“How much is it per night?” Asked Michael to the owner of the first inn he found that didn’t turn him away for his looks. It was called ‘The Sleeping Bear’ and apparently it was owned by a retired adventurer, which explained why he hadn’t been denied service. Not only that but it was located less than an hour away from the Adventurer’s Guild and The Dungeon. It was perfect for what he needed.

After paying a few bronze coins for a decent tasting meal that filled his belly, he immediately inquired about the lodging fees.

“It’s a silver coin per night. Two if you want three meals included every day,” replied the owner of the inn, a burly and tall man that had a lot of hair on every part of his body that wasn’t covered by his clothes, which were straining against his massive muscles and belly. He also had a pair of black furred bear ears on top of his head, making it obvious that he was a Demi-Human (Bear) and that he apparently named his inn after himself.

Since he was retired, Michael thought that the ‘Sleeping’ was some kind of reference to the fact that he was retired.

Michael thought the prize was fair considering the quality of the food and the size of the inn gave him a rough estimation of how big his room would be. Michael handed the owner, whose name was Ursop, the fourteen silver coins that would cover his stay for the next seven nights and days.

Ursop accepted the coins and handed Michael a set of keys and a plastic gray card that had the image of a resting black bear. “Your room is the one at the end of the end of the second-floor corridor on the right. Breakfast is served until mid-morning, lunch around noon and dinner when the sun starts setting. That card will let me know that you have paid por the meals in advance,” he explained gruffly with his grave and almost booming voice.

“Thank you.” Michael nodded at the man as he accepted the two items and pocketed them for the moment. “Can you tell me about a place where I can buy some basic steel equipment? I became an adventurer today and tomorrow I’ll be going into the dungeon for the first time. I want to be as prepared as I can be.” Michael hoped that as a retired adventurer, Ursop could tell him about such a place.

Ursop nodded his head. “I gathered that from what you are carrying around,” he commented with some amusement before stroking his beard a bit as he gave him a speculative look, apparently considering something. After a few moments Ursop seemed to reach a decision. “You should check out Urminoc’s Armors & Weapons Shop. It’s located on the third street of the Merchant’s District. If you tell him I sent you, you might even get a discount, but that ain’t a sure thing.”

Michael nodded in understanding before thanking the man again.

He then made his way upstairs and towards his room. Michael wasn’t surprised to see that the room was bigger than his entire self-made hut in the forest. It was a bit spartan, with a simple bed, a nightstand, a desk, a closet and a window that allowed him to look at the street outside. There was another door within the room and Michael opened it to see that it was a simple bathroom that had a clean-looking sink, toilet and a bathtub.

‘Fourteen silver coins for staying in such a place for a week seems like a fair trade,’ he thought as a pleased expression appeared on his face as he continued to contemplate his room for the next few days.

Eventually, Michael walked out of the room and locked it. He went back downstairs to the bar/restaurant portion of the inn and sent Ursop a wave that was returned dismissively as he made his way outside to the still busy streets of Orus.

As he made his way towards the place Ursop had told him, Michael subtly tried to pay attention to the people around him. He noticed that the number of adventurers in comparison to other citizens diminished the further away he got from Adventurer’s Guild, which made sense. When not on missions outside of the city, adventurers likely spent their time either on their homes, the dungeon or the guild proper. He knew that he wasn’t the only one that thought living close to their headquarters was a good idea.

Because of that, Michael noticed the increase of negative expression sent his way the further he got from the center of the city towards his destination. Luckily, it only took him about an hour of walking to reach Urminoc’s Armors & Weapons Shop.

The moment he slipped into the tall building made of wood, concrete and metal, Michael whistled as his eyebrow rose to his hairline. Neatly organized in racks Michael could make out an assortment of all the types of weapons and armor he knew about and even more he didn’t even know about or have ever imagined existed. He also noticed that some of those weapons and armors had what had to be runes carved into them, which meant that they were likely enchanted as well.

“Oi, brat! Stop standing in the middle of my shop gawking like a fool! What do you want?!”

Michael turned towards the rude voice only to blink at the sight of a muscled and bearded dwarf wearing a leather apron and pants with a hammer held in his scarred hands near the counter. Despite being called a dwarf, the man before him was nearly his own height (And Michael was tall for his age even compared to full grown adults) but almost three times as wide. Also, he had an oversized head in comparison to the rest of his body, which was what gave the impression that dwarves were undersized, hence the name of their rise.

Hearing his irritated voice and seeing his annoyed expression, Michael was quick to speak. “Good evening, Mister Urminoc. Ursop sent me here to get basic equipment for when I head into The Dungeon tomorrow.”

“Bah! So that old bear sent you, huh?! That means you are not a completely waste of space then,” he said as his annoyance seemingly faded away as his eyes gleamed a bit with interest. “So, what were you looking for? I see you have some well-used but decently crafted basic equipment already.”

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Michael nodded as he approached him. “Yeah. These were given to me by my employer so I could do my job and he let me keep them when I quit and told him I was going to become an adventurer,” he said before he shrugged off his things and put the bow, the shield and sword on the counter. “I’d like to get some steel armor and a new weapon. If it’s not too much trouble and you are willing to accept, I would like to pay using these items as well as coins.”

Urminoc squinted at him for a moment before shrugging his shoulders. “Alright! I’m good with that! But only because Ursop sent you and you have to promise you will only get your equipment from me as you grow stronger, you hear me?” Michael nodded at that with a smile and Urminoc gave a satisfied nod. “Good! Now, tell me lad, what is your class? I might have some suggestions.”

Michael only hesitated to answer for a moment. “I actually have two variants of the [Warrior] class and the [Mage] class. [Blader], which gives me a certain amount of proficiency using any type of sword, and [Elementalist], which allows me to use two types of elemental magic,” he said, sticking to the downplayed description he had given Lupa earlier since it would be easier to remember and make things more convenient for him.

Urminoc gave him an impressed look. “Ah, I can clearly see why the old bear sent you here then,” he said and Michael only had time to contemplate what that could mean since he had not told Ursop about his classes before the dwarf spoke again. “I take it that this [Blader] class allows you to instinctually use any sword you get your hands on, correct?”

“Yes.”

“And what about [Elementalist]? What elemental magics can you use? And you have to use your hands like most mages at first?”

“Fire and Lightning,” answered Michael. He went with those since those two and Wind were the ones he preferred the most. “And I have to have at least one hand unoccupied to use the skill of the [Elementalist] class.” Michael had spent the entirety of yesterday experimenting with his abilities so he had fairly good idea of what he could and couldn’t do along with his current limits.

“I see, I see,” muttered Urminoc before he began to look at Michael up and down with a concentrated expression on his face. After a few long moments of this, during which Michael had gone somewhat uncomfortable, Urminoc finally started to speak. “Your best option would be to go for mobility and reach going by your build and the abilities of your classes.”

Michael nodded, having already reached a similar conclusion yesterday. The fact that Urminoc had done so without exact and complete information spoke of the high amount of experience the dwarf had. In that moment, Michael felt glad he followed Ursop’s advise to come here.

“So! For your initial equipment you should go for leather boots and burlap shirt and pants. Over that a steel breastplate, some steel vambraces for your forearms and steel graves for your knees, legs and feet. As for a weapon…” he trailed off before giving Michael a wide grin. “Why don’t you see what I’ve got in stock and pick it yourself?”

Michael answered with a wide grin of his own.

-XXX-

Michael had a confident expression on his face as he walked into the hall of the Adventurer’s Guild the next day first time in the morning. Not only could not wait to finally start ‘adventuring’ but due to his five years as a farmer, Michael had gotten use to wake up before the sun rose over the horizon. After putting on his new equipment and getting a hearty breakfast from Ursop, who once again complimented his sense of following Urminoc’s advise, he’d made his way to the guild so he could head into The Dungeon.

Since he had gone with Urminoc’s suggestions, Michael was wearing a black burlap shirt and pants that were held up by a brown leather belt that matched his brown leather boots. Over that he wore a dull gray steel breastplate that covered his entire torso and his shoulders. His forearms were covered by dull gray steel vambraces and his knees, legs and feet were covered by dull gray steel graves. He also had three small bags attached to his waist where he would put the Essence Crystals he managed to gather. One of them also had some dry meat he would eat when he became hungry again so he didn’t have to step out of The Dungeon just to get lunch.

And for his weapon of choice, Michael ended up settling for a steel claymore. While all of the swords he tested had been perfectly balanced and felt right in his hands, he felt that the claymore was the perfect weapon for him at the moment. He could both use it one-handed and two-handed, but the weapon would also not compromise his mobility and versatility since it wasn’t as heavy and long as a greatsword.

Strapped to his back with a leather belt that was attached to its sheath, the handle of the claymore peaked over his right shoulder and the tip almost reached his left knee. The blade of the claymore possessed one hundred and twenty centimeters in length while the handle possessed twenty centimeters. The guard was completely straight and ended in two holed circles at each end. The handle was wrapped in black leather and the pommel was spherical in shape.

Michael knew that he looked like a proper rookie adventurer if the approving nods he got from the more experienced ones that paid more than cursory attention to him was anything to go by. Feeling his confidence being booted by their approval, Michael didn’t feel nervousness as he made his way down to the entrance of The Dungeon.

After a few minutes of going down a set of spiraling stairs, Michael eventually reached a wide room that was lit up by dozens of torches that shone brightly than what the size of their fire might suggest, which told Michael that there was likely magic involved there. The room was made completely of stone and concrete and the only defining feature other than the torches was the massive magic circle with a rectangular pillar made of a black material that had to be three times as tall as he was and was glowing with brightly moving runes across its surfaces.

Michael watched in interest as a group of six men and four women of different races stepped into the circle and one of the women walked up to the pillar and pressed her palm against the surface of the pillar. After a few moments the magic circle lit up and the party of ten disappeared in a flash of golden light.

‘So that’s how you enter, huh?’ Michael thought as he presented his guild card to the burly man wearing full plate armor that stood at the foot of the stairs. Only official adventurers and members of the city guard could enter the dungeon after all.

Michael only had to wait a few moments before his turn finally came. With a confident gate, he stepped towards the pillar and pressed his palm against its surface. Michael was surprised at how cold it was despite the amount of people that had touched it already. He blinked when a system window appeared in front of him.

[Welcome to The Dungeon, Michael Kane. Please, choose the floor you would like to access]

[Available floors: 1]

Michael didn’t hesitate as he mentally choose the number one.

By the time he was ready to leave, the goblins of the first floor will know and fear Michael Kane.