A Runesmith's Journey Chapter 1 - A New World!

Hi, my name is Elijah Cooper, I am a high school student at 17 years old in my last year of school.

I am an optimistic person, I am an introvert and gamer. I love playing all sorts of games, watching movies, and reading books. The only time I am willing to go out is if I am out with my 3 best friends, Jack, Conner, and Noah. I am pretty average.

Jack is your typical sportsy outdoorsman, he is a full on extrovert, he loves hanging with his many friends. He is a great guy, a brilliant friend that has been with me since we were only toddlers.

Conner is a mix of me and Jack, he plays games and enjoys going outside, he can do either, he usually just does whatever he feels like doing at the moment. He is a nice guy but can be brash and stubborn, he doesn’t really get along very well with strangers.

Noah is more of an introvert than me, he plays games almost every day and all day. When we go out as a group, we literally have to drag him from the house. He isn’t afraid to say what's on his mind and usually does even if he definitely shouldn’t, he is scrawny and small.

So those are my wonderful best friends who are currently sitting at our desks. We live in the UK so our desks are big enough for two people to sit at. Me and Jack sit next to each other at the very back and Conner and Noah sit in front of us on another desk with their backs to us.

I laid back against my chair, stretching my legs and arms out after I just kicked Noah’s arse in a game of Magic.

He was glaring at me now “what the hell man?! How are you still winning?!” he shouted at me, pointing a finger at my face.

He was turned around, sitting the wrong way around on his seat, Conner had turned his seat to the side so he was sat normally facing towards Noah as he let out an exasperated sigh.

Me and Jack were sitting at our desks like we usually do “you always say that and then loudly proclaim you’ll kick his arse tomorrow and then never do” The pretty boy to my right said, flashing a smile that would make girls swoon, Conner just gave him a disgusted look.

“Goddamn pretty boys” I mumbled, loud enough for them to hear since I was joking. 

Jack’s reply was to slap my back as he let out a boisterous laugh.

Let me explain something, right now we are in our maths class, no one else is in here because there is still about 30 minutes until the day starts, we have a good relationship with the teacher so he lets us stay here whilst he prepares his lesson.

“You're just shit mate” Conner so helpfully provided.

Noah looked like Conner had just backstabbed him, completely forgetting about Jack as he turned, grabbing Conner’s tie and glaring at him, their faces practically touching.

Conner, being the guy he is, just brought his right hand up to the side, glanced at it so Noah would follow his eyes and then used his other hand to slap Noah on the back of the head.

“Motherf-” he stopped as his gaze landed on a girl standing at the door watching us, giggling behind her hand, two other girls behind her outright laughing.

“Hot” Noah gave a sagely nod before turning to me “rematch me bitch!” he said forcefully before sitting back down and we reset the cards.

The girls from the door walked over and smiled at us, taking three seats at the desks to the right of us and sliding them over so they could be nearer to us.

Conner had immediately stopped talking, a faint blush on his cheeks.

I gave Noah a cheeky grin as I one shot the monster he was trying to stack some bullshit on top of.

Let me explain who these girls are as Noah tries to think of something to do.

The one Noah had called hot and the reason Conner got so quiet is Silica, a blue haired beauty, as simple as that, she is kind, cute, funny, she is just great, I am being objective of course, I don’t have any of those feeling towards her or anyone my age in fact, not sure why.

The two other girls are Sarah and Sophie.

Sarah is a sweet bespectacled girl, she is a massive brainiac and seems to love running circles around all of us, yet she has still never beat me at chess just like Noah has never beat me at mtg.

Sophie is a small, hotheaded tomboy, she is the one that fits in with us the most, she loves games and usually plays with me, to be honest if i ever were to date someone my age, it would be her, she is perfect for me yet I don’t feel anything for her unfortunately.

Sophie was currently leaning over my shoulder as she looked at the cards I had in my hand, then at the board, then at my hand, then at the life counter and proceeded to start laughing her arse off.

“Oh poor poor Noah! You are so mean” she whispered the last part to me and I smirked as Noah suddenly didn’t look so confident.

You see he had managed to stack a strong monster using a mutation deck, it was ridiculously strong, so as he hesitantly ended his turn.

I smirked “nonononoNO!” Noah shouted at me, it seems he figured me out, oh well.

I turned 4 land cards and slapped down Day of Judgement, the card said Destroy all Creatures.

Noah just stared at the board as the creature was killed, mine too mind you but I had a plan. I summoned a Knight of the White Orchid and laughed as Noah just sat there looking completely dead.

“I think you killed him” Sophie said as she leaned forward, waving her hand in front of his eyes consequently moving her head to be level with my eyes, I chuckled in my mind.

I wasn't sure a few years ago but Sophie has definitely had a crush on me for awhile, I noticed a few months ago when she had seemed to give up being subtle.

What I didn't notice was how Silica looked at me and Sophie.

Whilst Sophie had been watching me kick Noah’s arse again, Jack, Sarah, Silica, and Conner had been chatting.

I had heard snippets of their conversation and at the end of it, Conner and Silica had walked out of the classroom.

Sophie pretty much appeared next to Jack, her arm aligning itself around his shoulders as she glanced at the door “so what’s that about?” She asked.

“I believe Conner is going to finally tell Silica how he feels,” Jack said.

“Oof thats gonna suck for him, she likes someone, we know of that but we don’t think it's Conner, right Sophie?” Sarah said as she looked at Sophie who had stood up straight and then proceeded to crouch behind me.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“Hiding,” she replied.

“Why?” 

“Because I don’t want to feel the awkwardness when they come back in here” she got up moving her chair to right behind me as she slung her arms over my shoulders, resting them on my chest.

“You're cool if I hide here right?” she asked.

“Sure,” I replied.

I believe Sarah was about to chide her horny friend but was stopped when the rest of the class entered followed by Silica.

She moved over to us and took a seat, letting out a sigh.

“I assume it didn’t go well then?” Sarah asked.

Silica just gave her a deadpan look “of course it didn’t”.

Conner walked in next, he looked torn, he wanted to sit next to us but didn’t want to be near Silica.

He ended up sitting by himself at an empty desk. I sighed, packing away my cards into my backpack before I got up, grabbed Conner’s backpack and walked over to Conner, passing him his bag as I sat beside him.

He seemed to ignore me though and just stared at his desk “you okay?” he seemed to acknowledge me as he raised his head, looking at me, a slight tear in his eye.

“No she said she couldn’t love me because she loved someone else” 

“That sucks,” I said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. 

He shrugged my hand off “that isn’t the worst of it, I asked who and she decided it was a good idea to tell me” he whispered as if he couldn’t say it.

“Who was it?” I was wondering who it had to be to get this kind of reaction from Conner.

“You” he whispered that out and everything seemed to freeze to me.

For fucks sake!

Imagine if you had loved someone for most of your life but was too afraid to tell them your feelings because you were scared of what they would think and then you finally get the courage to tell them your feelings and then you learn they can’t love you because they love one of your closest friends.

You would feel betrayed but because of the person Conner is, he would realise it wasn’t my fault and would then berate himself for blaming me, his emotions are fighting each other, tearing him apart.

I’m not sure if it was good or bad but a distraction came as a bright white light suddenly engulfed the whole classroom and I felt nauseous as something ripped me away from where I was sitting.

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“Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.” - Jamais Cascio

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“Oh great heroes! I beseech thee to help us!” An old booming voice spoke out from somewhere.

My head was still spinning, as the light faded and my eyes adjusted, I saw the rest of my classmates. All of us were sitting on the floor trying to overcome the nauseous feeling we all still had.

All around us were men and women dressed in bright white robes, their hands raised to the sky as they seemed to have been chanting something, I guessed.

“Wow, so many!” one of the women in the crowd said.

I seemed to be the first to recover so I stood up and suspiciously regarded each individual in the room I didn’t know.

Jack and Noah both stood up and walked behind me, eyeing the guy who had first spoken.

“Is this what I think it is, please tell me this isn’t a dream!” Noah mumbled the last part.

I looked at the guy who had first spoken, he seemed to be the guy in charge since his white robes had golden inlays and looked a lot more expensive than the rest.

“What is happening here?” I asked the man.

“The world of Runogo needs your help, brave heroes! The king wishes to explain it to you better than I can so I shall take you to him” the man gestured to some of the white robes and they stepped forwards.

They all stepped up to a student that was still recovering, golden light seeping from their palms as it covered the student, healing them almost instantly.

Not too long after that we found ourselves following the priest (he told us he was one).

He led us through many hallways and stairs that lead upwards before we stopped in front of two massive doors, they immediately opened as the priest took a step forward.

We walked into what I expected a medieval throne room to look like.

A King sat in his throne, a massive man, a huge broadsword was leaned up against his throne.

On his right was a beautiful blonde-haired woman who wore a smaller crown, the Queen.

On his left were two teenage looking girls, they both had on tiaras, one had red hair, the other had blonde.

Another empty throne sat beside one of the princesses.

He stood up as he took a step and walked up to us meeting our group halfway to the throne.

He looked solemn and let out a sigh, he looked over all of us and seemed to inspect us.

The priest, having done his job, left the throne room, the doors closing behind him.

“I am sorry about him, he just summons you heroes and doesn’t help you acclimate to this situation at all, let me introduce myself, I am the King of this Kingdom” he smiled at us.

“I am sorry we had to pull you from your home, we need help and for a long time we have been summoning heroes with the help of the gods to aid us in our war.

I am sorry to say but from my knowledge there is no way for you to get home, maybe if you can survive long enough, you can find your own way, that is in your hands now. 

So let me explain our plight. A long long time ago, an evil, rogue god plagued our planet with dungeons, places that spawned monsters and brought mana into our world.

We fought back against these dungeons, we destroyed a few and we were winning but that bastard of a god came back and empowered his creations, they quickly overwhelmed us, dungeon breaks occurred all over our planet and we were quickly pushed back.

The first ever hero came and he fought back valianty, giving us enough time to figure out mana and how to harness it.

The war continued, several generations passed, the hero and the Kingdoms fought back the best they could but it wasn’t enough.

Then an unknown mage made something, a spell to summon heroes to help us.

The first group of summoned heroes came to our world and helped us, they were what we needed but they grew overconfident and died quickly, my grandfather was on the throne then.

We summoned more and we kept going, kept fighting because if we didn’t it meant death.

The evil god came back and did something horrible, he created the World Dungeons, he would have done more but the gods of this world revealed themselves and saved us.

They have been helping us ever since, they gave us something to fight back with, a system as the summoned heroes liked to call it.

They taught us how to use it and we fought back but the World Dungeons were more terrifying than we thought.

They spawned monstrous creatures and the war stalemated.

We got to a point about 10 years ago where we no longer needed summoned heroes after the last ones were killed.

But something happened about 1 year ago.

The World Dungeons increased in size and more sprouted from the earth.”

After that heavy explanation, we were all stupefied, someone had even collapsed to the ground at the revelation we were in another world, unable to go home with death all around us waiting to claim us.

“What are World Dungeons?” James asked.

“They are small structures that are much much bigger on the inside, they spawn monsters and if the populations of monsters aren’t dealt with then they can escape and wreak havoc.”

Jack nodded “Why are we here then?” he asked.

“Well you were brought here by our gods and because of that you were given the system we all have and a special ability unique to you, we will be training you in the use of your abilities and classes and then once we believe you to be ready, you will go on a dungeon run as a group.

You need to say or think ‘status’ to bring up your system.”

I followed what he said, and thought status.

Name: Elijah Cooper

Level: 1 (0/100)

Class: Runesmith

Class Level: 1 (0/100)

MP: 100/100

SP: 100/100

System Points: 0

Money: 0P 0G 0S 0B

“You should now see your name, followed by your overall level, then your class and class level, next would be your mana points and stamina points and then finally your system points, next say or think ‘Skills’ ”.

‘Skills’.

Skills

Creation (Unique):

The user can create anything they wish as long as they know how to make it and have the materials, mana can be substituted for the materials but it will require a lot of mana to do so.

Creation Speed is increased by increasing your overall level.

Creations can be boosted by increasing your overall level.

Requires MP to use, cost varies.

Rune Crafting (Uncommon):

Allows the user to craft runes by inscribing the runic structure onto an item.

New Runes can be unlocked by learning them. 

Runes can be improved by increasing class level.

Can Inscribe more runes onto one thing by increasing class level.

Runes Known:

Automatic Cleaning

“Your Unique Skill should be at the top and then you have your first class skill, some classes will have multiple starting skills, now we will split you into groups and you will go with one of these men and they will log your abilities and answer any questions you may have”.

There were 20 of us so 5 guards stepped into the throne room and we quickly split into 4 groups of 5. I was with people I didn’t really know much.

We were taken away from the throne room and brought to a room with a desk at the front and 5 other desks opposite it like a classroom. A woman was sitting on the desk by herself.

She looked up at us and gave a mischievous smile “I’ll take this group” she spoke, a sweet sounding voice coming from her lips.

The guard looked hesitant before the woman fixed a glare on him and he flinched before bowing and almost running away.

She gestured for us to take a seat and we did.

She stood up, walking to the front of the desk before she leaned back on it “hello, my name is Lalaria and I will be teaching you on the wonders of the system”.

The woman was beautiful but she was around my age, at a guess 19, I am 17, turning 18 soon.

So whilst she was gorgeous, she did nothing for me.

The other 4 boys with me though would’ve cursed me if i said that out loud from the way they were looking at her.

She was about 5ft 6, had long wavy black hair, with bright blue eyes and a great figure to boot.

The thing that had my attention was her reaction to the boys looking at her like that. She looked positively thrilled so when her gaze landed on me she frowned, looking confused for a moment before she schooled her expression back to the smile she had on.

“So why don’t you five introduce yourselves and then we can get started”.

The 4 others introduced themselves and then Lalaria turned to me.

“My name’s Levi Cooper,” I said.

“Well let's get started then” she went back round her desk and took out some sheets from the drawer before she passed them out and then explained what they were. 

“So this is a sheet that will explain some stuff about your systems, I want you to read it and then we can continue”.

I quickly read the sheet being the first to finish and I learned a lot.

So the System Points are used to purchase Skills but before you can purchase skills, you have to discover them by attempting to do them.

It also said some stuff about classes, in particular it had some of the most common classes on there and what do you know, Runesmith, my class was on there.

Once everyone had finished, Lalaria sat at her desk and took a sheet out before writing something on it and then smiled at us.

“So now I want all of you to tell me your classes and Unique Abilities” 

The others all had common classes but one a boy named Jason, one of those typical jock morons had a class called Reaper and Lalaria froze once she heard before an incredibly seductive smile crossed her face.

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“Oh that is a Special Grade Class, one never heard of before.

Basically, classes have rarities, it goes:

Common

Uncommon

Rare

Epic

Legendary

Special Grade.

The reason they are called special grade is because they have never been heard of before, so they don’t have a classification yet, some can be terrible or mediocre but most are incredibly powerful”.

Jason smirked smugly at each of us before Lalaria turned to me, she had a look that expected me to have an amazing class as well but that quickly dropped when i spoke 

“My class is Runesmith”.

“Ah… I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up”.

Lalaria’s POV

That Elijah resisted my Charm, I thought he may have had a special grade class once I found out Jason had one.

‘I can’t wait to eat him up’ my gaze was fixed on Jason who still had a smug look on his face.

“Now your Unique abilities, we allow you to keep them confidential and only tell them to who you want to, so I want you to write down exactly what it says on your skill menu”.

I got up and passed a sheet of paper and pen to each of them.

They all quickly wrote them down and I collected them.

Most of them were good, especially Jason’s but the one that stood out to me was Levi’s, if he had a mage class, he would be unstoppable but unfortunately, he’s just a Runesmith.

I let out a sigh at that thought, it was such a waste, such a powerful ability wasted on a weak runesmith.

Why couldn’t anything go right for us, at least we have Jason.

Elijah’s POV

Lalaria was about to start talking again before the door swung open and the King stepped in, glaring at Lalaria.

“Awwww… I thought I thought I had more time” she pouted at the King who looked furious.

“Go back to your Mother and Sisters and don’t you dare do anything to the Summoned Heroes, do you understand me?!” The king had a tone of voice that demanded you respect him. He was terrifying but Lalaria just shrugged before she started walking out.

She gave us a small seductive wave “bye boys” she cooed as she left the room.

The king put a hand to his face as he sighed “what am i going to do with her?” he mumbled.

“What now sire?” asked one of the boys.

“Ah, I will take over from now on to make sure she doesn’t come back, now where were you”

“We had just done the unique abilities and classes,” one of them said.

“Right” he picked up the sheets of paper on the table and looked them over.

“What are your classes?” he asked and we told him.

“Oh! That is an interesting combination of class and Unique Ability”.

Jason looked smug again as he straightened his back and shoulders.

“A runesmith with your ability, you have a lot of potential young man, I hope you don’t waste it” his gaze turned to me and he smiled.

Jason looked shocked before he turned to me and scowled before turning to the King “Sire, I have a Special grade class”.

The King nodded “yes you do but your ability doesn’t compliment your class as well as his does. Both of you can go very far in the future and be pivotal to the fight against the monsters, so don’t squander your potential”.

The Kind nodded “Any questions?”.

Everyone shook their heads except me, I raised my hand and when he nodded to me, I spoke.

“I have one, What is your name?” I asked.

He let out a chuckle before giving me a big grin “my name is Avian son” he nodded to me before he left, a Guard walking in after Avian left.

The Guard brought us to what I assume were the dorms since all of my classmates were there, I walked over to my group of friends and went into our room.

It had four beds in it and a door that led to a decently sized wardrobe.

We talked for a bit before a Guard came to fetch us and brought us to the dining hall where we all sat with the Royal Family.

We had a lively conversation, one of the princesses who looked to be about 16 was eyeing Jack with a blush as he chatted to me.

Lalaria had moved to a seat next to Jason and they were chatting.

The food was nice and the company of my 3 best friends was great.

Conner was still a little uncomfortable because of what happened back in the classroom but he seemed better because of this distraction.

We finished eating and were brought back to our rooms where we found extra clothes, I undressed to my boxes and jumped in my bed, falling asleep pretty quickly.

The next 2 days were spent exploring the castle with a guard escort.

We had been told that today we would start training, specifically physical training, it was up to us to train our classes. 

So that's how I found myself out in the training field behind the castle.

We were split into groups of five again, this time I was with my best friends and one more student we didn’t know.

A Guard was stood in front of us, eyeing all of us.

“So every Morning you will be doing some physical training and training with a weapon of your choice, preferably one unrelated to your class so you have a backup if needed” the Guard said.

The guard gestured to a rack positioned at the side of the field, others were already grabbing weapons from it, I had found out my friends’ classes, Jack was a Swordsman another common class so he choose a sword, Noah was an Air Mage an uncommon class so he choose a dagger, Conner was a Knight so he picked up a one-handed mace and a metal kite shield.

I walked over following them and picked up a dagger, these were all training weapons, I noticed they were blunted.

I walked back over to the instructor and we all stood back in a line.

“So first I will be giving each of you some instruction on your weapon of choice, I would recommend buying the proficiency when you have the points”.

He then proceeded to give us all some simple pointers like how to attack properly, how to hold it and some tips for when we use it.

By the end of today’s training which started at 6am and ended at 12am, I was absolutely ruined. I felt horrible, as soon as the instructor said we were done, I collapsed onto the floor and tried to calm my pounding heart.

Jack looked fine and Conner looked a little bit tired but Noah somehow looked worse than me.

Jack and Conner said they were going to go get something to eat, me and Noah gave a small nod.

It took us a bit of time to recover, once we did we decided to go have a bath.

We had been shown the baths that we were allowed to use, they were separated by gender and they were like massive bathhouses.

You would clean yourself with a showerhead, like how the Japanese do and then get into the bath to relax, the showerhead was created by some runesmith summoned heroes.

I knew after learning that information that I needed to go to the library and research what runes could do.

Me and Noah quickly went to our rooms to get a towel and some clothes before we went to the bathhouse.

We washed ourselves away from each other before we got into the bath, keeping a respectable distance between each other but enough to where we could still hear each other without having to shout.

The hot water felt amazing on my aching body, my mind was nowhere near as tired as my body was, the water soothed the aches quite a bit.

I ended up falling asleep.

I was awoken by an incredibly cold sensation covering my body, I shot up shivering and looking around frantically until my gaze settled on my three friends, laughing their asses off.

“You guys are fucking dicks” I glared at them as I sank back into the water trying to warm up.

Jack and Conner sat in between me and Conner as they let out a sigh of relief.

We were a lot closer now than what would usually be normal but it was because we were really close… In our friendship I mean!

We have known each since we were tiny little kids, we knew each other better than we know ourselves, Conner seemed a lot better than he was yesterday in regards to what happened before we were summoned.

We spent about 30 minutes chatting and relaxing before we left the bath, got dried and changed in the changing rooms before, James and Conner left to go do something and me and Noah left to go get something to eat and then go to the library.

Noah was an Air Mage so he could benefit from reading up on his class.

We ate quickly and left for the library.

We walked in to see a massive room, it was huge and completely filled with shelves of books. 

I sat down at what they called a book retrieval station, something that was built by summoned runesmiths again. Basically it was something called a teleportation rune, it was to transport any book you wanted.

You could search through a list and then request the book be brought to you.

I requested a book called ‘A Beginners Guide for Runesmiths’.

I took it to a table and sat before opening it and reading it.

I learned quite a bit over the few hours it took for me to read the book.

‘The Runes can be improved portion’ of the skill meant that as your Runesmith class levelled, your runes would automatically be stronger and more efficient.

The last part was self explanatory, it let me put more runes onto one thing, it increased every 3 levels and never changed.

I decided to start practicing as well, I had brought a spare shirt with me and a Runic Inscriber the Liberian had provided me.

Basically there were multiple Runic Inscribers, for multiple different materials, like cloth needs one that won’t pierce through whilst metal and stone needed one that was sharper and stronger.

This was negated when you become level 25 in your class since you unlock the ability to inscribe ruins with mana, so you only need a runic inscriber that can absorb mana well.

But for now I am going to have to be careful, so I decided to practice writing the automatic cleaning rune onto the spare shirt I had brought with me.

It took about 15 tries for me to inscribe it well enough that it worked. I had gotten 10 xp for successfully inscribing the rune and 1 xp for each failed attempt.

I had been told we would be getting a stipend soon that would allow us to go into town and buy the things we needed to advance our classes.

Before I left I decided to read up on the runes I would unlock and boy did it send my imagination running wild.

For example there was a rune that accelerated objects, one that stored mana, one that absorbed ambient mana, one that repelled objects.

I had gained a goal, I was going to make a revolver and grenades through the use of Creation and Runesmithing.

I already had an idea of how to do it from reading up on runes but first, I needed to level runesmith up to level 25 and level my overall level a bit.

I knew how revolvers and grenades worked thanks to my curiosity so I could exchange parts of them with runes.

For example there is a rune that explodes on a time delay, that could be used inside the grenade, the repel and accelerate runes could be used to push bullets through the barrel.

I knew what I wanted to do.

It was late so I went to bed, Noah had already left to go to the magic training ground to practise.

I quickly fell asleep, I was incredibly tired.

The next few days continued the same, dagger practice and physical training. Then I would have a bath and something to eat then go to the library and practise with runes.

Three days passed much the same, I was close to getting to level two.

Today was the day we would be getting our stipend.

We had to go to the throne room, we were lined up in front of King Avian and after some talk, a Guard came forward and gave us 10 Gold Coins.

The currency works like this:

100 Bronze Coins = 1 Silver Coin

100 Silver Coins = 1 Gold Coin

100 Gold Coins = 1 Platinum Coin

An apple was worth about 5 Bronze Coins so 10 Gold was a lot of money, granted it isn’t much for a Runesmith.

It is really expensive to practise Rune Smithing.

I would need quite a few materials to make the revolver which I decided I would make first.

I would need Level 16 for the runes I would need as well as a bunch of raw material to make the bullets and the gun itself, I will actually have to make the revolver how it would usually be made.

The runes would just be a substitute for the bullets, repel to move the bullet and accelerate to enhance the speed of the bullet, I would need to get to level 25 to be able to put 5 runes on one thing.

2 acceleration runes, one mana storage, one mana absorption, and one automatic cleaning rune.

I can add some repel and accelerate runes to the bullet to increase the speed a bit more.

It will be tough and will require a lot of trial and error but I will accomplish it.

At the end of the week on Sunday we will be going to our first dungeon to practise fighting monsters, today is Saturday so tomorrow will be our first run.

I had gotten a decent amount of practice with my dagger.

I have no way to really help besides carrying stuff we would need.

I won’t be a liability, I won’t be useless, I will be one of the strongest in this world, it will take time but I will accomplish it.

The rest of my day continued normally, I had read a book that said metal was harder to train with but gave more Runesmith xp and I would need to inscribe on metal for my grenades and gun so I decided to get some metal from town and a runic inscriber tomorrow before we leave as well as some light armour and a proper dagger.

I went to sleep that night with a smile on my face and some grand plans in my head.

The next day instead of doing training we were allowed to leave the castle to go and get what we needed.

I went into town by myself, I had been given a map and so I knew where to go, the town was lively and the streets were filled with people.

The town looked mediaeval but was clean and pristine.

The people weren’t just Humans, there were Humans with animal features that I guessed were elves and dwarves and some massive beasts with human features, I even saw a minotaur and centaur walk by.

The town was amazing and I could see that people knew who I was, they looked at me in awe, their eyes wouldn’t leave me and I was getting stared at a lot.

I knew how they knew who I was, they knew because I had 4 guards escorting me through town.

It was a very weird experience to be escorted to a shop where I could buy some items I would need.

The shop was an armour and weapons shop, I walked in, one guard following me whilst the others stayed outside.

I went up to the desk and pressed on a bell since no one was there.

“One second!” a woman shouted from a door behind the desk.

I heard some fumbling, a loud clang followed by a curse, some thudding before the door swung open, a woman coming out.

She had puffy short bright pink hair, she wore a white and pink dress and had bright green eyes.

She looked dishevelled like she had fallen or something “you okay?” I asked.

She gave me a confident grin and nodded, sticking her thumb up towards me “i’m fine! Now what can I do for you?” She seemed confused why I had a guard, then her eyes dropped to the symbol on the guards plate armour and her eyes widened considerably.

What she did next surprised both me and the guard since she grabbed my collar and pulled me towards getting right up in my face “are you a Summoned Hero?” she asked, completely serious.

I gulped and nodded slightly.

Her grin quickly came back “Hah! Losers lost the bet!” she started laughing.

“Umm… What?” I mumbled.

“Ah sorry about that, I made a bet with the other blacksmiths, who’s shop would be visited by a summoned hero first, I won”.

I nodded still a little bit confused “so I am going on my first dungeon run today and I need some light armour and a dagger”.

She smiled and nodded “then you came to the best place you could! I am Lilia and this is my shop!” She gestured around us with a massive smile on her face.

She then proceeded to walk over to a section of her shop and pick up a dagger, it had a sheath on it and when she pulled the sheath off, I was amazed.

The blade of the dagger was blue and black mixed together to form a colour that resembled midnight blue. 

The grip was a blue colour as well, and the guard was a crossguard.

“This baby is made from Moonlight Steel. I assume if you’re a summoned hero, you want a dagger because you’re a rogue or you need a backup weapon.

It doesn’t matter which you need because this is the dagger you want, not many shops have Moonlight Steel in this city” she seemed really proud of the dagger in her hand.

“How much is it?” I asked.

“2 Gold Pieces” she said.

I winced, okay let me tally it up, the metal inscriber I need is 50 silver pieces, I would need a pouch of holding which is 1 gold piece, the material which would be around 20 silver pieces, the dagger for 2 pieces, the problem is the armour.

I have enough for most stuff and I shouldn’t skimp out on what could be the deciding factor in whether i live or not. 

“I’ll take it, I also need some light armour” 

She nodded, walked back to the desk and placed the dagger back down in its sheath then walked over to where the armour was, I followed along. 

“Hmmm” she let out a hum as she eyed the different pieces of armour “what class are you if you don’t mind me asking?” she asked.

“I don’t, I am a Runesmith”

“Huh… then why do you want a light armour, medium would be much better for a runesmith”.

“I plan to become a very active fighter in the future, I already have ideas on some runic creations I want to make, I won't be a liability to my friends” she smiled when she saw my determination.

“Don’t worry kid if you are anything like the other summoned Runesmiths we have had then you will be just fine, in fact if you keep coming to my shop, I have a Brother who owns a Runesmith shop in another city, i can send him a message and ask for help, but only if you come to me if you need any gear”.

“Okay I will thank you… So light armour?” I asked.

“Oh yeah! So I recommend this” she pointed at some red amour, where the small plate breastplate metal would be, it was instead some red scales, it was like that all over except for the pauldrons, gorget, vambraces, the fauld, the scapula which is the flappy bit of leather on the front, the scapula was red but it didn’t have scales on it, the greaves and the poleyn which protect the shins and knees were metal as well as everything else i just listed.

The rest were covered with red scales, the gloves were that red leather as well.

“One of my finest pieces, King Kobold Light Armour, made from the leather and scales of a King Kobold”.

“How much is it?” I asked.

“5 Gold Pieces” 

So I would have 130 silver pieces left or 1 Gold and 30 Silver also i only just noticed but I now had a money counter on my stat page.

“I’ll take it as well as the dagger”.

She nodded before she gathered together the armour and brought it to the front desk. 

“So earlier you said I could buy anything, do you have some spare metal, I could practise rune smithing with?” 

She hummed and adopted a thinking pose “actually I think I do, one second” she quickly went into the back door again and came a few minutes later with an armful of metal.

“Ah… Sorry but I can't carry all of that at the minute”.

She let out a giggle before she waved me off and reached under the table and brought out a pouch of holding.

“This is a used pouch of holding, I assumed you were going to buy one anyway so here, take this one for 50 silver of course.

I quickly slammed down 50 silver, along with the 7 Gold for the armour and weapon.

“Also i have a metal Inscriber i can sell to you for 40 silver, I attempted rune smithing a while ago but i got bored of it really quickly and it is just gathering dust”.

“Yep! I will definitely take that too!” I put down another 40 silver “how much for the metal scrap?”

“10 silver,” she said.

I put down another 10 before scooping the metal into the pouch and tying it to a loop on my belt.

Another loop was on my belt that I put the daggers scabbard into and the dagger and jogged in place, jumped as well to test how secure it was. It was good, I had to tighten the loop slightly but it was good for the most part.

Lilia put the armour into a regular armour bag for me, similar to a sports bag but more durable, that cost 3 silver.

I took the bag and put the strap over my shoulders so it was hanging on my left side where nothing was, the pouch was on a loop on the back of my belt and my dagger was on the right side of my hip.

I then made my way back to the castle with my guard escorts.

I stopped in the middle of the main market since I decided to try some street food. Street food I learned from one of the guards escorting me wasn’t a thing until one of the summoned heroes started doing it.

I chuckled at that and walked over to a stand that had chunks of some kind of meat on a stick.

The sign at the bottom said “Kobold Meat Sticks, Very Delicious!” I chuckled at that before walking up, giving him 15 bronze for one stick, I then ate it as we continued on our walk.

The man seemed excited that i bought from him and i realised why once more people started purchasing his meat sticks once they saw i did.

I sighed at that before I just shrugged it off and decided to ignore that for now.

I continued on my way eating the kobold meat which was juicy with a bit of spice to it.

It was really nice, that’s when I noticed something, a man in ragged clothing with two little girls on both sides of him, they were huddled around each other, shivering, they were homeless, a hat was in front of them, no money in it.

“Stay here please” I asked the guards and then I walked over to the small family, crouching down in front of them, giving each of them a bright smile before I dropped 5 silver coins into the hat.

The expression of the man lit up “are you.. Are you a Hero Sir?” one of the girls said.

I was caught off guard though when the man lunged at me, a dagger coming from behind him and stabbing at my throat.

I rolled backwards, his momentum carrying him over me, we rolled and I was on top of him, I knocked the dagger out of his hands and punched him in the face.

I know it damaged him quite a bit but it wasn’t enough since he rolled us over and went to hit me, that’s when an armoured foot came crashing into the side of his head, knocking him clean out and bleeding as his body slammed onto the stone floor beside me.

I was shuck as the guard lifted me up and checked me for any damages, the other guards arresting the two kicking and screaming girls “Fucking dirty heroes deserve to die!” they shouted other things like.

“You okay sir?” the guard checking me over asked, seeing my shell shocked expression.

“Y-Yeah I am” I shuck myself out of my stupor, the guard then puts the man in cuffs, another Guard comes over to me and hands me the 5 silver back, I just stare down at the coins, absolutely stupefied.

“They were a part of the Demon Queen Cult, a Cult of followers still loyal to the Demon Queen who was defeated  and sealed away in a World Dungeon by some Summoned Heroes”.

“They are fanatic idiots” another guard helpfully supplied as he held both girls by their cuffs.

The girls were still kicking and screaming, the man was now slung over the shoulder of the Guard who had saved my life, I realised something then as I bowed to that guard “thank you for saving me”.

He froze in response, the other guards chuckling “no thanks needed Sir Hero, I was just doing my job”.

“Please, you saved my life, you can call me Elijah” I smiled at the Guard and he just nodded in response, seemingly caught off guard by my request.

“We should get going now, take these three to jail and get you back to the castle” I nodded in reply to the guard who had spoken and we headed off.

“What is your name?” I asked the Guard who had saved my life “Ryan, I am the captain of Squadron 15”.

“Again thank you Ryan” 

“It’s not a problem… Elijah” he seemed hesitant to call me by my name and the other guards were very amused by it.

“Captain is flustered,” one of them said.

“Yep he may have found his first love” another mumbled.

“Shut up you morons!” Ryan turned and shouted at the three guards surrounding me.

They started laughing and I joined in, this group reminded me of my friends.

We got to the castle pretty quickly and went into it. I split off from the group of guards, who took the three cultists away.

I headed to our room and entered to find my three friends sitting on the two beds closest to each other chatting.

“Hey” I said.

“Hi… Eli you good?” Noah paused before asking his question.

“Yea just when you’re out be careful of beggars, one just almost killed me, apparently he was a member of the Demon Queen Cult”.

“Damn that sucks” I nodded in reply to Jack’s statement.

I sat down beside Noah who was sat across from Conner.

“So anyway, are you guys ready for this dungeon run?” I asked and they all nodded.

“Check this out” Noah pulled a stick from the bag at his feet.

“Cool right?” he asked, looking really smug.

“Its a fucking stick mate” Jack said.

“N-” he was cut off by me “yea what are you gonna do with that, poke something in the eyes”.

“It’s-” he was cut off by Conner this time “yea mate it looks like you just found it outside in the training grounds”.

Noah was fuming at this point “are you-” Noah was about to say something but was cut off by Jack who went to say something else but all he got was a smack from a stick.

“It’s not a fucking stick you assholes! It’s a wand, a magical focus, i know you are too inept to understand what that is you fucking idiots!” Noah was panting now, he had a really pissed off expression.

“I knew you had anger issues but i didn’t know you were delusional as well” I said, before Noah even reacted, i was running to the other side of the room, Noah quickly started chasing me around our room trying to smack me with his stick.

It took a few minutes for Noah to calm down after he had smacked me a few times.

As much as this stung, I couldn’t help the smug smile that was spread across my face as Noah still fumed.

“I hate you guys so goddamn much” he said,

“Don’t be so easy to piss off and we wouldn’t do it as much” Conner helpfully supplied.

Noah’s response was to try and muster up the power of laser vision by glaring at him hard enough.

I chucked “we should probably get ready” I said and they quickly shot up, i had already gotten dressed in my armour and frankly it looked badass, if you wanted to know what i looked like just search up light armour on google and exchange some of the bigger parts of plate metal with red scale like armour and the brown leather for red leather.

I don’t have a clue how I would describe how I look, I just know it looked badass as fuck, one thing I can say is Llila threw in a cloth scarf that hugged around my neck nice and snug.

The others had gotten dressed and they all turned to me and proceeded to curse.

“What the fuck!” James said.

“Bullshit!” Conner said.

“My hairy arse!” Noah said.

“Why does he look cool and we don’t!” Noah shouted.

“The cunt has a fucking scarf on and he looks better than us!” Jack exclaimed.

Noah was wearing a blue robe with gold accents on it, it looked tacky as hell especially with his stick at his hip and dagger on the other.

Jack had medium plate armour on that looked more practical than what I was wearing but I knew from what Lilia had told me that Kobold scales were really strong.

Conner had some massive heavy plate armour on, he covered most of his body and I could tell he would be hot in it.

I chuckled, smiling at them before I unsheathed my dagger and they all threw up their arms in exasperation.

“Even his dagger is cool!” Noah shouted.

“Okay can I hit the scales with my mace because I don't believe that can protect you?” Conner asked. 

“Sure” I trusted Lilia to tell me the truth so I thought it wouldn’t hurt.

I was wrong, so fucking wrong, Conner did a light hit to my chest and i knew it hadn’t damaged me even a slight bit but it did send me tumbling backwards to the floor, my chest stinging in pain.

“What! How?!” Noah said, he could tell I wasn't hurt.

“We got scammed didn’t we?” James asked.

“Did you all go to the same shop?” I mumbled out slowly getting up as I fought the pain.

“Yep,” Conner nodded.

“I did some research on the shops in this town, next time come with me to the one I went to and I'll introduce you to the woman who runs it, she is very talented and good at her job”.

We then set off, heading down to the front of the castle where everyone was waiting. I think I saw Ryan, I knew it was him when he gave me a nod, the three guards closest to him nodding to me as well, I gave them a nod back.

I didn’t notice how the King, who was standing not too far from us, smiled at mine and Ryan’s interaction. 

Once all of my classmates were here, we all jumped into some carts that pulled around, there were three, one was me, James, Conner, Noah, Silica, Sarah, and Sophie, the others were split between the other carts.

Ryan and what I assumed were all guards from his squadron escorted the carts from the castle to the town and then through the town.

Our cart was at the back.

“So how have you four been?” Silica asked.

Our two groups who used to be close friends had distanced a bit because of what happened between me, Conner and Silica.

Silica sat across from me and Conner was as far as he could be from her.

“Not much really, we have just been training” I replied for us, since I knew Conner wouldn’t talk to her and James and Noah were hesitant.

“We have been doing the same, I am a Fire Mage” Silica said.

“I am a Martial Artist,” Sophie said.

“And I am a Ranger,” Sarah said.

All Common classes, decently strong if you practise enough and get good equipment and skills.

We fell into silence after that, Silica was looking down at her lap, contemplating something “look guys” she said.

She lifted her head and looked at each of us “I don’t want us to drift apart because of what happened, I miss hanging out with each of you”.

“It doesn’t matter if you miss it, it will take time for us to grow comfortable with each other again, I miss it as well but it's just how it is unfortunately” I decided to just say what we were all thinking.

“Maybe we will become closer than we were before because of this experience but we will have to wait and see” I said.

Silence followed that as each of us became occupied by our thoughts.

I was uncomfortable so I turned around to the guard that was on his horse trotting along at the side of our cart. 

“Excuse me” I said.

The Guard looked at me before he chuckled “it’s me kid, I was one of the guards with you earlier” 

“Oh which one?” I asked.

“The one who said captain was flustered, the names Micheal, the one behind me is Allan the matchmaker” Allan waved at me “and the one guy in front of me is Steve, the third guard that was with us” Steve gave me a wave.

“Well it's nice to meet you guys again, how long until we get to the dungeon?” I asked.

“About two hours, why are you bored?” Micheal asked and I nodded.

“You wanna jump on a spare horse?” he asked and I hesitated.

“I’ve never ridden one before and are you sure I'm allowed to?” I asked.

“You’ll be fine Captain likes you and we ain’t going that fast” Allan said.

“Fine then” I sighed. 

Micheal trotted his horse closer to the side of the cart “jump on” he gestured to the back on his horse.

I climbed up the back and made a very terrible jump onto his horse, I was laid across the back of the saddle “what now?”.

Micheal and Allan chuckled at my misfortune before Micheal pulled to the back grabbing a spare horse from one of the guards and dropping behind the group before letting me get off and holding the horse in place.

Micheal then taught me how to get on the horse properly, he held it in place for me.

I stood on the left side, Allan had also dropped back to keep a watch out.

I held the reins in my left hand just in front of the saddle to keep them loose, I put my left foot on the stirrup with the ball of my foot on it.

I then stepped up and swung my right leg over the horse’s rump, I was careful not to kick him.

I sat down in the saddle as gently as I could, Micheal got off and adjusted the stirrups for me, I had put my right foot in the right stirrup with the ball of it on the stirrup.

Micheal then explained how to stop my horse and how to walk with it. 

I gave the horse a gentle squeeze with my lower legs and he started walking. I seadied myself and I sat up tall, my head held up straight and I looked between my horses ears.

“Well done, you're a natural,” said Micheal from beside me.

He explained how to steer and I practiced going left and right and making sure the horse didn’t drift. 

After some practice on walking, slowing down and stopping, Micheal taught me how to Trot.

“This is all you need, if you want more training, catch me on a day off and I will be happy to teach you more”.

I gently squeezed my legs to signal to the horse that I wanted to start trotting and I did what Micheal said.

Kept my legs relaxed, I sat deep into the saddle and steadied myself by holding onto the horn. After a while of practice, about 30 minutes, I let go of the horn and managed to keep myself steady and balanced.

“Wow, you really are a natural,” Micheal said.

“Yeah not even I got it this quick and I had the skill” Allan said.

“What’s going on back here?” I heard Ryan say as he had dropped back and came riding beside Allan who was beside me on my right and Micheal was on my left.

I smiled at Ryan “sorry I asked if they could teach me”.

“Don’t worry about it Levi, I did say to treat the heroes really well so kind of my fault” Ryan said.

“Told ya” Micheal whispered to me, I don’t know where Ryan got it from but a pebble smacked into Micheal’s forehead, he should’ve been wearing his helmet but he had taken it off to teach me.

“I heard you moron!” Ryan said, Micheal grumbled beside me.

I chuckled “why am I stuck with these idiots?” mumbled Allan who received a pebble to the face mask of his helmet.

Ryan was now glaring at the two “get back into formation, Levi come with me” he ordered Micheal and Allan but asked me with just a change of tone.

I nodded as I got my horse to speed up “Ryan do you know this horse’s name?” I asked.

Ryan was about to say no I believe but Allan was still near us and turned to me “his name is Turner”.

Ryan gave a quick glare to Allan who quickly got back into formation.

Ryan took me to the front of the convoy.

We rode side by side and chatted as we rode. I was feeling a lot more comfortable on Turner by the time we arrived at the dungeon, we went through a gate that had guards posted at the top of it.

It seemed the dungeon was walled in, there were buildings and guards patrolling the place.

“Not all dungeons are protected like this one is, but it is one of the main dungeons of the City of Alaria” Ryan explained.

People were all over, Guards were patrolling but there were what I assumed were adventurers waiting around.

“Dungeoneers, a part of the guild, advance through dungeons and sell what they find if they don’t want to keep them”.

“Most dungeoneers go to cities with World Dungeons near them if they're strong enough but some prefer to hunt these smaller ones”.

I nodded and we pulled around to a stable, Ryan taught me how to dismount once I explained Micheal hadn’t.

He then taught me how to hitch Turner and then we left our horses in the stables.

I went back to my friends and smiled seeing them confused “where did you go?” James asked.

“One of the guards who was with me earlier when I was attacked taught me how to ride a horse and then I rode beside Captain Ryan and we talked on the way”.

“YOU WERE ATTACKED!” Sophie shouted as she practically appeared in front of me, Silica looking shocked as well.

“Yea it’s not a big deal the guards were there to protect me and they did”.

We then went over to where Ryan was. “So we will be going in smaller groups, groups of 5 will be going in and I will be picking the groups, you will be paired with three guards who will protect you and kill the boss for you if it is needed.

The groups will be.” 

He then listed out the four groups, I was with Sophie, Silica, Sarah and one other who I didn’t know.

We were to go in last.

So the time passed, the first three groups had finished their runs and had gone back in two of the carts.

My group went in and Ryan decided to tag along with us.

It was the one classmate I didn’t know, me, Silica, Sophie, Sarah, Ryan, Micheal, Allan, and Steve.

We were in formation as we entered the dungeons but something unforeseen happened, the ornate doors that led into the dungeon, slammed shut and we heard a click.

Allan, who was at the back, took out a torch and lit it with what I believed was a lighter made with runes.

“The door is locked” he said with no emotion in his voice.

“Shit!” Ryan cursed “So what has just happened is a Dungeon lock, so when someone enters a dungeon there is a miniscule chance that a Dungeon Lock occurs if the dungeon is close to being destroyed.

It’s like a last stand kind of thing.

What happens is the monsters become enraged and buffed and they start hunting us down instead of the other way around”.

I sighed, of course this would happen to me.