Rin and Percy were both up and breaking their fast before sunrise, then it was out the door, tromping the mile across town as the sun rose on their faces. The dungeon was located in a broad cobbled square at the edge of the military quarter. A hulking boulder sat in the middle of the square above the dungeon’s entrance: an ancient staircase cut directly into the stone that descended into gloom.
One of the town guards was leaning against a simple stone hut beside the boulder. He appraised them with a smile and directed Rin to the sign-in sheet. “I’ve a few words I’m s’pposed ta say.” He made sure he had Rin’s attention before gesturing to the enormous boulder looming behind him. “This ‘ere’s a stone dungeon, with lotsa rock monstas, so adapt yer fightin’ style accordingly. The dungeon’s a short one, with only ten rooms an’ most of ‘em styled as some sort o’ cavern. Once ya kill a monsta, they typically respawn within ten minutes.”
“Ten minutes?” asked Rin. “That doesn’t seem long.”
“S’right. So bear that in mind in case ya need to backtrack ‘n retreat. Since yer goin’ solo, there’ll likely be a single boss at the end. Ya ‘ave an hour before the next group is scheduled at eight am. I’ll be letting ‘em enter even if you’re still inside. So if yer inna spot o’ trouble, or even just slow, they’ll catch up to ya avench’lly.”
Rin pulled at his lip, thinking. “How long does it take to get through every room?”
“Anywhere between one ‘n four hours, dependin’ on the ‘sperience of the group. Yer solo, obviously, so’s I’d recommend takin’ it nice and slow.”
“I couldn’t agree more,” said Percy. “Is that everything?”
The guard glanced up, checking off a mental list, then nodded. “Oh, and don’t die.” He gave Rin a toothy grin.
Percy huffed and grabbed the boy by the shoulder. “I’ve some errands to run, so I’ll meet you back at the house. If you get lost, head to the Merchants’ Quarter and ask for me by name. Everyone there knows me.” The tinker clasped forearms with him, beaming. “Now, go get those levels, you young bastard!”
The butterflies in Rin’s stomach turned his smile weak. “Thank you, Percy. For everything. When I get strong, I’ll pay you back tenfold.”
The man ruffled his hair. “You’ll be too busy exploring for all that. Just write me a letter from some faraway land, and we’ll call it even.”
Rin faced the stone stairs that led beneath the boulder, steeling himself for what lay within. He took a deep breath, exhaled sharply, and descended.
The darkness obscured his vision for a few terrifying seconds, so he slowed with outstretched hands feeling the wall, easing down the steps. The crisp morning air fled, overwhelmed by the humid stench of monsters. As his eyes adjusted, he found himself in a room not unlike a dank cave, with the walls and floor comprised of moisture-slicked limestone. Bioluminescent mushrooms peeked from the recesses, casting a pale green glow. A tunnel of blackest night lay at the far end of the room, flanked by a fiery torch hanging from the wall in an iron brazier.
The torch boasted phantasmal blue flames, tall and curling, not of this world. Rin passed by the ghostly torch, marveling at the sight, and words appeared in his mind’s eye.
You have entered the dungeon: Bastion’s Boulder (Stone Type)
No class found. Welcome, beginner.
Turn back now to select a non-combat class or press onward to face the dungeon’s denizens and earn greater power.
Rin unsheathed his sword and strode resolutely forward. He’d trained for this every day of his life, and his rising determination stilled the butterflies in his stomach.
Despite the dungeon’s eerie entrance and noxious smell, he could finally relax. He felt much more at home in this environment than waiting around outside. Here, he was on high alert. You could sense the danger—it was all around you—and the waiting was finally over.
It was said that some of the kingdom’s higher-level dungeons transported you to other realms to battle its monsters. Thankfully, this lower-level one was of the mundane variety. The familiar walls of stone grounded him, both physically and mentally.
I can do this.
He exited the tunnel into a cavern fifty feet across where six stone-skinned rats turned to face him. Each stood on its hind legs, a foot tall, with lifeless eyes and a blank face. Identify revealed their levels to be pitifully low.
Level 1 Stone Ratback (Stone Type)
Level 2 Stone Ratback (Stone Type)
Level 1 Stone Ratback (Stone Type)
…
Dang, ones and twos? This should be easy.
From afar, the ratbacks seemed like ordinary rats, albeit ones with stone skin. When one launched at Rin’s face, he made a chilling discovery: The rats’ bellies were not bellies at all, but a sideways mouth that spanned the length of its body from head to tail, bristling with needle-sharp teeth. The ratback that attacked him leaped with its stomach aimed straight at him, and the sight of the toothy maw bearing down on him was terrifying.
He instinctively plunged his sword straight into its open jaws, a lethal strike, before slinging the monster from his blade and into the path of another. The other ratbacks attacked similarly, leaping for his face, causing him to dodge and backpedal several feet.
Fortunately, when the monsters landed without chomping into him, they appeared stunned, taking a beat to understand where they were and what had gone wrong. The boy spotted that weakness instantly and took to stomping on their backs until they splattered.
Even with his initial shock, Rin recovered swiftly, and the fight ended in seconds.
The boy glared at the monster corpses, his hands on his knees and his breath heaving as their gaping jaws haunted his mind.
There’s no way these monsters are level 1! Why are these in a beginner dungeon at all?!
He pointed his sword at one and poked gently at the teeth in its mouth. To his astonishment, the needle tooth bent. On closer examination, he saw they weren’t teeth at all, merely thick hairs exposed by the monster’s rancid gums. Now that he knew better, the creature resembled more of a toothless grub than anything dangerous. The imitation rat formed from matted hair on its back was a clever disguise, an ingenious way for the monster to appear more dangerous than it actually was. If these monsters had to imitate rats to appear strong, they were weak indeed.
A laugh escaped his lips, half from embarrassment and half from relief.
Glad I checked! Almost made me crap my breeches. Fast little buggers, aren’t you?
Without warning, a swirling trail of mana essence rose from each corpse. The essence converged into a dense plume of blue smoke that rushed into Rin’s chest.
His heart thundered with the surge of magical power. It was euphoric, a heady adrenaline rush. Opening his eyes, he found himself on his knees, clutching the floor with trembling fists.
I wasn’t expecting that.
Notifications begged for his attention.
Multiple Stone Ratbacks defeated.
+60 Experience Points (XP)
You have reached Level 1 & earned 3 attribute points.
Status sheet unlocked.
You have reached Level 2 & earned 3 attribute points.
“YES! I finally got it!”
Rin leaped to his feet and said the words he’d dreamed of since he was a little boy.
“Status.”
Rin Cartwright
Level 2 Potato Farmer
Note: Your title will display your current profession until you choose a class from one of the 5 major gods.
Attributes:
Strength: 13
Dexterity: 15
Perception: 15
Stamina: 15
Toughness: 8
Current HP: 80/80
Recovery: 12 HP/min
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Magic: 10
Current MP: 100/100
Absorption: 5 MP/min
Charisma: 0
Unspent Attribute Points Available: 6
Special Abilities:
Identify: Grade F
Poison Resistance: Grade F
Despite seeing several notifications waiting for him, Rin paused to pore over his attributes. His parents had explained them in great detail, but seeing them laid out in person was intoxicating.
The Toughness stat was a strange one, its value representing a tenth of his total health points available. Toughness and Recovery went hand in hand, the latter representing how fast his health points refilled. Magic and Absorption were similar: they represented his magic points and how quickly they refilled.
All attributes were based on an average human scoring of 10. So, his stamina of 15 was far above average for a level zero at his age. His Absorption value of 5? Not so much.
Charisma was the one outlier to that rule, starting at 0 for every soul in the kingdom rather than a baseline of 10. Everyone called Charisma the junk stat. Once upon a time, it was said to have governed likeability, but nobody believed that anymore. No one wasted attribute points on the stat, except perhaps the boredest of bards, and even then, there was usually a dare involved. Charisma didn’t seem to do anything, and the stat had developed a sorry reputation over the years. Most people of power went their entire lives without wasting a point on Charisma, and that was the soundest strategy, widely accepted by the masses.
Rin turned his attention to his mental notifications.
Basic Combat Classes Unlocked
Warrior
+1 Strength per level
+1 Stamina per level
+Basic weapon skills ability
Mage
+1 Magic per level
+1 Absorption per level
+ Multiple basic spell abilities
Basic Non-Combat Classes Unlocked
Farmer
+1 Perception per level
+1 Stamina per level
+1 Toughness per level
+ Basic farming skills ability
Select a class by focusing on an option and expressing your will.
Would you like to select one of these basic classes now?
Rin mentally declined the question, wanting to hold out for the best combat class possible at the end of the dungeon. He also resisted spending his 6 attribute points, wanting to finalize his class first so he’d know what to spend them on. It meant he’d have to fight each battle with his paltry level zero baseline stats, but so far, it was going well enough.
The fact that the non-combat class of “Farmer” gave the most attribute boosts per level was quite an eye-opener. Unfortunately, out of the many people he knew with the farmer class, none had leveled it very high, even after working their fingers to the bone. It seemed the class had a tempting boost to attributes early on but a hidden ceiling of some kind that stunted your progress later.
Rin closed his status and readied himself for the next chamber when a crippling bout of nausea brought him to his knees.
Effects of Craven’s Ring increased to reflect higher level.
You have been inflicted with a powerful dose of Craven’s toxin.
-20 HP/minute
Dammit, I forgot to remove that thing!
From his prone position on his knees, Rin hastily wrenched off the ring and cast it away before vomiting up his breakfast.
I’m so STUPID. Even with my high Recovery of 12, I’m going to lose 8 health a minute! Plus that thing has been penalizing my experience by fifty percent. I should be level three by now!
He curled into a ball, trying to control his shivering body and wait out the poison effect as best he could. After 5 minutes, his health reserves were down to 50%, and he was in a full-blown panic. Then a notification revealed he still had a chance:
The following abilities have advanced by significant amounts:
Poison Resistance
Toxicity reduced to -15 HP/minute
After another 8 minutes, when his health had bottomed out to a meager 16 points remaining, he received another message:
The following abilities have advanced by significant amounts:
Poison Resistance
Toxicity reduced to -10 HP/minute
Rin exhaled with relief. His Recovery rate of 12 HP/minute was now enough to overcome the poison, and his health slowly ticked up.
After twenty minutes and another poison resistance notification, he finally felt well enough to stand. The first thing Rin did was check two specific stats:
Current HP: 36/80
Poison Resistance: Grade F
He shook his head. The notifications insisted his poison resistance increased, yet the ability’s grade hadn’t budged.
Definitely not worth it.
Now, he understood Percy’s advice about the ring. Its effect on him at the slightly higher level of 2 had been almost fatal!
He approached the ring, taking special care to place it in a pocket where it was most certainly not equipped.
A fleeting thought sped through his mind of how he could use the artifact in small doses before he reached level 3, boosting his poison resistance to a ridiculous extreme. The vomit on the floor caught his eye, and he hastily reconsidered.
If that second team behind me finds me in a pool of my own vomit, I might just die of embarrassment, let alone poison.
Unprompted, a message filled his mind:
Cursed class unlocked.
Grants full self-heal (one-time only)
Permanent curse of -100% XP gain.
Would you like to select the Cursed class now?
A one-time heal? That’s all?
It was well known that Craven was the god of curses. Rin suspected he might be offered this class after using the god’s ring. He couldn’t decline the offer fast enough.
Seriously, why would anyone ever choose this? Maybe if you were on death’s doorstep with no other options?
That was the only scenario that made sense. He’d witnessed someone with the Cursed class during a trip to Craggton: a beggar, weak and pitied by the townspeople. There was a strong stigma associated with the class, too. Many people, particularly those with a superstitious bent, believed victims of the Cursed class had done something evil, and the class was the manifestation of the gods’ exacting their righteous judgment.
Rin shook his head at the notification’s ridiculous offer and moved to the chamber’s exit, another dark tunnel opposite where he’d entered.
The next room was markedly different, with a wide sand pit for a floor instead of plain stone. Several monsters tunneled beneath the sand, creating furrows in their wake.
When Rin approached the pit, the trails in the sand abruptly froze, then fell flat, melting away into nothing. The monsters had detected him.
Dammit. Rookie mistake.
Identify failed him. Either he needed to level up the ability, or it required a direct line-of-sight to work properly.
The boy decided to gamble and stomped one foot on the sand before swiftly retracting it.
Like a shot, a tubular rock worm the size of his forearm leaped free from the sand, snapping its jaws where Rin’s foot had been a moment earlier. That was all the time Rin needed to thrust his sword down its throat with a critical strike.
A glowing smoke trail of mana essence rose from the corpse and rushed into his body.
Enemy defeated
+15 XP
Hmm, quite a bit of experience, but no level up? I guess it was too weak. What is this thing, anyway?
He tapped his sword against the monster’s rock carapace and the blade rang like a bell. Unlike the soft palate of the creature’s mouth, its exterior was covered in thick rock armor.
Looks like I found its weak spot.
Identify gave him more details.
Level 2 Lesser Cave Wriggler (Stone Type)
Let’s see how many of these it takes to get me to level 3.
He repeated the same strategy, comfortably dispatching 3 more monsters by stomping on the sand and stabbing down their throat. It took mere minutes to get what he wanted:
You have reached Level 3 & earned 3 attribute points.
This is easy!
The remaining buried monster created a broad wake, and this time, when Rin stomped on the ground, it leaped from the sand with such force it almost got him. By pure luck, it chomped down at an angle, missing his toes. It was double the size of the others, with far more aggression.
He wasted no time spearing it down the throat like the others, and when it resisted, he twisted his sword and gave it a few hearty yanks up and down until it stopped gurgling.
Identify triggered almost subconsciously now.
Level 4 Greater Cave Wriggler (Stone Type)
With the chamber complete, he marched on to the next. This time, the cavernous room was filled with deep craters whose thin walls abutted each other. Each hole was as wide as a man and deep enough that the bottom was hidden in shadow. The rims of each hole were so narrow a single misstep would mean tumbling into the abyss on either side.
Quite the trap room for a beginner dungeon.
Rin inspected the chamber’s walls from a distance but couldn’t see any holes that might fire projectiles, flames, or poison.
That might be too dangerous for a beginner dungeon. But I bet these pits are filled with spikes.
A cursory check for monsters revealed an inconspicuous ledge along the cavern’s right wall. The precipitous route was covered in guano, and a chasm of unknown depth lay beneath the ledge, yawning darkness. Besides the obvious danger of the chasm, the ledge itself appeared to be relatively safe. It spanned the entire chamber length, depositing any would-be travelers directly at the chamber’s exit tunnel.
I bet the guano is from rock bats. Wait—Do rock bats poop guano or something else? Shouldn’t it be pebbles or gravel or something?
He shook away the distracting thought and refocused.
Fight the monsters on a narrow ledge? Or brave the pits?
It was an easy decision. Percy’s advice rang in his ears, emphasizing levels above all else. He was here to get stronger. Delicately traversing those pits wouldn’t give him a single point of extra experience—that’s not how the Game of the Gods worked. Fighting the monsters might net him an entire level.
On top of that, I spotted the guano, so I have an idea what’s coming.
He clambered onto the ledge, raising his sword high and pressing his back firmly against the wall. Within the first few steps, the bats attacked.
Level 4 Quad Bat (Stone Type)
Level 5 Quad Bat (Stone Type)
Level 4 Quad Bat (Stone Type)
…
This variety of bat had four wings, flapping alternately. Their faces were absent of all features and eerily blank, nothing more than a smooth patch of stone with a hinged aperture for a mouth. Their extra wings allowed them to hover in place, giving them a unique advantage over other bat species.
To Rin, it made them sitting ducks.
A firm crack against the wing tendon was all it took to down the monsters, and their immobilized bodies spiraled into the dark chasm. The only signs of their deaths were the glowing wisps of experience rushing into his chest.
Multiple Quad Bats defeated.
+120 XP
You have reached Level 4 & earned 3 attribute points.
The new level brought a greedy grin to his face. He stalked forward with his sword raised, the thrill of battle pounding in his veins.
Look out, dungeon. I’ve got monsters to kill.