Darkrose and I decided to start our preparations by acquiring adventurer’s licences, which proved to be easier said than done. First of all, those bastards at the Adventurer's Guild didn’t consider a “full membership” to be an Adventurer’s Guild licence. Since I couldn't sponsor Darkrose’s full membership, it looked like we would have to suffer through the whole dog and pony show anyway.
The guild sent us on trivial errands and wasted our talents for a few weeks. We considered joining other guilds, but our main motive for joining the adventurer’s guild was the access to cheap transport. It was also a good training opportunity for Dash. After we had paid our dues, Darkrose managed to earn full membership.
The growing rumours involving the warlock in the tundra were very intimidating. The Adventurer’s Guild had a contract for his capture and had recently increased it to S-Rank (basically in the same realm as a dragon in regards to danger). My 20th birthday was fast approaching, so we decided to take a break from the hustle and bustle of city life and headed back to our hometown.
Once there, we found a busy trading hub where kobolds seemed to actually be welcome. As we made our way through the village, I was stopped by a familiar looking kobold. Surprisingly, the little Dipshit had learned to speak some common. We had a short conversation before reverting to speaking uncommon again, and then we continued to catch up. He informed me on all the latest events and developments involving their crafts & trades. He invited me to meet his family, so I told him about my birthday plans and he said he would have a gift for me as a special thanks from all the kobolds.
My parents were glad to see me, and Dash seemed happy to be home. My 20th birthday celebration was much less formal than my previous one. I told my father all about the portable workshop I had unlocked, and he was actually in complete shock. He knew the ring/hammer was obviously a powerful artefact, but he had no idea that Chance had given me a royal seal. Over dinner, I caught my parents up on our more recent activity. After hearing about the complications involving the Adventurer's Guild, my father recommended we instead try out for knighthoods. After dinner, I overheard my mother complaining about the royals and the Human Kingdom, which seemed extremely out of character for her. That night, my father gave me a letter of recommendation. The wax he used to seal the letter was magically imbued when it contacted the seal he wore on his ring.
Before leaving town, Dipshit gave me an immaculately crafted saddle, but having no use for it, I simply stored it in my pocket dimension and forgot about it. I had experimented with travelling further away from the workshop in the sprawling flat plain, but I was met with an increasingly resistant force. It got to the point that I was thrown back toward the workshop. I spent a fair amount of time in there with Dash and Darkrose. It was hilarious watching Dash attempt to fly beyond the 50 metre radius of the hemisphere neutral zone over and over again; it was probably good exercise for him though.
Upon returning to the city, Darkrose and I submitted our applications for knighthood, along with the letter of recommendation from my father. We expected to be sent off to wait, but we were asked to stay at the enrollment office, and a few minutes later we were led to the barracks. The trials and challenges were a joke. Knighthood consisted of three core tenets: Skill, Knowledge, and Devotion. Skill was not difficult to prove, as well as knowledge (being multilingual certainly didn’t hurt). Devotion however was usually proven by first serving as a squire to an already established knight, so we would instead undergo initiation.
Initiation consisted of entering the enchanted dungeon located beneath the castle’s ancient catacombs, and then swearing an oath at an altar on the 10th floor. It is said that the dungeon is one of the few remaining wonders from the Age of Dragons. Normally an initiate would be escorted by a full knight, but due to mine and Darkrose’s experience (and our pet whelpling), we were permitted to form a group on our own. A higher rank knight would solo his way to the 10th floor where the dungeon’s magic would allow our two parties to interact.
Our commander gave us a summoning stone incase of an emergency. He also gave us a seer-orb so the higher-ups could observe our progress. He then informed us of the incremental increase of difficulty with each additional floor you clear in the dungeon. He warned us of spectral entities, although they would be weak in the lower levels of the dungeon; if we encountered a floor where ghosts were present, then we should exit the dungeon and start again.
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Eagerly entering the 1st floor, Darkrose and I were immediately met by a group of slimes; mostly blue and yellow, but also a few red ones. Both of us being completely unfamiliar with slimes, we waited too long to act and a few of them were able to merge. They were able to fuse into larger slimes with some of them even mixing colours. I started by targeting the nearest smaller slimes. Once struck, they would make the most satisfying *pop*, and their gel-like body-pieces would stiffen and crumble; leaving behind treasures! Darkrose was using her scythe to sweep away at the group forming in the middle of the room, preventing too many more slimes from combining. When I noticed the red slimes were firing minor magical attacks, I began to target them specifically. Then I noticed an orange slime nearby, and quickly glanced around the room for any more red or purple slimes using magic. I saw a rather large green slime forming just out of reach. Darkrose was already on top of things, so I dispatched the orange slime with a swift slash and joined her in the attack against the remaining conglomeration. The final slime did not go down as easily as its smaller constituents, but instead would become less viscous with each subsequent attack. It formed tentacles from its body and attempted to swat at us, but it was very slow and had little range. After a few seconds of dodging and attacking, the final blob burst into a tiny heap of treasure; mostly copper coins and healing potions.
The following floors were more challenging, but less interesting. Floor two consisted of rats; and floor three, large spiders. The 4th floor was guarded by wolves, and the 5th was rats again (albeit stronger rats). Dash even managed to snag a few kills of his own. The 6th floor however was not boring. Sure enough, we encountered ghosts. These ghosts were not souls, but persona, like an out of control ego. It did not seem like our weapons would do any harm to them, but my sword seemed to weaken them slightly, so I sheathed my katana and started draining their mana. Darkrose was standing back simply avoiding their oncoming attacks. After a few moments of this fun, she began to lift her scythe and swung it, the blade releasing bright neon projectiles. The first projectile tore through the spectra attacking me and bounced off a barrier protecting another. I began attacking the others, draining their energies, while Darkrose would finish them off.
On the 7th floor we fought flying imp creatures, and on the 8th floor were goddamned rats again! The 9th floor was infested with swarms of bats. My cloak pendant did a fair amount to protect me in that room, but Darkrose had not been so fortunate. Her hair was in complete disarray, so as my cloak casually slipped back into my pendant, I playfully recommended that she start carrying a full face helmet from now on.
Upon finally reaching the 10th floor, instead of being met by our instructor, we encountered a large stone gargoyle. As we approached, it began to rumble and shudder. I remembered the summoning stone we had been given, but I knew they were a single-use item and incredibly valuable so it should only be used in a real emergency. Cracks began to form across the demonic figure, so before it could complete its awakening, I struck: Leaping between the humanoid form’s still solid wings, and bashing them repeatedly with my weapons sheath. At the same time, Darkrose began hurling her bladed projectiles at the gargoyle’s body and Dash clawed and bit at its face. The stone encasing the figure was chipping away in large chunks where it had been struck. Just before it could burst free of its protective shell, I withdrew my katana from it’s empowered casing and thrust the razor sharp implement directly into an exposed area at the base of one of my foe’s wings. Blood sprayed from the wound just as the monster freed itself from the remaining stone encasing its body. I was thrown clear, but my sword was still embedded in the beast’s wing; to my surprise, it had pinned the wing to the creature’s shoulder completely immobilizing the appendage. I readied my sheathe as a last defence and attempted to flank the mindless conjuration (as to recover my weapon), but I had its full attention and couldn’t seem to move quick enough to slip past the bastard. As I dodged and parried the gargoyle’s attacks with the help of my protective amulet in its cloak form, Darkrose was able to repeatedly land magical and physical blows from our target's blindside. Before I could even re-acquire my sword, our trial was over. The stone devil flashed into oblivion, leaving behind a modest pile of supplies and armaments; slain by Darkrose's impressive onslaught.
Exiting the 10th floor led us to a lobby area, where we finally encountered our fellow knights as expected, in addition to the altar where we would swear our oath.