## Chapter eight, Not more than a few golds
### Green Raven ###
“There you are, Eonde,” I heard Alfred say.
I turned around and saw a girl. She looked to be the same age as me although she was almost a head taller, with long black hair, green eyes and a kind smile. So this was Ever’s daughter.
“During training, we are going through the basics of sword fighting, how to stand in a battle stance, defend and so on. Eonde has been doing this since she was a child, so she will be your trainer slash sparring partner. And I will oversee your training from the sideline.” Alfred mentioned to me while grabbing swords from the rack and giving them to both me and Eonde.
“Yes, Master,” I said.
Eonde looked at me and said, “You can call me Miss Evers.”
“Yes, miss Evers,” I said, “but I thought that Evers was your father's first name?”
“Yes it is,” she said with a puzzled look on her face.
“Uhm, never mind, miss Evers” I said.
“Let’s get started, but first, how much do you know of fighting with a sword and battle in general?” she asked me.
“Well to be honest, you could say that I know almost nothing. I’ve been in two fights alone. The first one was with 5 stinking level 1 Goblins and then 3 huge Wood Wolfs at level 2. In both, I got away with sheer horror. Later, I helped Rondellen reload his crossbows in a fight against 5 Shadow Warriors he called low leveled, but they were all between 20 and 30. I was level 5 then, but I got boosted up to level 13 after that fight.”
“And before you came to PAERD?”
“Back on earth you mean? Well, there was not that much fighting going on there for me to be honest.”
“Okay, so when you say you know nothing, that’s exactly what you meant! I like your honesty. Keep it up. First exercise, drop and do 20 push ups.”
The rest of the training passed in a blur. I hadn’t been this tired in a long, long time. I think we trained for 4 hours, but it’s very possible it only lasted for 1 hour. I did all kinds of exercises. Funny enough, we didn’t touch the weapons once. At one time, Alfred came with a chilled cup of Canfee, and it was surprisingly good. It tasted like a non-carbonated energy drink, and it refreshed me and gave me some more strength to go on training. After the training, Eonde showed me to the showers and also told me how to work them.
It felt like a real shower but that's when the similarities stopped. I have no idea how it was powered, but it worked. That was enough for me. After that, it was time to change into dinner robes and head to the dining house. This evening it was Eonde, Alfred, Ragnhild, Rondellen and me having dinner together.
“How did your first training experience on PAERD go?” Ragnhild asked me.
Eonde beat me to the answer, “he has no skills whatsoever, but he has spunk! Depending on how much time we have before the real battles start, I think he will do fine.”
Rondellen nodded and said “ I thought as much. My suggestion is that you train for 3 more days, 2 hours in the mornings, and 2 more after lunch. Then after that, I’ll take you and Eonde to a dungeon. Eonde has been there plenty of times, but it’s good training for you, Green Raven.”
“What is a dungeon?” I asked. mean I knew what dungeons were in the games I had played and how they were described in the books I’d read, but I thought it was better to ask a dumb question now instead of doing something dumb later in a dungeon. Safety first and all that jazz.
Rondellen started to answer, “well, you see, it is both an easy and a complicated question to answer. You see back in the old d…”
Here is where he got interrupted by everyone else and Ragnhild told him, “Dad! He will have plenty of time to learn the history of dungeons later on. For now,” she turned to me and said, “it’s enough to know that a dungeon is a place with enemies on one or more floors. Usually, it's a monster of some kind that re-spawns at set intervals. Mostly it’s a set time each day. It starts with easy prey, and at the end of the floor, there’s a floor boss that’s harder to kill. And if there’s more than one floor, there will be a dungeon boss too. If it’s only one floor, there will only be the dungeon boss at the end. There are different types of dungeons but the most common ones are in some sort of cave. The one you will visit is just outside Ostvik and is regarded as a beginners dungeon. It’s called Rules Revenge. Any questions?”
“Yes plenty, but maybe I can think them over and we talk about it tomorrow?” I said while trying to cover a yawn.
After that, everyone admitted that they were quite tired too, and we called it a night.
When I was about to fall asleep that night, I got a notification.
*Congratulations! Hard work pays off, strength +1.*
I fell asleep with a tired smile on my face.
The next three days were, as Rondellen had said, filled with training and then some more training. Still, there was time for contemplation and discussions too.
Among them was Canfee, should we share the knowledge for free or keep it hidden? Should we start selling it? Or just give it away? After talking about it all together, it was decided that me and Ragnhild would go and meet with her friend Syster, who had helped the Bondlaeppers in the past. She now owned one of the local diners.
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One day before dinner time, we went to her diner called Smutsiga Duken. It was smack in the center of Ostvik. The time was chosen because there was a lull in the traffic of customers coming there.
“Hi Syster,” Ragnhild said as we walked inside the diner. Before us stood Syster. She looked exactly like an old grandma, white hair, a kind face and with a curved back. But you could see that there was steel left in her blue eyes. This was not a pushover but a strong old woman.
“Hi Ragnhild, how is your father? Long time since he was over here for dinner, and who is this young lad?” She had a bubbly personality and a wide welcoming smile.
“My father is good. He came back from the desert last week.”
“Oh, did it go okay? I’ve been having some trouble getting deliveries through because of bandits and Shadow warriors.”
“Yes, thanks to Green Raven here, it went fine even if they got jumped by five Shadow Warriors.” Ragnhild said, looking at me.
“Oh no, well lucky that everything went well then. So this is the lad that has invented something you call Canfee? You won’t tell me anything more about it?”
“Exactly, not until you try it,” Ragnhild said deadpanned.
“Well, you sure are your father’s daughter.” Syster said with a wink, “follow me then.”
We came into a kind of back room, and Syster turned around and looked at us with a look that said, “come on, show me what the big fuss is about.”
We did not let her down! I took out one of my water-skins now labeled Canfee-skin. After asking for something to pour in, I was handed some kind of mug in what I guessed was clay. I poured a generous amount and said to Syster, “This is Canfee. It works both hot and cold. What you are tasting now is obviously cold.”
Syster didn’t say anything, just took the mug back, smelled it carefully, and then took a small sip. Still not talking, she took a larger sip. After that, you could see her eyes widening. She had a glint in her eyes that Eonde later told me she hadn’t seen in a long time. Still silent, she drained the mug in one last big gulp, handed back the mug to me, and gestured for a refill. This time, she took the time to savor it, to the very last drop.
“You guys weren't kidding! This stuff is amazing! Canfee you called it? Tell you what I’ll buy 100 liters up front and we’ll see how it sells. If it goes like I predict., we will write up a contract with all the details. How does that sound? And say I buy it for 50 Gold?” She said and was all businesslike.
We had talked beforehand what we would sell it for and had decided to sell for at least 20 silver per liter.
The cost to produce 1 liter was 10 Silver so to get 50 Silver per liter was more than fair. She probably thought she skinned us. According to both Ragnhild and Rondellen, she was a very shrewd business woman. We shook hands on it and after some more pleasantries, we headed back to the house. That evening when eating dinner, it was decided that Ragnhild would take in some local trustworthy help and start with producing Canfee for Smutsiga Duken. I did tell them something I’d learned back on earth. Ragnhild won’t sign any contracts that states she can only sell to Syster.
The money we receive will go to buying more Canfads and to making it easier to produce it. All the earnings after that would be split 70/30 between me and the Bondlaeppers. Since I ‘invented’ it, they felt I should have 100% of the proceedings. I argued that it was easier for me if they could handle everything with producing Canfee, selling it and so on, the whole Enchilada and in return get 30% of the proceedings and they gratefully accepted.
At the end of the three days, I knew how to use my sword, both to attack and defend. I had, of course, a long way to become an experienced fighter. That would come later, but now I had the basics to build on. Both my strength and dexterity had leveled up two times. We hadn’t been using any skills yet. Although I had been tempted too, I was told that since I had such a low amount of mana, I shouldn’t lean on my skills. At least not until I got a bigger mana pool.
The fourth morning after breakfast, after I had refilled my water skins (one with water and one with Canfee), me, Rondellen and Eonde set out for The dungeon Rules Revenge. Before we could embark on that, we followed Alfred to his Smitty to get my new sword he had crafted for me.
“You can wait outside, guys,” Alfred said and a few minutes later, he came back with a wrapped bundle containing my sword. “Here you go, Green Raven. Hope you like it.”
I unwrapped the bundle, and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. The handle was of material I had never seen. It was cool to the touch with perforated small holes that reminded me of the Japanese chef knives that were very popular among chefs years back. Probably so even if it became wet it wouldn’t be slippery to handle. The handle was all black and ended with a green knob of sorts. It had a twin-edged blade with engravings that said Green Raven in nice letters.
“I’m speechless… Thank you Alfred! Never have I seen anything like it. Can you tell me about it?”
“It’s a one handed short sword, like the ones in wood you have trained with. The Handle is made of Perforatium, a material that feels cool to the touch when it’s warm outside and warm when it’s not. You will always have a good grip even if it’s drenched in blood. I added runes engraved with your name that makes it always sharp and very resilient. You can hack a stone to pieces without it going dull. It would probably take a long time, but it’s possible. Go ahead and inspect it.”
[Inspect Item]
The sword Green Ravens Disciple
Level 20 short sword
Minimum Requirement level 18 or Green Raven, bind on pick-up.
Sharp as Sharp should be Rune
Don’t wanna be dull Rune
Never gonna break apart Rune
Damage: 40-80 HP
10/10 uses per year: 1 strike is all it takes.
Legendary quality
“Wow!! This is awesome! Thank you again!” I had a smile from ear to ear, “What is the 1 strike is all it takes?” I asked.
“That,” Alfred had a smile almost as wide as mine, “is a one strike kill that you can use up to ten times per year. You think [1 strike is all it takes] before you want to use it. It’s one shot kill on every enemy up to level 80. I leveled up my sword-making skill when creating your sword, so thank you for that. There is one other thing. When you reach level 20, for the cost of two [1 strike is all it takes], you can level up your sword. ”
I took the sword in my hand and straight away got the notification.
Sword Green Ravens Disciple bounded with you, sword is equipped
The sword felt good in my hand. The balance was perfect like I expected a sword of this caliber to be. I thought the sword into my [Inventory] and checked it.
Inventory Slots 05/13
Bonded items:
1 Pants, good quality
1 Sweater, good quality
1 Shoes, good quality
1 Light armor full body, excellent quality
1 Light armor helmets, excellent quality
Sword Green Ravens Disciple
Inventory
1 Sword, level 2, fair quality
1 Water-skin, full, fair quality
1 Canfee-skin, full, fair quality
2 medium health potions
1 small health potion
I focused on my new sword, and it was once more in my hand. I called on it and put it away a couple of times until a mere thought was required to get it in my hand or back into [Inventory].
Before long it was time to get going. We said our goodbyes to Alfred and started walking out of Ostvik and into the desert. The walk to the dungeon was short and eventless. It was as we and everything around us just wanted us to reach the dungeon and get started. Even Eonde, who usually was calm as a clam, was a bit antsy.
“Rondellen,” she almost growled. “Come on. Don’t drag your feet, let’s just get there already.”
“Easy lass, we’ll be there at the next bend in the road. You know that as well as me.”
At last we stood at the entrance to the dungeon. It was just along the road we had walked on for the better part of an hour. It was an old shriveled shrubbery that you walked through. On the other side, we saw a dark tunnel open up.
“Green Raven, since this is your first time in a dungeon let me and Eonde go with you between us like we talked about last night. Eonde, you take the lead and I watch our six.”
I had no issue with that, honest truth, I was a bit nervous even if I knew exactly what monster there would be. We had discussed it last night and they had told me everything I needed to know. What the first creatures were going to be, how to defeat them and so on. I knew the tactics for all three floors. And they had told me what skills they had. Rondellen rocked one epic skill, [Teleport Item] and also had fighting skills, the most noteworthy was [Focused Hit]. A lesser kind of [Teleport being] were he could teleport an enemy from a distance of up til 50 meters to a spot within those 50 meters. But the amount of mana it cost made it more or less a once a day skill to use at most. And then he of course had his crossbows and a couple of skills helping him using them. Eonde had fighting skills that were in alignment with her sword fighting, but she had not revealed any of her skills more than that. I asked her about it but she said I’d see soon enough, and I let it go. It was probably not that cool compared to what Rondellen had, and that’s why she hadn’t told me.
Inside the dark tunnel opened up a wide entrance with sufficient lights.
“Okay, let’s get to it,” Rondellen said, “your very first dungeon.”