As Millie had suspected, there was a third tutorial quest for her to accept when she checked the quest board at the Adventurer's Guild. This one would probably be the last one in the tutorial series, as it sent her into a dungeon for the first time.
######
[Tutorial Quest 3: Dungeon Delving for Beginners]
Kobolds are located along the most distant branch of the dragonkin family tree. Despite that, being there at all makes kobolds think they're much more important, and smarter, than they truly are.
Kobold warrens tend to be repulsive. Dirty, smelly, odious places. Just like the kobolds themselves. Like their much larger and more impressive progenitors, kobolds like to hoard wealth and shiny things that catch their attention. The difference is that what the kobolds consider wealth is most often trash.
Rumors abound, however, that the kobolds in the warrens under the Pines have managed to procure a number of items of actual worth. You are being tasked, adventurer, with two very important tasks:
1. Retrieving one of these items from the leader of the kobolds and returning it to any Adventurer's Guild.
2. Cull the kobold numbers.
[DIFFICULTY]
— **
[REWARDS]
— XP: 500
— Reward Box: Rarity Varies
[ACCEPT]
######
Millie knew about the kobold dungeon outside of town, though she'd never been in there herself. It was a low-level cave crawl for parties under level 5. She knew some people would group up and go in together even without a quest just to grind XP on the small reptilian creatures that spawned inside and hope that one of them would be holding one of those "items of actual worth."
From what she understood, having one of those items would make anyone in Tier 1—meaning under level 20—have a pretty smooth time well into the second tier of levels.
Of course, Millie wanted one, but knew the odds of it happening were next to none. The odds of a kobold rando holding a rare or higher magic item were 1% or lower.
Accepting the quest, Millie and her rat went inside the Adventurer's Guild and sat down on a relatively comfy chair in a lounge area off to one side. She watched as a handful of established delvers would come in, speak with attendants behind the counters, and turn in quests. Cragfall's guild was about mid-sized from what her parents told her. There was a shopping section further in, and she'd gone with her mom more than a few times to get an item she found in a dungeon identified. The ID guy made ZuZu look positively subdued.
There were also, technically, class trainers of all kinds in the guild to help people learn the fundamentals of adventuring and delving.
The truth, however, was that there were class trainers for the most common base classes, and a handful of the most likely advanced classes that newbies would spec into at 10 or even get initially.
This meant, for Millie, there was both jack and crap that she could get from a trainer. Well, that wasn't entirely true. [Death Mage] was actually a couple steps removed from the base classes. While it was certainly a [Necromancer] specialization and refinement, it was also by the strictest definition, a part of the generalized magic-user tree.
A person might get [Sorcerer] as their first class, but then at level 20 have [Necromancer] be an option, and then at other milestones have [Death Mage] pop up. That's usually how it worked. But since Millie was already a hop, skip, and a jump away from [Sorcerer], what could she learn from the base class trainer? Both regarding her class itself, but also the System and adventuring that she couldn't also learn from her parents?
The skeletal rat Millie had reanimated sat next to her chair, and she prompted it to climb into her lap. It did so without hesitation, and she stroked its skull between where its ears once were. Millie found herself calmed from touching the creature, even though she had no reservations it couldn't feel what she was doing, nor did it care.
Eventually, Millie got up and decided to take the day to rest and prepare herself for her very first dungeon delve. She thought about checking the LFG board to see if anyone was looking for another person to do the third tutorial quest with, but she didn't want to deal with them rejecting her because of her class. The same thing for why she didn't post one herself.
She would just wait until she could get her pal back from ZuZu and then check it out herself. With a level 10 owlbear at her side, what in a tutorial quest could stop her?
###
"My little death mage, good morning!" ZuZu shouted the moment Millie stepped into his shop. She assumed that whatever he had done went well because her mount was no longer outside, and she hadn't received a notification that it had been destroyed.
"Hey, ZuZu! How'd it go?"
"Better than ZuZu could have expected. You are going to be quite pleased!"
"That's good to hear," Millie replied. "Just in time, too. I got a dungeon quest to finish out the tutorial line. I think it's the end, at least. I don't know what would come after that."
"ZuZu believes you're right," he said, clapping his hands together in front of him and pointing at Millie. "Which of the dungeons did you get?"
"Kobolds." Millie moved further into the shop. "I don't think this one will be too bad. Especially with the [skelemations] I have right now."
"You are probably right. ZuZu would normally recommend getting a strong group for kobolds—they're fond of swarming in packs. But with your large friend, you may have an easy time of it." He raised his eyebrows and snapped a finger right in front of Millie's face. "Now, let ZuZu show you the magic he has worked!"
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
In a flash, ZuZu disappeared into the magic shop's back room, and she heard him mutter, "Yes, yes, come along, big one." Shortly afterward, he emerged once again, this time with a four-foot-long staff with a miniature owlbear skull ornamenting the very top. Even in the light of the shop, Millie could see it glowed with the black fire of death energy.
"Umm, ZuZu?"
The mage grinned from ear to ear, resting one elbow and forearm on the counter and leaning forward. "Yeeeeeeeessssss?" he asked in one long, drawn out syllable.
"What is that? What did you do?"
"Outside!" ZuZu said. "ZuZu will show you!"
Vaulting over the counter just as he had done the day before, ZuZu waved her forward and onto the street. "ZuZu thinks you will be very happy with what he has made for you. Exceeded his own expectations, he did!" Watch!
The shopkeeper pointed the staff away from himself, and it erupted in black-white fire. The small owlbear skull popped off the weapon and arced toward the street. Before it hit, the skull expanded to its full size, and within seconds, the rest of the bones that made up [Skelemated Owlbear] folded outward from inside the skull. It was like the entire skeleton was being stored inside the skull. They locked together, and before she knew it, the street was filled once more by the hulking presence of the undead elite.
"It could not be simpler to activate," ZuZu said. He handed to Millie what looked like a simple quarterstaff.
When she took it, she realized it wasn't as smooth or simple as she'd thought. The entire length was textured with etchings of symbols, runes, and long swirling lines. It was beautiful. She focused on it, and a pane of the item's details appeared floating above it.
######
[ZUZU'S STAFF OF FAMILIARIZATION (RARE)]
—[DESCRIPTION] One companion creature can be attuned to this staff at a time. Activating the staff will place the attuned creature in dimensional storage or remove the creature if already stored. The head of the staff will in some way indicate the creature currently attuned.
A creature can be unattuned at any time, but attuning a new creature takes 12 hours. You must wait 2 hours between storing and removing a creature.
—[CURRENT ATTUNEMENT] Skelemated Owlbear [Elite]
—[BONUS ENCHANTMENT] If the user is bonded with the attuned companion creature, they gain a bonus of +50% of the creature's highest stat score(s) to their same score, rounded down.
######
"This is insane!" Millie said, staring wide-eyed at the item. Then looking between it, the owlbear, and ZuZu. He smiled. She blinked. "You can't give me this. I'm level 3, ZuZu! I can't—"
"Pish posh," he said. "Pish. Posh. It's a staff I've had sitting in that back room for ages, and have had no reason to use it. At least now, someone will get some use out of it. Plus, your parents did save ZuZu's life, and the least he can do is help their daughter get a head start to where she can help someone, too, if it comes up."
"Actually, ZuZu, that's how I even found this monster." She patted the owlbear's shoulder. "A couple of people were about to get trampled, so I grabbed its attention and started draining it and blasting it as much as I could. I'm not sure who finished it off, but I got really lucky it died when it did." She pointed at the beak. "I was pretty close to, uh, well…there."
ZuZu laughed. "Kismet! Everything is connected!" The eccentric man threw his hands up into the air. "Now, you go and enjoy slaughtering kobolds, necromancer." He winked and shooed her away as he went back into his shop.
###
The kobold dungeon was easy to find. It was in the Pines, and there was a steady stream of newbies like Millie all headed in the same direction. The irksome part was that nearly everyone else going toward the Pines was either partnered up or in a trio.
To be fair, Millie hadn't tried to find a party to tackle the quest. She told herself that it was because she already had Julie—what she had decided to call the owlbear skeleton—at her side. That wasn't the truth, though, and she knew it. She didn't want to deal with the rejection and fear.
That was also part of the reason she kept Julie tucked away in the staff. She could get to the dungeon quicker mounted, but she didn't want to deal with the people yet. So she hoofed it by herself.
The path to the kobold warrens was clear. Other adventurers had killed the [Lesser Owlbears] and other forest critters, and they hadn't respawned yet by the time Millie followed through.
Standing in front of the swirling blue portal to the dungeon, Millie took a breath. Stepping forward caused a pane to appear in front of her. She had the option to enter a public version of the dungeon or a private instance for just her party.
Her parents had taught her to be wary of public dungeons for a few reasons, but mainly because other people could cause a lot of grief and some people did that for fun. But that was always assuming she would be in a party to do the private version with.
Her mind flashed back to thoughts of all the memorials she'd seen for overconfident newbies who got killed every season. Millie selected [ENTER PUBLIC DUNGEON] and the world went white.
###
The stench was the first thing she noticed as the dungeon came into focus around her. It was rancid. The quest description had been right. The room she found herself in was so much larger than she'd ever have expected. Despite the kobolds being under 4-feet tall, the ceiling of the room she was in had to be easily 40, and the width triple that. Multiple tunnels adjoined the entry hall and descended downward in all directions.
******
[ACHIEVEMENT EARNED: DUNGEON DELVED]
You found and stepped into your very first dungeon portal. You're going to be delving like a pro in no time. Pro tip: don't die.
[REWARD]
— XP: 200
******
Well, that was nice and unexpected. Millie minimized the notification quickly in case there was a kobold getting ready to stab her.
Behind her stood a blue portal identical to the one she'd entered through. The exit, obviously. Around her, kobolds and human beings were skirmishing and scrambling around, wrestling and throwing everything from hunks of garbage to fireballs at each other. The noise was unreal, as screams and shouts and spells from both sides echoed in the vast chamber.
All of the kobolds she could see had a thin red outline around them, lining their silhouette. The other people in there, the public part of the public dungeon, were limned in green. Easy enough to tell the good guys from the bad, Millie figured.
Millie wasn't actually quite sure what to do. She felt out of place, actually. The other delvers were other people her age, people she'd seen around town, had in some classes at school. They all used a hodgepodge of dinged-up weapons and second-hand armor, all probably hand-me-downs from brothers, sisters, and other family members. That wasn't a bad thing. That's what happened for newly classed adventurers. If Millie's parents had been in town, she would have asked for a little help, too.
But even so, Millie felt weird standing there in a [Shadowsilk Cloak] from Frazzapple's Finery and holding an enchanted staff made by ZuZu. Maybe she should have chosen the private instance, given she had an elite companion and advanced class, too.
"You!" shouted a voice from somewhere around her. "On your left! Look out!"
Millie knew the voice had been talking to her—and reconsidered her choice of going into the private dungeon—as a jagged, rusty blade slid into her abdomen from the left side.