NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16 – preparations
It had been about a week since I had started lessons with Clark and I had finally learned the skill that I wanted. This was technically faster than what most people took to learn the skill but I didn’t need to sleep while in the dungeon so I was able to constantly practise. In the end Clark would only teach me for a few hours each day and then I would spend the rest of my time by myself going over what he had taught me.
The lessons had started off a little awkwardly since neither of us really knew what we were doing but after a few hours of trial and error we found a good system. Clark would give me a simulation of a fight on paper and ask me what I would want the group to do in that situation. Once I would give my answer he would correct any mistakes I made while pointing out what I had gotten right.
We did this for the first two days before moving on to practical lessons where I would create two groups of evenly matched slimes and make them fight while directly controlling one of the groups. The first day that I did this I only won 50 percent of the bouts, which was more due to luck than skill, but by the end of the week I was winning most of the bouts. Even when my slimes were outnumbered 2 to 1 and they included the elemental slimes to make it more complicated.
‘I finally got it!’ I happily exclaimed to Clark as I turned to him after the fight had finished. ‘I know it was your punishment but I still want to say thanks for helping me, you can go back to your friends and continue your journey.’ I had heard that the two paladins had parted ways after they revived as they had realised that they couldn’t work together which, in the outside world, would get them killed sooner or later.
However the two other party members had stayed behind after hearing that Clark wouldn’t be able to leave as they planned on sticking together. These were his childhood friend, Anthony the human ranger, and the elf cleric Kyra. She had seen how well they had fought together when there wasn’t a shit leader weighing them down plus had gotten on well with the both of them so she decided to stay in the party.
They would need a few frontline members to round out the party but I trusted that they would find some suitable people to party with. ‘That’s fine, I would much rather do this than have the standard punishment’ Clark said, a bit nervously as we still weren’t friends quite yet, ‘Honestly I was scared that you would be a harder student than what you turned out to be. I certainly wasn’t expecting you to learn a whole skill in a single week.’
‘I am used to learning about all sorts of things’ I said shyly, I didn’t really want to talk too much about my previous life because I was unsure how much I was allowed to say and how much he would understand. ‘Plus I have a lot of free time on my hands.’ After that we chatted about nothing for a bit as we walked to the entrance before saying our farewells to each other.
Now that my current project was finished I could put my attention elsewhere, namely levelling up and getting everything I needed for the next few floors. Over the few weeks I had levelled to level 3 and gotten more than enough DP for my 3
rd floor but I wanted to go on an adventure as I was starting to get bored from being cooped up in my. This was also exacerbated by the new quest Shonu gave to me, there was no way I would reach level ten in three months by staying in my dungeon.Instead I would need to find some monsters to fight and level up from while hopefully getting a new monster for my 4th and 5th floors, I already planned on using mostly the oozes and slimes for the 3rd floor. Luckily I already knew the monster that I wanted and I had a feeling there would be plenty of them around to farm for materials. Before I could do that though there were two tasks for me to do.
The first one was to prepare my equipment and supplies since the stuff I used for the previous hike was not as good as I thought it was. This time I went with practically the same setup as last time, however I added armour plating in key locations around my body, they weren’t interlinked so it wouldn’t protect everywhere but it is the most I could do without hindering my movement. The new armour was quite a bit heavier than my previous set but thanks to me levelling I could barely tell the difference.
The second task was to go see Val, knocking on her door once I reached her room and entering once I was given permission. ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know that over the next month I am going to be regularly leaving the dungeon to scout the area, gather some materials and level. You can come with me if you want but you don’t have to, the pact will still work even if I leave the dungeon.’
Val closed the book she was reading, something that I conjured up with the help of the system and knowledge from my previous life, before looking at me. Over the past week she hadn’t changed much but Shonu had said that it would take a year to finish so I wasn’t expecting any changes overnight.
‘I would be happy to go with you, honestly being stuck in my room all day is starting to get boring, which isn’t your fault, I know you are doing the best you can at the moment. But I am unsure of how helpful I will be, my parents never really let me explore anything to do with adventuring as they thought it was too dangerous. So I don’t know how to cast spells and I am too weak for melee fighting.’
I thought about this for a bit before coming up with an idea of what Val could do to help ‘Just you keeping me company would be worth it for me but if you really want to help then you could be a lookout for me so that I don’t get overrun if I am too focused on a fight.’
‘That sounds great,’ Val said, clearly happy to be involved and wanting to take any excuse to start adventuring, ‘when are we leaving?’
About an hour later and we were both ready, I had ended up spending around 200 DP giving Val a set of light armour that would keep her safe, a small dagger and her own backpack with enough supplies the day, we were only planning on going out during the day and returning to the dungeon at night so that we had somewhere safe to sleep. Also we were now in a party together and were in front of the portal to the outside world as I checked our statuses.
My stat point for reaching level 3 had gone into dexterity which was alright. I may be planning on focusing mostly on magic but it would still help me fight with my bow or, if any enemy got too close, my hands. My status now also included a skill section which was very helpful, at the moment it only had [Minor Leadership] but I am sure it will fill out in time. With my Statscreen out of the way I moved on to Val’s.
It was what I pretty much expected it to be, her stats were pretty spread out, it wasn’t the best if she wanted to specialise in something but it would be a pretty good base to start from. With the last checks down we stepped out of the portal and into the world to start our grind. The air outside was nice and warm as spring had finally given way to summer, I couldn’t see a cloud in the sky and I was excited for what the day would bring.
There weren’t many people around yet as it was still early and everyone was still waking up or preparing for the day to come. The local guild branch had finally been finished yesterday; it hadn’t taken too long to build even though it was in the middle of nowhere without even a small village to help gather the materials. This was because it was quite small, only having one floor with a questboard and a small reception area; the guildhouse would be expanded as more people arrived and settled down here and it would have more adventurers going through it.
Neither of us had any business to do in the Guild so we just walked past it on a path that had been made since I last left the dungeon. We walked in silence for a little while until I spoke up, deciding to use this time to get to know each other a little better, ‘What do you want to do now that you are free. Do you want to be an adventurer like in those stories you like telling to me or is there something else you want to do?’
We had chatted a little bit over the past two weeks but they never went very far so I still didn’t know much about Val, ‘You mentioned that your parents had forbidden you from adventuring but you didn’t say if you wanted to actually be one.’
‘Yeah it was, I had always been fascinated with magic when I was growing up, whether it was in one of the carnivals I would go to when I was growing up or in a book I had read. Whenever I read a story about a group of adventurers saving the world I would live through the mage.’ Val said with a wistful look in her eyes,
‘When I was 10 I asked my parents to let me enrol in a magic school to learn how to be a mage but they refused to let me no matter how much I begged them. I spent a full month begging them but they didn’t budge so I gave up. I didn’t really care what type of magic I wanted to use as I was happy just being able to cast anything so never put much thought into it.’
Hearing this I added another reason that I hated her parents to my ever-growing list before replying ‘I can definitely help with that, luckily I am still close enough to the dungeon to do this.’ I said before concentrating for a minute, slowly materialising a plain wooden staff using 100DP and handing it to Val while saying ‘It isn’t much but it should be good enough to get you started, you are free from your parents so you can do whatever you want to do.’
The way magic worked in this world is anyone could learn it, they just had to put in enough time and effort into the task. To start understanding it they would have to first find a catalyst and then concentrate on the way it affected the mana around it until they got the feel for it and could cast their first spell.
After this they wouldn’t need a catalyst to cast spells, although it would always make it easier if they had one and the better the catalyst they had the easier they would find casting the spells to be. When I had materialised my bow I had embedded a low grade catalyst into it as even though I was going to be mostly an archer I still wanted to add a little magic to it to add a little bit of power to my shots.
‘Thank you, I don’t know what to say.’ Val said, a bit teary eyed as she held the staff gently. ‘You have done so much for me even though you barely know me.’
‘I don’t need to know you to know what you are going through.’ I said, glad that I had managed to make her so happy. ‘This is the least I could do.’
‘Speaking of that’ Val started while looking at me curiously ‘You haven’t really told me much about yourself, what was your life like before you were brought here.’
‘I suppose it’s only fair that I tell you about myself since you have trusted me so far.’ I said, I didn’t really want to think about my past life as it wasn’t pleasant at all and I would rather just forget almost everything that had happened, but Val had told me about her past even though it was hard so I should do the same back.
‘My situation was very similar to yours actually, I was trans, although I didn’t figure that out until I was an adult, and when I told my parents they refused to accept it. They even said, ‘no you aren’t’ to my face, which still confuses me. Even on my deathbed three years after I had medically transitioned they refused to even call me by my chosen name, luckily they couldn’t stop me like your parents did. I don’t think I would have had the courage to run away.’
I paused for a second to breathe, ‘I was never really sure what I wanted to do as a job except that I would be happy as long as I was helping people. While I was growing up I moved around a lot so I never made many friends. The ones I did make I lost contact with pretty quickly, thinking about it I wonder how many people truly miss me.’ I said, ending on more of a sombre note than I meant to,
‘That’s everything important about me that I can think of. I am sure that we will get to know each other very well over time but if there is anything in particular you want to know just ask and I will be happy to answer you as best as I can.’
‘Your parents were wrong and, even though we only met less than a month ago, I would miss you if you left me so I am sure that plenty of people will miss you in your old life.’ Val said, trying to cheer me up, ‘and I have so many questions about your old life.’