Chapter 10 (I sorta change Clarice's name to Claire :P)

“Feels like we picked the wrong class eh?” a voice said next to J as he stood in a dark cavern, surrounded by stone walls.

The clashes of swords against each other, running footsteps, people panting and yelling at each other echoed through the caverns towards the back of the 7 people group, J and Tomas.

“Yeah… I suppose…” J replied hesitantly. He heaved a sigh inwardly. ‘This is…boring…’

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Just an hour ago, they were stood at the meeting spot in the town. After meeting up with everyone, they had set off towards the entrance of the dungeon through the forest. What was most troublesome was the fact that the trio J had met, had returned, in the group, as part of the party! J placed his palm against his forehead in frustration.

“Almost didn’t recognize you there! If not for these little fellows. And what’s with that look?” Dan queried.

“N..nothing. Hey guys! Good to see you again!” J awkwardly put on a façade only to be met with a tight hug with Adra stuck between the two, whimpering.

“Can’t believe we’re from the same university! It must be fate!” Claire yelled cheerfully. Upon more whimpering from Adra, she released J, freeing Adra from being sandwiched to death. He dropped onto the floor and barked whilst facing J.

“Yeah go on, be back by night.” And as if understanding, J watched as Adra scurried off. Now it was Claire who was whimpering. But she had found her next victim, and made a move to grab Steia, only to be fended off by her wings. She gave a pout and gave up.

‘Strange…’ J pondered. It was as if he actually communicated with Adra, like… they understood each other. ‘Interesting…’ as he brushed his left hand on his chin as if he were a wise old man. Then he paused, and looked at his left hand, the glove he wore revealed his fingers but covered the back of his hand and his palm. It covered his tattoos. His tattoos…

“Hey! You listening?” J jumped a little as he was snapped out of his thoughts. A hand stretched out in front of him, palms opened. “My money.” He said with a wide smile on his face.

“Ah right.” To which J reached out to his hanging pouch and produced 450g from his pocket. This was a decent price as the gem only sold around 400g. But J had to convince him he was a real merchant.

“Oh, not bad.” He said as he pocketed the cash. “I’ll count on you next time as well then!”

“Well, me too.”

“Yeah me three!” As the other two joined in.

‘Please don’t…’ J muttered to himself. If he had to keep coughing up money, he’d develop bloody lung cancer. Or worst, bankruptcy. Hanging his head, J followed the group as they entered the forest. The dungeon they chose was called “The Blackstone Mine”, story was, the boss ‘The Slaver’ enslaved the whole town to mine at the dungeon for him. Heroes came, liberated the town and thus the town was called Town of the free. One of the easiest dunegons, easily accessible, only 30 minutes away from town, all beginners head to this dungeon. The monsters were around 30-40, the boss being around 70. Nothing they couldn’t handle.

On the way there, various conversation broke out in the group of 7. Sarah chatted well with the 2 strangers, whilst J was mostly stuck with the trio.

“By the way, did you hear about what happened with the Earl?” Dan asked whilst walking. This brought a slight change in the expression of the 2 beside him.  Now J was in a bind, does he say yes and be bombarded with questions. Or say no and be questioned about his merchant skills or even suspected.

“Er… um… hmphh…” J opened his mouth and shut them again and again. Not knowing what to say. Finally, he went for it. “…Yes?”

Dan glanced at J during the inner struggle he had, with eyes that seemed to say ‘This guy… he’s strange…’ but he continued none the less.

“Well… I think you were right. We met him.”

“Him?” J asked raising his voice pitch a little. Though he had a good idea who he was talking about, as it was none other than himself.

“Raizel. We fought with him.” The three walked on in silence and held a grim expression on each of their faces. “I want you to help us.”

“Help?... With what?” J had a bad feeling about this… very bad.

“We want you to find more information about him for us. Track him down.” Dan grabbed J’s shoulders at this point, he was a big fellow. More than half a head taller than J, his muscles which bulged out was glad in full body armour. The sight itself towered over J. “We know you can. You got information about him before. Do it again.” J stood motionless staring in the eyes of Dan, time stood still for a moment.

“Let him go!.. Geez.” Claire pried Dan’s grip from J’s shoulders and brushed J’s shoulders with her hands. She turned to Dan, “Stop getting so emotional!” she said with a smack on his head.

“Sor…sorry.” Dan apologized. “But if you could, please. We’ll pay you whatever.”

“I’ll… I’ll see what I can do…”

“Really?!” He beamed. “Thanks man!” he grabbed his shoulders once again. “Now we’ll finally get him back.” To which he got another smack on the head for grabbing J. As Claire was disciplining Dan with Andrew, J stood aside, ‘So I’ll have to investigate myself huh… what on earth should I tell him…’ He was even more dejected. Just one problem after another he thought. Then, they arrived at the entrance.

They stood in a circle and began introducing themselves.

“Name’s Dan. Paladin, level 103.” A tall muscular man, glad in armour, a long broad sword at his back. A red cross centred on the middle of his chest, showing the symbol of a paladin.

“Hi! I’m Claire, his sister. Cleric, level 100.” No wonder she could beat him up, J thought. A pretty girl, in a light grey robe with gold trimmings. A golden line ran through the robe presenting a cross. In her hand, a wand.

“Andrew, archery, 104” In brown leather clothing, a sort of blue button shirt lay beneath his leather armour. A bow hung on his back with a quiver full of arrows.

“Hi I’m Gwen, a Diviner, level 62.” She said whilst she beamed a shining smile at all of us. A dark blue robe covered her entire figure. Plain dark blue, but when stared at intently, one seemed to look at the cosmos itself. In her hand, a staff.

“I’m Sarah, a Knight fencer, level 64” Dressed in light armour, completely distinguishable from Dan’s armour. A sword, slightly thinner stood by her belt.

“Tomas, I’m a merchant, level 43.” Oh another J thought. A backpack on his back, a dark brown jacket which stretched to his knees were worn over a white shirt. A small rested on his head. A knife on his belt, for skinning of course.

“J, merchant, 34” To which everyone looked at J, Sarah’s mouth dropped. “Wh…what?...” J responded looking at Sarah with a frown.

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“Its… its just… you looked kinda cool in that outfit. I didn’t think you’d be one.” She said a little disappointed whilst a slight pink came on her face.

“Why?” J asked.

“Oh… you weren’t at the meeting. Tomas, tell him.” She waved at Tomas as she said so.

“Well the thing is, we think the system sort of chooses the class.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like… Dan for example, he’s a big guy in real life, just fit for tanking.”

“So?” J dumbfounded at the notion responded. “That doesn’t mean anything. He just chose what was fit for him.”

“But not really… most of the people we talked to, like…everyone, was sort of offered to take the class. We’d wonder on the streets and BAM, a guy would appear and be like, do you want to take this class?” Tomas acted dramatically as he told the story.

“…” J didn’t respond. So he wasn’t the only one who was offered a class? “Are your classes… special?” He asked.

“No… not really.” Everyone looked at each other and murmured. “Just plain old classes.”

“But you know, people who picked other classes than the ones offered to them, they all died over 20 times. You know what that means right?”

“Yeah… you can’t play anymore…”

“Exactly. But why do you think they all died?”

“…they were idiots?”

“…no… there’s a rumour… that the people who chose their own classes rather than the ones offered to them, all couldn’t really fit with the class.”

“Fit with the class?”

“Like they couldn’t use spells correctly, or use their weapons well enough. So… they just died. Game over.”

“…”

“Strange huh. And more over, I’m a smart guy. Good with numbers and academics. I’m a merchant.”

J looked at Tomas, and tilted his head in question. Tomas understanding the gesture, waved at Andrew.

“My father was a olympic archer silver medallist. I’ve been doing archery since I could remember.” Andrew said.

“I’m a under 21 rugby player for the national team.” Dan continued.

“My… my family are sort of … onmyoujis, or exorcists.” Gwen stuttered cutely delivering her piece.

“Well, you know me. One of my ancestors was a famous knight in the medieval ages.” Sarah non-chalantly said.

“We all sort of… fit our class. Its creepy but… it works.” Tomas concluded. “So… why are you a merchant?”

“Er… I’m… good at maths?” J suggested.

“No! You suck at maths! At least compared to him anyway.” Sarah pointed out. “Well whatever. Let head in already.” She turned from the group and headed inside.

‘What’s her problem…’ J thought as he followed the group in.

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Currently, the group was separated into 3 layers. Dan (tank, Holy) and Sarah at the front, Gwen and Andrew a few steps behind him, Claire behind Gwen and both Tomas and J at the back.

Gwen’s class, diviner, grants and focuses buffs and debuffs on companions and opponents alike. A diviner is said to borrow the power of the cosmos, the energy that exists and contained by the world itself. A spiritual class. Different from Claire (Cleric, holy), who specializes in healing and mainly combats against the darkness.

Whilst Dan is drawing the enemy’s attention, Sarah would join in the attack, Gwen providing support through buffs and attacks, Andrew picking off enemies running past them, and Claire providing healing support. That was essentially how the team worked. But the trio, being way higher level than the rest, slacked off a little to let the lower levels gain experience.

Whilst at the back, J and Tomas merely picked up dropped items, skinning the animals, dehorning the monsters etc. Gathering supplies. As a merchant, their job was to carry things in dungeons. A rather boring one J thought.

The enemies before them were comprised of black wolve like monsteres, goblins and stone gargoyles which seemed to form out of nowhere. J however, could easily sense the monsters in the dungeon, even as the gargoyles began to slowly form, he had no trouble sensing their presence. Though he had no intention of letting anyone know he could.

A head peered down at the face of the merchant, it seemed content with the position she was in but the feeling wasn’t reciprocated.

They were travelling down the stairs deeper into the dungeon. They were now heading to the 3rdfloor, the second last floor of the dungeon. The monsters were also separated, though the occasional mix could be seen. 1stfloor mostly wolve-like monsters (31), 2ndfloor mostly goblins (36) and 3rdmostly gargoyles(41).

‘You know…’ J thought staring at the bird intently whilst moving forward with the group. ‘You’re a little too big now to rest on my head.’ He conveyed with a strong gaze to his pet companion. To which she opened her mouth made a noise, and returned to sitting on his bed. J could only inwardly sigh.

After arriving at the 3rdfloor, they encountered few enemies.

“Be careful, the gargoyles are tricky here. They spawn from the walls, even though we’re higher level, don’t let down your guard.”

As if a curse, the stoney walls around them crumbled, 8 stone gargoyles stood surrounded them. Normally, 8 were no problem to them at all. In fact, apart from Tomas, J and Claire, who lacked power, the others could probably solo them if they had the time to kite. But now, they didn’t, and worse of all, in every direction stood 2 gargoyles. Including the back, right where Tomas and J were.

‘Shit.’ He thought as he dodged an incoming blow. Stones smashed around like pellets, every direction were stone pellets flying all over the place.

“Stay alive! I’ll be there in a sec!” Andrew shouted as he decimated one gargoyle. He shot an arrow towards the gargoyle in front of J, it crumbled to stone. ‘Not me!’ J screamed in his mind. ‘Save Tomas you idiot!’ As he looked over, a gargoyle was about to hit Tomas. Just as he was about to scream his name, something impossible happened?

The punching blow of the gargoyle was stopped by Tomas. His arms in a cross, blocked the blow.

‘What?! A merchant blocking a blow?!’ J’s mind went WTF.

Then he noticed, in his hand, or rather, on his hand were gauntlets. Tomas pushed back the gargoyle and jumped forward building momentum and punched straight through the stomach of the monster. It crumbled. As did the silence of the dungeon as all members stared at him, standing amidst the crumbled stone.

(Doing dialogues takes soooooooo long :(   wouldve made it longer, but damn dialogues :P )