easily in Freddy's "top ten most insane things powerful people do" list.

There was nothing quite like putting teenagers into death games to resolve disputes between local factions. Well, rationally speaking, it wasn't totally absurd. It was a way for factions to display the power of their younger generation and future leaders and was often used as a proxy for interfactional conflict.

Galaria had an okay performance but wasn't even close to winning either of the two times. As of three years ago, she became twenty and could no longer participate.

Her group noticed him and scowled at his approach, looking somewhat surprised. They immediately started whispering, likely asking each other whether anyone knew where he'd come from.

He simply snorted at that.

Other than the Lapis clan, there were some people he suspected were tied to other factions, but it was hard to tell—only the two local clans had a distinct style of clothing. The other three factions were corporate entities and practiced a variety of powers, with maybe one or two affinities being more popular than others.

These people also noticed his approach.

As he finally reached an empty table and took a seat, he took a good look at the entrance to the dungeon.

The Fortress Dungeon was of a dungeon type called a "resetting dungeon." While instance dungeons could exist in several parallel versions of one another, resetting dungeons only existed in a single iteration. The only difference was that the time within the dungeon was reset after a specific period. Not many things could be taken out of such dungeons—most objects from within evaporated into nothingness when taken out.

But there were always a few minor exceptions.

These were the rewards.

Other than being a resetting dungeon, the Fortress Dungeon belonged to two other subtypes. It was a "closed" and "themed" dungeon.

It being "closed" meant that, after a while, the passage would close and nobody could go in or out until a specific requirement was met. And it was "themed" because it had a structured challenge within.

Looking at the entrance to this dungeon gave him a strange feeling.

It was closed, but not by some magical barrier or a sheet of nothingness. No, it was closed by a portcullis, and he could see two guards standing inside with spears in hand, with a gate of sorts and what appeared to be the inside of the fortress wall behind them.

While he had heard of this already, seeing it himself left him with a profound feeling of wrongness. These guards were not real people. They were constructs created by the dungeon. The idea of that was petrifying.

What kind of power could bring something like this into existence? It had to be created by something intelligent. And that something was aware of who humans were, it was familiar with their history, and it could conjure fake copies of humans that were indistinguishable from real people…

It was uncomfortable and bizarre. The sight of it left him questioning everything he knew about reality. With stuff like this to be found in the interspace, it was hardly surprising that so many people believed in the existence of gods and other higher powers.

According to the schedule, it was another twenty minutes before the entrance opened and the new batch of people could enter.

He could hear some newbies wondering whether there were enough people present to go in. There were around forty individuals there, and after a quick glance, Freddy concluded that it would be enough.

Around five minutes before the dungeon's opening, Freddy noticed everyone go into a frenzy. People were shouting at one another and pointing fingers. The weaker delvers looked hyped, while the more powerful ones scowled and looked on edge.

Freddy slowly turned around, curious to see what was happening.

His eyes widened at the sight of two men. Both were fully armored and wearing helmets that covered their faces. One of them was tall and muscular, carrying a huge sword over his shoulder, while the slightly shorter one was carrying a cursed axe on his back.

The tall and burly man was at the peak of the second star—the same as Freddy. But the second man was the one that attracted his attention. Freddy couldn't feel exactly how powerful the man was due to the difference between them, but he could clearly feel the suppressive power of the third star.

Three-stars were few and far between in Repentawa, and Freddy knew most of them through the newspapers. While some parts of their equipment looked new, he recognized the famous cursed axe from a mile away.

Those two men were Thor and Travis—the two top dogs of Valhalla.

They walked forward without a single care in the world as if they were casually strolling through a park, chatting away and chuckling, pushing and prodding each other like a normal couple of buddies.

Freddy's gaze sharpened at the sight of the two men. He had been hoping to get into contact with them at some point, but he was surprised he'd get an opportunity so quickly. But before he made himself known to them, he wanted to see what they were about.

Were they truly the villains the newspapers made them out to be? Or were they only being slandered for standing in opposition to the established forces?

He'd carefully observe them and—

Suddenly, he felt a three-star aura lock right onto him. It was like a piercing laser beam that was directed straight at his back. He subconsciously straightened as memories of facing the full wrath of the scorpion-tailed woman resurfaced. For some reason, Thor was staring straight at him, and the man was doing his best to make his presence known.

Freddy gulped. Did the man mistake him for someone else? The auras of the two men gradually drew closer until they were standing right above him, staring down at him like gods of death.

Freddy's fists itched as he prepared to use Gore Knuckles and mentally connected to the Leviathan's Fury ether shell. If these two were hostile, he'd have to—

"Hey there, buddy," Thor greeted. "Mind if we take a seat right here?"

Without turning around, Freddy nodded. "Sure. I don't mind."

The two men sat opposite him and slowly took their helmets off.

Thor's ragged, tattooed face showed an amused expression as he stared deep into the visor on Freddy's helmet. The man slowly placed his headgear on the table and then leaned on his elbows. "You're a new guy, huh? When did you move here?" Before Freddy could even show signs of surprise, Thor chuckled. "I know everyone of importance in this shithole. And you're someone I don't know."

"I've only been here for a few weeks," said Freddy.

He wanted to say something else, but his throat felt like it was sealed shut. What could he even say? He already knew who they were, so he didn't want to be disingenuous and ask them to introduce themselves. Other than that, he wasn't really the king of small talk. And the things he really wanted to know, he definitely couldn't ask right from the get-go.

Thankfully, the two men's interest in him seemed to be deeper than wanting the empty seats at his table. Thor's eyes flashed as his expression turned serious. "Are you here as part of a deal with someone?"

Freddy scowled at that. "No… I came here on my own."

"Hey, that's great!" Travis cheered in a high-pitched voice. "Would you be willing to join us?"

He froze. His mind raced, and his heart sped up.

Well that was quick.

He'd been hoping to try and join them if possible, but this was a bit too fast. He still didn't know if any of the rumors surrounding these guys were true.

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea," Thor said, looking Freddy dead in the eye. "What do you say? If you want to know what exactly you're joining, well, we fight crime and fuck with the local powers." The man grinned widely. "Or, as they like to say—we do terrorism, buddy. How about it, feel like becoming a terrorist?"

Travis chuckled at that.

Freddy heard a creaking sound, and he glanced at the dungeon entrance. The portcullis keeping the passage closed was slowly rising, and moments later, the people started leaving the dungeon.

"Whelp looks like it's time to go," Thor said, getting up. "Lovely chatting with you, fella. What's your name?"

"Uh… Freddy. I'm Freddy Cliff."

"Nice to meet you, Freddy. I'm Thor, and this guy is Travis. If you're willing, we can chat after the dungeon run is over; how's that sound?"

"I uh… I'll think about it."

"Sure thing, man. See you later then!"

The two men waved and walked over to the dungeon.

Freddy, feeling quite bewildered, got up to follow them. He didn't know what to think about that conversation. For now, he took his mind off it and walked over to the dungeon entrance.

As the people entered, the two guards crossed their spears to block the way in. Freddy was startled at that, but it seemed like that was only to ask for the name of whoever entered. Most people seemed to give out pseudonyms.

Once it was Freddy's turn, he followed their lead.

"What's yer name, soldier!?" the left guard shouted.

"Slave," he said.

"Fight hard, Slave!" the right guard yelled, and they removed the spears so he could pass.

He found himself on the inside of the small fortress. He turned around, finding that the entrance gate was just a minor structure smack dab in the middle of the bailey. On top of the gate, there seemed to be some sort of room with a balcony, but there seemed to be no obvious way to get up there. On the inside, it was pure darkness. This was likely somehow related to the challenge.

The fortress itself was made of five ten-meter-tall walls shaping a pentagon, with towers at double that height on all five corners. The bailey was primarily empty.

Five closed gates led to the outside, and a few staircases took up to the battlements. He climbed up and got a good look around the fortress.

The surroundings were a nearly perfectly flat plain of grass with a thickly overgrown forest surrounding the entire dungeon.

There were ten ballistae on the battlements and five catapults. On the inside of the towers, there were racks of javelins, spears, swords, shields, maces, axes, arrows, ballista bolts, and an assortment of different types of catapult ammo, ranging from simple stones to containers of flammable oil.

The delvers rushed around, with the weaker folk taking up the ballistae and catapults, while the stronger delvers lounged on the battlements and chatted, waiting for the waves to begin.

Freddy finally understood why the people seemed so excited to enter this place.

This seemed like a lot of fun.