Before we could even react, we were taken out of the dungeon.
It was the same feeling as when we were first taken into the city, like a bath of mana that consumes you.
Once we were back in the city, it took a second to get my bearings. There were a lot of people surrounding this manhole cover now, and a few people even cheered for us as we appeared.
Jake was happy to step forward, smiling and flexing his muscles.
It gave the rest of us a bit of cover so we could sneak past everyone.
"You guys get anything?" Sheral says, a rad cloak appearing in her hands as she unfurled it to show it off.
"Yeah, a pocket watch," I say, showing her the piece.
"Well rats, I don't feel so special anymore."
"I got a dagger," Hunter says.
I take a second to laugh at Sheral's expense.
"It's okay, Sheral, you'll always be special to us."
"Yeah, yeah, you better watch that attitude before I beat ya with a stick."
"Sorry," I say, holding my hands up while still laughing a bit. "I think I'm going to check the auction house for some of the dungeon drops."
"I don't think the people clearing it will be selling their drops," Hunter says, tossing Deadman a hunk of meat.
"Well, we can still look. Plus I want to ask around a bit about who else cleared the dungeon."
"What, you going to hop ship?" Sheral says, poking my side.
"No, no, just want to make more allies than enemies."
"Well alright, I'll go with ya then."
"Okay, sounds good," I say, looking to Hunter after. "I take it you're out of here?"
"Yeah, going to finish a quest in The Nest. Tell me if we're having a get-together though."
"Yeah, will do. Take it easy out there," I say, turning around and walking to the auction house.
It was a particularly busy day, probably due to people wanting to get every advantage before going into the new dungeon.
"How much money you got?" Sheral says.
"Not too much, I should have a bit waiting for me here," I say, walking up to the auctioneer. "Sales?"
"Can I get your name, sir?" the lady says, something that she's never said before.
It caused a bit of a double take as my attention shifted from Sheral to her.
"Um, Tero..." I said, watching her.
Her eyes were the same as before, dead and hollow that is.
"Alright, let me see here." She looked down at papers on her desk, then in a file drawer. "Alright, it looks like you sold one gold, seventy-three silver, and twenty copper. With our cut, that leaves you one gold, sixty-four silver, and fifty-four copper. Let me go in back and count that out for you!"
She got out of her chair and walked into a back room.
"Is that normal? You look like you've seen a ghost," Sheral asks.
"No, not at all. She usually just says, 'Here you go,' and a system window pops up."
"Hm, that's weird."
"Yeah, nothing ever changes here. I wonder if their AI got reset or something?"
"I dunno what you're talking about, but they might be changing because of the dungeon," Sheral suggests, shrugging it all off.
"Yeah, I guess," I say, spotting the attendant coming back with a bag.
"Here you are, sir," she says, handing the bag over to me.
[Gold 1x]
[Silver 64x]
[Copper 54x]
"Um, thank you! Do you have an auction list?"
"Yes, sir." She looks down at her desk again and gives me a blank paper.
[Auction House
Listings: 5357]
So for the buying, it's still system-only for the interface.
"Okay buddy, I'm going to do the asking around for you. Don't go too far away," Sheral says, patting my shoulder as I scroll the auction house menu.
I only took a quick scroll, mainly filtering to see enchanting materials, which mostly consisted of refined mana and a few runes.
All items had a category, and most ingredients belonged to at least one of the profession schools.
It was useful to know when you're looking at the auction house, but in general it didn't mean much.
"Okay, you done?" Sheral said, sneaking up behind me and making me jump a bit.
"Yeah, there wasn't anything particularly interesting," I say, starting to walk out of the auction house with her.
"I asked a few people with golden items about the dungeon, and apparently we're the second group to come out claiming to do it on Elite difficulty."
"Oh damn? I feel like we did pretty good."
"That's the thing, I'm sure you heard of the New World group that's been helping people with the smell?"
I had. They had gone out during the event and blessed people with the same blessing Sheral gave us.
From that I knew they at least had two priests.
"Yeah, I remember. Did they just bring a full party?"
"That and, apparently, the majority of auction house listings for healing items and runes are under their web."
"No shit?"
"Yeah, it's been a headache to the crafting community, and the only way to get away from the jacked-up prices is to join their group and pay some item tax."
"That feels like what I'd expect from this new world. Should we talk to them?"
"We can if you want. Their dungeon party is celebrating in the high-end tavern."
"Alright, let's see what's up with them then," I say, changing direction to walk to the tavern.
During the walk I started to spot more new details about the NPCs and city in general.
When we walked by a fountain I got hit with a light mist of water, there were kids playing in the street with their parents shortly behind, and vendors would yell out to you and not just in general.
"It really seems like they overhauled the entire city," I say.
"Yeah, it's pleasant."
The conversation ended there, probably because there wasn't much to say about it.
Once we were outside the inn, a guard stopped us from going forward.
"One silver for bar entry."
I rolled my eyes. Paying to enter a place just so I could talk was a little annoying.
"Don't roll your eyes at me, boy," the guard said rudely.
"Oh shit, my bad," I responded as I handed him two silver and walked in, with Sheral coming in behind me.
Inside the tavern it was clear except for six people, the bartender, and a few waiters.
The six people fit the roles of two priests and two melee-focused classes.
The last two were wearing casual clothes, so I couldn't say what they were, but they were definitely the ones who saw me first.
It may have been the golden chain that hung from my robe pocket, but I could see their interest spike as we walked in.