Cam greeted me with enthusiasm and motioned for me to take a seat. At least, once Brie reminded him who I was he did that. The table only had four chairs, but I grabbed one from another table and sat down, ordering five servings of zarna, a type of pasta. The wait staff here were used to people ordering massive amounts of food, as needing to eat more was a common weakness of Monster talents. When it got here I realized it was a different kind of zarna than I was expecting, as this was a thick fried wheat noodle instead of the boiled skinny noodles I was expecting, and the creamy garlic and cucumber sauce they put on the chicken that covered it was an unusual flavor combination. Still, the sharp cheese they added made it taste better than expected.

“So, any questions?” Cam asked.

“Why do they make the zarna like that?” I asked, and he sighed.

“I was just explaining the procedure for selling monster parts, but you weren’t paying attention, were you?”

I shook my head. “Sorry, I was really hungry and this food is confusing.”

“Why?” asked Fontina. “That’s how we always made it while I was growing up.”

“Well, in Gray Forest Town we make it a bit differently.” I had seen my mother and sisters make it at least twenty times during the summer, so while I hadn’t made it myself, I knew how it was made. “First, you mix flour and water, and roll it really thin, then you cut the thinnest strips you can off of the dough and boil them in broth. Preferably some sort of animal broth, but vegetable broth works too. Then you grind up a lot of soft vegetables together. We mostly use tomatoes, since they produce so much during the summer, but you can also use onions, squash, boiled carrots, but not unboiled carrots because they are too hard, peppers, or whatever else you have. That makes a sauce you pour over the top. Usually it’s served with beans, so you make the noodles the day before and chill them in the cellar, and boil your beans in a jars with some onions, garlic, and maybe honey.”

“Wouldn’t that take a long time to cook?” she asked.

“Oh, you just leave it in the bread oven overnight after the baker finishes for the day, and pick it up in the morning.”

“And what does that have to do with selling loot?” asked Edam.

“Nothing. It’s just better that way.” I responded, shoveling another fork-full into my mouth.

Edam sighed. “How about we just take him with us tomorrow when we go into the dungeon? We can show him the ropes and in exchange, maybe he only takes half a share.”

“Well, he is a full adventurer now, and a high iron at that, so we should probably give him a full cut. That said, we can probably go further than him, so if we end up having to carry him, he’ll go back to being a porter and only get half a share after that. How does that sound?”

“Confusing.” I said. “How can I carry your bags if you are carrying me?”

“Oh, he didn’t mean literally carrying you.” said Fontina. “He means that we’re taking you further into the dungeon than you can handle without us. Since we’ll be doing all of the work at that point, you’ll have to carry our bags so that we can fight better.”

“Oh, that makes more sense. Sure, I can do that.”

“In that case,” said Camembert, “we can meet up here at seven in the morning. Do you have any questions?”

“Yeah, where can I sleep around here? Should I go to the inn, or?”

“Oh, the guild has a bunkhouse. You can rent a bed for a copper per night, and rent a locker to store your things for another copper. That way people can’t steal any valuables. When we get back I’ll help you find an apartment. Edam and I only have a two bedroom place, but I’ll see if there’s another place open in our building.”

I nodded. “In that case, I’ll go grab my things.” I slurped down the rest of the noodles, washed it down with the rest of the water, and went to get my things. When I got back I was wearing an overstuffed backpack containing my armor, weapons, tent, and bedroll. “I didn’t have room to carry my food or cookpot. I’ll have to go back for it.”

Cam shook his head. “If you have another place to store it, you should just leave it there. You don’t really need your tent or bedroll either. We won’t be staying in the dungeon for more than a day. The one we’re going to go to has pretty small levels and we’re only going to do the first two levels, since what we’re after is on the second.”

“And what’s that?” I asked.

Cam shook his head. “Can’t tell you yet. I don’t want to risk anyone finding out about it and stealing our mission.” He explained that the guild’s open missions for acquiring products from the dungeons were just listed in the lobby and anyone could try to collect on them at any time, as they regenerated and could be gathered at any time. There would always be a limited amount of any item, so if anyone that doesn’t like a team or a person on that team, they can go and clear all of that item from the dungeon. And since the dungeon can’t replace resources in an area unless no one is in the area, all they have to do to spite you is camp near the supply you need. For that reason, you never talked in public about which open missions you were taking. You should only talk about your mission if it is a reserved mission, like a special order from a client. In that case, you can even get help from other teams or buy items from them to complete a mission.

After I put my tent and bedroll back into my cart Cam showed me to the bunkhouse. There I paid my two copper and got a key for the locker. While my key was registered to my guild ID, ID based locks were too expensive to put on every locker, so I had to open it with a key. I wasn’t tired, though, so I put on my gear and headed to the back of the building where there was a training field.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

As there wasn’t anyone else around, I decided to try and work on running. After all, that had been my biggest issue when coming here. So I started off with a jog and, when that didn’t seem to do much, I started running. Still, I felt like I could do even more, so I started sprinting. It was a weird feeling gasping for breath, feeling like you can’t keep going but somehow you never quite reached a point where you had to quit. And it wasn’t because I was out of whatever gave you energy when your were scared or angry. I ran out of that when I tried to get really angry so that I could go faster. I felt a rush of energy and my speed doubled, but after a minute or so the energy went away and no matter what I did to get angry again, my Rage wouldn’t activate. I knew that if I stopped my body would be too tired to keep going, and I would have to recover for several minutes, so I just kept going. After an hour I had slowed to what was barely a jog, and thirty minutes after that I was walking normally again, but I tried to keep going. Then I lost all energy and fell on the dirt track surrounding the training field.

I laid there for ten minutes or so before I had enough energy to get up again. It felt like most of the muscles in my body were burning and I was more tired than I had ever been. I left the training field and went to the lockers, where I removed my armor and weapons. I knew I was supposed to wipe the armor down after sweating in it, but I just locked it up and stumbled back to the bunk room. Most of the men there were already asleep, so I quietly collapsed on my bed, not even bothering to take off my shoes before I went to sleep.

I woke up well before sunrise and got out of bed. I was pretty hungry, but at least I wasn’t tired any more. I got up, went back to my locker, and got my armor out. The sweat was already dry, so I had to clean it even more, but an hour later the armor was clean and I could get to work on my weapons. I took another thirty minutes cleaning them, then put them all on and went down to the training field. There I swung my sword at the training dummy until other people started to show up. The sun had just risen, but a few of the people wanted to spar, so I spared for a few rounds with my sword and shield before it was time to go visit my friends.

When I got to the cafeteria I saw them sitting there and sat down beside them. Edam immediately covered his nose. “Damn, man. You stink. Did you forget to take a bath?”

“Oh, sorry about that. I can go do that now.”

“Unfortunately, we don’t have the time. We need to be at the dungeon by eight if we want to be out by nightffall. You should at least change clothes, though.”

I nodded and went back to the locker room to change. I would need to remember to take a bath tonight.

When I got back there were plates of bacon, eggs, and buttered bread on the table in front of my seat. “I got you five orders of each, since that’s what you ordered last night.” said Cam. As I sat down to start eating, he continued. “Now, since we haven’t seen you in over a month, you should probably tell us about your skills. I see you carry a sword now...”

“Show Cam, Brie, Fontina and Edam my Status.” I said after swallowing, then went back to eating.

“Well, I guess that works.” said Cam as he looked over my status.

Name: Michael, son of Brin Mason

Race: Human

Age: 18

DP: 1015

Status Effects: None

Criminal Status: Banished (Gray Forest Town)

Common Talents

Strength: Petty

Endurance: Major

Dexterity: Petty

Intelligence: Petty

Willpower: Average

Wisdom: Petty

Charisma: Petty

Personality: Major

Perception: Minor

Stats

Strength: 23

Endurance: 30

Dexterity: 21

Intelligence: 10

Willpower: 26

Wisdom: 13

Charisma: 7

Personality: 28

Perception: 16

Talents

Average Rage

Petty Ice Magic

Average Swordsmanship

Monster Talents

Average Troll Regeneration

Minor Tough Hide

Skills

Workout: 10

Study: 5

Spearmanship: 9

Shield: 10

Shield Bash: 4

Use Magic Item: 3

Throwing: 5

Swordsmanship: 9

Magic Skills

Freeze Touch: 3

Freeze Bolt: 4

Freeze Edge: 4

Cam whistled. “Yeah, you’ve definitely improved. So, you’ll join me as a frontliner, I guess. Anything you need to buy before we set out?”

I chewed for a few seconds thinking, then swallowed. “Talent candy.”

“Oh, you can buy that at the front counter. They’re a silver each, but most talents will sell for more than that.”

I finished off the last of the bacon and eggs, and put the last roll of bread in my mouth before heading to the front counter. The shortest line this time was an older blonde woman, so I waited behind the three other men standing in line. Once I got to the front she greeted me. “Oh, you’re the one that Graig talked about. The one that had a recommendation. And just as handsome as he said, too. So, how can I help you?”

“I need Talent candy.” I thought about how much money I had. I only had seventeen silvers saved up, plus some copper, but it wasn’t very expensive to live here and we had a job lined up already. “Five of them.”

“Sure, one moment please.” She went to the back and came back with a basic cloth sack with five of them in it. “That will be five silver.” I handed her the coins, thanked her, then left.

The others were already gathered near the front door, so I checked to make sure all of my equipment was ready and joined them. I had left my spear in my locker as I couldn’t carry it on my back while wearing a backpack. “I hope you’re okay carrying all of that,” said Edam. “A bit too much gear for my taste.”

I looked down at myself. I was left handed, so I wore my sword on my right hip, carried my shield on my right arm, had a bag of javelins on my left hip, and had a kitchen knife strapped to my right forearm. I was also wearing a leather chest piece. And, of course, I was wearing my backpack and had the bag of talent candy hanging beside the javelins. “Seems like I’ll need everything to me.” I said, and he just shrugged.

With that we set off for the dungeon entrance. “So,” asked Cam. “Where did you get that armor? It’s not the best quality, but it isn’t bad.”

“Oh, it belonged to a hobgoblin I killed. This sword belonged to a different one.”

“That equipment’s a bit better than you would expect. They usually use pretty basic weapons and no armor. Where did you fight them?”

“Oh, there’s a second dungeon near the town called “Endless Battlefield”. The gobs and hobs there have decent gear, so we sold a bunch of it to the blacksmith in town, to be resold to new adventurers.”

“A second dungeon?” asked Fontina. “That’s interesting. It means that the town might become a major city one day, especially if they can find a third nearby.” She explained that most settlements didn’t have one, but that some of the bigger ones had one dungeon. Few had two or more, like this city. “If the mayor’s smart he’ll claim them for the city as quickly as possible. You can’t risk someone else or a guild claiming them.”

“Not sure how smart he is, but he did hire you guys to clear the first one, so he can’t be that dumb.”

Edam shrugged. “Wasn’t bad pay, but I expect he mostly did that because he didn’t want a break overrunning the town. Hard to get taxes when half the people are dead. Normally I wouldn’t have even agreed to the mission, since the dungeon pays better, but the guild requires one outside mission per year, and one dungeon mission per year for Iron ranks, so that they can keep up with the requests. Once we make it to Silver, though, that will go up to two of each.”

We reached the dungeon and joined the line entering it. Apparently, the dungeon limited entrance to fifty people per floor. No one really knew why, but the main guess was that it needed room to replace the monsters and loot. Because of that, no one really complained, as it meant there were more things to harvest and sell. Around the Archway that led into the dungeon were five black rectangles of stone. No one really knew how, but each one told the outside how many people were alive on each floor. If it went down and neither the next floor went up or people exited to the surface, you knew that they had died.

The floors of the Five Seasons Dungeon were divided into five “seasons”, one for each season. Spring was the easiest, and the first floor. It mostly had plant monsters. Summer was a bit harder and mostly had mammal type monsters, with some birds. Fall was a bit worse, with many birds, mostly scavengers and predators, and insect type monsters. Winter was harder, with Ice wielding animals from the other three stages. And Death was the hardest. It was an undead floor with both ghosts, zombies, and skeletons of various types. And at the end, to mug the core, you had to fight a wight with ice and death magic.

The group at the beginning had six members, and the Spring number read forty seven, so they were waiting for three more people to die or exit so that they could enter. Few people died on the first floor, though. Thirty minutes later we stepped into the dungeon, just a bit behind schedule. We fought several weird plants, like a Fly Trap that tried to eat us, a moving tree, and a sunflower that could shoot both seeds and light. I would have loved to get the light magic from them, but it was pretty rare for anyone to capture it, so it was fairly had to find.

Once we were a kilometer from the gate and were certain that no one else was around, Cam informed us that we were going for the elemental crystals in the Rat Warren. These crystals were sometimes used by mages to amplify their magic, but were used up in the process, so there was a constant market for them. Apparently, while all of them could be sold in town, someone really wanted the Water, Life, and Light crystals, and was willing to pay three times the market rate for them. Most likely they were working on some sort of ritual and needed the crystals to power it. We just needed to get as many of those as we could. And because most of the rats had a petty magic talent, with some having a minor magic talent, we might get lucky and catch one of those talents. They were always in demand and sold for good money. We would, of course, split the crystals five ways, but the talents were ours to keep, though we had to let our teammates have first dibs on buying them.