We pass through the gloom of the tunnel as it angles downward for what has to be several hundred feet until we arrive at the end, only to find something far different than the previous pattern waiting for us….
A door!
Its roughly 15 feet high and 10 feet wide, a golden-bronze masterwork of craftsmanship with inlaid dragons, phoenixes and martial artists all battling on its surface. Curiously enough, there is a small knocker, the head of a monkey of some kind with a ring threaded through its fanged mouth.
I look to Belina to see if she has any ideas and receive a shrug in return and Artemis just nudges me with her head as if to say, “Go on.”.
So, with only the slightest of misgivings, I grasp the cold metal of the knocker and slam it down firmly.
BOOM
And then again, firmer still.
BOOM!
And once more, for good measure. No sense in leaving something half done.
BOOM!
Suddenly, the inlaid figures on the door begin to move, to act out their battles and interactions, each character involved appearing as a fully-fledged and functional being but in miniature.
Mesmerized by the strange play being acted out in metal before my eyes, I almost miss the notification that pops up.
You have discovered a Training Dungeon! Players who enter suffer no fear of death but will remain inside for a total of 2 weeks in which time they can gain as much as they can learn, earn or take. This dungeon and others like it are imperative to increase the chance of both individual and System victories. Push your limits, Player, and show what you are made of!
Notice! The System has noticed you even further, you are now in its upper tiers of choices to battle in the Great Contest. Choose your future actions accordingly!
As the great door springs slowly open, I salivate over what this opportunity could have to offer, what it could mean for mine and my Parties’ chances at survival in the System tournament to come in just 3 weeks’ time.
The door opens fully at last, the anticipation beyond belief and perhaps, in fact, by design.
Only if the designer has an interesting sense of humor, though.
Revealed to us is not some massive pocket dimension from a novel or a glittering cavern of weapons or riches or Beasts to slay.
Instead, what awaits us is a large gymnasium-like room, dusty and smelling vaguely of mildew, with several circles formed of silvery metal inlaid into the ground. Further beyond these probable sparring rings are what appears to be a couple of locker rooms, another room full of bunks arranged around the exterior of a small kitchen with a few tables and a dozen chairs accordingly placed.
Yet, what draws the eye the most is not the decor or layout, but the strange figure standing at parade directly in the center of the biggest sparring circle of all, directly in the middle of the dungeon’s room.
The figure is humanoid, standing a few inches shorter than my own height, just around 6 feet, and rippling with undisguised muscle wrapped in a sleeveless, scarlet-dyed, martial arts gi.
He, for he appears to be male, seems to glide across the floor with perfectly balanced and softly placed steps, each one deliberate and yet casual, until he stands but a few feet away.
My eyes widen as details make themselves clearer surrounding his features, for instead of soft pink or dark skin, he has a form seemingly carved straight from bronze! Each pore, each vein, each minute detail artfully forged or shaped or simply birthed into being to perfectly mimic a middle-aged, human man in peak physical condition.
The bronze man even has silvery colored hair artfully arranged upon his head and hanging down to about his shoulders, a similar silver dotting his cheeks and chin as if to mimic stubble!
{Golem Trainer Lv.??[System Designated Neutral Third Party]}
If my eyes were wide before, they nearly fall right out of their sockets at that tag as it appears over his head, everything from the unknown level for the first time and the added parentheses designating him as “Neutral”, however that applies here.
“Shut your surprised mouths, maggots. You’ll need the air. I only have 2 weeks to get you into fighting shape to face those infernal Cultivators and I intend to waste none of it!” the Golem announces in a metallic take on the traditional drill sergeant’s bark.
“Umm, excuse me?” I ask tentatively before introducing myself, “I’m Nova. What exactly will our training entail? Just, I’m not sure you can know what would be best for us? And with time being so precious, shouldn’t you get some of our input?” I ask in genuine confusion.
“You can call me Burgess, I liked his style when he trains that Philly fighter in that boxing movie they made like 4 sequels to. And don’t you worry, boy. The System reveals all to me for any Trainee at a level below mine, it’s a part of the gig. But I can understand a certain degree of reticence to waste any time on an unknown quantity. So, I suppose a test is in order then.” the golem replies with a darkly eager smile, one that shoots a sense of concern through my mind.
But it’s already far too late…..
I would love to detail our drawn-out battle like the MC in a novel, where the prospective Master toys with the students and teaches them small but valuable lessons about their newfound abilities before simply stopping as if they had seen enough and detail how talented they are and what their potential will be after training with them.
Stolen novel; please report.
But, as we would soon find out, that was not Burgess’ style….
A mere second after I take a battle stance with my hatchet at the ready, Artemis tenses to leap with claws limned in arctic blue, and Belina raises her shield as her spear alights in flames, our trainer disappears!
The next thing I know, Belina is just….gone.
Until I hear a crash and a groan which I turn to see coming from her nearly embedded body in the wall behind us.
Another second passes before Artemis yelps, sent flying as well, this time toward the bunks where she lands awkwardly and quickly sags to the ground, unconscious from a strike I can feel through our bond but that I can’t see for the life of me!
I adjust suddenly sweaty palms on my hatchet, casting my Spells and Skills on myself and looking wild around for any sign of the golem’s passage.
There!
I catch the faint hint of moving crimson out of my peripheral vision and turn with a swing of my hatchet, certain I can land at least a glancing blow!
Until I fall flat on my ass, my strike hitting nothing but air as the golem sticks a leg out from the other side of me.
I look up at him from the ground, too dumbfounded to move.
“Interesting…” he muses with a subtle head tilt.
“Wha-“ I begin to ask.
But then I too am knocked unconscious by a casual kick from one bronze feet, a final look causing the last thought in my head to be a strange one as my mind succumbs to blackness.
‘How the hell did he move that fast in sandals?!’
I awake with a splitting headache an indeterminate amount of time later, sprawled on one of the cots of the dungeon.
As I blink rapidly to adjust to the light sending spikes of pain through my skull, I see Artemis and Belina similarly arranged on cots of their own but feet away.
I roll over with a groan, throwing my arm over my eyes and determined to return to slumber only to be interrupted by a voice I fear I will come to hate all too soon…
“Good, you’re awake. Maybe you have a chance after all. Wake your companions and prepare, your training begins in 10 minutes.” our new trainer says in his gruff voice.
I scramble to my feet, nearly stumbling from the cot as I do, and nudge Artemis and Belina awake while covering a yawn with the back of my hand.
We all take the 10 minutes to use the restrooms in our respective locker room areas and limber up our sore bodies a bit before our taskmaster calls us to the center ring once more.
‘Hopefully this time, I can leave consciously…’ I think wryly to myself as my headache begins to clear up, thank goodness for a high Constitution or I likely would have been concussed for a week!
I’m pulled from my thoughts by Burgess laying out our training plan, “Belina, you have not yet gained even a respectable amount of familiarity with your spear or shield, you merely use them as objects, separate from yourself. We will focus on that as well as raising your stats in the natural way, without leveling.”
Belina nods, gracious and somewhat awed, I think, at this being who mopped the floor with us so easily giving her pointers.
“Artemis,” he continues as she perks her head up from resting it on her paws at my side, “you are still fighting like a pure wild Beast, not a reasoning and intelligent creature. We will work on pushing your mind, strategy and fighting style to a more sophisticated, if not necessarily complex, level.”
Artemis gives a small grunt in casual acknowledgement, her feelings of interest much more strongly made clear through our bond.
“And, on to the illustrious leader,” Burgess says sardonically, “You know you have a potential more than most, it’s in the very way you carry yourself. Most wouldn’t notice, and certainly none on a newly transitioned world, but I can tell. That being said, you do not use your stats to their full capabilities. You force them to work for you, to break to your will. They should simply flow along according to your intent, as simple as breathing, something your hindbrain handles so you can better strategize and cast your abilities. Also, you need to be more familiar with your choice of weapon, it clearly isn’t much more than a stick with something sharp at the end you can wave around.” he says with a dark chuckle at my expense.
“Umm, okay?” I say somewhat nonplussed, before he jumps back in to his lecture.
“Finally, we will have you all work as a team, to better synergize and create a better chance for your collective survival and victory in the Contest to come. Oh, and—” but I cut him off with burning questions, ones that could turn this opportunity from great to legendary.
“Wait, you know what this Contest will entail? What the challenges will be? Who are these ‘Essence Cultivators’ we will be facing??” I spew out, rapid-fire.
“Yes, I know what the Contest will entail, at least roughly. The exact events change with every round. That is a part of why these Training Dungeons seeded all over your world are so valuable, all of us trainers can give out some pointers and strategies to help those of the Apex System win. But that is also why they are so hard to find, most buried like this one or high atop mountains or on small islands in the ocean. The Creator dictated it this way to all of the Systems, to ensure fairness. But anyway, as I was saying…” he says with a raised silvery eyebrow at me, which I shrug a bit sheepishly at in return.
Yet, my curiosity makes it so that I can’t resist asking again before he can continue, somewhat abashedly, “But who are the Essence Cultivators, exactly?”
With a long suffering sigh, Burgess replies, “Ahhh, there’s always a curious one in every group….you know what? Fine!”
“For context, let’s start with your Apex System, while lesser known in the greater Universe, it is one of the more intuitive and downright genius Systems the Creator placed in the Contest from what many can tell. With it, you have a very linear and yet, deeply personal, path to grow upon and you can be provided for almost solely by Beast meat and System-made housing, freeing you up to battle and grow all the more. A masterstroke!” he states in a strident tone.
Continuing dramatically, “And then, in the last round of the Contest, it did something that separated it from its counterparts even more. It found me and my siblings to implement its Training Dungeons and swept the round, easily winning. Do you know why we had that impact?” our trainer and, apparently, teacher as well, asks rhetorically, beginning to pace as if in front of a lectern on any college campus before they became rubble.
All of us, even recently beaten unconscious, are leaning forward, hanging on his every word, something that he almost seems to delight in as he answers in an impassioned voice, “Because my brother golems and I were products of the Creator as well, deemed as subpar training tools by every other System, relegated to mere training dummies for them to throw their Players at, and nothing more.”
Our eyes all grow as wide as saucers…well, except Artemis, hers growing into something more like softballs…
Smiling smugly at our amazement, he finishes our little impromptu Q&A session with a few more nuggets of knowledge, “If you work your very hardest in here, I guarantee you will have a chance, nothing is certain, but a chance, of winning the contest, or at least winning enough events to survive. Oh, and before I was so rudely interrupted before, you will not receive Skill, Spell or any other advancement levels while in the dungeon. Once you have completed the 2 weeks and utilize your abilities outside, the levels will catch up swiftly, if not immediately. Just something I found to keep you Players focused and not delving notifications every 30 damn seconds! Now, story time’s over! Are you sorry lot ready to work?!” he barks abruptly, making Belina jump slightly.
“Yes, sir!” I answer, channeling my inner boot camp grunt, Belina following a second behind and Artemis giving a short woof while shuffling excitedly from dinner plate-sized paw to dinner plate-sized paw.
With a wry grin and a certain savage glee lighting what looks like an actual fire in his metal eyes, Burgess replies with a twisted smile, “Not yet. But you sure will be…..”