The Flying Emporium

Everyone’s prayers were answered.

The next, this time prerecorded, submission was definitely more in line with what Severin originally had in mind when he thought up the premise of his event.

A group of four who identified themselves as certified gold badges presented the viewers with a strategy that was easy to understand and follow, aimed at defeating the final boss of a dungeon that was particularly popular amongst newbies. A boss-guide, so to speak.

They did this while actually fighting the boss, a hunchbacked kobold-shaman waving around a gnarled stick serving as its magic staff.

The group naturally vastly out-leveled the creature to the degree that it posed no danger to them whatsoever.

For the longest time, the group all but ignored the monster’s moves, letting it go all-out and thereby highlighting all of its attacks.

Each of those was then examined in great detail, followed by concise explanations of how to actually counter each and every one of those attacks.

During the show, the point-of-view changed a total number of three times. Each member of the group got their turn to explain and highlight different aspects of the fight, sometimes even discussing a point another member of the group already went over, but this time focussing on it from an angle that corresponded more with their own role inside the group.

Be it tank, healer or support, or ranged or melee oriented damage dealers, everyone got their money’s worth.

From analyzing the kobold’s attack patterns and how to position oneself within the limited available space to avoid them, over highlighting its four main weak-spots, all the way to discussing the right timings for the most common defensive cooldowns, each and every eventuality was taken into consideration by the experienced group.

Getting to witness firsthand the insides of a dungeon and what a real boss-monster looked like, not only for Severin but also for all the other non-combat oriented classbearers as well as non-classbearers present, was indeed a great novelty. Combined with the occasional fireball flying straight towards the camera, with the tank of the group not even making any attempt to avoid the spell, truly made for a great entertainment.

Screams could be heard everywhere in the audience-some excited, some genuinely frightened- whenever this happened, making Severin think of the stories he had heard back home about early cinema and the audiences’ at times extreme reactions when presented with the recording of a train speeding towards the screen.

And then, of course, there was the educational aspect of the show, which, even if Severin wasn’t able to fully appreciate, was obviously very well received.

By the bronze badges, who could hardly wait to put the new knowledge into action as soon as possible.

By the silvers, who discussed amongst each other which aspects of the lesson might apply to their own circumstances.

And by the even higher ranked adventurers, who could appreciate and discern the true mastery that went into each and every bit of advice.

Even Mylana could be caught once or twice, nodding her head in approval–probably the biggest praise the group could ask for.

And so, all in all, it was a great success. When, after thirty minutes or so, the group’s healer, of all people, felled the kobold with a single hit of their cane, the applause was tremendous.

In the following, it turned out the idea of this format wasn’t unique to this group of participants.

Many of the other submissions screened that night were essentially boss, dungeon, or class guides, many of which discussing the same dungeon or the even same boss.

But the audience didn’t seem to mind this sort of repetition and instead enjoyed every minute of it.

In fact, being introduced to different strategies for the very same boss only served to deepen the understanding of the matter for many of the spectators.

Severin alone, at one point, feared that all this might be a bit too boring.

But even he had to admit, boring was a good thing. Certainly after a start as today’s.

And so, with nothing much else to worry about, Severin allowed himself to go grab a snack when everyone else was still glued to the big screen; only to be reprimanded by the dwarf working the booth for his audacity to disrupt him while enjoying the show; after all, Severin was told, that is what the breaks between programs were for.

Overall, the rest of the evening went very well-that was uneventful-and therefore was considered a big success.

Not only in terms of audience engagement, but financially as well, Jasmine assured Severin some time after this day’s show had come to an end. At this point, the majority of the audience had already left the mountain. Still, a large group of them had stayed behind and set-up camp on the outskirts of the mountaintop; despite being so far removed from the actual festival site, their animated voices could still be heard.

It was proof of the great reception the first day of the Broadcasting Event had received.

The people had enjoyed the show, and that was, after all, the most important thing.

Knowing this, Severin had a restful, if short, night of sleep.

The next morning, when he woke up, earlier than usual, the mountain was already bustling again.

The booths serving food and drink were already open and very busy. Flying artifacts were arriving to no end. And the portal station was practically glowing. People, eagerly looking forward to a continuation of yesterday’s show, were everywhere and in even greater number than on the previous day, Severin reckoned.

They wouldn’t have to wait for long. Severin barely had the time to grab breakfast before the screens all over the mountain once again came to life.

Today would be a much longer day.

“A wonderful good morning, all you early risers! Excited for more, I take it? And it seems like a lot of you guys have brought your friends and family, haha.“ Jake too shared Severin’s impression regarding the visitor numbers - now, if only it wasn’t for his grating laugh.

“Well, you did good. This is not something you can afford to miss! We sure got a long and exciting day ahead of ourselves. You definitely made the right choice coming this early.

But let’s not waste too much time. We have much to do, so let’s keep it short, and let’s start the day with…” Jake paused a moment as he dug out his notes, and read “… a live broadcast, it seems! In that case, I will let them make their own in-”

Zapp

The process of handling incoming live broadcasts was still immature. From one moment to the next, the event’s host was cut off and his face on the big screen was replaced by a young man, maybe the age of Timothy, standing in front of a shimmering portal that surrounded by a thorny thicket.

“He-Hello everyone! Huge fan of the show so far! W-we were in the audience ourselves, y-yesterday. It d-deeply in-inspired us. S-so we sp-spontaneously decided to do so-something different f-from what we had originally pla-planned. W-we are a group of f-five, ranging from level s-seven t-to eleven, and w-we too, will sh-show you h-how to successfully m-make it through a dungeon,” the nervous man announced.

“What? This guy? Isn’t he way too green himself to be telling others how to do things?”

“Argh, and here I thought he would show us some of yesterday’s strategies in action.”

“Right. Show us if those tactics are truly as foolproof as those gold badges made it seem.”

“What are you guys talking about? Do you even have eyes? Look where he is standing. That’s none of the usual dungeons fit for a group of bronze.”

“God, you’re right. The boy has no business being there!”

Those and similar sentiments could be heard all over the viewing area.

Oblivious to those comment’s, the young adventurer continued,

“Ma-many of you h-have probably already figured out w-where we are. It’s the N-N-Noxious Undergrowth. I-it’s inhabitants, apart from i-its endboss, are r-rather weak b-both in t-terms of its damage and its h-health. It is th-therefore technically considered p-perfect for our party’s level-range. N-not least due to its outstanding y-yield in terms of loot and experience. S-still, most e-experienced adventurers and even t-the Society i-itself, d-does advise n-not to try challenge this d-dungeon until reaching a-at least l-level fifteen o-or even t-the early tw-twenties. T-that is because o-of the many other h-hazards i-its inhabitants, in-inf-inflict upon intruders.

W-We will show you t-that with the l-latest, m-most innovative p-products all of y-you sh-should already be f-familiar with, these con-concerns have be-become v-very much

out-outdated and a th-thing of the p-past.

We ha-have a-already once c-cleared this du-dungeon several levels e-earlier, a-and we will s-show you e-exactly how w-we did it, s-so that others at our level t-too can level a-as quickly as p-possible. A-all without risk. A-And no worries. W-we it be q-quick!”

With that, the man paused once again, looked into the recording crystal, and turned around to enter the portal. Three other previously hidden people followed behind. And so did the one carrying the recorder.

Unbeknownst to the group, many of their their spectators were in outrage.

“Bad enough that lizard child yesterday, but now we have to look on as these greenhorns get themselves killed?! Seriously?”

“Don’t be hasty now. They said it’s not their first time doing this.”

“Pah?! And you believe that? The boy was basically shaking in his boots!”

This was a point many others had noticed-the stuttering was, after all, impossible to miss. But the moment the view on the screens changed to that of a densely overgrown forest with hardly any light penetrating and only a narrow path to navigate, the group leader’s demeanor changed noticeably; all his camera-shyness had disappeared.

Carefully but confidently, he took the lead-the camera closely behind him-until they reached a small clearing just ahead.

The young adventurer did not immediately step inside this clearing. Instead, he pointed and made sure the camera caught exactly what he was looking at.

A group of massively oversized, but otherwise harmless looking, mushrooms blocking the way to the other side.

“You know what those things are, right?” That said, he stuffed something into his mouth and stepped away from the rest of the group and into the clearing.

With each step he took, the strange, child-sized mushrooms seemed to come more and more alive, starting to pulsate. Only slightly at first, and only noticeable because of how closely the camera -evidently already anticipating this behavior-was zoomed onto them.

With each step the man took, the pulsating became more and more obvious, faster, and more intense. Then, after the fifth step, something could be seen emitted from their gills. By the time the young man stood in the center, right next to the group of fungi, the whole clearing was covered in a brownish cloud of spores.

It was disgusting to look at. But his companions still maintained their distance, with no intent to follow after their leader.

“[Status Spores],” the adventurer only now answered his own rhetoric question, “named after their only and infamous ability. Not only are they the most common, but maybe also the most dangerous enemy in this dungeon. That is, even though they don’t actually have the ability to move. They don’t need to. Inhaling even just a mouthful of these things,” he pointed around himself, “will inflict you with pretty much every conceivable negative status affliction there is.

Including but not limited to the usual suspects such as, [Confusion], [Disassociation], [Fear], [Silence], and [Paralysis]. It’s considered a cocktail impossible to defend against at low level and very much capable to wipe out whole groups all on its own. Well, that was in the past. As you can see, I am still doing just fine.

And by the way, I am a [Warrior], so this has nothing to do with my class.”

His point has been made. Without explaining any further, the adventurer drew his sword and easily disposed of the physically frail and defenseless fungi.

After that, it was only a matter of time until the air cleared up and the passage became safe.

“See? No problem at all. And it’s all thanks to this.” The man produced a small green cube of jello consistency.

“No, that is no custom made potion, but the regularly sold [Status Cure] of the Emporium. I’m not sure many people have noticed, but they can actually be used preemptively. Lasts a minute or so and completely trivializes this encounter.”

Back on the mountaintop, once again, all hell broke loose.

“How is that possible?”

“Is that true?!”

“No wonder the boy-”

“You knew of this?”

“Don’t be stupid, if I did then-”

The adventurers in the audience went crazy over this revelation.

At the same time Severin felt multiple, some curious, some annoyed, and some even angry, gazes on him; he pretended not to notice and forced himself to keep on staring straight towards the big screen.

Luckily, the group leader on the screen was oblivious to the chaos he had caused, and, after his short explanation, simply went on to make his way deeper into the dungeon - his group close behind him.

In the following, the people on the screen came across multiple other groups of these annoying but otherwise rendered harmless enemies; without making another show of it, they were disposed of quickly and the group continued to proceed until they came across a different kind of enemies.

For someone as ignorant on the matter as Severin, it was hard to tell what exactly he was even looking at. His first immediate guess was large eels. But those didn’t live on trees or on the ground. Then maybe even larger worms? Or dark and slimy snakes?

Whatever it was, those things were disgusting to look at, even when they were on their own. And straight up horrifying when multiple of them came together and formed what looked like one big, wriggling, living knot that acted with a single mind.

Unlike the fungi creatures, those worms-Severin decided them to be- did actively seek out and attack the intruders. But again, those attacks themselves weren’t what made them so dangerous. It was their large health pool and their ability to constantly drain their attackers of their main combat resource, the young adventurer explained.

No resource-like mana or rage, for example-meant no healing and no large damage abilities - every combat would soon turn into a battle of attrition.

This time, the solution was, of course, more obvious.

“It’s easily understandable why decades ago, the dungeon and its enemies have been classified the way they were. But it’s outdated. Nowadays, mana issues like this have become a thing of the past. All thanks to the Emporium.”

Again Severin felt multiple pairs of eyes on him.

“I have nothing to do with that! I didn’t pay them,” he felt himself forced to explain.

“No one even suggested you did…”

“…”

“…”

“I really don’t know what’s going on! Maybe they think that will increase their chances at winning the V.I.P membership.”

“And? Does it…?”

In response, Severin helplessly threw his arms up in the air.

On the other side of the screen, the group of five kept chugging, or rather gobbling, one resource potion after the other; with no actual danger to their wellbeing, they quickly disposed of their enemies, picked up their loot, and continued on.

Similarly effortlessly, they defeated all other kinds of enemies, turning much of the broadcast into what seemed like one big advertisement for the Emporium and its wares.

Until soon they were standing in front of a cave with only a small hole as an entrance, leading steeply underground.

“I wonder how they will deal with this one,” Mylana, sitting next to Severin, mused. “So far, so good, but unless they can defeat the dungeon’s endboss, all of this will be for naught. Maybe not in terms of experience–I gather they had multiple level-up since they started-but in terms of wealth. Gold. With just the loot they gathered so far, they don’t even make up for all those potions, elixirs, weapon oils, and buff food of yours. It’s not sustainable like this. Good bankroll management is an often overlooked but very much integral component of being a successful adventurer. They won’t make it far if they stopped here and ignored this part.”

This wasn’t the first time Severin heard this sentiment. Samuel had once told him something very similar, he remembered.

But it seemed the newbie group of adventurers wasn’t done just yet.

“Now the problem with this one is that it possesses all the ability of our previous foes. The curses of the worms, the shroom spores, the action speed slow of the Tangle Weeds, and the leeches’ attribute absorption.

Well, plus, of course, all the usual properties and abilities of a slime. High physical defenses that make them virtually immune to any attack coming from our [Archer] or I, as well as their famous regenerative abilities.

And all in a narrowly confined space, hardly large enough for me to even swing my sword. That leaves us with very little option. Simply relying on the same products we have used to come this far, while fighting that slime head-on, won’t do.

And still, it’s probably the easiest of the bunch. Watch this.”

That said, the young man turn towards his companions and waved them over. Together, they now stood next to the cave entrance.

And then all five of them each produced a small metal sphere inside their hands.

Twisted.

And lobbed them into the opening.

And again.

Metal sphere. Twist. Throw.

And again.

And again.

Only stopping when a shrill sound, almost like that of a deflating balloon, could be heard coming from the same opening. Followed by a black haze raising out of it.

The leader of the group, at this point, triumphantly smiled into the camera before turning around and disappearing into the claustrophobically narrow passage.