SLAM! A loud bang was heard as Todd smacked his head onto the table. Meanwhile, Sergeant Fell was roaring with laughter.
“What’s a Dungeon he asks’s,” Fell said between breaths. “I haven’t laughed this good in years. You need to stick around, Owen. You’re just too fun to have around.” Groaning, Todd lifted his head and took a large swig of his ale.
“I can’t anymore. Your up, Sergeant.”
“Oh, fine,” Fell replied while trying to contain himself. After a short time, he continued, “So you know how Mist-born, or monsters in general, are formed, right Owen?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen the shadowy blobs turn into Gobbo’s.”
“Alright, good, so that stuff they’re made of is called Miasma. It’s what comes out of them when you cut them up, and they tend to dissolve into it, only leaving their Core behind. So, instead of appearing on the surface, the Miasma sinks into the ground. If enough of it gathers together, it creates a large monster we just call a Dungeon. With me so far?” Seeing Owen nod, Sergeant Fell continued, “Now, by itself, that’s not an immediate problem; the true problem lies in the monsters inside the Dungeon. Since there is so much Miasma, they tend to be stronger, and rarely Advanced or even Elite variants are created. When that happens, those monsters tend to leave the Dungeon to kill and evolve in the nearby settlements before coming back to guard its Core. A Dungeon is a monster that can’t kill people without luring them in, so it creates things instead. When you normally kill a Gobbo, it will drop its Core, and that mana stone will sell for about 20 copper. Kill a Gobbo in a dungeon; it may drop a whole silver coin. What’s even better is that silver is worth about 5 silver coins.”
“Wait, what?” Owen interrupted, “You just said it drops a silver; how can one silver be worth five?”
Laughing, Sergeant Fell continued, “Well, Private, that silver is pure mana silver. So it’s worth substantially more for crafters.”
“Okay, so killing monsters is profitable; why kill the Dungeon then?”
“Ah, well, it all depends on the logistics of it. Since this Dungeon is out of the way, the Knights don’t want to deal with the hassle. To be profitable, it needs to have people constantly thinning out the monsters it creates so the Dungeon can grow bigger to accommodate more people. That means a new city will be built around the Dungeon to facilitate this. The local Lord probably doesn’t want to deal with that, so your new job is to go into that Dungeon and destroy its Core. Understood Private?” Sergeant Fell asked while cocking one of his eyebrows. Owen replied appropriately as this went from a general discussion to a debrief.
“Yes, Sergeant, I’ll set out to destroy the Dungeon tomorrow.” Turning to look at Todd, “Any idea where it is?”
“The Merchant said out the Western gate, then follow the northern path. About half a day’s walk to the village of Oakshade. On his way through, the villagers had told him about it via their complaints. So those villages are our best bet; you’ll just have to ask around. Contract payout was five silver, so technically, this is an E-rank request, but as Sergeant Fell pointed out, you’re more than capable.”
“Alright, I can do that,” Owen said while he picked up another ale, “Now, back to the stupid questions.”
“Oh, look at that! More customers walked in; see you later, boys.” Sergeant Fell said as he quickly left the table. Laughing, Owen looked back over to Todd before he continued.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Geez, are my questions that annoying?” Owen asked.
“Naw, he’s trying to make money. We all try to keep this place running as best we can. That’s why, even though I loathe this dungeon job, we still need the money. I don’t have any useful Skills, but I try to balance the budget, and we need this payout. I will probably have to Class as an Accountant at this rate so we can squeeze every copper we can.”
“Shit, is it that bad?”
“Pretty much, the local Lord has high taxes on the Company since his dispute with the Captain. We can’t leverage anything against it because his ‘Knight Company’ pays the same taxes. Twenty silver a month is bleeding us dry; we don’t have enough people to do big jobs. We get odd jobs every now and then, but it’s difficult. I just wish we could go back to the way things were.” Todd says, sulking into his ale. Reaching into his pack, Owen pulled out three silver and placed them on the table near Todd.
“Alright, here’s a few silver for those books you mentioned and another for my stupid questions.”
Seeing the money, Todd laughed while placing it into a small bag. “Yeah, ask your questions, Jarhead. They can’t be worse than ‘What’s a Dungeon’.”
“Your not wrong, but no one was around to explain any of this to me when I got my class?” Owen truthfully stated, “I have a Class and some Skills but no direction. No one to tell me how to get new Skills or what my Class is good at. I’ve been so lost that I’ve thrown myself at monsters as a distraction.” Owen blurted out, feeling a sense of dread creeping in. “I don’t know what I’m doing or why I bother.”
“I’m sorry, Owen. I don’t know your circumstance and won’t try to pry.”
“It’s fine,” Owen said, brushing it off, “The Captain will probably tell everyone soon.”
“Well, I know you’re now a Level 4 Warrior. You’re complaining about not having any Skills, then I’m guessing you only have the basic offense skill and Swordsmanship.”
“Yeah, I got basic Shield Mastery yesterday.”
“Okay, so I’ll start there. Most basic Skills can be acquired just through use. You were using the shield yesterday, and after all those fights, you finally got the Skill. Now, when you look at your Soul Status, you are only ever given your Skill name. Most of the time, you can learn what your Skill does, feeling the mana flow when you use it. If you don’t feel any mana flow, that means it’s a passive Skill. Basic Swordsmanship is like that; it makes you a little bit better with a sword.”
“How would people even know what a Skill does then?”
“Ah, well, most of the time, when people get to Tier 3, they go to the Magus Guild for their Soul Card.” Todd shushed Owen before he could ask another question. “The Magus Guild is for Ardent Class’s, or people who can shape the elements. They love to study magic and how it works; they have a ritual that can make a copy of your Soul Status. This copy is a small book listing everything, including what your Skills can do. People wait that long because most Skills can be learned by word of mouth. There is no point wasting a gold to learn what basic Skills do. As for Classes, it is pretty much the same thing. Basic combat Classes are based on their Stat: Warrior for Strength, Brawler for Endurance. Then you have General Classes, such as Carpenter or Accountant. Thankfully, when you get your Evolution choices, it includes a small Class description. Any other questions for today?” Todd asked while rolling his eyes and downing his ale.
“Naw, it’s late, and I’m exhausted. I’m just gonna take a room upstairs and pass out; I’ll see you in the morning before I head off.” Owen said as he scouted the chair and shouldered his pack and shield. Waving goodbye to Todd and Sergeant Fell, Owen made his way up the stairs. Turning onto the next floor, Owen saw a hallway with three open doors on the right, two on the left, and one at the end of the hall. “That must be Todd’s room; I’ll just take this one then.” He muttered, taking the first door on the right. Entering the room and closing the door behind him, Owen looked around. It was sparsely furnished with a bed, desk chair, and a tall dresser.
“Yeah, this brings back some memories.” He said as he slung his pack onto one corner of the dresser, placing his sword and shield on the desk. He flopped onto the surprisingly soft bed. “Ugh, no bad, Owen, don’t sleep in your clothes.” He chided himself as he sat up and laid his clothes on his desk. Sitting back on the bed, Owen looked down and realized he was still wearing the boxers he had on when he most likely died. The cartoon characters printed on them brought a smile to Owens’s face as he lay down. “She really went all out for me, huh. I’ll need to find a way to make it all up to her.” Owen mumbled as the drink helped carry him off to sleep.