Chapter 1

By the looks of things, I’ve been kidnapped in my sleep.

Well… Shit. This isn’t exactly how today was meant to go.

It was supposed to be a breezy Friday that I wasted away playing games and reading. With the semester just finished, all I wanted was a single week of relaxation and bliss.

But nooooooo…. Someone had the brilliant idea to put me in this damp, smelly cave instead.

Since I can’t really remember doing anything that would put me in risk of becoming a new SAW movie star, I’m assuming that me and the other people here were all picked at random.

At least I had a second to myself since everyone else was still unconscious. Using this moment to calm myself, I took a deep breath and observed everything around me.

Put towards the very end of a cave, I had awoken to find myself slumped against a cold wall at my back. The cave was thankfully lit up by torches, so visibility wasn’t an issue. The only thing visible in the distance was a curve in the path, other than that it was a straight shot for a couple of hundred metres with the path being completely lit by torches.

Slumped around me were five other individuals, varying in age, race, and gender, it was impossible to find any similarities between us.

This all begged the question, where the fuck were we and why us?

Walking between each member of the group, I attempted to wake them with a gentle nudge.

Gratefully, no one was dead, and everyone was up and at em the second they found themselves in an unfamiliar environment.

“Where the fuck are we!!! Let us out!”

Yeah, that was the unfortunate downside to waking the others up. It was reasonable to be stressed out in this sort of situation. Still, that didn’t make it fun to witness a grown man throwing a fit.

With everyone awake it was now possible to get a good look at our makeshift group.

Starting from the man currently pounding at the walls and yelling about suing everyone, he was somewhere in his thirties. His brown hair was thin and holding on for dear life, it was clear that he was fighting the impossible battle but failing. The man was dressed in an office workers outfit, looking drastically different than me in my oversized t-shirt and footy shorts.

The next party member was watching the office worker with a sly smile on his face. If anyone was born with a face saying, ‘I’m up to no good,’ it was this guy. Wearing a pair of trackies and a singlet, the guy around my age had shaggy blonde hair and beard fluff that was in desperate need of a shave. He looked like a stereotypical stoner/skater that also had a hobby of bullying anyone he could. The dude’s vibes were majorly off.

Standing next to the blonde with an identical expression on her face, was a lanky brunette who was holding on to the blonde’s arm. It was quite apparent that the two already knew each other. The girl had little descript features, she was quite average in all areas. It felt like she was a shadow to the blonde guy.

Thankfully, it seemed that there was at least one other normal person in the group. Standing at the very back of the cave was a girl that looked around my age. She had lengthy black hair with a fringe and a pair of thick looking glasses which obscured most of her face. She appeared quite small but mostly since she was hunched over.

The poor girl was clearly nervous and not at all comfortable thanks to the shouting man and malevolent onlookers. Seeing her pitiful appearance, I couldn’t help but compare her to a small animal, quivering in the corner.

“Hey.”

“…”

“…”

“H-Hello.”

Well, she wasn’t deaf or mute. That’s a start.

“My name’s James, you?”

“Oh uh, I’m Ellie. Nice to meet you, James.”

Timidly grabbing my outstretched hand, we had a brief handshake before she retracted back like she was scared I was going to bite. I might not be an expert psychologist, but the girl was clearly suffering some social phobias.

For a moment I stood in simple silence with Ellie as we waited for the office worker to calm down. He was just about out of breath and was finally winding down.

Seeing this, Prick #1 and Prick #2 naturally started giggling to themselves whilst shooting glances at the man. This clearly didn’t help the situation as his face turned red and he stormed towards the duo.

God must be really testing my patience by putting these people in a group.

Before someone started swinging, I shoved my body between the two groups.

“Alright I think it’s best if we calm down, yeah? Maybe we start with some introductions?”

With my interjection the office worker regained some of his rationality and backed off, shotting one last glance at the duo who once again, laughed him off.

“Yeah man, that sounds like an amazing idea. We’ll start.”

The blonde’s name was Gabriel, or Gabe for short and the chicks name was Rebecca. Everything that came out of Gabe’s mouth had a mocking tone like he was looking down on this whole situation.

Truthfully, my patience was already running thin thanks to the whole getting kidnapped thing but taking it out on anyone her would be counterintuitive.

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Following the duo; s rule, the office workers name was Richard. By the looks of things, he had cooled his head a bit and was now treating Gabe’s snide greetings no acknowledgement.

Following their lead, Ellie stepped in to introduce herself as well.

“Hi, I’m Ellie. Nice to meet you all.”

All though she said this all whilst looking straight down and tightly clutching her sweater, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat happy that she succeeded in introducing herself.

What’s that? I’ve known her for literally five minutes. Well, she’s cute so it doesn’t matter.

But, of course, someone just had to go and ruin the vibes.

“Pfftt babe. Babe. How do you think they carried her here? Reckon they just rolled her the whole way?”

Did this bitch just…?

Strictly speaking, Ellie was a tad bit overweight, but only a real piece of filth would make a comment like that.

Clearly meaning her ‘joke’ to be overheard, Ellie simply stood in spot whilst desperately clutching at her clothes. Seeing a tear form in her eyes, I couldn’t help but want to let my frustrations out.

Yet again, doing that would help no one so I reigned it in.

“Ellie don’t worry about what some trashy lowlife says. Come on, lets go find a way out.”

Okay maybe that comment wouldn’t exactly help the situation, but fuck it, we ball.

“Why you! -“

It seemed that Rebecca wasn’t exactly happy with that remark, but she was promptly held back by Gabe who just plastered a creepily warm smile on his face as we walked past him.

Walking forward with Ellie in tow, the group naturally had us at front with Gabe, Richard, and Rebecca all somewhere behind us. Snippets of conversation could be overheard, and it seemed that Gabe was somehow chatting happily with Richard, a vast difference to his earlier actions towards him.

For about 10 minutes we continued to march forwards until we finally reached the bend in the tunnel. Reaching it, a large room was revealed.

Although it was still made up entirely of dirt and stone, extravagant decorations hung around the place.

Between golden chairs with velvety cushions, and a dazzling chandelier that lit up the whole space, the room was something I never expected to step foot in.

At one side of the room was a large counter with movement behind it, a large top hat was eagerly moving about but the actual person behind it was still not visible. For some reason someone must have put a child or dwarf behind there.

Avoiding the unnecessarily extravagant decorations which had stolen everyone else’s attention. Ellie and I made our way to the mystery person who quickly revealed themselves as we were able to peer over the large counter.

With dark green skin, pointed ears and rows of sharp teeth, a toothy grin appeared on the creature’s face. Whatever this was, it certainly wasn’t human. With my eyes glued to that shark-like mouth which threatened to shred flesh off bones, I hastily moved myself and Ellie back. If we could get our hands on a weapon of some sort, we might be fine.

Witnessing our retreat, the creature jumped on top of the counter and let out a perfectly formal bow, tipping its black top hat towards us.

Well, I’m assuming this scary looking creature wouldn’t bow and then try to eat us, so we might be safe.

“Welcome. Welcome Dear Humans to the Tutorial. My name is Grzzthlx Kepolum, or Grizz for short, and I will be your guide, your shop keep, and maybe even your friend.”

Standing back up straight with his hands on his hips in a superman style pose, Grizz’s eyes roamed the group like he was eager to be of assistance.

“…What the fuck is that?”

In response to Rebecca's barely audible whisper, Grizz beamed, once again showing off his terrifying maw of deadly teeth.

“Why, Rebecca, I am a goblin of course! Technically I am more than a mere goblin since I have gone through evolution, but you shan’t worry about that just yet!”

I must say, his appearance was off putting, but his attitude was top tier for customer service.

“Now any other questions? James? Ellie? Richardddd I KNOW you must be positively bursting with questions!”

Knowing just how this ‘Goblin’ knew our names was something I wanted to know, but the big questions come first.

“Uh yeah, hey Grizz. Where exactly are we?”

“Oh, silly me! I forgot to explain that! Well, James, as your planet is undergoing Ascension, you have naturally been transported to a Tutorial dungeon to complete.”

Oh… Cool cool cool. Yep, tutorial dungeon, Earth going through Ascension. Totally just a normal Tuesday.

“And why exactly are we here?”

“Well, you wouldn’t want to die thanks to rampant mana, would you? Ahhh, I see the issue, you all have no idea about the Ascension process, do you?”

Receiving hesitant nods from everyone, Grizz continued his spiel.

“Okay so the crux of things is that Earth has absorbed enough ambient mana to undergo Ascension. What this means for you is that your planet will expand to properly be able to house mana, but in doing so it will give the surface a clean slate, no humanmade constructions will survive the transformation.

However, since the ‘System’ would rather keep your species alive, all humans will be going through a Tutorial dungeon to adapt to your new world.

Well, you can worry about all that for later, right now your immediate concern is clearing this dungeon safely, but of course I won’t just send you out there like lambs to the slaughterhouse!”

Knowing that civilisation as we know it is getting destroyed isn’t exactly a comforting though, but Grizz was right. My immediate concerns should be on surviving this dungeon to even get back to Earth in the first place.

Watching Grizz jump back behind the counter, the agile goblin quickly scurried through a back door that was just out of sight.

Hearing a few expletives and the clinking sound of metals, the group waited patiently for their minute friend to re-emerge.

After a minute of awkward silence between everyone, Grizz made his presence known by slamming down a leather bag on top of the spacious counter.

Unfurling the bag from the top string, an arsenal of cold weapons was revealed.

Swords, spears, bows, every popular medieval weapon was in the bag which clearly broke some laws of physics by fitting everything in it.

“Take your pick! Take your pick! For only this floor you can get a 100% Discount on any one item! Pick carefully!”

Like an experienced salesman, Grizz got everyone to eagerly peruse the collection of weapons. Not wanting to be left out, I walked along the counter occasionally testing a few weapons.

Naturally, I had no prior experience with anything here, but so far it felt like the best choice would be a sword or spear.

Stuck between weapons that were like alien objects to me, I was just about ready to go with a spear before a quite interruption stopped.

“James… Are you planning on going with the spear? Maybe if…”

Ellie mumbled the rest of her sentence inaudibly, but something about her had changed compared to her previous demeanour.

Before she was shying back and clearly hesitant to talk at all, but now a sparkle was hidden in her eyes as she looked over the weapons in front of her.

“Oh yeah, I was planning on that?... Why’s that?”

“Well, I was thinking maybe a sword and shield would be better? You might get caught out with the spear and have no way to defend yourself, so in narrow corridors like the tunnel a sword and shield would maybe be better.”

Wow. I hadn’t really put any thought into my weapon to be honest, but it was clear Ellie was properly considering the choice.

Thinking about it myself, having a shield would be much more comfortable compared to having a bit more reach with the spear.

“Damn I hadn’t really thought about it, but I think you’re right. What weapon will you go with then?”

Looking over at Ellie who was slowly looking through each weapon on display, I couldn’t help but feel captivated by the focus she was putting into this. Her appearance right now was mesmerising.

After a couple more minutes of perusal, she eventually picked out a sword and shield combo, and a short spear.

Looking out what she picked out, the weapon was longer than most of the available swords but still shorter than the regular spears. It seemed that she also listened to her own advice.

Ellie turned back at me and only just noticed I had been watching her the whole time.

Instantly a red flush took over her face as she refused to make eye contact.

Handing over the weapons she had picked, I graciously accepted.

“Cheers a bunch! You’re life saver.”

Hehehe, flattery was super effective.

Ellie has been inflicted with even more of a blush.

Content with my teasing of the cute girl in front of me, we made our way to Grizz as the last people to pick a weapon.

He simply let us take them without fuss before beckoning us to the large wooden doors on the opposite side of the room.

It seemed that it was now time to put these weapons to use.