Make the best use of what's in your power and take the rest as it happens

Epictetus

"Ugh, where am I?" David said grudgingly as he woke up due to some sort of rocking movement. He felt like a piece of pounded meat as he felt pain in every inch of his body. Once he had gotten used to being awake, he observed his new surroundings and saw that he was inside a moving carriage.

'What happened?' He thought while sitting up, but to his surprise, he was completely naked. The only cover he had was a few fur blankets, he was about to panic but he soon found his bag nearby. It had everything that it should inside, he also saw his own armour pieces and weapon neatly placed beside the bag, cleaned of any blood.

David then decided to check his personal interface status by slowly concentrating his mind. He saw that he had a few level advancements in his class which was not too bad, but soon after checking through the interface, his face turned white. He had to double check in case he was hallucinating. He had finally realised that another contract slot had been used.

Sphere Contract [Level 1 Permanently]

[Three contracts available, 2/3]

............

Contract 2: Low Grade Dungeon Core [Level 1, EXP 0/100]

[Cannot be resummoned it’s after destruction]

David was blinking his eyes repeatedly, while also pinching his own arm.

'It's true...' He thought, but then he had realised something. He hurriedly checked his naked body and soon found what he was looking for. He had hoped that it wasn't there but unfortunately the gods seems to laugh unfavourably towards him as he seems to accumulate bad luck wherever he goes.

On his right ass cheeks was a tattoo of the Dungeon Core! It was branded into him when he was unconscious inside the Newbie Dungeon. He wanted to cry but felt no tears rolling down his eyes. He felt that it was a waste of a slot since he currently couldn't find any positive things about becoming a Dungeon Master yet, instead all he found was a heavy responsibility due to the becoming danger that will befall him in 3-months when the dungeon re-opens.

He had many thoughts towards this revelation, 'How does the Dungeon Core Level Up? Will levelling it up increase the strength of the Avatar? Can the Dungeon Core upgrade from Low Grade to Middle Grade?'

After thinking for a while, he then moved on towards his second interface, as he can switch between two different statuses, one was his personal, the other status was his Dungeon Master one.

Dungeon Master, David Lee

Low Grade Dungeon Core [JoJo]

Dungeon, Revival Period (3/90 Days)

Dungeon Coin: 100

He was surprised to see that it’s already been three days and that he had been unconscious for so long. He also saw that the Dungeon core had earned 100 DC naturally, as it has the ability to get 1000 coins a month, being 33.33 coins a day.

David then last thought of the life and death fight with the outlaws, and thought that it was completely unreasonable. He wasn't a saint, but anyone comes at him with bad intentions, he would retaliate with all his might. Though he doesn't remember anything that had happened after he had drank the Goblins Insanity potion. But he silently guessed that he had killed the remaining bandits, because he calculated the exp he gained in his head, and the excess exp he had gotten could only come from the remaining bandits.

David realised that he had been thinking for too long, and didn't notice that the fairy was missing.

'Where did he go? Did he die?' He thought, dumbfounded as he though he now has to walk all the way back towards the dungeon instead of teleporting, he also feels a sudden sense of lost, as if he felt a little sad due to the death of the lively fairy. But he knew that the Dungeon Core Avatar can be revived after a month of cooldown, so he got over it fairly quickly.

Suddenly, the moving carriage had slowly come to a stop. He could hear loud chatters and footsteps from outside, so he became curious as to see who would act managmious towards him. It seems like the other party had nursed him back to full health. He knows that this world is full of deceit and violence, so who would heal him, a stranger? Unless it was someone he knew.

'Is it Zhao Yin or Katniss? He thought in expectation, as he hurriedly equip the lizard amour, sheathed the lizard dagger and placed the bag pack onto his back. He then slowly exited the carriage only to be dumbfounded.

'How could it be him?' David thought with a confused expression.

After exiting the carriage, he felt the hot blaring sun shine down on him. In front of him, the surrounding environment was not one of the forest that he had been in, but a wide grassy plain with many small hills. In the distance he could see a very large town with many people coming to and fro.

There were other towns all over the vast grassy plains, but albeit, they were smaller than the one the carriage was heading too. He also saw that behind him was a wide vast forest, he instantly knew that this forest was the place that he came from.

"So you are finally awake" A sharp sounding voice echoed into his mind. The person that David was least expecting to see save him was the person before him now. Dressed in a familiar fancy red robe, a red wizard cap, and was wielding a big wooden staff was Darius Firoach, the arrogant fire mage that he had met back in the newbie dungeon.

"It was you? Why did you save me?" David said, as he couldn't comprehend any reasons whatsoever as to why Darius would save him.

"It wasn't him, it was me" A sweet resounding voice could be heard from behind him, he turned to see who it was. The voice came from an older looking woman, her face has some similarity to Darius, so it was obvious that she was a relative.

"Hi, I'm Lacey Firoach, Darius older sister; I see that you two are apparently acquaintances? I heard that my little brother met you inside the Dungeon" She said softly, to which David nodded in confirmation.

"Well, you were lucky that we heard your fight or else no one would be around to save you, we were delayed on our trip by the small representatives of NPS, Nobles Protection Services, because they heard rumours that a Noble was in Vermont Town. They wanted to offer you some assistance, but they soon found out that you had supposedly died in a dungeon. After questioning my little brother for some time we were finally let free, only to find you in after a few hours on our trip. I'm very sorry for not sending you back to town as we were on a deadline and didn't want to stop" She said quickly with a hint of regret.

David said that it was fine; in fact, he was overjoyed at this decision. He was firmly believed to be official dead on the outside, mainly towards the cunning Guild Leader and he felt lucky that he wasn't sent back to Vermont Towm.

"Hummmpft, how did you kill all those bandits, I refuse to believe that you killed them on your own" Darius sharp voice interrupted David’s train of thoughts.

Paaaap

"Don't be so rude!" Lacey slapped the back of her little brothers’ head.

"Ouch, what did you do that for?" Darius said with an unsatisfied voice but Lacey just ignored him.

"I'm terribly sorry for my little brothers behaviours, he’s is just straightforward sometimes" Lacey said slowly towards David.

"Ah... That's ok, anyway, those bandits weren't that hard to kill, and they were extremely weak for their age" David said, with a hint of confusion.

"That's because not only were these men, bandits, they even had the bandit class. Bandit class is an all-rounder class where the goal is to rob brazenly. Bandits usually have a bad reputation with the law and are always on the run so they have very little time to train and level up, keeping them stagnant and weak." Lacey explained as she saw David’s confused expression.

"Anyway, we should get going since the festival is happening in a few hours" Lacey said towards David while motioning everyone to start moving as their inspection had ended.

The reason they stopped was that the town before them didn't allow large group of carriages to arrive at once, since they feared an attack. You had to stop your carriages a fair bit outside the town, then send someone to get an official town inspector. Once the inspector had checked everything was ok, you were good to go inside the town.

It didn't take long for the group to pass through the front gate, although the towns security did another check, it was just a light check since they trusted their official inspectors to do their jobs properly. This town was called Lupia Town; it was two days away from Vermont Town.

Lupia Town was seven times bigger and had ten times the residence than Vermont Town. David was sitting in the coachman’s seat, next to Darius and Lacey on their main carriage. He saw that the horses they used were a higher breed than what the bandits used, they were bigger, tougher and were arrogant and prideful. Many pedestrians had avoided their group, but that did not stop the lively vibe that the town emitted.

"This is the annual food festival of Lupia Town, our family has been coming here every year ever for 15 years since our father fell in love with the food" Lacey explained slowly to David as they travelled. He couldn't see one street without a food stall; they were selling many different exotic fruits and veggies.

But most stalls were selling many different kinds of meat whether they be roasted or smoked, they were shouting at towards the crowd while yelling out different prices. David was couldn't help but listen closely towards the various chefs voices in shock because most of them were selling a small piece of meat for dozens of gold, and people were crazily buying them up as if they were going to run out.

"Every top chef in the region comes to this town just to sell their proud work of art. In the past, around 250 years ago when the world was in chaos, a renowned chef of the time had organised a food competition" Lacey said towards David, she then pointed towards a giant statue that was situated in the middle of the town, this was a statue of a tall handsome stout man who had a huge wok behind his back. He had two hands on his hips, spouting a heroic poised.

"He is called Lord Fredrick Milton, he became the first Noble in his line but his main class was that of a chef. This caused his future generations to become unorthodox Nobles due to becoming a family of chefs. They were out casted from friendly gatherings between Nobles, so they just rule this town, far away from any major cities where most Nobles reside in.

Anyway, back towards the competition. During the time of chaos, where many races were in dispute, he had boldly organised a food competition, while putting in his personal wealth as the prize pool. He then invited the Dwarves that were enemies of the human race to participate, at first they were sceptical and thought it was a trap, but after finally sending some representatives, they fell in love with the food and alcohol. It is commonly known that Fredrick Milton family secret alcohol brew is number one in the world.

The food and alcohol created by the Noble Class Chef had scored peace between humans and dwarves. This made way for many trade deals between the two races which tip the tide in the chaotic war, so every other race followed through with a peace treaty and the ones that didn't sign were casted out and killed by the new alliance." Lacey said proudly. David was shocked to hear anything like this; he didn't expect that a respectable person like this could ever exist in this world. He looked towards the statue with respect before looking back towards Lacey as she wanted to say more.

"Our father had a chance encounter with one of the Milton descendants, creating close ties between our two families. This was at a time when Darius was just born. That's why every year; our family sends someone to become a judge in the annual Milton Cooking Competition. I will be this year’s judge alongside other people of other families." She said proudly, this cleared things up for David as he was wondering why this town was there destination.

After around half an hour, their group had finally found an inn to stay at. This in was a popular inn in this town, called, The Pondering Inn. It was four stories tall with excess facilities on the side, such as a private rented space to place your carriages. There was already a large reservation for the Firoach family. Many of the guards were also giving rooms but they had to buddy up as there were too many guards.

David thought that they took this whole Fire Mage family thing too far as every single person whether they are family members or guards, they all wore red. But he was confused when Lacey had giving him a key. It was a key for a private, premium grade room. He knows that the Firoach family has booked a total of four premium rooms, one for Lacey, Darius and now himself. He didn't know who the fourth one would go to.

"It’s only a room, it's booked for only one week and besides, I know that you don't have any wealth on yourself since I was the one who nursed and cleaned you up" Lacey said while winking towards David. He blushed shyly before giving his thanks. So after checking the room out, he couldn't help but be dumbfounded.

This room was like a five star levelled room from Dubai as there were so many expensive decorations, golden pillars and statues can be spotted around the room. High grade carpets, bed, bathrooms. He especially loved the bathroom as it was modern, he no longer had to squat down over a ceramic pot to do his biddings, there was now a real toilet with soft wipes on the side. He couldn't help but cry silently as he felt right at home in this place. He vowed to now only book premium grade rooms wherever he goes!

He finally exited the room after exploring the inside; he joined the others in the main dining hall where everyone was eating. He sat next to Lacey and Darius at their table, Lacey only ate a light healthy meal since she was going to need to save room for the cooking competition. Darius and David shared a hearty buffet, he couldn't help but worry about the cost, this buffet had costed around 300 gold coins, so he had to savour every bite and not waste anything.

"Ah, benefactor!" A voice shouted amongst the guards, and soon every guard had stood up in respect, stopping their meal time while staring at the newcomer who had walked in.

"Teacher!" Both Lacey and Darius said in sync towards the man.

"Ahh, why do you guys always do this, you're making me blush" The old man said, smiling wildly while motioning everyone to sit down. David finally knew who the fourth premium room holder was as the old man was coming to sit at their table.

"This is our family benefactor, and teacher, Merlin Wildart, an ex - Wizard Guild Leader of a middle sized town, a town the same sized as this one, he quit his duty to become our family teacher because our father saved him one time when he was in trouble" Lacey quickly introduced the old man who had sat down beside them.

"Now, now, don't make me remember that embarrassing thing, that was a different time" The old man said, before quickly ordering some of the most expensive dish and wine, costing over 2000 gold coins. The reason being is that the food he ordered were medicinal but David had no clue what these effects were.

As they continued to eat, something happened.

'AHHHHHHHHHH, Master!" A squeaky voice echoed throughout the dining hall. David turned to see who would yell in such a place, only to be completely shocked. The voice came from the mouth of someone familiar; it was the Dungeon Core Avatar, JoJo.

The fairy flew from across the room and onto David’s shoulders. He began to cry while hugging David’s ears, he was happy to see that his master was well and alive. This sight made Darius snicker in disdain, but Lacey caught wind of his action, and smacked him across his head again. Apparently JoJo was being cared of by one of the animal caretakers of the Firoach Family, and he enjoyed his time playing with the other animals while also recieving some of the same care as them.

"I think that it’s very interesting that you have a fairy as a companion, anyway, I'm off to see some old friend, take care of yourself young chap" Merlin said towards David, before exiting the inn, and disappearing from view. After this, the dining hall had finally went back to where it was before, loud and lively.

"Ah, that reminds me, I have a competition to judge, David, I have something for you, and Darius, take care of David for the day" Lacey said towards her little brother, he was going to voice his complaint, but feared that his sister will smack him in front of everyone again, so he agreed.

Lacey clapped towards one of the servants, and that servant went back to get the suppose gift. The servant bought back a plain copper box and placed it before David. After that, Lacey took one last glance at Darius before rushing off in a hurry to the competition.

As soon as David opened the box with curiosity, a foul odour smell wafted out from inside the box. The fairy felt sick and David’s face green. Inside the copper box was a half melted head. This was the head of the Bandit Leader he had just killed a few days ago.