Silver Spoon Series

Alan was surprised by how quickly the first group volunteered. Usually in such large crowds people were initially hesitant to put themselves forward, however, one girl put her hand up even before he finished asking. He thought she looked a little young, on Earth she most likely would have been in high school still, but you couldn't fault her eagerness.

Once those five went in, the other forty-five got really quiet. The reality of the situation was starting to sink in. They were being asked to risk their lives. The idea of adventuring was exciting, but now they were facing the danger. Alan said a silent prayer to anyone or anything that would listen that the first group came out okay. If someone got seriously hurt, or possibly died, in this initial party then a lot of groups might balk at going in. At least the healer for that group was one of the good ones. Alan had seen him work during the training time and the man could hopefully keep everybody in one piece.

In an effort to appear cool and calm, Alan decided to work on his gear. It had been a while since he spent any time sharpening his blades or cleaning his armor. The whetstone work was fairly calming, and it also provided an opportunity to work on sensing his weapons' auras. If he could get his aura reading skill high enough, then he would be able to enchant or engrave them to make the blades better. He had previously infused his pugio with holy mana and the enchantment had already come in handy.

Cleaning his armor was a far less fulfilling task. His shirt had a magical enchantment that made it self-cleaning, but the bone chainmail needed old fashioned elbow grease. Luckily, or not depending on how you looked at it, Alan had ruined quite a few sets of clothes in his early days with the tutorial and he now had plenty of rags. The bone rings were very small, which was good for blocking attacks, and not so good when it came to cleaning. He resorted to conjuring occasional balls of water to drench it with.

With a high perception and wisdom, Alan was able to watch all of the newly classed villagers while scrubbing away at the blood and other viscera. There were a few groups that seemed to be strategizing and some others that were getting some more practice in. He gave each of these parties a mental point, they were showing initiative and drive. Of the others, most either sat quietly, contemplating what was coming, or watched Alan work. By the time he was done, almost thirty minutes had passed.

He was starting to get worried. There wasn't a set amount of time they were supposed to take, but half an hour was how long it took the dungeon to reset. It was also about how long he had thought it should take based on the challenge level. There really wasn't any reason to worry unless it took more than an hour, but it was hard to tell his nerves that. Fortunately, appearing calm in the face of anxiety is kind of the hallmark of an operator.

It was around forty minutes after starting when the first group finally reappeared. Alan had never counted to five quite so quickly in his life. Everyone was accounted for and looked to be in good health. He also quickly picked out the shiny new sword that the one cute girl was carrying and the leather bracers on the golemoid. It seemed like they had managed to do it. Rather than rushing over himself to debrief them, he took his time and let their fellow citizens congratulate them. It took everyone a moment to move, but once the first person ran over, it was like an avalanche of cheers.

Everyone was asking questions all at the same time and he let the group revel in their temporary fame. It was a big risk they had taken, and they had managed to pull it off, they deserved this. The party of five was quickly separated as people crowded around and eventually the whole story came out. Once he saw people start to look for their own parties to talk about what they'd heard, he pushed his way through the crowd.

Once he stood before them, Alan spoke in a loud voice so everyone could hear. "Congratulations, it sounds like you all worked together and persevered. I Applaud you for working through your difficulties rather than giving up when it got difficult. Notice how they talked out what went well and what they needed to change. That's an important element in getting better. Who would like to follow their performance?"

Silence followed his request for volunteers. "No pressure anyone, so far everyone who went in came back with the job complete. Don't screw that up!" Wow, that Kerei girl is a piece of work.

Alan could tell that her bravado wasn't coming from a place of confidence. She was just a teenager who was trying to show how grown up she was. It might fool others, but he had seen his fair share of freaked out youngins trying to show how not young they were. It was something her party would have to deal with, but it ended up helping out his cause, so he wasn't going to say anything.

After her statement, three different parties stepped forward and Alan had to pick one. They had never heard of eenie-meeny-miney-moe before, but it got the job done. The chosen party consisted of a single tank, a rogue with a kitchen knife, a hunter with a bow, a mage, and a healer. Once they had some levels and gear they would be a nicely balanced group, but they might struggle against the smaller targets for now.

Once they went in, Alan made his way back over to the party that had already finished. He had heard that one of them had lost their club and had decided to rely on her fists instead. He chatted with her for a little bit and decided to give her some lessons in unarmed combat. He spent about fifteen minutes with her and could already see that she was going to keep with it. There was a fire in her when they practiced.

After that, Alan made a command decision and spent another fifteen minutes working with Jenny, the other person to receive new gear. She had been using a dagger before and that was not the same at all as using a sword. He personally didn't have a ton of experience with them either, but he'd gotten his sword skill up to twenty-five and could at least give her a few pointers.

The second group returned a few minutes after he finished with her and they were also sporting new gear. The mage had a wand and the tank had a mace. Another group entered and Alan took it in turns to show the tank and the mage a little bit about what they could do with their new equipment. That was how his night went. A group would come out and another would go in. Alan would spend his time working with those who returned on maximizing what they got from their loot or from changes they realized they needed to make after facing real combat.

What was amazing was that Kerei's brash words had truly lit a fire in the pride of the villagers, and as each group that followed returned victorious, the small flame turned into a raging inferno. To get all of the groups through it was going to take the whole night. Alan tried to send home those who had already finished, but no one wanted to leave. As each group came back successful, the entire crowd's determination grew.

And so it was that a few hours after sunrise, fifty-one people walked back into town. Alan was in the back, and every one of the people before him had a little something in their step. Many were dirty, with clothes torn, and hair disheveled, but all of them had made it through the dungeon. One group towards the end had required Alan to regrow a missing hand. The warrior had lost it when the ant at the end had bitten it clean off. Several others had been chewed up pretty badly, but having a healer in every group had meant no one stayed injured. Because of how recent the injury was, Alan had been able to regrow a large chunk of the hand, and a couple of sessions over the next few days should have it fully restored.

Alan sent them all to get some sleep. They would grab a few hours, then return to whatever their normal job was for the day before getting another full night's sleep. They would meet him at the dungeon the following morning for more delves. Roger meanwhile, had gone through the process of announcing the next fifty names and handing out their classes. Alan was just in time to start their first round of training. His only meal was a handful of strawberries.

This group of fifty seemed just as good as the first. As they moved down Roger's list, they would probably end up with some people who weren't really cut out for this, but so far the villagers were taking to it well. While these new classers were having lunch, some of yesterday's group showed up and shared their own experiences. Alan heard several mention how everyone had managed to clear the dungeon.

The training continued after lunch, and Alan repeated yesterday's schedule almost exactly. At the dungeon that evening, it took a little longer to get a party to volunteer to be first, but they were able to finish it successfully. They received a spear and a dagger that looked very similar to his seax. Alan worked with both warriors on how to best use their new weapons, but they were interrupted when the second group returned early. The healer had run out of mana because the tank kept getting severely poisoned. It was the first failure for the villagers, but it wasn't the last of the night.

Alan wasn't really that upset about the fact that three of the parties were forced out early. No one lost any members, and only a few needed some extra healing from him. Most either ran out of mana, lost their nerve, or they simply realized that pushing farther would lead to someone getting seriously hurt. The first group of ten parties had been an anomaly, having them all complete it had been at the level of a miracle. While having another group of ten complete it would have been great, their failure also made the first time so much more significant.

Those groups who didn't make it this time had still learned something and gained some experience. Alan had also met with the parties to offer suggestions on what they could do to improve. Hopefully the next time they attempted the dungeon they would be able to complete it. With so many groups running though Indiana, and most of them finishing it, there was little danger of any leaks, but the people wouldn't really start improving until they could begin collecting real loot.

The second group of fifty made the march back to Elstree just like the first, but without the swagger. They were given the same speech about their responsibilities before Alan met the original group of fifty as they started to march back out to the dungeon. They would be running the dungeon during the day today while the third group of villagers would run it that evening. Rather than joining them, Alan headed out to the fields to meet the newest group of classers, but not before giving each party some words of encouragement. The one thing he could do at the moment that no one else really could, was provide training.

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That meant Alan spent the next three days repeating the same schedule over and over. Train the newest villagers to get stones, meet with those returning from the daytime runs, escort the new crew out to the dungeon and train them as they went. Then he would bring them back to the village before repeating the experience with a new group. By the end he hadn't slept in six days and he had to take a break.

The previous groups of fifty had made their second runs in the dungeon, but they wouldn't have a third until everyone was run through the program. They instead spent their time split between doing what they used to do, and training. Some did that training by completing bounties, others did it at the training grounds. They ended up working with the newly classed villagers as well, and as he surveyed the work everyone was doing, Alan felt like he could finally let this go.

He was still the best trainer they had, but there were now others who could at least do the job, and they would have to be good enough for now. Alan had other things he wanted to be doing, and he was antsy to get to them. Top of mind was checking on a certain dragon egg. He had swung by the farm at one point and seen the chicks that had hatched from the eggs he brought. He wasn't sure how to gender them, but one of the farms said it was three boys and two girls. Not his ideal ratio, but it should work. Seeing what hatched from those, made him want to check on the much larger one back at his house.

Aki had been working tirelessly for days. She used to insist on thinking of herself using her full name of Akilatjin, but TS's continued use of the nickname had won her over. Besides, with the metal energy she was exerting to accomplish her goals, she had little left for mundane details like names.

Her home, the shell that had sheltered her for so long, was encased in some kind of magical circle. For a while she had passively let the energy from it enter into her body. At one point she even started drawing more of that fuel into herself. Now, she was doing everything she could to keep it out.

Her friend Two Socks, or TS for short, had tried to convince her that the man who had trapped her here was a good person and only trying to help. The magic entering her body seemed to be trying to push her in that direction as well. That might have worked on her if she hadn't been stolen away so many times before. First from her mother, and then from one being to another, she had been taken, usually forcefully. This latest being was trying to trick her.

She had given up on changing TS's mind, he had been under that powerful being's spell for too long. But once she got out of this shell she hoped to help her friend. It would take some time, but she was descended from a very powerful Ferric dragon and would figure something out eventually. To do that though, she needed to break out of the egg before her captor returned.

To that end, Aki had been devouring the material holding her body in place. She had long ago devoured the yolk and only a little of the albumin remained. For the last two days she had been eating the shell itself almost exclusively. She found this to be the most delicious thing she had consumed so far. It was not all good news though, all of these nutrient sources had been poisoned by that foreign mana leeching into her egg. She couldn't block it completely, but she did her best to strain the negative energy from the mana while using the cleaner part that remained to boost her body and resources. She had noticed how much stronger she seemed recently, hopefully that improvement hadn't come with too high a cost.

It was currently night time. She had learned how to understand the difference between night and day using the perception she was granted while in her shell. Because of this, her friend TS and his mate were currently in the structure with her. As far as she could tell, this 'building' had been built to hide both her egg and the magical prison around her. Based on a few clues and her own developing sense of time, Aki knew that morning was approaching.

Even while she was frantically trying to free herself, this was always her favorite part of the day. TS greeted her every morning and they communicated about a number of topics. At first the mental communication they used had been difficult for her, but she had mastered it to help push away the loneliness she had felt. TS had also helped encourage her and was always quick to praise her improvements.

Today though, this was the time. She could feel how thin the shell had become in places. Selecting what she judged to be the thinnest section, she frantically worked at the spot. She had tried to erode the shell with various parts of her body, but they had all proven ineffective at damaging the structure. Only her teeth had been able to affect it. There was a substance in her mouth that seemed to soften the metallic shell and allowed her to eat it. Instinctively she had previously been eating her way around the whole egg, but now she focused on a single spot.

Bite by little bite, she worked her way closer to freedom. This would go much faster if her stomach was bigger, but she had to pause to let her body process what she'd eaten, so that there would be room for more. It did help that as every piece was digested, she gained a little bit more strength. Eventually she pierced the shell. Some fell energy sought her destruction once the protective layer was removed. It took her a few moments to realize that this was light. The sun had risen slightly above the horizon and even that low intensity was too much for her body which had been in perpetual darkness. Aki hadn't even opened her eyes yet, it was simply assaulting her flesh with its powerful rays.

Feeling at the hole with her mouth, she could tell it wasn't yet big enough for her to fit through. So she continued to work at it with her teeth, gnashing away. As she did the light grew stronger, but she also felt her body adjusting to its energy. No longer was it trying to incinerate her, it was more like being stabbed by thousands of needles.

Finally Aki had eaten enough of the shell that she thought that she could wriggle her way through, and that's just what she did. She started with her mouth, and then kept pushing. When it got too tight, she worked her body back and forth, slowly squeezing her way out. Then the moment of truth, her entire self was now outside of her shell. She had done it, she was free!

The cursed light had continued to intensify its assault, but her body was developing its own defenses against the powerful force and it now felt only like a nearby flame rather than a searing brand. Since Aki had been blessed with a draconic bloodline, she had inherited memories of her ancestors. She knew what she had to do next, but at first Aki wasn't sure if she had the nerve to accomplish it. Just that thought, though, hardened her resolve and Aki slowly allowed her eyelids to open. Light, that evil fiend taking advantage of a new avenue of assault, poured into her tender eyes, instantly blinding her.

Fortunately dragons are hardy creatures and her eyes started recovering almost instantly. Bravely her mighty orbs fought off the potent energy from the sun and bit by bit pushed the white glare down until it was only a tiny spot in the center of her vision, and then they bravely kept working, and finally even that was gone. Now, she could see the world around her, not with her external senses, but with her actual eyes. The first thing she noticed was a giant oblong shape next to her. It took a moment for her thoughts to match it with her egg.

This caused some disorientation since it seemed to be far too large compared to her. From her inherited memories, which mostly took the form of images, she knew that once she hatched, she should have been about the same size as her shell. Instead, she was much much smaller. Now that she thought about it, she wasn't supposed to wriggle through a hole, she should have broken apart the shell and burst forth, a mighty dragon just smaller in stature.

She looked down at herself to see what the problem was, had the light somehow burned away most of her body? Had she been crippled by the unholy sun? When her eyes looked to where her body should be, she instead found some kind of fleshy tube. She tried to reach out with her claws to touch it, but then realized she didn't actually remember having claws, or arms or legs either. While inside the egg she hadn't really differentiated between parts of her, but she remembered only thinking of her mouth and her body.

Now Aki was starting to panic and she looked all over herself, as much as she was able. This had to be a mistake! Her 'body' consisted of a single stringy mass that was about thirty centimeters long and just a few centimeters in diameter. She had thought her body was covered in flesh, but as she looked closer she could see the outline of delicate scales coating her whole form. They weren't hard yet, but that was somewhat normal for a dragon hatchling. As she consumed the pieces of her shell it would help to harden the scales and give her some added protection.

Looking up at the shell, she had to give a mental chuckle at the idea of munching all that down. It was going to take Aki at her current size a long time to get through that whole thing, it was many times her current size. She thought of maybe crawling back inside and going to sleep, hoping that when she woke she would find it was all a dream and she had her true body back. In the end she gave up the idea as simple wishful thinking, and she knew she had to be better than such childish delusions. Something may have gone wrong, but she knew she was a dragon inside, she had the memories of her mother, and her mother's mother, and every mother before that to prove it.

In fact, as she started thinking back, she came upon a dragon who had a similar experience. Too many generations ago to properly fathom, her ancestor was born as a 'worm' it was called. She couldn't access all of the memories from so ancient a time, but she knew that things must have eventually gone right for that ancestor, or Aki wouldn't have inherited any memories from her.

With her worry slightly eased, she was now able to take in more of her surroundings. She was resting on the ground, in a circle of dirt. In that dirt she saw sparkling powder that was glowing with mana, the formation that had been preying on her. As Aki watched, however, the mana glow faded, and with it went the powder. It took several minutes, but in the end she was left on a mundane dirt floor and the magical forces that had been beating at her were finally gone.

With that magical assault gone and her foe, the sun, momentarily subdued, Aki was able to take in the whole of the structure she had been trapped in. Remembering the reason for the building, she remembered her friend as well! TS should be here somewhere, although with the sun having risen as much as it did, her friend should have already awakened. Frantically searching, she finally saw him on the far side of the egg. He was a wolf, but if her memories were accurate he was far bigger than the wolves she remembered. Although, with current diminutive size she might be judging that wrong. He had the most beautiful brown fur all over his body except for a shocking display of white covering his front legs. The fur looked like it would be incredibly soft, she thought with a sudden desire to rub it with her claws. Then she remembered she didn't have any, curse this strange form! Next to TS she saw a much smaller version of a wolf, more in line with what she remembered, but she could only focus on her friend's eyes as they stared back at her.

"Welcome little Aki, today is the start of the rest of your life."