The First Legendary Beast Master

Chapter 2034 Tell Auntie Opal About It

The group whose members had been taken hostage was not the only one that had lost their challenge that day.

They were just the strangest.

Four other groups had been completely wiped out, and resurrected by the security staff, for the low price of one Rare Grade item each. That seemed like a fair price to most of them, as the other Clans either wouldn't have resurrected them, or would have demanded they turn over a whole run worth of loot for the privilege.

Reasonable pricing had never been a strong point of the Immortal Worlds.

It was nearly an hour before the group came back out again, all ten members present and alive, and all looking like they had been through hell.

"Guild Leader, might you bless us with that nullification spell again? We've all got our skills blocked, and the System says it takes twenty-four hours to wear off. I'm quite certain that our Clan Leader does not want to babysit us that long, and we can pay him back if you require payment in advance."

Karl laughed as he removed the block from the members.

"This time will be cheap. All you have to do is give a proper and detailed description of your dungeon run to my Guild Member Opal, and you're all paid up."

It took them a couple of seconds to realize that Karl was not actually being super kind to them by not having them pay cash.

No, he was making them pay in a much worse way.

Once they realized that Opal was the Forest Trickster that put on the shows in the VIP theatre, their entire sentiment about having someone learn the full story of their dungeon run changed immediately.

The Fae was definitely going to find their pain hilarious, and she was definitely going to make a show about it.

But they were leaving soon, so perhaps they could convince her not to use their real names, faces or Clan in the show. If that was the case, then only the ones who were here would ever know it was them.

It was an excellent warning about pushing your limits.

They had picked a difficulty five dungeon, as they were fairly certain that they had the combination to clear it.

And they should have, if it hadn't been badgers in the last section.

They had been ambushed, overwhelmed, had their skills locked, and their weapons stolen. Then the badgers ran away and triggered the boss to come for them. So, when they tried to call their stolen gear back, they realized that they had lost the ability to interact with their inventory, and most of them were killed.

The rest were taken captive by the badgers, and hung upside down in a tree to wait for the others to come get them.

They didn't want to talk about what had happened while the others had been gone, but they were mostly unhurt when they were rescued. That surprised Opal more than anything else. The monsters in the dungeon were not known to spare anyone, much less forget about prisoners.

But the look in the rescued Elders' eyes said that "Uninjured" did not mean "Unharmed". Just not harmed more than their regeneration rate.

Or possibly healed while they were tortured.

Their healer was a Cleric, but that didn't mean that he didn't have blessings that healed for a long duration. The White Dragons had one that would heal you constantly for an entire hour. So, if the trio had a spell like that on them when they were captured, the badgers might have simply given up and decided to tie them up until the effect wore off.

That was still strange behaviour for a dungeon mob, but not nearly as strange as not injuring them at all.

Opal led them away to a private room where she could properly interrogate them about their experience, using illusions and a bit of persuasion to set their minds at ease.

That left everyone else out of luck, and the need for gossip soon turned to the rumours that there were Guild Leaders who had purchased portal arrays so that they could send their members here for the tournaments that the Darklight Host was going to be putting on.

Nobody knew for sure when they would be yet, but with an arena like that, stocked with all sorts of amazing features and food vendors, there had to be tournaments.

Plus, the Darklight Host was a crafting Guild.

They didn't need to wait to find a rare treasure, they could simply make one, and use it as the prize to attract fighters here to the city for their entertainment. Everyone accepted that was what they were to the members of the Darklight Host.

Though, most of them forgot that there were more members than just the Elders that they saw around town.

The Lycans seemed to blend into the background, and the rest were low Immortal Demons, Elves and Bunnies. Those barely counted as Guild members to start with, and most of the human focused Guilds would count them as perpetual acolytes who would never be properly trained, or simply Immortal servants.

One step up from the Mortal Bunnies, but not a big step.

And that was a novelty that still hadn't worn off. Immortal bunnies. Bunnies everywhere, and Dark Elves. Yes, they understood that the Dark Elves were magical constructs. But that meant someone had deliberately chosen them to represent the Guild, and they didn't come to be members by some odd twist of fate.

But Karl had no intentions of changing the constructs around the city.

Rae liked the Elves, and they were incredibly versatile. They had barrier, attack and healing magic, so they could intervene in nearly any situation. And, they had an incredibly keen mind, so they were good at negotiations and dealing with customers.

The other members didn't mind if they gave someone a bit of a discount, they would almost always end up selling the visitor far more than they had planned on buying, and they never sold below cost.

Not even for Remi's potions, which were often made from incredibly valuable resources.

Abundant, but valuable.