A Warlock's Ascent

Igor's eyes twinkled, as he looked at the pearl size soul orb in his hands, his eyes were filled with greed. In his hands was the last piece that he needed to solve the most difficult puzzle of this world…

It has been more than 6 months since he came to this shitty place, and still, he couldn't believe the basic laws of this world, they were all absurd. Also in a sense, he felt that this world was made in such a way that players would be superiors to all its natives.

The soul orb, the artifact which absorbs the souls of monsters in a dungeon, is a very vital tool for dungeon divers. The soul orbs that Midgardians can use are like these small red pearls, exactly like the one that he is holding right now.

The main problem with these things is that they are physical objects, every dungeon diver has to protect these at all costs, otherwise, the number of souls absorbed in this small piece of jewelry would be lost forever. Which meant that they would have dived into the dungeon for no apparent reason.

Anyone could claim and use these orbs, and as this is kind of like a wallet of the dungeon, these orbs cost a lot of money. But unlike the Midgardians, Players or Earthians can get their soul orb for free, also their soul is not physical which means they dont have to carry these things with them at all times.

In this world, the disparity between powers and potential Earthians wield when compared to Midgardina, is very huge. With some hard work, Midgardians could only suffer at the bottom of the barrel, while players could become rulers of this world…

The orb in his hands was an orb containing 2000SP or 2000 Soul Points of taxes that they had collected recently. Every D-Rank adventurer has to pay a small tax when diving into the dungeon.

Sonia and her beautiful brain came up with a lot of ideas to revamp Vecrus so that it could get back on its feet again. To get the economy going, she knew that she would need a lot of people to come to live in the city, that way the overall income of her people could increase.

She needed a way to attract hordes of the remaining population of Midgard to come to live there, and that is when she decided to make the entry to the dungeon free to anyone who wants it.

The previous lord used to charge a lot of money from adventurers for giving them access to dungeons, but she took that tradition and threw it out of the window. She managed to convince the council of Vecurs that instead of taking money from poor folk, they should bring some changes to the structure of their economy to bring in more people.

The city would make a loss in a small term, but if her plan succeeds and she could invite a lot of people to Vecurs, then that loss would soon become a source of profit. And that was happening.

It was Igor's idea to tax the high-ranking awakened ones' with a small charge of 5 Sp to gain entry into the dungeon. For D-Rank or above, 5Sp is a chump change, they would be more than happy to pay the amount. And then he convinced her to make him in charge of taking care of that tax.

He had to fudge some numbers, and eventually, he was able to gain access to an amount of SP from which he could give his loyal dogs and him, enough skills that leveling become too easy for them. But he also managed to save some amount, as he had a goal in his mind…

With this 2000 SP and the rest of the amount that he had managed to save till now, he could finally buy a thing that he always wanted, the clue to the second world.

***

There was an awkward silence between he and Hasan since they have gotten out of the guild, none of them had spoken a word, the giant was not so talkative fellow, to begin with, but he on the other hand was also silent.

He knew that man beside him was trying to kill him, so he was trying to maintain a certain distance between them, as well as trying to stay vigilant. According to the giant, he was a loner, just like him, but now he was thinking about whether really he could trust any word that came out of the giant's mouth.

So he was also paying attention to his surroundings, trying to see whether the giant had any friends with him or not. And so far, he had found no one suspicious following them, which was a good sign.

As both of them finally made out of the city, he turned towards the giant. "So what is the plan?" he asked trying to act natural.

"Well, we will first to the sight where you killed the goblins. And see to it whether we could find any marks or footprints there."

"Cool Cool cool cool cool… This would be the best way to track those small midgets."

"Let's go now, I will follow you."

"Me why?" 

"What do you mean why? You are the guy who brought me there the last time, so you could bring me back again."

"I can but, you are stronger than me. What if we encounter a monster, I could not fight it. So I dont feel safe leading our little team." But getting no reaction from Hasan, Dave realized that he would not be able to back out of this one. 

He started leading them deeper into the forest while moving, he couldn't focus on the path, because he was more focused on the giant behind him, he knew that he would try to kill him without a moment's notice, so he had keep his guard up.