The swirling colors solidified into an outdoor scene. I could feel something in my hand, but had to blink and shade my eyes from the sudden light. Looking around, I saw a small town in front of me, maybe two or three miles away. I was standing in the middle of a dirt road with no one in sight. Turning in a slow circle, I could saw a lush forest to my left with tall trees that were covered in bright green leaves. Behind me was a mountain in the distance. The road seemed to head in that direction. Finally, to my right, was an open meadow full of lush grass. Squinting, I could saw what looked like crop fields between the town and the meadow.
I did not find any immediate danger, so I turned my observations on myself. The thing in my hand was a long wooden staff with intricate swirls carved along the entire length. At the top was a large blue crystal that seems to emanate a slight glow. Looking closer, I saw that it was floating in a delicate silver casing at the top of the staff. ‘Okay, so I have a staff with a floating crystal. This was probably meant to be some sort of holy staff since I have been given the cleric class this time.’
Looking at the equipment I had been given, I was wearing a light blue sleeveless open robe over a white kimono style top and a pair of slim black pants with brown ankle boots. The robe was prevented from getting in the way with a sash securing the robe below my bust that seemed to wrap around into a belt containing a dagger on the left side and a small leather pouch and waterskin on the right side. With no other information, I started heading in the direction of the town. Before I had gone more than a few steps, I received a notification.
Mission, keep the party together; difficulty, moderate.
‘Hmm, so I have to keep the party together. Depending on the party, it shouldn’t be too difficult. Moderate difficulty. Was that for the appropriate difficulty for a newbie?’ I kept heading down the road, obviously going the right direction if the notification was any indication. Since this was a low level dungeon, there should be no issues with cutting loose and enjoying myself. Now if only I had been given a fighter class, I could really let loose and enjoy myself. Oh well, being a party’s healer sounded fairly relaxing too.
I continued to stroll leisurely down the road towards the town. Simply having the time to walk without the kids constantly pestering me was amazing. One of the best things about diving was that no matter how long I spent in the dungeon, it’s only a few minutes in reality. I could saw several squirrels running thorough the branches, excitedly chattering back and forth. The sound of birds calling to each other made a nice background tune to the pleasantly warm day. Taking advantage of the walk, I let my thoughts wander. ‘I really should get out and go hiking some more. Pikes peak would made a nice goal. Maybe I could get Andrew to make it a couple’s trip. If we go during the week, then we’ll only need a sitter for Sean. I’ll look into it more when I get back tonight.’ My thoughts continued to wander while I walked. As I approached the town, I received another notification.
Quest: locate and join the party.
Time limit to complete: three hours.
‘Well, isn’t that informative? Hopefully, there was only one party. This feels like a newbie tutorial, its been a while since I’ve done a level 1 dungeon. Are they all this nice now? Although I suppose a time limit would actually make it slightly more challenging.’ Entering the town, I received a few curious stares by what I believed were the local residents. There was a town square in the middle of the small town with a notice board that has postings for something. As I approached, I could saw that they were mostly extermination and escort requests with a few miscellaneous help requests thrown in. It was usually a good place to start when given a quest.
Looking around, I observed the area to saw if I could spot anyone watching the notice board. When I didn’t notice anyone watching in the area, I went to the board and looked to saw if there were any postings for a healer or cleric. There was no organization to the requests, and many overlapped each other. It took me a while to even locate a request for a temporary party member. Unfortunately, it was asking for a fighter. Finally, I located a request for a healer to assist a party on a dungeon raid. ‘Bingo, this should be the party I need to meet.’ Pulling the request off the board, I read it more closely. It told me that the party was staying in the local inn.
Looking around, I easily spotted a sign for the inn to the right of the notice board. Heading there, I pushed open the door. Blinking to adjust to the dim light inside, I observed a counter at one end of the room with a young woman behind it. I headed over to ask her about the party that was requesting help.
“Excuse me miss, do you knew where I could find the group requesting help on this flyer?” I showed her the flyer.
“Hmm, oh yes, they are definitely staying here.” She tilted her head to the side in thought. “They are not currently here, though. I believe I heard one of them saying they were heading to the tavern.”
“Thank you for the information. I appreciate the help.” I told her, pausing before heading out the door. “Would you be able to point out the tavern to me? I’m new to town and still learning my way around.”
“Certainly.” she moved out from behind the counter and walked over to me at the door. “Saw that building there, with the dark-colored door. That’s the tavern.”
She pointed towards a building in the far corner of the square. Following the direction she pointed with my gaze, I saw a building that looked similar to all the other buildings. The only thing that set it apart from the others was the door, which has either been painted or was made from a darker wood that the rest of the doors that I could see.
Stolen novel; please report.
“I see. Thank you for the directions.” I gave her a smile and turned to leave. “Have a blessed day.”
‘What was that? I meant to tell her to have a good day, not that blessing. I wonder if it was a result of being a cleric right now. I should probably get more into character. After all, that is part of the fun with dungeons like this.’ Heading over to the tavern, I could hear the noise spilling out from the building as I got closer. When I pushed open the door, I saw what looked like a mix between a party and a fight. There was a group of people surrounding something, though if the chants of chug meant anything, it was a drinking contest. On the other side of the room, two groups of people were getting in each other’s faces, glaring. ‘Maybe I should have gotten a description of the party from the girl at the hotel.’
I stood in the doorway, observing the groups. ‘Really, I have to join one of these parties. They are fighting like children over a toy. For heaven’s sake, I do not want my break from parenting to be more parenting.’ Getting fed up with the Mexican standoff, I strode over to stand directly in front of the two groups.
“Alright, which one of you asked for a healer?” I held up the request to emphasize my point.
“That would be me.” The apparent leader for the group on the left responded, not looking away from the other group’s leader.
At first glance, he looked somewhere between 18 and 28, with somewhat long, light brown hair. I am horrible at guessing ages, so was not sure if my estimate was even remotely close. He was wearing a chain-mail shirt with a belt over it and had a longsword resting at his hip. One hand tightly gripped the hilt of his sword, while the other was clenched into a fist at his side.
“Well, if you’re not even going to do me the curtesy of looking at me, then I guess you’ll have to keep looking,” I responded, annoyed with his attitude.
“What the hell!” He exclaimed whipping around to face me in shock. I could see that he had bright green eyes.
“That’s better.” I smiled, glad he fell for my bluff. “Now let’s discuss the healer request.”
The leader motioned for his group to follow and lead me out of the tavern, back to the Inn. I followed him up to a large room with several beds and some chairs set at small tables. The leader took a seat in one of the chairs and motioned for me to take the set opposite him. Once I was sitting in front of him, any seriousness melted away, replaced by a rather silly grin.
“Umm, I guess I’ll start off with introductions.” He gestured to himself. “I’m the party leader, Daivan Zommel. This is the party’s wizard, Sol Vorkev, also my sister’s boyfriend, so he’s off limits. That is my little sister Mai. Next to her is my friend Bren Naoy, his sister Rehna, and their uncle Arvin Kesk.”
I observed everyone as they were pointed out. Sol was a tall, skinny man with black hair and gold eyes wearing a long robe and holding a long wooden staff similar to my own with a red stone at the top. Mai was a petite woman that looked more like a teenager. She had long blond hair that was freely flowing down her back, blue-green eyes, and was wearing a pair of tight leather trousers, a slim fitting white shirt with molded leather armor on top. She looked really young, and I hoped she just has a baby face. I couldn’t imagine partying with someone who was not an adult. Bren offered a wave and mischievous smile when his name was mentioned. He was on the taller side, with black hair, blue eyes and sun kissed skin. Similarly to Mai, he was wearing a molded leather vest over a dark blue shirt and brown pants. Rehna was shorter than the men with a slim frame, black and purple hair, along with bright purple eyes that stood out against her pale skin. She was dressed similarly to Daivan with her chain mail shirt.
Arvin looked older than everyone else in the party. He has thick auburn hair and a short beard that was neatly trimmed. His eyes are brown with small laugh lines at the corners. Compared to the others, he was massive. While he has an average height, his frame was wider, with clearly defined muscles from hard work that makes him seem larger.
Nodding to everyone, I introduced myself in turn.
“Nice to meet all of you. My name is Jennifer, but I just go by Jen.” By this point I was expecting the looked at my name.
“What kind of name is Jennifer? That is so weird.” Mai piped up.
“A perfectly normal name where I am from,” I responded.
“Mai, that was not a very nice thing to say.” Arvin gently rebuked her at almost the same time.
“Arvin was right. In fact, to me you are the ones with the unusual names.” I build off the learning moment and he nods in acknowledgement.
“You need to understand that the world was a large place. There are many countries, many races, and many types of names that would seem unusual to you.” Arvin continued. “You are not a child anymore and need to think before you speak.”
Mai blushes in embarrassment and mumbles an apology before plopping down on a bed and sulking like a child.
“How about we get back on topic?” Daivan interjects, clearly not used to his sister being scolded. “Why do you want to be the healer for our party? As you could tell, we are pretty close to being a family and don’t want to bring in just anyone as our healer.”
He seemed like he wanted to sound serious, but it came across as a child pretending to be a grown-up. ‘Man, I need to do something about this, it’s like I have kids on the brain or something. No, no, no I am not getting baby fever. Get ahold of yourself Jen, this is not the time to go all parent mode on them. Focus on the mission and clearing the dungeon. After all, these overgrown kids won’t be my problem for very long.’
“I am a traveling cleric by trade. I would join parties in whatever town I pass through if a healer was desired until it was time to move on again.” I gave the backstory I came up with. “I happened to pass through this town and saw the request for a healer.”
“Perfect!” Mai exclaimed, no longer sulking. “We need a healer for a specific dungeon, so that would be great.”
“I agree. Unless anyone has an objection, I say we should add Jen to join the party for now.” No one disagreed with Daivan, “that’s that. Welcome to the party Jen.”
Quest completed within the time limit, no penalties enacted.
The notification gave me pause. It sounds like there would be penalties if I failed any of the quests assigned by the dungeon. ‘I really hope it does not assign me something impossible to complete just to give me a penalty.’