S2, Preparations

I was trying to eat, but the food wasn’t going in as nicely as I would like.

Yesterday I had a tiring training session with the other three boys in my group. I showed them my skills with the spear and they taught me the basics I needed to know before going into the dungeon. That included a long lesson about moving in formation with a spear and shield in hand.

After it began getting dark we had headed to the dining hall and had a light meal. I must admit at first I didn’t trust my companions when they told me the food here was bad. We sometimes had it rough up in the mountains, but the stuff they served here must be worse than those infamous soldier rations. Last night's dinner had been a watered-down soup, and from the taste it left in my mouth, I was half-convinced the cook didn’t bother to wash off the soap from the pot before preparing it.

Once we had ended the unsavory dinner my three companions had guided me directly to our room in the apprentice quarters. It was a small and cramped room with two bunk beds and four trunks to store our belongings. The only other thing of note in the room was a small window in the back wall.

I had been unable to meet again with my uncle yesterday but I doubted he would be willing to give me special treatment. Here I was just another trainee, even if I was the guildmaster’s nephew.

“Agh! I really can’t do it! This blend is so gross, the only edible part is the bread! Food in Vesturkal is a lot better, and you are supposed to have tons of food down here!” The frustrated comments of Falnid pulled me out of my thoughts.

“You should get accustomed to it, we were told that if we want better food we must go to a tavern or an inn, and we need money for that,” said Terence. His slight smile seemed to never leave his face.

“Ugh, then we should hurry to make some coins in the dungeon,” Falnid replied.

“At least there are some chunks of meat mixed with the rest, I think… Maybe it’s not meat,” Bolton mused with little conviction.

“I’m sure those are just some wood shavings they put in the pot to give the blend some consistency,” rebutted Falnid.

“If you really want to see some shavings in it wait until winter approaches, I heard it gets a lot worse by then,” added Terence.

Falnid grimaced at the last remark, and I probably did the same, the food was so bland and unpalatable that I thought it was impossible it had been made using grains and vegetables, the idea that it had wood shavings mixed in didn’t seem so unrealistic.

“As long as I know they purposely make the meals disgusting, it encourages the newbies to get as independent as possible during training. That way they will be capable of fending on their own once the instruction period is over,” explained Terence.

“You may be right on that one,” interjected someone else chuckling.

“Uncle Ather!” I recognized the voice.

“Hello trainees, I know the food is not the best, but I guarantee you it’s plenty nutritious,” said my uncle. “Anyway, I’m here to tell Simon that you need to visit the guild’s alchemist to get your card and plate done before entering the dungeon. You can ask for her whereabouts at the guild’s counter,” said my uncle before leaving as suddenly as he appeared.

“Your uncle is a really busy man,” commented Falnid seeing him exit the hall with hurried steps.

After that I forced the rest of the breakfast down my throat and left my companions, promising to meet them in the training grounds after I was done with my business.

Not much later I found myself in front of a common-looking house. It wasn’t located on the main road, but it was close to the guild’s main building. The property was as unremarkable as the stone it was made of. Not even a sign indicated that the main alchemist of the guild lived and worked here.

I used the knocker, as instructed by the guild employee who told me the way.

“Come in, the door isn’t locked.” I soon heard a woman’s voice coming from inside.

I did as she said and found myself in a gloomy room that took up all the space on the first floor. The place was stuffed with shelves, tables, crates, and a never-ending variety of different containers. All of them were filled to the brim with the most diverse collections of items, raring from books to the bloody remains of some creature. The room was so crammed that some of the stuff was even spilled on the ground, making it difficult to move around.

In the middle of that mess, a woman was looking at me. She was wearing a brown tunic with so many stains that I could only assume that was its original color. She had a strong jaw, an aquiline nose, and a piercing gaze. If I had to judge her age by looking at her face I would say she wasn’t older than thirty, but her graying hair said otherwise. I remembered the tales about alchemists working with mysterious and harmful substances and wondered if her hair had grayed prematurely.

‘Or maybe she drank some miraculous potion.’

“Are you the trainee that was coming here for his guild card and plate?” The woman asked.

“Yes, that’s me Miss… Alchemist, I’m Simon.”

“Of Sudken, I suppose. Your uncle was pretty unreasonable to ask me to prepare a card and plate on such short notice. As if I didn’t have any other work to do! Everything is already delayed enough as it is. I told Atherol to find me a competent assistant ages ago…” The alchemist dropped some worrisome sentences and I wondered if would be able to get my guild card today.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to grumble in front of you, I’m Luelle of Eisengrad, Alchemist, and as you can see I’m a little busy, so let’s find those things quickly, I must have put them over there…” Alchemist Luelle moved towards one of the many crates and began rummaging through its contents.

“Yes, here they are, now let’s go to that table, young man. I need a couple of things from you to get these ready,” she pointed to a table slightly tidier than the rest.

As I left the door side I noticed the mixture of smells in the room, the slight fragrance of ointments, the rancid smell of a place that had not seen fresh air in a long time, and the stench of blood that was coming from the creature remains.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Are you interested in that?”

“Eh? No, I just thought this lizard had an unusual color.”

“That’s a fire lizard, or at least that’s the name adventurers give to it, they can only be found in the dungeon.”

“I see…” I looked at the corpse occupying most of the table closest to me.

“If you are wondering why that one is here, their fire glands can be used to make catalysts for mages. Sadly they are a rare sight unless you venture quite deep into the dungeon and most people in the guild don’t know how to properly extract their organs. Now, if your curiosity is satisfied come here, fast!” Luelle urged me.

As I reached the table I could see a couple of objects on it. The first was a rectangular wooden card that could easily fit in my hand and the other was a slightly thicker and rounded-up rectangle not longer than my thumb. Both of them had a small round hole, probably to attach a string to them.

“These two are the guild card and plate for novice adventurers,” begins Luelle.

“Although their exterior is wood they are surprisingly resistant. They won't break unless you do something stupid, like soaking them in oil and setting them on fire or tying them to the back of your hand to use as armor, I have seen a lot of stupid people…” Luelle’s remarks seemed highly specific. “Now I need you to cut your finger, a pinkie will do,” continued the alchemist, passing me a knife.

I made a shallow cut on my finger and drew a drop of blood.

“Nice, press your finger in the card, near this side… Good, and also here, in the center of the plate… Alright, now hear me well. You need to have at least one of these on you to enter and exit the dungeon, and when I say you need it, I mean you can not cross the dungeon boundary without one of them. That’s why we give you a pair, that way if you lose or break one you will always have a spare. It’s important you keep them in different places, most adventurers hang the plate around the neck and keep the card in a pouch. Did you understand?” With a lengthy explanation, Luelle remarked on the importance of these two items.

“Yes, I understood, Miss Luelle.” I had no intention to lose my only means of entering the dungeon, I had been waiting for a long time.

“Good, these items are bound to you, you can’t use someone else’s, also, they will expire in six months, remember to have them renewed before then. Now, if you don’t have any questions I need to keep working on these glands,” said Luelle taking a few yellowish-orange slimy balls out of a bottle.

“Thank you, Miss Luelle,” I waited for the alchemist to hand me the items, but she was already immersed in her work.

“Goodbye boy… Ah! You can come get these after lunch, and when you see your uncle remember him that I’m still waiting for that competent assistant he promised,” she told me as I was about to reach for the card.

…

After lunch I was on the training grounds along with my companions, waiting for the instructor that had to lead us into the dungeon. All of us were clad in leather armor and wore helmets that didn’t cover our faces, we were armed with a spear and a small, round, wooden shield. We also had been handed a small dagger and a little collection of tools that we would supposedly need inside the dungeon; rope, chalk, a knife, a waterskin, some morsels… The list went on.

I also had my guild plate hanging around my neck and my card inside a pouch as the alchemist had instructed. Both of them had my name and guild engraved on them and the card had more extra information, like the day it was made and the name of the magician that prepared it.

When I went to pick them up after lunch Miss Luelle had given me another lengthy explanation, she had remarked on their importance again and added some other bits of information, like how a magician was needed to bind a card to its owner and how the magician that had made the bind could renew it, but only a certain number of times.

‘She is quite talkative for a person that is supposedly drowning in work...’

“So much leather! We must be wearing four cows worth of leather”, Falnid exclaimed excitedly.

“More like three cows and a half,” Terence corrected him.

“Are you implying something?” Falnid frowned at him.

“I was just making an observation.” Terence chuckled.

“I told you I’m not short! I’m just twelve, and I’m barely a head smaller than you, I will be the tallest one by next spring!”

It seemed there was something going on between those two. It wasn’t strange, after all, they had been together for a whole week before my arrival.

“Bolton, remind me, how old are you?” Asked Terence, his slight smile turning into a mischievous grin.

“I turned thirteen past autumn,” answered Bolton without a hint of malice.

“Hmm,” Terence looked at Falnid and acted as if he was pondering something.

“Agh! He is the strange one, look, he is taller than you, and you are fifteen!”

I had to agree with Falnid, I was under the impression Bolton and Terence were my age, the tall guy didn’t look thirteen at all.

“Simon, how old are you?” Asked Terence, his smile looking polite once again.

“I’m fifteen, just like you.”

As we were chatting an older man approached our group, his dark hair was thinning at the top of his head, and he had a short, graying, beard on his square face, his dark brown eyes showed a serious expression. He was, like us, clad in leather armor and was carrying a lot of gear.

“Attention trainees! I’m Instructor Remme of Benslinn, and I will be guiding you during this dungeon exploration practice.”

He certainly sounded like those military instructors I had seen in Benslinn’s garrison, I wondered if he had been in the army.

“First of all I will be entrusting you with this equipment, this is a lantern for dungeon exploration.”

The man raised a wooden rod. On its top, between a U-shaped metal part, a lantern swayed back and forth. At the lower end, a shorter metal piece ended in three parallel pointy tips, similar to a fork, but with his three ends forming an elongated triangle instead of a line.

“You are supposed to keep it over your field of vision, for that purpose you can hang it up on these straps.”

The instructor proceeded to hang the lamp on his body using a pair of strings tied on the rod, first on his chest and then on his back.

“The idea is that you won't blind yourselves with your own light. For that purpose, the one carrying the lamp will normally stay behind the vanguard, in the middle of the group. Once you enter combat you can keep the lamp hanging from your body, leaning against the wall or even stick it in the ground.”

With a thud, the rod was left nailed to the ground.

“These are the basics. Of course, you also can use it to fight in an emergency, but I advise you to be careful, if you break it without a very good reason you will pay for it. Now, who will carry it?”

“I will,” Terence volunteered without hesitation.

“Alright, put on these straps, and let me show you how to adjust them.”

The instructor helped Terence put on the straps and taught him how to set them and the rod. After some explanations and a little fiddle, Terence seemed able to handle the lamp without much problem.

“Good, now take this oilskin, you don’t want to find yourselves in the darkness inside the dungeon. Be sure to always carry at least a couple of oilskins with you. Also, you and you, take these lanterns and hang them from your belts, you should never rely on just one source of light.”

Falnid and I were both given a small lamp and a skin of oil. I examined mine, it was made of metal and glass and had a few scratches and dents. I tapped the glass, worried that it could easily break and it made a dull sound.

“Lastly, let's check all our equipment one last time before going inside the dungeon.”

‘Ugh…’

The inspection took a while but we were finally heading in. A part of the entrance could be seen from the training grounds, the dark pillars I had spotted yesterday were a part of it, they flanked both sides of the opening that led below the earth.

‘Yes! Finally!’

Finally, we were going to enter the dungeon, or more like The Dungeon. A gigantic network of tunnels and caverns located under the massive mountain range that lay in the middle of the human territory. There was currently no country that didn’t have at least one entrance into the extensive underground. Full to the brim with monsters, resources, and treasures The Dungeon was a central piece of human livelihood. That was what Father had said at the beginning of many of his stories and now I was about to explore it.