NOVEL WEB Chapter 15: Leaving the hospital
Chapter 15: Leaving the hospital
[Promotion mission: "Rank promotion"]
Objective: enter a low-rank dungeon and defeat the boss monster.
Time limit: seven days
Time remaining: six days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, 58 seconds.
? Warning: if you do not complete the quest in the given time, all your levels will be reset and you will lose all rewards and stats, and your entire status will be under curse for two months.
When he finished reading the contents of the mission, a big smile of happiness lit up his face.
However, this joy quickly faded when he read the warning about the consequences if he did not complete the mission on time.
"I will lose all levels and skills?! I will even be under a curse for two months!"
Erik couldn't believe how hard this penalty he would have if he didn't complete the promotion mission.
"Curse!"
He is not at all satisfied with the severity of the penalty for not completing this mission, he would lose everything he had achieved in the blink of an eye.
But he quickly realizes something, significant, that he is overlooking.
"Puff! Hahahahaha!"
A loud laugh left his lips as if he were being told the best joke in the world. Erik covered his face, as his laughter subsided.
"Haaa... I don't know why I was thinking that way. Because from the beginning, none of this is completely mine."
Erik quickly realized the thought he had a few seconds ago. Believing that the strength you just gained is completely yours.
When much of the strength he has now is thanks to the system, well, he also did his part.
"Ugh, thank goodness I realized it now."
Erik, shaking his head, doesn't want to make the same mistake that the protagonists of the novels he read when he was fifteen.
"... We'd better go to bed."
He looked at the clock on the wall that said 4:30 am. After checking the time, he lay down and fell asleep within a few minutes.
***
A few hours later.
He was at the hospital reception, signing the documents again to be discharged.
He didn't want to make the same mistake of forgetting about his mission, as had happened to him before.
Once he finished signing the documents, he left the hospital with the firm intention of never returning.
He headed straight to the Hunter Association, intending to get his hunter card and, if possible, complete the quest in the dungeon that same day.
After an hour's bus ride.
He finds himself again in front of the imposing Hunter Association building, which seems to be quite agitated due to the incident the previous day.
Without thinking much, he heads towards the entrance. Once inside, the reception area was filled with pre-hunters or just woke-up people complaining.
Erik also got in line to quickly leave the place.
"I heard a rumor that the Hunter Association and the big guilds provoked this incident to recruit the most competent."
"Yes, I heard that. They say that the unknown beast thing is a lie and just an excuse to clean up the corpses from the place."
"I'm glad I didn't get tested that day, otherwise I would have died with them."
"It's amazing, isn't it? Over 80% of the pre-hunters who survived that test were recruited by the big guilds and the Association, and they all have the talent to reach the B and A ranks."
"What, even up to A rank!"
"Yes, I was surprised too when I heard that."
Erik listened carefully to the conversation he was having about the pre-hunters and could not believe the absurdity of those rumors and speculations without knowing what happened.
'You won't believe me if I tell you that the very leader of the special team of the hunters' association came to ask me about the incident.'
He chuckled internally at this thought.
Although he is amazed at the imagination that people have to come up with something so absurd and surreal.
'The human imagination one has no limits'
Erik shook his head slightly, with a small smile.
"Please, next," the receptionist announced.
He snapped out of his thoughts when he realized it was his turn and approached the reception desk.
"Can I help you with anything?"
The worker asked in a robotic tone but with a hint of weariness.
"I'm here to claim a hunter's card."
"Can I get your name?"
"Sure, Erik White."
The receptionist began to look up the name on the computer. After a moment, she found it and said:
"Wait here a moment."
She got up from her seat to go get the card. A few minutes later she returned and said:
"Sorry for the delay, here is your card."
Erik received the hunter's card which contained his name, age, and the rank he was currently at, which was E.
'It won't take me long to change this rank'.
With a smile on his face, he left the building.
Once out of the building, he went to his old room to quietly examine the dungeons that were available to raid and be able to finish the mission as quickly as possible.
***
Once he arrived at his old apartment, he first took a nice shower and then uncovered some canned goods to grab a bite to eat, as he was a bit hungry.
After finishing his meal and looking for low-rank dungeons to explore alone. But he was met with a discouraging surprise.
After an exhaustive search, he was unable to find any dungeons that allowed solo entry.
All low-ranking dungeons, which had security measures to prevent unnecessary deaths, required membership in one of the five major guilds, or special permission from the hunters' association, to embark on a solo dungeon.
"Because things are so complicated."
Letting out a sigh, he browsed on his old smartphone, until he found a page exclusively for hunters.
And when he clicked on the page he was presented with a questionnaire to fill out to gain access to the page.
[Please fill out the questionnaire correctly (do not enter false information or the page will lock and you will no longer be able to access it!)]
"It seems, they are tired of me putting in false information, as to put that in."
Sliding the screen, the questionnaire appeared, which was very simple to fill out.
---
[Full name:]
[Date of birth:]
[Hunter Code:]
[Email:]
[Job:]
---
"Seriously there were people who filled this out with false information."
The questionnaire was too simple.
'Well, at the very least they filled it out wrong, so they didn't give their real information.'
He easily deduced because it would be the most normal thing to do. Because NOBODY wants to put their personal information on a page, where you don't know if it can be hacked.
He filled out quickly, the questionnaire placing his real data, and in the last part.
"What do I put in this part, I don't know what job I have..."
Erik scratched his chin, thinking about what to put in the last part, but after considering for a while he already decided what to put.
"Well, let's put spearman since I use spear".
Filling in the last part, the page updated, but it took a while to load the page because the phone model is a bit outdated, as your phone is a "Samsung Galaxy J2 Prime", and also, you are using mobile data.
Because he could not afford to pay for an internet plan, not even the cheapest of them all.
The page finished loading and finally had access, there were different channels, information exchange, a channel to sell items, a channel to form parties, and more.
The page was an exact copy of Discord, but with the difference that only hunters have access.
"Wow..."
Erik started scrolling the screen looking at the different channels and searching for the one he needed.
After an extensive search, he finally found the channel he needed, he looked at the different texts.
He looked at all of them and then chose the most reliable one, as the others seemed to be a complete hoax.
Without thinking too much about it, he decided to explore the content further.
[We are looking for two hunters, a mage and a melee fighter for a raid on a new low-rank dungeon that recently appeared. Address: 123 Dark Alley, NY 10001. The money will be split once we are out of the dungeon. If interested, please contact the following number: 555-123-45XXX]
"...Really, this is real? This is a fucking sick joke!"
Erik lost his composure as he looked at the contents of his old smartphone. It seemed as if fate was playing a joke on him in very bad taste.
Not too long ago he read something similar, if not the same when he was laid off from the company where he worked.
"Why is my luck so bad...?"
He couldn't help but let out a long sigh, seeing how unlucky he was.
Leaving the complaints he had about his bad luck, he began to write down the number that appeared on the screen.
Once he wrote it down, he called.
The phone rang for a few seconds until someone answered the call.
- Hello, who am I speaking to?
The person who answered had a thick voice that belonged to a man unless he didn't consider himself one.
"Hello, I called this number because it said you would dial this number interested in joining the group."
- Ah, yes, yes, yes, so what do you want to discuss?
"It's about how we're going to split the money."
- As it says in the channel, the money will be divided equally, no matter who contributed the most or how many mana stones we get in total. Everything will be divided equally, is there anything else you need to know?
"No, then that's fine, what time shall we meet?"
- Tomorrow at 10:45 am, is that okay with you?
'Really, damn it! It can't be a coincidence, can it?'
He couldn't help but curse internally when he heard the time, it was all like he was in a simulation.
Also, the meeting time was, The same as when he met Adam's group!
It's too accurate to be a coincidence, the only difference is that now he enters as a hunter and not a doorman
'Could it be that this is all a coincidence and I'm overthinking it?'
- Hello?
"Oh, hello, could you repeat that? I didn't hear right."
- Tomorrow at 10:45, is that okay?
"Yes, that's fine, at that time."
- Perfect, then I'll see you at 10:45 am at the address it says on the channel.
"If that's no problem."
After that, he hung up and looked at the old ceiling of his apartment.
"Will the dungeon be like last time like the other time?".
Erik couldn't get nervous, because of the possibility is high of that happening.
He started watching a live stream on 'Twitch' to clear his mind, which is now very uneasy remembering the incident in the dungeon where that powerful wolf was.
After spending hours watching live, night fell, he ate dinner and then went to bed.
.....