Chapter 1 - Entering the Dungeon
Leaning back in my chair I start to rub my head. I had been working on this stupid program for over 3 hours and I couldn’t get it to work. God, I hate Javascript. Why couldn’t it be in C++.
Sometimes I really hate my school. Ever since the forced merger that absorbed it into Kenwood State the standard has gone all to crap. So many options and areas that use to be made for the students and to give them options have been replaced with organizations and corporate shops that Kenwood has sponsorship deals.
So many shops have been replaced with shops that sell the same, except shittier and more expensive, versions of the same product.
Not only that but Kenwood was a literary college, they have no idea what it takes to run an engineering college. Hell literally the past 2 years since the merger has been filled with bugs and mismanagement of funds and more complaints and transfers than the entire running time of the college before!
Sighing I turned back to the program I was trying to write. Once again, another fuckup caused by the school. A second year programming class in the wrong language.
I’ve tried talking to the professor to see if there were any sites he knew to help me with this since I have never worked with Javascript before. Sadly, he wasn’t one to care about the work load of each student, stating that when we finally graduate we will have to deal with all kinds of situations and that we need to learn to deal with it on our own.
What’s worse is that I needed to perform really well in the class because my tuition depends on federal aid and how much I get for the next year depends on this semester’s score.
Getting up I packed my stuff and headed to the bus stop in front of my school. I was just tired and ready to go sleep.
My family wasn’t one that could be called poor. They have enough to support stable living with my brother, sister, and me but they don’t have enough to help with college so I needed to find ways of supporting myself.
Sadly because of my lack of involvement in high-school I didn’t have a lot of options so I had to depend on financial aid and the Pell grant. Which means I must focus a lot more on my studies.
I managed to solve some of the cost by living off campus, and by living off campus I mean living at home with my family and taking public transportation to and from school. Of course, it was a strenuous as all hell. Just getting to school took about 2 hours, and I often had to get up at 5 in the morning just to make it to a 9 oclock class.
But hopefully it would all be worth it when I walk out of college with my electrical engineering degree, along with both a computer science and mathematics minors. Hopefully that would help me get into whatever company I would want. Maybe even NASA, which would be cool because I’ve always been a fan of sci-fi and would love to visit other planets.
Buuuong!
“...”
As I waited at the school bus stop to go home, a foreign car passed by me.
It was a stranger but I could see his face. He was around the same age as me, maybe a bit younger, possibly 22 or 23 years old.
I wasn’t envious. It was just frustrating. I had seen so often it in recent years. Students who had families who could help them go to college and buy them fancy cars to get to it. I bet that kid even had his own apartment where he could party and do whatever he wanted, all on his family’s dime.
The talent of money, the so called ‘wall’ that I couldn’t cross. The freedom of not having to worry about whether I will run out of aid to keep bettering myself is sadly something I couldn’t afford.
I had friends who went out and earned a lot of money for the first 10 years after graduation and then returned home rich. I wanted to be like them. No, I wanted to surpass them.
Clink.
As soon as I came home I said hello to my parents, made some ramen for dinner, and finally I threw myself onto my bed, kicking off my shoes and throwing my bag down in the process. Today I was too exhausted to start studying again. I just wanted to take a break. These days, it was difficult to endure the exhaustion I felt all the time, like something was draining my life out of me. Looking at my clock it said it was about 9 at night as I closed my eyes.
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It was midnight when I opened them again.
◎
I rubbed my eyes and sat up. Looking around I saw that the clock had stopped at exactly midnight. However, I felt like I’d gotten a full night’s sleep! Stretching I turn on my light figuring if I’m up I might as well finish one of my lab reports.
Rubbing the sleep out of my mind I swung my feet off my bed and looked up.
"What the?”
I staggered and barely managed to throw myself back on the bed.
There was a thing in my wall.
It was a strange arch roughly a meter wide. There was a stone border that looked like sandstone with some strange looking vines wrapped around them. And in the center a hole leading to blackness.
“...”
I stared at the wall for a while and then give myself a smack but the hole is still there, and the pain in my cheeks is telling me I am definitely awake.
My next thought was that I should leave my room and see if anything has happened to my family. However...
“W-what is this?”
I’d made my way to the door of my room, but it wouldn’t budge. The handle was stuck as though it had been glued in place.
Freaking out I opened my phone to call 911.
[The call is currently not available in this area...]
There was just a voice message stating I was out of range.
I turn around to try and open the window. Just like the door, it didn’t move at all.
I desperately opened my mobile phone again but belatedly realized something that only raised my fear.
12:00
A few minutes had certainly passed since I woke to the hole. The clock on the wall was the same, the hour/minute/second hands were fixed at 12, not moving.
Was this a nightmare? My senses told me that wasn’t the answer. Even if this was a vivid dream, it gave off the feeling of reality. If this was a dream then I wouldn’t even be thinking about it.
[Lie down in bed to return to your normal life or step through the arc to descend into a world of danger and possibilities.]
“What!?”
I automatically swung a fist as letters appeared in front of my eyes, but my fist just went right through them.
The letters were still floating in the air, as if nothing happened to them. I wondered if something else would pop out, but the words just stayed floating there.
Then I thought about the meaning of the words. Lie down in my bed to return to a normal life? What did that even mean? My head naturally turned and looked at the bed.
Then more letters showed up.
[As soon as you lie down, you will fall into a sleepy state. The hole will disappear. All your memories about the hole will be gone in the morning. You will return to the life you have lived and it will continue as it would before.]
I wasn’t as surprised as the first time. Instead, after carefully reading the new message, I turned and stared at the hole.
I had seen letters above the bed. It was like whatever was going on was showing me the options I had. I wonder if looking at the hole would do anything? Turning I looked at the arch in my wall. I was proven to be correct as new words appeared in front of me.
[By going through the arch, you are agreeing to enter the Trial of the Dungeon. Each day you will be required to explore one floor a night until the dungeon is completed. It isn’t possible to leave the dungeon before the exploration of the floor is completed or before you are eliminated. Time spent in the dungeon will speed up to 3X faster than in reality.]
Dungeon? It was a word I had heard before. A word I knew from games and online stories I’ve read.
But if the words were true, why wouldn’t I lie down on my bed? I had no intention of stepping on the staircase. Not without knowing what was down there...
[An opportunity.]
What?
New words surfaced like they were answering my subconscious thoughts. That wasn’t the end.
[Alex Cooper, this is a means to pursue the desires that can’t be achieved normally. To leave your boring old life behind. By passing through the trials of the dungeon it will lead to a world full of opportunities.]
“...”
If I was normal, then I wouldn’t step into the strange arch.
But was it due to what I had been thinking recently? Was it because of the uncontrollable fatigue that reached its peak today? The overwhelming feeling of being trapped I’ve felt for who knows how long? Whatever the reason, I took the words seriously.
I don’t know how long I spent staring at the strange structure that appeared in my room. All the parts of my life that lately seemed to be against me, the walls of my lack of talent slowly crushing and limiting me. Finally I made my decision.
And I took a step into the void.
[Alex Cooper had decided to enter the world of Avalon.]
[Opening the dungeon’s 1st floor.]
Strange words surfaced in front of my eyes as the world faded from black to a strange cave like structure.
At the same time, something appeared and started to blink in the upper right part of my vision.
“What is this?”
At first glance, it was a strange symbol, it kind of looked like an eye in a box with strange borders.
Wait a minute… Weird symbol in my vision? I’ve read plenty of online novels and fanfics to know what that means.
Staring at the symbol I try to concentrate on it. After a couple of tries I finally got it to open.
Name:
Alex
Surname:
Cooper
Occupation
None
Title
None
Stats
Strength
4
Intelligence
7
Dexterity
5
Constitution
4
Charisma
4
Magic
0
Traits: Asperger’s(Genetic)