Their feet hitting the stone-tiled pathways of Ivell, Pier and co. made their way to the Guild office where Pier would turn in his collected slime organs in exchange for a Guild license. The office building was by no means special aesthetically. Its walls were made of stone, like any other building in Ivell, and its support pillars were made of Pine wood, like any other building in Ivell. What stood out was most obviously the sign that hung above the door that read, “Adventurers’ Guild,” and the varying groups of people circulating through the door, all of which wore armor and had weapons to varying degrees of appearance and security. Ser’s hand landed on Pier’s shoulder, his face molded into a superficial smile.
“You and Gourd will be going in there while Lyos and I head back to the inn.”
“Why don’t you come with us?” Pier asked.
“We’d just slow you down, see ya!” Ser said as he urged Lyos to start walking.
“Really leaving me with all of the work…” Watching Ser and Lyos escape the scene, Gourd could only let out a sigh of resignation.
“Hm?”
“Ever since we reported the undead dungeon, the regional manager has been watching the reports coming in like a hawk, just waiting for someone to report something about that dungeon so he can denounce the report,” Gourd began walking towards the door while beckoning Pier with his hand. “Come on. Let’s get this over with.”
The Guild building was filled with Adventurers crowded around request boards and employees patiently waiting behind their counters.
“Pier, head over to that counter to your right, I’m gonna go make that report on Drone.”
“Ok.”
Pier greeted the employee at the counter, giving them a nervous smile as he pulled out the pouch with his slime organs.
“Are you here to register?” The employee asked.
“Y-Yes.”
“Identification or proof of eligibility?”
“Proof of eligibility.” Pier said as he passed the pouch across the counter to the employee.
“Thank you. I will just be a moment while I verify all of this. What’s your name?”
“Pier.”
The employee took the pouch and walked away from the counter, escaping Pier’s line of sight. As he walked away from the counter, Pier scanned his surroundings, looking for both Gourd and a place to sit while he waited.
“No! No! No! This is wrong!” A loud voice overtook the constant murmurs of the idle Adventurers, silencing everyone as they turned to face the source of incoming trouble. Pier looked over to find Gourd with his arms crossed facing a man in a uniform similar to the Guilds’ employees, though it seemed a bit more extravagant and the man’s face made him seem deranged at best.
“I thought I told you and your kind to not come back!” The man yelled, pointing his finger with violent vigor at Gourd.
“You gotta face the music, Roth.” Gourd said monotonously.
“There is no music to face, and there is no dungeon with undead monsters around here! There hasn’t been one in the Kingdom of Metridium in decades!”
“You just don’t want to admit that you made a mistake.” Everyone in the guild stayed silent, only watching as a parent attempted to calm down an angry child.
“Tsk. Get out of here before I have your license revoked.”
“Pft. You can’t even take my license without a proper reason. It’s not my fault that you had all of our best Adventurers run off to Ankyr,” Gourd walked away leaving Roth malding as he resisted further tarnishing his dignity.
“Pier, I’ll be outside, be quick with your registration. I’m not trying to get attacked by Roth again.”
“Roger that.”
“Who’s Roger?”
“...”
“?”
Gourd left without getting an answer. Afterwards, Pier filled out the necessary paperwork with the Guild employee and was given his Adventuring License.
----------------------------------------
After reconvening inside the Bronze Flare, Pier, Ser, Gourd, and Lyos sorted out what to do next. Taking into account the time, Ser made the call to continue their discussion in the morning. After bidding each other a good night’s sleep, the four separated towards their rooms. Pier once more found himself in the realm of darks and grays, and was soon once more greeted by the purple eye followed by its surrounding dark mass. The eye blinked, revealing text centered on its black pupil.
[CONGRATULATIONS ON SLAYING YOUR FIRST MAGICAL FAUNA, YOUR REWARD WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU SHORTLY]
[THE USER’S LEVEL HAS INCREASED TO 12. PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THAT THE MORE YOUR LEVEL INCREASES, THE MORE IT WILL DEMAND FOR THE NEXT LEVEL. THE APPROPRIATE AMOUNT OF STAT POINTS HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO THE USER, PLEASE DISTRIBUTE THEM AT YOUR OWN DISPOSAL]
It blinked and the text changed into Pier’s stat sheet.
– –STATUS– –
LEVEL 12
HP: 200/200 SP: 12/50
PHY. ATK: 100 MAG. ATK: 100 DEF: 10
VIT: 10 AGI: 10
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
STR: 10 INT: 10
END: 10
PASSIVE EFFECTS: GHOST FACTOR, SLIME FACTOR
AVAILABLE STAT POINTS: 10
Scanning the stat sheet, Pier slowly thought through where to distribute his 10 stat points. It’s not very worth it to increase my Endurance and seeing as how I don’t know how to use magic yet, I guess increasing my Vitality and Strength would be best for now–Pier thought as he intimately stared at the 10’s next to each of his stats.
“Now, how do I actually increase my stats?” Pier thought aloud. Seemingly in response to Pier’s question, the eye blinked and answered him.
[ORDER WHAT STATS YOU WANT TO INCREASE AND BY HOW MANY STAT POINTS]
“Oh, y-yeah, that makes a lot of sense,” Pier said sheepishly. “Alright, then please increase both Vitality and Strength by 5.” The eye blinked, and the perfect 10’s covering the stat sheet were ruined.
– –STATUS– –
LEVEL 12
HP: 300/300 SP: 14/50
PHY. ATK: 150 MAG. ATK: 100 DEF: 10
VIT: 15 AGI: 10
STR: 15 INT: 10
END: 10
PASSIVE EFFECTS: GHOST FACTOR, SLIME FACTOR
AVAILABLE STAT POINTS: 0
Pier puffed out his chest, smug and proud of ordering another to do work for him.
[HAS THE USER FINISHED?]
“Mmm, Yeah, I guess so.”
[MOTHER HAS LEFT THE USER WITH A MESSAGE]
Mother?
[“In case you are wondering about your Slime and Ghost Factors, you’ll gain access to them after hitting certain level thresholds. I can’t tell you exactly when though.”]
[MOTHER’S MESSAGE HAS ENDED, PLEASE RESTRAIN YOURSELF FROM LOUDLY CELEBRATING]
Does this thing have a mother complex?
[ALL AFFAIRS HAVE BEEN SORTED WITH THE USER, THEY WILL NOW BE RETURNED]
Pier slowly woke up, seeing the brilliant radiance of the Sun blasting through his curtains of which have been thrown wide open. Thrown wide open? But Pier was sure that he had closed them before going to sleep in order to avoid the exact situation he was in now. However, Pier’s curtain mystery was no mystery at all for the answer was about to reveal itself to him.
“Wake up!” Lyos’s staff came falling down like a guillotine to a wealthy Frenchman’s neck, landing onto Pier’s forehead. Pier gave no reaction, simply due to his level of shock from having a staff being used to wake him up. Turning his head–slowly rolling the staff off of his head–he found Lyos holding the end of the staff.
“G-Good, you’re awake,” Lyos said as she reeled back her staff, a bit scared of Pier’s lack of a reaction. Pier sat up, finding Ser and Gourd also in his room.
“Who uses a staff to wake someone up?” Pier asked.
“W-Well, you weren’t getting out of bed… and it’s almost the afternoon!” Pier looked out the window, finding the Sun past the roofs of the surrounding buildings and people crowding the streets below.
I wonder if visiting that place causes me to sleep more…
It doesn’t.
“Welp, seeing as how we’re all here, we might as well start.” Ser said, walking up to the corner of Pier’s bed.
“Why’re you two here anyway?” Ser blatantly ignored him while Gourd simply whistled while examining the ceiling.
“Now that we’ve all had time to process what happened yesterday, let’s get started on our discussion on what we’re going to do about saving Reice and that Monster calling itself Drone.”
“I went ahead and did some research while Pier was sleeping in, and it would seem that the archives here in Ivell have nothing on a Monster of that scale. I doubt that it’s an entirely new Monster, but it’s not one I’m familiar with.” Gourd explained.
“What should we do about it then?” Ser asked.
“We know it's an undead monster, so Holy magic will work against it. Though I’m not sure how well Lyos’s magic will work against it.”
“Hmm, did you two notice anything about it?” Ser said, pointing his finger towards Pier and Lyos.”
“I didn’t notice anything too strange aside from the size of its axe. What about you Pier?”
“I noticed that its eyes were shaped like hexagons, does that have any significance?" Gourd’s facial expression grew more and more grotesque as he realized the implications behind Pier’s words.
“Hexagonal eyes? Well- but… It couldn’t be though…” Gourd’s words trailed off as he lost himself in thought.
“Oi, Gourd, what do hexagonal eyes mean?” Ser questioned.
“They were a kind of Monster created by a unique form of a Dungeon Master. They were called Vanta’s, but one hasn’t been seen ever since Gloria descended into the Inverted Tower here in Metridium. They could only be created by Monsters similar to the Dungeon Masters that occupy the Inverted Towers. If that Monster truly is a Vanta, then that would mean there’s an especially powerful Dungeon somewhere in the forest. Something of this scale would go beyond the pay grade of just about everyone in Ivell right now.”
“What can we do about it then? Afterall, Roth is still denouncing the existence of the undead dungeon, if we were to report now that there’s a Vanta walking around from that same dungeon, he’d surely try to get our licenses revoked.” Lyos said.
“There’s not much we can do, truthfully we are only left with one choice: we go on our own to the dungeon. If we try to get help from the Adventurers’ Guild, Roth will notice, and right now we’re the only ones who have an inkling of the true danger posed by Drone and its creator.” Ser knew this wasn’t the best course of action, but this was the only plan he could make at the time.
“You are aware that we likely won’t be able to defeat Drone much less its creator?” Gourd questioned.
“Maybe we won’t need too,” Pier cut in, “Drone said his creator was looking for a question to be answered, if that’s true then why would they fight us to the death?”
“Maybe their question requires us to fight in order to find the answer…” Lyos muttered.
“Perhaps, but if they wanted us dead then why take hostage humans? Why don't they just bring their hostages here and fight whoever opposes them? The truth is that there are too many unknowns for us to truly know the intent of Drone, but I think it’s a fact that they want us to come to their Dungeon.”
“So, what do you propose we do then?” Ser asked.
“I say we play into their hand, it might be the most dangerous choice in this situation, but I think it gives us our best chance at rescuing Reice.”
Everyone stayed silent for a moment, each subconsciously debating what to do. The truth was that they could do more to prepare. They could send a letter to another Guild office and get Adventurers from there. They could report Roth’s misconduct. However, nobody knew just how long Drone would permit them before killing Reice and Harris’s partner.
“Alright… We’ll do it. We leave to find the Dungeon in four hours.” Ser concluded, followed by a long sigh of worry.