Chapter 7
My Baptism
A right of passage for everyone on Biprism is the baptism of dungeoneering. This is a right of passage, sort of the introduction to the world as a whole. I of course spent the night at the Magician’s guild, where I intend to spend most of my nights.
But today is my first day of dungeon exploring, or dugeoneering for short. I might have mentioned before the dungeons and towers exists all over the world. What I might have neglected or glossed over was the person to dungeon and or tower ratio. Developers did this for the purpose of ensuring that everyone has a chance to dungeon delve and level as needed. The world believes that dungeons and towers are created by a build up of the world’s mana. Mana that is caused by people, thus the more people exploring the world the more mana these people will release and thus create more dungeons. This is particularly why dungeons and towers both tend to build up in cities, at least per the digital citizens of the world. In reality, it is due to lower-level people needing to go to a dungeon to level in a somewhat safe environment.
There is of course a catch, meaning that if the leaders of a dungeon aren’t cleared out every so often, or if the dungeon itself is left to fester for too long it will grow and scale and eventually have an overflow.
That is why it is part of my dues as an Adventurer to either enter one tower or one dungeon every calendar month. As a silver ranked Adventurer, I am allowed to enter silver level dungeons and towers, but also forced to either pay a silver in dues each month or visit any combination of two or more dungeons and or towers.
Of course, dungeon delving helps in all the other guilds as well. For the Mechanics Guild I can find metals, schematics, and old treasures that I can donate. For the Apothecary Guild I can do look for herbs, molds, and other rare ingredients that grow deep within dungeons. For the Mage’s guild I can try to find aspects of magic that call to me and attempt to increase my magical affinities through constant delving. As for the Thieves Guild, just by entering a dungeon I am working on their core tenants of improving my skills to get stronger.
I go in unarmed; my goal is to avoid fighting at all costs. I’m not a pacifist, but I have to say my time in a dungeon will be more enjoyable if I don’t have to spend my entire time stabbing everything from behind. Also, now that I no longer have my legendary dagger, or any dagger for that matter, I find the idea of doing much more than improving my skills to be detrimental. Yes, I know I am being stupid for not trying to improve my dagger skill, but I can’t have them at the Mage’s guild, as apparently, I’m too young. I could however have them at the Thieves guild, but they don’t like people living there for days on end, something about drawing attention to their exit locations. Kids that stand out are especially asked to leave, as I am one of the few kids who has a faction with all four recognized guilds of the city this ban on me specifically makes too much sense to disregard.
The guards on duty are towering brutes of combinations of man and machine. They generally have these augmented bodies standing guard at the entrance to early level dungeons. The idea is to warn kids, like me, away from doing anything reckless. The guard on the right has what is clearly a hydraulically enhanced arm made possible by the advances of the Mechanics guild. I think his left leg is also a replacement appendage, but that is hard to detect due to the way his pants billow out from him. Still, I can’t help but think most of these changes were done for want, rather than necessity. There are no true signs of scars, or hastily healed burn markings that would indicate life or death battles. Some social groups even see hydraulic replacements as the way of the future, spending good money to have standard limbs removed for the ease of leveling that hydraulic limbs offer. Why bother learning and enhancing skills each level, when you can just spend money and change out a steel arm for an adamantium arm, when the funds are available.
Hydraulic limbs are both a cheat and a crutch. They are a cheat as they are not bound by your level. Had I chose to go a different route, I could have easily turned in my life savings for loads of cash that I could have then used to buy upgrades that would make me on par with a level 75 soldier. Of course, the crutch part of this meant that I would not be able to get certain skills like Sneaking and others as it is rather hard to move around quietly while your pistons scream out your movements. The other crutch is, that assuming you power leveled yourself to 75 with your augmentations, then you would still need to procure more expensive items to reach the next evolution.
Though extreme augmentations are the way to prolong your life to be as long, if not longer than an elf’s. Bad heart, replace it. Don’t trust the first set of organs get a second set. Don’t like getting punched in the stomach and hate needing food, replace the organs with something that burns crystals or other valuable gems at a much slower rate. The sky is the limit to what can be replaced, some have even replaced their brain, at least that is what some of the most high-end experts of the Mechanics guild are striving for.
While the guard on the right looks like they chose to go the path of the augmented warrior. The warrior on the left has scars and burn marks that prove their augmentations, at least part of them, are due to necessity rather than vanity. The guard on the left is missing the right half of his face, having the bones and organs replaced with glowing metals and crystals for eyes. Even the teeth have been replaced with a diamond like element that denotes not only wealth, but also strength.
I bow to the two guards.
“This is no place for a little girl, especially one without a class.” The guard on the left states.
I hold up my silver Adventurer’s Necklace.
At the sight of the necklace, I see a beam of light form in the left guard’s eye.
“Very well. Be careful. Have you been versed in this dungeon?”
“No.” I admit truthfully, while stashing my necklace under my shirt, no reason to flaunt my status so openly. While I need it to get into the dungeon, I don’t want to get in the habit of leaving it out in the open for everyone to be able to see.
“This is a Goblin Dungeon. Here you will see villages, workshops, and houses. The gears from the workshops can be sold to the Mechanics. The herbs from the gardens can be sold to the Apothecaries. The runes and magic infused schematics and items can be sold to the Magicians guild. Since you are clearly a silver ranked Adventurer, this will count for one of your two dungeons this month.”
I could also go to a temple for my other one, but I let him continue his well-rehearsed speech.
“This dungeon was fully cleared last week, and the boss’s lair was cleared yesterday meaning you do not have to kill anything. That said, if you could keep track and let us know the level of the leader should you come across them that would be great.”
This was good, it was assumed that the dungeon boss would level at a rate of once per day, until they met the zone’s cap. In this case the boss would be level 19, before reaching the cap. At that point, there would be a surge in reproduction as the denizens would swell up in number. This meant more resources from the gardens and mechanics shops, and more magic items and schematics would be available, but also would potentially put the whole city at risk due to a potential monster swarm.
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Fortunately, we could avoid a worst-case scenario as the dungeon being cleared a week ago and the boss being defeated yesterday means that at most the boss would be level 11. This also meant that I was not going to be guilt tripped into doing anything stupid.
These Tier I dungeons were meant to train you how to delve into dungeons, and that was all I intended to do my first few times in. Go in, work on improving my Stealth and other movement skills, then get out.
“Acknowledge and thank you.” I say. Logically I know that if I had a class, I would have just received a quest related to discerning enemy strength and size. That was what the guard had offered, but since I don’t have a class, I can’t actually get the quest. I can still do the quest as requested, and get an unseen reputation boost with the city, which would have a partial bonus to my status within the various guilds, but no actual experience. Instead, I would likely unlock the hidden Memory skill by doing this. I already had something similar when it came to reading, but this would be one that helped me remember most everything from a single glance.
With my mission in place, I nod to the two guards before entering the dungeon.
As soon as I enter, I feel a tingling sensation. I can’t tell if this is just my nerves, some odd quirk of my skills, or me being able to sense the increased culmination of mana that is being pulled in from the city and citizens of the city to this one nexus spot.
You can’t destroy the core of a dungeon, well you could, but the core would just form back over time. As energy would still come back to the same spot. The longer a dungeon existed the more ley lines of power would form and connect this dungeon to other dungeons, never to towers. That was an odd thing, while dungeons connected via underground lines of power or communications, the towers connected to others in the air. It was said that Mickael could see the lines of power connect to a tower as soon as a new one formed. He spent days mapping out the build up of power for both dungeons and towers alike and became renowned for his ability to predict future locations of dungeons and towers alike. He could even notice the difference between the two and could start predicting which one would form at each location.
One day I hope to get to that level of knowledge and understanding.
As for now though, I need to work on my survival skills. I have my two Traits that I can call upon to get me out of danger if I feel threatened in any way, so my survival is not something to worry about. That said, the moment I emerge on the other side of the dungeon entrance I immediately pull up my hood to my cloak, pull up my thieves’ mask and begin walking.
The mask is mainly protection against poisons. Goblins have a tendency to use smoke and other types of explosives in their attacks. While I don’t have to worry about the lack of sight with the smoke, the chemicals in the gas could prove to be dangerous. This is why I want to be extra careful.
With my now three hundred meters of range after my increases from exploring the city yesterday, along with the bonus from my EGG goggles, I feel confident that I can hide from most anything before they notice me.
While I might have to worry about creatures like elves and others that are known for their longer range of sight, goblins are myopic, tending to rely on traps to warn of potential predators.
Again, my knowledge of this most basic of species already pays off as I immediately notice a few traps that line the walls.
Seeing their red glow with my sight, I immediately begin the fun puzzle game of solving the traps. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, these are not as intricate as the dwarven traps I disabled on the floating island. This means a few things, first it means that the reset timer for these traps will be a lot longer than the other set, and secondly it means that they will take more to level up my skills. Fortunately, I am okay with this, as I just want practice doing these the correct way, versus my ham-fisted, or maybe Telekinetically-fisted way would be a better description.
With these early level traps, I can focus on building the nuances of disarming traps that will build up key components later on.
After two minutes all five traps at the entry way are cleared. I then begin sneaking around, going in the low crouch all the time, just to get used to moving in such an awkward manner. My thighs burn almost immediately, but this is okay as I know I am leveling my Athletics, Calisthenics, and likely my Second Wind if this goes on for too long.
The minute I get to the goblin village, or at least the outskirts of the goblin village I can instantly tell. The entire structure of the energy changes. What was once porous stone is now well tilled soil. Instantly I can see the outline of different low-level crops. Crops that my Analyze skill can easily identify.
Zucchini.
Pumpkin.
Potatoes.
I notice that there are a lot of gourds that are being grown and wonder if that has something to do with goblin physiology. Goblins, like humans, have sets of sharp teeth in front that can be used for tearing through flesh, and flatter teeth towards the back of their mouth that can be used for grinding foods. While that does make sense, I didn’t expect the focus on gourds. I make a note to read up on that, to see if there is more to it. Again, this world still fascinates me, as even after having watched it for years I still find myself enthralled by the little things of this world.
Shaking my head out of my reverie, I intend to make my way around the village. This is mainly for me to improve my skills, nothing more. I tell myself that even if I see something magical, I will not be tempted by it. This is a low-level dungeon after all, meaning anything I could gain wouldn’t be that useful in the grand scheme of things. Definitely not worth me losing my life or training time over. I can always come back tomorrow and the next day if at all desired.
Still as I move, I can’t help but see that there is a vast world of surprises here. For while there are buildings on the surface, I can tell that every house has an escape hatch and that houses are interlocked with each other. I find a spot under a bush of some kind. I can’t tell if I blend in or not, but I get low and choose to just watch the people of the village more.
Children are down below, there is a nursery and a whole group of mothers who seem to be working in unison with each other to help raise the children. Again, I once again find myself not wanting to harm the monsters of this world. They are just too real, worse they almost seem to accept their fate, that they will be hunted, and yet they still wish to continue.
I grip my fists tightly at this, as I don’t quite know what to say. This world even moments like this are beautiful, they are clearly a family. Not just a set of individual monsters, but a community of monsters who all work together to make life easier for each other.
I decide not to tell others about the secret underground passageways. Nothing good would come from that, as that would just mean innocent women and children would be slaughtered.
Getting up, I continue making my way around the village and around the exterior houses. I know to scope out both the Workshop and the Chief’s hut I will have to go inside the village, which is fine, but I just want to give myself a chance to get my Sneaking skill up as high as possible.
I haven’t looked at the skill, as I think that will form bad habits. Instead, I just keep moving about and over time I just realize certain things. I realize how to roll my feet to be quieter. I realize how to shift my balance so that even when I move forward, I still have perfect balance in case I need to pull my foot back. I realize that by shifting my weight forward or back slightly will drastically decrease the weight on my thighs. Little things that over the course of time all add up.
I find that by breathing through my teeth I can reduce the sounds I make. So many different nuances that all go into moving, each little aspect help me blend in easier.
Finally, after a time I make my way to the workshop and am met with a few dozen hidden traps within the unkempt field that leads to the backside of the building. Such traps are obvious for me, as they all but glow with their lack of complexity, but to other adventurers I could see how this would be an effective area to trap.
As for me, I just go to the base of the wall and peer inside. I might have said it before, but it bears repeating, my Angel’s Sight is amazing. Especially now that I have my custom skill Blind Eidetic Speed Reading.
Of course, all the blueprints are written in a language that I don’t quite know, but I can tell the mathematical formula rather easily. Again, I was a mathematician in my past life for the government, I can work launch angles and attack vectors. The goblins are building what looks to be a mechanical body suit, one with spinning blades on the back of hands and fingers for grabbing.
The suits make no sense as they only seem to be growing gourds, which don’t grow that high off the ground. It isn’t until I realize that they have an almost fully functional version of the suit right there that I realize the suit is likely one for war.
Focusing back on the blueprint and comparing the blueprint to the size and dimension of the nearly completed suit, I can begin to puzzle out a few nuances of the suit and what its full capabilities are intended to be. Honestly, I am rather impressed, if the mathematics are correct, and let’s face it, mathematics is about the only thing that I’ve really translated from this odd language accurately, then the suit is a Tier II model made from only Tier I materials. To put it another way, the goblins are punching well above their weight class. At least in terms of this body suit.
I pause, trying to decide what to do. I could take the blueprints now, and run the risk of there being a problem in the design, a problem that would easily be fixed by the mechanical genius that was working on this design, or I could go report on this to the guards out front who would likely send adventurers in to investigate. Of course, to most adventurers that would mean slaughter everyone in their path, including the genius inventor.
Shaking my head, I decide to make my way to the chief’s hut.
Level 11 Goblin Chief.
Level 11 Goblin Concubine.
Level 11 Goblin Concubine.
Okay, so the chief was a sleaze ball who was abusing their power and authority, got it. That guy I didn’t mind if he was killed, not that I’d do it, but I didn’t mind telling others about this type of monster.
I then make my way back out the village, moving slowly to avoid all guards, farmers, and even the occasional child who seems to wander closely.
By the time I leave the village, I find my ability and confidence in my movements to be a lot higher. I am about to leave, when I remember to remove my thieves mask at the last second and let it fall to my neck like a loose cloth.
With my anonymity retained, I exit the dungeon and do two things.
First, I inform the guards about the now level 11 chief.
Once that is done, I make my way to the mechanics guild, hoping that someone else might be interested in my discovery of a goblin mechanical mastermind.