The Courier Dungeon, as Jake had dubbed it, had an extrely simplified and straightforward societal structure. Everything was split into tiers, it seed, with even the cities being very distinctly separated. The first city Jake arrived in was a smallest-sized city, which ant it had below a certain population threshold. Half a million based on what Jake gathered.
In the hierarchy of cities just ranked above the smallest-sized cities, one found the small-sized ones, which had between half a million and five million. Up from there, mid-sized cities with between five and twenty-five million, then large-sized with twenty-five million to a hundred million. Cities above a hundred million were pretty rare and were classified as giant-sized cities. There was no upper limit to these, and the only giant-sized cities Jake quickly beca aware of were the capital cities of so of the many different factions.
Below cities were towns and villages. Anything below fifty thousand was a town, and below five thousand a village. Towns and villages did not have any teleportation circles in them and werent connected to the network. Jake found it incredibly dumb they werent considering the relatively low investnt it would be to connect them and how it would make life for everyone so much easier, but the in-world reason was that it was for safety, as anything that wasnt a city couldnt protect the teleportation circle adequately.
It was a pretty dumb reason, as they could just have the circle self-destruct or sothing if they ever got invaded. Then again, if the infrastructure had been that immaculate, Couriers would have way less work and could just teleport everywhere, so it made sense for the the of the place.
Back on topic, these towns and villages were all tied to the nearest city, which held governance over them and responsibilities such as tax collection and whatnot.
Now, having this kind of structure within a single faction kind of made sense. If it was sothing organized from the top down and enforced, Jake could see it appear even outside of Nevermore by soone with a managent fetish.
However, it made no bloody sense every single faction in the entire Challenge Dungeon world had decided on the exact sa structure. Shit, even if it was just the enlightened factions, Jake could get it, but even the monster-focused factions had the exact sa city-town-village structure, even down to the numbers.
On that note, yes, Jake did co to learn there were far more factions than he first expected. Jake had appeared in the human-focused enlightened faction, while several more existed, all in conflict with one another. Other factions were the dwarves, elves, Risen, scalekin, demons, one more with a mix of enlightened ones, and finally, three different monster-focused ones. If there was a common race in the multiverse, Jake was pretty damn certain it could be found in this Challenge Dungeon within one of the ten factions.
Jake also had a theory that other Nevermore Attendees would appear elsewhere based on their race. Soone like Sylphie would likely appear in one of the monster-focused factions, while soone like Irin doing the dungeon would appear in the demon faction. Now, where the Fallen King and soone like Dina would appear was a bit of mystery as neither of them had a race with a faction directly related to them, but Jake reckoned it didnt really matter either way. As a Courier, race no longer mattered, and from what Jake saw, despite these factions being race-based primarily, there was plenty of diversity everywhere with no discrimination going on.
All of these things Jake had learned shortly after he completed the first Special Courier Job and arrived at the small-sized city with the Space Locator. The trip to the city had taken Jake just a bit over a day and a half, and honestly, it was as uneventful as could be. A few tis, Jake encountered what he believed to be pre-scripted ambushes and whatnot, but in every instance, the monsters abandoned their attack the second they detected Jakes aura. Ah, but he was attacked by bandits once, who all ran away after he killed their leader.
In the small-sized city, Jake had gone to the next Guild and t an elven woman who beca his next go-to attendant. He quickly began taking on new jobs, one of which required Jake to collect a number of books and return them to a library. The twist with this job was that just like in the real world people sucked ass at returning books. The worst was that one of the people who had to return it was a guy who had accidentally placed it in his own personal library and needed Jake to help look for the damn thing. Sphere helped a bit, but sadly, as he could only see the shape of the book and not read the cover with just spatial perception, he had to actually look at the books himself.
When Jake had returned all the books, he stayed with the librarian for a while and learned so world history and about how the Challenge Dungeon worked. That is where he learned about the cities, got so tidbits about every faction, and was told that as a Courier, he wouldnt need to worry about anything as he would be welcod with open arms wherever he went dependent on the job that is. If he was transporting sothing for an enemy faction, he could very easily have a target on his back.
After his talk with the librarian, Jake had gone back to the Guild for another job, which he promptly accepted. Even the hard jobs sotis took place within the far larger, small-sized city. Yes, the na was a bit dumb to call it small, considering it in Jakes mind was pretty damn big, but in-world, it probably made sense considering the city was several tis larger than the smallest-sized one. Many of the jobs naturally also required him to head outside of it to the towns and villages, and these tended to take longer simply due to the travel ti.
The small-sized city turned out to not be that much different from the smallest-sized one. The difficulty still wasnt really there. The social challenges he faced were also easy enough for soone like Jake to handle. Even if Jake wasnt the most socially adept person, in a multiversal context, he was actually pretty damn good. He wasnt overly naive and trusting, which would definitely be a huge weakness in this Challenge Dungeon. Not being very precise when listening to the language of jobs could also get you in trouble, and a lack of patience with shitty clients was pretty much a death sentence for an aspiring Courier.
For this reason, Jake could easily see many so-called geniuses struggling. An ultra-talented fighter, grood and trained from an early age by experts, always viewed and recognized as soone with high status and a genius, definitely wasnt trained in dealing with a guy arguing that making half of the tal in a shipnt of a wrong kind shouldnt be a problem as they were pretty much the sa anyway.
Yep, Jake could definitely see a few of them lose their cool here and there. This was definitely part of the Challenge Dungeon test, too, and truthfully, the most overpowered thing one could have in this dungeon was to have worked a retail or other custor-facing low-wage job at so point.
It wouldnt be an exaggeration to say that the young geniuses never really had to deal with stuff like this and would find themselves completely out of their comfort zone. They didnt ever have to deal with being an employee but were always the ones giving commands. One would think that Jake also wasnt very good at dealing with entitled and arrogant assholes, but surprisingly enough he found it kind of fun.
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In Jakes opinion, the worst part about work before the system was the monotony of it all. It was its sheer predictability and lack of challenge in everyday tasks as he got used to them. It was the lack of anything truly interesting happening to shake up the monotony the lack of anything morable on a given day.
However, despite work sucking most of the ti, there were also good days. The days with sothing exciting happening. It didnt even always have to be sothing major, but just sothing exciting to shake up the usual monotony.
Jake fondly rembered a day when the sprinklers in the office had gone off unexpectedly, and Casper had been asked if he could figure out how to turn them off temporarily until the company responsible for maintenance got there. Jake had been dragged along, and together, they had been completely drenched before finally finding a way to turn off everything. The office had, of course, already been turned into an utter ss at that point, and the rest of the day was spent cleaning up, figuring out which electronics had been saved in ti, and listening to Jacobs frustrated call with the maintenance company that claid the fact they had missed three consecutive inspections definitely couldnt have been a factor in the malfunction.
That day had been so unpredictable. It had been one twist after another, and even so many years later, Jake rembered the day so clearly. Especially the end, with Casper and Jake sitting on the rooftop drinking soda while claiming they were trying to dry and save so keyboards. It had been a good and morable day.
In so ways, this entire Challenge Dungeon reminded Jake of that day. Being a Courier was like work, yes, but rather than monotonous tasks, it was more like a job where no task was ever straightforward. It wasnt just delivering a box and leaving for the next house again, day in and day out. Instead, it was more like those special delivery jobs you only had once in a blue moon, but every single ti.
It was that one morable work day, over and over again. Jake didnt doubt that the unpredictability of what you would face at every job was frustrating to many, but for Jake, it just made it more engaging and kept him interested. Definitely far more interested than the Test of Character, where Jake was just a passive observer most of the ti. At least here, Jake could work on his movent skills while traveling and et a bunch of insane and interesting characters when talking to the people there.
Finally compared to all his prior jobs, there was one core difference in this world. Here, you were allowed to bitch-slap the people trying to scam you. It was the most cathartic experience for anyone who had ever had to deal with custors like that, and based on what Jake saw, it had no negative influence on his performance. Which kind of made sense. What could they even do about it? Stop hiring free Couriers? Yeah, fat chance.
All of this is to say that Jake quite enjoyed this Challenge Dungeon, and that was reflected in his speed of doing jobs. He felt excited to get to the point where the jobs werent only interesting but also offered a genuine challenge when he had to fight stuff, so while he didnt recklessly rush through the jobs, he did very much speedrun them.
Only three weeks after arriving at the small-sized city, Jake completed job number sixty-five, which surprisingly enough was enough to earn him yet another upgrade. Standing within the even larger Guild in the small-sized city, the elven attendant flashed him a huge smile as she congratulated him.
I read your file right as you first ca here, and in truth, I believed your evaluation was highly exaggerated, but seeing your work ethic, I believe it was just the opposite, the elf said with a bow. It was definitely a conservative estimation, thats for sure! I cannot rember having ever worked with a Courier who has been promoted this fast ever before.
Thats right, Jakes dallion had rapidly gone up yet another rank.
[Courier dallion (Uncommon)] A Courier dallion of a respectable rarity for a relatively experienced Courier. This dallion will hold information related to jobs and can give general directions to your destination if those are provided (may not be entirely reliable). Will automatically upgrade as Courier Jobs are completed and your reputation grows.
Requirents: Soulbound
The description change was slight, but it was there. And, hey, it was nice to be recognized as a relatively experienced Courier after only about a month on the job. It was definitely a faster promotion rate than any prior job Jake had ever had, and if he kept working hard, he was sure he could earn a senior position within a year.
So, what happens now? Jake asked. Got more jobs for , or?
As predicted, the elfs mood shifted a bit as she took out a piece of paper from below the desk. For so reason, this paper had a golden outline and wasnt anything Jake had seen before. She looked almost a bit nervous as she handled it and looked to both sides before speaking.
Listen we got a Special Courier Job in just today. It isnt anything you have to do, and its a pretty risky one so before I even present it to you, I need to know if you are interested? she asked with a low voice.
Jake mimicked her serious mood as he leaned in slightly. "What are the details of the job?
Ill take that as you showing interest. Alright, so about five years ago, the Infernal Baron a powerful B-grade - created a bounty reward for anyone who could capture a certain kind of elental he needed. I didnt think sothing like that would ever beco relevant here, but just a few hours ago, a band of adventurers returned with the exact elental he had requested. Now we need soone to deliver it to him in the closest dium-sized city.
Alright, pretty straightforward so far, Jake nodded. But I guess there is a twist.
The elf nodded. Three problems. First of all, the elental is right now sealed within a containnt device, but as it is still very much alive, and due to the nature of the containnt device, it cannot be put into any spatial storage. This brings us to the next problem: it needs to be delivered covertly because his enemies cannot know he obtained the elental, and as the teleportation gateway scans any living being that passes through, it will need to be delivered directly without the use of gates.
Alright, so I would have to travel there on my own. Whats the final problem?
The adventurers who captured the elental well, they werent the best. The containnt device they used was poorly made, and the seals on it are less than stellar, so by our experts evaluation, it wont last more than a week. So it needs to be delivered directly within a week while making sure no one finds out what is being transported, the elf finished explaining. I know it is a lot to ask of soone who just got promoted, but your progress so far and the fact you could make your way to this city by yourself that quickly makes believe you are up to the task and have the required travel speed.
As she finished, a system ssage popped up in front of Jake.
Accept Special Courier Job 2: Transport the Sealed Elental to the Infernal Baron in the mid-sized city without your cargo being discovered. Ti limit: 7 days.
Or
Use the Teleportation Gateway to travel to the mid-sized city and forfeit the Special Courier Job.
Cant keep the Baron waiting for long, now can we? Jake promptly answered with a smile. I naturally accept the job.
Great! the elf said with relief as she took out a table-tennis-sized tal ball and placed it in front of Jake. He used Identify on it quickly before taking it and hiding it away.
[Sealed Elental (Unique)] A sealed elental of the fire affinity can be found within. Due to the shoddy work of the ones who sealed it, this item is slowly deteriorating and will reach critical failure in a week (7 days). Any attempt to interfere with this item may result in the seal breaking prematurely.
Rember, be careful, the elf insisted. Even if we have hidden the fact we obtained the elental well, I am not sure the adventurers were as good at keeping their mouths shut, so it may have spread, and enemies of the Baron may attempt to impede you in your travels. While they will not know what exactly you are transporting, as even the adventurers have no idea as to its value, they will be more than keen to find out, and I doubt their thods to do so will be peaceful.
Ill be wary, Jake nodded seriously as he turned to leave. Id better get going. Thanks for everything so far.
It has been my pleasure, she smiled and bowed once more as Jake exited the Guild and instantly felt a few hidden gazes on him.
Yep, this job is definitely not gonna be a peaceful one.
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