The reason for the ease of our recruitment to the city’s forces became clear after just ten or fifteen minutes in the dining hall. Soldiers stopped arriving, yet the slop hall was nearly half empty. Some may have eaten while out, but the overall mood wasn’t great. The number of soldiers was pitiful. This room could surely hold the five hundred soldiers Rhugar was supposed to command—there weren’t even a hundred.

There was no jubilant atmosphere over a successful battle recently won, or an excitement at surviving to enjoy life—it was downcast. Empty seats where friends once sat were evident throughout the hall. The soldiers sometimes looked around at their still living comrades, and I could see their gaze pause on empty places that would have been filled just nights ago. Agony.

This is real war… This wasn’t the fantasized and glorified TV version that I’d been shown in the past. There was nothing glorious about what I was feeling inside right now. The grim atmosphere etched itself deep into my heart. Death was the only certainty that came along with war. I carved that inside my heart and knew I wouldn’t forget it.

None of us spoke much over dinner, which was a meaty stew served with a small loaf of bread and some butter. I ate out of habit. Something to fill my mouth with so I didn’t feel the urge to talk. It felt like nothing when it went down. Just sorrowful and slightly bland, enough of it to fill a belly for the day, just not mine.

“Let’s talk later, before bed,” I said to everyone. I didn’t have any urge to speak about our future plans right now, not here in earshot of these disheartened soldiers. Our rooms were all next to each other at the end of the hall so it wouldn’t be inconvenient to meet up and then sleep after.

“I want a bath,” Mark looked up. “There’s a bathhouse,” he reminded everyone.

“Is there one for ladies?” Maria asked. Heads turned and I took a look around the room. Not a single woman sat in the hall besides the three at our table. She didn’t wait for an answer and simply started grumbling under her breath. The mood in the hall was like a dark miasma bringing down everyone.

“We can go a bit later tonight, together,” Jessica said. “After Glen and Lucas give us a rundown of what information they found. We need to tell you about the gear that’s on sale in this city. As long as we survive we can come away with some serious upgrades.”

She was right but making money to buy the gear was the issue, and I hoped Lucas had found something while gathering information that would help us do so.

We left the hall in ones and twos, to not draw too much attention to ourselves. Not that it mattered, but leaving early as a group somehow felt a bit disrespectful. We gathered at the end of the hallway to our rooms.

“We need gold. ASAP,” Maria blurted out before anyone else could pitch in. As if she had photographic memory, she listed off every item she had seen that she wanted, making sure to emphasize the amazing stats and abilities they had.

Everyone was wide-eyed by the time she finished. “Okay… we need gold.” Lucas agreed flatly. “For out part, we found out some decent information.” I focused on him, as his news might be essential to our survival and successful completion of the dungeon.

“Gnoll attacks started about six months ago and have been ramping up ever since. There’s a nearby gnoll empire that’s been expanding and pressuring the surrounding kingdoms. They’re so numerous that even an city of this size has been struggling to fend them off.

“They reproduce very quickly, and they mature into fighters capable of killing a man in only a few years. They’re naturally gifted at moving through forests and dense foliage, and they can even have magical powers.”

“Are all the kingdoms working together to fight the threat?” Alan asked.

“Good question. Unfortunately, I don’t know the answer to that but as far as I’m aware, the surrounding kingdoms aren’t on good terms. It’s likely they would rather sit and do nothing in the hopes that each other are destroyed, and that the resulting territory that opens up is enough to satiate a gnoll expansion.”

“Rolling the dice on their survival?” I asked. “Sounds like something greed would cause idiots to do.”

“Right.” Lucas agreed. “Although it might be that there are limits to the size of this dungeon and really there is only this city and gnolls, the rest being spoken about but not affecting our main challenge. My understanding is this dungeon is fully functional as a game world. We encountered more than one person that offered us quests in exchange for goods. Leveling, collecting items, obtaining skills—all of it should be possible here.”

“So, treat it no different than our own world,” Thomas said.

“Are the people here NPCs or human?” Jessica asked.

“That… I don’t think it’s possible to know, but at the very least our interest coincides, so we aren’t enemies.”

“For now.” I warned everyone. We had no idea what the city rulers wanted us to accomplish. Until we understood that, our group had to look out for ourselves first and foremost. “What about the quests? What kind of quests are they?”

“Mostly gathering materials, helping with manual labor, those types of things.”

“Anything about battling monsters?” I asked.

“Mostly involving gnolls, which only appear during their invasion periods.”

“So we wait, then.” I said. “Shall we go looking for quests tomorrow?” I asked everyone.

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“Let’s do that.” Jessica agreed. “We can explore and gather more intel while forwarding our progress.” We could never stop improving.

The girls went to their rooms while the men headed to the bathhouse. I was glad they didn’t get to see the chaos there. As might have been expected for a time after dinner and just before bed, it was packed.

There wasn’t a spot for us in the whole room. We waited outside for over ten minutes half nude, and we were too committed now to go back. Eventually a little corner opened up that we flocked to and claimed as our own.

The washroom was primitive, to say the least. We sat on stools while the majority of bathing pools were taken. Some type of cloth that fluffed like cotton rested on wooden counter tops around the room were our washrags. Richard walked without fear around the room, filling up three full buckets of lukewarm water for us.

It wasn’t hygienic at all by modern day standards, but this would get the grime off. Better than nothing. For once, we didn’t talk strategy or future plans. The women weren’t here, and anything we discussed would need to be conveyed a second time anyway. “How’s it going between you and Maria?” Thomas suddenly asked Alan.

I was surprised by the question. Alan and Maria wasn’t exactly a secret, but it wasn’t exactly talked about. Alan looked like a deer caught in headlights, “How? You? …”

“It isn’t hard to tell she’s interested.” Mark laughed. Even though he was a newer member of the group, he’d picked up on it in just a day or two of traveling. Maria was sarcastic and fiery, but when it came to Alan she took it up a notch. He also took the beatings quite well.

“Don’t know, to be honest,” Alan shrugged. “I can never tell when she’s just joking or actually mad. Sometimes she’s mad and I don’t even know what I did.”

Richard couldn’t help but start cracking up laughing. Alan was young, to be fair. “Her type is just like that.” Richard said. “My best advice, don’t take it to heart. It’s as likely that you did nothing wrong as that you did. You’ll never know.”

“Then what do I do?” Alan asked.

“Don’t read into it,” he said. “Let the criticism roll off you like water off a duck’s back.”

“Right,” Glenn said, “You can either take the heat, or you can’t.”

Alan looked around, a bit confused. I kept my mouth shut, as my relationship with Jessica was very different and I didn’t want to talk about it. It would feel disloyal to her.

“Just don’t overreact to her provocations,” Lucas said, “if you think she’s mad, but don’t know, be calm. If she’s mad, she’ll let you know about it soon, and if she isn’t, well forget about the situation and keep going.”

The same message was coming across. Maria was fiery whether mad, sarcastic, or sad. Alan just needed to be there for her with a calm and unyielding demeanor until she made her deeper feelings clear.

“That’s probably why you guys are fighting so much.” Lucas added. “She’s just being herself, and you’re reading into it and reacting in a negative way.”

A smile formed on Alan’s face as he listened. Perhaps he thought that what Lucas had said was pretty much spot on. It was though dozens of situations where the two had bickered and argued were passing through his head as he tried to confirm if there was truth in what he was being told.

We washed while chatting about nothing at all. Nothing of any real importance.

“Alright, which one of you is scrubbing my back.” Richard suddenly said. He turned around on the stool. I don’t know what I was expecting, but my God was it hairy. It was like a carpet had grown on his back.

“I think I’m all washed up and ready to go,” I said. Almost everyone agreed with my sentiment and stood up, leaving Richard to it. We all headed back to our rooms separately.

I made a stop on the way back at Jessica’s room. “There were maybe a dozen or so people left in the bathhouse when we left,” I told her. “Maybe within the hour it will be clear.”

She was still fully dressed in her day attire, probably thinking there was no point in changing while still sweaty. “I’ll chase the remainder out if need be.” There was a devilish smile on her face as she approached me for a hug.

“Make sure to chase them far away.” I said before giving her a kiss. “We’ll probably have long days for the next while, so don’t stay up too late.”

She walked with me back to my room while gathering the girls to bathe. “I’ll join you after I’m clean,” she said when I got to my room.

I slept in the next morning, just enough to miss breakfast. I was hungry, but regular meals no longer did anything for me. It was such an unsettling thing, but I needed to be killing monsters to survive. If… one day monsters didn’t exist, would I need to turn to humans?

The thought passed quickly, or rather I pushed it out of my head by thinking about equipment. Today would be a group exercise in quest and information gathering. That was exciting in and of itself.

I truly felt like I was in a game inside this dungeon. It was different to the real world in some way, even though death was permanent in both. It felt more like there was a script to follow.

We met as a group just outside the training courtyard and I was the last to arrive.

“Took you long enough, sleepy head.” Richard said in a cute voice, which got a laugh out of almost everyone.

I scratched my head in embarrassment, “I hope you didn’t wait long, sorry.”

“Just a few minutes,” Lucas said seriously. “Let’s go then?” He motioned to everyone and we took to the streets and deeper into Rigar.

“Are these the items?” Mark asked as we made it down the street. He picked up a pair of boots off a stall, then passed them to me.

Green Boots: An exceptionally crafted pair of leather boots. Their nature essence makes them the color of grass.

AGI + 5, STR +2

Grants the user Growth.

Growth: You feel one with nature. Grass grows with your every step granting +2 HP regeneration per five seconds.

I read out the description of the skill.

“Regeneration like this actually exists?” Glenn seemed the most excited. He and Mark were the least familiar with equipment. The stats and effect were amazing, but not surprising to me. I had seen plenty of equipment yesterday with similar or even better effects.

The boots were only 75 silver, which didn’t seem like much. “Is that a leatherworking shop?” Alan asked.

“I think so.” Lucas said while heading inside. He was somewhat of an assassin type, so leather was his preferred base type. Jessica and Maria shared that with him. They followed him inside while the rest of us browsed the street around us, taking in all the sights.

The three returned just five minutes later, “We can learn crafting professions here.” Lucas said with excitement I’d never seen from him before.

“You can create leather gear?” I asked.

“Potentially, but the apprenticeship is one gold.” It seemed every opportunity presented to us required gold or silver or copper.

“Guys,” Richard said, “I just told that shopkeeper she was beautiful, and I got something called Reputation.” Our eyes turned to see a blonde-haired barbie with a lithe figure selling bread.

Things were becoming interesting. “We need gold.” I said seriously. “We should put our full attention towards that.” This entire dungeon was a miraculous opportunity for us. This was an opportunity to put us well ahead of the curve for our return to the post-apocalypse world outside the pocket dungeon.

“We can take individual quests for coin rewards, which require luck to find,” Lucas explained, “or we can head to the mercenaries’ guild and take quests from there.”