Jackson checked over his gear one more time. It did nothing to change the fact that his gear was terrible, but he checked it regardless. No matter how awful it was in comparison to those from the bigger cities, it was still a layer of protection between him and the shadow of death.

And when you put it in that perspective, the least he could do was maintain it to the best of his ability.

“Hey Boss, we got a message from the Clerk, supposed to be urgent,” a voice reached Jackson’s ears. His hands never stopped moving, continuing their meticulous care of the various pieces of armor strewn about in front of him. “What is it, Jager?”

The owner of the voice, Jager, stood at the doorway observing the team’s boss. He always felt that Jackson, of everyone he had ever worked with, deserved better than this klekhole of a town. While the others had no chance of becoming anything more than bottom rate adventurers, Jackson had the mindset and ability to make it in one of the smaller cities at least. Why he stayed here, Jager would never know. Shaking himself from those thoughts, he said, “The Manager wants us to take a look at the boar dungeon, apparently the kle- ahem, the uh, Team Boar, is gone. Like, dead, gone, not missing gone. Although their bodies might be missing too. Won’t know ‘til we get down there.”

Jackson visibly winced at the curse word, but shrugged it off as best he could. He was no Systemic, that’s for sure, but...it’s not a nice thought to think about. The thought of the world ending because of a...glitch...in the System, it terrifies him more than he lets on. But worrying about something that will never happen won’t keep him and his team alive, so he does his best to not show the others how much the word bothers him.

Not that anyone other than Jager cared.

“Where are the others?” Jackson asked, his maintenance complete. He efficiently put on his equipment piece by piece. Hardened leather greaves, chest armor, bracers, helmet, boots, gloves. All well treated and dyed the deepest black available. His light brown skin was still visible on his face, but in low light settings he could practically vanish into the shadows. His last bit of gear, his weapon, was a slingshot, also dyed black. He slipped it into a holster on his belt, next to the several pouches of various, specifically made ammunition. He was ready.

Jager, seeing his boss fully prepped, stopped leaning on the door. “They’re all downstairs. I was lucky that none of them ran off to, uh, mess around or anything yet. I guess they’re still too hungover from last night. But by the time we reach the dungeons they should be fine.” Jager was already geared up as well, his two headed axe resting on his back, ready to dish out punishment any time. “We should head out now though, the sooner we get this done the better.”

Jackson nodded in acceptance then paused to check his status screen as Jager walked out the door.

Name: Jackson

Class: Stone Slinger

Level: 23

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Affiliation: Team Viper, Adventurer’s Guild

Base Stats

Strength: 8

Constitution: 7

Agility: 10

Dexterity: 11

Intelligence: 9

Wisdom: 9

Charisma: 10

Luck: 4

Advanced Stats

Accuracy: 15

He confirmed that there were no changes since the last time he checked, a hint of pride on his face when he looked at his Accuracy stat. It took a lot of hard work to unlock Advanced Stats, and this one was especially tricky, requiring hours upon hours of dedicated effort. It was worth it in the end, of course. Not that many people could claim to have them, at least not in Tirac. Maybe the cities and the capital were overflowing with people with a bunch of Advanced Stats, or even higher, but he had no way to know. After all, Tirac was his whole life, and always will be.

Briefly, Jackson wondered how other Advanced stats would work. He knew how the basic ones operated, in fact, everyone was taught from young using a handy anecdote involving tomatoes. Strength determines how hard you can squish tomatoes. Constitution helps with eating bad tomatoes. Agility shows how fast you can catch a falling tomato. Dexterity is being able to slice a tomato without cutting off a finger. Intelligence tells you that tomato is a fruit. Wisdom means you know not to place tomatoes in a fruit salad. Charisma gives you the possibility of selling a tomato-based fruit salad, while Luck is the actual chance of dodging the tomato-based fruit salad that will be tossed back in your face.

And in Jackson’s case, Accuracy lets him be quite on target when tossing salad.

Before he could get lost in trying to apply the analogy to other stats he has heard of, but have not unlocked, a voice from below grabbed his attention. “Boss, are you coming or what! Let’s go!” Disrespectful subordinate, he thought to himself with a smirk. But he did not mind at all. Jager did more than enough to earn his way of addressing the team leader.

Jackson made his way downstairs, not neglecting to lock his room of the inn. Even though he had little worth stealing, it was always smarter to take precautions than not. He found the rest of his team sitting at a table in the common room, Jager the only one looking alert and with a slightly sadistic cheer. The other three members, two men and one woman, were slumped over in various angles over the table, muffled groans emitted from their general vicinity. Jackson had to resist the urge to smile as well. They did bring it upon themselves.

Walking up to the table, he unremorsefully gave it two sharp raps, forcing the whole team to look up at him. Mostly with wrath in their eyes. The urge got ever so stronger. He coughed to distract himself.

“Alright, here’s what we’re doing for today,” he began once he felt they could absorb his words. “We’re going to the dungeons, but not the snake den this time. We’re going to look at the boars and try to figure out if anything suspicious is going on there. I need you all to be awake and alert by the time we get there, we might have to face a new boss. I don’t want to waste my ammo saving you fools...again.”

One of the guys had the decency to cringe. “Man, that was just one time-”

“Anyways,” Jackson grinned, “It’s time we get moving. Up up, come on now, let’s go people.” A chorus of groans was his only reply, but eventually Team Viper got moving. It took them a short while to get to the outpost covering the entrance to the tunnel that leads to the four dungeons, which gave them enough time to get back into fighting condition.

It was just a shame...that they were woefully unprepared for what they would find within.