NOVEL NEXT Chapter 4: The Dungeon
He needed to poke Hestia awake at around 5:00 AM to get them moving. They were wasting daylight, after all, and it had been her suggestion to get moving bright and early. She rubbed her eyes blearily as they strode on over to the great big tower in the center of the city that acted as the Adventurer’s Guild headquarters as well as the lid of the Dungeon.
Hestia’s presence smoothed the registration process right out. He was introduced to his assigned advisor before he knew it, a charming young lady with green eyes, light brown hair, and slightly pointed ears who introduced herself as Eina Tulle. He also took out a loan from the Guild for around 9,000 vals, the currency of this world, to buy one of their low-grade double-bladed swords and a belt with a pouch on it. The weapon wasn’t worth a bent halfsilver chip, but they were poorer than dirt so he would work with what he had. Not like he even could gather sword aura on the blasted thing, anyways.
The pretty little advisor they gave him for free proved worth her weight in gold, though.
She wouldn’t allow him into the Dungeon without giving him a crash course on its’ structure, the creatures within, and how to make money from killing said creatures.
“Once you’ve killed a monster, it will drop a magic stone that you can turn in at the Guild exchange for money. Each monster keeps their magic stone core in their central chest area. If you can defeat them without damaging the core, the Guild will pay good money for said undamaged core. You can defeat them more easily by targeting and damaging the core, but you will get nothing from that kill unless that monster also happens to drop an item. Okay?”
The Sage nodded mechanically, head spinning slightly from the information overload he had been given the last three hours. Eina nodded primly in satisfaction:
“That does it for the introductory course. You can learn more about the monsters of the upper floors in the Guild library. You can also consult me at any time with more questions. But you can also go into the Dungeon now to get some fighting experience. Stay on the first and second floors, where the weakest monsters live. Under no circumstances are newbie adventurers to go below the fourth floor, you hear me? That’s where the real danger of the Dungeon begins.”
When he had nodded again, she smiled and said:
“Well, if you don’t have any more questions, then I will release you for today. Remember that your safety is of primary concern. Adventurers shouldn’t have adventures.”
She said the last bit of ironic advice with a twinkle in her eye before letting him go.
The Sword Sage sighed in relief as he walked out of Tulle’s office. He recognized the value of the information that she had given him, of course, and he was grateful, but it still chafed at him to sit still through that lecture. The sun was nearing its’ peak when he finally was able to head down into the Dungeon.
The hallway into the Dungeon was a bright white pathway that spiraled slightly downwards towards the proper entrance. He saw a couple other adventurers moving past him, clearly done for the day already because of injury or sheer sloth. He shook his head and kept walking.
He knew he was finally walking into the Dungeon proper when white walls gave way to dark rocky tunnels and white, artificial, magic lamp lighting was swapped out for the soft blue glow of luminescent crystals on the ceiling. Adama admired his surroundings with interest for a few moments before proceeding.
It didn’t take long before he happened upon a group of 5 goblins, small green humanoid monsters, who were meandering about in an especially open area. The first enemy to see him gave a loud cry and stupidly charged him headlong, leaving its’ other comrades behind.
It still had an expression of bloodlust when Adama took its’ head off its’ shoulders with a clean swing of his sword, his blade passing through its’ raised arms and neck.
With a good night’s sleep and a blade in his hand, he was a wolf among sheep. He rushed into the pack, wielding his sword one handed to stab one in the face as he clubbed another unfortunate in the face with a swing of his arm. He grunted as he took a kick to the ribs, but he quickly decapitated that assailant before turning his blade on the final upright goblin. This one managed to get its’ weapon, a blade of sharpened rock, in between his sword and its’ body, but he shoved it backward with his superior strength. Off balance, it was easily disemboweled with a follow up strike. The goblin he had hit earlier was only just getting to its’ feet when he turned around to finish it off.
That was five enemies down in just as many seconds.
It felt like bullying children. They weren’t that much weaker than he was physically, but they were stupid and had less than zero skill or tactics. Had they known which side of the weapon was the pointy one and possessed even rudimentary tactics, they could have given him a real fight. As it was, they only gave him a bruise on his ribs because he had deliberately taken that hit. Hestia had informed him that the only way to train a stat was to use it, so the only way to train Defense was by getting hit. That meant a lot of bruises in his future if he didn’t want to become a glass cannon, but Adama had never feared a little pain.
The goblin corpses collapsed into dust, leaving only magic stones behind, which he collected. No items, but that was to be expected, since those were rare. He kept moving through the Dungeon, dismantling more goblins with ease as he walked. He found what he was looking for after he waddled down to the second floor. A humanoid beast man howled its’ defiance at him, shaggy fur swaying over well-defined muscles. The kobold had the body of a very hairy man but the head of a dog, and it was one of the stronger enemies in these first few floors.
He slashed his sword horizontally as he called out:
“Rippling Sword!”
The kobold fell apart in two pieces at the waist.
As he had drawn his blade through the air and called out his “Spell” he felt power rush out from him and watched a thin blade of green energy flow out in front of the horizontal path his sword had drawn. The energy rippled a bit as it passed quickly through the air and the enemy’s hide like a knife through hot butter.
This kobold had two friends, who charged him when they saw the fate of their companion. He easily decapitated one of them with another Rippling Sword and traded blows with the last one for a bit before lopping off its’ arm and driving his sword into its’ throat as it roared in pain. The magic stones he collected from them were larger and more lucrative than the goblin stones.
He moved smoothly down to the third and fourth floors. The monsters were thicker on the ground on the fourth floor, and he was starting to breathe heavily but the only meaningful obstacle he met was an ambush from a brown lizard called a dungeon lizard. It pounced on him from the ceiling, where it hung by its’ sucker tipped feet, while two kobolds charged him from the front. That got hairy and he took a few cuts, but the Rippling Sword was his saving grace.
Time was hard to keep track of in the Dungeon, but he knew that he had been hunting for hours, his belt pouch absolutely bursting with magic stones. He knew he was approaching the fifth floor and could not deny a little curiosity. He gave into his warrior’s confidence and decided a quick look couldn’t hurt. The first thing he met was a lone, very large frog with a singular eye. A frog shooter. These things hunted with their long and agile tongues, so he prepared to leap out of the way when it started to target him.
He was too slow.
He reacted just fine, but his body was nowhere neat fast enough to avoid the swift strike of the frog’s tongue. The pink weapon whipped out and caught him on the shoulder, sticking to him and pulling him off balance as it reeled him towards the frog’s mouth. Thinking fast, he quickly sent a Rippling Sword into the frog’s mouth, forcing it to close its’ mouth in pain. He used his forward momentum to rush the frog, jumping over its head while still attached to its’ tongue. He landed on the monster’s back and stabbed it right in the head, using his whole weight to drived the sword deep into its’ skull.
The frog shooter still struggled for a bit before it collapsed and began to dissolve. Panting, he picked up the stone it dropped and began heading topside.
That was enough for now.