《Return Waypoint - A Reincarnation LitRPG》 B01-CH01-S01 I had a strange sense of being watched. That was the first thing that came to mind when I woke up. Or regained consciousness. I''d died, after all. I knew I had died. It wasn''t like I''d been in an accident and killed or something. Nope, I had just been old, and it was just my time. I think it was a stroke, I vaguely remember parts of me going numb. I think I''d woken up once, but everything had this kind of blur and fuzz. Sounds weren''t much better. Muffled and seemingly distant. Maybe like I was underwater. I think I was in a hospital. Everything went dark again, and that was it. The next thing i knew, I was here. Wherever here is. I couldn''t see or hear anything, I couldn''t feel my body to know if I was able to move. For several minutes, I had a bit of an existential crisis. Panic, horror, despair. Lots of emotion. Lots of screaming. Might have been a bit of begging in there, too. We won''t discuss any of that. Moving on. When I''d finally gotten a grasp on my sanity or what was left of it, a light flared into existence in front of me. As it dimmed, and I got used to the sudden brightness in the dark, it turned into a blue box window with text. It took a little longer before the edges of the window became a white border, and the text became readable. It was like my mind was having to compensate for things it knew shouldn''t be possible, yet we''re there floating in front of me. ¡¶Congratulations! You have died!¡· Well, that wasn''t exactly a great way to start any kind of conversation, I thought. ¡¶Due to a multiverse shortage in souls, it has been decided that you will be allowed to reincarnate! A new world will be selected for you, and a body will be provided, free of charge!¡· ¡°Souls confirmed¡­ along with a sleazy used car salesman vibe.¡± ¡¶You have decades of experience from your previous life. However, due to incompatibilities in coding with your old world and the rest of the multiverse, none of your skills or knowledge will be transferred.¡· ¡°What? How is none of that transferable? Do you know all of the things I learned? I mean, sure, some of it was rabbit hole internet research, but still! And while I''m asking, transferred to what??¡± ¡¶Don''t worry! Just because you did not have a class in your previous life doesn''t mean you will miss out on any attribute or skill bonuses going into your second! You will automatically receive a skill, achievement, or title to reflect your status as a reincarnation.¡·Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Wait¡­ class? Attributes¡­ This is starting to sound like a tabletop game¡­¡± ¡¶To enable the best transition possible, you will be restricted in the choices available to you during the following starter phase. Please standby¡­ Please standby¡­¡· I had been watching the three dots blinking for a while now. Finally, something happened. The blue box, with its text and blinking ellipsis, dissolved and was replaced with a body and more boxes with slider scales. The body was mine. Well, the one I had when I died. Naked. Yeah, no one wants to see that. ¡¶While we find a location that best suits your previous life and experiences, please take some time and select some desired parameters for your new body!¡· ¡°Is this¡­ character creation? First tabletop games and now computer games? What is going¡­ Oh, a default button.¡± Yeah, I got distracted a bit. Pushing the button, the ¡®avatar¡¯ shimmered a bit and just turned into a black silhouette. ¡°Well, this looks promising¡­¡± The sliders had names like height, weight, body type, hairstyle, and color, all that you''d expect for character creation in a video game. I had, of course, played enough of them over my years that I could kind of figure out how to work the interface. So, I started playing with the sliders and changing several options. It was fun. It kept my mind¡­ Okay, it kept me from freaking out. Except, I wasn''t freaking out at all. I didn''t have any inclination to. I was confused, concerned, but generally curious. I wouldn''t have said calm, but¡­ there was no sense of urgency or danger. My mind played over what it had said, from souls to new worlds to being reincarnated. I hadn''t been the most religious in my old life. I had belief in a creator, but that was as far as I ever really thought about any of it. Now, here I was, given proof of some kind that souls existed. Was this purgatory then, or would I have even learned any of this, if there wasn''t a shortage¡­ Of souls¡­ In other universes. ¡°Uh, hello? I have questions!¡± As I spoke, a timer popped up just visible behind all the windows I had been messing with. ¡°Really? Just going to ignore me? Someone want to tell me what is going on?¡± The timer reached zero, fast. It had actually sped up. As I watched, some of the selections that had been unavailable moved about and left standing in front of me, was a rather handsome young man. ¡¶You have created your avatar! The choices you have made here will affect the body created for you in your new world. Please note that there may be additions or subtractions in order to ensure maximum compatibility in your new world and life. Please standby¡­ New world found, generating body, preparing basic information package¡­ Would you like a guide in your new life?¡· ¡°Guide? Well, yeah, someone to help me out with basics and maybe tell me what''s going¡­ Hey, wait, I didn''t¡­ You didn''t give ¡­ Stop! There''s not a¡­ Crap.¡± ¡¶Good luck in your new life! We wish you much success!¡· B01-CH01-S02 [[Error detected. Incomplete processing of template.Past life experience not migrated to S.I. parameters. Standby¡­]] ¡°Well, that can''t be good¡­¡± I thought. I also noticed that the coloring of the text had changed, which was only adding to the not good vibes. It only felt like a few seconds that I¡¯d been out of it. This time, it seemed as if something, or someone, else was talking to me. There wasn¡¯t the same tone, it was more professional, more distant than the other had been. [[Status sheet generated: Name: Ian [Redacted] Class: [To Be Selected] Level: [N/A] Health: [TBD] Action: [TBD] Mana: [TBD] Strength: 3 Perception: 4 Fortitude: 4 Reflex: 3 Willpower: 5 Skills and Abilities: [Processing] Spells : [Processing] Achievements and Titles: [Processing] ]] This was new¡­ Though, didn''t the other one say nothing from my old life would count? Shouldn''t I be in my new body before this all happens? What do the numbers mean?? Why was my last name redacted?! Yes, I was trying not to panic. Again. I was also failing. Again. A few moments later, a stream of text flooded the box before me, words flowing too fast for me to keep up with. Once it had finished, I read through. [[Past life experiences have been broken down and sorted to fit skills or abilities. Arcana Level 0 - A basic understanding of the forms of magic, how they interact, and ways to manipulate them. Provides a basic foundation for casting spells. Runic Magic Level 0 - Ability to imbue runes with magic to achieve a desired result. Higher levels allow for more complex runic combinations. Ritual Magic Level 0 - Knowledge rituals and how to cast spells as rituals. Higher levels allow for more complex rituals. Enchanting Level 0 - a combination of Arcana, Runic Magic, and Ritual Magic to imbue items with specific properties. Healing Magic Level 0 - A form of Arcana specialized enough to be separated from the general elemental forms, Healing Magic is a subtle blend of Arcana and Divine magics. Provides knowledge for diagnosing wounds, illness, and more, as well as spells to heal, cure, or remove afflictions and other physical ailmentsThe author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. You have gained the following spells (note - any of these spells cast as a ritual, will provide increased results): Arcane Shot Level 0 - A small orb, about the size of a marble, of light energy shoots out and strikes a target within a moderate range, doing a minor amount of damage Word of Healing Level 0 - A spoken word that will heal a light amount of trauma to a specific target within a short range of the casters line of sight Minor Enchantment Level 0 - imbues an item temporarily with a single effect. Higher levels increase the duration of the Enchantment. Only one enchantment may be placed at a time. You have been granted the following Runes: Alarm Level 0 - A rune that emits a loud sound when certain parameters have been met within set boundaries. Warding Level 0 - creates a thin shielding layer that provides a minor amount of protection against damage.. Based on allocated skills and proficiencies unable to be migrated for use within the System Integrated Boundaries, the following class is being recommended: Sage - You have an unparalleled passion for knowledge, whether it''s spending years researching in the greatest of libraries, or trudging through the ruins of a lost civilization you have a drive to Others may be more specialized, but even your hard won techniques and knowledge can benefit their abilities. Would you like to select this class? Other classes may be displayed if you choose.]] I read the descriptions of each skill, spell and for the class. ¡°Damn, you really know how to tempt a guy, don¡¯t you?¡± This was, had to be, a dream. All of it. The other one that had spoken to me, this one. The class, the spells! It was telling me magic is real. I had to be dreaming, or delusional¡­ Or this was me on my way to the afterlife, and I¡¯d been found wanting? ¡°I find your lack of faith disturbing¡­¡± I intoned in a deep voice. The class was something that intrigued me. I¡¯d never shied away from learning things I¡¯d found interesting. Rabbit holes on the internet, hours spent just learning one thing because I¡¯d heard or read about it somewhere. It¡¯d been fun, and I learned a lot of things that didn¡¯t have any practical use in my life, but just sat there as ¡®I know this and it¡¯s kind of cool¡¯ kind of information. The biggest thing I had to decide here was whether whoever I was talking to could be trusted. Well, I¡¯m already dead, what''s the worst that can happen from here? ¡°All right, I¡¯ll give you a bit of trust¡­ I accept.¡± No sooner than I¡¯d finished speaking, than another stream of words that I couldn¡¯t follow flowed over the blue box. It took more than a minute, at least it seemed that way. [[Status sheet updated: Name: Ian [Redacted] Class: Sage Level: 0 Health: 8 [(Fortitude x 2), increase (Fortitude + Level) per level] Action: 6 [(Reflex x 2), increase (Reflex + Level) per level] Mana: 10 [(Willpower x 2), increase (Willpower + Level) per level] Strength: 3 Perception: 4 Fortitude: 4 Reflex: 3 Willpower: 5 Skills and Abilities Arcana (Level 0) Runic Magic (Level 0) Ritual Magic (Level 0) Healing Magic (Level 0) Spells: Arcane Shot (Level 0) Word of Healing (Level 0) Rune of Alarm (Level 0) Rune of Warding (Level 0) Achievements and Titles: Blessing of the Moon: The Goddess of the Moon, Nalura, has sponsored you to the world of Ytregasa. [Locked until completion of tutorial] ]] Well, I thought, that all looks¡­ better? I¡¯d still like to know why my last name is being redacted. Gods and goddess¡¯s confirmed¡­ That¡­ has some pretty high implications. And what¡¯s this about a tutorial? ¡°I have questions¡­¡± [[Tutorial location found, prepare for insertion into the world of Ytregasa.]] ¡°Oh, come on!¡± B01-CH01-S03 The Merulian Empire, an archipelago nation of two large islands and a half dozen smaller ones. This Empire sits within the Verqulian Sea, which is the largest sea in the continent of Borasam. Borasam itself is the largest continent on Ytregasa. The empire boasts a fairly powerful navy, and is a center of trade for the two other nations that border the Verqulian Sea. Tucked away in the highlands of the island of Pallasta, the second largest island of the empire, is the city of Acantid. As a city, Acantid is about average for one built inland of an island. The city is home to nearly fifty thousand, with the transient population ebbing and flowing almost ten thousand yearly. Landlocked, the city wouldn¡¯t have grown beyond the simple farming town it had once been, had it not been for the discovery of a dungeon less than a day¡¯s travel from its walls. An outpost had been built, close to the dungeon. It had grown to house the empire¡¯s adventurer¡¯s guild and a small population who tended to the day to day of the adventurers who came to brave the dungeon. Trade between the adventurer town Lorthalt and Acantid provided each with the necessary materials to prosper. Inside the Guild Hall of Lorthalt, two women sat at a table in the back of the common room. Liscern Pinniard, Guildmaster, Duelist and semi-retired adventurer was having a working lunch with her assistant, Lorekeeper Ophelia Memori. The two had finished eating, and were ruminating on the more lighthearted aspects of their jobs that needed tending. Their laughter was cut short as a man burst through the door of the Hall shouting. ¡°Guild Master! Guild Master! The dungeon!¡± That caught Liscern¡¯s ear faster than almost anything else the man could have said. It had been decades since she had heard of one happening, but if the dungeon were experiencing a break¡­ ¡°Well, out with it man,¡± she said, rising and walking around the table to him. Out of breath, the man gulped air and said haltingly, ¡°It just kicked everyone out of the dungeon!¡± ¡°The dungeon did what?¡± Ophelia said, rising herself and stalking the man. ¡°Be very clear, what happened after?¡± He shrugged, shaking his head as if still trying to understand himself what had happened. ¡°It created a full gate, like one you¡¯d see for a temple or castle, and shut the door.¡± Both women were brought up short at that. Blinking at each other for a moment, the Lorekeeper spoke first. ¡°That¡¯s a new one to me, Lizzie.¡±This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Sighing, Liscern shook her head as she walked out the door. ¡°I think I read something in the guild histories, but it wasn¡¯t what I was looking for so didn¡¯t go too much into it.¡± The three exited the Hall and started towards the dungeons entrance. ¡°What else happened before this event? After it? Did the dungeon give any indication that something was going on?¡± The hapless adventurer was still trying to catch his breath as he rushed to keep up with the two. ¡°Nothing. A few groups had already gone in, a couple others were doing last minute checks and preps. There was a roar and then everyone that had gone inside came running out. They were screaming about some new monster that was just¡­ Giving a shoo gesture at everyone, and saying ¡®Get out¡¯. Then, the entrance changed.¡± Liscern gave Ophelia a questioning look. ¡°New monster? Some of those groups shouldn¡¯t have had any problems with something on their floors¡­¡± The other woman shook her head, still unsure herself. ¡°If it came from a deeper floor, no one had ventured to? Or returned from?¡± ¡°No, we haven¡¯t lost a full group in almost two years,¡± Liscern shook her head, thinking. ¡°The dungeon hasn¡¯t shown any signs of growth since we took over, and that was almost a decade ago. So, no new floor, unless they can hide that now.¡± They¡¯d passed the buildings and shops that had grown up around the hall, many there just for the possible trade that always came from items brought out of dungeons. Usually, the streets would have a light crowd of adventurers looking for the last item they needed, or looking to sell something they¡¯d found. Now, many of the shops had closed down, doors shut and windows shuttered. The non-combatant populace bracing for the worst. Cresting the hill, the entrance of the dungeon started to come into view. Originally, it had been a simple cave-like entrance that went deep into a mound of dirt. Now, true to the words of the messenger, it looked like the entrance to many of the more grander temples around the world. The doors slowly opened as the Guild Master and Lorekeeper got closer. Every adventurer in the area tensed, drawing weapons or getting ready spells. Liscern stopped just as the doors finished opening. From the unnatural darkness, a face and then body of a giant gorilla appeared. ¡°Guild Master. Lorekeeper,¡± it said. Liscern blinked as Ophelia stepped up beside her. ¡°I¡¯m the Guild Master Liscern Pinniard, this is Lorekeeper Ophelia Memori,¡± she said, introducing her companion. ¡°Are you going to explain what¡¯s happening? Are we going to have a break?¡± The creature''s head shook slowly, its hands resting on the doors. ¡°No break. Boon given. Dungeon change. One sun, one moon. Ready then.¡± Apparently finished with what it had been sent to say, the giant gorilla shut the doors, just as slowly as it had opened them. They closed with a boom, little clouds of dirt away from the entrance. Each adventurer turned to look at the pair, still ready in case the creature had not spoken true. ¡°Well,¡± Lorekeeper Ophelia started. ¡°I think we can check off that dungeons are sentient. If anyone still has any questions about it. That was a Core Guardian." B01-CH02-S01 The door out of the dungeon shut with a boom that seemed to echo through the now empty halls and corridors. No monsters roamed the chambers or caves. No adventurers struggled to overcome dangers. The dungeon, for the first time in almost a century, was empty, but for the Guardian, and on the lowest floor hundreds of feet below the surface, the Core itself. ¡°Seals are in place, Master,¡± spoke the giant gorilla. ¡°Whenever you are ready.¡± In answer, the Core flared brightly. Green light lit up the entirety of the dungeon from the jade-like material of the Core. The Guardian exploded into visible mana that streamed through the empty dungeon. As it reached the core room, being absorbed by the Core Itself, the dungeon imploded. ¡ð¡ñ¡ð¡ñ¡ð¡ñ¡ð¡ñ¡ð¡ñ¡ð Back outside of the dungeon, adventurers wandered amongst each other asking questions, few argued. Some even prayed. Liscern and Ophelia had found themselves surrounded by a few veteran adventurers, all demanding answers they didn''t have. All stopped at the rumbling sound coming from the dungeons'' gates. Collapsing into itself, the entrance to the dungeon vanished. For several moments, all was silent. With a burst of dirt and stone, a new entry grew from the ruins of the old. It was wider than it had been, taller than it ever was. Minutes passed as jade the color of a forest grew first ten feet, then twenty and finally seemed to slow to a stop over thirty feet high. As the people below watched in amazement, a shape began to form from the smooth stone. A flared headed cobra, the hood reaching down to merge with the neck and shoulders of a male figure that stopped at the waist. Some twenty feet in height. Muscled arms straightened down to bend at elbows, leading to hands that rested on the pommel of a weapon. The head of the cobra looked down slightly as if to judge any who dared to enter the dungeon. Below the intimidating figure was a fifteen foot tall structure, petroglyphs carved to either side of a ten foot arched gate. On one side, more snake-like men adorned in armor wielding swords and spears going off to battle. On the other side, women in robes bowed and served another female figure sitting on a throne. On either side of the gateway, two smaller entryways formed. No decorative carvings surrounded them. Just two simple seven foot double door gates set at an angle from the main structure. After a few more minutes, the noise of earth and stone ceased, leaving silence before the adventurers were again in an uproar. Liscern stared at the new dungeon entrance, eyes wide and mouth slightly agape. Beside her, Lorekeeper Ophelia also stared I''m wide-eyed awe. ¡°What just happened??¡± ¡ð¡ñ¡ð¡ñ¡ð¡ñ¡ð¡ñ¡ð¡ñ¡ðThis text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. When I next opened my eyes, I actually opened my eyes. Once that realization hit, my eyes went wide, and my mind started whirling. Hands came up, two of them with eight fingers and two thumbs. I looked down, two feet with ten toes¡­ and I blinked. I was naked. Somebody out there has a fetish. Seriously, what is it with letting me have cloth¡­ Wait, why do I not have any hair? Like, none. Anywhere, at all. No beard, bald head, do have eyebrows and eyelashes, nose and ears, no chest hair. Nothing on the arms, or the legs or¡­ other places. Smooth as the day I was born. And cold. I promise, it''s the cold air. Seriously! No, really¡­ After I did as thorough an inspection as one can without a reflective surface, I looked around and tried to figure out where I was. Rock. More rock and more rock. Oh, look¡­ there''s a stream ending in a deep pool of water. I turned around and saw that the cave I was in had a passage leading away. ¡°With the lighting, maybe I can get a look at myself that way? Where is that light coming from, anyway?¡± I asked myself. The voice wasn''t my old one. That would take getting used to. I couldn''t see anything giving off light. It just seems to be there, like how when the sun is out, there is light, and you don''t consciously realize it¡¯s from the sun. It''s just always there, unless it''s raining or something. I had no clothes. No tools to make a fire¡­ No blankets or anything like that to sleep on. Looks like I was going to be sleeping on the rock floor when that time came. I walked over to the pool of water and looked into it, hoping there would be a reflection. There was, and i didn''t recognize who was looking back at me. The young man in the reflection looked nothing like I had in my youth. I truly had died and been brought back to life somewhere else. Or I was dying, and this was my mind coping. Or¡­ so many questions. Okay, yes. I''m a little bit upset. Twice now, I''ve tried to get some questions answered, and twice I''ve never even had a chance to get one of them spoken, much less answered. It was annoying. I''d died. Or, not died. See? Questions that need answers. Moving away from the water, I leaned against a wall, gently sliding down it to sit on the floor. Sitting there, I was kind of blank for a bit. That kind of empty headed thought that could somehow be thinking everything at once. I don''t know how long I sat there. Through the numbness, I''d managed to form a little coherence. I wasn''t in any pain anymore. Joints, back, some muscles. The water lapped a bit, the flow of where it was coming from and where it was going, making gentle motions and giving off faint sounds that I could hear clear as day. Or as clear as my eyesight was. ¡°Dead or not, dying or not¡­ You''re here, somewhere, and maybe have a new start or just an adventure before it all ends.¡± I smiled a bit at that thought. Why not? Until proven otherwise, this is real. This is my life now. I should try to make something of it¡­ And find some clothes. < Escape the dungeon having gained at minimum one level in your class.>> ¡°Your timing is either outstanding or horrible.¡± B01-CH02-S02 I gave an exasperated sigh and leaned my head back as my eyes closed. Shaking my head at the absurdity of all that was happening, I read over the text the box showed again. Three things stood out to me. First, this was the third ¡®person¡¯ to talk to me through these boxes. Sleazy Car Salesman, the one that had told me I was dead. Second was the All Professional. That one had done what the first was supposed to have done, I was guessing. They gave me a class and then dropped me here in the cave. And now this one, Quest Giver. Who was giving me a quest¡­ To escape a dungeon. While I was curious about the escape part, it had some ominous tones to it. It was the dungeon part that took more of my attention. This didn''t look like the medieval dungeons in the stories or the jails that they were supposed to be. Which would leave the more¡­ fantastical dungeon. The one where you went in, defeated some monsters and got loot, rescued someone, or defeated some big, bad evil thing. I''m not in a jail cell, I thought, looking around. Water deep enough I could bathe in, enough space around the pool I could sleep and have enough distance that I wouldn''t accidentally fall in if I rolled over just wrong. The passage on the side away from the pool led¡­ somewhere. Somewhere that apparently would have monsters. Monsters I would have to ¡®defeat¡¯ to survive, maybe to get some clothes. I thought of the status sheet, and it formed in front of me. I had two spells, one that said it could heal, and one that would do damage. I had health points, mana points¡­ I wasn''t too sure what action was for, but I could probably guess. Thinking directly about Action, brought up another window with a description. ¡°Yeah, I guess it does work like stamina then.¡± <> I dismissed that window, though it did take a bit to figure out that I could and how to do it, and quickly went through other parts of the sheet. ¡°Strength, exactly what I''d expect. Carry and lift, increase in damage for weapon attacks, little bit for taking damage. Perception, that''s an odd one. Bonuses to accuracy, critical hits, and detecting things out of place? If this was a tabletop, I''d call that one two or three different things¡­¡± I furrowed my brow, thinking. This did seem strangely enough, like a couple of the tabletop games I''d played when I was younger. ¡°Fortitude gives health and resistances. Seems an all-around stat to mitigate the amount of damage I''ll take¡­ which even saying that out loud sounds weird.Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. I sighed and shrugged, continuing on. I had said I would accept this as my new life. I guess accepting all the weird was going to be part of it. ¡°Let''s see, Reflex. Damage avoidance, reaction time, speed, and benefits to action. Okay, I can see how that might work.¡± The last was Willpower. ¡°Increases mana, gives bonuses to spells and generally a lot to do with the mind. Yeah, that''s more than one thing in all those games.¡± I checked my mana, which showed as 10, which was my Willpower doubled and would increase by Willpower added to level each time I leveled. Health and Action had their corresponding numbers. ¡°Either my class isn''t physically oriented, or I''ve just got low numbers¡­ which, what are the normal numbers? Is this average, low¡­ is a 5 high?¡± I set that aside for now, looking at the spells and trying to find anything that said how much mana they cost. ¡°Oh, well, that''s good. Only 1 mana each cast. Now, how fast do I get mana back? Or health? Getting that back is going to be important.¡± As I searched for those answers, I did my best to ignore the part where it was going to be necessary for me to regain health points. Or the fact that losing them meant I could end up dead. People did this for fun in the stories all the time. There''s nothing to worry about, right? I snorted, shaking my head. Right. I''m going to get bitten by a rabid wolf and just shrug it off. That''s what they do in the stories and the games. Right, like that''s going to happen. I''m going to scream my head off and cry like a baby. Finally, I found what looked to be something that explained the rates to regain Health, Action, and Mana. ¡°One point per 3 of the corresponding ability stat¡­ Health per hour, Action per ten minutes and mana per ten minutes.¡± I looked, that would be one point for each pool: eight hours to regain all my health, an hour to regain all my Action and little over an hour and a half to regain all my Mana. That didn''t sound too bad. The length to regain health was a little concerning, though I suppose with a larger health pool, it would be too bad. Or you know, as long as I could use Word of Healing, it wouldn''t be bad at all. That thought made me laugh, again thinking of what was going to be happening anytime I got bit or clawed or generally gnawed on. ¡°That''s assuming the monsters in here are just animals¡­ What the hell am I going to do if there''s something like an orc or goblin in here? Monster or not, fake or not, can I kill something that looks human-ish?¡± I looked into the dark of the passage, frowning, and I thought about that. If this world was anything like the books I''d read or the worlds I''d played games in¡­ there were going to be situations where it would be my life or there''s. Would I hesitate? ¡°Or, God forbid, come to enjoy it in ways that are definitely not healthy¡­¡± I looked at my sheet and saw something, then added to my last statement. ¡°Goddess forbid, I suppose I should say. Pray?¡± That was still something I would have to come to grips about. There was a goddess, and maybe god. Or goddesses and gods, and one of them had given me a blessing. Right now, that blessing only meant she had been the ¡®power¡¯ behind me coming to Ytregasa, but there was a portion of that achievement that was locked until I completed this tutorial. With a grunt and a sigh, I pushed myself up and away from the wall. Taking a deep breath and facing the passage, I started forward. ¡°Not time like the present, Ian old boy.¡± B01-CH02-S03 I had foretold the future! There was a lot of screaming, a lot crying¡­ a lot of blood. The passage I¡¯d been following had led to a larger, much larger, cavern. Huge pillars of stalagmites and stalactites were everywhere. The lighting had dimmed, I couldn¡¯t see the ceiling of the cavern. Or the ceiling was just that far above me. I know there are people that go into panic attacks at the thought of being underground like this. I was so glad that I wasn¡¯t one of them. I didn¡¯t have a choice about being here, so no way for me to leave, except to escape, as the quest had said to do. Ah, those had been good times, when I was first seeing what I had to deal with. Now? Yeah, now was absolutely terrible. Horrible, even. I was running. I was screaming. I was bloodied, cut and scraped and bitten and clawed. There had been a bit of gnawing in there too, like I expected. Nothing like the world meeting your expectations, am I right? Ahead of me, I saw what I hoped would work for my current dilemma. A set of stalagnates, where a bunch of stalactites and stalagmites had grown together. With a hole big enough I thought I could jump through. I scrambled through it, and what I had hoped would happen, did. Partially. The giant bat, and I do mean giant, couldn¡¯t fit. But it had been flying after me at a pace fast enough to keep up, so it had no chance to stop or turn. Most bats are sized in inches. This one, and others I¡¯d been fighting? Easily two feet or more, with wingspans as wide as I was tall, or wider. This one went through the hole I¡¯d barely been able to get through before it did, going at speed, with a loud smacking of wings on stone. There might have been some crunching. It dropped to the floor of the cave noisily, screeching in pain and probably anger. At some point during the past few hours, stalagmites had been broken off. I¡¯d been able to find one that was easy to lift, easy to swing and didn¡¯t break at the first impact. It¡¯d been doing me well, for the time that I was out of mana. Which had been often, and I¡¯d been saving mostly to be able to cast Word of Healing. At the moment, I had 3 mana, and less health than I wanted to have. I mean, who doesn¡¯t want to be fully healthy? I wasn¡¯t exactly thinking straight either. I¡¯d been chased by giant bats and giant rats. The rats? Yeah, big as a bulldog and not as cuddly. I had been ready for the bat to come through the hole, and swung my makeshift stone club at it. I wasn¡¯t much for aim, but at the moment, anywhere I hit was going to hurt it. Hitting the ground caused small chips of stone to go flying, those were probably more annoying than anything. But hitting it? I did that. Multiple times. While screaming. Until it was a bloody, mangled mess. Finally I calmed down enough to be able to look around, see where I was and if there were more coming at me. Thankfully, that last was a no. The hole I¡¯d crawled through was kind of just a hole. The stalagnates surrounded me, enough places where the stalactites and stalagmites hadn¡¯t connected that I could see out. I was safe, for the moment. As I slumped down to the ground, heaving for breath and glaring at the remains of the giant bat. I wasn¡¯t sure how long I¡¯d been down here, but almost from the moment I¡¯d entered the cavern, I¡¯d been getting attacked by these things. I opened my status sheet and checked numbers, health at 4 and mana at 3. Taking a deep, hopefully calming breath, I spoke the word needed to cast Word of Healing. I still wasn¡¯t entirely sure what the word meant, but I knew saying it with my mind focused on the spell healed me. It was enough to get me back to full health. Which still left cuts, bruises and scrapes. I guess those were incidental injuries that weren¡¯t enough to count for a health point.The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The status sheet was still up, and my eyes went to the newest addition to all the information. Experience. It wasn¡¯t showing in a flat number, but a percentage. Currently, it read 84%. I don¡¯t know how many hours I¡¯d been in the cavern, or how many rats and bats I¡¯d killed, but it all amounted to only 84%. I sighed, looking at the rest of the sheet. < Escape the dungeon having gained at minimum one level in your class Gather materials to aid in your survival. Giant Rat Hide: 10/10 Giant Rat Tooth: 5/5 Giant Bat Wing: 4/4 Giant Bat Claw: 7/8>> ¡°Okay, maybe I did know roughly how many of these things I¡¯ve killed.¡± At least 18 rats and bats. There were probably more, not all the items I¡¯d been trying to gather were of an acceptable standard for whoever was giving the quest. Looking at the remains of the bat, all smashed and broken and¡­ a mess, I sighed. Dismissing the sheet, I edged over and poked at the body with my stalagmite club. Yup, it¡¯s dead. Moving closer, and using the club as best I could to nudge and push the body around, I searched for the remaining claw I would need. Jackpot. I grabbed the foot of the bat, and yanked on a toe. Yeah, I had no knife of anything to cut with, so this took some time. Had to bash the foot a time or two as carefully as I could. Finally did rip the toe out, I¡¯ll skip describing that sound. Just say that things that could make me nauseous or gag were slowly diminishing. <> A single strap pack dropped from the air in front of where I was sitting. With raised brows, I mean this was new and it had appeared out of nowhere. I was still trying to figure out where the items I¡¯d gathered for the quest had disappeared to. Scrambling over, I opened the pack and smiled. Dropping back onto my butt, the smile became a laugh, which quickly started getting worrisome. But inside the pack, was a leather apron and a pair of boots. I had clothes, kind of. Finally, B01-CH03-S01 I was sneaking back to the water cave. At least I considered it sneaking. Feet in new boots, that were actually more comfortable than they looked, and wearing a leather apron. Maybe it was a smock? Regardless of those details, I was a little worried. There had been no signs of any other giant rats or bats. After having spent hours fighting off the giant vermin, there were none to be seen. I made it back to the cave and had to stop once through the passage. The cave had changed. Where there was once a pool of water near the floor, was now a raised pool, twice as large as the original. I think I could sit in there up to my neck, stretched out a bit with a little room to spare. The water slowly emptied to a smaller pool that itself emptied to form a small stream of water that just kind of vanished. ¡°Risk and reward, right? I get a bath and a sink or something after surviving?¡± I asked, aiming the question to whatever entity was running all this. Of the three that I suspected existed. I didn''t expect an answer and didn''t get one. Shaking my head, I just removed my boots and the smock. I''m going to call it a smock. I took some time to wash the blood and dirt off of myself in the smaller pool. Once I''d gotten as clean as I could, I lowered into the bigger pool with a happy sigh. As my muscles joints soaked in the heat from the water, I let my mind go ominous contemplations. On Runic symbols, to be exact. I''d been able to reproduce the spell formations that Word of Healing and Arcane Shot were composed of and thought I was close to deciphering at least one rune that each spell shared. If I was understanding any of what I was doing, then both spells were composed of at least four runes and actually shared two runes. I can see your confusion. How could I make use of either of these spells if I didn''t know the runes that made them? I had a hypothesis. Magic in this world is based on conceptualization, what one can imagine, then one can make happen. If I used any of the fantasy worlds written about back in the old world, then the chants or rhymes or phrases used to cast spells added to hand gestures and maybe some kind of physical component would focus the spell into what the person casting it had been told to envision happening. Runes being put together into spell formations is just one method of imagining a spell. I had the name of the spell, Arcane Shot. I had a description of what the spell did. After having cast the spell, I had visual proof that it could be done in two ways. The actual result of casting the spell, a sphere about the size of a golf ball made of energy shooting out at my target, was the first. The second only existed for a short time, but was a formation of lines, runes, and other symbols that I''d been coming to believe made up the directions or circuitry of the spell. The same went for Word of Healing.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Having followed a bit of logic with that hypothesis, my mind seemed to latch on two unrelated runes that were set at nearly the same positioning in each spell formation. From there, it seemed a domino effect of runes and positions that my mind was telling me. I knew how this was structured and how it was powered. The notifications came as I traced each spell formation. ¡°Mana, cause it has to be powered. Distance to provide the ability for range, though here on Healing, it has a secondary symbol that the Arcane Shot doesn''t¡­¡± I muttered to myself. That was becoming a habit, talking to myself. I hadn''t even been like this for a day. The things we let our minds do to us, to keep us sane, y know? Anyway, the runes within the formations of the spells. It looked like from there, there was a split between the differences of the two spells. Both had runes that came after Distance that were not the same, then one that was, Trauma. Looking at the runes before Trauma, I had a thought. ¡°Elements, types of energy being used as base for the spell? If Arcane goes here and represents an element, then this could be Healing here representing an element. You''d get a result of Arcane and trauma, which would be the spell Arcane Shot and Healing and trauma, which would be¡­ Word of Healing.. that can''t be right, can it?¡± <> ¡°Well, that''s a lot to learn.¡± I sat up in the pool bath, grinning as I read through the notification. That was a lot of new runes. If I was right, I''d be able to experiment with them and create new spells. Or at least, new to me. I seriously doubted that I''d ever create a totally new or unique spell. Given the apparent way spells could be researched, at best, I''d be able to create a different method or combination to get the results of an already existing spell. <> And it looked like I''d need to start trying out some combinations. ¡°We have got to work on ya''lls timing. Really.¡± B01-CH03-S02 Runic Magic seemed to be what built spell formations. At least in part. Having that hypothesis, I looked over all the runes I had discovered so far. I would need to figure out something to help keep me alive. The fights I had been through so far, had been spaced out by as little as several minutes to as much as an hour. That fighting had worn me down, and more times than I cared to remember had been close calls. Simply inscribing the Rune of Warding on myself and empowering it wasn''t going to cut it this time. Doing all of this in my head was going to be rough. There were still several parts of the two spells I had yet to be able to break down, and now I needed to try and jury rig a formation to create a new spell. I got out of the bathing pool and leaned against the basin to let myself air dry. Meanwhile, I imagined four of the runes I knew. Mana to be able to power the spell, lead that to Trauma so the spell recognizes damage, leading to Warding with the hopes that it would deflect or reduce the damage taken, put Arcane to the side between Trauma and Warding to add a little extra¡­ If it would work the way I wanted, it would create an Arcane element shield. If I could get it to work. Keeping the runes and the pathways to the side of my imaginary board, I added the two spells, Arcane Shot and Word of Healing. This time, I wasn''t looking at the runes, but the symbols and shapes surrounding them that tied them together to create the effects they did. What was similar about them? What might be a common thing that I could use to tie my would-be spell together? A few minutes passed as I did my best to mentally examine the spell formations. Not an easy task, when you were hoping that what you saw in your head was the actual thing used. At least I''d gotten dry. Setting the leather smock near one of the cave walls, I sat down and tried to get comfortable. While trying to not lose the images in my head or lose my train of thought. Mental gymnastics at their best, let me tell ya. I was starting to see a few repeating patterns in the non-Rune parts of the spell formations. I tried to isolate them, pull them away from the rest and compare. More than a few times I had to start over. It was slowly giving me a headache. Or I was hungry, if the emptiness I was suddenly aware of in my stomach was any indicator. Another problem to worry about. I barely had something I could use as a bed, and now I needed food. Why didn''t I grab some rat or bat meat to cook up? Because I had no fire or way to create one, and raw rat just did not sound like it would be appetizing. I grabbed the pack I''d gotten as a quest reward and shoved my hand into it. It was bigger on the inside. I still couldn''t shake the childish grin or glee¡­ I had a bag of holding. I was hoping I''d find something inside, I hadn''t done more than pull out the smock and the boots when I first got it. Something brushed against my hand, or more specific my hand brushed up against something. Felt like a bar, maybe a thick candy bar, sans wrapping?This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I pulled it out and blinked, held it up to the light, which was dumb the light was coming from everywhere. But sure enough, it was what I thought it was. Or something really close. Thick, dense breading, check. Fruit prices in all kinds of places, check. Looks like maybe some nuts and¡­ I think that might be carrot slivers. Adventuring rations in the magic land of dungeons, monsters and gods is¡­ Fruit cake. ¡°I can admit that it''s at least filling, but uh¡­ Fruit cake? Really?¡± I wasn''t expecting any kind of answer, and my stomach was telling me it didn''t care. With a deep sigh of resignation, I took a bite and chewed. Yup, definitely Fruit cake adjacent. Shaking my head, I went back to trying to formulate the shielding spell. ¡°Grab these bits, order them around the runes. Use these bits to connect the runes and the¡­ why do I feel like I''m working on a circuit board??¡± My eyes flew open as I realized that. The spell formations were circuit cards. I didn''t see a ground, but the power supply was the Mana Rune, no resistor¡­ Trauma could fit in as a transistor, maybe? Especially with it lining with an element¡­ I''d forgotten enough that I wouldn''t want to work on a circuit card again, but still remembered enough to be able to trace everything out. That realization helped. A lot. I was able to pull more of the symbology of the spell formations and wrap it up with Tommy chosen runes. ¡°Close the circuit here¡­¡± Nothing. I frowned, looking over everything. My framework against the two spells. The runes in each. What was missing? I examined both Arcane Shot and Word of Healing again, comparing the line of runes and symbols for several moments. Long enough that I''d finished off the candy bar sized fruit cake ration thing. ¡°A delivery method? Word of Healing is a word in some language¡­ Arcane Shot doesn''t have¡­ Oh. Why didn''t I see that before??¡± I could barely make out a rune in a darker portion of the spell formation. I think the longer I was studying these, and the more experience I was gaining in Runic Magic and Arcana, was slowly revealing more and more things in the complex geometric shapes of the formations. ¡°Well, guess this will be a word then?¡± I isolated the Word portion of Word of Healing. Removing the word itself, left a Rune of Voice. Had to think about that for a while, mulling it over. Odd terminology. Or was this my brain filling in gaps due to a lack of local knowledge? Let''s just sit that on the back burner. So for several more minutes I worked on slotting Rune of Voice into my spell ¡®circuit¡¯ and tried to think of a trigger word. ¡°Maybe I''ll get lucky and you''ll take care of that? I mean, all I''m doing is reinventing the wheel here, variations on a theme.¡± <> I blinked at the blue box. ¡°You''ve got jokes now?¡± <> ¡°Why do I get the feeling the long talk we should be having¡­ isn''t going to happen?¡± I was met with silence after that. Well¡­ what passes for it when dealing with blue boxes. It faded away. But, I had a new spell, one that could provide a little defense. Hopefully it would be enough. It''d have to be, I didn''t have any other spells to deconstruct to try and figure anything else out. I looked at the quest again, noting there wasn''t a timer or any restrictions or surprises. Sliding down to lay on the leather smock, I did my best to get comfortable and tried to sleep. I had more rat extermination. To do when I woke up. What fun. B0-CH03-S03 My ¡®morning¡¯ had gone pretty standard. Got up, took a quick splash bath, ate a fruit cake bar and strapped on my leather smock and boots. There wasn''t anything else in the cave, so I made my way down to the cavern I''d been in the day before. Still no signs of any of the giant rats or giant bits I''d been fighting yesterday. The only thing I could think of, was that whatever was controlling the dungeon, had removed anything but this Tyraticous Rex. Convenient for me, so not going to complain. It didn''t take me long, relatively, to find the entrance to a passage I''d hadn''t seen before. I had to take a few minutes to try and calm down. The giant rats I''d been fighting were the size of some larger small dogs. I could still feel, in a couple of places, twinges and spikes of pain from bites, and I was about to go fight something with ¡®Rex¡¯ in its name. A king rat, that with a starter name of ¡®Tyraticous¡¯, didn''t promise to be small and cuddly. Taking a deep breath, I slowly moved into the passage. The lighting lowered a bit as I got through a good way. I was breathing deep and clenching my jaw. If I had any other options, I would not be doing this. Lucky me. A bit of extra light started coming into view, and I pressed up against a wall before inching forward. A quick thought, and I muttered the incantation for Minor Arcane Shielding, blinking a bit at the blink of mana that formed around me. Protection spell, good, eight mana left to fight with and keep myself alive. Finally, I got to the edge of the passage. Looking in, it was an oblong cave, with a small hole in the wall at an end to my left. Small, that hole looked like I could go in without having to bend too much. I think I''m around five foot ten inches tall. Bending down for that, I''d scrape my head around five and half. This was going to be a huge rat. Which was apparently looking out at the larger cavern, since I could see glowing red eyes in the darkness there. How did that even work?? Swallowing hard, I raised my left hand and triggered Arcane Shot into the cave, readying to do it again soon as I could. My feet slapped against the rock floor as I ran into the cave. My eyes darted around, looking for anywhere to hide or anything I could use in this fight to give me any kind of advantage. The only thing I could see was a strewn out pile of bones, looking like bat and rat. The Tyraticous Rex hadn''t been idle. Arcane Shot had hit, and the rat launched itself out of the cave with a screech. As it landed, I launched another Arcane Shot, still keeping on the move. That had been a hard lesson yesterday, don''t stop moving if you have the option.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Rex had me targeted and was racing to me as the next magic ball slammed into him. It roared, closing the distance between us almost faster than I could see. Jaws opened and it tried to attach to one of my legs. I scrambled back away from it, getting scratched deep in the calf instead of bitten. I''d been able to teach myself to keep an eye on my health and mana from all the fighting so far. It still caused me to lag a bit in my actions, but it helped keep me alive. That one scratch had shaved off three points from my health. Also a hard lesson learned, if I wasn''t under half health, suck it up. I was just one point above half. Rex screeched again, turning to lunge at me while I tried to get some range. Another Arcane Shot, I was down to five mana, hit the rat square in its chest. Which didn''t seem to slow it down. The rats claws ticked on the rock as it chased after me. A nip at my heels dropped me to under half my health, and I burned a mana point to cast Word of Healing. Not full, but not dead either. My hand dug into my pack, trying to pull out my stalactite club as I ran in circles. I was at least keeping just ahead of the rat, though it did get a few more shots at my legs. Enough I had to cast Word of Healing two more times. Mana was getting low, I had to do the thing I wasn''t good at, fight with the club. An sttempt of faking to one side had me turning to face the King of Rats. I swung the stone club as hard as I could at the same time. I did hit, honestly. A meaty sound of stone slamming into rat. Unfortunately, its forward momentum was enough that we collided into a heap. The rat scratched, trying to get its teeth into me and I tried wailing on it with my club while also trying to push it off me. My health dipped low again, I didn''t have the time to try and cast while fending the beast off. Then, a lucky strike with the club landed on its head, stunning it for a moment. Enough time for me to push it away, and quickly get off a heal. One more point of mana, and this fight had barely gone a couple of minutes. I turned, and swung. Again, and again. I tried to back away as I did, a slow process in itself. The rat took hits, slowing a bit as the damage racked up. Finally, it seems to flag enough that I took a risk. Using my last point of mana, I cast Arcane Shot again and followed up with a two handed grip swing of my club. Both hit, the magic attack with its usually whoop sound and the club with a crunch. I swung a couple more times just to be sure. And then promptly feel to my knees trying to breath. Two health points as left, and no mana. The rat lay in a heap before me, jaws open on a weird angle, one eye kind of bulging out and a dent in the side of its head. <> ¡°What?¡± I gasped, coming Down from the rush of adrenaline. "Recalibrate? What does that mean?¡± As a pain I hope I never experience again ripped through me, I figured it out. Luckily, I passed out before too much longer. B01-Status-01 I once again found myself in that nowhere-in between place. Though this time, I was still in the body I¡¯d been given. There was, of course, a blue box with a load of text waiting for me. Apparently, I wasn¡¯t quite ready to be allowed out into public. Oh, and I had a surname now. ¡°Well, that¡¯s not on the nose or anything. Someone¡¯s borrowing heavily on my memories. Don¡¯t suppose you¡¯d be willing to give me access to all of them?¡± I asked, not really expecting to get an answer. [[You have completed the tutorial. The goddess of the moon, Nalura, has chosen to sponsor you into the world of Ytregassa and will now begin recalibration of your base self to better fit this new world. Please standby, calibration in progress¡­ Please standby, calibration in progress¡­ Ian Luna Class: Sage - You have an unparalleled passion for knowledge, whether it''s spending years researching in the greatest of libraries, or trudging through the ruins of a lost civilization you have a drive to Others may be more specialized, but even your hard won techniques and knowledge can benefit their abilities. Level: 1 Health: 14 Base = (Fortitude x 2) + (1 point for every 3 Fortitude), increases by (1 point for every 3 Fortitude) per level. Health is regained by (1 point for every 3 Fortitude) per hour. A generalized rating of how much trauma, or damage, that can be endured before unconsciousness or death. Action: 9 Base = (Reflex x 2) + (1 point for every 3 Reflex), increases by (1 point for every 3 Reflex) per level. Action is regained by (1 point for every 3 Reflex) per 10 minutes. Used to activate special melee attacks or physical abilities. Mana: 16 Base = (Willpower x 2) + (1 point for every 3 Willpower), increases by (1 point for every 3 Willpower) per level. Mana is regained by (1 point for every 3 Willpower) per 10 minutes. Energy used to cast spells, enact rituals, create enchantments, or use runes. Strength: 5 A measure of one''s physical prowess. This includes, but is not limited to carrying or lifting weight and the ability to do damage in melee combat. Reflex: 4 A representation of one¡¯s reaction time. This statistic measures ability to physically avoid damage, respond to external stimuli, and recover action.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. Fortitude: 6 An indicator as to how well one can resist damage from various sources, fight off natural and magical illness, and regain health. Perception: 5 The ability to notice details. This statistic provides increases to accuracy with weaponry and being able to spot specific locations to do the most damage to a target. Willpower: 7 A full mental statistic, that is strongly tied to the mana of the world. Along with providing regenerative capabilities to a mana pool, this stat also provides increases to resisting mental and some magical effects. Skills and Abilities Arcana Level 1 - A basic understanding of the forms of magic, how they interact, and ways to manipulate them. Provides a basic foundation for casting spells. Runic Magic Level 1 - Ability to imbue runes with magic to achieve a desired result. Higher levels allow for more complex runic combinations. Ritual Magic Level 0 - Knowledge rituals and how to cast spells as rituals. Higher levels allow for more complex rituals. Enchanting Level 0 - a combination of Arcana, Runic Magic, and Ritual Magic to imbue items with specific properties. Healing Magic Level 1 - A form of Arcana specialized enough to be separated from the general elemental forms, Healing Magic is considered a Divine magic. Provides knowledge for diagnosing wounds, illness, and more, as well as spells to heal, cure, or remove afflictions and other physical ailments Light Magic Level 1 - A special element of magic that is neither inherently good, nor inherently evil. Spells using this element tend to be a bright light of physical energy. Spells: Arcane Shot Level 1 - A small orb, about the size of a marble, of light energy shoots out and strikes a target within a moderate range, doing a minor amount of damage Word of Healing Level 1 - A spoken word that will heal a light amount of trauma to a specific target within a short range of the casters line of sight Minor Enchantment Level 1 - imbues an item temporarily with a single effect. Higher levels increase the duration of the Enchantment. Only one enchantment may be placed at a time. Minor Arcane Shielding: Creates a magical shield effect that will block, parry or otherwise cause a reduction or negation of incoming damage by a minor amount Runes: Alarm Level 0 - A rune that emits a loud sound when certain parameters have been met within set boundaries. Warding Level 1 - creates a thin shielding layer that provides a minor amount of protection against damage. Mana Level 1: A rune that dictates a method of powering spell formations and enchantments. Distance Level 1: Descriptor to provide a measurement of range to a spell. Arcane Level 1: One of the Triumvirate of High Elements, generally used if/when a specialized element is not needed Healing Level 1: Generally linked with Divine elements, meant as a catch-all descriptor for restorative magic Trauma Level 1: Rune descriptor for damage Achievements and Titles: Blessing of the Moon: The Goddess of the Moon, Nalura, has sponsored you to the world of Ytregasa. Having completed your tutorial, Nalura has assisted in reconfiguring your baseline to more closely resemble a freshly trained adventurer of Ytregasa. Nalura has also provided the required patronage to allow full access to the Healer and Light magic lines, based upon knowledge you had in your past life. Be grateful. Trial By Fire: Reincarnated into a new world, you have been tested and judged. Your completion of a tutorial style dungeon has been met with approval by several gods and powers of Ytregasa. Reincarnate: You have been reborn in a new world of magic and monsters, and had the entirety of your being remade by the will of a goddess. Calibrations have been completed.]] B01-CH04-S01 It did take a little time to read through all that. I wasn¡¯t liking the sound of ¡®recalibration¡¯, but I¡¯d gone through something like that before, hadn¡¯t I? Wait, I think I passed out when that started the first time¡­ Oh, that might explain things. Must be extremely painful. I was glad I was missing that. As I got to the end, and saw the last message, I was blinded by a bright flash of light. It was like getting hit with the flash of an old camera, just not painful. Small miracles. When I could see again, I was laying on the ground of the cave again. Naked. Again. ¡°Really, I can¡¯t keep clothes to save my life. Are you really going to send me¡­ Oh. Okay¡­¡± I stood up while talking, and spun in a slow circle talking to the air. I didn¡¯t know how people of this world talked to whoever, or whatever, was on the other side of the blue boxes. Well, whichever of the three that I¡¯d interacted with so far. While turning though, I saw a large chest about where the corpse of Tyraticous Rex should have been. I was leery of chests. My memories of my old world were fuzzy, lots of things missing and some just missing detail or context. Two things stood out though. Table top games I¡¯d played when I¡¯d been younger, and the monsters that could look like chests¡­ and a cartoon one of my grand nephews watched, where an elven mage kept getting eaten by the beasts. ¡°Well¡­ At least I know I had family,¡± I said as I moved slowly to the chest. Better to not take chances. Reaching out, I tapped at the lid a few times before opening it wide and peeking inside. Ready to jump back and run, to be honest. Just in case. Inside were two pieces of heavy looking hide, my boots and two large coins. <> Well, that was convenient. I was wondering if someone was forgetting little bits and pieces of knowledge. Or maybe making it all up as they went along? With a shrug, I pulled out the two pieces of hide and examined them. <
  • Jerkin and Tunic: Increase resistance to non-magical damage
  • Boots: Can apply a slight movement increase for walking, jogging or running
  • Ring of Minor Storage: Stores items in a 10 foot cube of space, non-living items only!!
  • Necklace of Minor Healing: Holds three charges of Word of Healing. Charges are regained at a rate of 1 per week.
    • Tutorial Token (2) - Two tokens that can be traded for items at the new Dungeon Shop belonging to the reconstructed Dungeon of Scale.>> Well, that was new, a name for the dungeon that I¡¯d been tromping around the past couple of days. And it looked like I wasn¡¯t the only one going through growth spurts. The dungeon I was in had also been remade. Or rebuilt. Or¡­ whatever dungeons did. I was going to have to live up to my class, and definitely find that out. I put the ring on, then donned the armor pieces, sitting down to put the boots on. As I finished, two things happened. The first was expected, but in a surprising way. The chest vanished in a glittering light show. I couldn¡¯t help but stop and watch that. It was cool, don¡¯t judge. The second, was less expected and even more surprising. A tall figure in gleaming silvery armor just¡­ walked into existence. I mean, the person was see through, then as they got closer to me, became more solid. Until they stopped just in front of me, holding a hand out. Blinking and still trying to process what I¡¯d just seen, I mean that was cool too, I reached my hand out and took theirs. They pulled me up with a deep throated chuckle. ¡°Congratulations, blessed of the Moon. You are the first to complete this new part of my dungeon.¡± Oh. Oh that was¡­ Crap. I was talking to the owner of the dungeon. Eyes wide, I quickly stepped back. Had to take a few deep breaths to try and keep the fight or flight down. If this person was in charge of the dungeon, then they could probably end me just by sneezing in my direction. ¡°Oh, no need to worry, little moon. You¡¯ve done me, and Ytregassa a great service,¡± they said as they pulled the helm off their head. Long flowing locks of golden blonde hair fell to their shoulders, pointy tipped ears just poking out. Yeah, I was blinking and gaping again. ¡°Your old world has a saying, about open mouths and flies, yes?¡± the person said, smiling and sounding very amused. My mouth closed with an audible noise. Almost bit my tongue. ¡°Sorry about that. New world, new¡­ races of people?¡± The elf, and that was what I was going to call them until I was told otherwise, laughed and gave a slight shrug. Walking a little towards the cave that the giant rat king had come out of, they continued to speak. ¡°Nothing to worry about. I¡¯m sure you¡¯re going to be doing that a lot soon. Try not to get too lost in the details.¡± They suddenly stopped, turned a little and pointed at a bare wall. ¡°There are a lot of people waiting out there. But you have those tokens to trade in. Get that done, take a few of them with you. Let them see what new things are coming to the world¡­ and don¡¯t let them think of you as a herald of anything. Nalura doesn¡¯t expect you to go out and save the realm or anything.¡± The sound of stone grating on stone had me looking to where they¡¯d been pointing. A door was opening, slowly and allowing the air from outside to waft into the cave. I took a calming breath, turned my head to say something to them, only to find them gone. ¡°Well, that seems to be the story of my new life.¡± B01-CH04-S02 Liscern Pinniard, Guild Master of Lorthalt, watched as adventurer¡¯s went about their new tasks of guarding the entrance of a dungeon. Groups that had previously been running the dungeon, doing what adventurer¡¯s do, were now sitting around the hastily built earthen walls that had been placed around the entrance. Liscern watched as her assistant and partner, Lorekeeper Ophelia Memori, wrangled more of the men and women to continue work on building up defenses outside of the dungeon. Who knew being an over qualified historian would include knowledge of siege tactics? As had happened many times before, Liscern¡¯s eyes ended up on the statue that had lifted from the ground three days ago. Made from a stone meant to mimic a bright green jade, the serpent headed man seemed to stand guard over the entrance to the dungeon. Many of the Guild¡¯s members who had any kind of historical knowledge had poured over the statue and entrance, or entrances. Where there had been one open cave like hole leading into the dungeon, were now three closed gates. The largest, at around twelve feet tall, was set under the statue of the serpent man. To each side were smaller gates, standing around eight feet tall. Petroglyphs were carved into the walls, showing multiple scenes of snake people. The one that had caught all the would-be historian''s eyes, was the one depicting a woman being served by others. She was brought out of her contemplations as a slightly taller woman stepped up beside her. Wearing the robes of a priestess of the goddess of the sun, she was younger than Liscern by more than two decades. Dark brown hair was hidden within the hood of her robes, and just as dark brown eyes looked almost pleadingly at her. Turning her head slightly, Liscern looked at the other woman and waited. And waited more, as the younger woman started to fidget. Rolling her eyes, Liscern turned back to watch the activities before her. ¡°Well, Delava, am I going to get an explanation for your arrival now?¡± she asked. ¡°I mean, not even a full day and you and the rest of the Sunsworn arrive babbling cryptic words from your goddess. I would have thought your mother taught you better than to engage in the politics of the temples¡­ at least, with family.¡± The young woman winced, looking down at her feet before speaking. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, Aunt Liscern,¡± she started. ¡°Brother Hadock is rather¡­ intense, in his piety.¡± ¡°Ha, intense? Child, priests like him give the rest of you a bad name. Now, get to the point. Why are you here and how did you know to come here?¡± Delava inhaled deeply before speaking, picking her words carefully. ¡°Several of the temple''s elders received a visitation from servants of Anderis. A simple message, really,¡± she began, her voice taking on a different tone as she repeated the message. ¡°My sister desires assistance, go to the reborn dungeon south of Acantid.¡±Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. She looked at the older woman, giving an apologetic shrug. ¡°That¡¯s it. That¡¯s all that was told. I was chosen to come, because of the bonds of our family.¡± Liscern sighed, shaking her head. It had been longer than this girl had been alive since she¡¯d last partied with the warrior Thren and the priestess Emadra. They¡¯d parted ways after a near disastrous run through a dungeon, with only a handful of visits over the years. ¡°I know your mother, girl, she doesn¡¯t like using family to play temple politics.¡± ¡°I know, she wasn¡¯t happy that I was being sent here for this reason. She did say though I should take the opportunity to run the dungeon, maybe get taken along by my two aunties?¡± Delava tried, a small hopeful smile that she¡¯d survive another day. Her response was a snort from the older woman. Liscern shook her head, not trying to keep her amusement from her face. ¡°Sure, as soon as the dungeon opens¡­¡± She¡¯d started to say more, when sounds of approaching horsemen reached her ears. ¡°What now?¡± she said, turning to face the direction of the commotion. Lightly armored men and women rode towards the two, wearing the colors of the Barony of Acantid. The riders stopped a short distance from them, one dismounting and removing a helm to reveal an older man near Liscern¡¯s age. His short black hair was speckled with grey, only adding to the air of authority he seemed to carry. ¡°Lissie!¡± he cried out, a grin upon his lips. ¡°Tell me what you¡¯ve done with my dungeon!¡± ¡°Your dungeon? Come now, Baron. We both know the Empire has decreed all dungeons are the purview of the Adventurer¡¯s Guild.¡± She had a matching grin on her face as the man walked over, reaching out to clasp arms with him. ¡°Didn¡¯t expect you here until tomorrow, Berav.¡± The man had the decency to look sheepish, giving a quick glance to the men and women who were dismounting and taking the horses away. ¡°I got Annea to take over some of the more onerous duties so I could come out. As much as I needed a break away from all that, this is something rather important. A dungeon rebuilding itself? No longer just a cave on a hillside but what looks to be a temple or something?¡± He was looking at the statue, having moved towards the bulwarks in place before it. ¡°And a Core Guardian coming to the surface, speaking to people and giving instructions? This is all unheard of, Lissie. The Emperor has been spending coins left and right getting messages back and forth wanting to know what¡¯s going on.¡± She sighed, which she had been doing a lot of lately, shaking her head. ¡°Oh, it gets better. My lord Baron Acantid, this is Delava Thrensdotter. She is a sword of Anderis. Who, by the way, sent some of her Sunsworn out, apparently before this all started happening.¡± The Baron blinked, looking at the young woman in question, who had the grace to blush as she gave a bow. ¡°My lord, it is a pleasure to meet you.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure it is,¡± he said with a frown. ¡°I can understand the temples getting involved with all of this, it is happening in other parts of the Empire and world in general if all the messages are true.¡± ¡°What?¡± Delava asked, looking to the Guild Master, who¡¯s eyes had widened and mouth had dropped a little. ¡°Where, Berav? What other dungeons? All of them?¡± Liscern asked. The man started to answer, but stopped and turned towards the left, smaller gate. Sounds of stone on stone were breaking through the din of noise around the dungeon. ¡°Well¡­ Maybe some of your questions will get answered soon, Lissie.¡± B01-CH04-S03 The doors had stopped moving, but I hadn''t walked forward yet. Beyond those doors was a world that I had no knowledge of, no place in, no one who knew me, or that I knew. Standing there, the chance to leave the cave dungeon, it really finally hit me. I had died in my world. All of the knowledge, things I''d learned through school, or just over time, was still there. If in bits and pieces, some of it. All of the memories I had of family and friends, though, were all fuzzy and seemed to be missing context. No, missing the emotions that should be there. I didn''t feel sad that I wouldn''t be seeing them again. I knew that I loved and cared for all the people who had been important to me, I just didn''t feel it anymore. ¡°It will pass, Sage Luna. Like distant memories,¡± the voice of the dungeon echoed in the chamber. And sounded all too familiar with my little existential crisis. ¡°Do I want it too, though?¡± I asked softly. There wasn''t a response. Whether the dungeon could commiserate with my situation or not, I got the feeling that was a question I wouldn''t be able to answer myself. Closing my eyes, I tried my best to steady my nerves. It wasn''t really helping much. I still had those nervous butterflies in my stomach. ¡°Well, I guess I should get this over with. Can''t stay here forever, can I?¡± An air of amused denial seemed to fill the cave. Or I was just imagining it. Either way, I started walking out through the doors. I finally stepped out into the light of a sun, my stone club in hand, and a worried look on my face. There was a large crowd surrounding the exit. I was never one for big groups of people. Yay me, I''m the center of attention. Just let me go find a place to hide, yeah? Attempting to appear nonchalant about everything, I slowly swept my gaze over the crowd. There wasn''t anything that stood out, nothing immediately to my eyes to say this person was in charge. No one had moved or spoken to me yet either, like they were expecting more. Which did happen. Another set of doors, about twice the size of the ones I''d just exited, started to open. Half the attention left me, and went to the larger opening. I turned and looked that way myself, and had to do a double take at the statue above the building with the doors. A jade green serpent man with a sword. That was different. And below, at the entrance to the building, a gorilla. A giant gorilla, nine or ten feet at the hunched shoulders. My mind tried to go blank, my mouth had opened and my eyes had gone wide as saucers. Too bad my tongue decided to work. ¡°Gorillillillillilla!¡± I said, not loudly and not in a panic, just kind of conversationally. The giant beast looked at me with a huff. ¡°Not purple, little moon,¡± it said. ¡°Shop opening. Captain waiting. Escort to merchant.¡±This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. I blinked. It had gotten the reference. How? I frowned, walking slowly in the direction it had indicated. ¡°You read my memories? How¡­ wait¡­¡± ¡°Quick, little moon. Guildmaster, Lorekeeper. Baron and little sun. Follow little moon,¡± it said, sitting as it reached he''d out a hand and pointed to the opening doors across from the cave I''d come from. The gasp of alarm and sense of panic from the people around us had me stopping and looking at them with widened eyes. ¡°Uh, Something wrong?¡± I asked. A woman stepped forward, reddish hair hanging to her shoulders, clad in some sort of scaled armor, and with a sword in both hands. ¡°Dungeon creatures aren''t supposed to be able to exit the dungeon,¡± she said, voice tinged with a stern defiance. I looked at the giant gorilla, then at the building with the three sets of doors. Turning, my eyes followed the edge of stone that formed a paved courtyard. ¡°Well, we are all standing in the dungeons area of influence here¡­¡± I said, pointing at the paving stones. Wow, did that cause even more of a panic. People rushed back, some grabbing at those who were a little too slow. By the time it seemed all who were going to escape had done so, only a handful of people remained in the courtyard with me. The redhead who had stepped forward, to attack or defend or both, another middle aged looking woman and a man in fancier clothes stood to either side of her. Behind those three were a few men and women, some in robes and some in armor. All with weapons ready or hands prepared to cast spells. I looked back at the gorilla, who hadn''t moved and pointed, first at the people then the stones. ¡°Shouldn''t they have known this?¡± The beast gave that toothy, gummy grin all apes could do before speaking. ¡°New rules. Need to learn new ways. Oops.¡± The giant gorilla had left out details, important ones apparently, to get a laugh. ¡°Not worried they''d, oh I don''t know, attack you?¡± I asked, looking back at the people that had stayed. Who were all looking at me like I was crazy. The jury was still out on that one. I gave a sigh as I shook my head, pointing at them all. They flinched, one younger woman looking like she was planning on leaping at me. ¡°Okay, ya''ll just take a breath, okay? Whoever belongs to the titles this guy just said should follow me into this next area, I''ll explain what I can, and if I''m lucky the dungeon will tell us the rest.¡± ¡°Dungeons don''t speak,¡± one of the robed men in the back row said. The two women and the man in the front all turned to look at the speaker. The darker haired woman was the one that spoke, pointing at the gorilla. ¡°What do you think the Core Guardian has been doing?¡± she asked him. ¡°Speaking for the dungeon. It''s been a hypothesis for almost as long as we''ve known the Guardians exist.¡± Huh, I thought, looking at them all. Apparently, the dungeons don''t appear to people and have conversations. Good to know what I shouldn''t talk about, thanks dungeon. I held up the two tokens I had gotten for killing the rat king and completing the quest. ¡°I have these to trade, and I guess we have some talking to do.¡± I didn''t wait to see if they followed, just turned and made my way over. I did pause enough to glare up at the Guardian as I passed in front of him. ¡°You''re trouble waiting to happen.¡± The gorilla just huffed happily, watching as the group sorted themselves. Apparently one of them was a member of the local nobility, and another one didn''t have any standing at all within the organization she belonged to. I stopped at the opening to the shop area, looked back at them and made it simple. ¡°The dungeon already said who had permission to go in. Either they do and they get to see what''s inside, or they don''t and no one replaces them. Unless you want to take it up with the gorilla.¡± Not waiting for a response, I just walked in. They''d follow or they wouldn''t. I had better things to do. And a dungeon to try and not piss off. B01-CH05-S01 I reached the doors of the other building attached to the dungeon just as they finished opening. A quick glance showed me that the four people that the gorilla¡­ no, Core Guardian, had named off were following behind. Apparently, a consensus had been reached. We were progressing! Yay! Looking into the building, lights started to flicker on illuminating the inside. It looked¡­ Well, it looked like a small version of a mall. There were store areas with front counters, a couple of those little kiosk style cart vendors. There was even a fountain and a place for just sitting down. Chairs and tables and everything. I wondered if there was a food court here¡­ What was missing was people. No one at the counters or the kiosks. As the lighting grew, a few people did come out from an area in the back. They looked to be wearing the same armor as the dungeon owner had. All of them tall, with an androgynous look to them. Though, armor, it¡¯s there for protection first and looks second. One of them continued walking towards us, while the other two split off and took up positions at what could have been guard stations. Just standing there, at attention. In the quiet of the space, the only sound being that of the one that was approaching us, it was kind of creepy. Go dungeon, with the atmosphere. ¡°Sage Luna, welcome. The merchant you need to speak with will be ready momentarily,¡± they said, the voice sounding a little familiar. The Core Guardian had said this would be ¡®the captain¡¯, so I figured it best to follow along, if this was who I was thinking it was. ¡°Captain, good to see you again,¡± I said as I looked around at the place. ¡°This seems awfully familiar to me.¡± The elf took off their helmet, holding it in the crook of their elbow, a smile on their lips. ¡°Well, you are the catalyst of all this change. You¡¯re going to be famous. Or infamous, depending on who you talk to in the decades to come.¡± Behind me, one of the women spoke. ¡°Sage?¡± she asked. I looked behind me, and it was the darker haired, older woman speaking, the one the Guardian had called Lorekeeper. ¡°How do you know this¡­ elf?¡± That didn¡¯t sound good. Turning to look at all of them with a frown, I could only ask the question. This was like, fantasy 101 here, wasn¡¯t it? ¡°Why say it like that? You¡¯ve never seen an elf before?¡± It was the man, the one the Guardian had called a Baron, that answered. ¡°Elves have not been seen in Ytregassa for almost ten thousand years.¡± His voice had just as much confusion as mine. ¡°How could someone calling themselves a Sage not know this?¡± Oh. Well, crap. I looked at ¡®the captain¡¯ and then back at the small group. The younger woman was looking around at the sights, standing a little away from the older crowd. That way most young people did when surrounded by their elders, hoping that they didn¡¯t get asked or told to do something.This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The red head, the Guild Master, stepped forward, looking at the elf. ¡°Are you a living being, or a dungeon creature?¡± Straight to the point, this one, and right to business. The elf waggled their hand back and forth. ¡°A little of both, perhaps. However, not quite what you all are here for, I¡¯m afraid. You four should be seeing a System Screen appearing about now,¡± they began to explain. ¡°The dungeon has facilitated the recalibration of your status.¡± Sure enough, they all had stopped and were staring in mid air. I wondered if that was what I looked like? Slightly glazed, far off look. Eyes moving back and forth as they were reading whatever they were looking at. The Lorekeeper looked excited. She¡¯d pulled out an expensive looking tome and was writing down notes or something inside of it. ¡°This is incredible! We¡¯ve never had such distinct information on¡­ Wizard subclass? Are you serious?¡± Her voice had risen a bit there. ¡°Rogue subclass here,¡± the Guild Master muttered, still reading through her information. I looked at the Baron, who¡¯s stance had changed. He stood, arms crossed as he read, head tilted a bit to the side. He at least sounded amused. ¡°Bastion is apparently a Fighter subclass. Who knew?¡± Turning my attention to the younger woman, the little sun, I waited. She had a frown on her face, brows furrowed in confusion. ¡°Paladin subclass? Sunsworn is a Paladin?¡± A glance at the elf, seeing they were enjoying themselves, I shook my head. ¡°All right, I have something I need to take care of here. Why don¡¯t all of you head over to those tables and sit down while you familiarize yourselves with this new stuff?¡± The Guild Master blinked, looking at me and then nodding. She took the Lorekeeper by the arm and guided her over, the other woman hadn¡¯t stopped writing or looked at anyone else. She was mumbling to herself about how this was going to change everything. I wasn¡¯t sure what everything was, but if this was new to them, yeah. I might be in trouble. The Baron had waved a hand to get the ¡®little sun¡¯s¡¯ attention, and stopped in front of me, offering a hand. ¡°I am Baron Acantid, or Lord Berav. This outpost is within my domain in the Empire.¡± ¡°Lord Berav, it¡¯s a pleasure to meet you,¡± I said, shaking his hand and giving a small smile. ¡°I¡¯m Ian Luna, Sage¡­ of Nalura? I¡¯m not too sure how Blessing¡¯s work¡­¡± That got the younger woman¡¯s attention. ¡°You are Blessed of the Moon!¡± she exclaimed. ¡°You are the one we were sent for?¡± Well, that wasn¡¯t something I was expecting to hear. It also only made the growing unease in my stomach worse. ¡°Uh¡­ Maybe? I wasn¡¯t aware anyone had been sent for me?¡± I shot a look over to the other women, who¡¯d sat down and were discussing something. They apparently hadn¡¯t heard what had been said. ¡°Is that something important?¡± The elf stepped in at that moment. ¡°Sage Luna, while we don¡¯t have knowledge of this Baron or Empire specifically, may we suggest that you do offer a little trust? Nalura¡¯s sister would not have sent anyone that meant you harm.¡± Nalura¡¯s sister? Moon goddess, sun goddess? Okay, that was something I could work with¡­ ¡°Yeah, sure¡­ You two go get settled, I¡¯ll take care of this little thing I need to? Then we can talk about a few things and maybe all of us get some answers?¡± B01-CH05-S02 Following behind ¡®the captain¡¯, I took a little time to take in the sights. My first impression that this was like a mini-mall, wasn¡¯t too far off. The store fronts were open, no gates or windows. A few had space that would allow a customer to go behind the counter. I couldn¡¯t quite tell what all the shops were. There weren¡¯t people standing at the counters, nor were there goods being shown off for sale. It was a little odd, to be honest. It lacked the lived in feel that I remembered from the places I¡¯d been. ¡°So fresh from my memories, I take it?¡± I asked as we stopped in front of a shop. It looked like a jewelry store, with stations visible behind the counter. The main difference being that it looked like the jewelry was made there, rather than being sent off to some other location. The elf nodded, knocking their knuckles against the wooden countertop. ¡°With the necessary changes, due to the differences between worlds,¡± they said as they waited. ¡°Well, yeah¡­ Magic,¡± I responded with a small laugh. ¡°I can only imagine how things are made here. I mean, I know a little about a few things. But, I don¡¯t think I¡¯d be able to build any of the fancy stuff.¡± As another elf with long blonde hair stepped out from a room I hadn¡¯t noticed. She wore a set of leathers, tools held at various places at her belt and a few tucked away in pockets on her chest. ¡°Captain, this is highly irregular. The new rules specifically state¡­¡± The captain held up a hand, stalling whatever she had been about to say. ¡°I know. However, in order to properly introduce some of the changes being made, we must make allowances.¡± Turning to me, they held a hand out. ¡°This is Sage Ian Luna, Blessed of Nalura. He has tested and completed the tutorial stage, earning two tokens to be traded to you.¡± I stepped forward, setting the tokens on the counter and nodding in greeting to the woman. ¡°Ma¡¯am. I¡¯m not sure what all is going on, but sorry if it¡¯s an inconvenience.¡± She snorted, giving the captain a little stink eye before looking at me. Or glaring. A few things were starting to click in my mind. I¡¯m old, or was. I¡¯m a little slow sometimes. ¡°Factions. Holy Hannah,¡± I said as I looked at the two of them. ¡°You¡¯re introducing a faction system within the dungeons.¡± The woman swiped up the tokens as I stood back. She looked at them, then at me and eyed the armor I wore. ¡°Ring and necklace then, to complete the set?¡±This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. I nodded at her, and she stepped away into the back of the store. ¡°Are the people of this world going to be ready for this? The political and economic hits alone¡­¡± The captain shrugged, watching me. ¡°Secondary issues, at least from our perspective. We care not what happens outside of our domains. The System itself doesn''t see borders or anything like that, so only cares that its purpose is being met.¡± My brows had raised, hearing that. I got the feeling that I was being told something that wasn¡¯t quite common knowledge. Perfect, just got here and I¡¯m going to have to keep secrets that people would kill to know. ¡°Should you be telling me stuff like that?¡± They laughed, shaking their head a bit with a smile. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s quite common knowledge that the System exists for a reason. I don¡¯t think anyone has figured out what the exact reason is. Probably a lot of guesses, some might be close.¡± Okay, that made me feel a little better. Dungeons not caring about what was going on beyond their gates¡­ caves¡­ dungeons¡­ right. Anyway, I shook my head at all of this. ¡°Am I ever going to know why I was brought here? You said Nalura didn¡¯t expect anything of me, but I¡¯ve gotta say¡­ This is a second chance of life, you know?¡± I looked back at the four sitting at the tables in the court area. They were all chattering about their screens and the information on them. ¡°I don¡¯t know how old you are, but by looking at those four¡­ I¡¯m older than any of them. Or was.¡± ¡°I beat you by close to four decades, I believe. As to why, didn¡¯t the System tell you? Usually a reincarnation occurs due to a lack of balance in the souls of a region or realm¡­¡± they replied with a frown. I blinked. The first box did say something like that. ¡°I didn¡¯t think that was serious¡­ Whoever was talking to me at the time, didn¡¯t elaborate on anything.¡± ¡°At the¡­ What?¡± Now the elf looked confused. They started to speak again, when the woman came back out. She set two boxes down on the counter. One, the typical box a ring would be in, and the other larger that probably held the necklace. ¡°One Ring of Minor Storage, I believe you had a description of it? If not, you can examine it and it will tell you what it is capable of,¡± she said, all business now. Though with a slight undertone you¡¯d get when someone was doing something they didn¡¯t want to be. ¡°The other is the Necklace of Minor Healing. Also, with a description if you examine it.¡± She pushed both boxes towards me and stepped back from the counter. ¡°The last information I have for you, is that both items can be upgraded with the correct materials.¡± She held up a hand to forestall any questions from me, shaking her head. ¡°I am not telling you what they are, or where you can get them. That is something you will have to discover on your own.¡± She paused a second, then nodded and turned to walk back into the room she had come from. ¡°You are a Sage, after all. Isn¡¯t that what you do?¡± Holding the two boxes in my hands, I looked at the elf. The elf who was the owner of the dungeon. Who was masquerading as a guard captain. That I didn¡¯t even know the name of. ¡°Yeah, I guess I am and I guess it is. Time to be about it then, yeah?¡± B01-CH05-S03 The other four were deep into their screens, I supposed, as I walked up to the table they were sitting at. All but the Lorekeeper looked up towards me, the dark-haired woman still taking notes. I know I''d only been gone ten minutes or so, but what all¡­ wait, yeah, she''s definitely higher level than me and with a title or class like Lorekeeper¡­ she could probably fill a small library. I started to speak but paused to look at the elf. Who was gone. ¡°Oh, gee¡­ thank you so much.¡± Shaking my head, I set the two boxes onto the table. ¡°One of you asked how a ¡®Sage¡¯ could be asking some of the things I was¡­¡± I started, not quite sure if this was the best way to start. I was about to go against the majority of the fiction I''d read. For some reason, the two older people paying attention to me looked amused. The young woman was looking at me like I was an idiot. ¡°You are reincarnated from some other world. One most likely without magic or a System,¡± the Lorekeeper replied, without looking away from her task. Well, that took all the windows out of my sails. ¡°Uh¡­ yes? On all counts? How..?¡± The Baron chuckled, eyeing the two boxes with curiosity. ¡°You are not the first, and probably won''t be the last,¡± he said with amusement at confusion. ¡°So, I''m not going to get hunted down, kidnapped, tortured or experimented on?¡± That was sounding much better than I''d expected. The thunder woman, who I only knew had been referenced as little sun, answered. ¡°No, that is the purpose of the blessing. Outside of you breaking any laws or in general being absolutely repugnant to your sponsor, at least. Otherwise, the perpetrators would have the wrath of whichever god or goddess sponsored a reincarnate.¡± Well, that was good news for me. So many stories of people ending up in new worlds and getting shafted. So glad that wasn¡¯t going to be my life. ¡°Okay¡­ The captain there had said Nalura wasn¡¯t expecting me to do any kind of save the world stuff¡­?¡± The Lorekeeper finally looked away from her screen and notebook. ¡°Generally speaking, and not meaning to be insulting¡­ But you¡¯re kind of weak to be going around doing anything like that.¡± Ouch? Though, she¡¯s not wrong. I¡¯d spent three days in that tutorial dungeon, killed close to thirty giant rats and giant bats and a rat king that would have given New York rats a run for their money, and only got to level one. I told that story, and asked the question. ¡°Is that normal?¡± They looked at each other, then at the Lorekeeper. She was shaking her head, writing things down in her notebook. ¡°No, no it isn¡¯t. Classes are usually offered at sixteen, and if you haven¡¯t chosen one by eighteen, it¡¯s chosen for you. You start at level one¡­¡± she said, then paused to think. ¡°Well, we started at Rank E, it went up to Rank A. Though there were rumors of people going above that, but those were only rumors.¡±The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. I thought about that for a moment, then looked at them all. ¡°Okay, so what level are you guys now, compared to the ranks that you were?¡± ¡°I was a Rank C Lorekeeper. Now, I am a level nine Wizard, with a subclass of Lorekeeper,¡± she explained, her head tilted as she thought. ¡°Which actually opened up several options I did not have before.¡± The Baron nodded, looking at his status. ¡°I am a Bastion, and was also Rank C. Like Ophelia, I still have Bastion as a subclass, but am now a Fighter, and level eleven.¡± I nodded, having a name for her now, rather than just thinking of her as the Lorekeeper. Looking at the Guild Master, I waited as she too returned to looking at her status. ¡°Rank C Duelist, now a level 10 Rogue with Duelist as my subclass. Several options are now available, as well.¡± She sounded a little concerned, and it took me a few seconds to understand why. New options. People were going to be getting new options and were going to have to relearn their classes, their livelihoods. Well, crap, now I kind of felt bad. ¡°I am a Sunsword subclass of Paladin. I was Rank E, but am now level two. Not many new options for me,¡± the priest, or paladin¡­ Sunsworn¡­ said. ¡°I can see though how this might take more time to get used to. There are things available here that we did not have before.¡± ¡°Not to mention that the possible paths to follow have opened up. Looking at my status, I can see where at level twelve, I can become an advanced class,¡± Ophelia was saying. ¡°Not a very inspired name change, Loremaster.¡± ¡°I actually got a class option for Guild Master, at twelve,¡± the red haired woman sighed, shaking her head. ¡°I¡¯m going to have to go after that.¡± She looked to the other woman, then to the Baron, grinning. ¡°Looks like we¡¯ll have to grab a fourth. Think Annea could come out of retirement to play healer again?¡± The Baron choked back a laugh, his eyes glinting. ¡°Oh, I think she might be able to be convinced.¡± I blinked, looking at the older three. They all looked like they¡¯d shed decades. I mean, they had to be in their mid to late forties, maybe even early fifties. Yet, here they were, gleefully plotting to dive into a dungeon to get those levels. The Baron wasn¡¯t too far behind this level twelve advanced class. I wondered what the Baroness¡¯ level and class were? ¡°Well¡­ I think¡­ That the Sage and I should group up? If we can find a third and fourth?¡± the young woman said, almost in a whisper. She did get everyone''s attention though, the Baron looking thoughtful. ¡°Now, why would you think that?¡± the Guild Master asked, frowning a little at her. ¡°Anderis did say we were to assist her sister with something. And here is a new Blessed of Nalura¡­¡± she was saying hurriedly, trying to convince them all. ¡°He¡¯s a Sage and responsible for all these changes¡­¡± Wow, way to throw me under the bus. I had to have had a look on my face, as she hastily apologized. ¡°I didn¡¯t mean that to sound harsh, or judgemental¡­¡± I shrugged. She wasn¡¯t wrong. ¡°Sage, level one, which is a subclass of Warlock¡­ and yeah, I do think I should be one of the first to explore. If this is based on things from my old world, it might be very different from what everyone is used to.¡± The ¡®adults¡¯ looked at each other thinking. As the Guild Master was going to say something, a gong sounded in the rear of the chamber. We all looked as numbers formed on the wall, reading seventy-two and then ticked down in hours and minutes. ¡°What is that?¡± the Baron asked. ¡°A timer. At a guess, we have three days and then the dungeon will open again¡­¡± B01-CH06-S01 The next few days were a whirlwind of activity around the dungeon. The Guild Master, who I¡¯d learned was named Liscern Pinniard, had as many people as she could get her hands on cycle through the shop chamber to get their status screens updated. From there Lorekeeper, Ophelia Memori, and dozens of scribes and others with classes related to knowledge, dredged through everyone''s screens to get what had changed and what was new. I had gotten taken in hand by Baron Berav of Acantid. Apparently, one of the ways several nations used to protect reincarnated people was to give them a minor title of nobility. So, I was a Lord. No land, but I did get a small monthly stipend. The Baron informed me it¡¯d be enough to live in one of the ¡®cheaper¡¯ inns that catered to the gentry in the capital. I was moving up in the world. The first day I spent answering as many questions as my fuzzy memory could. From what I was expecting in the dungeon, to what my life was like before. I¡¯ll be honest, answering some of the questions did help to remove the fog I had on my time back there. I had been old, at the time of my demise. That I kind of remembered. I knew I¡¯d died from complications caused by a stroke, i.e. I just didn¡¯t recover after having one. I had family, I now remembered siblings and that I was a widower. I had children, two girls and a boy. From the time I¡¯d woken up that one time, the vague scenes showed that one of my daughters had been there with me. I was close to retiring, in that world. Forty-five years, give or take, of working and saving and I¡¯d been about ready to retire. My life had been ordinary, but one that I felt a pang about not being a part of anymore. It had been a good life. I had explained as best I could about the games that were played in my old world. Factions and how they would lead to quests and the rewards that usually went with them. Everyone seemed a little excited about that. Something to do with the fact that while there had been races other than humans once upon a time, and that they were all gone now. The next day had been spent gearing myself out. Clothes, both for delving into a dungeon and everyday wear. Being added to the nobility had skewed some of the things I had to choose from. Wasn¡¯t blue jeans and t-shirts, let me tell you. More questions and answers, about my time inside the ¡®tutorial¡¯ dungeon and my interactions with the ¡®system¡¯. The fact that I¡¯d interacted with what might have been three different versions had caused a stir. Ophelia thought it might have just been my state of mind at the time, though I still had my doubts.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. In whatever time I could grab for myself, I went over the spells I had to see if I could make out any new ruins. I also closely examined the items I had, to see what I could make out of them. Ophelia had been interested in the bonuses attached to them, and that led into a discussion of sets and set bonuses. From the jerkin and pants, I was able to learn Rune of Resistance. The pairing with Trauma and Mana only gave a minor increase, at least the way everything was arranged in the enchantment, but I could see where changes could be made to slightly raise the benefits. I didn¡¯t want to risk damaging anything by trying, my Enchanting was still at Level 0. The boots had a Rune of Movement, and a new pattern that I hadn¡¯t seen yet. If I was right about the placement and the purpose, it limited the amount of movement granted from the enchantment. I suppose being able to walk four or five miles an hour without hurting myself was a good thing. Nothing like going speedster fast and slamming into a wall, or worse. A Rune of Storage, also with that same limiting pattern, was what I got from the Ring of Minor Storage. The ring was of special interest. Storage items were on the high side of rare, the cost to make them staggering. The excitement of all the people picking my brain was thick in the air. It didn¡¯t get any less when I examined the Necklace of Minor Healing. An item that could be used by anyone to heal, and that recharged every week? It didn¡¯t matter that it was such a weak heal, if it could keep someone from bleeding out until better healing was available? Yes, please! There were two new runes and patterns that I hadn¡¯t seen before. With all the people around me, we decided it might be something related to being able to hold the spell, and recharge it each week. Hold the spell, recharge it (which was a huge pattern, by itself), something there for how many charges, and maybe something to set a time span? None of which I could learn at my current skill levels. The third day, I met with the Sunsworn, Delava Thrensdottor, and the two others that had been chosen to go with me as my party, into the dungeon. A Trapsmith, which unsurprisingly was a subclass of Rogue, named Kendra ¡®just Kendra¡¯ and our third, which I could see was going to be fun. The Baron introduced us to his youngest son. Lord Orthan of Acantid, Son of Berav and Annea, was probably the youngest of us. He had taken after his mother more than his father. He was a Storm Warden, a subclass of Druid. Like me, he was more of a support/utility class than anything else. A few damaging spells, some healing ability and a defensive spell. He frowned when I asked what his favorite animal was to turn into. Apparently, that wasn¡¯t a thing. B01-CH06-S02 The four of us had been able to steal away from all the chaos into one of the meeting rooms in the Guild Hall.The room had a long table with eight chairs, Kendra put a pitcher of something on it as the Baron¡¯s son, Orthan, set down tankards for us all to use. As we sat down, I took a little time to really look at my new companions. All of my new party members were athletic looking. I don¡¯t mean muscles with high definition and ready to walk out into a body builder competition. The best comparison I could do, were the people I used to know who did triathlons and multi-activity sports. No one muscle group was used more than another. There were small differences, which I attributed to whatever training they¡¯d had up to now. Delava Thrensdotter, Sunsworn of Anderis, was dark haired and dark eyed and dark skinned. At the moment she had a serious face that didn¡¯t quite match the seemingly shy young woman that I¡¯d seen before. Her shoulders were a little more broad, which considering the sword I¡¯d seen her practicing with, might have been expected. When she stood, she was just a tad taller than I was. The other woman, Kendra, looked to have a little more wiry build. She wasn¡¯t as tall as Delava, maybe a little shorter than me. She wore her coppery hair just long enough to be pulled into a small ponytail in the back. Green eyes went from each of us, and she seemed a little nervous. Orthan of Acantid, the Baron¡¯s son, didn¡¯t quite match what I¡¯d thought nobles in this kind of world would look like. Oh, he had the looks of a well-bred family, don¡¯t get me wrong. Blonde hair, sky blue, soulful eyes. The clothes he was wearing weren''t expensive finery and he wasn¡¯t decked out with outrageous jewels. Rather, he wore plain leathers with good, sturdy looking boots. No one said anything, and after a bit they were all looking at me. Crap, I barely know anything about this world, what am I supposed¡­ Oh, right. The changes that happened because I came here. ¡°Uh¡­ So, I guess I should start by telling you guys about the dungeon I was in? Then me and Delava can tell you what happened in the shop center?¡± There were nods of agreement, so I started doing exactly that. I got a couple of laughs as I told about my encounters with the giant rats and bats. ¡°How the heck do things grow that big here??¡± ¡°Magic!¡± they all said, almost at the same time and all with a laugh. Shaking my head, I moved on to explaining the items I¡¯d gotten. It was here that Delava chipped in about how she ended up coming to be here, before we both talked about the shop center and the discussions that had taken place inside. I listened intently when she described what was said between the three older people while I was turning in my tokens.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. ¡°Ophelia mostly gushed about how easy teaching was going to be. New adventurer¡¯s, soldiers, priests¡­ Probably even craftsmen and laborers. Once this new method gets propagated, a lot of the guesswork about getting a class is just going to disappear,¡± she said. Kendra spoke up at this point, shaking her head a little as she thought about something. ¡°I don¡¯t know, right now it¡¯s mostly about money or who you know. I can¡¯t see that changing. Apprenticeships will be easier, sure. But it¡¯s still going to be the same.¡± The Sunsworn looked down, thinking about that. I looked to Orthan, raising a brow to see if the young noble had an opinion. ¡°Well, I know several people go through trial and error, right?¡¯ he started. ¡°Pick up a sword, go through the motions of attacking something? Won¡¯t people still pick up skills that way?¡± None of us had an answer about that. I hadn¡¯t even thought about how other people got their classes and skills. Mine had been kind of hand picked for me, based on things I¡¯d done in my previous life. ¡°The change from a letter rank, to a numbered level is probably going to cause problems,¡± Kendra said, tapping a finger on the table. ¡°Anyone in a position of authority that suddenly finds out they aren¡¯t as ¡®high-leveled¡¯ as they thought they were¡­¡± Orthan nodded at this one. ¡°Father was saying something like that. A few of the officers he brought with him are lower leveled than the regular soldiers. He¡¯s worried that might cause friction.¡± I shrugged, shaking my head a bit. ¡°Eh, that¡¯s about normal though, isn¡¯t it? Don¡¯t they get different training, to be put into the positions they¡¯re in? Or was it meritorious promotions?¡± ¡°Mostly meritorious, then came the extra training. But if a regular soldier is higher level, some might think they deserve to be the one in charge,¡± he responded. We were all a little surprised at the snort that came from Delava¡¯s direction. She had the grace to blush. She covered it well, with a cough. ¡°Those promotions came from their ability to lead, maybe because they did something extraordinary at one time. I doubt your father would encourage the promotion of anyone that didn¡¯t deserve to be there.¡± We were quickly getting off topic, and I thought it time to steer the conversation back to what we were here for. I didn''t want to get into political discussions, or try to change thoughts about the world. My just being here had already paved the way for a lot of change. ¡°Well, that¡¯s something I think above all our pay grades,¡± I finally said. ¡°Guild Master Pinniard suggested I tell you guys what I think we¡¯ll find inside the dungeon. She told me what this one was like before, and while I think we¡¯ll find some areas like it, the whole is going to be a lot different.¡± That brought everyone''s attention back to the topic we were supposed to be on, and we talked late into the night as I explained what I thought we¡¯d encounter. B01-CH06-S03 Breakfast was a quick and quiet affair between the four of us. Myself, coming along as a support member, Delava Thrensdottor as our frontline defense, Orthan was going to be acting as a ranged caster with some ability to help with healing, and the adventurer Kendra as our trapper. We ate in silence, lost in our own thoughts and were off to get fitted into our gear. I had the armor and accessories from the dungeon, and had been given a club for a backup. The stalactite I¡¯d gotten from the Tutorial Dungeon was going to be retired. I figured if and when I got a place to live, I¡¯d hang it on a wall somewhere. At the very least, it¡¯d be a conversation piece. The energy around the dungeon entrance was almost a physical thing. From the people, some concerned and others excited, to the actual mana in the air. If I had to compare the feeling, I¡¯d probably put it in the same category as a metal concert. Before the dungeon had changed, three groups were capable of running through at the same time. Usually, the split was a group on the first floor, the second on the fifth and the last group on the eighth. The other two groups were of a level, formerly of a rank, to be able to handle the lower floors. While I¡¯d explained that I didn¡¯t think the dungeon would be built that way anymore, I gave way to the experience of the people who had literally made a career out of exploring dungeons. I honestly didn¡¯t know if what I thought was going to be there would be. The elven captain, who may or may not be the personification of the dungeon, had suggested that things were changing because of things I knew from my old life, but better to be safe than get people killed. I rechecked my gear, again. It was nerves, I knew. I mean, I was about to go into a dungeon on another world. Maybe in another universe. Yeah, I¡¯d started that way, but this seemed different¡­ Maybe because I was in a group, rather than alone? The others in my group all looked about like I felt. We were all about the same age, physically at least, so I could understand the reason for the edge. While Orthan and Delava were both level 2 over my and Kendra¡¯s level 1, this would be their first dungeon. Both Orthan and Delava had gained their ¡®experience¡¯ through training and the occasional random encounters while out with larger groups. Orthan with one of his parents going about the Barony, and Delava going from various towns with her church. Kendra apparently had only recently finished her ¡®apprenticeship¡¯ with the guild trainers. In my head, I was jumping from thought to thought. I still needed to figure out what the terminology was, for going into a dungeon. I¡¯d heard so far delve, dive and run. In the tabletop games I¡¯d played in my previous life, it was exploring and in the games it had been run. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Well, I thought to myself as I rechecked everything I had for the umpteenth time, there will be enough time for Dungeon 101 after we figure out what¡¯s going on. ¡°All right, listen up!¡± The shout from the Guild Master shook the four of us and we turned to look at her. ¡°This dungeon has undergone some kind of change. That we¡¯ve gotten word of, two others within the Empire have as well. Outside of the Empire, I¡¯ve received word that dozens have had the same thing happen. None of them have opened yet, and they all have different outward themes.¡± ¡°We know, that on the lowest explored floor of the dungeon, that the floor boss was a giant snake,¡± she continued, then pointed at the giant snake-man statue above the gates of the dungeon. ¡°All outward appearances are pointing to a creature or creatures like that being inside the dungeon.¡± ¡°Investigations from Sage Ian Luna the Blessed of Nalura, our own Lorekeeper Memori and her assistants suggest that we should expect to see elves inside the dungeon, as a neutral party.¡± This stirred up the crowd a bit. They¡¯d been hearing rumors or bits and pieces of information for the past few days, but now it¡¯d been confirmed. The Guild Master and I had gone over what I thought the Shop chamber would be used for. I¡¯d only seen one other elf inside, and there had been at least a dozen different shop locations we could see. The rest of the area around the ¡®courtyard¡¯ had been closed off. ¡°We¡¯re sending in three groups to get an idea of what¡¯s what. Sage Luna will be leading the first group, as per the ¡®request¡¯ of the dungeon.¡± I¡¯m what? I blinked, looking at the people of my group and then around at everyone else. Leading? What?? There were people I hadn¡¯t met now looking at me, at the group. I knew from what people had told me that Gods-Blessed were given some leeway and had a few expectations on them. Not all of the looks I was getting were friendly, though none seemed hostile. More of the look you¡¯d give to a new person at work that was given a big task with no proof they even knew what to do, much less that they could accomplish it. ¡°Uh¡­.¡± I said. Very intelligent, perfect for someone with a class called Sage. Liscern snorted, giving an amused shake of her head and continued on. ¡°Mimic Bait will follow and be ready to tackle a lower floor if it¡¯s provided.¡± That changed the atmosphere to amused as several people chuckled or laughed. The second group all grinned, pumping their fists in the air and chanting their group name for a bit. The Guild Master had a grin on her face now. ¡°And rounding the trio out is a group from The Order of the Sacred Helmet.¡± More cheers, the third group being a little more decorous as they bowed and waved, smiles all around. I guess guilds within The Adventurer¡¯s Guild did exist. ¡°Gee, no pressure on us or anything,¡± Kendra muttered, looking around at all of us. The sound of the gates opening, stone upon stone, stopped all conversation as everyone turned to watch. The doors came to a grinding halt, wide open to show a dark hallway leading deep inside. ¡°Adventurer¡¯s,¡± Liscern said, now sounding every bit the Guild Master in charge. ¡°Be safe, don¡¯t take chances you don¡¯t have to. We need information to prove that these changes aren¡¯t going to be a danger. Come back alive, yeah?¡± B01-CH07-S01 The walls of the hallway were smooth, layered stone. I tried to get a better glimpse, but was nudged from behind. I kept walking, looking over my shoulder at Delava. She gave me a glare with that jut of the head as if to ask what I thought I was doing in front of these two apparently famous, at least here, parties of adventurer¡¯s. ¡°No mortar,¡± I said, pointing. Which, of course, only got me another eye-roll. From behind the rest of my group one of the men from Mimic Bait laughed. ¡°I thought you¡¯d been in a dungeon, Blessed of Nalura,¡± the man said, a deep, sonorous voice that I would have expected to be singing ballads in a tavern. ¡°Dungeons don¡¯t build the way we humans do.¡± I¡¯d turned back to face the front, nodding as if I understood that. ¡°The dungeon I was in was a cave system.¡± Another voice spoke up, I couldn¡¯t tell which of the two groups the person was from, only that it was a man. ¡°A cave dive, then? First dungeon¡­ What gear did you have, young man?¡± ¡°None. I woke up next to a pool of water in a lit little hole. If I hadn¡¯t fallen through a weak column, I wouldn¡¯t have had a weapon. Ended up using a stalactite as a club.¡± There were sounds of commiseration behind me, and I did look back this time. Members of the other two groups were looking at me with sympathy and amusement. ¡°Oh, the dungeon would¡¯ve provided something. Probably better than a stone club,¡± one of them said. Another responded, looking thoughtful. ¡°Though, it might have reinforced the stone, since he did make it back with it. A proper weapon, for a new diver, don¡¯t you think, Talok?¡± The first man that had spoken gave a short nod to the speaker, and a grin to me. ¡°Aye, but be glad you don¡¯t have to use it anymore. If the dungeon did something to it, it likely didn¡¯t last leaving those caves.¡± I hadn¡¯t even thought of that. I didn¡¯t remember feeling anything special about the club. It was just a chunk of calcified stone, wasn¡¯t it? I was brought out of that thinking when I felt a tingle across my skin, a shiver down my spine. I looked around at everyone else, and noticed that they were feeling something as well. ¡°Nothing to worry about there, young ones. A common occurrence in dungeons if the entrance isn¡¯t suitably large enough to get from the surface to the first floor proper,¡± the thoughtful man said, pointing at the walls. ¡°Researchers have been trying for thousands of years to determine how it¡¯s done. To us, it says the first floor is near.¡± Talok looked back at the man, then forward as the hall continued. He was looking a bit grumpy, his eyes watching for something on the walls. ¡°Dengin, shouldn¡¯t we have split from the new ones by now, then?¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Dengin, who I¡¯d been thinking of as ¡®the thoughtful one¡¯, nodded. He, too, was looking for something on the walls. ¡°Indeed. I do hope we won¡¯t have to clear it all over again.¡± One of his party members, a woman dressed in robes, tapped him with her staff on the shoulder. ¡°Hush, Dengin. That just means these first timers will have a little edge as they clear some of it.¡± Denging nodded at that, and Talok looked a little less upset. I was ecstatic about that. I remembered my harrowing time in the Tutorial Dungeon. Lots of running, lots of pain, some crying and screaming. Goddess, I didn¡¯t want to remember all of that. Yet, here I was about to do more of it, and was feeling a little excited about the prospect. I looked at my new friends, seeing the three of them with the same nervous energy I felt. ¡°Eyes front, now. Opening ahead.¡± With those words from Dengin, everyone''s attitudes changed. Gone was amusement, gone was sympathy at my plight during my first dungeon. Everyone was now all business. ¡°Weapons,¡± Talok said. The whisper of steel on leather hissed as swords were drawn, staves tapped on the ground as wielders changed grips. I pulled out my new club, holding it the way I¡¯d been shown and angling myself so I could keep an eye on my party and be ready to throw healing spells or the one buffing spell I had, should anyone need them. ¡°Sage, your team first. Kendra knows how to scout,¡± Dengin suggested helpfully. I looked at the woman, who with a deep breath gave me a nod and shuffled forward. Her head tilted, snapped one direction, then another. She had described what her job was the night before, the different ways she would look for traps, pitfalls or holes that monsters could creep out of on unsuspecting adventurers. She would look quickly at one place, then snap her eyes to another. She said it helped to keep images from imprinting too much in her eyes. We all paused, letting her get a good distance from us before following along behind at a slow pace. She held her hand up, giving a short whistle as she dropped to a crouch at where the hall cut to the left. I watched as she slowly inched her head around to get a peek. She held there for a moment, then stood and stepped around the corner, giving a short wave for us to move up but to hold there. We moved up, Delava in the lead followed by Orthan and then myself. The two more experienced parties hung back a little more, watching. We held there for a long moment, then another. Finally, Kendra came back excited and with a smile on her lips. ¡°Oh, you guys have got to see this!!¡± We looked at each other, then back at the two other groups. Kendra was bouncing on her toes, trying to drag Delava to the exit. ¡°Come on, seriously, this is awesome!¡± The older adventurer¡¯s shrugged, not really relaxing as we all followed along. It wasn¡¯t that long of a trip. We walked through a blinding light at the exit, and out into open air. Above us, blue skies and lightly scattered clouds. A few birds, if my eyes were seeing correctly. Trees in the distance, too far to tell what kind. At our feet, a packed dirt path, leading off to what would be the west, judging by the sun in the sky. Talok was the first to speak, but I think it summed it up for all of us. ¡°What in Anderis¡¯ fiery eye is this??¡± B01-CH07-S02 This was not quite what I had expected. I¡¯d figured that the dungeon makeup would have changed, but to have a full open area like this? How was there a sky, a sun? Clouds?! Everyone had exited the hall and had taken up positions to look around. The exit looked to be centered on a rock wall that reached up into the cloud layer. I followed the layer, seeing that it kept going unbroken out of eyesite to either side of the exit. ¡°Sage, is this what you were thinking was going to happen?¡± Dengin asked. I shook my head, still somewhat stunned. ¡°This was a possibility, but¡­ Not like this?¡± Dengin and Talok stepped over to me, my group instinctively crowding near to hear the conversation. ¡°Go on then, what do you think we¡¯re looking at here?¡± ¡°Ah¡­ Like I told the Guild Master, Lorekeeper and Baron¡­ I expected an underground chamber, something large. Maybe with branching tunnels to different areas,¡± I started, my eyes on the ground as I tried to collect my thoughts. ¡°I figured we¡¯d come out into a camp or something, with the Elves here.¡± A few members of the other two parties had stepped away together and were huddling together talking. Fingers pointed, heads nodded and words were mumbled. ¡°Ian, this then could be the same, yes? Just not on the kind of scale you were thinking?¡± one of them asked, the woman that had spoken chidingly to Dengin earlier. I nodded slowly, turning around to look out at the trees and the walls of the chamber. ¡°Yes, I just didn¡¯t think that it would be possible to¡­ I mean look at this! There¡¯s a sky up there, how is that possible?¡± ¡°Dengin, I¡¯m going to borrow this scout, we¡¯ll take a look around a short ways, then come back,¡± a bearded man in leathers said, pulling Kendra along with him. As they moved away, he pointed down the road and started speaking to her. They¡¯d moved too far for me to hear, but I could guess what she was being instructed to do. ¡°Not too long, Argeth, and try to keep in pairs. Don¡¯t need any monsters taking anyone down.¡± The man, Argeth, gave a wave, and then he and Kendra were off at a jog a bit away from the path. I watched for a moment, then turned to see another pair going off in the opposite direction. ¡°They¡¯ll go out a ways, then make their way to the north there,¡± Dengin explained, pointing out in front of us. ¡°Should give us a starting point, at the very least tell us how big this place might be.¡± I nodded, thinking a bit before looking back to the sky. ¡°Could that be an illusion? Is there magic like that?¡± One of the robed women responded to my question, her voice pitched to be heard. ¡°Possible, and yes. There is illusion magic, though none of us have seen anything on this kind of scale. You think that¡¯s what this all is? The sky, trees¡­ all of it?¡±Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Shaking my head, I stepped in the direction of the trees. ¡°No, I think this is what would have been called ¡®open zone¡¯, back home. Somewhere out there, probably down that path,¡± I turned and pointed the way Kendra and Argeth had gone. ¡°The Elves are probably down that way. A camp, outpost¡­ something.¡± The woman and her colleagues walked to me, Dengin and Talok with them. ¡°Open zone?¡± I had a small grin on my face, as I looked at them. ¡°If that¡¯s what this is, adventurer¡¯s are going to love it. After they get used to it.¡± I waved my hand to the west, which the path went down. ¡°Elven camp or outpost, down there.¡± My hand swung a bit more to the north, not quite reaching the treeline. ¡°Monsters coming from the trees there, and deeper in maybe some ruins or something.¡± My hand kept moving, following the trees to the east. ¡°More ruins, maybe a monster lair in there. Finally, some caves in the walls before we get back to the entrance here.¡± I paused, looking at them as they imagined it all themselves. ¡°And all that, while a dozen or so groups are in here.¡± That brought them all up short, looking at me like I¡¯d just said cats wouldn¡¯t knock a glass off the table. ¡°Multiple groups on the same floor? That¡¯s dangerous, you could accidently run into another group while they¡¯re fighting, and both get killed¡­¡± the woman said with a shake of her head. ¡°Not something the Guild allows, young Sage.¡± ¡°Ah, but what if this is the totality of the floors the dungeon had?¡± We all turned to the new voice, a bright light in a darkening room, to my mind. Orthan had joined us, but his eyes were on the trees. ¡°If Ian is right, and this is some kind of open area, zone¡­ It¡¯d be like a break, wouldn¡¯t it? As far as what the Guild would have us do? Groups going off and taking down monsters as we find them?¡± The older adventures looked thoughtful, eyes on each other as they contemplated the repercussions of that possibility. I was just glad there was something to compare what I was thinking this would turn out to be. ¡°The biggest thing I haven¡¯t figured out though is, how would monster respawning happen?¡± I asked, looking to the experts. ¡°Can the population of monsters be renewed while we¡¯re inside? If it can, then yeah¡­ I¡¯m going to bet on this being an ¡®open zone¡¯, and multiple groups able to be in here at varying times of day.¡± ¡°Old knowledge, being what we thought a few days ago before you arrived, is that no. A dungeon can¡¯t refresh its monsters while a group is on the floor.¡± Whatever else might have been said, was cut short as the group that had gone to the east returned. ¡°Hot springs, with some giant lizard things all around it,¡± one of them said. ¡°Different colored scales, different sizes. Big as dogs, and some nearly as big as a horse.¡± The older groups gathered around to listen as the two scouts reported what they¡¯d seen. Orthan looked at me as Delava stepped over to us. ¡°Are you sure about all of this, Ian?¡± ¡°As sure as I can be. I didn¡¯t even know anything like this existed four days ago,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s been a long time since I was even involved with where all this stuff is probably being pulled from in my memories.¡± The three of us continued talking, each of them asking questions and trying to pull more from what I could remember. It wasn¡¯t a lot, there were small details we discovered, but still too much of what I remembered was fractured. ¡°We found them! We found the Elven town!¡± B01-CH07-S03 That was one way to make an entrance, I thought. Argeth and Kendra came jogging back to the group, all smiles and excitement. If elves hadn¡¯t been seen on the planet in thousands of years, I could understand their giddiness. I think seeing dinosaurs would have the same effect on me. Wait, were there dinosaurs here? ¡°There¡¯s a hill to the west, about a quarter mile. On the other side, in a valley are a set of gates with two watchtowers. There are elves manning the walls,¡± Argeth said after catching his breath. The woman that had been asking me the most questions, Dengin, introduced as Wenri, grinned, poking me in the shoulder as she looked out at the forest to the north. ¡°Ruins out there, huh?¡± she asked. ¡°Maybe even information on what happened to them?¡± I blinked, thinking about that. How would historians back there react, having ancients from Rome or Chichen Itza available for a conversation? Even if they were just a memory of them? This world, with these dungeons¡­ they could probably get an almost perfect recollection of the events from that time period. Yeah, I was starting to get more excited myself. Dengin had pulled Argeth, Wenri and Talok to the side and were talking to them. Kendra had gathered with Orthan and Delava, so I joined. ¡°It¡¯s not any kind of major working,¡± she was saying. ¡°Timber palisades and gates, the watchtowers looked like they were using cut wood.¡± The young woman was grinning from ear to ear. A successful scouting trip, and seeing beings from out of history? ¡°The gates are closed, but there were a couple of doors to some small buildings attached on the outside,¡± she continued. ¡°We didn¡¯t get close enough to see details on the elves. Heck, the only reason we¡¯re saying elves is because you said that they¡¯d be in here, Ian.¡± Eyes went to me, and I gave a shrug of my shoulders. ¡°That¡¯s what I was told. If that statue is anything to go by though, somewhere in here might be other races of people. Anyone ever heard of a snake-like race?¡± ¡°No, but I don¡¯t think any of us have studied those kinds of topics,¡± Delava spoke up with a shake of her head. ¡°Anderis didn¡¯t mention anything more than needing to have someone here to help you. Not that I was told, at least.¡± We stood there in our little group a while longer, listening to Kendra go over the details she¡¯d seen. She told not only of what we were calling the elven outpost, but of the land around it and what she¡¯d crossed to get there. The grass was that green with brown often seen during a dry period, or especially hot summer. She was a city girl, so could only tell that the trees they¡¯d come across weren¡¯t pine or some other coniferous type. We¡¯d seen hints of those back towards the mountainous looking areas to either side of the chamber. While we were talking, the older groups had finished their discussion and called out for everyone. ¡°All right, Mimic Bait is going to set up a fallback here, while we take you young ones over to the outpost,¡± Dengin was saying. ¡°If it looks safe, meaning we don¡¯t get attacked by these elves, we¡¯ll send someone back to grab them. If it¡¯s dangerous, we¡¯ll fall back to the camp and fight back to the exit.¡±Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. We all nodded in agreement. It was a sound plan and one that would hopefully keep us alive. Though I thought everyone was hoping it would be safe. Everything is relative inside a dungeon, anything could attack you when you weren¡¯t expecting it. The members of Mimic Bait started pulling items from a pack one of them had hauled in. Barricades, wooden spikes, stones. ¡°They¡¯ve done this before?¡± I asked. Talok answered up, throwing me a quick grin as he helped set up. ¡°Adventurer¡¯s aren¡¯t just hack and slash, regardless of the image we try to show,¡± he explained. ¡°While it was more practical application than theory, we all here probably have as much training in warfare as the young lord there.¡± He nodded at Orthan, who merely nodded in response. ¡°The Guild does it¡¯s best to stay out of the politics of the nations it resides in, but can¡¯t always stay neutral.¡± A lot of grunts of agreement were the answer to that. I¡¯d kind of wondered, and now had more questions about that. They¡¯d have to wait though, Dengin was giving us our marching orders. The ¡®young ones,¡¯ would be centered, with Delava close up with Dengin. Kendra and Argeth had ranged a little to the sides of us. Orthan, Wenri, myself and a man that introduced himself as Couture, followed behind. There wasn¡¯t much conversation as we went. The occasional question from Dengin to Argeth or Kendra on what they could see. We paused a time or two and waited as one or both of the scouts checked on something the leader of the party from the Order of the Sacred Helm had seen and wanted details on. By the position of the sun, if that was a sun in the sky, it was nearing noon when we topped the hill the two scouts had mentioned. Sure enough, at the bottom of the hill was a small valley. One end opened out towards the forest, the other had our destination. A timber wall, two watchtowers built at the corners and a set of double doors centered into the walls formed the outside of an outpost. The walls on the east and west sides stretched back to the rock wall. From our vantage point, we couldn¡¯t see too far beyond, but it did look like smoke coming from a couple locations further beyond the rock. ¡°Think the outpost goes into the wall?¡± Denging asked. We¡¯d paused at the top of the hill, everyone using whatever they had to try and get a better look. ¡°Faction, you had said, Sage?¡± I looked over at Wenri, nodding. ¡°Yeah, the sources I think the System used had them. Quests or killing certain monsters would give points towards the faction. Though sometimes you¡¯d gain from one and lose from another.¡± Couture looked at Wenri, then at me. ¡°So, we¡¯ll have to choose our sides carefully, yes? Especially if we don¡¯t want issues to crop up from other parties or guilds.¡± That was something I¡¯d not thought about. If there were competing factions inside the dungeons that had changed, how would that ripple through the Adventurer¡¯s Guild? Even more problematic, how would that affect the nations that the dungeons were in? Crap, couldn¡¯t have made things easy, could you? B01-CH08-S01 We took our time walking down the hill. Couture had stayed at the top, waiting to see what would happen as we approached. From what I had heard Dengin telling him, he¡¯d be able to send a message somehow to the other group, Mimic Bait, that had setup at the dungeon entrance. They¡¯d either be rushing out of the dungeon to get help, or making their way to the outpost. As we got closer, we could see a few more details. We being my party, we hadn¡¯t thought to think of a name for ourselves last night and hadn¡¯t had time yet to do so. The items and spells that the older group had used were not anything we had. The Mark 1 eyeball could only see so much. Really the only thing of note, at least that I saw, was that there was a small building on the far side of the outpost, a few yards from the side wall. The guards at the gates had been standing at a relaxed kind of attention, and along the tops of the walls and towers the guards had been pacing back and forth or simply looking out towards the forest. They had all put their attention on us as we approached. It was kind of intense. Each of them wore a military style uniform of dark brown pants that had been bloused into black boots and some sort of metallic chest armor under a tabard of green and white. They wore helmets of leather, at least I think it was leather. There was no shine to them. An elf dressed in a similar style uniform, tabard included though no helm, walked out of the building as we got near the gates. ¡°Good morning, ladies, gentlemen. Welcome to His Imperial Majesty¡¯s Outpost of Kesiver¡¯el. I am Sergeant Illanna es¡¯Vayear and I will be taking charge of you for the time being,¡± the woman said. Did I mention all these elves were tall? Mind, I¡¯m short, I know that. I might stand at five foot nine. Sergeant es¡¯Vayear easily had me by four or five inches. Her golden blonde hair was tied into a braid that she had wrapped around the top of her head, like a crown. Jade green eyes measured us up as she spoke. Dengin took the lead, for which I was grateful. I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact I was expected to lead my party. The older man had a slight grin on his face and he¡¯d taken a relaxed stance with his thumbs tucked into his belt. ¡°Well, it is nice to meet you, Sergeant. Amongst my guild, I also am ranked as a Sergeant. I am Dengin Leander. Might you be so kind as to explain the¡­ take charge of us?¡± The elven woman grinned back, and I felt for a moment some kind of unspoken bond had been formed between the two. ¡°Well, Sergeant, I suppose you can think of me as the on-boarder. To get into the Outpost proper, you have to prove you can be trusted to have our interests in mind when you are within the walls.¡±The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The party leader from the Order of the Sacred Helm nodded, a hand reaching up to let his fingers scratch at his chin. He shot me a questioning look and I nodded at him. From what I could remember, this sounded about right. Though the method wasn¡¯t anything like I could remember. ¡°All right. What have you got for us then, Sergeant es¡¯Vayear?¡± he asked, turning his attention back to the elven woman. es¡¯Vayear turned back towards the building she¡¯d come from, waving at us to follow. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s about standard. Farmers nearby have been complaining that some of their animals have been disappearing,¡± she started, pausing only long enough to open the door of the building and walk in. She continued as we followed her in. ¡°The forest and the mountains can get a bit touchy at night. Our patrols think that one of the abandoned caves to the west might hold some kind of nasties,¡± she paused as she walked around behind a counter and hopped onto a stool. Leaning her arms on top of the wood, hands clasping in front of her, she gave a nod towards a large board on the wall to the side of the door. ¡°We have just enough soldiers here to patrol, but not enough to spare to go into the caves. So, your first job will be to find the one the tracks lead to and take a look inside.¡± The inside of the building was sparse. The counter she was leaning on, the stool she was sitting on, and a large wooden lockbox sitting on the counter against the wall. The only other thing was a banner hanging on the wall behind her. The same green and white as the tabards they all wore, though this had a griffon rampant stitched on it. We all turned to look at the board. It held several sheets of paper, though only one had anything on it. I reached out and pulled it down, blinking as the sheet came off the board to only have another exactly like it still in place. The other three in my part had given a small jerk once I¡¯d pulled the sheet. Orthan was the first to say anything. ¡°Ian, I¡¯m going to guess we should accept this quest?¡± ¡°Eh?¡± was my response. I looked at the sheet, reading the text on it and then thought of my status screen. ~Quest Accepted!~ The Sergeant of the elven Imperial Outpost, Kesiver¡¯el, has tasked you and your party with discovering what has happened to the animals of nearby farmers. Patrols have pointed at likely locations within the mountains west of the outpost. (This quest has been shared with your party) ¡°That¡¯s going to make things easy, I think¡­¡± B01-CH08-S02 As my party members accepted the quest, I edged away from the board to make room for Dengin. ¡°Easy how, Sage Ian?¡± Wenri asked as Dengin walked over to the board and pulled a sheet. The same reappearance happened when he did, and Wenri gave a surprised ¡°Oh!¡± ¡°If a party leader takes the quest, it gets shared to the rest of the party. At least that¡¯s what it looks like¡­¡± I responded, looking at the elven Sergeant. She gave a nod, then pointed at a slate next to the board that I hadn¡¯t noticed. ¡°Some things about the quests can be explained there,¡± she said, returning to her prior position of rest. Dengin and I walked up to it, holding our sheets close to each other so we could compare. ¡°Hmm, our ranking¡¯s are different,¡± he noted. I looked at his sheet, then at mine. It read Rank E, while his read Rank D++. Looking at the slate, there were rankings and descriptions. The descriptions had level ranges. ¡°Well, that would explain it, I think, Dengin. You guys are higher level than us, right?¡± Rank - A - Party Level 17 to 20 B - Party Level 13 to 16 C - Party Level 9 to 13 D - Party Level 5 to 8 E - Party Level 1 to 4 (Some quests may use one or more + to indicate ranges within Rank brackets) Dengin had looked back at the other two of his party, a thoughtful look on his face. ¡°Aye, Wenri, and I are level 8, Argeth is level 6, and Couture is level 7. So, the two +¡¯s make the quest a level 7?¡± He¡¯d turned to look at Sergeant es¡¯Vayear as he said that. She nodded slowly, a thoughtful look on her face as well. Simple math, it¡¯ll get you every time. ¡°Correct¡­¡± she said after a few seconds. ¡°The rewards, unfortunately, do not scale the same.¡± That last part was said with a sympathetic smile to the veteran group. ¡°Ha, typical!¡± Argeth was saying, though there was amusement in his voice. He stepped outside and out of sight for a moment, then returned. ¡°Couture is on his way.¡± Dengin nodded in response, turning back to me. ¡°Let''s not head out for these caves just yet,¡± he started. ¡°We''ll get Mimic Bait down here and have Talok grab the quest.¡± ¡°And then all three groups go to the caves until we have to split up?¡± I asked, to which he nodded with a smile.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°We''ll make a party leader out of you yet, Sage.¡± I shook my head, looking at the group I''d been put in charge of. I really knew nothing about this world, but the Guild Master had made me the group''s leader. Why? Because I was Blessed? That shouldn''t be reason enough, surely¡­ Dengin had gone to his party to discuss their plans, while mine had made their way over to me. ¡°I really think someone else should be leading here,¡± I¡­ Well, I whined. Delave sighed, dropping her head into one hand. I frowned at that. I mean, I could maybe understand being exasperated or something but that was a¡­ Oh, that''s why Kendra was giving Orthan a very pleased grin while the young man dropped a few coins into her outstretched hand. ¡°Gee, thanks, guys.¡± Orthan shot me his own toothy grin while shaking his head. ¡°Easy, Ian, let us explain,¡± he began, turning his head to look at Kendra. Who was dragging Delava out the door. Orthan and I looked at each other and gave a deep sigh. Tactfully, the members of the Order of the Sacred Helm had also made themselves scarce. The elven Sergeant was watching us with a smile. ¡°Don''t mind me, gentlemen. I''m not here. Just ignore me altogether,¡± she said, unconvincingly. I merely watched with a raised brow. I mean, I didn''t really think I could do this, leading a party of people in a world I didn''t even know existed a week or ago. ¡°We voted to put you in charge, Ian,¡± the young lord said, fully confident in his words. I, on the other hand, couldn''t quite string together lengthy sentences to form questions. ¡°Eh? What?¡± See, very articulate. We both did our best to ignore the smirking noises coming from behind the counter. ¡°Two of us are in this party because of politics of one kind or another,¡± he continued, causing to make sure I understood. I did, actually. Orthan was the Barons youngest son, but not the youngest child. While his class and style were a good fit for the group, we could very easily have gotten someone else from the Guild to fill it. Delava had literally been sent by her goddess, along with others of Anderis¡¯ clergy. She happened to be the only one of a suitable level to group with us, without overpowering the group and possibly putting us in danger in the dungeon. She also happened to have a connection to the Guild Master and the Lorekeeper. ¡°The third member of our party,¡± Orthan was saying, ¡°just finished her training and was expected to go into the dungeon with a group to get some experience. Low level, not pushing the monsters or anything. Just get her some real-world experience with traps and things.¡± I nodded. Kendra truly was the least experienced of us all then, if she hadn''t been into a dungeon or fought against any monsters or beasts. ¡°Okay, so why does that all point to me?¡± Orthan took a step forward and threw an arm around my shoulders. ¡°Because, technically, you''re older than all three of us combined.¡± I blinked, frowned, and glared at him. ¡°And I know nothing about this world, so where does the wisdom of age come into that?¡± ¡°Delava and I can help you navigate the Nobility and Religious hurdles to try and keep you out of trouble,¡± he said, pushing me out to the rest of the group. ¡°Kendra will actually be helping all three of us, in that the ways of the guild are rather new to us all. Not to mention the fact that the world around the Guild isn''t like what Delava or I are used to.¡± I looked at him in surprise, about to say something, but he cut me off. With a roll of his eyes, he walked past me, his voice sounding resigned. ¡°Yes, I am self-aware enough to know that I have lived a sheltered and entitled life. I''m not sure Delava has figured that out yet.¡± I grinned, feeling better about things. A little. Okay, not so much, but it was a start. I wasn''t so much expected to actually lead, as I was Mayne going to be looked to as an elder. I really didn''t think that was any better, but I was taking some wins along with the losses here. ¡°All caught up?¡± Kendra asked as we got closer. She had a smile on her face, a little sheepish. Delava looked a little stunned. Kendra apparently had had a talk, and it was a bit of a revelation. ¡°For now, I think,¡± Orthan said, looking at me. I wasn''t sure I was happy with the situation, but it was something we would figure out. Especially if we were going to keep together as an adventuring party. ¡°Yeah, I think we can work with this.¡±