“Names and registration numbers please” Came the voice from the bored looking male dungeon attendant. “Charlotte and Aria are the names and the numbers are 7364848 and 7364849” I replied, excitement and nervousness warring inside me at the thought of fighting a monster today. I was wearing my full armour in preparation. It was really quite comfortable due to the thick layer of faux fur that lined it. The strengthening effect was slight but noticeable. There wasn’t much such basic enchantments could do due to cost factors. Hopefully It would still be enough.
“As I am sure you already know, this dungeon is a hoblin type, it was chosen to be a tutorial type dungeon as the monsters’ level ranges between 1 to 3. Even though this may seem easy with your gear, please do not underestimate these creatures. People have died in there and will die again. You should be fine as long as you have had at least some combat training. If you two are ready I will now lead you to the entrance to the dungeon.
He then got up and we were led through the large doors, and down a stone brick lined tunnel towards another set of doors. On the way, he continued his monologue.
“Once you kill your first monster, you will gain your first Attunement, this could be anything from something unnoticeable at the minute to something that is noticeable at the minute, such as increasing your base Strength by 25% or something. Some people complain about so called useless Attunements, but each Attunement is chosen for you by the System, they are all designed to be the most effective thing for you, they just may not seem like it at the minute.”
We reached the doors at the end of the corridor, and I looked at Aria, who was dressed in the same kind of armour as me. “You ready?” I asked Aria. She nodded and we watched as the dungeon attendant pull open the doors to reveal the grey tear in space that we called a dungeon. The colour referred to the rarity of the dungeon. In this case the grey indicated a common dungeon.
“Good luck” The dungeon attendant, watching them as they prepared to enter their first dungeon. Aria looked at me and said, “Let’s go”. Together, we entered the dungeon.
As we stepped through the rift it felt like we were being squeezed through a long tunnel for about a second, before stepping down out of the rift and onto solid ground once again. I looked around me and saw that we were in what looked like a narrow grass field, with a dirt path in front of us. Looking at Aria, I summoned my sword form the pendant that was around my neck and leaned it on my shoulder, before starting to walk down the path.
As we journeyed down the path, i could see a small wood and thatch building up ahead, it looked like some kind of primitive outpost. I looked at Aria and pointed it out to her “Be on your guard, I don’t plan on dying today.” I spotted a hoblin up ahead, its grey skin glistened with sweat as it walked around in a uniform matter, clearly on patrol. It was wearing what looked like a very primitive hide tunic and trousers. Floating text hung above its head identifying it as a lvl 1 Hoblin patroller It spotted us and ran towards us, swinging the crude wooden spear it was carrying. It reached us and let out a war cry. From what I could see, it thankfully didn’t alert any other hoblins. I swung my greatsword, shearing through its spear, which was raised to block, with the force of my blow. It looked down at the two halves of its spear and let out a screech, before adjusting its grip to use the half of the spear with the point.
It swung the shortened spear at me, but Aria stepped in and parried it with her short sword. I swung my Greatsword and cut into the hoblins shoulder, leaving a deep gash in it. My sword had sheared through bone like an axe through wood. I pulled my greatsword out just before the hoblin stabbed my armour with its short spear. It clanged off it, and it screamed in pain at the deep laceration in its shoulder. I swung my sword, cutting off the creatures head, ending its misery. I felt a warm sensation flash through me. And several glowing boxes filled with text floated in front of me.
Congrats on killing your first monster! You have now been given your first Attunement. You will receive an Attunement every 60 class levels starting at level 30, every tier of cultivation and upon increasing one of your talents to the next tier.
First Attunement gained!
All hair related powers are 35% stronger!
I blinked. Hair related powers? I was doubtful as to how useful this was going to be but I was sure that I would find a use for it. After all, each Attunement was matched to each person by the System itself, it was literally meant for me.
I showed Aria by willing to make the text visible to others and she looked as confused as I felt. “What use is that?” She said confusion written on her face. I replied, “guess I’ll find out later.”
“I suppose so” she said doubt filling her voice. “lets go get your Attunement” I said to her and she nodded. We continued down the path until we met a group of 3 hoblins, who were also clearly on patrol.
We charged at the hoblins, swords outstretched. My sword flash as it sliced through the neck of the first hoblin I reached. I blocked the incoming strike form the sword of the hoblin. Aria's sword soared through the air before sinking into the hoblins arm, carving a deep gash into its arm. It screeched, the sound being cut off as Aria's sword sliced through its neck killing it instantly. I turned to the last hoblin, and it raised its wooden shield as I swung my sword at it, intent on killing it. My sword sank into the shield and stuck into the wood. I pulled on it, trying to wrench it out. The hoblin, seeing my issue grinned, a grotesque expression, and stabbed his sword into my armoured gut. I grunted at the blow that was mostly dampened between the combination of metal and thick faux fur and lashed out with my armoured foot, the solid metal of my sabaton catching it in the gut, knocking it to the ground. I wrenched my sword out of the shield that it was still holding and stabbed it in the chest, aiming for where I thought its heart was located, killing it.
I looked at Aria “what did you get for your first attunement?” She made the text more visible to me:
Firsts Attunement gained!
Base endurance increased by 25%
“Nice, looks like you could end up being a tank or something!” I exclaimed, my mind already racing with the possibilities. She responded with, “Yeah, that could be fun. I think we should look at our available Classes, ascents and Talents.”
I looked at my available classes:
Greatsword novice (uncommon)-
A greatsword novice user utilises their sword wielding skills to defeat their enemies.
Basic Tressmancer (epic) –
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
A basic tressmancer uses their hair for offensive and utility purposes, including crowd control and pure damage.
Berserker (uncommon)-
The longer the battle rages the stronger a Berserker gets.
The choice was obvious. I had to pick the epic class that had a synergy with my Attunement. I picked it and I could now open my screens as I was taught: I thought the words open screens with the needed intent and my screens opened in front of me.
Name:
Charlotte Brenner
Age:
18
Place of origin:
Corundrary
Combined tiers
1
Highest focus tier
1
Class:
Basic Tressmancer
Lvl
1
Ascent
N/A
Skills
N/A
Perks
Clean hair (class perk)
Your hair no longer gets dirty, grease, dirt mud etc just falls right off it.
Abilities
Silken snare (class ability)
You hair wraps around part of an opponent, distracting them and annoying them
Stats
Strength
10
Dexterity
12
Endurance
11
Vitality
10
Intelligence
10
Wisdom
11
I looked to my cultivation Ascents next:
Ascent of the sword (common) – This ascent focuses on empowering strikes and swordplay.
Ascent of the Vines (uncommon) - this ascent focuses on controlling plantlife around you and using it for offensive abilities
Ascent of the Enveloping Locks (rare) – This ascent focuses on battlefield control and defence.
I picked the Ascent of the Enveloping Locks and felt a pain sear into my gut, I grunted in pain and fell to the ground as the burning spread out through my body, I knew that this was meant to happen but I was still in agony as the Cultivation Ascent created a core just below my belly button, it was more spiritual than physical for now but I knew that in later tiers that it would become a real thing, the burning spread to the rest of my body and then it reached my hair and the burning intensified, I held a lock of my hair in fron of face and watched as my normally dark locks were replaced with golden blonde hair. I blinked at the unexpected change. Oh well, it was alright. The pain subsided after what felt like about a minute.
I looked at Aria and saw that she was kneeling in pain. I looked away from the sight and focused on my screens.
Name:
Charlotte Brenner
Age:
18
Place of origin:
Corundrary
Combined tiers
2
Highest focus tier
1
Class:
Basic Tressmancer
Lvl
1
Ascent
Ascent of the Enveloping Locks
Realm
beginner - novice
Skills
N/A
Perks
Clean hair (class perk)
Your hair no longer gets dirty, grease, dirt mud etc just falls right off it.
Trichokenisis
You can control your hair to a basic degree.
Strong hair (ascent perk)
Your hair gets stronger with each cultivation tier, it is now much harder to damage and can hold up against attacks much easier
Abilities
Silken snare (class ability)
You hair wraps around part of an opponent, distracting them and annoying them
Cultivation Techniques
1st Basic Technique
Hair strengthen - the more Qi put into the hair the stronger it gets.
2nd Base technique
Tress Bind - your hair wraps around something, restraining their movement and if willed starts to squeeze them to death.
Stats
Strength
15
Dexterity
17
Endurance
16
Vitality
15
Intelligence
15
Wisdom
17
A solid improvement. I looked at my skill choices next
Cut
Stronger body
Focus
I picked the stronger body skill and could feel my body getting stronger. I looked at Aria and asked what she got and she showed me a basic overview of her screens
Name:
Aria Davis
Age:
18
Place of origin:
Corundrary
Combined tiers
3
Highest focus tier
1
Class:
Shield maiden
Lvl
1
Ascent
Ascent of the sword
Realm
beginner
Skills
strengthen
She looked like she had some powerful abilities. I showed her mine and she whistled in appreciation, “you really went for the hair theme, huh?” She said with a raised eyebrow “it seemed a good idea with my Attunement, it lets me be crowd control while you do the damage” I replied, “lus it just seemed fun”
She nodded and we headed on towards the outpost where a group of 5 hoblins were patrolling. They noticed us and charged towards us. I raised my sword in defence as they charged.
One of the hoblins reached me first and I activated [Silken Snare] and my hair snapped forward and wrapped around the hoblins sword, I used my Trichokenisis perk and used it to pull the sword out of its grip, and adjusted my hairs hold on it so it was holding it by the hilt and stabbed the hoblin through the neck with it. Another hoblin tried to slice through my hair with its sword but was deflected as I activated my [hair strengthen] technique, which, coupled with my [strong hair] cultivation perk made my hair very hard to damage. I activated my [tress bind] technique to test it out and my hair reached out and wrapped around the hoblins arms, wrapping them together, binding it. I used my greatsword to chop of its head. I almost felt bad for killing something so helpless. Oh well.
I looked to my right and saw Aria kill the last of the rest of the hoblins. The Hoblins bodies shimmered as she killed the last one and they turned into loot. It was comprised of 2 rings and an axe
Common ring of strength
+1 to strength
Common ring of vitality
+1 to vitality
Common Hand axe of endurance
Holding this axe gives you +2 to endurance
We picked up the loot and walked towards the exit rift, our goal complete.
We exited the dungeon.