Ludo returned to civilization once more with his bag swelled with loot. Balessia was as unappealing as ever with its brown streets, gray atmosphere and run down wooden houses, such was the place Ludo called home. He reached Auria’s shop and once inside dropped dead on his bed, exhausted from the adventure that had ended a day before. Resting for days, his mind slowly became obsessed with that building hidden deep inside the forest, questioning its existence and use. Ludo got up once more and searched for Auria for answers. He found her busy stocking up empty shelves and speaking to a beast-man about spider soup, Ludo flinched at the though of it.
“What’s the matter, Ludo?” Auria said, catching Ludo slightly off guard, still busy picturing how a spider soup would look and taste like.
“It’s something I’d like to talk with you in private.” Ludo said bluntly. Auria nodded and told him to meet her in the evening.
In the meantime, Ludo left Auria’s shop and went to the guild were he dropped off all the quests he had done, much to the surprise of Claus and every adventurer close enough to notice the sheer amount of quest papers and loot he handed to Claus. The bartender began checking everything Ludo had taken out of his bag, earning a series of wows from some adventurers who didn’t mind prying into other’s business.
“Three rank F quests. Another rank E quest! And a whole lot of rank Gs.” Claus muttered, disappearing under the bar and reappearing again with a strange device. “Hand me your permit, please.”
Ludo pulled out his permit and Claus yanked it from his hands, placing on the table and holding the strange device above permit. The device created a green light and made strange sounds. Ludo’s curiosity got the better of him and he inspected it with his magical eyes.
CONFIRMER
“Is that a confirmer?” Ludo asked. Expecting Claus to take the bait.
“You know about this?” Claus was slightly taken back and so was Ludo, realizing he had no follow up to his question.
“I heard some adventurers talk about around here.”
“So you know what it does?” Claus asked.
“I think” Ludo spurted out, not sure if he should lie or admit defeat. The device made two sounds in quick succession and the green light flickered before shutting off. Claus put it away under the bar and handed Ludo the permit back.
“Congratulations on your rank up.”
Ludo was unsure what Claus meant by that when he take a closer look at his permit, he was no longer rank G but F. Despite how small of an increase it may had seemed, he couldn’t contain himself and thanked Claus multiple times, ignoring the bartender’s attempts to stop him. Ludo left the guild and proceeded to meander around Balessia, unsure of what to do now.
“I’m certain with the rewards you’ve got, you can get something interesting, no?” Ben said at the back of his head.
Ludo didn’t hesitate to spend the rest of the day treating himself to the most lavish of foods and bathing in an expensive bathhouse near the rich district. With the sun setting and his bag now lighter, he returned to Auria’s shop where she was already waiting for him with her usual wine bottle and appetizers.
After a drink or three, Ludo got straight to the point, asking Auria about the strange building buried deep in the once lush forest. Ludo went into every detail he could remember, Auria shuddered and leaned forward multiple times, almost falling from her seat more than once before sinking on her chair and covering her mouth. Ludo thought she was going to vomit from too much wine when she began laughing.
“I can’t believe it.” She said, covering her mouth with her hands. “There has been one of those here in Balessia the entire time!?”
“One of what?” Ludo asked.
“A dungeon”
For a brief second the room became silent as Ludo processed the information, the only thing making noise was the popping of small wax bubbles from the candles nearby. Ludo cleared his throat as Auria waited eagerly for his response.
“Is that like the prisons inside castles?”
“Yes, but the prisoners are monsters, tens of thousands of them” Auria drank again. “And they go thousands of meters underground, they’re a lethal labyrinth to anyone who goes unprepared.”
“And how deep is that!?” Ludo stuttered.
“A lot.” Auria shrugged. “The monsters in the deeper levels become so strong that no one dares to try and fight them.”
“Not even high ranking adventurers?”
“Not even heroes, no one but the heroic kings of old have managed to complete a dungeon.”
Ludo was taken back by that statement, he wasn’t learned in Adreria’s history but the heroic kings appeared in much conversations he overheard from adventurers, he had quickly learned that they were from before written records existed, they were beings shrouded in mystery and legend.
“Didn’t those heroic kings live thousands of years ago!?” Ludo said, Auria simply nodded.
“Have you told anyone?” Auria asked. Ludo shook his head. “Good, you might want to capitalize the dungeon for a while before the guild or the city find out about it and before you ask its because, they usually organize an entrance fee and demand a ten percent of your loot as you leave. So keep that in mind.”
The usual sounds of the denizens of Balessia had quieted down at that point, with only a distant bark coming through the windows from time to time. Auria yawned and excused herself, saying her good nights to Ludo. However, she stopped at the doorway and faced Ludo once more.
“And before you decide to do something dumb, make sure you get a party before going into the dungeon, doing that alone is suicide!”
With that warning she left Ludo to clean up their night snack. Ludo returned to his room and simply laid on his bed by the window. Looking at the darkness filled world a wall away until he went to sleep, his dreams ran wild, being only about the dungeon and what mysteries and monsters were hidden behind those intimidating walls.
He began his next day grabbing the usual list of items that Auria needed for him to look in the forest, equipping his armor and placing Glass Guardian on her sheath. As he left Auria’s store, she called out to him.
“Remember to stay away from that place until you’ve formed a party!”
Her warnings fell on Ludo’s empty head as he breezed through the adventurer’s guild, grabbed as much rank F quests as he could carry, as he grabbed one last quest a hooded figure walked up to him.
“Hello?” Ludo said, trying to start a conversation but the hooded figure remained silent and walked up to the tavern’s bartender. This is when he realized the hooded figure had not taking an a quest from the board, but instead had placed a quest on it.
Quest available
Rank: a
LOCATION: FOREST
Kill the marauding giant; bring proof of kill.
Reward: 5 GOLD COINS
“Woah…” Ludo gasped and the entire tavern exploded into a frenzy, piling on top of each other and almost crushing Ludo to death trying to see the quest with their own eyes.
After that, the adventurers to the bartender on duty who was quickly overwhelmed by the adventurers who demanded wanted to see the proof of the reward, the horde of adventurers caused such a commotion that Bohdan had to show his face again. Angrier than ever, Ludo expected another brawl to break out but instead all the adventurers stepped on a double file and greeted Bohdan as if they were soldiers and he was their general. The entire situation was a sight to behold.
Bohdan grunted and scolded the adventurers before waving and smiling at Ludo who nervously waved back. Bohdan returned to the back rooms of the tavern and the atmosphere relaxed, Ludo began gasping for air, realizing he had stopped breathing because of how tense it was. Not wanting to experience that again, he left the guild and rushed to the forest, his mind now a tug of war between giant hunting and dungeon exploring.
The hours rolled by and Ludo strolled through the easier quests, the usual slimes bored him, and many of the rank F quests were about collecting rarer materials from the trees. Finally having enough after grabbing his third Neople. He set his eyes at the direction of the dungeon.
“Don’t even think about that!” Ben said suddenly at the back of his mind. “You don’t even have a party!”
“It’s been a while, Ben.” Ludo said, ignoring Ben’s scolding.
“You haven’t been needing for a while.”
Ben wasn’t lying, it had been a almost a week since he had even spoken or called out to Ben, between Auria and Claus and sometimes Galti, he had enough people to teach him how the world worked. Feeling a little guilty, Ludo shifted topics.
“When I woke up, you asked me what I wanted to do.”
“And you chose to be an adventurer.”
“Only because it sounded fun.” Ludo chuckled as he walked cautiously through a tree’s gigantic roots, in the distance he could see a giant millipede running through.
“And is it fun?”
“Of course! But what do you want to do?” Ludo asked Ben
“Me? I don’t really have a body.”
“But its obvious that you are a different person from me.”
Ludo kept walking towards the dungeon, finding the scorched part of the forest and not long after, the entrance of the dungeon. The entrance seemed to have been dug out, a clear path now set up for easier access. Ben had been silent all that time.
“So this were your true intentions? I feel betrayed.” Ben said.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
“No, I actually want to know what you’d like to do.”
“Hmm… what about taking care of a plant?”
“What?” Ludo asked, the sudden answer took his mind out of a dungeon for a second. “What do you mean by that?”
“I just think taking care of a plant is amazing, growing something from a small pebble like object into a great tree or bush that gives you fruits is amazing.”
“I’ll think about it.” Ludo responded as he pushed the dungeon gates open, still thinking over Ben’s answers. The doors creaked and croaked, a storm of dust raged all around his face and a vast cold unending dark pathway welcomed him. He was now inside the dungeon.
Lighting a torch, Ludo began walking down the dark path, the air was cold and distant screeches resonated through the sombre corridor. Ludo’s hands trembled and his breathing became erratic.
“You’re scared now?” Ben said.
“Shut up, Ben. You’re not the one that—“
A screech made Ludo jump, the floor ahead of him was being dug out from under, a long slender shadow emerged from the whole. Ludo approached carefully, his hands ready to draw out Glass Guardian, at first he thought it was a plant or something equally harmless but as he got closer he found out the macabre reality. It was an arm.
The skeletal arm moved again, twitching unnaturally while Ludo choked on his own scream. The arm found footing on the broken ground and out of the ground a whole skeleton pushed itself out from it, its other arm brandishing a sword. To Ludo’s horror, behind the first skeleton came out two more, each one armed as well. Before anything else could happen, Ludo inspected the three skeletons with his magical eyes.
SKELETON
UNHOLY
LEVEL 1
THREAT: LOW
“That’s not that scary.” Ludo let out a relived sigh. He took out Glass Guardian and attacked the skeletons, the six level difference became blatant as the battle was done in six seconds.
“Well you had your fun, Ludo, but its time to leave the dungeon.” Ben said as Ludo stared at the pile of bones, his excitement and lust for adventure rising every second.
“Ludo…?” Ben repeated. Ludo ignored Ben and ran further into the dungeon, many low level skeletons rose from the cold ground to meet him and returned to the ground mere seconds later. It didn’t take long for Ludo to arrive at a room after breaking through its locks.
Unlike the corridor behind him, the room was cladded in rich tapestries and carpets, well lit and a small chest rested at a pedestal in the center of the room. To Ludo’s surprise, the chest seemed to create its own light, glowing lightly as if to attract his attention. Curiosity got the better of him and ignoring Ben’s warnings yet again, Ludo walked towards the chest and almost lost his head as a result, an axe grazed his neck and a little bit of blood came rushing down.
Ludo jumped away, giving himself distance from whatever attacked him laying his eyes on his new enemy.
SKELETON BRUTE
UNHOLY
LEVEL 4
THREAT: MEDIUM
Clad in a steel cuirass and equipping an axe and shield, the brute was quickly joined by three other skeleton with similar armor and weapons. Ludo was not deterred as their level was low, but he still wavered a bit because of their fearsome appearance.
“Any tips?” Ludo asked Ben.
“You should probably retreat, form a party and come back later.” Ben replied.
Groaning, Ludo jumped back as a brute swung his sword at Ludo, connecting with the floor and sending pieces of rock everywhere. Even though the brute was at a lower level than Ludo, he knew that if the sword had hit him, he would’ve died. A chill ran through his spine and his legs trembled.
“Gonna retreat now?” Ben asked.
Ben’s sarcasm was somehow enough to snap Ludo out of his fear, a mixture of petty bravery filled his soul as he rushed forward with Glass Guardian and aimed the sword at the brute that had just attacked him. The brute moved faster than his body would allow, putting his shield between himself and Ludo. Ludo’s strength was enough to push the skeleton brute away from the battle entirely.
Ludo weighed his odds, he was outnumbered four to one and the brutes weren’t that far behind in levels, a few well placed strikes by them and he would be dead. He could retreat or he could run away.
“Isn’t that the same option?” Ben asked.
“No Ben, those are two completely different things, which is why I’m going for the third option.”
“And that is?”
“Fighting!”
Ludo charged at the brutes and the brutes charged at him, evading shield bashes and sword swings with his speed. Ludo’s mind kept racing, thinking of a plan on how to defeat the brutes, after jumping over their unarmored heads, he decided on a plan as a brute missed his shoulder by inches.
Jumping on a wall, he executed said plan, leaping at the three brutes and slashing them with Glass Guardian as he ran through them. Once he was done he turned around and to his dismay, he saw the three skeleton brutes still standing, only one had been partially damaged with its left arm cut off from the rest of its body.
“They’re wearing armor and using a shield.” Ben said just as Ludo stared in bewilderment.
“Right…” Ludo added, trying to hide his shame. “I can still work around that.”
Ludo ran towards the three brutes and now focused on hitting their exposed necks, the disarmed skeleton was first to go, having lost his shield with his left arm, the skeleton collapsed and exploded into a cloud of dust. Ludo jumped back into the fray, not giving the other two brutes any respite and managed to cut the head clean from one of the two, making it explode, the last remaining brute was luckier than the rest, blocking Ludo’s strike with his shield. Ludo backed off.
Panting from the exertion, Ludo observed the remaining brute’s movements, trying to find an opening before attacking. He took a deep breath and ran towards the brute, who placed his shield in a defensive stance. As the skeleton brute hunkered down expecting a frontal strike, Ludo jumped above the skeleton and before he could react, swung Glass Guardian at the brute’s skull, cutting it in half, killing the monster instantly.
“Thats all” Ludo sighed, when the brute he had pushed back in the beginning of the fight reappeared, cracked skull and lame, he still raised his sword and shield to fight Ludo once more.
“WHY DON’T YOU JUST FUCKING DIE ALREADY!” Ludo bellowed, Ludo felt an immense amount of power at that moment, just like the time a tree almost squashed him, using Glass Guardian like a club he hit the brute’s shield and to his surprise the shield exploded into a million pieces and the sword cracked the brute’s skull. He had won.
He checked his status and inventory to see where this surge of power came from and realized he had gotten a new level, he quickly added the point to defense and saw new skills on the list.
LUDO (18)
HUMAN - MALE
LEVEL 8
STRENGTH: 4 (+3)
STAMINA: 3 (+3)
MANA: 0
SPEED: 4 (+7)
DEFENSE: 4
INTELLIGENCE: 7
POINTS AVAILABLE: 0
SKILLS: SKILLS: ONE-HANDED LEVEL 4, RIDING LEVEL 1, STEALTH LEVEL 1, ARCHERY LEVEL 2, ATHLETICS LEVEL 2
TITLES: ADVENTURER (RANK F)
“Athletics?” Ludo tried to recall how could he had gotten such an ability.
“Its probably all the jumping, climbing and dodging you do everyday.” Ben said.
“Oh, you’re probably right.” Ludo turned to see the chest, his well earned reward. Walking towards it, he couldn’t stop thinking about what great treasure awaited him inside, he opened it and was welcomed to a rusty sword and two hundred bronze coins. “This can’t be all!?”
That was all, vexed over such meagre rewards, he stomped his way towards the door opposite the one he had entered, despite Ben’s protests and pushed his way towards another dark hallway, as he took the first step, he heard clicking and hissing coming from the dark path ahead. He didn’t falter continuing to walk further into the dungeon and exclaiming at the top of his lungs.
“Alright dungeon, I have defeated your first challenge! Do your wor—“
He was hit in the face by something resembling a mace, white and very sticky. Laying on the floor, he quickly realized he was stuck to it because of the white goop. He struggled trying to tear the sticky substance from his body.
“This looks like spider web!” Ludo said. “And if thats the case where is the S—sp—!!”
Ludo froze, staring in horror as a gargantuan spider descending slowly from the roof. Ludo began to struggle harder, tiring himself in the process. The spider positioned itself above Ludo, its fangs raised. Using whatever leverage he had, Ludo threw himself out of the way of the descending fangs, which crashed into the ground, breaking the stone floor. Still, Ludo was too wrapped up with the web to be able to free himself and the spider was fast, too fast. This time it stopped Ludo with its talons and more webs, wrapping Ludo completely and raised its fans yet again, Ludo began to scream for help. But none was coming, this was the end…
Or so Ludo thought as between his screams and the unsettling clicking of the spider a sudden light illuminated the entire hallway and the spider was thrown away to the other side of the hall. Footsteps followed such powerful display and Ludo was picked up by something and freed from the spider’s web.
He looked back to see a man and beside him two more appeared beside him another man and a woman. The woman raised her hand which some sort of stick and with a loud crackle fire exploded from the end of it, hitting the spider a second time and pushing it further back. The other man wielded a large axe and as the spider burned, he jumped high in the air and let the axe land with all its might on the spider’s head, killing it instantly.
Ludo was still trembling all over, processing how he was saved from certain death. The man who had freed him from the web gave him a canteen of water which Ludo didn’t hesitate to drink until the last drop.
“Calm down, kiddo, you’ll drown yourself with that way.” The man said, taking back the canteen, Ludo came slightly to his senses, calming down a little and getting a better grasp of the man standing besides him. A beast man with two curled horns and pointy furry ears, a faun, Ludo looked down at the man’s legs and sure enough, they were skinnier than average.
“We better go, I don’t want to see those ugly things again.” the woman said. Ludo looked up to her and saw her long hair fall down to her ankles, like the faun she had long sharp ears and the fairest skin Ludo had seen, it was without a doubt an elf.
The group helped Ludo out of the dungeon. Once outside, Ludo almost broke down and his Ludo’s legs nearly gave out as he realized he had indeed been saved and lived.
“Gotta say. Kids got guts, going at it alone.” The third man said, pointing at the dungeon. Ludo looked at him, expecting some other kind of great appearance but there was nothing remarkable of his other than his exposed tone arms and bald head. An average man.
“Or perhaps he lacks brains.” The bald man replied.
Ludo was still too shaken to say anything, but he was curious to know about those who had saved him. Unknowingly, he activated his magical eyes and inspected his three saviors.
The bald man was the first he inspected.
BERGMANN KUBIN (AGE 27)
HUMAN - MALE
LEVEL: 15
STRENGTH: 10
STAMINA: 8
MANA: 2
SPEED: 1
DEFENSE: 6
INTELLIGENCE: 3SKILLS: TWO-HANDED LEVEL 8 (ACTIVE), BARE HANDED LEVEL 5 (ACTIVE), RIDING LEVEL 2, MEDICINE LEVEL 3 (ACTIVE), CRAFTING LEVEL 1 (ACTIVE), CONSTITUTION LEVEL 3 (ACTIVE)
TITLES: ADVENTURER RANK C, MERCENARY
Followed by the elf with the wooden stick that produced such awesome power.
JANA FAKALYN (Age 25)
ELF - FEMALE
LEVEL 14
STRENGTH: 0
STAMINA: 4
MANA: 9
SPEED: 5
DEFENSE: 2
INTELLIGENCE: 7
SKILLS: ELEMENTAL LEVEL 7 (ACTIVE), MEDICINE LEVEL 4 (ACTIVE), ALCHEMY LEVEL 1, ENCHANTING LEVEL 2 (ACTIVE),
TITLES: NOVICE MAGE, ADVENTURER RANK C
And lastly, he inspected the faun who had freed him from his sticky prison.
LIAM (AGE 26)
FAUN - MALE
LEVEL: 16
STRENGTH: 7
STAMINA: 6
MANA: 2
SPEED: 6
DEFENSE: 4
INTELLIGENCE: 6
SKILLS: ONE-HANDED LEVEL 8 (ACTIVE), THROWING LEVEL 4 (ACTIVE), STEALTH LEVEL 2, CRAFTING LEVEL 3 (ACTIVE), CONSTITUTION LEVEL 5 (ACTIVE), ATHLETICS LEVEL 6 (ACTIVE)
TITLES: ADVENTURER RANK C
“You there?” Liam asked. Ludo snapped out of his trance and nodded, seeing a clearer vision of Liam. He was armored all over, a sword strapped to his hilt and many knives cautiously peeking through the coat he wore.
“Yes.” Ludo gasped. “Thank you all for saving me.”
“It was nothing—“ Liam began but Jana hit him on the shoulder. “Actually, we wanted to help you earlier, but we wanted to know what you were up to.”
“What do you mean by that?” Ludo asked as the group began walking back to Balessia.
“We found the dungeon days ago after that sudden fire and we thought you were a little stalker who wanted to reap all the spoils without us noticing, so we followed you. But then you began speaking to yourself. Then the fight with the skeletons happened and I really became interested in your abilities.”
Ludo wanted to die, they had been on his trail all the way back since before he entered the dungeon and what was worse, they had seen him talk to Ben.
“Thanks, but I shouldn’t have caused that misunderstanding.” Ludo said.
“That was fast!” Bergmann said.
“Shut up Bergmann!” Jana and Liam yelled at Bergmann at once.
“But that was dangerous Liam, I told you we should have helped him earlier!” Jana exclaimed as she walked up to Liam who simply smiled.
“Yea but he ruined our little secret spot and needed a little fright. But thats not whats important.” Liam stopped and grabbed Ludo by the shoulder. “Ludo, I’ve seen what you did back in the dungeon, and I’ve gotta ask, would you want to join our party?”
Ludo stood there dumbfounded at what he had just been told.
“These three powerful people, and they want to team up with a weakling like me?” Ludo may or may not have said out loud.
“By the way, who was this Ben you were screaming to when the spider caught you?”
“No—No one, you must have misheard!” Ludo explained quickly.
The four arrived at the impotent walls of Balessia, Ludo was more than interested in hanging more with them but Liam quickly shot him down.
“I would like you to join our party, but not today. I’ll come to see you again… what was your name, kid?”
“Ludo!”
“Well Ludo, be seeing you around.”
Liam, Jana and Bergmann began walking the opposite direction, waving their goodbyes at Ludo as he waved back until they disappeared amongst the crowd.