Faye Yardley took stock of her Dungeon Fragments. Combining what she got from the unboxing with the odds and ends she’d collected over the past few days, she now had: Dungeon 1 Fragment x6, Dungeon 2 Fragment x4, Dungeon 3 Fragment x8, Dungeon 4 Fragment x2, and Dungeon 6 Fragment x4.

She took out the six Dungeon 1 Fragments, and a system prompt appeared: [Dungeon 1 Fragments available for synthesis: 6/4. Synthesize?]

"Yes."

WHOOSH. The six fragments in her hand transformed into one complete card and two remaining fragments.

Faye Yardley held up the card and looked it over. One side depicted a ruined landscape splattered with scarlet blood, while the other side read: Dungeon 1 Invitation Card (Solo).

"This looks terrifying, and it’s a solo dungeon. I’m not ready to go in yet. Phew... I’ll check the next one first."

She had exactly four Dungeon 2 Fragments, and the system prompted her to synthesize them as soon as she took them out. After synthesizing, another card appeared in her hand.

One side showed a gray, hazy sky beneath which several severed heads, swaying in the wind, hung from withered trees. A few bats flew in from the distant sky. The ground was covered in dead leaves and weeds, among which pale, ashen corpses seemed to be hidden. The other side read: Dungeon 2 Invitation Card (Solo).

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH... Holy crap, are all the solo dungeons this deadly?"

’Oh, Mom, this is so scary.’

’This shouldn’t be something that appears at this stage, right?!’

’I hope Dungeon 3 is a little more forgiving.’

Finally, the eight fragments synthesized into a single invitation card. The back read: Dungeon 3 Invitation Card (Multiplayer).

Flipping it over revealed an empty city clearly littered with severed limbs and spattered with dried blood. Outside the city was a black, ominous river in which bodies bobbed and sank.

Faye Yardley had breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it was a multiplayer dungeon, but now her heart was back in her throat. Sure enough, she had relaxed too soon.

’Multiplayer... but how many people?’

She would have to activate it to find out. But now was clearly not the time; she wasn’t prepared for anything yet.

She only had two Dungeon 4 Fragments, so there was no point in thinking about synthesis. She skipped them. Then came the four Dungeon 6 Fragments, but when she took them out, nothing happened. Clearly, she didn’t have enough yet.

She let out a sigh.

In other words, the only card she could use right now was for Dungeon 3.

"System, open the trading market and search for Dungeon Fragments."

The search returned 0 results.

"Wait, does this mean no one has gotten fragments from their boxes, or is it that no one is putting them up for trade?"

Faye Yardley really couldn’t figure it out. It was highly unlikely she was the only one who had gotten fragments. After all, the population count in the bottom left corner still showed over 960,000 people.

’Looks like everyone is hoarding their stuff.’

After a moment of thought, Faye Yardley listed the Roasted Cold Noodles she had just unboxed on the trading market. The trade condition was one fragment for one serving of Roasted Cold Noodles. She listed five servings to test the waters.

To her surprise, all five trades were completed in less than a minute.

"Alright, alright, so everyone’s been hoarding, huh? Let me see what number dungeon fragments I received."

After claiming her trade earnings, she had received: Dungeon 1 Fragment x1, Dungeon 5 Fragment x2, Dungeon 6 Fragment x1, and Dungeon 7 Fragment x1.

Fragments for Dungeons 5 and 7, which she didn’t have before, had appeared.

Faye Yardley considered this. A higher dungeon number didn’t necessarily mean it was easier than a lower one.

’I should focus on the lower-numbered ones first.’

After some thought, she took photos of the front and back of the Dungeon 3 card, then placed all three cards in the coffee table drawer.

She sent the same message to Zachary Pierce and Gavin Donovan respectively: "Are you interested in joining a Dungeon 3 multiplayer run? Reply if you want to go. Also, if the dungeon allows for more than three people, please arrange for another reliable expert to join. I’ll need to speak with the expert privately first."

The message had barely been sent when Gavin Donovan immediately replied, "I’m interested, Boss. If we don’t have enough people, I can invite my senior martial brothers. I’ll recommend two of them to you first, and you can decide after you’ve talked to them."

"Okay. For this dungeon, do you want to join as a bodyguard I’m hiring, or as a regular partner? As a bodyguard, I can pay you a fixed fee. As a regular partner, it’ll depend on the dungeon’s loot, which we’ll split later based on contribution and the number of people."

"Boss, please let me be your personal bodyguard!"

"Alright. I’ll send you the details of the base payment in a bit. There’ll be a bonus depending on the dungeon’s difficulty, but that means the dungeon loot will have nothing to do with you."

"Thank you, Boss!"

Gavin Donovan was satisfied, and so was Faye Yardley.

So, Faye Yardley took the initiative to contact the two people Gavin Donovan recommended. She had just added them as friends and exchanged greetings when a call came in from Zachary Pierce.

She sent a message to each of them saying she had to take a call and would talk to them later, then answered Zachary Pierce’s call.

"Yardley, I’m in for the dungeon. Have you invited anyone else? If not, I can invite my comrade-in-arms."

"Yes, my martial arts teacher, Gavin Donovan. He also recommended two of his senior martial brothers."

"Do you know the exact party size for the dungeon?"

"I’ll have to activate the card to find out. Right now, all I know is that it’s a multiplayer dungeon."

After a moment, Zachary Pierce said seriously, "I estimate it won’t be more than ten people. You’re the one initiating this, but I still hope you’ll be very careful about who you let in. After all, you’ve known this Gavin Donovan for less than a day."

Faye Yardley was taken aback for a second, then nodded. "Okay. In that case, Mr. Pierce, you can be in charge of arranging for everyone else besides Gavin Donovan."

It wasn’t that Faye Yardley trusted Zachary Pierce to that extent. Rather, she believed that the military of Veridia, regardless of which world it was, was worthy of trust.

Even if there were some bad apples, they were just a few individuals.

After all, her father and brother had both served in the military.

It was just that in the end, neither of them chose to stay in the service, returning home to inherit the family business instead.

Now...

Faye Yardley suddenly missed her brother so, so much. If her brother were here, she wouldn’t have to worry about any of this. She could just be a happy princess living her life.

"Don’t worry, Yardley," Zachary Pierce said. "Exploring dungeons is something we’ve wanted to do as well. It’s just that we haven’t managed to synthesize an invitation card yet, and no one is actively trading them on the market. You’re the one who’s given us this opportunity."

"Oh, right, Mr. Pierce," Faye said. "Let’s agree on this beforehand. If we find any treasure chests in the dungeon, please let me be the one to open them."

"Okay, absolutely."

Zachary Pierce had personally witnessed Faye Yardley’s good luck. Letting her open the chests was the only way to maximize their gains.

"By the way," Zachary Pierce asked, "when are you planning to activate this dungeon?"

"It’s too late for tonight, right? How about we enter the dungeon tomorrow at 7 PM?"

"Okay, it’s settled then. Prepare some more things that can offer you protection."

"Mm-hm."

After hanging up, Faye Yardley thought for a moment and sent a message to each of Gavin Donovan’s two senior martial brothers: "Sorry, my brother says he has enough people on his end. My apologies. Let’s cooperate next time we have a chance."

The first senior brother, Zephyr Sterling, replied, "No problem. We can work together next time if fate allows."

The second senior brother, Henry Lewis, saw that his chance was gone and furiously slammed his fist on his wooden raft. Only after composing himself did he reply, "Little sis, you have to call your big bro next time there’s an opportunity."