New Earth- The Dungeon of Madness 37 Staying at the camp

"Not my problem! It is the town's policy to close after 18:00. Please come back tomorrow during the open time to enter! You can stay at the camp there for the night if you want!" said the guard while showing the numerous mounted tents.

Five frowned, "Is there really no way to enter?"

Hearing that, the guard immediately drew his sword, "Do you think I will be bribed like that? Move out of the way now!"

"Ok ok! Calm down!" answered Five while slowly moving back towards the camp.

"Haha young man! Nice try!" commented an old man who was sitting in front of his tent not too far away.

"You are not the first one to try but that guy is a compass! He won't allow you in no matter what you try!"

"mmm" Five nodded. "Is there a way for me to get a tent? I will have to spend the night there."

The old man stood up before pointing in a specific direction. "Go this way, you'll find a burly man. His name is Andre, he's in charge of the camp! You can ask him for a place to stay. As long as you fork out some gold, he might give you a good spot too."

"Thanks"

With this information in mind, Five walked in the given direction. He was carefully looking around him, people looked like pioneers, covered with dust and dirt from their journey. In the distance, more and more people could be seen arriving. It seemed that it was not uncommon for people to miss the opening hours of the town and have to sleep in the outside camp.

However, Five had some trouble: he did not have any gold! He could convert his DP in gold, but that would result in a terrible loss! He would need 1000 DP to get 1 gold and that was something Five was not willing to trade.

But since he was already there, he might as well try his luck. FIve quickly arrived at a bonfire and quickly noticed the man named Andre. It was easy for him since he could just rely on the game system and look at the characters' name and level.

Additionally, Andre easily stood out of the crowd due to his large muscular physique and the dark dragon tattoo on his right arm. Many people were coming to ask him for accommodation and Five could clearly see many of them tossing a few coins in Andre's hand. In return, Andre would then give them a specific tent to rest.

Soon, it was Five's turn.

"Hello, I would like a tent to spend the night!" said Five.

"Hmmp" Andre looked at him for a moment, clearly expecting something. But he was disappointed when he saw that Five did not move.

He was assigned by the town to look after the camp and provide shelter for anyone who would enter the town. The town was locked at night for safety reasons; incidents happened in the past and this policy had since been applied.

To reduce people's anger, the town decided to set up a camp for them to wait during the night and it was for free! However, they knew that many poor people would abuse this service to live freely and so, they asked someone to organize and look after the camp and that person was precisely Andre.

Getting a tent was free but the quality of the tents and locations also varied! And it was up to the discretion of Andre. Naturally, with time, Andre starting developing his own system to increase his end of month pay! As long as one would give him some gold, he would be nice and give a good tent but if he received nothing...

"Go to tent A38" drily said Andre.

"Thanks!" answered Five as he started looking for his tent. The tents were orderly arranged, it was easy for Five to find his. "It was not too bad after all, didn't that old man say I need to pay?" said Five to himself.

However, his expression changed as he approached his tent!

"Sh*t!"

He only arrived in front of tent A31 but already, a heavy foul smell assaulted his nostrils! Five naturally recognized that smell! It was the distinctive strong smell of urine mixed with the foul smell of poop!

"God! What is that..." cursed Five.

He slowly walked forward and the smell kept getting stronger and stronger. While players like Five were exempted from the necessity of using the toilet to make the game more enjoyable. It was not the case for NPCs! They still needed to relieve themselves and so, a toilet had to be set up in the camp!

Right next to tent A40, Five could see a series of small sheds and he naturally understood their purpose.

"Damn... Are these never cleaned!?"

However, as much as he hated it, he understood the rules! He was extremely weak at the moment and did not have much authority! If he wanted a better tent, he would have to fork out some gold. Although his life was not pink, he at least always had a roof to sleep under and naturally all his accommodations, even the prison was in better conditions than this.

"There is no way I can live like this..." exclaimed Five. He could not help but grind his teeth, it looked like he would have to convert his remaining DP into gold.

He was about to open his dungeon shop and look for the option but before that, he swiftly browsed through the items if he could find something that would help his situation. Finally, he stumbled onto a possibly useful item!

[Smell Sensory Inhibition Potion]

Paralyses the user's sense of smell.

Duration: 6 hours

Cost: 1000 DP

With this, he now had 2 options: to purchase the item or pay Andre to get a better tent. However, now that he had angered Andre to some extent, there was no guarantee he would actually be given a better tent.

Although the tent he had was not the best, it would be considered decent; it was clean and had some leaves arranged to act as a bed. WIthout the bad smell, it would have been considered as a normal tent. And so, Five settled onto buying the potion! Even if he would need to buy two, at least, he would spend a good night without anyone nearby to disturb him!

As for whether he would himself smell after the night, that was something he would worry about later.

However, he would do that later. For now, he went to the bonfire and sat in a corner to silently eat his food. A few people were there; mainly adventurers who just came back from the Marlose Swamp. Some of them were even players and were discussing among themselves. Five was quietly listening, trying to obtain some information about the situation of the empire.

He already noticed how the players were mostly level 12 while he himself was level 9. They did not come to talk to him. Many had witnessed the scene where he was attributed one of the worst tents of the camp and so, they flagged him as a poor and weak player. Adding to that the fact that he was 3 levels below their own, they would win nothing in bonding with him.

Five did not mind their attitude, he calmly ate his dinner as he was listening. After that, he opened his interface to look at the forum. It has been a little over one week since the players joined the game. To his surprise, a post had actually been made on the forum dedicated to the dungeon masters!

It was short but at the same time, convey a sort of message: "To all of you rebels of the society! We have been segregated by society, left to rot in prisons for the rest of our lives. But now is our turning point! I have already found my dungeon and is on my way to make them pay back! I have settled in the Arstan Empire and would like to invite all of you to join me! It is only together that we will be able to withstand the oppresion of those corrupted politicians! You are all welcomed to come! Let's join hand and together, we shall regain our freedom!"

"Pfff, another rallying message!" sneered Five as he saw the post in the forum. He quickly closed the interface and with nothing else to do, he went back to his room. His fatigue was already quite high and the best way to reduce it would be to sleep! He sluggishly made his way to his tent but before that, he stealthily downed a pink bottle.

...

"Hmmp! That guy really does not know the way of this world" said Andre as his eyes followed the disappearing silhouette of Five.

"Don't worry Andre, it is obvious what kind of people he is! Look, he does not even flinch to the smell. Don't bother with those low-class plebians!" said one of the NPCs.

The nearby players naturally heard their comments and could not help but look at Five in disgust. He was lowering all of their statuses!

Chapter end