They all fell asleep in the usual positions, with Emily and Veronica hugging him at his sides and Justine clutching his legs.
It was a little stuffy, but he would never stop three beautiful women from clinging to him.
As they woke, James got excited for the two items on his agenda. One, farm exp and two, fulfill Justine's quota.
'This is going to be an awesome day!'
Making his way downstairs, he was surprised to find captain Susan waiting at the breakfast table.
James had to use [Identify] on her again, her clothes were a bit too diffferent from the guard uniform she had worn last time he saw her.
Gone was the heavy plate armor with sword and shield, now she had on a tight shirt that revealed her midsection. Metal shoulder guards and wicked looking gauntlets outfitted her arms.
Her gray streaked hair was pulled back in a bun. Thick leather pants cling to her legs as spiked knee pads promise pain.
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[Name: Susan Locke] [Race: Human] [Age: 48] [Class: Fighter]
Level: 67
Skills: (Information Hidden)
Perks:(Information Hidden)
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'Holy shit! Level 67!? I guess she's the Captain of the guard for a reason..'
James gave her a friendly smile and asked, "You ready?"
She returned it with her own, "Always, my Prince."
Sitting down, he saw that even though Madeline had agreed to let him go, she really didn't want too.
In fact, all his sisters were sulking as they ate, even Gwendolyn had a noticeably dour demeanor.
"Come on girls, cheer up. I'll only be gone for half the day at most, besides I'm always in my room. It's not like much is going to change."
Clara did not like this sentiment and pushed her chair back from the table.
"Brother is an idiot!"
Saying this, she stomped away.
'Well.. there's the tsundere act she's been keeping in check the past few days..'
Madeline caught his attention then.
"James.. just promise you'll be safe. And don't take Clara's words to heart, she's just worried about you."
"I promise and I know, she just has a strange way of showing it."
After finishing the meal, the group headed out. Veronica carried James all the way out past the drawbridge and into the forested area to the west. It seemed that her and Emily were still abiding by the rules he had set in Creekrock.
The trees around the Cromwell estate were much larger than those back in the eastern forest of Roranspoc. The canopy of leaves were denser as well, leaving the forests shaded floor, very dark.
When Veronica set him down, he went over the very simple plan.
"All right, let's do this the same as last time. Veronica, go find some monster tracks. Emily, you can go as well this time since I'll have Justine and Susan to watch over me."
With a nod, they were off. After a few minutes, James turned to Susan.
"Is there anything actually worth fighting here? I guess I should've asked sooner, but with this forest being so close to the estate, I'm not sure if our families soldiers have killed everything worth a good amount of experience already."
"Haha, you don't have to worry about not seeing any monsters today, Prince James. When I send my girls out on patrol, it's only to travel along the roads and look for bandits. Once in a while we have to send a team in here to kill a monster that's grown too strong, but we did that about six months ago. There should be plenty of beasties still worth your time."
'I guess that makes sense..'
Nodding to Susan, it isn't long before Emily returns.
"I found some fairly big tracks that way, but Veronica will have to check it out to see which way the monster went."
"Good work Emily! We just need to wait for-"
'Speak of the devil.'
Veronica rushes into the little clearing and skids to a hault. James and the other women immediately know something is wrong by the look on her face.
"What happened?"
Veronica sucked in a deep breath before reporting.
"I-I think a dungeon has s-spawned.."
Susan's relaxed attitude changed instantly, she was now serious and demanded answers.
"Are you certain!? What was the rank and what type is it?"
"I'm almost positive it's a rare dungeon, I didn't get close enough to see the type. I think it's a 'Wave', but it could be a 'Floor'. I'll have to get closer to know for certain."
James had a brain blast as forgotten knowledge of the game returned to him. There were common, rare, epic and legendary dungeons in Fractured Worlds.
He also remembered the three types as well. 'Wave' referred to a dungeon that sent hordes of monsters to attack the challengers in a fortified position. After one horde was defeated, another would spawn after a cooldown. The difficulty got higher with each new horde that spawned and the last horde had a special monster to lead the charge.
'Floor' dungeons were a classic rpg style and you had to make your way down a certain number of floors before fighting the dungeon boss at the end.
The other type was a 'Riddle' and was the worst in James's opinion. The rewards were better than average from this type, but the riddles asked needed someone who had intrinsic knowledge of history and culture of the Fractured World lore to answer. Most of the time, James skipped these dungeons altogether when he stumbled upon one.
The women were still talking and James broke in with his his mind made up.
"All right! Let's complete the dungeon!"
Four pairs of eyes turned towards him in shock.
"But James-"
"My Prince-"
He put out a hand to stall their words.
"It's only a rare dungeon, right Vernonica?"
She nodded at him a little helplessly.
"Then what's the problem? Everyone should be fully stocked up on potions and other equipment, with just you four, you girls could complete a rare dungeon."
"But Prince James, if it's a 'Wave' type, then there's no telling how difficult the later hordes would be. Not to mention that we don't know just how many waves it could have."
"Captain Susan, rare types only have about 7-10 hordes. Unless we're unlucky enough to get a bonus wave, then the max level the final horde would be is 35. We can do it, no problem."
"But you're only level 10! What if-"
"That's a risk I'm willing to take. You may or may not have heard what happened with Diana Troth, but I refuse to ever be walked on again. I'd rather die in dungeon than be humiliated."
Susan saw the look in his eyes and slowly nodded.
'It might also be because doing a real life dungeon crawl sounds freaking cool as hell..'
With that said, he clapped his hands and got the new game plan started.