Shovels In Spades

"Let's stop staring at it and actually conquer it. If we're lucky, there might be other powerful survivors in there as well," Daz said with some expectancy in his voice.

"Looking to recruit them?" Crusher asked.

"That would be nice, but depending on the circumstance," Daz narrowed his gaze and stated, "We're most likely going to end up killing them and stealing their stuff if they weren't already killed by the dungeon's monsters. Ideally, though, they'll join us, but if I can't have the people, I'm not going to leave without their equipment. We could use their stuff, I'm sure."

"K-Kill them?" Dorian stuttered over his words.

He was a mentally weak man and the idea of killing people scared him. He was smart enough to know that he wouldn't need to actually murder anyone personally, but he would have to go on knowing that his companions took another Human's life when it wasn't necessary. Dorian wasn't sure if he could live with that.

Daz noticed this, so he swiftly took advantage of his charm and Legendary Gift of The Gab skill to persuade Dorian. "Listen, Dorian, do you remember Matt?"

"H-Huh? Yeah, I-I do," he replied after hesitating a bit.

"You saw how he acted when he wanted Hamson, right?" Daz asked with a gentle tone.

Dorian nodded, so Daz smiled and continued, "Everyone that's alive right now has survived four days of literal hell, not to mention they did it by themselves or in a small group since the only sizeable communities in Waterford are us and your father's camp. Do you think that people like that who've fought for their lives during four attacks would want to peacefully talk in most situations?"

"Wh-Why wouldn't they?" Dorian was looking for an excuse to not partake in what Daz wanted, but something about Daz's words, or maybe his voice, was very compelling, in fact, it almost seemed hypnotic.

"If they can kill us," Daz said while he ran his index finger along his neck, "Then who gets all of our amazing equipment? It's a dog-eat-dog world now, Dorian. I don't like it either, but would you rather be the one getting eaten, or the one doing the eating?"

"The... The one eating..." Dorian mumbled and he appeared to be in a daze of some kind.

"Right, so trust me. I'll keep you safe and I'll make sure you can get some decent equipment. It's time for you to learn how to use that umbrella of yours with one arm until we can get you back your other one, okay?" In Dorian's eyes, Daz now looked like an older brother that only cared about him despite the fact that they were practically the same age, so he nodded his head without any further hesitation.

"There's no need be scared anyway, after all, they might be friendly and actually want to join us at Fort Skip for all we know, or we could be the first people to find this dungeon," Daz smiled reassuringly.

"How scary," Rose whispered with a grin on her lips. "One thing's for sure, Father would be proud if he could see this."

The group of six, Rimmy included, went to the mall's previous entrance and approached the large gateway that was clearly the only way to access the dungeon.

"So do we just walk inside, Rose?" Daz asked while he examined the raised gate of the dungeon.

"No, we fly in," Rose replied sarcastically and rolled her eyes as she continued to type away on her laptop.

Ignoring Rose's attitude, and without hesitating any further, Daz led everyone in and they were all prompted by the system, except for Rimmy since he was a part of Daz and thus didn't count as a single challenger.