The Acolyte of Horos- who introduced himself as Etia - had considerably softened up when his friends decided to mock him for sounding like a robot. the talks by then had already evolved up somewhere close to familiar territory. Talking to them had warmed me up to the trio and I like to think that they feel the same as well since they've told me stories of their life before becoming "Divers" and reaching the point they are at now.

Carlo had been a farmhand and worked as one during his late childhood and teenage years until he eventually decided to just leave his village for greener pastures, after that, he worked as a laborer for a bit until he became the right hand of a trainer working for the adventurer's guild and one thing led to another and now he's been trained in swordsmanship well enough to handle most "low level" monsters- in air quotes because apparently, levels do exist, they're just hard to gauge out because one has to pray to the gods first in order to see it.

It makes having a system pretty convenient, actually.

Up next is Kaga, who unlike Carlo- who only had a change of heart to become an adventurer during the later years of his life, - has always wanted to become a Rogue of sorts ever since he was young, he'd been a thieving child before becoming one, and when he got his official class, he got some form of [Thief] and eventually changed it to [Rogue], his current class.

Then there's Etia, who lived a fairly normal life of studying under Horos' priests and then deciding that he just wanted to become a mage and explore the world, the people who taught him were pretty supportive then and even gave him a book to learn [Fireball]- a powerful spell that's considered to be above [Bolt] in terms of damage but is pretty slow otherwise, - and a small allowance when he finally left. According to him, it was because the priests knew that exploring the world would lead to more knowledge, that and they also trust Etia to not stray from Horos during his journey and well...

Yeah, he hasn't, he's still an Acolyte, and an accomplished one at that. It was a good call for the priests to do, really.

As for Jacob himself, He's also told them his backstory- if not a bogged down and one filled with omissions- it was fairly simple really, all he said is that he was the son of someone with two classes (which is apparently possible thanks to Class Balls,) - [Mage] and [Merchant] were the two classes his backstoried father has and thanks to that, he managed to create a business that provides useful things for various settlements back in his "country" - or, well, his native plane of existence, which was just accepted by the trio without much complaint.

Hearing people accept the multiverse theory as easily as breathing was odd but hey, it helped with his backstory so silver linings and all that.

"Honestly, that's kind of amazing. Your father really had multiple settlements under his name? Just accepting all his... stuff?" Jacob nodded and Carlo shook his head in exasperation with an amazed sigh, "Man, you must've been rich huh?"

He smiled, "If you only you knew. We owned entire islands and everything," which had reduced taxes because of its connections to his Dad's "Businesses." - which took over everything paper wise?.. He doesn't really know. He barely understood the words.

That took Kaga's attention, "Your family owned islands?" Jacob nodded and the rogue exhaled a sharp puff of breath, "Fuck."

Etia nodded, "I'm jealous. Really. Why'd you plane shift? It sounds like a comfortable life that people would never leave."

"I... didn't." Jacob replied sullenly, "I was sort of forced? And before I knew it, I'm already inside a forest fighting a noseless piece of shit that ruined my leg."

Carlo laughed while the other two shook their head in sympathy, "I'm guessing you fought a nightling?" Carlo asked, sword raised high. He swung it down with a soft grunt and then stabbed it to the ground, "I can see why you'd get frustrated fighting one. They're not exactly the type to be subtle, honestly, I'm surprised your clothes aren't ruined."

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At those words, Jacob frowned and looked down, his jeans are still intact... "You're not wrong." He murmured as a reply, quirking an eyebrow. "I kind of forgot about it but my jeans seem fine enough. I must've cast [Guard] subconsciously or something?" He continued with a quizzical tone, "Honestly I don't know..."

"How many spells do you know anyway?" Etia asked.

"Four." He answered, "Most of them are the bog standard [Mage] spell though. Except for one."

"Ah. I'm guessing [Bolt], [Guard, and [Shield]?" Jacob nodded in confirmation at Etia and the Acolyte nodded back, though the fact that he didn't ask about the other spell Jacob had was a surprise. "I only have [Fireball]." He said with a pained smirk, "Lucky you."

"Thanks." The atmosphere turned a bit awkward at that and Jacob decided to look away, placing his eyes elsewhere led him to stare at the heavily armored men standing in front of the Dungeon entrance and after a brief inspection of their iron armor, he saw a small insignia on their chests, it was small, barely the size of a hand and from this distance, and Jacob can barely make it out but he did; it was a Boar with swords for tusks, whatever it meant.

"That's the Duke's sigil," Etia said to his side and he turned to him, the Acolyte explained further. "Said to be an evolved Iron Tusk that the Duke fought when he was young, the "Sword-Tusk" is a powerful creature the size of an adult man. The duke killed and fought one when he was a teen."

"Ah... He sounds powerful." He commented and looked back to the three knights.

"He actually is," Says Carlo, "One hell of a fighter."

"Or so you've heard." Kaga chided. "Last I saw him, he was stuck in his mansion with a gut."

"You're right!" Carlo started laughing.

The banter between the three that was about to start got cut off as the knight in the middle yelled, "ALRIGHT! THE DUNGEON DIVE IS ABOUT TO START, GET TO YOUR POSITIONS!"

Jacob silently watched as started moving, though he kept his eyes on all the mages all the while to see where they'd go, and when started Etia moving, Jacob moved after him. The two of them coalesced alongside 8 other mages and more than 10 bow-carrying men and women, whether they were [Hunters] or actual [Archers] was a question whose answer went over Jacob's head.

The ranged classes were mainly composed of these two types, bows, and mages, but there were a few unique ones as well, such as a guy who was carrying a sling and another who just has a bag of rocks slung over his shoulder as if it was a quiver.

"How are ya?!" A bright voice entered Jacob's ears followed by a small hand tapping on his thigh, he tilted his face downwards to see a... half-ling staring at him with twinkling eyes, she, just like him was a mage, one that wore the typical fantasy clothes: Robes. She tilted her head when Jacob didn't answer, "Hey?"

"Sorry, I was just- Hi!" He gave her the most friendlier tone he could, he didn't know why but Jacob was convinced that she's some sort of kid and that he should treat her that way. "How can I help you?"

Her smile turned into a half-smirk yet somehow remained bright, "I just want to ask how're you doing? I think you're pretty new here? Haven't really seen you before."

He nodded, "Actually yeah, I only arrived yesterday."

"See? I was right." She turned and said to someone behind her, looking over her head (something that's relatively easy to do,) led him to see a human warrior with tanned skin full of tattoos and two white dots on either end of his lips, looking closer got Jacob to realize that they aren't dots at all, but tusks that had been cut off.

The what he assumed is a half-orc grunted but didn't say anything else while the half-ling giggled, "Don't mind him yeah?" He only nodded, "But anyhow, if you have any questions, you can ask em now. I've been to this Dungeon a few times already but if you're curious about magic, then I can definitely help you with that too."

"Thanks," He considered her given options; the magic part isn't really needed given that he didn't have any spell slots left but knowing more about the Dungeon didn't sound too bad, "What's the Dungeon about?" he decided to ask, pointing at the ancient looking door, "What kind of creatures are in there? Any monsters that I need to be careful of?"

"Hmmm..." The half-ling bit her lip, "The Dungeon is a hive, well, a hive- but different insects of various species can actually be found spawning there-" He took mental note of that word, the monsters Spawning sounded pretty important to know, "-and I don't know how powerful you are but if there's anything inside that's a threat to us [Mage]s then it's the Silkfire Moth larvae, the little shits like to hang from the ceiling and crawl there, attacking anyone who doesn't expect em."

"I'll take note of them, thank you." He said and immediately tried to see if he can use [Locate] to spot them or not and to his pleasant non-surprise, he can.