New Earth- The Dungeon of Madness 137 Meteor

"Teacher? Are we going to be safe?" asked a young man.

An old woman briefly looked at the nervous youth. "Don't worry, Lovin. Old Luke will not harm us. He is crafty but not stupid. There is no reason for him to do so. According to our ancestor's records, the dungeons do indeed have somebody controlling them from behind. Just keep quiet and let us do the discussions."

Hearing his name, the old Shaman of the Black Iron Tribe looked at the old woman. "I see that you still hold a grudge against me, Ester. If I wanted to harm the Forest Fox Tribe, I would not need to trick you into coming here. If you don't want to meet him, then fine, you can just go back."

"Can you to stop bickering over such trivial things? We have already agreed to merge together. Ester, your tribe is already starting its migration. It's the same for me. We should let bygones be bygones," said the last person.

"Fine."

They soon arrived at the waterfall and under the instructions of Old Luke, they sat down near the pond. Despite their old age, none of the three elders suffered from the cold.

Lovin, the youth of the group nervously scanned his surroundings. He did not have the experience or strength of the elders. He was wondering where the dungeon master would be coming from but at that moment, the burble of the waterfall momentarily stopped as the waterfall split into two, revealing a hidden tunnel behind it.

Two silhouettes stepped out from behind the waterfall and approached the elders.

'Not bad. It is indeed much simpler to simply walk out like that,' said Five to himself. He just spent 1000 DP to dig this tunnel and connect it to the first floor. The cost was negligible and it saved him the trouble of looking for a way to go down the cliff.

The elders' eyes lit up. However, their attention was not on Five but rather on Harriet who silently followed him, acting as a bodyguard. They all immediately felt the strength coming out of the Harpy Queen.

"Hello, Five. Thank you for accepting to meet up. I would like to present to you these three people. They will be part of the new council of our new tribe once their respective tribe completes their migration. This is Old Dale, the Shaman of the Scarlet Crow Tribe."

Old Luke lightly tapped the shoulder of an old man wearing a patch on his left eye. His face was riddled with scars and burn marks. He faintly grinned as he shook Five's eyes. "Nice to meet you, Five. I hope we'll have a peaceful cooperation."

Old Luke continued, "This is Ester. The Shaman of the Forest Fox Tribe and next to her is her current apprentice, Lovin."

Five briefly shook their hands. 'A Fox and a Crow... Reminds me of the famous fable'

"So you've really merged your tribes?"

"Yes. Once they finish their migration, we shall all live at the Black Iron Village. We are currently setting up new tents and even starting to build a few houses. With the arrival of winter, we'll have a lot of time for that. From now on, we are the Musclewood Tribe."

"Musclewood? I thought you always used the names of animals?" curiously asked Five.

Old Dale lightly laughed and answered, "That is true but since we are combining our tribes, it is hard to find an appropriate name. Instead, we are using the name of this forest. In case you did not know, it is called the Musclewood Forest. All our tribes depend on this forest and in the future, we might also integrate the other nearby tribes into ours. Besides, it is not rare to name a tribe after its area. The Black Iron Tribe got its name because it was once located on the Black Iron Mount."

"Very interesting but I believe you are not here just to explain this to me, right?" said Five. From his previous interactions with the Shaman, he did not believe that the old man did not have ulterior motives in arranging this meeting.

The three elders nodded to each other and Ester spoke. "It is one of the reasons we are here. As from tomorrow, we should be sending 300 tribesmen to your dungeon. We would first like to request the opening of the sixth floor."

Five knew it was what they were after. They wanted more resources! "No problem, but in the next few days, I will make great changes to the dungeon. I will still abide by our deal but I will rearrange a few floors. For you, it will just mean more resources. I hope you will send in more people."

"Of course. Once we finish settling down at the village, we will definitely send in more people. However... We have another thing to ask," hesitantly said Old Luke.

"Speak. What is it?"

"I would just like to confirm that you will help us in protecting our village. Tension is rising between the tribes because of the dungeons. To top it off, our scouts detected the undead army you sent to destroy the other dungeons. If we were able to find out about this, there is no doubt that the other tribes will also soon trace the destruction of the dungeons back to you. I don't know what feud you have with the other dungeon masters but you did damage our relationship with those tribes."

Old Dale continued. "Although they are quite far from us, now that you've destroyed their dungeon, I believe they will look for revenge. It is very likely that they will join hands and attack us together. We can deal with a few tribes but the number of tribes you angered is not small."

Five internally smiled. He knew something like this would happen. There was no way the destruction of a dungeon would go unnoticed but it was a way to attract more people into his dungeon.

"No problem. As it was stated in our deal, I will indeed help you defend your village. If needed, I will even allow you to retreat to my dungeon."

Hearing Five's statement, the Shamans were relieved. They did not completely believe Old Luke but now that the words were coming out of the dungeon master's mouth, all their previous doubts were cleared.

Old Dale smiled and casually added. "I heard that one of your monsters is learning under Old Luke but with how busy he usually is, he probably does not spend much time on her. I don't have an apprentice yet and if she needs help, she does not need to hesitate to ask me. I am happy to help her."

"I was going to say the same thing. It would be great if Lovin had a study partner. If she needs any help, she can also ask me. I will gladly help her. It is one of the advantages of merging our tribes. Now, we can share the workload," said the female Shaman.

'Looks like they are all trying to get on my good side. Well, I won't complain about it," said Five to himself. "Thank you very much. I will inform Angela about it. I am sure she will be very happy. Aside from that, I have a question to ask. Have any of you heard of Mad King Lavenus?"

"Mad King Lavenus?" The Shamans wore confused expressions. Five did not need to wait for their answers to know that they did not have any idea of who it was.

"It does not matter. It's not very important. Since it is our first meeting, let me give you all a gift," excitedly said Five. At the same time, he took out the Cube of Resourcefulness from his inventory.

"What is this?" exclaimed Ester as her eyes focused on the transparent cube.

Old Dale's sole eye twitched. "What a strange energy. It feels like advanced mysticism but I am unable to comprehend its effects."

'Of course, you can't. If you could, then you would have already turned this place into a paradise full of resources,' swore Five in his heart.

"This is a Cube of Resourcefulness. Its effects are to create a random source of resources nearby. The problem is that it is completely random. I don't know what we will obtain from this but since you kept asking for more resources, I think we all agree that using it would be beneficial to us," explained Five. The transparent cube rotated in the palm of his hand.

Lovin stayed silent. He was puzzled. It was the first time he was seeing his teacher, Ester, failing to understand the functionality of an item.

"Since it will help us, then please use it. I am very curious about this item," commented Old Dale.

Five nodded and activated the Cube of Resourcefulness. The transparent cube spun quickly in his palm and suddenly disappeared. However, nothing happened. There were no crazy animations or even any system prompts.

The Shamans looked at him with confused expressions. "Did it fail?"

"I don't know... The description of the item simply states that it would create a source of material. Maybe it just created a metal vein or something under the surface. As I said, its effects are pretty random and I have no way of controlling it."

As Five spoke, the dark sky suddenly got brighter. They all raised their head and to their surprise, a giant ball of fire was falling from the sky. The Shamans stared in amazement at the giant fireball. It was the first time they were witnessing such a strange phenomenon.

However, it soon dawned on them that the giant fireball was falling toward them!

'Is this the effect of the Cube of Resourcefulness? A meteor? Resources from outer space?' thought Five. He could see the meteor falling from the sky. It was so bright that the entire Sylvester Empire should be able to see it.

"Don't panic. It is not going to fall right on us. It should fall somewhere in the forest," commented Old Luke. His tone was calm and reassuring but he failed to ease the nerves of the Shamans.

A few minutes later, a loud explosion resounded through the forest. Despite the distance, Five clearly heard the Meteor explode and a cloud of ashes even blew against him, coming from the area of the explosion.

'Well. I suppose I should be happy. With the way the Meteor landed in the forest, there is no way people won't be attracted by it which means more NPCs or even players should roam the area in the upcoming week. The question now is what kind of resources did that Meteor bring.'

Chapter end