An Unbound Soul

I stepped out into the street and immediately felt everyone's eyes on me, which, of course, made me blush furiously. Logically, I knew I was attracting interest because I was a kid walking around in delver gear, and not for any other reason. In particular, they were not looking at me for the same reason everyone on Earth would turn and look at someone walking down the street in a latex catsuit. Which was very nearly what I was doing, except that my magical stretchy leather didn't squeak. A thought that resulted in my face heating up even more. Argg!

"Are you okay, little one?" asked Mum innocently. "You're looking rather red."

"This outfit is embarrassing," I mumbled in response, grabbing hold of her hand and trying my best to hide behind her. Armour was supposed to protect me, dammit, not be something I needed protection from!

"Really? I think you look cute and dashing."

Well, she was entitled to her opinion and I was entitled to mine. Thankfully, the delvers' guild was on the same street as the equipment store, so I wasn't outdoors for long. Not really having any idea where we were supposed to go, we entered into the same reception room as last time. This time we weren't the only ones in the room, with a party of two talking to one receptionist. The second desk was free, so we stepped up there. It was manned by someone I didn't recognise, but she certainly recognised me. [Appraisal] told me that she was a human by the name of Ella.

"You must be Peter. Welcome, we've been expecting you. I'm afraid that since we didn't know exactly what day you would arrive, the party you will be joining isn't here at the moment, but they should return by this evening. In the meantime, I can show you to your lodging and give you a tour of the facilities here."

Mum took a step back. "Then it looks like I can leave you to it. Stay safe, little one."

I nodded. "I will. I'll be home next week, I promise. And I promise to still have all my limbs when I do, too."

She smiled sweetly. That sort of flippancy would have worked better on Dad, but it did at least reassure her I wasn't about to break down in a panic. I waved as she left. She no doubt wanted to stick with me a while longer, but she still needed to shop for the goods she needed after winter and then walk all the way home. She had a busy enough day ahead of her as it was.

As I turned back to Ella, I realised that the conversation at the other desk had stopped dead. Glancing over, the two delvers there were staring. They were a pair of boys who looked in their late teens by Earth standards, probably only just come of age. Both were wearing the same style of light armour as me, a fact I tried not to think too deeply about. One had a bow and a long knife, and the other a pair of short swords. [Appraisal] revealed that they were both very low levelled.

Anton, Human, Apprentice Fighter (2/12)

Chris, Human, Apprentice Fighter (1/11)

"Hey, how is that fair? When I wanted to join the delvers' guild, I was told I wasn't allowed until I came of age and changed my class, so why is a brat like that here?" asked Chris angrily.

Apparently, the bullying trope I missed out on the first time I was here was happening now, then. Which was appropriate, since I was actually here to do some delving now, unlike last time.

"There are special circumstances that require him to enter the dungeon," their receptionist answered. "He's not here to join the guild."

"What the hell sort of circumstances require someone to enter a dungeon?"

"I apologise, but that's classified."

"That's stupid. You wouldn't let us in because you said it wasn't safe, but you're letting him in? Delvers' guild member or not, why doesn't he have to play by the rules?"

I watched on with bemusement; despite them looking nearly double my age, I was almost the level of the two of them combined. If they'd tried to enter the dungeon at my age, there was no way either of them would have had a class other than [Commoner]. Chris was giving the impression that he really didn't understand the danger of the job he was coveting. At least Anton seemed embarrassed by Chris' outburst, so presumably didn't share his views.

"Since I was going to give Peter a tour of our facilities anyway, why don't I take these two new recruits too," Ella said, sounding just as bemused as I was. "We can stop off in the training area."

Their receptionist smirked. "Sure, I'll watch the front desk then."

That was a dangerous-looking smirk. That pair of receptionists were plotting something. Training area? Were they going to make me fight the newbies to beat some sense into them? Sure, why not? It sounded fun.

Thus we had a tour of the guild building. The most important room in the building was obviously the bar, where the alcohol happened. Even better, it happened in significant quantities thanks to the endurance stats of their typical clientele. Alas, even if I'd been given special dispensation to enter the dungeon, I hadn't been permitted to drink. That would need to wait until I came of age.

The second most important was a second reception room, far bigger and connected to the outside via something that was more like barn doors. It was where delvers returning from the dungeon came to deposit their loot, able to drag whole corpses inside for professional dismantling. On entering, it was immediately obvious why there was a second reception room dedicated to this messy purpose; the whole place stank, and I wanted to leave before the stench invaded my armour. Drat, that reminded me that I hadn't asked Adele how to wash the thing, and a skintight leather bodysuit was bound to make me sweat even before I started exerting myself by fighting monsters... It was a shame I didn't have a cleaning spell. What affinity would a cleaning spell even be? I'd just have to figure out cleaning when I got the chance.

There wasn't actually an awful lot to the guild that mattered to me. Above the ground floor was just offices. There were some meeting rooms that could be booked, but I didn't have any use for such things. There was a room Ella described as the ridiculously overpriced travel room, without further elaboration. The ground floor was reception and bar and some staff only space for dismantling and storage. That just left the basement, which contained the training facilities. There were ranges for ranged weapons and magic, and arenas for sparring. The tour ended up at one of the sparring arenas.

"And that's the last stop of the tour. Right then, Anton and Chris, you've been patiently waiting for the opportunity to show Peter here how foolish he's being by setting foot into the dungeon. Why don't we take this opportunity? Everyone, leave your real weapons over there and pick up a training weapon of your choice."

I picked up a wooden staff. It was about the weight of my real weapon with the weight enchantment set to its minimum, and had no metal reinforcement. I saw Chris pick up a pair of wooden short swords and Anton grabbed a bow and training arrows, which had beanbags at the end instead of a point. Anton neglected to take a dagger, leaving himself wide open to a close range attack.

"Okay, everyone ready?"

"Which one of us is going to go first?"

"Both of you. You want to leave an impression, right?"

Anton was looking uncertain, but stepped up regardless. Chris was smirking. "See? I don't know what stunt you pulled to convince them to let you into the dungeon, but perhaps this will teach you that you don't belong there."

I sighed to myself. Anton was definitely being somewhat sensible here, and had spotted something was up, but Chris would be a danger to himself and others in there.

"Not got anything to say for yourself, you brat?"

"At least one member in the party should have an appraisal skill. You need to know what you're facing," I answered.

"Huh? What's that supposed to mean?"

I glanced over at Ella, who signalled for us to begin. I stood there motionless as Chris charged towards me, sword in each hand, and Anton nocked and drew back an arrow. Chris's grin grow wider as he assumed I was just going to stand here and fight him head on. Then I activated [Far Step]. Anton didn't even get a chance to react before I swept his legs out from behind, sending his arrow harmlessly into the air. Chris turned towards the noise in surprise, and I took the opportunity while he was motionless to project a swipe at him with [Far Reach], sending him sprawling to the ground too.

"Winner, Peter!"

"What the hell was that? What did you just do?"

"Like I said, it's important to accurately appraise your enemy. If either of you had an appraisal skill, you'd have known I was a mage. That was spatial magic."

"You... You cheater!"

"Oh? I don't remember anyone saying that magic wasn't allowed. But if you're feeling that hard done by, would you like another go? I promise not to use any spatial magic."

Both of them got back to their feet, but Anton's uncertainty had now turned into full-blown doubt. "Careful. This is some sort of trap. He's super strong."

"So what if he's a mage? If he doesn't use his magic, he's just a weak-arse kid."

One thing I'd considered a pity when wearing my armour was that it would completely cover the cool glow from my reinforcement magic. That was quite hypocritical given that I'd been complaining that I wanted the armour to be functional and not stylish; openly advertising to my opponent what spells I was using would be beyond foolish. Fortunately, it meant that they had no idea that I'd just buffed myself. I'd said no spatial magic, not no magic at all, regardless of what Chris seemed to be assuming.

"Begin!"

This time I charged. With the signal to start, I fired my shorter duration spells, [Minor Speed] at myself and [Minor Slow] at the idiot duo. Again, I went for Anton first, parrying a blow from Chris on the way and pushing back to knock him off balance. Anton wasn't able to get a single arrow off before I'd reached him, and again I knocked him to the floor in a single blow. By that time Chris had recovered and swung at my exposed rear, so I stepped forward to evade, slid my grip on my staff to the end and rotated in a wide sweep. Chris had tried to step towards me, leaving insufficient time to evade, given my long reach. He attempted to block with his swords instead, but my reinforced strength was more than enough to blow him away.

"Winner, Peter!"

"Whu... what was that? How did he even do that?"

I sighed again and put on my metaphorical teacher's hat. "Anton, you should have picked up a dagger or other emergency weapon, as well as the bow. Ranged weapons are useless if I can engage you at short range. Chris, you should have been able to gauge my strength from my attack on Anton, which would have told you my swings were too heavy to block. You should have parried, redirecting my swing upwards with the minimum amount of force, rather than trying to take my blow directly."

Ella clapped to get our attention. "Right, you three. Anton and Chris, this is a dangerous occupation. Chris in particular, you need to lose that arrogance of yours before you set foot in the dungeon or you'll be putting your whole party in danger, never mind yourself. Peter, thanks for playing along there, but you'd do well to remember that same lesson yourself. All it takes is a weak monster to catch you by surprise, and even the dungeon's first floor can quickly turn lethal. You weren't treating those two as a serious threat at all. Now, the three of you are free to head off on your own. Peter, I'll send word to your dorm room once your party arrives."

Anton was looking at me with some measure of respect. Chris was... not. "Bah. Probably some coddled son of a noble or something, given expensive tutors and dragged around mana fields with a squad of guards to level up."

"Seriously? You just saw my mum in the reception room. I'll take it as a compliment that you think we looked like nobles, but no."

He didn't respond, but turned around and stormed off. Anton offered a quick apology before following after him. I was a little worried about those two, but I assumed the guild was used to handling people like that. They wouldn't just send people to their deaths for no reason. At least Anton seemed to have a decent head on his shoulders.

If my soon-to-be party were out delving, they wouldn't be back for a while yet, so I took the opportunity to visit one of the ranges. I'd seen something there that I hadn't yet unlocked a proficiency skill for; crossbows.

A couple of hours later, I could honestly claim that I hadn't accidentally fired any shots behind me. I could claim that I'd managed to hit a target, but it wouldn't have been honest. I'd unlocked [Weapon Proficiency: Fired] less than an hour into the practice, but I was determined to actually get a hit in with my own abilities rather than unlocking the skill and running. Even [Dexterity] didn't help. I sighed as I heard the town bell toll. I needed to get back to my dorm, so I returned the crossbow and all the bolts. Aside from one, which I rammed into the bullseye with [Far Reach]. Screw that, I was scoring at least one point.

My dorm room was tiny, containing nothing more than a bed and a chest for storage. It did have its own bathroom, the same size as the bedroom and containing a toilet, sink and water crystal powered shower. I wasn't going to complain about the size, given that I was surprised I had my own bedroom in the first place; I was expecting a shared room. The one we'd used last time had four beds, although since there were four of us in our group, we weren't actually sharing with anyone we didn't know. The large bathroom in comparison to the bedroom was a bit of a surprise, but at least I had a spacious shower.

With nothing else to do, I lay back and trained my [Mana Sense] and [Mana Control], waiting to find out what sort of party I'd been assigned to.

ding

Skill [Mana Sense] advanced to level 11