Colt sat with a hot cup of coffee in his hand, Sarah and Nate at his side. Nick, too, was here. Along with a girl with stark blue hair and an absent look on her face, right at the edge of new Nashville on the west side of the stadium. In the distance, he could see people starting their day in the fledgling city—taking down clothes that hung overnight, some of them opening their little stalls.

In his pocket were several bits of metal. Since they couldn’t stay true to the dollar—dollars could still be found everywhere outside—these little bits of metal were a way to regulate currency and trade, and for now, everyone was seeing how they would do.

Just as equally, everybody was just trading favors and things.

Colt’s coffee tasted like roasted hazelnuts, and damn, it felt good to drink.

“Everyone’s here, " the scout said, a young athletic girl with a grey cloak. She looked like she came straight out of a college from the medieval era; gear drops, apparently. The system liked to hand out medieval-y stuff, with a rare object that broke the mold every now and again.

“Ah.” Said the girl with blue hair, blinking as if surprised. Despite being the first one here, she’d been zoned out the entire time, barely aware when Colt, Sarah, and Nate arrived.

Nick was the last to arrive and shot them all a sly grin. About fifteen minutes after everyone else.

“Sorry’n for keeping ya up. Heard that you three formed a group—was fix’en to step away from scouting as much, and just talked to Denny to join up. Seem like a good lot and I figured we’d keep on getting on well.”

“Running late is a bad way to make a good impression.” The scout responded.

“It’s fine. Rather, we have someone we can get along with running late than someone who we can’t trust our backs to. It’s a pleasure to see you again, Nick.” Nate extended his hand for a shake, and the man took it with an even wider smile.

Colt took another drink of his coffee and soaked in the crisp morning air.

“And you?” Sarah asked the girl with blue hair.

“And me?” she responded.

“Yeah, you. What’s your name, who are you, and what do you do?”

Colt rolled his eyes. They’d all already inspected one another. The girl was a magic class—Water Mage—combined with their Nick, which gave them two people with access to that weird magic system. He had to admit he was keen to pick up a skill with access if nothing more than curiosity. Edicts, though, he thought, had a promise of far more payoff. This girl didn’t have an edict. And her skills were hidden. But he knew straight that Sarah knew the girl’s name too from her inspect. Making her say it was…

“Oh, I’m Julia!’

Sarah reached out a hand to shake hers, and the blue-haired girl looked down at it, her face scrunched up.

“You shake it. I’m Sarah.”

“Yeah, I know; I read your status.” Julia continued to stare at the hand, still not shaking it.

Colt cleared his throat and raised an eyebrow at the scout, who was scowling at the two women and their awkward moment. That was enough of a cue to recenter the attention on the mission. The scout looked relieved and then took center stage again, of course, after a couple of words to get everyone’s attention on her.

“You all are a new dungeon group, right?” She asked, after having them all in the grasp of her hands once again.

“Well, four of us, I figure. Unless Miss Julia over there hasn’t. I’ve been in one since, though… That uh dungeon group hasn’t stuck around afterward.”

“Haven’t,” Julia confirmed curtly.

“Right. So, for a summary for everyone who hasn’t been through this process before, a scout’s duty is twofold. We can locate dungeons thanks to our specialized skills. Now, anyone can find a dungeon, but we can hunt them down. Our second duty is that at the entrance, we can determine general information about the dungeon.”

“Like an inspect,” Colt guessed.

“Exactly. The system offers information such as the dungeon’s name and a general danger rating. A typical tutorial has a danger rating of F, but this can change from dungeon to dungeon, and certain elements in a dungeon might make it more dangerous than previously thought. We don’t have a lot of data, but we have gathered that this system-generated danger rating is a very loose interpretation. It will also give us a general grasp of size, at least at my level in my skills and class. So. Your dungeon scout has two responsibilities: we brief you on what we know about the dungeon and then lead you there. After that, it’s in your hands.”

It sounded fair. Colt couldn’t ask for more.

And so he didn’t.

Their scout gave some brief outline of what she expected out of the walls of New Nashville—namely, they followed as quietly as they could, listened to everything she said, and didn’t talk much unless she talked first. If she barks, they jump—yada yada, the same kind of ‘im in charge and you’re all incompetent, so just listen to what I say and don’t mess up’ speech that was a dime a dozen in life. He nodded along, and when they left the city, he didn’t put up much of a fuss.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Once they got to their location, they’d get their brief, and finally, after that, it’d be time for some action.

###

“An F+ ranked dungeon.” Colt stared at the Greek art gallery in front of him. Named the Parthenon. In the middle of a famous park, he knew this place existed in Nashville but had never seen it himself. This one was some kind of art gallery the city made almost eighty years back then didn’t have the heart to get rid of. Supposedly, an exact replica of the real place. Only not made out of marble

Now, it radiated a soft white light, and large marble columns made it… Well.

“Wow,” Julia said with awe, her eyes wide. “It’s all different!”

“You’re sure this is F+?” Nate asked.

“It says F+. Given your levels, it should be challenging, but possible—be… Be careful, alright?” The scout said as she stared at the place, tapping a hand against her arm. “I’d love to give you information about the monsters, but nothing has come out even after a couple of days. The place is considered ‘medium’ in size.”

Nate asked her a couple of more questions, getting the nitty-gritty details of the thing. The entrance was in the front. Once you entered a dungeon, you were in it; some dungeons would lock until completed, and others might allow you to retreat.

Each dungeon was a little special, and nobody had the scouting Skills yet to diagnose every little thing that a dungeon might throw their way.

Colt listened on and on, staring at the marble-white building in front of him.

Even though they were in some weird-twisted forest version of Nashville, this place stood as a testament. He could believe the ancient greeks made it, and as he stared at it, he got a deep impression in his gut that it was special. The glow to it. The compelling nature of the stark, beautiful white building among the park and trees.

Colt felt his need to go in ramp up and up, and Nate talked until he couldn’t wait anymore.

“Let’s do this.” He said, his knife appearing from thin air as he started on his way to the building—Nate was surprised but followed along. As did the other three. Nick seemed almost just as excited. He respected the military man trying to get out every little advantage and bit of information that he could, but some things in life just had to be experienced for oneself. The scout had done her job and led them here, and now it was time for them to do their job and clear the dungeon.

When put into perspective like that, things were simple—the way they ought to be.

Colt reached the entrance. A radiant golden light shone within the marble pillar entrance; once he pressed his hand against it, it gave way. Welcoming him with a soft chime and a warm embrace.

Like that, he stepped through the portal.

———

Welcome To Athena’s Centennial Games

Dungeon Rank: D-

Clear Conditions:

Win the games

Note: Exit cannot be discovered until the games have been finished.

———

Colt blinked—the sun was bright above; he was in the middle of a colosseum, a grand structure—which he knew, given all the pictures he’d seen as a kid. Truth be told, these sort of Greek and Roman stories were an obsession for him as a teenager, a way to imagine he’d been born earlier and in a different time—what it would have looked like.

And it was just as massive—three times bigger than New Nashville, at the very least. The seats he could see from here were filled with a great many people, their skin light blue.

Seated at the far end, though, was a massive giant of a woman. Her eyes honed in on him, her skin gold, a massive spear leaned on one shoulder, and an owl on the other.

One after another, the rest of his group appeared, gasping as they looked at the massive audience around them. A hundred thousand spectators? None of them talked, staring in eerie silence as more people appeared on the sandy ground of this arena. They wore clothes that reminded him of all of the famous paintings of the ancient Greeks. Togas, tunics, himations—each one of them a person, and in the sea of them, it was too impossible to pick out individual details.

The last person entered. Sarah.

“Shit, the scout lied.”

Yeah. It was Rank D-; they were probably in trouble with that rating, but Colt didn’t think the scout had lied. Mainly because she would’ve had no reason to. Whatever happened here was the system screwing them.

“Just take it easy, one step at a time, alright? Don’t write us off yet. We all got a lot to offer.” Nick offered her; a bow of radiant light appeared in the man's hands; he slung around, his eyes running all over the place. Nate stood next to Colt, a bat in his hand and a frown on his face. It seemed he’d upgraded the wooden one to a steel. The guy needed a better weapon.

The giant eyes took them in one by one.

She raised her spear high into the sky—the tip seeming as if it touched the sun itself.

“My loyal servants, today we have been graced with new competitors seeking glory within my domain. Should they prevail, they will be rewarded. Should they fall into defeat, they will be honored. As the challenges will be great, so too will the rewards. Our games will begin shortly; my attendant shall instruct our champions of the tourney—three parts, three challenges, and three goals. On this, our first open tourney in a hundred years. Grace be to my father, Grace be to I. Athena. May we delight in the accomplishment and reflect in the wisdom we will witness of war and battle.”

Her voice shook everything in the place—more than that, the way it radiated outward and held weight felt as if it were tearing at Colt’s soul itself.

It was as if every single word she uttered was an Edict of itself—he saw Sarah, Nate, and Julia go down on their knees, bending under the strain.

Nick stayed up, and Colt felt it had everything to do with both of them having an Edict to their name.

She paused as the crowd went wild with cheers. The sound of these ‘people’ screaming was horrid, piercing his eardrums and making his skull ache. They went wild, and he realized the silence before was anticipation.

He’d expected an endless alley. He’d expected maybe a dragon. That’s what dungeons were in video games.

This?

What the hell was this?

Athena gave them a golden smile, then the owl on her shoulder took off, flying right at them.

Colt braced for a fight.