I slashed.
I cut.
I sliced, and still I was pushed back by the beast.
My heart pounded in my chest like a drum, and my breath came sharp and hard, like a hail storm, filled with burning pain and the taste of blood.
My knife slide from my sweat slickened grasp, leaving me with a single weapon. My trusty sword, iron and weak, sizzled at the touch of the monster.
Slimes, everyone hates them, worse than rats. But they are a necessary evil when a grade G adventurer enters a lair. That would be me. Newly minted adventurer Graey Thorn without a single skill, stat grade, or magic to my name. Nice to meet you, now excuse me, I'm in the middle of something.
The green blob of goo advanced, pushing me back. How far back I had left to go, I didn't know but I could feel the wall was close even if I wasn't touching it. Is this how it ends, digested by a pest?
It was possible. Many adventurers don't survive their first contact with the monsters. I could be one of them.
Well, if that was going to happen I'd best go out fighting. I roared my anger, fear, and desperation into the dim cavern, surprising the blob.
My second, or was it third?, wind came and powered my strikes. Goo flew out with each blow, splattering the stone, painting my skin with stinging points. Somewhere inside the goo was the nucleus, that is what I needed to get to, but I couldn’t see it. So I was left with blind chance and excessive force.
The blob diminished with each strike, the substance of its being torn away with my attacks, but it kept coming, pressing tighter against me, limiting my reach. And then it slammed into me using what remaining mass it had to knock me back.
I stumbled and fell on my back, but kept hold of my sword. Ouch, my whole body ached with the force but I regained my feet, just in time to slash before the goo covered my face.
My sword slid through goo and struck something. The slime shivered and then dissolved into motes of light. Music filled my senses, triumphant horns, and soft strings. The nucleus, a rock like ball, lay on the floor, a subtle glow to it.
I stood, feeling victorious, adrenaline pounding through my veins. I made it. I survived my first encounter. I was an adventurer. The dream like change between life threatening combat and this gave it a sense of unreality, almost enough to make me forget what I had to do.
Almost.
I picked up my prize, it was soft and warm, unlike the stony look it had, and placed it in my pouch. It wasn't worth much in coin, but it was my first drop. Proof of my adventurer status and hopefully a chance to replace my damaged equipment. Retrieving my lost weapon I bent, feeling twinges all along my side where I overextended in my short but fierce battle. The way out was close, it was only a new lair. Lairs were rarely larger than a single floor, a few rooms at most.
I'd been attacked within moments of entering. It was a short battle but it was almost more than I could handle. But today I would get my proper adventurer card. I would get to upgrade my stats, maybe.
Walking through the bramble woven tunnel I stepped into light. I shielded my eyes with my hand and looked around. It was the same as when I entered a short while ago. Just a hole in the hedge along the road that cut through the outlying farms.
It was afternoon just, the sun shining brightly. Hot after the dimness of the lair. Hot enough to create shimmers over the bare dirt road. I set off to the town, my throat feeling dry, but the soft stone in my hand banishing all discomfort to a place in the back of my head.
Cobbles replaced dirt soon enough, and I came to the market square which was always busy with adventurers coming and going from the guild. The adventurer’s guild stood firm its grey stone facing looked imposing in such a small town, but there was a branch everywhere. I made my way through the milling crowds to the entrance, and looked up.
The stone arch had an inscription: Adventure is around every corner.
It certainly is.
Crossing the threshold gave me relief from the heat of the day but the shift from light to dark again played havoc on my eyes, and I missed seeing the person heading right into me.
“Get out the way boy. Adventures are coming through,” a huge man in armour that shone announced before barrelling right into me.
I was knocked aside like fly. The flagstones hurt, but my eyes were on the armoured guy, his armour was unique. And instantly recognisable as Blue the giant's slayer. The only S grade adventurer currently active.
My gaze followed him and his entourage out the open door of the guild branch and into the street where he quickly vanished.
“Are you okay?” A voice asked me. I turned back to see a hand at my level, clearly offering to help me up.
I took it.
“Thanks, yeah I'm fine. That was Blue. What is he doing here?”
“Just talking to the branch manager. I don't know what about.”
“Sorry. Who are you?”
“I'm Gisselle. I work here. We met earlier. I was the one that told you about the lair.”
“I'm really sorry. Of course, but I didn't get your name.”
“Hardly surprising, you were too excited. You came back quickly; I take it you succeeded.”
“Sort of. I killed a slime. But I did not defeat the lair. It’s still there.”
Gisselle gestured and we walked over to the private booths near the back of the main floor. We sat down and she pulled something under the table and a drawer slide open from the top of the table near the wall. Inside it was a book.
“Do you have anything to prove you defeated the slime?”
“I have the nucleus if that counts?”
“That would do it. If you would pass it over, I will reimburse you for any lost equipment, this time. first mission only. And I will give you your Adventurer's Card.”
“Finally. Will I get an upgrade straight away?”
“We shall see. You know it isn't in my hands. Now the core, if you will.”
I fished around in my small pouch, before pulling out the soft nucleus and placed it on the table.
“Good,” she said, and picked it up, examining it in the light coming through the windows. “Green slime?”
“Yeah. Not very big, but it gave me a bit of trouble.”
“Hardly surprising. if it hadn't you wouldn't be here. The life of an adventurer is one of struggle. You need passion to activate the card.” She slid the core into the table which seemed to melt to accommodate it. A faint glow emanated from the table in response. She took my hand forcefully and pulled a knife that I didn't know she had. The point drew blood from the tip of my finger.
The ruby drop fell before I could respond, pulling my hand from her grasp. It landed on the blank pages of book. Absorbed into the yellow vellum in an instant. The glow of the table surged, condensing around the book.
“Prepare yourself for this. It may feel strange.”
I'd heard stories about the moment that an adventurer was confirmed but nothing could have prepared me for it.
My body tingled; first like pins and needles and then more, greater like my blood was shaking. The music from the lair filled my senses, louder and clearer than before. And then pain came.
It was like acid boiling through my veins. Like fire in my head. And I was mute and motionless locked in position while mana ravaged me.
Gisselle watched me closely, her eyes sharp.
And then it left me, numb almost.
“That is done. No unusual events as far as I could see.”
“Does it always hurt?”
“Just the first time. Updating your card should be painless. Here you go.” She pressed into my limp hand a black metal plaque. A small red gem embedded in the corner twinkled at me in the streaming sunlight.
I looked at it, unsure of what to do now that I finally had my adventurers card. It changed before my eyes, the black falling away to reveal silver underneath and words. Not the usual words either, but angular marks that I nonetheless could read.
Adventurer Graey Thorn: Grade G
Health: 10/10
Mana: 34/40
Strength: G--
Agility: G--
Constitution: G--
Intelligence: G--
Wisdom: G--
Dexterity: G--
Skills: Unknown
Magic: Unknown
“I see you have figured out how to read it,” Gisselle comment as I was engrossed at seeing my life laid bare. Having every part of me reduced to a grade filled me with an irrational anger for a moment.
“You know, it’s representative. None of the grades are perfect, just what it reads from you when your mana matrix is configured. That was the pain. It allows you to use the potions and drops of the monsters by making you compatible.”
“So I'm part monster?”
“No. don't be silly. It only changes you a little bit, just enough to unlock your potential. You might have noticed that you don't have an exp gauge, that's because everyone is different. It might change as you advance.”
“Oh.” I couldn’t take my eyes from the silvered card in my hands. It was everything I'd worked for for years.
“Advancement, we can discuss when you are ready. I have noted the equipment missing and a requisition is on your card. Show it to the blacksmith or the tailor to get yourself kitted out at our expense. I will warn you though, this is a one-time deal, don't abuse it. That nucleus was worth a few coppers but that should be enough for you.” She stood to leave and got halfway to the counter at the back before shouting back. “Congratulations, Adventurer.”
I walked back to my lodgings in a daze. It was real. I was really an adventurer. Something that I had worked for for years. And it was mine now. The card had a weight to it, a sense of significance that gave it almost a mythical power in my mind. Having it in my hand was just too unreal.
I turned my attention away from the warm silver metal and onto the road. Cobbled streets led through the main districts, not that there were many in such a small place, but anywhere that has an adventurer's guild branch benefits. The changes that came upon my town once the branch established itself were almost enough to render it unrecognisable. But I wove my way through paths worn in my mind by years of walking them. Even though I no longer lived in the slums I still knew the place like the back of my hand, and no longer living there may have been a bit of a reach. I was on the edge.
You have to be sixteen to become an adventurer. I was eighteen now; I needed to save up for registration and getting the basic kit. There are costs to everything and changing your lot in life is the most expensive. Running errands was the best a slum kid could hope for to earn a few coins, and I ran those errands as if my life depended on them.
My lodging house was run down. Broken steps and faded paint over cracked wood greeted me as I walked up to the door. But it was cheap and the old lady who owned it was willing to take a chance on me, which was rare.
I went up the creaking stairs to my room. It was small, and oddly shaped. Just a bed against one wall, narrow and uncomfortable, and a small table with a basin on it filled the room. But it was enough for me. I sat down on the bed, feeling the hay stuffed mattress give out a little more one me at the added pressure. It would need restuffing later. I had other things on my mind.
Now that I was an adventurer, I needed to plan my development. Lots of different paths stood open to me now. I could be a crafter. Or an archer, or a mage. Or any of a million things, but they all cost money and time and I was on the clock. Just getting my card wasn't enough. It would never be enough, it was just a step.
My grandmother, before she died, didn't want me to be an adventurer. But she died in poverty from a disease that magic could cure. If only an adventurer had been about to heal her I would still be with her. My grandfather, on the other hand, had been an adventurer when he was young, not a very successful one but he did well enough to buy some land and set him and his wife up. He died in his sleep a few years before my grandmother. Not that it made any difference. I grew up on stories of heroes. Of epic battles and conquering dungeons. Is it any wonder I was where I was?
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Planning the development of an adventurer was a tricky thing and I didn't have access to many of the advantages that the fabled heroes and their children would, ones like Blue. I would just have to wing it.
Much of the knowledge was suspect anyways. Too many factors to count. Character. Tendencies. Background. Things outside of the stats that the card revealed. Like Giselle said, it was representative. But who could put everything about someone into a little box called Strength or Skills? No one, not even the gods could do that without changing the very nature of reality. So no matter what the card said, it didn't change anything, not just yet. Maybe once I had a few advancements under my belt that would be different.
I still had to check out the blacksmith or the tailor for equipment but I came home because I needed to figure out which way to go. I pulled out my corroded sword and just stared at it. The little pits and streaks of rust on it marked my ascension as one of the blessed.
For a long moment, I considered leaving it here. Keeping it as a memento, but that wouldn't help me. Hanging onto something like a sword that I couldn’t use would do nothing but hold me back, and I needed the replacements.
I stood, took a deep breath and squared my shoulders and left the room carrying my card in one hand and sheathing my sword with the other.
“Boy, look where you are going. You near ran me down,” Granny lily said, her voice cracking with age.
I looked up from my contemplations to see her right in front of me. Her wrinkled face split into a broad grin revealing missing teeth. “So, you got your card? You're an adventurer now?”
“Yeah.”
“Then you can help me fix this place up. It’s not fit for a real adventurers. It will take some real coin to do right but it will be worth it, just you wait and see. We will do this properly.”
“Um, sure. How much coin are we talking?”
“Thousands of gold. But you are an adventurer. It shouldn't take you long as long as you work hard. Get out there. You need to grade up”
“I haven’t even decided my growth yet.”
“Time enough for that later. Go. Dinner will be ready when you get back.”
Crazy old woman. She near pushed me out the door.
The market square had all the facilities that the adventurers needed, but many of the best places were hidden, tucked away in the backstreets. I found myself wandering almost aimlessly through the tiny alleys and paths that crisscrossed the town. Here the cobbled were covered in mud and dirt. Less effort was spent keeping it clean, which made sense given the lack of traffic it would see but even the shop fronts showed the general lack of care. Peeling paint and dirty almost opaque windows hid wonders from the eyes of casual passers-by, but for those like me who lived here, we knew the secrets.
Wallace’s weapon’s was where I get my first weapons from, and it only cost me a lot of hours of scut work, but it was worth it.
I stepped through the door, pushing against the warped wood, and entered a smoky room. In the back a faint red glow illuminated the face of Wallace as he slaved over his forge.
He was a big man, but most blacksmiths were. It wasn't just physical. Wallace had a way about him that made even the toughest men submit. And he didn't talk much.
“Wallace, I've come to get some replacement weapons. I'm an adventurer now.”
The big man didn't even grunt, he just looked at me. His eyes lingering on the state of my rough leather clothes, and my weapons.
“Slime eh?”
“Yeah, a green one.”
“Well, you have your card, so I'm assuming you got a free pass on starter kit. Let's see it.”
I handed it over without complaint, but with a question. “You can read them? I thought they were unique to each adventurer.”
“Live long enough, you learn a few tricks.” He said, as he looked it over before passing it back. “Well, you have a free pass on anything under a gold. You could have gone anywhere, but you chose here, so I’m going to give you some free advice. The sword isn’t for you.”
Huh? My hand patted the hilt of the iron blade defensively in response. It had served me well enough, and I just needed training.
“All the heroes have swords.”
Wallace shrugged and turned back to his to his work. “Pick something out. I trust you enough to know you aren’t going to scam me. Pick up your leathers from Jessie next door. She will measure you up.”
I browsed through the equipment that was littered around the store. Racks covered in dust and soot filled with weapons lined all the walls, but nothing stood out to me.
I picked up a sword the same shape and size of my current one but it had a shine to it: steel. It was lighter, and moved better as I shifted my grip a few times, trying out poses. A matching set of knives completed the weapon side of the deal.
“Thank you Wallace. See you soon.”
“I hope so boy, I truly do.” Wallace muttered.
Walking out into sunlight again, I turned to Jessie’s leather working store. It was literally right next door, and in almost equally bad repair.
“Graey, I was hoping to see you again. Such a nice young man. It does us folks good to see the young ones like you, always willing to lend a hand. What brings you to see me today anyways?” Jessie said as I stepped into the store. Her wide smile stretched her wrinkled face.
She was old, really old. But she was a nice old lady who made some of the best leather armour in town. I worked here for a bit when Wallace was in one of his moods.
“I got my card. I’m an adventurer now. They said I can get a set of equipment on them. But it’s a one-time deal.”
“An adventurer already? I thought you had a ways to go yet. Are you ready for it?”
“I was born ready.”
She laughed, but her worry shone through. Adventurers didn’t tend to live long. Occupational hazard.
“Well then, let’s get you kitted out in style. Come through the back and I’ll measure you up.”
She grabbed a length of knotted cord off her counter. It was her measuring cord, the knots tied at regular intervals along it to make measuring simple and quick. She never went far from it.
I followed her through the beaded curtain into the back. It was here that all the magic happened, where leather was cut and sewn to create clothes and armours.
“Hop on the step and stand like we used to get the clients to,” she instructed.
I did. My legs shoulder width apart, my back straight, and my arms held out to my sides. The cord darted around me, quick and simple like everything Jessie did.
“You have grown a touch in the shoulders. It must be all that fighting. All done, you can relax now.”
I lowered my arms and turned to look at her.
“So what do you want?”
“That’s the thing Jessie. I don’t know. I’m new, and I was hoping you would have a recommendation.”
“You haven’t been an adventurer long enough to have a style so that opens up some options,” she mused. “Maximum protection, of course, and minimum restriction. Could you show me the range of movement you use please? Shadow fight in front of the mirrors.”
I lifted the step and moved it to the edge of the room, clearing a space, before drawing my sword. Turning to face the mirror I tried to act out the fight with the slime. Slashing and stabbing at thin air made me feel silly but it was for a good cause. I kept it up for a few moments, show casing the larger movements for Jessie.
“That should do. You need to work on your fighting. Your form is weak. But I can see potential. I have a few things made up that would suit you, but they are beyond the value of the guild pay out.”
I winced before asking, “how much beyond?”
“Enough that you probably can’t cover the difference. I could make you something just for you, which would be better but even more expensive.”
“Is there nothing for me then?”
“I didn’t say that. You are a good kid Graey, so if you will come back and lend a hand with things here a couple of times a week, I will get you what you need.”
“So I just need to help out like I did before?”
“Pretty much. But now that you are an adventurer, you may be able to learn some skills that are unique to adventurers. If you pick any up, I want to know. They may be useful here.”
“Oh. That sounds fair, more than fair. It’s too much isn’t it?”
“Probably, but I like you. I don’t want to send you off in substandard gear and find out you died. So take it, and come back often. Okay?”
“Okay. I will do my best.”
“Just wait right here then while I fetch a few choices.” She pottered off toward the main floor, her back hunched as her age caught up with her.
She was spry enough but I felt saddened that all the people I knew were old, except Gisselle, and would not be able to join me on my adventures.
Jessie came back quickly with a set of armours on each arm. “This one is for if you think you are going to take a beating. It's thick enough to stop most low grade monster attacks. It even has slight resistance to acid, fire, and magic,” she said, holding up the one on the left. It was heavy, thick, and black.
“This one is lighter, it gives you enough protection but its limited to certain areas. You would have to learn to use it properly. I do think it will be worth it though.”
This armour was grey. Thick plates of hardened leather covered areas over the chest, legs, forearm, and shoulder, the rest was supple and soft. I fell in love instantly.
“The grey one. Can I try it on?”
Jessie laughed. “Of course you can. It should fit near perfectly. It was a custom job for someone about your size, but they never came to collect it.”
Oh. That didn’t sound good. But their loss, my gain. I reached forward and took the proffered armour. The leather whispered against my fingers, subtle ripples in the surface not quite giving me enough to determine what animal the leather came from.
“How do I get it on?”
“Here,” she said, putting down the other set and showing me the hidden clasps that held the grey one together. “This bit connects the jacket to the pants. You don’t want a gap there. It’s a target. Slide your arm in here, then your other. Sort out your pants before, but for now just get the jacket on. I don’t have the boots but I can get Greg to send a set to you. No extra charge. You want the right fit of boots. Ill measure you up after this, but for now move around in it. Get a feel. It will be an adjustment.”
I followed her instructions. Looking in the full length mirrors that surrounded the room, I saw me.
The grey leather covered every inch except my face and my feet. Gauntlets clipped into the jacket. Thick ridges plated the gauntlets giving me another weapon if I needed it. My shoulders looked huge, but my slim frame carried the armour well. If anything I now looked like an adventurer. I looked serious, professional, and deadly. I looked real instead of a boy playing dress up.
The pants where they attached to the jacket had small rings for a belt. I slide my sword belt through, shifting the angle for a quick draw. Once I was done Jessie clapped.
“You look good Graey. Now don’t die in it. I’m serious. You have to pay it off before you can die. So get going and come back to me, okay?”
I smiled at the genuine concern in her voice. “I will. Thank you.”
“You are very welcome. See you soon?”
“Yes. I will drop by every week.”
She nodded and let me go.
With my new armour I felt invincible. It was soft where it needed to be soft and hard where it needed to be hard. It was perfect. And it raised me even higher than most starter gear would. Although I had another debt to pay off, I was on my way.