Ruelle dragged Silas by the hand, chuckling to herself like an ignorant child. The heat of the morning sun accompanied a gentle breeze that swept across the field, bringing with it the sweet aroma of the flowers nearby.
”Seriously,” Ruelle briefly casted a glance behind her, seeing that her maid, Lilia, and Silas’ knight, Einar, were still watching them from a distance. “Why are you acting so awkward? It’s not like this is a real date.”
Silas didn’t dare look her in the eyes. Despite the moderate temperature, his face felt as if it had been set on fire. “…It’s just weird.”
She responded with an amused huff. “Oh, what are you, five? What better way to fix your reputation than making it seem like you fell head over heels for your fiancee? They do say love can change people, after all.”
“…” Silas narrowed his gaze, though still remained staring at the grass below his feet. “You’re enjoying this more than you should.”
“I can’t deny that.” Crowfest gave a shameless shrug. Finally facing her, RetiZn instantly found himself frowning at her satisfied look. “Silas’ face is totally my type.”
”That’s…!” He didn’t need to look at himself to know that his face had gone as red as a tomato.
“What?” Ruelle frowned, crooking her head to the side. “It’s not like I’m calling you handsome, Rez. I’m complimenting Silas’ looks.”
“But I’m Silas!”
Crow laughed. “No you’re not. Think of it this way, if you like a character in a movie, it doesn’t necessarily mean you like the actor themself, right?”
Rez wanted to argue back, but what she said made perfect sense. He let out a defeated sigh and decided to shift his attention elsewhere. His eyes landed on the large oak tree in front of them. “…So, this is the place.”
The original plotline that they’d played didn’t quite match with their current situation. It wasn’t a surprise, though, considering that the dialogs they chose were completely nonsensical. They were supposed to reach this point near the end of the tutorial phase, but now they’re here much earlier.
Ruelle settled down near the oak’s roots, placing the picnic basket she carried with her on the grass. “Sit next to me, those two are still eyeing us.”
Even without turning his head, Silas could feel the sharp stare of the maid and knight on his back. Since he didn’t have much of a choice, he sat down. “What did you bring?”
”Some food and water,” Ruelle scooted the basket closer and revealed the contents inside. “I also snuck us a dagger each. A shame though that the marquess—my father didn’t have many magic stones I could snatch.”
Their planned date weren’t only for the sake of fixing the young mad dog marquess’ reputation. Just like every other character, by the end of their tutorial, they would need to enter a dungeon. But they decided it would be for the best if they speed-up that progress so they could quickly gain some combat abilities.
In Dungeon Regime, even if one were to choose a romance route for their character, there would be times when they need to fight, or use materials from the dungeons to lay a red carpet to their success.
Silas took out one of the cookies in the basket. ”So we just have to wait here until the Impairment occurs.”
The Impairment is the name of the event where a dungeon opens. It’d gotten its name because—
RUMBLE.
The ground shook. Bringing a nervous smile to Ruelle’s lips. “It’s happening.”
No matter how skilled a knight Einar is, he could never be fast enough to get to them in time before the Impairment. After all, it was named from the fact that the space around the dungeon portal would rip itself apart.
Just like now.
Cracks began to form around their surroundings. The sky and ground blended into one, the colors mixing like splashing random paint upon a blank canvas. It was making them feel dizzy just looking at it, though their hearts were pounding for an entirely different reason.
Any normal human caught up in the Impairment would get torn apart along with the space around them.
But that shouldn’t be the case for the two of them, playable characters who were meant to enter dungeons in the first place.
However, the absolute lack of senses sent an unknown chill down their spine. Just as the scenery around them disappeared into darkness, so did their ability to feel. There was no sound. The calming scent of flowers simply vanished like a temporary illusion. It was impossible to tell how much time had passed…or if they were even alive.
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All they could do was hope one or the other would fill in the silence soon.
…
[You have entered the Tutorial Dungeon.]
[Detecting…Silas Salvador.]
[Detecting…Ruelle Peregrine.]
[Forming a Party.]
…
Rez opened his eyes to a pair of amethyst staring down at him. His vision adjusted as Crow slumped back with a sigh of relief. “Thank goodness we made it.”
“…We’re in the dungeon?” Silas got up from the cool stone floor, rubbing the back of his neck. As he took note of his surroundings, Ruelle handed him a dagger. It had a normal appearance, leaving for the Peregrine family’s falcon crest at its guard. “It looks just like in the game.”
An abandoned mineshaft lit by the torches mounted on the cavern walls. The entire place reeked of an unknown, foul smell. Now none of them wished that the usual in-game message [A putrid smell permeates your nose.] was implemented in real life.
“Rez,” Suddenly, a rectangular screen appeared in front of her. “Now that we’ve entered the dungeon, we should check our stats.”
The Status Window only unlocks when the character experiences their first dungeon. There is also an option to show the screen to other members in a party, but it seemed that it’d been set automatically, much to their convenience.
Silas peered his head over to check Ruelle’s stats.
< Status Window >
Name: Ruelle Peregrine
Age: 16
Species: Human
Traits
Titles: [Youngest Daughter of the Peregrine]
Good Traits: [None]
Bad Traits: [Timid Flower]
Stats
LVL: 1
STR: 5
CON: 4
AGI: 7
MAG: 5
Skills
[None]
<<>>
As expected, everything was the same as it was in the game. The traits are stats that are useful to both story and battle-based mechanics. Some titles can make NPCs friendlier, though some are simply for show, like Ruelle’s status as a marquess’ daughter.
The Good and Bad traits have a similar effect to titles, though are primarily story-based. Ruelle’s bad trait,
Usually, all characters would have at least one good, and one bad trait, but since Silas and Ruelle are four difficulty star characters, not only do they only get a bad trait, they also have no preset skills and horrendous stats.
Crowfest let out a sigh. “I was hoping that maybe I would get some plot-armor skills…Considering that I’m in a game world and all.”
“Dream on.” Rez chuckled and opened his own status window.
< Status Window >
Name: Silas Salvador
Age: 16
Species: Human
Traits
Titles: [Youngest Son of the Salvador] | [Young Mad Dog Marquess]
Good Traits: [None]
Bad Traits: [Dog-like Delinquent]
Stats
LVL: 1
STR: 3
CON: 4
AGI: 5
MAG: 8
Skills
[None]
<<>>
Seeing his own stats made him frown. “I don’t remember it being this bad. Why is my strength lower than yours?”
”What do you mean? It totally fits Silas,” Ruelle smirked. He did not like the mischievous glint in her eyes. “How can a cute puppy like Silas be strong?”
“I’m not a puppy!” Silas snapped at her, but she merely laughed it off. Despite his attempt at a glare, the blush on his cheeks didn’t do him any favor.
”What??? I’m not saying you’re a puppy, Rez. I’m saying Silas is the puppy.”
Rez couldn’t even argue back. It’d been like this ever since they’d met. None of them had ever said any bad words, yet somehow Crowfest managed to counter back everything he tried to dispute. “Whatever,” Silas decided it was best to let it go before his face actually set on fire. “We should focus on clearing the dungeon. It shouldn’t be hard since this is the tutorial.”
“Mhm.” Rez didn’t know whether Crow was listening or not, she seemed to be too fixated on putting and taking out the dagger from her inventory. The storage system was unlocked along with their status window. “Oh yeah, Rez.”
“What?”
“I didn’t get the chance to ask, but…” Crow decided to stop blinking her weapon in and out of existence…but decided to start throwing it up and down instead. “Were you embarrassed about the whole date thing because you think I’m a guy? Don’t worry, I’m not a catfisher.”
“Huh? I wasn’t embarrassed?” Silas shook his head. But his response to that of all things only prompted a look of disbelief from Ruelle. “And I already knew you were a girl.”
“Oh, really? You were sure?”
“A hundred percent. My gut feeling has always been accurate.”
“Oh yeah,” Crowfest rolled her eyes. The sarcasm was practically leaking out of her words. “For sure. Anyway, let’s go.”
“…” Rez quietly followed her from behind, taking note to himself that she may very well be the most obnoxious woman he’d ever met.