Novel Drunk Dungeon

Hello, it's a me Vocaloid the admin from over on RoyalRoad and I'm writing a story called "Drunk Dungeon" on my non-staff account there. The story is a challenge to myself to write more consistently and as such, I try to write at least 3000 words for it per day. It's loosely based on a daydream I had after reading a few dungeon style stories.
You can also read it at https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/20322/drunk-dungeon

Cover art by Julian the Apostate#7406 on Discord.

Spoiler

Synopsis: This is a story about a man who not only enters the dungeon drunk, but the dungeon indirectly supports this habit. The only question now was what would kill him first, the dungeon or his liver?

Genre: Fantasy, Magic, Action, Adventure

Table of Contents: Total wordcount: 79,694 words

• Chapter 1: Hangover in the Depths 3,132 words
• Chapter 2: A Reason to Go Back Down 3,858 words
• Chapter 3: Tree Branches make for Poor Spears but Good Clubs 2,614 words
• Chapter 4: Holy Snakes 3,133 words
• Chapter 5: An Agreement to Grind 3,352 words
• Chapter 6: Loaned Weapons and the Rat Grind 3,044 words
• Chapter 7: Cutting between the Edges 3,270 words
• Chapter 8: A Taste of Home 3,339 words
• Chapter 9: Sword Disarmament 3,546 words
• Chapter 10: Dea Ex Machina 3,077 words
• Chapter 11: Ice Cube Trap 3,116 words
• Chapter 12: Divine Swap 3,433 words
• Chapter 13: Slow Pace 3,009 words
• Chapter 14: Knight Order 3,029 words
  
• Chapter 15: Fishing 3,006 words
• Chapter 16: Mans Tontrau's Grudge 3,618 words
• Chapter 17: Confrontation 3,137 words
• Chapter 18: Gut Feeling 3,062 words
• Chapter 19: Leaving Town 3,085 words
• Chapter 20: Departure 3,140 words
• Chapter 21: Somum Nov 3,294 words
• Chapter 22: Another Entrance, Same Dungeon 3,090 words
• Chapter 23: Second Convergence 3,171 words
• Chapter 24: Range and Earring 2,029 words
• Chapter 25: The Inn Room 2,059 words
• Chapter 26: Stringbag 2,051 words

 

Chapter 1: Hangover in the Depths

Spoiler

I woke up on a cold and hard floor. No, not floor but ground. Dirt and dust caked my body and tiny rocks poked into my stomach and cheeks. I felt a raging heat at my forehead alongside a wracking headache only dampened slightly by the cool yet uncomfortable ground.

I lifted myself up slightly to get my face off the ground and immediately regretted it as a surge of nausea hit me. I vomited and whatever came out burned my throat and was mostly bile and other fluids. My body dry heaved a few times until it realized there was nothing to throw up anymore. While wiping my mouth I noticed a bowl of food and a drink next to me.

If not to fill my stomach, it would at least give me something to throw up later. The bowl was made of wood and was filled with bread, shelled nuts, a carrot, and a wedge of cheese. Enough for a meal or two. Not a feast but still everything I needed. But before that, I was parched and grabbed the drink, which was a long glass bottle filled with a clear fluid with a stopper on top.

I pulled out the stopper and took a whiff of the contents. Anything that could get rid of my thirst was welcome but I hoped it was water. Instead, it smelt of something with a bit more spirit to it, liquor. I turned away from the strong smell as I was already recovering from drinking heavily the night before. Eventually, I took a small sip to quench my dry mouth and the booze burned every step of the way, a different kind of burn than the vomit but just as unwelcome.

It cleared my head as I closed my eyes tightly and let out a grunt. Strong stuff it was and it had a pleasant nutty aftertaste rather than the harsh spices I'm used to. Last time I drank something of such quality was years ago. Normally, it’d take around twenty mugs of beer to knock me out but a full mug of this was just as likely to blind me as it was to kick me into next week.

My stomach settled down a bit with the warm brew inside, no longer wanting to push itself out of me. So, I ate some of the food while looking around me. I was in some sort of cavern with two exits and a torch on the wall lighting things up. As much as I wished this was an old mine or cave I fell into, I could tell I was in the dungeon.

The torch on the wall was producing no smoke nor was it actually burning. The flames were around it and the wood was not discolored or darkened by it. That and some vague memories about a drinking contest and a bet involving the dungeon floated around my head. The worst possible scenario for me has popped up. I was deep within the bowels of the world itself and surrounded by rooms filled with hostile environments and not so friendly monsters.

This room seemed to be one of the so-called safe rooms. A place where one could rest and not worry about monsters appearing. There was even food and enough space to set up a tent to call the night. If only I had a tent instead of passing out on the ground. Then again, with how drunk I had been, I'd probably have done the same thing even with a tent. Anywhere else in the dungeon, resting for long was nigh impossible as even after monsters were cleared from a room, more would come if one stayed too long. So in a way, I was lucky for choosing to pass out here.

I ate everything in the bowl and drowned it down with another mouthful of liquor. I was very hungry after my stomach settled down. Thirsty too, but I couldn't handle drinking too much of this stuff. A beer I could work with, but even I wouldn't get drunk during the day unless there was some sort of celebration going on. The strength of the liquor was bringing back a headache from my hangover and giving me a buzz already. There was still almost a full bottle of this stuff so I put the stopper back on and slip it into my clothes.

Maybe if I was lucky, the monsters hadn't come back from the rooms I passed through. The way the dungeon worked is that monsters spawned in areas faster if you linger but if you rush through, those areas often have no monsters on the way back. It encourages people delving in to go as far as possible very quickly, often dying in the process as caution is thrown to the wind. Then again, I was passed out for who knows how long and I don't even know which direction I came from. However, sitting here forever wouldn't help so I stood up and bumped into something.

Half a glass bottle rolled away from me, making an obnoxiously loud noise as it did so and it left a trail of some dark brown liquid. The bottom half was broken off leaving behind jagged and razor sharp glass in a circle. It was the type of thing that had claimed the lives of many a bar goer. A broken bottle shank and that dark brown liquid was dried blood, not mine of course. I would've noticed by now if I had a new hole compliments of that piece of work.

Beyond the trail of dry blood flaking off onto the ground, there were more splatters of dried blood every few steps leading in the direction of one of the tunnels. I presumed this is the way I came from and that this broken bottle is what I used as a weapon. Since I managed to make it this far into the dungeon, far enough to reach a rest area, I must have fought monsters on the way and I know no martial arts so it's reasonable I used some sort of weapon. But did I really walk into one of the most dangerous places in the world with only the clothes on my back and this as a weapon. No one would believe it even as a joke.

I started walking towards the tunnel where the blood trailed off from, picking the bottle up on the way because I needed something to use as a weapon the way back if I'm unlucky. As I walked, I felt heavier than usual and a bit awkward, especially around my back. It felt like something with a bit of weight was sticking to it, so I reached behind me and grabbed onto something that felt rough and woodlike. There was also some sort of strap on my chest and over my shoulder that moved as I touched it. So, I pulled it over my head to unravel the strap from my body and found a shield. No, more like a buckler with its small size, meant more for parrying than blocking.

Wood wasn't the best material for a shield and I would've preferred iron even if it was made of slag. I held it on my left arm anyways because it was better than nothing. There was a strange symbol on it like an insignia that seemed like it was glowing. I tried to ignore it, but a part of me was worried it was a cursed item. However, I had used the item the day before obviously since I woke up with it, so it should have been fine to use.

The next room was empty apart from some blood in the middle of the room. There should have been the bodies of the monsters that had been there, but the dungeon had already consumed them and by tomorrow the blood would be gone too. In fact, this entire room might be wiped from existence and replaced with something else. Me with it if I don't make it out of here alive.

If I stayed any longer, I'd risk a run in with a freshly spawned monster. I walked around the bloodstains and traversed to the next room. In the doorways of the rooms, there was this darkness that immediately disappeared and opened up to the next room as soon as it was touched. It was as if each room had portals rather than doorways with all of the rooms disconnected and in limbo deep underground. It was just easier to think of them being directly connected.

One, two, three, four and so on I mentally counted. The danger of the dungeon and the size of rooms got bigger the further down you went. I knew that I wasn't too deep as the rooms were still rooms, small and gave off a feeling of being inside. Apparently around room fifty and onward the rooms got so big that they started to give off the feeling of being outside somewhere and there were so many monsters that things became a battlefield. Rest areas like the one I woke up in would appear only after at least ten rooms and were spaced out anywhere from ten to thirty rooms in between. If I was lucky, I was ten rooms in. If I was unlucky, thirty rooms in and at that point it's pretty much guaranteed I'll bump into monsters on the way back.

Five, six, seven, eight and I was almost out of the dungeon. The rooms were only big enough for three men to walk side by side comfortably for a dozen steps. With it becoming this small, it was almost guaranteed that I'd get out a little after two rooms and not a single monster had respawned in the process. It was a bit unnerving to see the rotting corpses of the monsters as I passed through. They were humanoid yet half my size with gnarly rodent-like faces. I'd probably find an intact version by the entrance, hopefully, dead still. However, since I hadn't found any live ones yet, I was probably safe. I had entered a dungeon in a drunken stupor, killed monsters with a bottle, and made it out alive with a shield and a bottle of strong liquor as my loot.

Nine disagreed with my previous sentence as if the dungeon itself heard my thoughts and wanted me to eat my words. In a room that could barely fit me, I found two monsters, one alive and one dead. The dead one was just bones, completely stripped clean of flesh with several bones snapped in half. The living one was pretty much indistinguishable from a normal rat except much bigger, being able to stand on two legs, brown rather than the usual black fur, and the fact that its hands were big enough to hold a weapon, which just so happened to be one of the dead rat's ribs.

This foul beast had spawned just in time to block my way, or rather just in time to consume the corpse of his fallen comrade then face me. I should've been quicker. Maybe I could've made it past before it spawned if I hadn't stopped to eat and took so much time to get here. Which would be even more terrifying because if that was true then this rat had eaten its comrade within a few minutes. Probably best to just blame it on my hangover making me sleep in.

The rat gave off a squeak which would have been cute if it was coming from a small mouse or rat, but it was terrifying and high pitched coming from this monstrosity. It charged me with the rib raised up in the air. The damn thing wanted to stab me with it. I lifted up my shield to meet its strike. The rib slammed into my shield and shattered, but the impact pushed me up against the wall and the rat didn't back down one bit. It dropped the broken rib and clawed at my shield with both its hands while its head leaned in close to my face and tried biting me. Its teeth snapped shut multiple times centimeters away from my face and I could smell something rotten from its breath.

Something had to be done. All I had was the broke bottle from before in my right hand. Should I stab it or bash it over the head? What am I supposed to do? I haven't ever killed anything before, well not while sober. My hand started shaking and I could barely move as my strength began to leave my body. I closed my eyes and could feel its hot breath get closer and closer to my face. I felt like I was going to die there. Then, I stabbed the broken bottle into the beast, not sure when I did it or where I stabbed it but it let out a shriek and backed away from me. I opened my eyes to see it lying on the ground with its hand over its stomach, trying to stop the bleeding.

It almost seemed human as it curled up and shivered as life left its body. A terrible cannibalizing human being, but it was there nonetheless. I walked closer to it, maybe out of curiosity or perhaps out of pity. For such a foul beast, its death was slow, quiet and peaceful. Except, it wasn't dead just yet and as soon as I got closer it suddenly pounced at me. I instinctively brought up my hands to cover my face and with them my shield. It had gone for my neck but instead found it facefirst with my shield.

I fell over from the impact and my left arm was deeply in pain, either bruised, sprained, or broken. The creature was lying off to the side of me, rolling around and foaming at the mouth while blood sprayed everywhere from its stomach. I lifted up my right arm and started stabbing it with the broken bottle, over and over again as more blood sprayed all over me. Every time I stabbed it, it would let out a shrill cry but it wouldn't die. I kept stabbing and stabbing until finally, I realized it wasn't moving anymore. And this time I was sure it was dead because half its organs and all of its blood were strewn about on the floor and me. Its wounds no longer bled and it no longer made any sounds or movements. My first kill while sober was brutal, gory, and by no means peaceful or quiet.

The dead body beside me began to rapidly decompose and got sucked into the ground within a few seconds. In its place lied a reddish colored rock. Sometimes after a monster died in the dungeon, instead of the usual rotting and slowly seeping into the dungeon at a pace relative to how deep in the dungeon it is, it would disappear instantly and leave behind some loot. The loot was everything from materials that could be sold to items and equipment that could be used. The higher the room count, the more likely this would happen and the more valuable it is. The equipment sometimes was created with a random effect that could be useful or downright harmful. My wooden shield must've been looted a monster deeper into the dungeon and likely had one of those random effects.

As for the rock on the ground, I think it was a piece of copper or iron from the color. Not sure, but I can sell it and use the cash to knock down my tab at the bar. Would make up for the lack of work lately around town. I wish I could rest here for a moment, catch my breath and clean off some of this blood. However, the longer I stay here, the more likely I am to bump into another monster if there's not one the next room over. So, I grabbed the rock and tossed it into my shirt, next to the booze which I drank a sip and poured a tiny bit into my hand to scrub off some of the blood on my hands and face. Then I got up and walked towards the next room.

Which was actually the exit as I left the dungeon and found myself in the outside world once again. The sun bore down on me, feeling especially bright this day. It was around noon, not an unusual time for me to wake up after drinking. Thanks to a light breeze, it wasn't too hot despite being in the middle of summer. Everything just felt so nice in comparison to the dreary insides of the dungeon. Which was odd because normally be swearing up a storm about the sun being too bright or the air being too hot.

The dungeon was on the outskirts of town and people only went to it early in the morning and late afternoon so there was no one around. Looking like this, I couldn't go into town. So, I went off to the nearby river and took a bath. Downriver of town so no one would panic about the blood and so it wouldn't contaminate the drinking supply. Nothing worse than grabbing a scoop of water only to find hair in it. My clothes stuck to my body, glued on with dried blood and I had to peel it off. I rinsed it in the water and tried rubbing out the blood but the clothes were hopelessly stained brownish red.

Hadn't cleaned them in a while so I could probably convince people that this was its original color. My clothes were the least of my worries at this point. There was also the things I brought out of the dungeon. The shield, the rock, and the booze. I left the broken bottle there and I probably should've brought it with me in case there was another room. Now, I had to consider what to do with these things. The booze I could drink it or sell it to the bar since it was so strong to buy a bunch of weaker drinks like beer and ale. I needed to figure out what the rock and shield were before selling or keeping them.

In times like this, the best thing to do was to go to the bar and consult Tom. Tom always has good ideas and is very patient. As the owner of the local bar, he had dealt with a lot of things in his life. In fact, he was most likely involved in me waking up in the dungeon. That's another thing I needed to talk with him about.

 

Chapter 2: A Reason to Go Back Down

Spoiler

The bar was a simple two-story building made of wood with a stone chimney. It served alcohol and food while the upstairs had rooms for rent. It was a pretty standard setup as people would get too drunk to go home and if they couldn't afford a room they would sleep on the ground. The occasional traveler would look for a room around town and would often have a bite to eat or a drink before they turned in. Even with that, it wasn't the most profitable venture in a small town like this. But Tom was a bit of a multitasker. He was barkeep, innkeeper, and cook all once. He did all the work himself, had no one to pay, and gained a bunch of skills useful for life in the process.

I pushed open the front door with a loud creak as the door had rusty metal hinges. There were only four people inside the bar at this time. One sleeper at a table still hungover. Two older men who always came here early to start drinking from noon on before being picked up and dragged off by their wives before night. And then there was Tom wiping vomit off one of the tables.

"You're here earlier than usual," said Tom, stopping his work at the sound of the door.

"Yeah, I need some advice on a few things," I said while taking a seat at the table he had been cleaning. Tom sat down across from me. At slow times like this, he was more than happy to relax and chat.

"What's with your clothes? They're a different color than usual," pointed out Tom.

"I washed them today. I just haven't washed them in a while," I said, the cover story I decided to go with.

"Save the bullshit for someone who hasn't cleaned up after more than one barfight. I know what dried blood looks like. Now tell me what your first trip to the dungeon was like."

Just as I thought, he must know the story from yesterday and he's as perspective as always. However, he's wrong on one point.

"It wasn't my first time in a dungeon I'll let you know. Ten years ago I entered the dungeon entrance in my hometown."

"So you said yesterday. You bragged about it so much that we dared you to do it again to prove it then you stormed off with a bottle of the good stuff. Your bragging kept things lively and taps were running so I gave it to you on the house. I'm glad you're back alive even though it means I lost in the bets."

"That explains everything. Entering the dungeon was one of the last great things in my life. It's one of the only things I can brag about and I can be quite stubborn when drunk. I don't actually remember the events of yesterday but I get the gist of what happened."

"Stubborn? More like gullible and easy to convince. We make you do all sorts of things when you're wasted. This time you just happened to convince yourself to do something since we didn't believe you. Now I believe you. At least I believe you went there yesterday."

"That's not how I am when... wait did you mention something about a bet earlier. Did you really bet I'd die in the dungeon?"

"Of course not. Betting on customers dying is bad business. I bet on you passing out cold on the side of the road."

"We bet on you dying," cut in one of the old men drinking off to the side. They usually keep out of conversations, but when they do say something it's always blunt and rude. It's all in good humor. What were their names again?

"Let's get back to the main topic. What do you need help with? If it has anything to do with the stains on your shirt, you're better off throwing it out and getting new clothes. Blood doesn't come out easily."

"We both know I can't afford new clothes. Besides, if I could you'd probably have me pay off my tab first."

"Heck, I'd buy you the clothes myself if you promise to help out come harvest season. You wouldn't be able to drink as much as you'd be doing lots of work, but you won't have any more debt to your name and have some pocket change."

"Can we focus on this instead," I said while pulling out the items I got from the dungeon.

Tom immediately grabbed what he was most familiar with, the bottle of alcohol. He popped its top and gave it a sniff. Then he lifted it up and drank a sip. Which is surprising as it's the first time I've seen him drink in seven years. He then set the bottle down and closed his eyes for a bit. I was worried that he fell asleep as if he was that weak to alcohol. But he opened his eyes again and inspected the bottle closely.

"As I thought, this brew is familiar. So is this bottle. The smell, the taste, and the feel of the bottle are all the same. Two years ago during the surplus harvest, I opened a bottle of this to celebrate the occasion and let everyone in the bar have a cup. You even made a ruckus about how it was the best liquor you ever tasted."

"The very same as back then? As in the dungeon took it from my memory that I can barely remember myself? Or is it some sort of coincidence. I found this in one of the dungeon's rest areas alongside a bowl of food."

"This is the first time I've heard of there being a drink other than water in a rest area. Food, on the other hand, seems to change depending on what people normally eat or are currently craving. Perhaps the same happened here but with the drink as well. Your body craved alcohol more than it craved water. Maybe we should ask Jerry about this?"

"Considering how knackered I already was, I'm not surprised at that. And no, this isn't worth getting Jerry involved."

Jerry was the resident dungeon diver in the village with some of his friends and was a bit of a prick. He was young, handsome, and capable. The only real downside to him was his prudish personality and his dislike for people who were lazy or seen as a waste of space in his eyes, like me. Honestly, asking him for advice on the stuff I found in the dungeon was probably a better bet than asking Tom, but I considered him a last resort as I would like to avoid him if at all possible.

"If you say so, but I can't help too much with the other things. This rock, whatever it is, needs to be assessed by someone who knows their metals and earth. Jeff the blacksmith should know what it is and will probably buy it off you. As for the shield, you'll need Jeoffry from the local temple to help you out. It's either cursed or divine. Which means it might be anywhere from worthless to priceless. He should be able to assess its value, not that you'd be able to pry any coins from his hands to sell it to him though. In fact, might be worthwhile trying to sell the rock first and donating coin to the temple or he might not do his job."

"Right, hopefully, that's not necessary, but I'll keep it in mind. Thanks again for helping me out Tom. If it's worth something, I can cut down my tab."

I pocketed the items and got up. Tom walked me to the door and opened the door for me when. When I tried walking past him, he grabbed my shoulder and kept me from going and looked into my eyes.

"Do not take this small success in the dungeon for granted. You can't even remember going in there so don't think you can go in there anytime without preparations again. I don't care if you owe me money for your tab, don't get yourself killed."

"I understand," I responded and he finally let me go. After that situation in the dungeon with the rat monster, I don't think I could bear going back into the dungeon. When I was drunk I somehow managed to kill multiple rat monsters without making a mess, but there's no guarantee that'll happen again. As soon as I was sober and fought just one of them, I got an arm injury and came very close to dying. The next time I approach the dungeon drunk might be my last.

The local forge, blacksmith shop or whatever it’s called was located on the outer edges of town, unlike the bar which the town was basically built around. So I had to do a bit of walking. Though most people were out in the fields, doing work, or relaxing inside to escape the midsummer heat, there were a few people walking to and fro. They moved to the side of the road as I passed, looking at me in disgust while covering their noses or glared at me. I wasn’t too well liked and it wasn’t like I actually smelled as I just took a bath. People can be so melodramatic.

At the outskirts of town, there was no one in sight but there was plenty of noise. Jeff was working on something inside. His building was the only one in town completely made of stone and brick. After all, if he used any wood the whole damn thing would probably burn down over his head. I knocked on the door as he hated people who came inside uninvited. Then waited as the sound of hammering paused for a second before resuming. Whatever he was working on, he found it more important than welcoming me in.

It wasn’t until ten or so minutes later than he shouted, “Enter.”

Blunt and straight to the point, that was how Jeff was and nothing could change that. I pushed the door open and a wave of heat and smoke hit me straight in the face. Jeff preferred his home and workplace to be constantly toasty and insulated so I closed the door behind me with a cough and watery eyes. Best to do this quick, sell the rock and get out.

Jeff was seated at a table with a three-pronged hoe in his hands. One of the prongs looked a bit distorted. Must’ve been bent out of shape and the hammering was putting it back into place. Fixing a bent hoe was cheaper than buying a new one, but I doubt it’d last much longer as the metal would be a mess without reforging the entire thing. Not that the farmer who owned it would care, he would just want something to get him through the rest of this season until he could afford a brand new one after the harvest.

“What?” asked Jeff.

In response, I pulled the rock out of my shirt and set it on his work table. He took one look at it before pulling out some coins and passing them to me. They were silver coins, enough to pay most of my bar tab if not all. And my bar tab goes back months, bless Tom’s heart. Wasn’t this a bit too much money for a hunk of unrefined metal ore.

“Pure copper ore,” he said while holding the rock in his hands and turning it over a few times.

“Is it really worth this much?” I asked while taking the coins. I don’t think I’ve ever held so much cash in my hands before, but over my lifetime I must’ve let plenty slip through my fingers.


“No, worth more. Shortage in the city. Merchant will take it for triple the pay. Pay me back by the next merchant’s stop and I’ll give it back,” he replied. That’s so like Jeff, letting me know he’s ripping me off terribly and then giving me a chance to fix that while I’m completely in the dark. Heck, he could’ve given me a single silver coin and I would’ve left, no questions asked.

I started to leave but I couldn’t help but take a look at the wall directly left of the entrance. There, Jeff put on display a variety of weapons he made in his spare time. Mostly farm tools with a few things changed and the pointy bits sharpened like axes and pitchforks, but there was a single proper weapon there, a sword. This was Jeff’s hobby, to turn spare and scrap metal into weapons that could be converted into farm tools in a time of need. People like Jerry and his gang were the only ones to buy them before they went down into the dungeon.

Maybe if I had a weapon like this sword, I could explore the dungeon freely. My hands wouldn’t shake and I could cut down those monsters before they even came close, coming back out with hands full of riches. A dream I haven’t had since I was young, but a fond memory it was to imagine myself like that again, no matter how cruel reality was.

“How impractical,” said Jeff while taking the sword off of the wall, “In the dungeon, this would last but one or two rooms before dulling in the hands of an amateur.”

“How did you know about the dungeon?” I asked.

“Pass out before reaching the door was my bet,” said Jeff. So he was in on the bet as well and lost. Could he be holding a grudge over that? Is that why he’s ripping me off? I can never tell this sort of thing with Jeff, he’s too open and empty at the same time.

Next stop was to the local temple, which wasn’t too far from here since it was designed to be close to the fields. Give them the gods blessings or something like that. It was even taller than the bar but held only one very tall floor. It had a stone floor and foundation, but the walls were made of wood. A solid foundation with a poor building.

Many residents of the town would come here to worship a god or goddess of their choosing in the early morning before work or in the late evening after supper. At noon, the building was empty save for the priest, Jeoffry, tirelessly scrubbing the floor to keep it clean as clean can be. Within a second, he straightened up and fixed his clothes as he heard me step inside, my footsteps echoing loud and clear within this large area. Upon seeing it was me, he relaxed a bit and walked over to a pedestal where he kept his holy writings.

“Finally come to seek a divine to dedicate your life to and help you with your many hardships. I can help you get started by helping you discover what they have to offer and more importantly, what you’re willing to give to them,” said Jeoffry, going on a rant about making me follow a god. He would do this to anyone who hadn’t come here to worship before. I can’t blame him for doing so since there’s little reason to come here besides that.

“No, I’m here because I have an item that may be cursed or blessed by a divine and wanted you to appraise it. I can donate if that’s necessary to get the appraisal,” I said while pulling the shield off my back.

“I cannot accept money for a service that is meant to be free. However, donations are always welcome,” said Jeoffry as he came around the pedestal and took the shield from my hands. The first thing he did was to look at the symbol and run his hand on it. In response, the symbol shimmered with light.

“On second thought, keep your donation. Being to put my hands on a rarity such as this is enough for me. It is blessed by a god or goddess that I cannot put to name without checking the records. If it were to have certain effects, or if this divine had a knight order to its name, this shield may be worth far more than mortal currencies,” said Jeoffry as he went back to the pedestal and started flipping through the pages of a book.

“This is the first time I’ve seen you reject a donation so this must be really big. Want to know where I got it from?” I asked.

“The dungeon of course. I was at the bar last night as well, even partook in the bet as it was in good humor. I had you passing out at the entrance of the dungeon. Thankfully I didn’t bet too much, but I imagine Jeff and Jerry might be a bit displeased with you. Ahh, here it is, the symbol of the Goddess Sanae Patil who is linked to endurance and lesser healing with no knight order,” said Jeoffry, revealing the origins behind the shield and its possible blessings. Alongside the fact that avoided Jerry was a really good idea. Tempting to just jump back down into the dungeon for a few days so he doesn’t blame me for losing that bet.

“So what does it do and is it valuable?” I asked.

“It’s worthless to knights and its effects is of low value to dungeon explorers who prefer offensive options. Might be of some value to a noble as a novelty item but overall it’s a bust. Best to keep it until someone offers enough to take it off your hands. As for its effect, why don’t you ask her yourself?” said Jeoffry.

The fact that the shield couldn’t be sold for a fortune was a bit disappointing but at least the rock turned out to be a hunk of valuable copper. And it was still a divine item, much better than being cursed to say the least. Least I could do was pray to this goddess once to figure out what it does and give thanks for receiving it. Saved my life down in the dungeon since it kept that rat bastard from getting at my neck.

“Alright, but doesn’t that take a while to do? Walk me through the process.”

“You have her divine item with you, just kneel while touching the symbol in a temple should be enough to make a connection. Just do it off to the side so you’re not in the middle of the walkway.”

Well, that’s awfully convenient. No wonder divine items are worth a fortune when they’re linked to a knight order. Must make things so much easier for those knights who have to pray every day and enact their divine’s orders. I walked over to a corner of the temple that Jeoffry pushed me towards then I did as instructed.

I knelt down with my hand upon the shield and closed my eyes. Nothing happened for the first few moments and I got a bit antsy. Then, everything turned white for a few moments and I understood what must be done. Rather than a meeting with the goddess, it was an experience that told me everything I needed to know at this time.

My meeting with the goddess could be summed up within a few points. First, I’m dying from alcohol poisoning in my liver and will die within a year. Second, if I quit drinking I’ll still die, faster actually due to the shock and stress from quitting my addiction. Third, if I establish a knight order for Goddess Sanae Patil, she will heal me and I could live to old age unless something else happens to harm me. Fourth, in order to get the funds and gear necessary to establish a knight order, I must enter the dungeon again, not just once but many many times and there was no time to spare.

“I see you’ve awakened from your meeting. What effects does your shield grant?” asked Jeoffry as he scrubbed the floor near me.

I took a look at my left arm, the one I had injured in the fight against the ratman, and the bruise I expected to be there, wasn’t. Clear unblemished skin stared back at me. And I felt like I could run for ages without sweating, full of energy. Half of me wanted to immediately challenge the dungeon and try to escape impending death, the other half wanted to cry in this corner I found myself in, physically and metaphorically.

“Increases my natural healing and allows me to move a bit more before I get tired,” I responded to the priest while getting up.

“Nice, both blessings are on the shield then. That is quite lucky but unfortunately, the shield still holds the same value. By the way, you’re looking a bit pale, are you alright?” asked Jeoffry with a bit of concern for my wellbeing. Now that I had prayed to a goddess and held a divine item, he saw me as one of his flock and treated me better than usual. Not sure how I felt about that, or anything really.

“I’m alright,” I said while leaving the temple. I had something more concerning on my mind than dealing with Jeoffry’s new attitude towards me. Like the fact that I had no weapon but was expected to enter the dungeon again.

A sword was no good, so it’s either a broken bottle again or buying some sort of improvised farm tool. The sun was past noon and slowly settling downwards, it’d be a while until nighttime so it seemed a bit early to eat or go to the bar. Wait, why go to the bar when the bar can come to me. I pulled out the bottle of liquor I fetched from the dungeon and took a good long swig from it.

Earlier it gave me a headache because I was still a bit queasy from waking up. At this time, instead, it filled me with bliss and made all my concerns fly away. This bottle was I needed to get past this day, and even though it’s killing me I know that not drinking it won’t do me any good. Making a knight order was impossible, but making the most out of my life by drinking every day without fear of consequence was great. Either way I died, so might as well drink more and more.

I sat down under the shade of a tree and took another drink from the bottle. I was up there in the clouds floating in the sky rather than dying here on earth. I felt something funny under me so I moved it and found myself holding a tree branch. It must’ve fell during the last storm. Usually, only small branches littered the ground, nothing like this big thick branch that ruined my drinking. This tree branch reminded me of a time when I was young and swung around sticks, pretending they were swords.

Wasn't this a weapon?

 

Chapter 3: Tree Branches make for Poor Spears but Good Clubs

Spoiler

I found myself standing before the entrance of the dungeon with liquor in one hand and a tree branch in the other. I wasn’t completely drunk, nor have I blacked out. I survived in the dungeon somehow with only a broken bottle as a weapon and dead drunk. I guess with a shield and what I guess I can call a club, I should be able to do better. How am I supposed to drown in my sorrows with alcohol when I can’t help but think of the dungeon when drunk.

The entrance seemed to suck me in as I stumbled inside and my surroundings changed completely. The hot summer climate was replaced with an eerie chill and everything was different shades of blue. The ground was dark blue and the torch upon the wall was possibly white but was influenced by the colors around to be a light blue. Every time I enter the dungeon, it will be completely different from the last. There was even a different kind of monster to face this time, some sort of lizard.

Not a humanoid lizard, but a normal one if normal lizards were blue and the size of a dog. It crawled up the wall and hissed at me. I put away the booze and raised my shield to prepare for whatever this thing was about to do. It let go of the wall with its front legs and lifted its body perpendicular to the wall, then jumped towards me. Out of reflex, I dodged to the side rather than trying to block it with my shield.

The lizard slammed onto the ground hard and made a gurgling noise, but was up on its feet again hissing at me once more. This time I didn’t give it a chance to climb the wall and slammed the branch down onto its body, pinning it down but not doing much else. It started to squirm and try to claw and bite at the branch. I was sorta hoping the branch would just kill it but no such luck, I didn’t swing hard enough or the offshoots cushioned the blow, or the shape was just plain awkward.

Should I stomp on its head or bash it with my shield? It couldn’t really do anything in this state, but if I stay here for too long more will appear. After a good long swig of the good stuff with my off hand, I made a decision. The branch was replaced with my foot and I started breaking off the offshoots, then flipped the branch so I was holding it by its heavy side. My makeshift club was now complete and I brought it down upon its head with a sickening crack.

Pieces of bone, blood, and brain matter splattered across the ground. Like that, there was one less monster in this damnable place. No loot this time so the body would rot. I wiped some of the gunk off the branch onto the lizard’s lower body then continued on to the next room. Same thing as the previous room, nothing but blue and another hissing lizard. I’m not sure if it was just my imagination or not but this room felt colder than the previous.

This time I had a plan. The lizard crawled up onto the wall like last time and got ready to pounce. I kept the branch facing its thin side towards the lizard, it’d be like a spear that the lizard would skewer itself on. No way for the blow to be cushioned by offshoots or just pin down the enemy, this was a sure-kill strategy. The lizard was too stupid to recognize this and suspended its front in the air and launched itself at me.

Just as planned, the lizard impacted with the end of the branch and the branch shattered while I felt like my right arm was on fire. I dropped the branch and fell over from the impact. My right hand was all bloody and the arm felt like it’d have a nasty bruise later unless the blessing from the shield stops it. Not totally sure how that shit works yet.

The lizard wasn’t much better off as it squirmed on the ground a few feet away from me with a nasty splinter. It thrashed about as blood sprayed from its chest before going still. Somewhat successful the plan was, but not as good as just dodging and bashing it in the head. Now I had half the branch I had before to work with. It went from being around half my height and being like a spear on one end and a club on the other to being basically just a club the size of my arm.

Since my right hand was a bit mangled, I swapped my shield over to that side and picked up the club with my offhand. Not that I’m any good with my left hand, but it was better than dealing with picking up and swinging a branch with a scraped up hand. The only good thing that came out of this room is the fact that only my arm was damaged and the bottle was safe and sound under my shirt. Which I took a drink from to help dull the pain.

I continued onwards to the next room with my buzz coming back nicely. My head was in the clouds and I couldn’t feel the pain. The third room was much the same as the previous, it wasn’t until the later rooms that things would get noticeably bigger and have more enemies. I took no chances with fancy strategies and just dodged the incoming lizard then bashed its head in before it could even recover from its impact with the ground.

By the time I reached room seven, I was able to swap back to my dominant hand and the lizard dropped some loot. A gray colored rock fell from its body, probably some ore but unlikely to be as valuable as that copper from before. When I slipped it into my shirt, its coldness seemed to cut straight into my body. Every time I went deeper into the dungeon the temperature got lower and lower, it was not my imagination. No extra clothes to slip on or anything I could really do other than drink more and feel the fire from my stomach spread throughout my body.

At this point, I was full on drunk and stumbled into room eight. I considered going back since I managed to get some loot and got a bit used to fighting. Maybe it’d be best to go back and get a proper weapon, but yesterday I managed to get to room ten and it was a break room with good food and alcohol. If I made it to room ten again and found another break room, would I not get more alcohol to drink? It’d save me on drinking and eating expenses and the day would become pure profit with the rock.

Room eight was a mistake. There were two lizards instead of one and they weren’t up for taking turns. They immediately climbed up the walls and readied themselves at the same time. I prepared myself to dodge and one of them jumped towards me, only one of them. The first one I dodged but the second one actually delayed for a second to jump towards where I dodged. Damn lizards knew teamwork. There was no dodging nor was hitting it out of the air an option so I lifted up my shield and hoped for the best.

I was glad that I swapped my shield back to my left before entering this room because my right arm had already dealt with enough abuse back in room two. It slammed into me hard and fell over backward, right over where the first lizard landed. Instead of climbing up the wall it bit my hand and started shaking its head back and forth. Waves and waves of pain hit me as it tried tearing my entire arm off. I lifted up the branch with my other arm and bashed its body multiple times but it wouldn’t let go.

No matter what I did, it kept biting down and tugging at me so I kept hitting it. I couldn’t hit it in the head from my position on the ground, but I could hit everything else and did so. Blood and scales scattered across the ground and I hit it so many times that its spine showed. No more tugging and shaking but it refused to stop biting me until I dropped the club, slid my hand under the side of its mouth and forcibly pried it open. And then it fell down to the side, lifeless. For all I know, it had been dead for a while but I didn’t notice because it was still biting me.

For a few moments all I did was breathe heavily, then I remembered the second lizard and jumped to my feet. It was already dead. Its brain painted the shield as it hit it headfirst and killed itself on impact. The relief robbed my legs of their strength and my vision went black for a few seconds from getting up so fast so I fell on my ass and sat there for a few minutes. No way I could do a fight like that again so I forced myself to get back up again and started heading back the way I came.

In every room I passed, I found the enemies I defeated decaying on the ground. It smelled horrible and almost made me vomit. Not that I had any food in my stomach to vomit out. Right then, I only had booze in my stomach and was constantly adding more to give myself to motivation to keep going. I would have to find someplace to eat dinner after getting out of the dungeon.

And then, I managed to leave the dungeon without any implications inside. Not much time had passed since I went down so there was no chance for any new spawns on the way back. And my wounds were already starting to heal though my left arm felt like it was only hanging to my shoulder by a thread with all the damage done to it. The surface itself wasn’t as kind as the way back up to it.

I had just started getting used to the cold within that version of the dungeon so it felt extremely hot when I came out. That, and well there were other people at the entrance of the dungeon witnessing me coming out. Wouldn’t be too bad as a lot of people in town know that I went down there and survived, it was no big secret. However, this was obviously a separate trip from the first, a second voyage into the dungeon.

Alone, that was enough to start rumors about me becoming a professional dungeon diver. Which if I want to live longer than one year, I pretty much am now. The biggest problem with this is the people who saw me. They’re the people who normally go into the dungeon and make their living off of it, entering twice a day every day and trying their luck at getting loot from the earliest floors. Jerry and his gang. And if I remember correctly…

“Old man, you caused me to lose a fucking bet and you have to nerve to show your face in front of me? And right after going down the dungeon a second time. It’s as if you’re rubbing it in my face or saying you’re the real pro dungeon diver,” said Jerry in a bit of an unreasonable rage. Not sure what he bet on me doing but he obviously bet a lot on it to be this pissed off.

I looked around me to see if I could just run away and avoid this bullshit. Unfortunately, two of Jerry’s goons blocked off the escape routes. Only way out was through Jerry, or hopping back down the dungeon for another foray. Which I’d rather avoid at this point. I sorta just want to snack on something and pass out somewhere that won’t give me back problems.

“There’s no running here. Just you and me, and my friends, face to face. Let’s talk this out,” said Jerry as if he was trying to calm me down when he was the one who was exploding in my face just a second ago.

“What did you bet on me doing?” I asked, partially to move along the conversation to find out what he was on about, partially because I was curious about it. What was this bet that he was so sure to happen? Passing out under a tree? Getting lost and going the opposite direction of the dungeon? Backing out of going to the dungeon and coming back to the bar.

“My bet was on you dying in the dungeon. You see, I know how you are in your drunken moods. You’ll do anything once you get worked up and you’re able to actually focus in your stupor enough to do that thing. And I was right, you made it to the dungeon, you just didn’t die. Now I’m out quite a bit of silver and word on the street is that you have a shield with a divine blessing on it, shines in the sunlight quite nicely,” said Jerry, obviously trying to steal my shield away from me. Normally, I would have backed down even with this shield being divine and the task tied to it.

I didn’t have any chance of completing the task anyway. But there was a complication in giving up the shield. My arm was still fucked to hell and without the shield slowly healing it, I’d probably have to sink all the money I got from Jeff into a doctor then still likely lose my arm. At this point in time, giving in to Jerry’s demand is not an option.

“You losing the bet isn’t any of my business. Besides, the shield is a normal wooden shield, see?” I said while pointing at the shield. Thankfully with my quick thinking, I realized the symbol on the shield was covered with the lizard’s last thoughts. I still tried to deflect responsibility for the outcome of the bet in case he still wanted me to give the shield even if he thought it was normal.

“Stop trying to hide it with monster bits, we saw you carrying it through town,” said one of Jerry’s underlings.

“That’s right, we’re not so easily fooled. Give up the shield or I’ll break your arm and take it by force,” demanded Jerry. He even took a weapon off his back, an ax. Which doesn’t seem like the weapon of choice when breaking someone’s arm, felt more like a chopping off sorta thing.

I lifted up the branch in my hand and said in response, “My arm is already broken.”

Then, I walked backward back into the dungeon because what the hell was I going to do with a tree branch against three armed men with one of my arms down. Even if my left arm wasn’t fucked, I wouldn’t have tried my luck with them. They knew what my shield was and didn’t know it wasn’t actually that valuable. And now they were camping the outside and I had to reach the rest area in the dungeon in order to stay long enough to where they might be gone the next time I leave the dungeon.

This time, the dungeon was warmer than the outside world.

 

Chapter 4: Holy Snakes

Spoiler

The heat was not unbearable but was to an uncomfortable degree. Both of the previous times I entered here, the temperature was cooler than the outside world. I was hoping that it wouldn’t be like the last run and get hotter every time I went down a room. More importantly, what sort of monsters would I encounter next? First was humanoid rats and then there were giant jumping lizards. In fact, there was nothing at all in front of me. Nothing I could see at least.

The walls were a slightly reddish brown color which reminded me of how things got colder in the bluish dungeon. But there was something strange on the right side, a hole in the wall. Until the monster that always spawns in a non-rest area room dies, I cannot progress forward. All I can do is go back from where I came, which isn’t much of an option that moment.

I approached the wall and waved my shield in front of the hole. In response, a rattling noise came from the hole as if someone gathered a bunch of pine cones in a basket then shook them. The noise was so unnerving and out of place there that I backed away from the wall. Then, I tried looking into the hole from a distance. Two glowing red orbs stared at me from within, but I couldn’t see what it was, nor was it inclined to come out. An unusual strategy for sure, just staying in place where I couldn’t reach it. One that could help me or hurt me.

Since it wasn’t coming out to attack me, I could just wait here indefinitely while Jerry and his friends get bored and enter the dungeon themselves, sent off to some other part of the dungeon, or go home to sleep. However, the longer I waited, the more likely another one these things would spawn in the wall. If by any chance, it just stayed in the wall like the first, then there’d be no problem. Therein lies the biggest issue, these monsters act differently depending on their numbers, like the second lizard waiting for the first to go so it could hit me while I was dodging and unable to move out of the way.

Give or take a few hours and I might have two or even three of these monsters sitting in holes until they get a funny idea and come out to attack me. So my only option was to try and bait it out of the hole. And I thought I knew the perfect plan. Waving my shield in front of the hole pissed it off, so it’d come out if I pissed it off even more. Not only that, but my shield would block any possible attacks.

About five minutes of shield waving later, the only result of my efforts was a constant rattling noise and the occasional hiss. While annoyed, the monster had no intention of coming out. I had half a mind to just stick my arm down the hole and drag it out by force. Also, half a bottle left with how much I’ve been drinking. So drunk that I was seriously considering using my hand, but settled for the tree branch instead. It was thick on one side and thin on the other side and the thick side was too big for the hole.

I shoved the branch with the thin side inside and pushed it as far as I could and hit something, but the wide part of the branch prevented me from going further. The rattling noise got much louder so I pulled it out and back in multiple times, poking whatever was inside with the tip of the branch until I felt something tug at the branch. Whatever the monster was, it was trying to pull the branch inside so I could no longer use it to annoy it. Thankfully the thickness of the branch prevented that and I yanked the branch out to see if I could pull the damn thing out.

With the branch came a snake biting on the end of it. A pure black snake as thick as my arm and as long as my foot to my shoulder. My shock at the size of this terrifying thing made me drop the branch and immediately stomped onto its head. Fuck fighting that thing fairly, its fangs were occupied with something else so my heel got intimate with the top of its head. Surprisingly, it refused to let go and kept biting the branch, so I could bring my foot down upon it several more times. Every time I did its body coiled up and wrapped around the tree branch as if it thought it was a part of me.

In the end, it died while causing only a tiny bit of damage to the branch, four holes towards the bottom of it. Turns out that the snake was pretty stupid for such a large monster. Actually, it wasn’t that big in comparison to the other monsters. It just resembled something that would be dangerous out in the wild. Perhaps it had some sort of venom that would really screw me over if bit, but at this rate, I was in no danger of being bit at all.

With that in mind, I took on the next few rooms the same way. First I’d find out where the hole was and wave my shield in front of it to grab its attention. The second step was putting the branch in there and poking it until it bit down. Third I’d fish it out and stomp its brains out. Worked out quite well at least until the fifth room.

When I walked into the fifth room I inspected the tree branch for damage and found some of the wood flaking away from the damage of getting holes put into it constantly. It wouldn’t last forever. Hopefully, the snakes would still latch on even if the branch wasn’t long enough to poke it. If not, then trying my luck with Jerry and his crew being gone by now wasn’t such a bad idea.

I was hungry with naught but the brew within my shirt to keep my hunger down. But constant alcohol without any food to weaken it or snacks to accompany it wasn’t fun. Felt like getting drunk for the sake of getting drunk rather than for enjoying the sensation. I was past the point of getting a buzz and more in the territory of wanting to pass out or throw up but being unable to do either. All I had to do was reach floor ten, a rest area wasn’t guaranteed but every floor past then was a chance to sleep off the alcohol and get a bit of food to settle my stomach.

Back in room two and four, the holes were in inconvenient spots, one being at my feet and the either being above my head. This time the hole was at face level, easy to work with and even easier to look into. Which is why I spared a glance inside and noticed something off this time. There were no glowing eyes inside the hole. Then again, normally I wave the shield in front of the hole so perhaps its eyes were closed.

Testing this out, I shook my shield in front and heard it rattling like before and then backed off and looked inside. Still no red eyes but it was definitely there and quite angry at me. Somehow I could feel it staring at me and it saw me as below it. It was overwhelming how much just looking into that hole was affecting me. Eventually, I snapped out of it and tore my eyes away, out of the corner of my eye I saw something flashing. My shield, the divine symbol on it was glowing off and on for some reason.

What in the hell did that snake do to me that a divine item had to rescue me? If not for the shield glowing and stopping… something from happening, I would’ve assumed that it was the alcohol getting to me. At that moment, I felt my body sweating all over and not from the heat. I underestimated these snakes because they were so easy to kill. No more looking into the holes, just baiting and bashing.

As I was still getting ahold of the situation, something unexpected occurred. The snake was no longer content to hide in the wall and came out of its hole. It slid down the wall and onto the floor in a twisting path, heading straight for me and lifting its head up. No eyes, this fucking snake had no eyes, just pits where they were supposed to be. I’m not sure which was worse, glowing red creepy eyes or nothing at all.

Once again, I was looking straight at it and a bad feeling from my gut surfaced. No more looking at it, I thought while bringing up my shield to cover my face. Which was probably a bad idea as it left my lower body open to attack. That attack never came as the snake hissed and backed off, then I saw it from the edge of my shield slithering across the ground around the perimeter of the room, looking for an opening. I followed it with my shield up, preventing the snake from distracting me with its foul magic.

We were at a stalemate as I couldn’t look directly at it and it was reluctant to come close to me without binding me with its gaze. Or possibly it was avoiding the shield itself. As it had the power to block the snake’s feature, it might have the power to turn the snake away as well. Dark creatures and undead were said to fear the power of the divine. This was probably the most dangerous monster I’ve faced in this dungeon yet, but I had the perfect item to counteract it.

To test this theory, I took a step in the direction the beast was heading towards to cut it off. In response, it turned around and rerouted around me. Not enough to prove the theory for sure, but enough for me. This was an opportunity, I could use the shield to keep it from attacking me and block its gaze while keeping track of it by its tail so I can strike it with the tree branch. I shall club a dark creature to death with a stick.

Within a few seconds, I had trapped the creature in somewhat of a corner. It hissed and lashed out a few times in my direction. All feints and nothing substantial. It dared not come close to me. On the other hand, I had free reign and started by trying to press down on the snake’s head. If I did that, it would be immobilized and I could just stomp on its head, dark powers or not it’ll die from a broken head. No such luck as it constantly moved its head around as if it knew what I was trying to do and I couldn’t look directly at it so it was nearly impossible to achieve.

Side to side it moved, trying to escape its predicament, but I kept blocking its attempt to escape with the shield while moving it closer. Soon enough it stopped lashing out towards me and focused on trying to escape and nearly did so when it started scaling straight up the wall, stopped only by me knocking it down with the branch. Then the shield got so close that all escape routes were blocked and it coiled on itself until it was a ball.

This made it unable to run and a perfect target as if it had given up on life. I took advantage of this and constantly hit the snake with the branch without as much of an effect as I had hoped. Unlike the other snakes, this one was as hard as a rock and it seemed like I was hurting my arm more than the snake every time I slammed down onto its body. Something finally gave with a loud snapping sound. The tree branch broke in half around the spot I was holding it at. All the damage from the holes and the repeated impacts from being used as a club finally caught up with it.

Now I could hold a tiny stick that would do nothing or grab the end part of the branch which was too thick to put my hands around and continue bashing it. Problem with that is having to hold it from the top to do any real damage, putting my fingers awfully close to the snake itself. Two options presented themselves to me, risk bashing it more at the expense of losing my fingers or even my life if it’s venomous, or take advantage of its defensive state and run.

Suddenly, it moved as if to escape its position while my weapon was broken and I was distracted. By reflex, I pushed the shield in closer and it pressed right up against its body with a sizzling noise. Smoke started to rise from behind the shield. This creature was taking damage just from touching the divine shield. So it was not just fear, but the real threat of the divine touch smiting it that kept it away.

I wasn’t going to let this opportunity go in vain and pressed the entire shield against the snake and pressed down hard to keep it from slipping away. Just a few moments ago it was in the perfect stance to shake off blows from the branch but now it was a deathtrap keeping it pinned down as the shield burned it. Smoke billowed out from below the shield and as I pressed down the shield lowered more and more as the snake was literally being wiped from existence.

Finally, I felt no resistance at all and moved away from the shield to reveal bare ground. No sign of the snake anywhere. Dead, smitten, destroyed or what not the damn thing was gone and I was happy about it. Screw exploring this dungeon further if this was the kind of thing I’d face. At this point, I’d rather face three normal snakes than one of these dark ones even with the tree branch broken. And with it broken, I couldn’t go any farther into the dungeon. The rest area would have to wait another day and time to test my luck on the surface.

Time to go back to the surface, or not. A swirling mass of smoke above my head disagreed with my proposal. Even after killing the snake, I now had to fight the smoke given off from killing it. Was it even a snake at this point or an evil spirit. The smoke gathered in the spot where I had killed the snake and congealed together. For a moment I thought it was the snake reforming its body but then I realized it was loot.

When the smoke cleared, there was a dagger marking the grave of the snake. The very sight of the dagger made me a bit uneasy despite the fact that it was only a bit longer than the bottom of my palm to the end of my middle finger. Emblazoned on its hilt was a skull and it was bad news. Everything about it screamed cursed from the skull to the fact it dropped from a beast wielding foul black magic. Logically, the best thing to do was leave it behind but it drew me in somehow.

No matter how cursed it was, it’d still be valuable as it looked pretty gnarly. I was drunk and easily influenced so I walked up to it. My last vestige of sanity made me place my shield against the dagger to see if there was a reaction or if my curiosity was from a spell that would be broken with this action. Nothing, no reaction at all. Against my better interests, I picked up the dagger with my free hand, not even trying to use a rag or something so I wouldn’t touch it directly.

Once I picked it up, I didn’t feel any different. No pain attacking me randomly, no voices speaking into my head trying to get me to kill myself or my friends, and no strange cravings for human flesh. Not that I had ever tasted human flesh so I wouldn’t know even if I had a craving for it. Didn’t seem like I was cursed at all but it was best to check with Jeoffry about this dagger later on.

With that, there was nothing left for me here. I left behind the tree branch as well. When leaving the dungeon, I didn’t have to kill enemies to make it to the next room so even if new snakes spawn they’ll just sit in the hole as well. Probably best for me to pick up a weapon or two at Jeff’s blacksmith when I trade in this rock. The tree branch was damaged beyond use and I doubt it would be wise to just find another one out in the woods. It worked surprisingly well but constantly broke with every room I entered and wouldn’t be able to last me long enough for room ten onward no matter what I faced in the dungeon.

I was thinking that I wanted something long range like a spear then something short range like an ax or bludgeon. Versatility was key in a constantly changing environment. Before any of that could be done, I needed to stop by Tom’s bar as it’s the only place I can grab dinner past the usual times and then pass out upstairs using the coins from Jeff. It was probably dark outside by now.

I stumbled through the rooms. This time it was only five of them. Seemed like I was doing worse every time I entered the dungeon but I hadn’t entered with proper equipment yet. Several times I caught myself leaning against a wall about to pass out and slapped myself to keep going. Keeping my thoughts on getting out of there and what to do next was the only thing preventing me from passing out cold, and likely dead by the time I would’ve woken up.

I prayed to the goddess blessing my shield that Jerry wouldn’t be there when I got out. And to my surprise when I left the dungeon, it wasn’t Jerry. But it wasn’t no one either. There was someone waiting for me. Tom, the owner of the bar was sitting on the ground just a ways away from the dungeon entrance.

 

Chapter 5: An Agreement to Grind

Spoiler

Tom stood up to greet me as I left the dungeon. He had been sitting there for a while as the grass was pushed down flat where he had been seated. It was now almost nighttime and the busiest time for the bar. How could he be here of all places?

“Hello old pal, we need to talk,” he said then started walking down the path back into town.

Old? I was younger than him, not by too much but still younger. But it was true that we were friends for a long time. It’s been years since I came here from my old hometown. A washed-up man just past his prime drinking his past away, that’s what I was.

I followed him back to his bar which was full of people from throughout the town. Jeoffry was behind the bar, passing around food and drinks, taking over while Tom was gone. Jeff was at the counter grabbing a late dinner. A score of other people were getting drunk off a seemingly endless tap of ale, beer, spirits, and whatever else Tom dragged out of his cellar earlier today. Unfortunately, Jerry and his goons were at the bar as well, staring at me.

Did Tom betray me? If he waited for me outside the dungeon, I assumed he was keeping a lookout for me and trying to help me get away from Jerry and possibly lay low for a few days. Instead, I’m face to face with Jerry and there’s no way I could outrun them to escape out of town or back into the dungeon.

“I’m sorry for trying to steal your shield. It won’t happen again,” said Jerry to me. Is he actually apologizing for that? Am I supposed to just accept this apology and expect him to not rob me later? I’m not that trusting of people.

“I can tell you don’t believe me, and I get that. Later on, I’ll make it up to you for that unsightly situation. You see, I saw that shield as a way to achieve my dreams and hastily tried to take it from you rather than properly asking to buy it from you,” said Jerry. Was my doubt that visible on my face or did he realize how insincere his words sound?

“Not that the shield would help even if Jerry bought it. He wants to become a knight under a divine order. And that shield’s divine has no knight affiliations. It’s not even useful for his style of adventuring with the buffs it provides,” said Jeoffry, cutting into the conversation. It’d be nice if Jerry would take those words to heart and give up on the shield. As nice as it would be to sell it for a decent amount, it’d be the same as selling off the rest of my lifespan.

It’s quite the coincidence that Jerry wanted the shield to join a knight order and the very task bound to me by the shield was to create a knight order. As stupid as it sounds, I’m almost tempted to invite Jerry to help me with this task. He’d make for a good first recruit and bring his friends. The first real step towards building a knight order was to have people actually doing things in the name of the order and gathering resources to pool together. However, that had a high chance of backfiring in Jerry’s case as he might just topple me, take the shield, and make the knight order himself without my involvement. Does present the question of whether or not that’d be considered a success in my task if I indirectly had the knight order form by someone else’s hand.

Not the best type of question to find out the answer to through experience. If I were to tell anyone about the task to have them help out, it would be Tom and/or Jeoffry. Tom because he’s trustworthy and good with his head. Jeoffry because he’s well acquainted with the divine and has real knowledge on how knight orders function. Actually, I could ask them questions about it without even letting them know about the full story.

“Hey Jeoffry, what do knight orders even do and how did they come about in the first place?” I asked as he was relieved by Tom and came back to this side of the bar. A steaming hot bowl of stew was placed in front of him alongside a light beer.

“I suppose I have time to talk about that while I eat. After all, I got an opportunity to work off a few of my debts and a free meal thanks to your circumstances,” said Jeoffry as he started to dig into his food.

“Knight orders are groups of adventurers who follow the same god or goddess. They tend to share the loot and money that comes from exploring the dungeon and even help take care of monsters on the surface. Any new members would get a lion’s share of the resources to catch up to the rest so knight orders are very picky. The only way to get in for sure is to have an item with their patron divine’s blessing upon it. Not much else beyond that besides convincing normal people like you to worship their divine,” said Jeoffry between mouthfuls of food and drink.

That was a lot simpler than I imagined it to be. Sounds like all that was needed was money. With a bunch of money, I could buy weapons and armor then equip some adventurers who want to join. Then I’ll collect a cut of their rewards from the dungeon for more money to throw at the knight order until it develops into something. The main issue was gathering the funds for that and finding people trustworthy enough to have as knights. The last thing I wanted was to equip an adventurer with a bunch of gear then they run off to another order.

“Not just that Jeoffry. There’s a matter of ensuring loyalty as well. Long-term members can get enchanted items to help them get stronger and then there are items to cause artificial convergences. As for divine items, knight orders disallow their members from using items blessed by other divines than their patron one, and often give divine items from their divine to members to make it so that they can’t run off to another knight order without giving up a significant part of their strength,” said Jerry. Which was actually very useful information. He must’ve put some solid research into the topic.

If by some chance, I was able to get my hands on a bunch of items blessed by Sanae Patil then it’d be easy to create a loyal knight order from scratch and build up the necessary wealth and resources from their activities. Then again, being wealthy was better than being poor and gathering a bunch of divine items from the dungeon seemed impractical. More likely, I’d have to find people who already have Sanae Patil items and either recruit them or buy the item off them, both would cost a substantial amount of cash.

“You can trust Jerry on his word for now. Him and his buddies will be banned from this here bar if they turn to banditry again. Which is something I would reluctantly as they’re some of my best customers. They’ve been banned from making bets over a certain amount already. Now would you like something to eat or drink?” asked Tom. If he said so, then I suppose I can relax a bit. Tom’s word is worth far more than Jerry’s.

“I’ll have some of the stew and Jeff might be paying for it. No alcohol. I’ve already drunk enough today. I’m not even sure how I’m still standing or talking at this point,” I said to Tom. Not sure what was in his stew because it was different depending on what Tom had on hand, but it had everything I needed to keep going. Meat, vegetables, gravy, and a slice of bread on the side to clean the bowl.

“Me?” asked Jeff while confused. That is until I pulled the rock out from my shirt and passed it over to Jeff. In response, he pulled out enough money to pay for my meal and pocketed it. He said nothing about what it was or its true value.

“That’s right, you managed to get your hands on some fine stuff down in the rest area. If I was Jerry’s age, I’d be diving down to the rest area every day to help restock my cellar. Did you find anything else down there today since you went in twice?” asked Tom.

For a second, I was going to pull out the dagger I found to show it off but decided not to. That thing looked totally cursed and I shouldn’t give Jerry any reasons to try robbing me again if they realize it's not and is possibly a dark enchanted item. Sometimes it’s best to just keep my mouth shut. Instead of the dagger, I pulled the booze out and waved it around to show everyone.

“Nope, but I imagine everyone is curious about the bottle I found the night I went into the dungeon absolutely hammered. This stuff is a copy of one of Tom’s special brews he rarely takes out that the dungeon somehow recreated from my memories instead of boring old water like most people that get that far,” I said to distract people from the dagger. No, more to distract myself from it and the possibility that it might still be cursed or that it would be something others would covet or seek to destroy.

The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, more from excitement than the alcohol. I finished off my meal then shared a tiny bit of the bottle with everyone there. Then it was a mix of telling stories about the past, gambling, and drinking contests until people dropped or left one by one. For the first time, I actually had a somewhat sober mind while experiencing this and I felt like a spectator as I couldn’t drink anymore without getting sick. The world I always lived in before yet foreign to my eyes.

When I asked for a room upstairs, Tom let me have one for free and for the first time in what felt like ages, I slept on a proper bed. I just laid on top of the bedsheets fully clothed and shut my eyes. No nightmares came this time, just darkness and morning came seemingly in an instant. There was no hangover and the sun had just risen by the time I woke up. Which was weird as I normally felt like shit and woke up in the afternoon.

This had to be the work of the shield. How in the hell is this shield not more valuable and why would adventurers go for full-on offensive type enchantments? I could get drunk yet have some clarity in my mind, which I’m not sure whether that’s good or bad, and then wake up like nothing happened the night before. What am I even supposed to do in the morning anyway? I’m not a farmer nor do I have a job. The only thing I had that was somewhat like a profession was entering the dungeon so I guess I’ll do that after breakfast.

Breakfast is something I haven’t eaten in ages. Normally, I just call a meal breakfast as a joke when I grab a dinner so late it’s pretty much the next day. I walked downstairs and found Tom serving eggs and cabbage to Jeff and Jerry while the rest of the bar was empty. If Tom was up now, when did he ever sleep? I took a seat beside Jeff and he put some coins on the table and pointed at me.

“Merchant comes next week. This is iron,” he said while pulling out the rock I gave him last night. Did that mean that the offer with the copper stood with this hunk of iron as well? He’s technically ripping me off but if I pay him back I can make a bit of profit with the merchant. It’s nice that he’s paying for my food and such, but I would much rather get a proper weapon from him.

“Besides that, would you happen to have a good spear along with a mace, bludgeon, or ax I could buy or rent?” I asked Jeff.

“He doesn’t rent weapons, only sells since they’re guaranteed to come back in poor condition or not at all. I’ve got some spare weapons I can get you if you help me with something. I’ll even give you some advice on the dungeon,” said Jerry from the other side of Jeff. I purposely sat here so he wouldn’t talk to me to no avail.

“What sort of advice and what’s in it for you?” I asked back. Fact was that Jerry’s expertise on the dungeon was invaluable to me, but I wasn’t sure if I could trust him fully even with Tom stepping in yesterday.

“I bet you just walk in a straight line through the dungeon until you can’t go any further then scurry out as fast as you can. You’re acting like the way the dungeon wants you to act, not taking advantage of the way things work. Heck, I bet you’ve never even heard of the wheat grind method. I can help you and in exchange share a bit of your luck with me and pay me back in some of the loot you find using the methods I’ll teach you,” said Jerry.

It was a fairly reasonable exchange. I’d get some of his spare weapons he’s not even using at the moment and he’ll share some info that might already be common knowledge. And in return, he’d make a profit off my ventures by having three people doing the dungeon and passing the loot to him instead of two. He has the definite advantage in these negotiations and only loses out if I die in the dungeon.

At the same time, nobody but him knew this sort of thing in town so I had no one else to ask without making an arduous day-long trip to the next town over. And I would lose nothing that I had at the time, just future stuff. If by chance I picked up something more valuable like the dagger, I could just hide it away and pay Jerry back exclusively with things like rocks and ores. A lot of time and even money would be saved by working with Jerry just this one time and if lucky I could break it off within a few days.

“I think I’ll take you up on that offer as long as you don’t try anything funny,” I said as a plate was put before me by Tom. Since eggs are often eaten fresh from the coop, I hadn’t eaten any in ages and immediately dug into it. While I was eating Jeff finished his meal and left, giving me a clear view of Jerry who was smiling for some reason.

“A divine item and two ores within only three trips into the dungeon, quite the luckbag you are. Be sure to share a bit of that luck with me these coming days. If that luck holds up, it’s infinitely better to be your friend than to rob you,” said Jerry, laying his thoughts bare to me. I hoped I was as lucky as his words implied as I’d need luck in the coming days.

After a hearty breakfast, I left the bar with Jerry against my better judgment and met with his two friends outside. Their names were apparently Chris and Matt. Common names to have and I doubt I’d remember them for long. Chris accompanied us as we walked to the dungeon while Matt ran back to his place to grab some spare weapons for me.

“What’s this wheat grind method you mentioned before?” I asked on the way. Jerry tapped Chris on the shoulder and nodded, having him explain instead.

“Well, two generations ago there was this baker from a few towns over who realized something about the nature of dungeons. There is no need to go deep into the dungeon nor do you have to keep the dungeon given to you. So, he would enter the dungeon repeatedly until he found a monster that he could easily defeat, then just wait in the first room for another monster to spawn and kill that too. Monsters will start to spawn faster and faster and he was able to bring back some loot almost every day, sometimes multiple loot per day. It was like putting a bunch of wheat into a grinder and then watching as its grinded down into fine flour over the course of a few hours,” said Chris, explaining the method quite enthusiastically.

“If people can do that, what’s the point of going deeper into the dungeon?” I asked.

“Better loot and a higher chance of loot dropping of course,” responded Chris.

So this is what Jerry and his friends did all day. They were never in any sort of danger with the dungeon. Instead, approaching the dungeon in a low-risk way that still rewarded their efforts occasionally. It was a stark contrast to how I had been dealing with the dungeon. Almost dying on the later floors while they twiddled their thumbs on the earliest floors. If not for the fact they might find out about the enchanted dagger, I would ask them about whether special monsters came out occasionally.

“There’s also the fishing method built upon the wheat grind by you guessed it, a fisherman of the same generation. He would go as far as he could in the dungeon and then go back a bit then wait for monsters at a happy medium. Like a fisherman casting his line then reeling it in a bit to attract the fish. The dungeon treats it like he’s trying to escape and throws monster spawns faster and the chances of loot are a bit higher since he’s not in the first room. The only downside is that there’ll be one or two monsters to fight in each of the rooms back to the surface,” said Jerry. He really was keeping his end of the deal so far, teaching me how to take on the dungeon in a way that’d produce profits without too much risk.

Once we reached the entrance of the dungeon, Matt was already there with a spear and bludgeon, both in moderate to poor condition. They were spare weapons after all, cheap, disposable, and already used a few times so a few nicks and dents couldn’t be helped. Better than a broken bottle or tree branch that was for sure.

“If only we had an artificial convergence device, we could enter the dungeon together. Farewell and good luck with your ventures into the dungeon you three. Until the day we can join a knight order or stand equal to them!” shouted Jerry before hopping into the dungeon. Chris and Matt quickly followed.

People couldn’t enter dungeons in groups normally, the dungeon would split them up into different rooms and different dungeons. Occasionally, on later floors, two dungeons will combine into one in a convergence and two adventurers from other sides of the world could meet up and fight monsters together, or kill each other. Some rare enchanted items could simulate this effect from room one and bring multiple people from one entrance to the same dungeon. That was what Jerry was talking about.

Not sure if I should test out one of the methods taught to me or just explore the dungeon normally. I guess I could figure that out once I went in there and see what the dungeon holds for me today. This time I was prepared with proper weapons. I took a sip of the liquor for good luck and entered the dungeon once again.

 

Chapter 6: Loaned Weapons and the Rat Grind

Spoiler

The dungeon this time was similar to the time I woke up hungover. Gray rock walls that were slightly cooler than the outside world but not too cold. In the middle of the room was the monster, a white bird about the size of a crow. In such a cramped space, I doubted its ability to fly well. It didn’t even move, watching my every move with its eyes while sitting still.

I set down the bludgeon off to the side so my shield would be ready if it counterattacked then readied my spear for a lunge. Right as I thrust the spear, the bird flapped its wings and lifted off, dodging my spear. There it somehow hovered in the air just by stretching out its wings. No wind nor was there any kind of movement or flapping of its wings beyond the initial time. It’s as if the bird was frozen in time mid-flight.

Once, twice, twice I tried skewering it on the end of my spear but every time it missed as it dodged in every direction, up down, left, right, and it even backed away a few times to avoid my attacks. Not once did it ever try to get close to me or attack. The spear obviously wasn’t working out so I dropped it and picked up the bludgeon. As fast as it was, dodging a bludgeon at close range was unlikely.

Keeping my shield up, I approached the bird. In response, it flew over my head and got behind me. Before I could turn around to face it, I felt a stinging pain on my back. I flipped around and swung my bludgeon at random, missing the bird but forcing it to back off. Blood dripped down from its talons. When I was focused on keeping my shield up to block any attacks from the front, it used its mobility to claw my back.

This was no easy opponent. Even if I killed this thing, I wouldn’t want to stick around to wait for another to spawn or continue onwards to fight more instantly. No wheat grinding, no fishing, and not even trying to get to the rest area. What was the point of staying in this dungeon any further?

If it wasn't for the fact that the monster was currently blocking the exit to the dungeon, I'd have already bailed out. I felt like a cornered rat as I couldn't leave nor could I go further into the dungeon. And if I let my guard down for even a second, or rather kept my guard up too much, it'd strike me where I couldn't stop it. Mobility and intelligence was this monster's quirk.

Last time it acted because I got too close and had my shield up in front of my eyes, blocking my eyesight. Perhaps going towards it without the shield in the way would make it move. Or I could use the spear again and try to herd it to the side by aiming slightly to the side to push it to dodge the opposite way. Yet, given the opportunity, I would rush out of the dungeon so I couldn't just drop the bludgeon. Would be nice if I had some way to keep the weapon I wasn't using strapped to my back or waist until I needed it.

I picked up the spear off the ground and kept the bludgeon in my off hand with my shield. Then wave the spear around in front of me, not even bothering to thrust with it. The bird dodged to the left so I walked around the perimeter of the room to the right, continuing to wave it just to the left of the monster. Right as I managed to get halfway to the exit, the bird suddenly stopped dodging to the left and flew above the spear. Then it flew straight towards my face with its talons facing forward.

They got bigger and bigger in my eyes. I lifted up my spear and bludgeon as fast as I could and just barely stopped its charge. Not that it hit me or my weapons. Instead, it flew up and tried to get me from a blind spot again. Thankfully I was on the edge of the room with my back pretty much pressed against the wall so it couldn’t get at me. It flew all around me, trying to find a gap while I used the spear and bludgeon to guard each of these areas. Meanwhile, I started sliding towards the exit carefully whenever it paused in the air.

After what seemed like an hour-long stalemate, I took a step backward and slipped out of the dungeon without any more trouble. Back on the surface where I no longer had to fear getting my eyes gouged out or talons scratching my body, I sat down and took a short rest in the grass. I wasn’t the only one there, Matt from Jerry’s group was also seated on the other side of the dungeon entrance.

“Bad luck with what the dungeon threw at you? Same as me. At some point, you get so used to the bullshit the dungeon throws at you occasionally that you hop right out as soon as you see a sign that things won’t be easy. Unusually hot temperatures, constant rain inside the room, armored monsters, monsters not visible immediately, and more. The list goes on and on, endlessly some people say,” said Matt.

What he said reminded me of the dungeon with the snakes hiding in holes and the lizard one with the constant cold. They really were unfair without the right preparations and luck. Before I just brute forced my way through such obstacles and didn’t even consider the fact that I could leave and come back with everything different. Without the knowledge taught to me by Jerry and Chris, would I have still left that dungeon or insist on fighting that bird? It was definitely worth consulting the three of them whenever I could.

“Hey Matt, should I get a belt or something to keep the weapon I’m not using on my back or something? It’s kinda hard to fight while keeping track of both of these,” I asked. That was a pretty major issue in the previous fight as I couldn’t really use my shield when I was trying to leave.

“Just use a strip of cloth and tie it to yourself. Might as well just tear a strip of cloth from your shirt or something for it. They’re pretty much rags already with all those stains and wear. I’ve got a knife so I can help you out with that right now,” said Matt while walking towards me.

The problem with that is the dagger right below my shirt and if it’s not long enough to tuck in, I won’t be able to store things in my shirt. In fact, I should’ve gotten a bag or pockets on my pants. Would be worth checking into later. Overall, I couldn’t let him help me with this and had to do it myself, preferably in the bushes or in the dungeon. Could just say I’m going to the bathroom or doing it later.

“No thanks, I can handle it myself,” I said to stop him.

“Alright, suit yourself. I’m heading back inside to see if I can get a good setup,” said Matt while walking back into the dungeon. Surprisingly how easily he gave up after I said his help wasn’t needed. Wouldn’t people normally insist on helping while thinking I was only saying that to be polite or out of pride?

Either way, the only blades I had were the dagger and the spear, with the spear being a bit awkward to cut cloth with and a bit dull on the sides. Between the dungeon and the bushes, I chose to re-enter the dungeon. If I faced anything flying or some other shit, I’d immediately exit instead of trying to fight it first. Then use the time until the next spawn to whip up a makeshift belt from my sleeves or pants to preserve my shirt’s tuckability.

Despite my injuries, fresh on my back and my still healing shoulder, I entered the dungeon once again and found my surroundings to be brown. Felt more like dirt than rock as if I was just below the surface. It even felt a bit damp and soft like the ground after a light rainfall. As for the monster, it was a rat. Not a ratman like before, but a normal rat like the normal lizard. Anything but normal with its huge size but otherwise indistinguishable from its animal counterpart. In fact, it was larger than the lizards who were the size of a small to medium-sized dog. This ratbeast was the size of a large dog.

Part of me wanted to bail right then and there because such a big rat was bound to be strong. At the same time, it had seemingly no special characteristics so it should have been possible to kill it with a well-placed spear. A loud squeak could be heard as the massive rat scurried towards me. I dropped the club again and readied the spear before me. Like the lizards before, the rat came to me without any reservations and ran right into the spear all by itself. I positioned it so it would hit the spear with its head and dropped it right as I felt any impact to keep myself from shredding my arm and shoulder from the force.

The result was a still very much alive rat with a spear sticking out of its forehead squirming all over the place and trying to pull it out. Which meant my spear could break at any moment if it even rolled a bit funny. Left with no other choice, I picked up my club and walked up to the beast. It paused its struggle to snarl at me but was unable to stop me as I bashed it on the head just above where the spear was lodged. The impact caused the rat to fall onto its side and violently shake its limbs.

Still wasn’t dead. To finish the job, I walked over and slammed the bludgeon hard on its shoulder to stop its front leg from moving so much. Then pulled out the spear from its forehead, stepping on its chest for the leverage to pull it out. Even with all that it still breathed so I stabbed deep into its exposed chest with the spear multiple times. Finally, it was dead.

For some reason, I decided to stay in the dungeon instead of leaving. The monster was surprisingly easy to beat despite its size even if it did take some time to fully kill. And the weapons provided to me managed to do quite well, suffering barely any damage, though the spear was now covered in blood and guts.

The bludgeon was pretty much an upgraded version of the tree branch I had yesterday. It was a tree log carved into an easy to handle shape that was topheavy enough to deal serious damage when swung around. However, what set it apart from a mere stick, was the two strips of metal nailed around the top of it in a circle. While thin, the metal helped keep the bludgeon intact while making it harder and dish out more of a punch. The concept was similar to the rings around a barrel.

While the spear was a long, rounded strip of wood with a metal top. Wasn’t too sure how it kept on the end, but I suspected it had something to do with either nails or strong glue. Whatever kept it together wasn’t visible on the outside. The blade was a triangle that looked somewhat like an arrowhead but a bit longer and rounded on the sides. Both the wood and spearhead were able to survive the impact from the rat’s head which made them quite durable. For spare weapons, they were of good quality.

Some time passed and no new rats spawned so I sat down and decided to work on either a belt for his bludgeon or shoulder strap for the spear. My sleeves were a bit thin and hard to work with so I took off my pants and readied the dark dagger. Such a menacing weapon’s first use was in amateur tailoring. Just the thought of that amused me as I started cutting from the bottom up in a spiral pattern. The hardest part had been keeping the resulting strip of cloth from being too thick or thin and in the end, it was very uneven.

In the process, I lost the bottom part of one of the legs on my pants and gained a new belt. After all, in this dungeon, I’d be using the spear first then the bludgeon. Immediately, I tested it out by tying the bludgeon to my waist and taking a few steps forward. It did get in the way of walking a bit but more or less worked as intended. At that moment, I was ready for anything. Unfortunately, nothing happened at that moment nor the next, nor for a while.

At least half an hour passed before a new rat spawned from the wall. First came a hand that was more of a claw popping out of the wall from seemingly nowhere and scratching around. Then came another trying to grab onto something to get the leverage to pull the rest of its body through. By that time, I had gotten up and prepared my spear as I heard the scratching noise from these claws.

A head phased through the wall as if the wall didn’t even exist and screeched at me. Then a thought occurred to me, “Do I really have to wait for it to come out?” And like that, I approached the half-born beast and planted my spear right in its eye.

The beast wailed constantly as I twisted the spear and gouged out its eye. Then I did the same to the other eye, blinding it. I could have shoved it even deeper into the eye socket, stabbing into its brain and killing it. But I wasn’t sure if that would count as killing it properly and allow me to collect any loot. After all, it wasn’t done spawning. Wounding it would have to do until it came out completely.

Five minutes of constant screeching later, the rat had made it into the room fully and was struggling to do anything as it bled from its eye sockets. I knocked the beast onto its side with my foot and it offered up no resistance. To give it a clean death rather than muck up my spear again, I pulled the dagger out from my shirt and used it to slit the rat’s throat. As soon as the dagger cut its throat open, a cascade of blood pooled out and the rat ceased its struggle.

Another monster was down in a way that almost felt unfair. Then again, switching places the monster would offer me no mercy in a disadvantaged situation. Many more monsters would die by my hands in the coming days and from their flesh would come the resources I needed to live my life fully.

The next rat came after fifteen or so minutes and I repeated my actions from before. It was a most effective way of dispatching the monster. Incapacitating them from pain by wounding them and then killing them while they were down.

Ten minutes was all it took for the next one. Then five minutes. Four, three, two, and finally one rat entered the room every minute and never sooner. The small room filled up with giant rats that began rapidly decaying and disappearing at a speed just barely keeping up with the rate new corpses joined the floor.

It wasn’t until the number of dead rats climbed to one hundred did an item finally drop. A gray ore like what I had found yesterday, possibly iron or some other similar ore. Just one ore wasn’t enough and I killed more and more. Such little rewards for so much death, that was the wheat grind method. However, there was pretty much no risk for these rewards and my skill with the spear got better and better, at least better at hitting stationary targets in a weak spot properly.

After two hundred more rats, I finally got a second ore that seemed exactly the same as the first and decided to leave the dungeon. It had been hours since I had entered and I’ve had pretty much no rest with how fast the spawns got. Hours of constant work with only two ores to speak for it. At this point, it seemed more reasonable to try out the fishing technique or just aim for the rest area if I got weak enough monsters as the wheat grind method was just excessive in my opinion.

When I left the dungeon I found Jerry, Chris, and Matt all standing outside, probably waiting for me. Without saying a word they started heading back to town while waving at me to follow. Not sure why as it was still late afternoon and there was plenty of time to enter the dungeon.

“Let’s grab some lunch,” said Jerry as I started following them. Lunch? I’ve eaten it plenty of times especially as the first meal of the day, but I wasn’t too hungry just yet. Normally, I only ate twice a day and breakfast was still holding me together. Maybe I would find myself the room for a few bites by the time I got to Tom’s place.

What surprises me the most is that Jerry didn’t ask if I managed to find anything in the dungeon, nor did he insist on searching me for loot. Not sure how he expected to get a cut of my loot without asking for it and untrustworthy types weren’t really trusting people. Then again, maybe what Tom said to them still held some weight and they’d just accept anything I gave them until they felt like they were paid back or got a fair trade.

 

Chapter 7: Cutting Between the Edges

Spoiler

Tom’s bar was filled up with people grabbing a late breakfast and lunch. Amazingly enough, within the hour all of these people would leave and the only ones left would be the late afternoon drinkers. In the past, all this activity was usually the thing that started to wake me up after passing out cold in the bar after a good night of drinking. Then by the time I shook off the grogginess, everyone was gone.

For the first time, I was a part of this lunchtime rush hour with Jerry and friends showing me the way to participate. They pushed through the crowd of people and shouted out an order for four people to Tom while throwing some coins down on the counter. Tom scooped the coins up with practiced ease and continued cooking. He had a rotisserie cooking up a bunch of freshly butchered chickens with a pan on the side frying some onions and peppers. Every so often he would slice off some meat from one of the chickens, and put on a plate with a scoop of the onions and peppers with a slice of bread on the side.

It was a luxurious and filling meal. One that was only possible due to this town's location and the many years of good harvests. The so-called merchant that Jeff mentioned before was actually a large caravan of merchants bringing goods from the South to the capital and vice versa. If not for the fact there was already a city slightly to the north of town that the caravan also passed through, then this town might have seen some major development and become a city. Instead, it was a fairly wealthy pit stop.

It took a few minutes for portions to be placed before us as Tom had to serve the people who got here first. But it was worth the wait as more food than I could eat was placed before me, overwhelming me with the smell. Within a moment, I went from not being hungry to feeling like I was starving. All of the ingredients were scooped up onto the bread and eaten like a sandwich.

Even with my sudden burst of hunger, I was only able to eat half of it before I had to set it down and retire from eating. The other three left not even a scrap of food on their plates. Not sure if it was due to their age that they were able to fit all that, all of their hard work every day making them need more food, or just that they were used to eating three meals a day. My thoughts on it were that all three applied.

Tom picked up my plate and pushed my leftovers into a nearby pot. Tonight’s dinner was whatever people didn’t eat from lunch turned into a stew with maybe an extra ingredient thrown in for a bit of variety. There was no wasting of food in this establishment.

“You’ll have to pay me back for lunch later as our relationship is purely business for now. No free rides until you prove yourself. Same with that spear. It’s covered in blood and looks like you did a number on it. If you don’t want to pay for a new one, clean it up and sharpen it. We have to establish how our relationship is in these next few days so we don’t argue over little things later on,” said Jerry, which was fairly reasonable. I suppose they thought I had no money on hand so they’re paying for my lunch and expecting to be paid back for it.

“I understand,” I said.

Actually, I still have the silver from Jeff but I’d rather hold onto it for now and keep it for emergencies. Every time I didn’t spend it and used other people’s money, I would rack up a bit more debt but it ensured that I could pay it back to Jeff and make even more money from selling the copper to the merchants and possibly the iron too. Speaking of iron, the ores I picked up that day were probably iron as well if not a similar looking ore. Jeff paid for two of my meals after receiving it so I actually had made a bit of a profit that day despite Jerry upping my debt with the meal.

“Let’s now state how much we’ve gotten from the dungeon so far today, starting from left to right,” said Jerry. I was on the far right and would go last it seemed.

“I’ve managed to get a single ore and its reddish brown in color, possibly copper but more likely to be iron,” said Matt. Iron? When I had iron before, it was grayish in color. But now that I think about it, it’s normally red in color. Did Jeff lie to me about what it was?

“Good job. Even if it’s iron, since it’s red in color you know the purity is higher than that impure gray iron with other metals mixed in,” said Jerry, which answered my question.

“I’ve gotten nothing at all. I was doing the wheat grind method but I screwed up and had a troublesome monster so I had to leave the dungeon before I could get any loot,” said Chris. That explains why Matt talked about leaving at even the slightest sign it’d be troublesome. Chris was able to defeat the monster easily enough but struggled when the spawns went down to one per minute. And since he left, the spawns would reset and he’d have to wait like an hour until it went back to being one per minute.

“I would scold you for being so irresponsible, but the same thing happened to me so let’s write it off as bad luck and try again tonight. My ax got a nasty chip in it today so we’ll take an hour break as I get Jeff to fix it. Got anything to add old man?” Jerry asked.

“I got two ores while using the wheat grind method,” I said while pulling out the ores in question.

“I’m full but it seems like I’ll have to eat my words, your lunch is free today and your choice whether to use those for yourself or trade them in to knock down your debt. Since they’re from room one they’re pretty much guaranteed to be impure iron mixed with something like tin or nickel,” said Jerry. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m starting to like the way Jerry does things.

“How much of my debt would they wipe?” I asked, after all, he said himself that we need to establish our relationship.

“The amount of iron in those ores would be enough to buy a used bludgeon from Jeff’s store if you had three of them or a spear if you had five of them. Add on one ore as interest and it adds up to nine ores for that. So it’d knock off almost a quarter of your debt when it comes to your loaned weapons alone,” said Jerry. It was a straightforward way of stating it that was easier to understand than talking in coin. Plus I could double check those prices next time I bumped into Jeff easily enough.

That sounded good enough and I’d rather not carry these around in my shirt for too long, they were rough and rubbed against my skin wrong. I passed the ores over to Jerry and made a mental note about the fact that I owed him seven more of these ores, or less if I could get something of higher quality. I bet Matt was doing fishing in order to get that ore based on what Jerry said. Then again, I managed to get copper ore in the first room of the dungeon after my hangover.

Maybe I shouldn’t take everything they say as fact but rather what’s considered to be normal. There are obvious exceptions to what they’ve said so far. It was up to me to distinguish between what they say and what actually happens. For now, I had an hour or so long break and had to figure out what to do. The most appealing action was to take a nap after such a nice meal but it was important to clean my spear before the blood dried and set in.

The four of us dispersed to do our own thing, promising to continue going down the dungeon within the hour. Chris walked towards the dungeon to get a head start on us since he screwed up earlier while Matt walked up to a nearby tree and took a nap. As much as I’d like to emulate Matt, I walked down to the river and started scrubbing the gore off the spear with my hands.

I made sure to avoid cutting myself on the edges and most of the blood came off within a few dips and a bit of elbow grease. Once I was done, I made sure to dry the spearhead with my shirt to keep it from rusting. I didn’t have anything to sharpen the spear at the moment but there should have been some sharpening stones at Jeff’s place I could buy later. At the moment, it was better to keep using it as is and focus on a more thorough cleaning and sharpening at the end of the day, after I was done with the dungeon for the day.

There was nothing else to really do, so I took a bath and washed my clothes since I was already at the river, then took a short nap to help digest my meal. So far, the day had been quite good. To think that only three or four days ago, I had been getting drunk out of my mind every day and not really doing anything besides the occasional work to help pay off my debts. By the end of this month, perhaps I’d have no debts at all and an even better life than now.

It was time to get back to work so I could achieve that lofty goal. I walked back to the dungeon to find Matt just entering the dungeon. Maybe he had finished his nap just now or maybe he had already challenged the dungeon a few times and was searching for the right opponent. Either way, I followed his example and walked into the dungeon.

This time the dungeon was surprisingly dark with black walls and barely any light. The little light that came from the torch above seemed dimmed by its surroundings. Just this fact alone tempted me to leave the dungeon as it was ominous. What stopped me from doing so was the fact that the monster was clearly visible and very slow. It looked like a cross between a turtle and an insect.

On its back was a hard, spiked shell with only small gaps between each segment. Coming out of the shell was a set of legs slowly dragging its body forward and a long head. Its neck and head were as long as the shell on its back and constantly snapped its mouth at me. The thing was aggressive but painfully slow. Then again, this is probably what Matt meant by armored. There was no doubt that attacking its shell was a bad idea while its head and legs were a weak point.

I approached this strange creature and tried stabbing it with my spear as it came into range, but its head disappeared. In an instant, their head and legs were sucked back into its shell and my spear hit empty air. And then, for all its aggressiveness, it didn’t do a damn thing. It refused to come back out of its shell until I backed off. Then went back in as soon as I approached with my spear.

It was smart enough to recognize that it was at the disadvantage and hid within its armor. However, why would it walk towards me in the first place if only to hide away? Logic-wise, it made no sense. Then again, talking about logic in the dungeon was illogical in the first place. The smart thing to do was to take Matt’s advice and leave since it was armored, but I had my doubts about what he said and I was curious about this thing.

I walked around to the back of the shell where I could get close without its head being able to reach me if it suddenly decided to come out to attack. This thing was about the size of the jumping lizards from before so it wasn’t too big. With a few bashes of my bludgeon, I confirmed that its shell was heavy armor as it did not even flinch from these attacks. Trying to push the blade of my spear between the cracks in its armor did nothing either. There definitely was flesh and I poked it a few times but it was too thick to do real damage between the plates of armor.

One thing that could possibly fit was the dagger from before. I pulled it out and slid it between the plates and finally got deep enough to cut into the bugger and draw blood. Then suddenly, its head flopped out of the shell. I didn’t miss the opportunity to grab my bludgeon and slam it down on the creature. Within a second, the creature’s brains were bashed and all it took was shocking it a bit by cutting it while it was in its shell still.

For Matt, this dungeon would be quite difficult to deal with. But for me and this new method, it was the perfect place. Even if I faced two of these things, they were so slow that I could isolate and take them out one by one. Wheat grinding was possible but unreasonable, fishing could work quite well, and with the ability to take on two at once, I finally had the chance to reach the rest area. Which was now the plan, get to the rest area and then try fishing on the way back or if getting to the rest area fails.

In the next room, I waved my spear around the head of the beast to make it hide then walked around to its back. With the swipe of my knife, its back was cut and its head was thrown into the open where I could finish it off. It did not take more than a minute. This was too easy. Such was the nature of the dungeon, sometimes it was hard and other times it was easy. The armor and menacing look to the place almost threw me off and made me leave but I stayed and profited from that decision.

When I went through the motions in the third room, something weird happened. The turtle insect thingy came back out after being scared once and turned around to face me. In the process, it almost earned a new breathing hole from my spear before it went back into its shield and stayed there. That wasn’t the weird thing as I wasn’t putting much effort into scaring it with my shield. The weird part was that the portal that took me to the next room appeared before I was done.

I was about to club it over the head with my bludgeon when I saw the portal appear and stop. A few seconds later, I realized the beast was already dead. How was it already dead? Was its flesh between its shell a weak point that caused instant death or was it the dagger itself. After all, it was a dark enchanted dagger so cutting into the beast once might be killing it through its dark magic. Magic could be the weak point of these armored enemies.

The only way to know for sure was to test it out in the next few rooms to see if it instantly kills them. In the first two rooms, my back was to the portal leading to the next rooms so I may or may not have bashed in their brains in vain. Not totally in vain as it made me feel better.

Within five minutes, I was at the portal that lead to room seven, preparing myself to face two of these enemies at once. In the three rooms since then, I had instantly killed all of the monsters with the dagger. If not for the fact that the dagger was so short, I would be seriously considering using it as my main weapon. Who knew how effective its dark element would be against normal monsters?

Every room I had passed seemed to be darker than the last as well. Which meant that it’d probably just get darker and darker until there was no visibility at all. Unfortunately, I couldn’t use this dagger to get myself to super high floors against these weak enemies. All I could do was hope that it was enough to beat multiple turtle things and reach the rest area before rooms got too dark to properly fight.

Room seven was just as I expected it to be. A slightly darker and larger room than six with two turtles instead of one. Both immediately began charging me and I decided the best strategy was to just try and deal with one while they were spread apart then deal with the other at my leisure. The one on my right happened to be a bit closer to me so I set my sights on it.

The usual spear feint got it into its shield and before the other turtle had even gotten close, I had dispatched its friend. Time to finish off the second as I waved my spear around its face. But it simply ignored my spear and kept charging. Which forced me to back off a bit, lest it got too close and had the chance to attack me. Then I tried a full-on spear thrust to intimidate it more or stab it if it refused to hide.

The damn thing moved its head to the side and my spear missed. My second thrust was aimed at the base of my neck that couldn’t move too much. It had the choice to get hit or retreat and it chose to get hit. Blood sprayed onto the ground as my spear dug deep into its neck and it finally tried to go back into its shell, which the spear in its neck prevented. It struggled fruitlessly to hide away and pull out the spear and then flopped to the side weakly.

To put it out of its suffering I came closer with the bludgeon. Right as I started lowering myself down to bash it over the head, it suddenly reached its head out and tried to bite me in my face. A wild animal’s last hurray before death. Fortunately for me, it didn’t reach and when it flopped back down on the ground I finished it off before it could do anything else.

Like that, floor seven was cleared in relative ease. Hopefully, the turtle only reacted that way because it saw me kill its friend and that wasn’t its usual behavior. If the turtles became more aggressive and less likely to hide with every room, then a part of my advantage was lost. However, if it was only learning from seeing my actions, then I could simply scare both turtles into their shells right next to each other and kill both and once with a bit of herding.

 

Chapter 8: A Taste of Home

Spoiler

Room eight was the same as room seven, two enemies slowly coming towards me. I waited for them to get closer together so I could try taking them out both at once. The bigger problem was the amount of light in the room. Their shells were black and they started to blend in with the room’s surroundings more and more. I could barely see the lines on the palm of my hand even with it right in front of my face. Light was fading fast and I would eventually have to fight these enemies through sound and feeling around their shells if I kept going indefinitely.

I walked around the room as the chased me, herding them until they were right next to each other. Then I stabbed towards both their heads with a single spear thrust. Both fled to the safety of their shells and neither came out when I got behind them. The first one died as I cut into its shell and before the other could react, I killed it as well. Just as planned.

This was proof that I could handle rooms with two of these enemies without any trouble. Which solidified my goal of reaching the rest area to grab some more alcohol. The thought alone made me thirsty and I pulled out the booze and took a large gulp of it. Before I had been trying to avoid drinking any more of it since it was getting low, but now I’d be getting a refill complements of the dungeon.

The Ninth room was cleared within a few minutes without any issues and I went into the tenth hoping it would contain a rest area. Instead of a rest area, I found myself in another open room with three of the turtle monsters. The room itself was much larger than the ninth room as well. By entering a room in the double digits, I found that things had started to step up. It had taken seven rooms for the amount of enemies to get to two and only three rooms for three enemies. If this pattern continued to escalate, then before I found the rest area I would find myself stuck in a room with dozens of turtle monsters I could barely see.

I had lucked out the first time, waking up in a rest area on the tenth room. This time it was going to be a bit more difficult. Anywhere from the tenth floor to the thirtieth, the rest area could be at. That was a lot of rooms and a lot of enemies to fight. Although the enemies were easy enough to fight, killing tons of them at once would be hard even with this method and the darkness would make it near impossible. How was I supposed to fight these monsters if I didn’t even know how many there were or where they were?

Within a few minutes, I discovered that the method I was using before already wasn’t working. While trying to herd the monsters, two of them grouped up just fine while the third one kept its distance from its others while still trying to get closer to me. Left with no other choice, I started by scaring the two grouped ones and dispatching them with the dagger, then I readied my spear to strike down the third while it refused to hide.

The result was basically the same as floor seven, it made a motion to dodge with its head to the side but I stabbed its lower neck and then clubbed it over the head before it even had the chance to bite at me. I couldn’t imagine how hard this would be if there were four of these beasts and the fourth one learned from me stabbing at the base of the neck and mixed up its strategy. Once I entered the eleventh room, I realized that I was given the chance to test this out.

Two of them stayed grouped together while the other two skirted the perimeter of the room, which actually would’ve prevented me from being able to navigate around them if I couldn’t just scare the two in the middle. These terrifying beasts not only learned from my attacks but tried to make up for their slow speed by cornering me and limiting my mobility. Not that it worked this time around as I took out the two grouped ones then ignored one of the outliers to take out the third one by lodging my spear in its neck.

As I expected when I approached the fourth one, it immediately hid in its shell rather than letting me stab it in the neck. Which meant I’d just go back to the original strategy, if not for the fact that as soon I went around to its back it let out its legs and rotated towards me. Just the legs and not the head. However, that was enough to make me a bit uneasy. I saw how fast it could go into its shell and it stood to reason it could come out just as fast.

I wasn’t even sure if I could stab it in the shell without it coming out of the shell and attacking me. After all, its head was extremely long and could reach behind it if it tried. And since it was using only its legs, I couldn’t really hit it with my spear that well. Since it was rotating so slowly I could still get behind it without any trouble.

The issue was whether to risk leaning down close to stab it in the back. It wasn’t like I could use the dagger from very far away or throw it. A few feints to see if it could tell where I was behind it and if I could get close without being in danger seemed to be my best bet. Using my spear, I tapped on its back a few times and its head sprouted out from its shell and lifted up so far that it was looking at me upside down.

Thankfully it seemed there was no way for it to see behind me and I managed to put it back into its shell with a spear thrust. Then I leaned down behind it with a dagger. Just to be safe, I chose a spot lower down on its back and tried to stab down only for the space between the plates of armor to suddenly close up while its head suddenly lunged at me. Within a second it had twisted its body and shell to face towards and went for my neck. My hands were already full with my spear in my right hand and the dagger in my left.

In order to block this attack, I was forced to drop the dagger and fell backward. The turtle bit onto the top of the shield and tugged on it, trying to move it out of the way. The straps keeping it tied to my arm kept it from doing so and I struggled to keep it in front of me. With my right hand, I gripped the spear close to the spearhead and stabbed into its neck multiple times at close range without much effect. Its skin was as hard as a rock and the spearhead was dull and only able to cut the topmost layer.

Not that I was in a position to put much power into my strikes, lying down backward with only my upper back lifted up and trying to keep the turtle from pushing me down fully or pushing me to the side. For such a slow creature, it’s strength was staggering and I was already feeling pain in my stomach from this position. I dropped the spear and looked for another weapon, my club.

My club was trapped underneath my ass because it slid behind me while I was falling back. I needed to find a way to tighten it. Wait no, tightening it would just make it harder to take it out when I needed it. Instead, a proper sheath or at least a belt designed to hold weapons was necessary. The only other weapon I had was the dagger but it was dropped and somewhere beneath me or the monster.

Ignoring the pain from my lower body, I lifted myself up more and pushed back against the turtle with the last vestiges of my strength and searched around for the dagger, feeling for it with my hand. Right as my body was about to give out, my fingertips brushed against its handle.

My arm gave out and got thrown to the side while my body fell flat against the ground. The beast took advantage of this weakness and went for my neck. I could feel its disgusting smell and imagined its thick teeth easily ripping my jugular out of my neck as I bled out in the dungeon. Instead, it flopped lifelessly onto my chest.

After pushing its body off to the side and getting up, I pulled the dagger from its neck. It had been buried up to the hilt, cutting into the beast’s neck like it was butter. And the effect was almost instantaneous. How convenient yet terrifying that the blade felled it with one blow. Would I have suffered the same fate if I had brushed my fingers against the blade instead of the handle?

Once again I had faced near death due to carelessness in the dungeon. Or rather than carelessness, the dungeon once again surprised me with something I didn’t expect despite my caution. Back on the first floor, I was able to kill one of these with ease, on this floor I was unable to beat one of them. As much as I could blame it on there being four, I had killed the first three before fighting the fourth. This was a single monster that caused me this much trouble.

It reminded me of the bird I had to flee from that was in the very first room of another version of the dungeon. No matter how prepared I was the dungeon could ruin those preparations. No matter how easy the dungeon seemed to be, as I got to later rooms the difficulty would escalate accordingly. The dungeon was a literal deathtrap disguised as a place where one could easily become rich. And I could get rich here if I didn’t die in the process.

This was too much to take in sober, I thought while drinking some of the liquor. Despite the fact it could run out soon and there was no guarantee I could get more at this rate, I drank as much as I could stomach. It burned my throat as it went down and I needed that burn to distract myself from what just happened. If even one thing had gone wrong, I would have died and this wasn’t even the first time that was true.

A few minutes passed as kept drinking until the bottle was completely empty and smashed it against the ground. The glass went everywhere and one shard even lodged itself in my hand. I pulled it out and stared at my palm as the blood dripped out. Why even care about the wound if my magical fucking shield would just heal it within a few hours? Why care about anything if I was just going to die within a year?

Maybe my jugular would’ve just grown back if the turtle had ripped it out. Felt like I was near immortal at times. Looking at my hand again, I realized that while I could see the blood, I couldn’t see my knuckles or hair on my arm from this distance. It was surreal how dark it was getting and how I hadn’t noticed. My eyes were getting used to the darkness but that would only go so far. The alcohol didn’t help as it made my vision a bit shaky.

Now I had two choices, go on and risk dying again and being unable to see at some point, or head back like a normal person would. The decision should have been obvious but there was just one problem. All this bleeding was making me thirsty and I had nothing more to drink. Dying was starting to feel more preferable than not being to take another sip of some good stuff.

As much as I wanted to head back to Tom’s place, he would only have light beers and cheap liquor. The good stuff was only brought out on special occasions and not even silver would change his mind on it. In fact, the silver would be confiscated to pay off my tab. But if the next room happened to be the rest area, I’d have some more brew in my hands. My mind focused on this and couldn’t let go of the chance.

I got up and started walking towards the entrance to the next room, picking up my spear on the way. While a bit crazy, I wasn’t downright suicidal. The spear would help if I ended up wrong. If the twelfth room didn’t have the rest area and instead five or more turtles, I could defend myself somewhat. Then after that, I would leave the dungeon for sure, not gambling with my life any further for a draft.

To my delight, it was no longer dark when I went into the twelfth room. The room actually too bright, hurting my eyes and forcing me to put my arm on my forehead to shield them. It was also smaller than the eleventh room, being around the size of the fourth or fifth floor. And in the middle of it was a wooden bowl full of random food items and beside it was an entire barrel. Not a full-sized barrel as big as me but more of a mini one that was almost as tall as my knees when I stood straight up.

If it contained what I thought it did, a better name for it would be a keg rather than a mini-barrel. I walked up to it and found a wooden stopper on the top of it. Just by touching it, the wooden keg leg out a strong aroma. Without even pulling out the stopper, I knew this was a strong ale. The kind that wasn’t watered down at all and even had spices and herbs mixed in. Not only that, but it was a kind of ale I hadn’t tasted in over ten years as it was a specialty of my hometown. Not even Tom would recognize this keg filled almost to the brim with the flavors of home.

Home was a place I hadn’t thought of in a long time seriously. Ever since I left it, I never looked back yet never made a new home wherever I went. Not even here in this town where I’ve stayed for years have I considered it a home. Just the smell alone made me want to go home yet I couldn’t. In my current state, it was impossible for me to go home.

No one would know it was me. The years had not been kind to me nor had I accomplished anything meaningful. A trip home would be one of shame rather than a warm welcome. I was sure that some people would be happy to see me back but everyone would be disappointed by what I had become. Or at least, I was.

Perhaps, if I was successful in the dungeon I’d feel good enough to be able to bring myself to go home. I didn’t know what I meant by successful myself. The only goal I had so far was the one that the goddess had given me, which was just as vague as being successful. There was no use in overthinking things for now.

I grabbed the keg and put it on my shoulder. Tonight I would celebrate with this keg. Not with the others but in a room all to myself. I’d rent out a room to sleep in again and just eat this bowl of food and then drink while thinking about home. That sounded nice.

It didn’t take long to make it back to the surface. I could’ve employed the fishing method in room six since the enemies were so easy to beat one on one, or maybe in room nine since I could still beat two at once within a minute. But I had achieved one of my short-term goals to make it back to the rest area and with the ores, I felt like I had accomplished enough for one day.

I missed home too much to kill turtles for hours on end. There was always tomorrow for that. It wasn’t as if I only had a year to live and every day counted dearly. That was exactly how things were actually but I just couldn’t bring myself to care. A year just seemed so far away and would continue to feel far away until it was almost over.

At the dungeon entrance, I found Matt and Chris hanging out while Jerry seemed to still be in the dungeon. Chris was holding an ore in his hands and seemed to have some measure of success, which was impressive considering I wasn’t in the dungeon for even an hour. Heck, there would be several hours until sundown and I was turning in super early.

The two of them looked over at the bowl of food in my hands and the keg on my shoulder in shock. They probably knew what I had done and I could care less. I just smiled at them and walked to the bar, not spending a breath of air to talk to them about my run. At the bar, I found there to be just Tom and no one else.

The lunch crowd had obviously left and the late afternoon drinkers either didn’t come or weren’t here yet. Shockingly enough, Tom was asleep behind the bar, leaning up against the counter. This was the first time I had seen him like this in all the years I’ve known him. The moment didn’t last for long as his eyes flickered open and he stood up like nothing had happened. How the hell did he do that?

“Can I help you? It doesn’t seem like you need any food or a drink. Seems like you’ve got that part covered,” said Tom while noticing the keg and bowl of food. Not a single sign of fatigue nor his recent sleep showed on his face.

“I’d like to rent a room and I’m turning in early,” I said.

He passed me a key and it was to the same room I slept in the previous night. I tried reaching into my shirt to get some coins to pay with. I had only silver to give and wouldn’t get any change for the coin with my debts, but it made me feel bad to constantly have others pay for me or increase my tab any further.

“No need to pay for it. You left the room in great condition. I’ll add it to your tab and with a discount. When you've got the money you can pay me back. Just promise me you’ll pay off your tab all at once Mr. Dungeon Explorer,” said Tom while lifting up his hand to stop me. I guess I would have to do that now.

That did seem really cool. Going back to the bar with a bag of silver and paying off all the debts in an instant. It would be liberating and a great way to show off once I get rich. I could even add in a bit of extra. Then again, paying off my debt wouldn’t help at all with establishing a knight order, but if I were to die I’d like to die without any debts. A new short-term goal was to pay back Tom the money I owed him.

 

Chapter 9: Sword Disarmament

Spoiler

I went up to the room I had rented out for the night and closed the curtains. After spending time in a such a dark place, the sun was annoyingly bright. The curtains were thick and dark, casting most of the room into shadow when closed. It was perfect as my eyes adjusted within seconds. I set the keg, bowl, and a mug that Tom had lent me on the way up on a table next to the bed.

My thirst was stronger than my hunger so I removed the stopper and let the keg pour its sweet nectar into the mug. Actually, I wasn’t hungry at all as I was still full from lunch, but it would be nice to have some food if I got hungry halfway through the night or when I got up. It was hard to pour the keg into the mug as it was so big and awkwardly shaped. Even with my best efforts, some of it spilled onto the table and the floor.

So much for Tom complimenting me on not making a mess and giving me a discount for yesterday. He probably already knew a mess would be made as soon as he saw the keg. After all, it was his job to know all about kegs. I wondered if I drunk straight from the barrel, then could I have avoided this mess then realized I would’ve made a bigger mess by dumping it all over me. Which is why he gave me the mug most likely.

I took off my shirt and used it to wipe up as much of the ale as I could then took a sip from the mug. As soon as it touched my tongue I felt my body tremble. It burned my tongue despite being cold as ice and its flavor was so familiar that it brought tears to my eyes. This is something I’ve needed for years yet never knew I needed it so much until now.

An hour later, I was lying down on the bed in only my pants with my eyes closed and an empty mug in my hands. I had drunk three mugfuls and was enjoying the aftertaste in my mouth. It had filled me up and I didn’t feel hungry but I was too full to drink anymore. The stopper was put back on the keg to preserve the smell and flavor then I laid down on the bed. Sleep came surprisingly fast with how relaxed I was.

When I woke up, I felt like I had slept more than I had ever done before. In a good way that is, too much sleep can make me groggy but this left me feeling refreshed. I slipped on my shirt that smelled strongly of ale and opened the curtains to find the moon high in the sky. This made sense as I had gone to sleep in the late afternoon. It would surely mess with my sleep schedule but it worked out for today.

As it would be hard to carry the keg around the dungeon, I left the keg in the room and brought the bowl of food with me, eating from it while going downstairs. There were plenty of people still there, drinking the night away. At the counter, I found Tom opening a keg of ale, not the same kind I had in my room but still an okay brew. If I hadn’t just gotten up I would have considered getting a mug of it. Plus I had my own ale to finish off.

“Hey Tom, I’m going to be staying in the room tomorrow as well and left some things in there, is that alright?” I asked him after he served a round of drinks and had a slight break.

“That’s alright but I might go up there later to clean up whatever messes you made,” Tom said. Which was nice as I may have wiped it up with my shirt but without a proper cleaning it’d get all sticky and smelly.

Jerry, Matt, and Chris also happened to be at the bar. All three of them looked at me a bit funny. It was a bit rude of me to turn in early like that, but I’d make it up to them by doing a nighttime dungeon run. Maybe tomorrow I’d even let them try a bit of my hometown ale and we could drink it together. If I brought it out now, I’d be too tempted to drink it again to the point where I wouldn’t even be able to make it past the front door of the bar. Then again, doing that in the past hasn’t stopped me from clearing out the dungeon.

I nodded towards them and with the spear in my hands, it was obvious enough I was going back to the dungeon. No need to interrupt their good time with excuses when I can just bring back some results. It was a bit odd making the trip back to the dungeon entrance at night. I’ve all but memorized the path by now but it threw me off a bit seeing how different everything looked. Of course, I had made the trip back during the night before but without thinking too much into it, too tired to overthink things.

The dungeon entrance looked eerily dark during the day, but at night it glowed with an ethereal light. It looked like something you’d expect to find in the night sky, in the heavens, not down here. Which made sense considering I could find a divine item and a magical item within its depths. Inherently magical and undoubtedly unnatural. And hopefully, those traits will allow me to get stronger, heal my liver, and gain wealth greater than any man is supposed to possess.

I entered the dungeon for the seventh time in my life. This time the walls were yellow and it made the room feel unusually bright and colorful. Not the good kind of yellow but the dirty almost gold yellow that instead of looking valuable just looked dull and ugly. Besides that, the entire room smelled awful to the point where I could barely breathe.

As for the monster that spawned, it was a sword. If it was a monster. I couldn’t tell why the hell there was a sword in the middle of the room sitting on its hilt. It was common sense to me that a monster would spawn in every room of the dungeon and it’d be unique almost every time. But this was a rusty old sword, not a giant lizard, rat humanoid, snake thingy, or insect turtle combination.

How I was I supposed to fight or kill this sort of thing. Other than balancing on its hilt, it didn’t move and it sure as hell didn’t seem alive. It was tempting to walk over to it, pick it up and then slash at the wall to break the blade. The entrance to the next room wasn’t open so it wasn’t like I could just go by it and be on my way. This was something I was expected to fight. Or I could just leave the dungeon and pretend I never saw this weird crap.

At the same time, I was curious about this new kind of enemy and whether or not it’d be easy to fight. Also, since it was made of metal, could I not collect and sell whatever remained after defeating it beyond the normal loot. After all, the blood of the ratmen was still stuck on my clothes despite cleaning it in the river twice. If only the meat and other parts wouldn’t rot instantly upon leaving the dungeon, there would be a culture of selling stuff beyond the occasional loot for a more reliable income.

Surely metal could not rot. It could rust and melt but even that could be melted down and reforged into an ingot for a use somewhere. Possibly, this version of the dungeon, despite its horrible smell was a place of fortune. Greed filled my eyes as I looked at this sword monster and I approached it.

Once I got into range to attack it with my spear, it reacted to my movements by leaning towards me, balancing on only the tip of the handle. When my spear got close to it, it turned its blade towards the spear as if to guard against it. That is where it stayed, stock still. I lost my patience and swung my spear at it, stabbing or thrusting would do little against such a thing and small target.

Locked in place, the sword didn’t move a bit when my spear hit it nor did it take any damage. It simply blocked the attack then went back to facing towards me when I moved the spear away. In case it wanted to counterattack, I lifted up my shield in anticipation of it flying or launching itself towards me. And then nothing happened.

Since it made no attempts to fight back I tried swinging the spear at it again to no avail. Blocked by its blade again. However, I noticed a pretty much crack in the back of the blade and it was one-sided. Perhaps I could beat it simply by striking it there. Which proved to be easier said than done.

Every time I swung the spear, it hit the blade even when I swung it from a different direction. Hell, I even swung from above which was no better than a thrust in this situation and the damn thing still angled itself backward to block it. Eventually, I realized it rotated slowly and I was starting to get close to hitting it by switching my angle constantly.

Things devolved to me wildly striking it constantly mostly in a circular motion and a few thrusts mixed in for good measure. Then I finally found its weakness by going for a feint. It moved to block my swing from the right by turning that way, then I moved the spear over it and immediately swung back in a smooth motion. As the blade hit the crack in the back, the entire blade shattered into pieces. Success, but a short-lived one as the pieces immediately sunk into the ground and disappeared.

Not even a trace of the sword was left behind. So much for this dungeon granting me a fortune. It didn’t change the fact that it wasn’t too bad of a dungeon to explore. The sword had a weakness that could be easily exploited and for all I knew, it didn’t fight back at all. That might change if there were two of them, but I saw no reason not to go up to floor six at the very least. With my newfound strategy, I went into the next room.

I walked up to the sword and it positioned itself. Thinking about it, it seemed as if the sword was challenging me to a duel. If I had a sword instead of a spear and faced it up close, I wondered if it would act differently? Between fighting it with a sword and a spear, I’d much rather use the spear than find out what would happen.

Within a few seconds, I had shattered the sword. Like the previous sword, I only had to feint and go around it to dispatch it. This pattern continued as I traversed more rooms, all the way until floor six. There, I had to make a decision after taking out the sword there.

Fishing was the dungeon technique taught to me that I hadn’t tried out yet. For it to work properly, I’d have to go back two rooms and then wait. With these swords, I could handle one of them with ease and then go through several more rooms of them on the way back without trouble. So the most effective way to do it was to continue onto room eight then come back to this room and do something similar to the wheat grind technique.

However, a much safer alternative existed. That was going back to room four and just doing things there and it would be better than the wheat grind technique yet not as good as doing it at this room. Should I risk going to rooms with two swords and possibly new behaviors to get better loot and more chance of it dropping when I came back? Or do I go the safe route and avoid coming close to death again like pretty every other time I’ve gone past room six?

It’s not like I wanted to make it to the rest area again. I’ve already got a keg of ale waiting for me back in my room and that was good enough for me. Focusing on trying to get more loot was a more pressing issue than getting more good drinks. After all, with money, I could buy all sorts of alcohol I’ve never tasted before and possibly have them recreated in the rest areas down the line.

All that said, the biggest reason to not continue on was the overwhelming scent. It smelled like something died and got covered up for a week so the smell was contained and the cover was just removed now. I was constantly covering up my nose with my shirt which smelled mostly like the ale I drank yesterday, which made me thirsty. Yet, could I really back down from a dungeon simply from smell if these swords were that easy to deal with?

Seemed far more productive to just try and get used to the smell and see how the swords act when there was two of them. Just like the turtles before, they could be taken on one by one since the sword wouldn’t move from the spot, just rotating and tilting to block attacks. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything, I found out when I walked through the portal leading to room seven. There, I found the room to be completely different from before and a single longsword sat in the middle of the room. Instead of yellow, the walls were a gray background with yellowish spots and cubes littering it. And instead of smelling like someone died and rotted for ages, it smelled like burnt hair, an equally nasty smell.

A single sword that was twice as long as the other swords leaned forwards like the ones I had faced before. Why was there only one of them? I pondered this while black smoke started to rise from the blade until it literally caught on fire. It was as long as the bottom of my foot to my waist and it was on fucking fire. The hell was I supposed to fight this of all things. I looked behind me to try and flee, only to find the exit to the room sealed.

This wasn’t fair. To make things worse, when I looked back at the sword, it lifted off the ground, floating in the air. The area around the sword crackled and random bursts of black smoke appeared randomly around it. And the smell, oh goddess the smell, it was so bad that I wanted to claw my nose off and barf. It was as if someone died, sat to rot for a week, and then was set on fire.

The sword angled itself downwards towards me, and to my vision it seemed so small as it lined up to my eyes exactly, being just a line floating in my vision that started to get bigger. Last second, I realized it was already attacking me and I moved to the side. I managed to dodge but it hit the ground at my feet, one of the yellow circles which turned red in an instant then exploded, shoving me away. My back slammed against the wall and I dropped the spear.

While my back hurt, the explosion just pushed me away rather than hurting me at all. It even left a crater where the yellow stuff had been. Before I could retrieve my spear, the sword got into position and started heading towards me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that I was leaning against a yellow cube on the wall. I dived to the side and lifted up my hands to protect my head as the sword cut into the wall and caused another explosion, launching me across the entire room.

My arms and back ached from being thrown about, but I remained unharmed for the most part. Once again, I was standing on one of the yellow tiles and they seemed to be everywhere. The only chance I’d get to attack this monstrous being was to make it hit the grey ground rather than the yellow so I wouldn’t be blown away. Either get tossed around like a doll until it ran out of yellow spots with the constant risk of dying, or move to a place without the yellow.

Before it could get ready to attack again, I started running back to the first place exploded, the crater in front of the entrance. It was able to easily cut me off by slamming into the ground directly in front of me and slamming me backward onto the ground with the explosion. It was playing with me. Right then and there it could’ve skewered me with ease but chose to attack the spot which would explode and knock me down.

This time, I chose not to move despite it charging me and the yellow spot below me. The sword aimed for my head and I protected that area with my shield. Without as much force as I expected, it lodged itself on my shield and pressed down on me. This kept it in one place and I pulled out my club in an attempt to strike it from behind. Hopefully, it had the same weakness as the other swords, a crack in its back.

As soon as I pulled the bludgeon from my waist, the pressure against the shield and instead clashed with the bludgeon. It had purposely stayed against the shield, waiting for me to take advantage of its time of supposed vulnerability. And I could only watch in horror as it melted through the strips of metal, cut into the wood and cut a large chunk of the bludgeon off, rendering it useless as a weapon. White smoke came from the sliced off club as the moisture was sucked out of it and it started to burn in my hand.

The sword, unimpeded by the bludgeon, continued downwards and hit the ground, exploding and sliding me off to the side with a sharp pain at my arm. Or what was left of my arm. The bludgeon wasn’t the only thing the sword had cut through as I could see both my lower arm and the pieces of the bludgeon on the other side of the room. It was hard to process seeing my arm separated from my body.

No matter how many times I had come close to death, my injuries had been superficial or serious but treatable. With my shield, the wounds would normally just close up and heal. But would it bring back my arm? It’s not like I could re-attach it as it was burned off, not just cut off. Which on a positive note was keeping me from bleeding everywhere.

I was left completely disarmed and my right arm was gone. I was crippled and could die at any second. The blade hovered in the air, preparing another attack, choosing to torture me than outright kill me. Though it was fruitless and caused nothing but pain, I lifted up my shield to defend once again. This time when it came towards me, I lifted the shield up towards an angle slightly.

It hit the shield and rather than sticking, it slid to the side as I lifted it up and to the right even more. Instead of cutting into my body, it hit the ground, grey ground not yellow which didn’t explode. There it stayed stuck into the ground and I pulled the dagger out from my shirt and tried cutting the back of the blade. In case it was faking being stuck in the ground, I did this as fast as I could, almost cutting myself on the blade while pulling it out.

The sword reacted to my motions and lifted itself up from the back, trying to back away. For just a second, the blade stopped at the front which was embedded into the ground, truly stuck. And that moment was all that I need to strike its back and watch as it shattered into a thousand pieces. It was over. All of it.

Even my newfound career in dungeon exploring was done for as I had only one arm. This room somewhat reminded me of that unique snake with the dark eyes I had fought before which had given me this dagger. I’d be pissed if this sword didn’t give me something in return for that hard-fought battle, a retirement gift per say.

Just as I thought that the scattered pieces of the sword, instead of sinking into the ground, started reforming into something.

 

Chapter 10: Dea Ex Machina

Spoiler

The pieces of the broken sword reformed into another sword. I mean what did I expect? Of course, the sword would become a sword as loot. Or would it? Would’ve been interesting to see an ax pop out from a sword. Last time this happened, it was a dagger from a snake so it doesn’t necessarily make any sense.

I picked it up with my left hand, as my right was on the other side of the room, and it burst into flames like the monster I had fought to get it. It was the same length as well, a fire longsword. Very cool looking and probably valuable it was. A pity I got it right as I’ve decided to retire from dungeon exploring as it’d be nice to use. On the other hand, such a valuable parting gift was very much welcome.

Rather than being painful, my wound felt weird and itchy. The fire blade had cauterized it so the wound was in no danger of bleeding and seemed to even be trying to heal with the power of the shield. It felt like I could still move my lower arm that wasn’t there if I tried and several times I caught myself trying to move it and being surprised it wasn’t moving or well, attached to me.

I couldn’t stop myself from cracking up and laughing out loud at the absurdity. It was either that or cry about it and I had already cried about home yesterday. What sort of man would I be if I cried as a result of every memory or bad thing to happen. Then again, losing an arm isn’t a normal bad thing.

First thing I did was to walk over to my arm and pick it up, setting the fire sword to the side. Perhaps I could reattach it and my shield will help fix it. Certainly be easier than trying to grow a new forearm and hand from scratch. As soon as I picked it up, I realized this wasn’t an option as I grabbed a chunk of flesh falling off my arm instead of the arm itself. It was rotting away like one of the defeated monsters in the dungeon.

This was to be my fate as well if I died here. Absorbed into the dungeon as my body deteriorates into nothing. The chunk of flesh slipped from my hand and fell onto the ground which quickly enveloped it. Nothing more that could be done about that.

While it was sitting on the ground outside of hands, the sword wasn’t covered in fire which was good to know as it burning constantly would be inconvenient. Hopefully, it was near impossible to break from the blade side like the monster it came from. Then again, that trait might come hand in lack of hand with the weakness on the back making it shatter instantly. Not that I would ever test if that weakness was still there. This sword was my retirement fund.

Some other adventurer can find out the hard way if the sword still does that. Preferably after getting some use out of it so they couldn’t complain to me for selling the sword to them for a fortune. It was somewhat understandable that the value of a divine item could be limited depending on the effect and the deity reigning over it, but an enchanted item should just be valuable no matter what and this was a fucking sword that had flames on it. The appearance alone should drive up the value to collectors, not even talking about adventurers wanting to use it as their main weapon.

Once my former dominant hand was fully gone, I picked up the sword and walked over to pick up my spear. Since I couldn’t hold both at once, I untied the cloth around my waist I used for the bludgeon and tied the spear to my back. It took me maybe twenty times to get it right. With only one hand, it was nearly impossible to steady the spear on my back and tie the cloth around it.

Normally I would’ve tried to put away the sword and keep out the spear in case I ran into any trouble on the way back, but I’d rather not burn my clothes off, especially since my shirt was covered in ale and would light straight up. I would need a sheath to keep the sword in that was fireproof for convenience. Or rather, I should consider having one made for it and that’ll raise the value of the sword and make it easier to transport to a city where it could be sold at a good price or auctioned off.

Or maybe this sword alone could be strong enough to allow me to continue dungeon exploring. Which was unlikely as it was in my offhand and was super awkward to swing. I couldn’t believe I was considering going back into the dungeon at all at this point. My body and mind still hadn’t fully registered what had happened. Felt like business as usual.

I dragged myself out of the dungeon, room by room, still hoping that the shield would start to regrow my arm. Instead, my stub started to scab over as the burnt flesh started to drop off. At this point, it was obvious that it would just heal the burnt part then have skin regrow over it. Which was better than a horribly burnt and cauterized wound just waiting to get infected.

No new enemies spawned on the way back and I made no attempts to try and do the fishing technique. It seemed a lot more promising than the wheat grind and I regretted not being able to try it out. However, I’d have to deal with living with one arm and figuring out what to do with the last year of my life.

With the dark dagger and fire sword, I could make a small fortune, pay off my debts, then retire in luxury. For a full year, I’d engage in debauchery and drink away all my problems until the reaper’s due. As for the shield, I’d obviously keep it at least until my arm healed. Then, I’d pass it on to someone else as it would keep me from becoming drunk enough to forget this.

Not the most satisfying life, but what a way to go. I could imagine it now, as I had already lived a life similar to that for years and for the first time I had been able to be normal with the dungeon. And that was something I’d have to give up.

At the entrance to the dungeon, I didn’t find anyone about. Jerry and his friends were probably still asleep or in the dungeon. Tom may have been smart but he’s not psychic and probably not even he would have predicted this or he’d be right there, sitting in the grass waiting for me so he could grant me guidance on what I needed to do.

Speaking of Tom, I still had that keg of ale from home in my room. It’d be nice to have a tall mug of that. Maybe consider going back home to see my relatives before I died, shame for how I’ve wasted away for years be damned. All that could just wait until later on, tomorrow when I have a clearer head or come to terms with what happened to my arm.

At Tom’s bar, I found myself in the breakfast crowd as people were just waking out of their drunken stupors from last night or going off to work in the fields. Everyone in the bar turned to look at me. It was hard not to when I was carrying a flaming sword and missing an arm. Nobody said a word as I walked past all of them and went upstairs to my room. There I went over to the keg on the table and went to pour myself a drink.

However, there was no stopper on top on the keg even though I made sure to put it back on. I lifted up the keg and found that only half of it was left even though I couldn’t have drunk that much in one night and I swore I only drank maybe an eighth to a quarter of the barrel. Which meant someone else went into the room and drank a bunch of it.

The first suspect that came to mind was Tom bringing it down to share with everyone, but he wouldn’t do that without permission. So who did it? There was an odd trail of liquid on the floor going towards the window, spilt ale. I walked over to the window and looked down to see three mugs lying on the ground right next to the wall of the bar. Yeah, it was pretty obvious who was behind this and it disgusted me.

Three people, three mugs.

Chris and Matt were the only ones who knew I brought this out of the dungeon other than Tom. And then Jerry was with them yesterday night when I got up and he was looking at me rather oddly with the others. They knew I had left and wouldn’t have been back for a while. I suppose they justified this theft in their minds as paying off my debts. To think that I would’ve willingly shared it with them if they just asked and planned to do so later today when they came back for lunch or dinner so I could drink with them.

Well, good thing I was cutting ties with them to retire anyway. Now they’re definitely not going to get any of my money. Just Tom’s debts would be paid and I could consider my debts to Jerry gone. I wouldn’t even bother getting Tom to ban them from the bar. Just settle things here and then leave for the city.

Despite being left to open air for what I assumed was hours, the ale still tasted good as I poured myself a mug and downed it. I had more things to do and Jerry’s crew sneaking in and drinking a bunch of my ale ruined my mood to drink. That and I sorta dumped a bunch more of the ale onto the floor while trying to pour it with one hand.

Around five minutes later, I found the stopper on the ground under the bed, probably dropped carelessly and rolled under there. The ale was sealed up and I closed the curtains even though that wouldn’t stop anyone from getting in, but the change would hopefully discourage Jerry and his gang from sneaking back in again. Then I picked up the fire sword, which I had left on the ground so it wouldn’t burn anything and so I’d have a free hand. Then went downstairs.

While leaving the bar a few people tried stopping me to ask me what had happened but I ignored them. Tom was too busy making breakfast to talk so I’d come back later during a low time. Instead, the best thing to do was go to the temple. Jeff’s smithy didn’t open until afternoon and I needed to let the goddess know that I’m giving up on the task. Perhaps I’d pass the task onto the new owner and that’d increase the shield’s value.

That would be a worthwhile question to ask Jeoffry if he was in. Who am I kidding, since he wasn’t grabbing a meal at Tom’s bar, he would be in. As I walked through town, I felt the gazes of pretty much everyone in town on me, on my new sword that is. That or the stub where my right arm once was. Thankfully, the trip was a short one and no tried to stop me or ask about things.

At the temple, I found Jeoffry standing outside staring at me with his mouth agape in shock. But he quickly hid his shock and ran into the temple as I entered. There he composed himself and smiled at me, trying his hardest not to stare and failing to do so.

“I need to pray for a bit and I might need to sell this shield later,” I said to him.

“That’s fine, just, is there a way to stop that. Like, extinguish the flames on the sword. It’s not really proper to have something like that happening in a temple,” said Jeoffry and I was more than happy to comply.

I set the sword down and Jeoffry relaxed as the fire dissipated and I held the shield close to me. Within a few seconds, I was connected to the divine and tried to convey my message. However, talking to a divine was a one-way thing, they talked and I listened, not the other way around. She already knew of my plight and everything else that had happened up until now.

There was a way to bring back my arm and it would appear the next time I entered the dungeon if I just went straight ahead as far as I could go, not trying any techniques like grinding nor leaving and coming back for an easier time. The next dungeon I went into would be one that I could handle even with my disability. It would all work out somehow.

Crazy talk it was, going back into the dungeon just as I lost my arm. On the other hand, I could bring back my arm if I did this. For such a short time I was armless and about to retire and now would receive divine help so I could continue on. Truly a case of Dea Ex Machina.

Why not try it out? I had nothing better to do with my life than drinking myself to a death faster than the liver failure could take me out. Throwing myself at the dungeon until I died even though I only had one arm was fine too.

“How was the guidance?” asked Jeoffry.

“Different from what I expected. Scratch trying to sell the shield, I’m keeping it for a bit longer,” I said while grabbing the fire sword and leaving the temple.

Once again, I made the trip across town and started to head towards the dungeon. On the way, Jeff opened the door to the blacksmiths and motioned towards me. The goddess never said I had to immediately enter the dungeon so I went over to see what Jeff wanted from me. He held out his hand and motioned towards me.

“Sword. Let me inspect,” Jeff said. He was blunt about wanting to see the sword and was seemingly oblivious to my missing arm.

I passed the sword over to him and it continued to burn in his hands as he brought it inside the blacksmith shop. He didn’t close the door so I took it as an invitation to come in and closed it behind me. The smoke and heat didn’t bother me too much anymore with what I had faced in the dungeon.

Jeff went over to his weapon display wall and rummaged about the cupboards below. Eventually, he found what he was looking for, a sheath large enough to accommodate the blade and slid the fire sword in. The sheath remained unharmed and it seemed like the fire went out while sheathed. Then he looked around another part of the shop and found a belt that the sheathed blade fit on nicely and passed it over to me. It was perfect for my needs.

“How much do I owe you for these and how did you know I needed these?” I asked him.

“Our divines are on good terms. I was told to give you these as a favor,” said Jeff in an oddly normal way. This was the first term I ever heard him go into such much detail. He usually preferred to be short and blunt in the way he spoke.

Whatever, the belt and sheath were free so I took it and put it on. With it, I was starting to look like a proper adventurer aside from my missing arm. Or did the missing arm make me look more like an adventurer who’s been through many battles? I left the blacksmiths shop satisfied with my new gear and headed towards the dungeon once again.

A lot fewer people stared at me now that I no longer had a flaming sword out. Which was nice as it was a bit uncomfortable with all the staring before. I could’ve made a pit stop by Tom’s bar as it was on the way to grab some breakfast or fill in Tom on events. Instead, I headed straight to the dungeon. It’d be nicer to tell everyone about me losing an arm as a fun drinking story after I get it back.

At the entrance of the dungeon, there was no one around. Which was good as I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hold in my temper if I saw Jerry, Matt, or Chris. I could deal with them after I got my arm back. As nice as their advice was and as much as I was starting to see them as people I could be friends with, I had to cut my losses with them as soon as possible.

Right as I was about to walk into the dungeon, Jerry stepped out right in front of me. My remaining hand rested on the grip of my new sword and clenched hard. I really wanted to punch him in the face seeing him right at this moment. That or cut him down where he stood.

“Hey man, good timing we’ll get some loot out of this dungeon yet. Wait, what happened to your arm? Are you alright?” asked Jerry with what seemed like genuine concern. And it could be genuine, after all, he was a dirty thief, not a murderer. He didn’t want people to get hurt, he just didn’t respect their fucking property.

“Move,” I said, mustering every bit of resentment as I could in my voice as I stared at him. It was a way of letting him know I knew what he had done.

Without another word, he stepped off to the side with a scared yet confused face. Then I entered the dungeon because I had better things to do than stay and chat with him as he pretended to be my friend.

 

I will give it a try '/

 

Chapter 11: Ice Cube Trap

Spoiler

The dungeon was a dark blue color and was extremely cold. Every time I breathed out, white whispy smoke came from my mouth. The ground beneath my feet crunched and cracked as I stepped on it. Everything around me was ice, including the monster in the center of the room. It was literally a floating chunk of ice.

I preferred when the monsters in the dungeon were large or weird versions of animal I could find outside. This thing and the swords from before were just strange to even look at or take seriously. As if the ice cube heard my thoughts, it began attacking me by breaking a piece off its body and shooting it towards me. The projectile ice was jagged and sharp, but painfully slow. I dodged it by stepping to the side as it hit the ground harmlessly. The only way this thing could hurt me is if I stepped on the things it shot on the ground by accident.

Since it was made of ice in a cold dungeon, I reasoned that fire was probably its weakness and pulled out the fire sword. Instantly my surroundings started to warm up to a more comfortable temperature. It shot another ice shard my way and I slashed at the projectile. I missed as I was still getting used to using my left hand but the flames brushed by it and the ice shard melted into nothing. Just by getting close to it, the fire sword took out the enemy’s attack. It was time to find out if the same was true of the main body of the monster.

While walking up to it, I noticed that its body was a bit smaller than it was before. It was literally throwing parts of its body at me. Which made me wonder if I could kill it simply by dodging its attacks for long enough at a distance. When I was right in front of it, it started forming another shard to shoot at me but I slashed my sword at its body and cut into it. At first the blade only cut a fingernail length into its body despite me putting a decent amount of strength, then the flames got to work eating away at it and leaving behind a gaping hole. I kept at it until the sword went completely through and cut it half, both halves falling to the ground and disappearing.

Brute force didn’t work too well as these chunks of ice had an insane defense, but flames took them out in seconds. Meanwhile, the problem with the environment, the cold, was also solved by the sword. It seemed like the dungeon truly was custom made for my needs. I could save my energy by just holding my sword up to the enemies, practice swinging with my left hand on the ice shards, and all the bad parts of this dungeon that would make it a living hell for any other adventurer was negated by my awesome new sword.

The next room was the same but even easier as I realized I could just walk up to the monster without any sort of preparation, using my sword as a shield in case it managed to get an attack or two off before I cut it down. I still had my wooden divine shield by why even bother trying to block with that when the other strategy works just as well.

Normally if I encountered this sort of enemy in a dungeon, I’d feel it out with my shield while dodging or guarding against the projectiles. Since it was so hard, I doubt my spear would’ve done much so I would’ve used my bludgeon to bash it as much as I could, possibly doing some damage or maybe not. Then giving up after realizing I’d have to fight it again and leaving. Heck, the cold alone might’ve forced me to leave even before fighting this thing, not to mention how tough it was without fire.

Rooms three through six went the same way and I entered room seven to find two of them. Both of them shot their ice shards around the same time with coordination similar to the jumping lizards. If I dodged one way, the other one would towards the direction I was moving towards. Which was of no problem since they were so slow, but I didn’t underestimate them due to that slowness. The turtles taught me that these things became even more dangerous the more of them there were. My only comfort is that I didn’t have to dodge or block these projectiles, I could just melt them.

Like the sword enemies from the last dungeon, these ice cubes stayed exactly where I found them when I entered the room. So I could just walk around the perimeter of the room until they shot and then got up close and took them out one by one. By the time I reached floor ten and took down three of them, I started to wonder how far I needed to go.

Even with the fire sword keeping me warm, my feet were starting to get numb and I shivered. I had to sit down and warm them up by lifting them off the ground close to the sword for a bit before I could continue onto room eleven. A rest area could spawn any room now but I would much prefer that the item that was supposed to heal my arm would drop. Regrowing my arm was a bit more of a priority than a nice meal and some alcohol. Actually, I could go for some alcohol at this point.

Skipping over the next few floors since nothing new happened, I managed to reach floor fifteen. I expected there to be seven enemies in the room, following the trend of the previous rooms in a fairly wide space. That didn’t really happen, or at least, I wasn’t sure. Suddenly I was in a wide open space that several room fourteens could fit in.

I could see a few enemies around me, but the room seemed to go on for quite a bit and even had walls in the room separate from the boundary alongside giant ice crystals jutting out from the floor and ceiling. More enemies could be hidden behind them. No, more of them definitely were further in as I only counted five enemies around me who began a barrage of attacks towards me.

They were quite far away so I expected their attacks to lose power and fall down pointlessly, but they kept going in a straight line towards me from five different angles all at once. These attacks were magic based as they defied common sense, not that giant floating ice cubes shooting ice shards made sense either.

If not for the fact I could just lift up my sword and melt it all away, this attack would’ve been somewhat dangerous as it would have been awkward to dodge. While keeping my eyes on the other enemies, I went up to the one on the far right and took it down, melting away just from me holding my sword next to it. Just as I stepped over to take down the next one, I heard a strange noise behind me, which was another shard hitting the ground just behind me. Another one of the enemies had revealed itself from behind an ice crystal. Which made no difference other than me taking a look over my shoulder every so often as I took down the other five.

Except, every time I looked over my shoulder, I saw more of the monsters appearing from various spots. One, two, three, four, five I counted. More than seven total, that was for sure. What came next was simply me going from one of them to the other with no real danger. No more of them appeared while I was walking around, I checked thoroughly in all directions while moving to make sure I wouldn’t get stabbed in the back by one of these crystal ice shards.

And just like that, the fifteenth floor was cleared. Luckily, even some loot dropped from the last enemy I killed, some sort of grey ore that looked slightly different from the previous grey ore. Probably not anything valuable and the difference could be explained by the lighting and blue hue on everything, but I took it as it was still free money.

This was the farthest I had ever gone into the dungeon and still no items to help me. I had no clues of what this item was supposed to be either. Which was somewhat distressing as no matter how easy things have been so far, it was troubling to go this far into the dungeon. I took another break to warm my feet outside the next floor then entered it to find a rest area.

As soon as I saw the food, my stomach grumbled and I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since I woke up. More importantly, there was alcohol beside the food. It was only a single mug, which was cheap compared to the big liquor bottle and keg of ale I had found before but was good enough to suit my needs for now.

The room was also much warmer than the previous rooms. My foot warming session beforehand was wasted. I sat down on the floor and enjoyed the food and the alcohol, which was some sort of beer I had probably drank before. It was hard to remember as there were so many kinds of beers and the flavor fluctuated throughout the seasons. This beer was quite good as it was ice cold and had a strong yet clean flavor. It felt like the hoppers were crushed into dust, mixed in and then strained out completely throughout the fermentation process.

Whatever the fuck it was, it went down easy and the taste stayed on the tongue, melding quite well with the food. With a beer like this, I could chow down on rotting meat and still complement the flavor. Still tasting good on the second try as I barf it back up. It was just that good.

The only convenient part of having so little of the beer is that I didn’t have to carry it around the whole time, I polished it off with the rest of the food and set off. As nice as it was to find the rest area, that wasn’t the goal of my trip. My journey would bring me even deeper into the depths of the dungeon. It quickly became clear that the residents of the dungeon did not welcome my intrusion.

I had only seconds to react as a volley of ice spikes were launched my way as soon as I appeared in room seventeen. Not even with the flames on my sword could I dispel all of these attacks and I had to run off to the side, blocking the spikes in that direction with the sword, shield and simply by moving off to the side once I could. My arm hurt as the spikes that hit the shield exploded and covered my shield with ice.

My entire body went cold from this frost. These enemies weren’t trying to impale me with these spikes. They were intending to freeze me to death. There were like twenty of them just around the entrance and more deeper inside this massive room. Once I took down one of the enemies, I found another volley coming my way that was much easier to dodge. They had been in a half circle around the entrance which allowed them to ambush me, but they had lost the advantage of their position as I escaped their surround.

Another brush with death survived as I went through killing all the other monsters. A few more of them popped up deeper within the room trying to sneak attack me but I expected their appearance and avoided their attacks. Monsters weren’t the only ones learning from and countering repeat tactics. By the time I finished up with the room, I counted thirty enemies. A small army of monsters who almost took me out as soon as I entered.

This dungeon was becoming more and more brutal the further down I went. It was designed to take down far better people than me and I was just cheating myself this far with my weapon and a bit of divine intervention making sure I came to this dungeon in particular. When I went inside room eighteen I was more prepared for an ambush and immediately started running. I ran for only a few steps when I realized that there weren’t any enemies guarding the room’s entrance.

Or anywhere in the room for that matter. I looked around for a bit and found that the next room was already unlocked for me to go through. This was highly disconcerting. Only facing one really strong enemy that drops an elemental item and blocking the exit was the closest situation I could think of similar to this. Yet, the exit wasn’t sealed and the next room was open. So all the enemies were dead or never were there in the first place. Instead of continuing onto the next floor, I looked around the room a bit more.

Strangely enough, the room was absolutely huge. Like I could have fit half the damn town in this one room and it was pretty much a labyrinth of walls and crystals blocking my view of the whole place. Eventually, lost in the maze, I found my way back to where I started at the entrance of the room. Except, nothing looked familiar. The layout was different from when I first entered and I couldn’t see the portal to the next room straight ahead like before.

Which meant this was a different entrance to this room. Convergence. My dungeon had combined with another dungeon explorer’s dungeon, increasing the size and difficulty of the dungeon. The increased size and difficulty compensated for the fact that two people could work together and way more loot dropped during a convergence. However, that was also a point of conflict as random convergences often led to both adventurer’s fighting over loot or each other’s equipment, sometimes even to the death.

This other adventurer must have noticed convergence had happened and cleared out this room. Since he wasn’t here, waiting for me, he went ahead. Either he was confident in his skills, didn’t trust me, or wanted all the loot to themselves. I didn’t even want to imagine bumping into them since they cleared this entire room by themselves and had the guts to continue on. That or they just left after clearing this room.

Whichever it was, I had to go on to the next room. If I was lucky, this other adventurer would have already cleared it and moved on, allowing me free passage to go on until I get to the point where I get the item. At the same time, going even deeper into the dungeon with convergence as well was terrifying. This was a point of no return pretty much.

I had already decided to keep going until I got the item when I entered the dungeon and wasn’t going to change my mind yet. After a few minutes of backtracking, I entered converged room nineteen. There, I witnessed a scene that would haunt my coming days.

Just ahead of me was a group of what seemed like hundreds of ice cube enemies floating at both eye level and above, creating a wall of ice, no a dome of ice. All of it was surrounding a pillar with an item on top of it, some sort of ring. The dome had an entrance large enough for a human to walk through and a human was inside of the dome.

It was a young man who was wearing full plate armor without a helmet and carried a sword as large as his own body. He was looking around in shock at all of the enemies surrounding him and it seems like he had just gone in there. If I had gone into this room immediately I would have bumped into him during a more peaceful moment.

All of these ice monsters started forming projectiles at the same time and the young man reacted by holding out his arm and shooting a bolt of lightning. It struck the upper part of the dome and the ice crystals burst into flames that spread and took down an entire quarter of the enemies. The rest did not hesitate in their attacks and there wasn’t enough time to run. He was a wasp caught in a spider web.

He lifted up his greatsword and swept it around to take out around half of the ice shards while the other half directly hit his body. Frost covered his armor completely and his skin started turning blue as it chilled him to the bone. A silent scream was uttered from his body as he shot out another lightning bolt, destroying another wall. He tried moving his sword to block as the next volley came but his sword was frozen completely to the ground, along with his hand so he couldn’t let go or move.

This entire scene happened within seconds and I had no chance to even react as this fellow dungeon explorer turned to ice. And then, to my horror, the ice cubes merged together and turned into a wall made of ice, indistinguishable from the surroundings. This was a trap. There was bait in the form of that item in the middle of the dome and that young man fell for the trap. In his position, I might have fallen into the trap as well.

His death saved my life. Yet, my existence in the dungeon caused the convergence and therefore his death. It was depressing to think about as the death of a man I had never met might have died due to my actions. Though, it was pointless to wallow in sorrow. I had to avenge this man by taking out the remaining monsters that had killed him.

Perhaps I could still save him by unfreezing him with my sword. After all, the dungeon wasn’t absorbing him so he might not be dead yet. And if he wasn’t dead, I guess he won’t be needing that sword or plate armor. While trying to find out his identity and sending back any heirlooms or messages his family’s way of course. It would be wrong to just leave his body and possessions in the dungeon after all.

 

Chapter 12: Divine Swap

Spoiler

There were possibly fifty through sixty enemies left. It was really hard to tell as they reformed into a wall, or rather a half wall as half their numbers were destroyed by that lightning. Which begged the question of whether or not I could even take them on. A good number of them were way too high up for me to reach and I could throw my sword as the fire would go out. My goal was to thin their numbers as much as possible if not take them all out.

If it was impossible to kill them all, then I assumed that the item I needed was in this room. Either it was going to be dropped by one of these enemies or it was the ring on that pedestal right in the middle of the ambush. With the big holes in the dome, I could actually just run for it and swipe the item. However, that had a high chance of me ending up like the other guy, frozen to death or about to die.

I walked up to the outside part of the half dome and inspected it. There wasn’t a single visible sign that this was a group of enemies nor did they react to my presence. They were truly a trap, only making a move when someone took the bait and entered the dome. How long would they keep up the act in my presence before they reacted?

Kicking the bottom part of the wall didn’t provoke any reaction at all, and holding my fire sword close to it didn’t work either. A few seconds later, a piece of the wall fell apart and revealed itself to be one of the enemies before fading away, melted by my sword. Yet, the wall stayed silent. Which meant I might have the opportunity to kill all of them without retaliation. At the same time, my sword couldn’t reach all of them so that was still impossible.

The slope of the dome wasn’t too steep and had some parts jutting out so it seemed like I could climb up it. If I wanted to kill them all, I could get up top and kill them from the top to the bottom while slowly going down. Or they could all activate halfway climbing up and I’d die from a volley of attacks right in my face that would be literally inescapable. Instead, I decided I would just kill as many of the enemies as I could while keeping my feet on solid ground.

If I was standing on solid ground and not more of them. They seemed able to blend in with the surroundings or make them up so there’s no reason they couldn’t do the same at my feet. As a reaction to this thought, I held the sword to the ground for a bit with no result other than warming up my feet a bit, still a welcome result. Thankfully, my paranoia was unfounded at least for this room and it was only this wall that I had to kill.

I went up and down with my sword, killing as many of the ice monsters as I could reach which was as far as the tip of my sword when I extended it fully. Then I stepped over to my left a few steps and did it again. About three-quarters of the way through this process, a crack formed in the wall and everything fell apart. The sound of ice shattering rang out throughout the room as the entire dome collapsed on itself. Rather than turning back into monsters, the pieces of the wall shattered into hundreds of pieces and got absorbed back into the dungeon. All that remained was a few parts of the wall at the bottom that were unaffected that I quickly cleaned up.

And like that the room was cleared and I even saw a new portal appear on the other side of the room. No more enemies to fight and I could freely take the ring and attempt to save my fellow dungeon explorer. I held my sword up to his frozen body and watched as it started to melt away. As the young man and his armor also melted away with the ice. Every bit and piece of him freed fell to pieces or dripped down into a mass of gore. He was completely dead in the ice and somehow rotted away alongside his equipment breaking while in the ice.

The sight was nauseating watching a complete frozen human defrost into a soup. A soup that the dungeon happily sucked up as I freed it. I wasn’t even sure why I kept going and defrosted the entire thing. Nobody deserved a death like that. Alone in a dungeon frozen to death helplessly. And I had no way of figuring out his identity or where he came from, so his friends and loved ones would wait for hours or even days hoping he’d come out safe and sound. There was no closure in a situation like that, just despair.

He was a far stronger adventurer than me, able to destroy an entire half of those enemies in almost an instant while in a disadvantageous position. Yet he died while I’m still alive. The dungeon was a place of skill, luck, and equipment. I had the equipment and the luck, but not much skill. Then again, not even luck since this was all set up for me to go here by the goddess. Unless that could also be considered luck.

Either way, I was alive and needed to get the item that could bring back my arm. Hopefully, it was that ring on the pedestal. There were also three ores lying around on the ground dropped by the enemies. I snatched them up and then moved up to the pedestal to get a better look at the ring. It had a symbol upon it that glowed with a divine light much like my shield but smaller and was made of what I assumed was silver as it was more polished than iron, looking a lot like my silver coins.

The symbol, oddly enough, was a different one from the one on my shield but I was almost positive that this was the item I had sought after. Even if it wasn’t, I would go no further as I would definitely die in this dungeon if I even think of taking on the next floor. Heck, I wouldn’t have made it through these last two floors without the convergence bringing this other adventurer to clear out most of the enemies before I got to this point. And now he was dead so I couldn’t leech off his efforts anymore.

I wanted to put on the ring immediately to regrow my arm but for some reason, I couldn’t. Every time I put it even close to my finger, I suddenly became unable to move the ring or my finger. Maybe Jeoffry would know why and help me out. If I was lucky, I just had to pray with the ring and chat with the divine before it’d let me use it. If I was unlucky, this wasn’t the item and by leaving the dungeon I would have wasted the entire trip.

Choosing to believe the ring was the item I needed, I started to leave the dungeon. Back on the eighteenth floor, I came to a realization that I had a choice between two options. I could go back the way I came or go back the way that other adventurer went. It was by no means a reasonable option as it could be on the other side of the world full of people speaking a different language and strange food. At the same time, I could let the people there know of that adventurer’s death.

It was a nice thought, but I wasn’t that selfless and such a risk wasn’t worth it for a dead man even if he had helped me indirectly. Besides, I still had a full keg of ale waiting for me tonight and I’d rather know where I was if my efforts to heal my arm failed.

Within a few minutes, I had passed through all of the rooms and made it back to the entrance of the dungeon. There, I relaxed, sheathed my sword and stepped outside to find the late afternoon sun glaring down on me and a strong heat. Which felt quite nice with all that cold I had dealt with. Then it went back to being uncomfortably hot in almost an instant.

There was no one around the dungeon and I didn’t intend on sticking around long enough for any to come around. That would just needlessly piss me off. Being pissed off could wait until I regrew my arm. I walked into town, intending to go to the temple but stopped as there were too many people crowding inside the town.

Everyone who would normally be in the fields were now in town crowding around a procession of carriages. They were the merchants who came to town along their trade routes and allowed the people here to buy things they needed but couldn’t buy unless they went to the city, expensive luxury items they couldn’t resist using up all their excess income on, and various items of little to no use. Not only did these merchants sell their items for cash, but they were up for buying and trading as well.

If I remembered correctly, Jeff said that they were coming in a week yet it’s only been a few days. Which meant they were here early and might even stay a few days longer to account for people in villages and towns off the trade route to funnel in here and make some deals. For the next few days to a week, this town would be a festival of buying and selling.

Jeoffry was likely in this crowd himself, looking for religious text or stuff to outfit the temple with. So, I pushed my way through the crowd, looking around for his distinct white garb and stiff demeanor. On my way through the crowd, I stopped by one of the trade carts which happened to be selling mostly jewelry and decorative silverware, all of it being fake of course but still nice. The merchant recognized me from past months and eagerly greeted me.

“Well if it ain’t the old drunkard that looks around for rare wines and liquors and helps with heavy lifting in exchange for a few sips. I see life has been both harsh and well to you. An arm sacrificed but much wealth gained. Perhaps I can interest you in a hook to replace your lost arm?” asked the merchant. He was sharp but lacked empathy, immediately looking towards selling me something rather than asking what happened.

At the same time, if not for my arm coming back soon, I would seriously consider his offer. A hook or prosthetic arm would be very useful to replace my lost arm. In a way, he was being considerate in a money-grubbing way. He didn’t care what happened but he was willing to help for a price. I raised my hand and waved it to indicate that was unnecessary and I was about to push back into the crowd as I didn’t need a hook or fake jewelry.

“That shield? That symbol? Would you be willing to part with it for a bit of money? Perhaps I could help you get more than just a sip of exotic wine on the side?” asked the merchant. That piqued my curiosity a bit, the merchant wanting to buy it.

Surely he knew how hard it was to sell divine items, especially ones that he didn’t know the effect of. Yet, he knew the symbol as well. Which meant that it might actually be worth some money to him. Which meant that either he knew someone looking to buy items of this divine alignment, he had experience selling it before for a pretty coin, or he had one himself and intended to resell it as a set for more money.

“No, but I’m willing to buy any items with this symbol if you have one. Do you?” I asked back.

We stared into each other’s eyes for a few seconds until he finally looked away. Then he went deeper into his carriage and dug a box out, which opened up to reveal a necklace adorned with the symbol of Sanae Patil. An item indispensable for my goal of building a knight order and still valuable as it was a divine item, but often sold under its true value due to lack of demand.

“This necklace is quite valuable you know. It has a double stack effect of regeneration and can heal many a wound within seconds. If not for me following another god, I’d keep this for myself. And even now, I see no reason to part with it for money. Perhaps your sword might convince me to trade it away if I can get a closer look,” said the merchant. This sly bastard already noticed the value of my sword.

However, I had no intention of getting rid of my sword now. It was too useful in the dungeon. Anyway, I realized what I had to do. I pulled the ring out of my shirt with the symbol of another god or goddess. This ring wasn’t for me to use but to trade it for this item which would bring back my arm. As soon as the merchant saw the ring he tried swiping it out of my hand, but I closed my fingers around it before he could.

“I see that you want this ring quite a bit. Even more than the sword at my waist. It’s certainly more valuable than the necklace. We shouldn’t be so quick to try and seal the deal,” I said to the merchant with a smile on my face.

While it would be nice to get the necklace and give up the ring just like that. However, it’d be better if I could milk the merchant for a bit more than the necklace even if by a single coin. For all I know, this ring could be linked to a more major god or goddess with a knight order. I wasn’t going to let this merchant just bleed me dry just because I got all I wanted from the deal.

“This is true I admit. The ring is of personal value to myself, but of equal monetary value. You want my necklace and I want your ring. It is a fair trade to exchange the two,” said the merchant. Obviously, he wanted to avoid haggling as the current deal was heavily in his favor.

“We both know that’s bullshit. Offer up more or it’s no deal. It’s not like you can sell that necklace easily and I don’t actually need it that much. While this ring I intend to sell no matter what and it seems like it could be resold for quite the tidy sum of cash,” I said, pretending that the necklace meant less to me than it actually did.

Then the merchant did something I would have never imagined. He rolled up his sleeve and revealed a bracelet with the very divine symbol on it as the ring. This couldn’t just be a coincidence. My confidence that this was the way I’d get my arm back grew. Our desire for each other’s item was probably equal and he was telling the truth about it being personally valuable.

“How about I treat you to some nice wines later and we can call this trade even? Good fortune has come to us both today,” said the merchant.

I relented and passed the ring onto him as I received the necklace and put it on. Now my regeneration would be enhanced by even more. Enough to eventually heal my arm. Even now, I felt the end of my stub feeling itchy. The only downside was that it didn’t come back immediately and I’d have to wait a while for it to come back. I shook hands with the merchant then left, looking around for Jeoffry again.

Wait, I didn’t need to see Jeoffry anymore as all my questions were answered. Which meant I was free to do as I wished until my arm came back. Part of me wanted to track down Jeff and see if he’d sell the copper ore back to me since the merchant came early. And I had some ores to sell in my shirt even if he didn’t give me the copper back. Then I’d have some free coin to buy stuff from the merchant’s without working for them.

With that money, I could buy some nice alcohol, full bottles not a few sips, and enjoy myself later. But if I did that, I’d have to find a place to put my belongings where Jeff and his friends wouldn’t steal or drink from them. Tom’s bar as nice as it was just wasn’t the best place to sleep or keep my things. Maybe I should use the money to instead buy a place of my own and subside off the ale and whatever that jewelry merchant will share with me.

It didn’t take long to find Jeff as he was right over by the carriages that bought and sold stuff related to crafting, weapons, and metal. The same place I planned to sell the ores at. Which made things very convenient as I walked up to Jeff. He was currently picking up various weapons and inspecting them. Despite mostly fixing farm equipment for a living, his passion was in weapons. If he didn’t buy any of the weapons, he’d try to make them himself at home.

“Jeff about that deal we had before. Is it still on since the merchants came earlier than you said?” I asked Jeff while standing next to him. He acted like he hadn’t heard me and continued inspecting the blade for a few seconds before setting it down carefully.

Then he pointed at my waist while saying, “Belt and sheath good enough.”

“Last I checked, you said this was due to a favor your divine owed mine. We shouldn’t bring business or owing stuff over divine favors,” I said in response. I wasn’t going to let him worm out of that deal this easily.

“Fine,” he gave in while passing the copper ore over to me and in exchange, I passed back to him the silver coins which I had kept all this time unused.

My efforts to not spend it was about to be repaid. Those three silver coins would become nine thanks to these merchants and the city’s lack of supply. Another short-term goal completed.

“Oh some copper ore, would you happen to be selling it?” asked the weapons merchant who he had been standing in front of this entire time.

“Yes, how much can you give me for it?” I asked.

“Four silver coins. You’re lucky that the prices went up recently,” he said.

“Four? I was expecting more around the range of eight silver coins,” I said back honestly. This wasn’t triple the profit.

“Maybe a few weeks ago, but prices are starting to stabilize and we’re bringing a big shipment of copper to the city ourselves so the price will normalize to maybe two silver coins by next week. Only reason I’m paying you four is because big deals take a while to go through so I can sell a few pieces of copper separate from the shipment while prices are still high. Take it or leave it, you won’t find a better price anywhere here,” said the weapons merchant while looking over towards a few other merchants nearby selling similar things that nodded their heads.

Groups of merchants like these will often lock prices down and not compete with each other to secure better prices for things individually to benefit themselves as a group. I would get four coins or nothing at all, no more haggling. Jeff probably already knew this would happen and that’s why he gave in so easily. At the same time, it’s better than three silver coins so I should still thank Jeff later.

I took the money and passed over the copper. As for the other ores, I thought it’d be best to wait until a busier time so they can’t lower the prices on me and stop any haggling again.

 

Chapter 13: Slow Pace

Spoiler

I separated myself from the merchant caravan and the town in general and sat down against a tree on the outskirts. My arm was itchy and I had to resist the urge to scratch at it. It seemed like it was already starting to grow back as I saw the skin at the end of the stubble started to bulge. With that out of the way, I felt a bunch of stress melt away as I relaxed and felt the mid-afternoon breeze roll past me.

What do I do now? Wait for my arm to regrow or continue exploring the dungeon? If not for the fact that I needed the necklace to heal my arm, I could have searched for someone to recruit as a knight for the order, since an item from the goddess would be the best way to keep someone loyal. I was pretty sure that the reason why this was is related to why the jewelry merchant couldn’t wear this necklace nor could I wear the ring.

Items with divine power were limited in who could wear them. Namely, only people who worshipped that divine or in my case, the first divine item I used. Which also explained why knight orders only bought divine items from the divine they follow. They couldn’t mix and match around different divine items with various effects. Which also explained why this shield wouldn’t be popular with adventurer’s as it locks them into only these two effects while other divines might have effects more useful to them.

More endurance and healing sounded great in theory but most adventurers would want more attack power to go deeper into the dungeon or something to help them do techniques like wheat grinding. Endurance would be helpful in that case but there were probably a half dozen or more divines with an endurance effect and an offensive effect. For me, my divine was already decided while I was drunk and it was quite useful for my circumstances.

After an hour, my stub hadn’t changed much, still itchy but no major changes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t rest and watch it visibly regrow or just instantly resprout magically. It was still magically coming back but at a pace too normal for my taste. Since that was the case, I decided to go back to Tom’s bar and see if it was open. If so, I’d grab the ale and either stay in my room or perhaps bring it with me as I look for a new place to stay.

The bar was a lot fuller than it usually was at this time of day. It was far past the lunchtime rush. Tom was at the counter still serving people drinks. There were several people there that I didn’t recognize, people who came for the merchants and those who came with. I took an empty seat towards the end and waited until Tom could take a breather and leaned against the bar near me.

“Since the merchants are in town you have to pay to keep the room. No more freebies. I cleaned it up and put the keg in my cellar in case you didn’t come back and I had to rent it out to someone else. Saw something strange outside the window as well, sorry about that but nothing I can do to stop that sort of tomfoolery,” said Tom.

“Do you know of anyone renting out a small house or shack? I’ve got some cash now and would like to have my own place and I’ll pay off a part of the tab as well. As for the window business, I’ll take care of that myself,” I said. If anyone was renting or willing to rent, Tom would know.

However, it’d be rude to not pay at least for the night I had stayed without paying any part of my tab first if I had the money for that. While my decision to get my own place was in part due to my ale being drunk without my permission, I had hoped Tom wouldn’t take that personally. It was the same as saying that his rooms weren’t safe to use.

“I know of at least three people renting and one or two selling, but I would advise against it. The prices are killer right now. Everyone’s desperate for a place to stay with the merchants in town. Just buy another night here and I’ll keep the keg in storage where no one except you can get to it,” said Tom.

Tom was the most trustworthy person in town so leaving the keg in his care when I wasn’t drinking it was for the best. I was tempted to ask him for a mug of it then and there when there was a commotion at the entrance. A group of men were dragging along a bunch of barrels, kegs, and bottles into the bar with a cheer from everyone inside. They were the new goods for Tom’s bar, a large amount of the usual stuff to keep stocked and some exotic stuff for celebrations. And new stock was always a cause for celebration.

One of the merchants went up to the bar and collected payment from Tom while the men brought the stuff behind the bar, stacked up on the side for Tom to organize and drag down to the cellar later. This merchant was the jewelry merchant from before and he moved towards me after the payment.

“Perfect timing my trade friend. I took over delivery and payment duties for a few places in exchange for a bottle of fine wine. This stuff is top quality. The grapes used to make it were mashed by the feet of virgins then fermented for ten years. I even got to watch the whole process and action. Before you even ask, yes the females washed their feet before doing this,” said the merchant while pulling a bottle out of his sleeve like magic.

I had a feeling that no exchange had actually happened and it was more along the lines of embezzlement, but who was I to refuse a good drink. The way it was made was of no concern to me, age and flavor held more sway. However, the method this wine was created with did provoke some imagery that might improve the taste, or cause disgust. Which is probably why he mentioned the feet were clean.

This was a part of the deal so I happily held out a mug as he poured it to the brim then started drinking from the bottle itself. For a second I had thought him to be generous then I realized I had only one mug while he had the rest of the bottle. That didn’t stop me from enjoying the drink. For a wine, it was very dry. As in it felt like my mouth was drier than before it was wetted by the wine. It only made me drink more, hoping to quench this dryness only for the dry feeling to get worse.

Dry wines caused that sort of vicious cycle. An alcohol that either made you drink more with reckless abandonment or slow down and enjoy the flavor and get used to the feeling it left in your mouth. The smell was great as well, an overwhelming stench of fruit that burned my nostrils if I breathed in too much of it.

“How is it?” asked the merchant as he rested his face on the bar while looking at me from the side. It seemed to be strong stuff to affect him this much so soon.

“It’s delicious. Wine normally isn’t my kind of thing but if I could get wine like this often, I wouldn’t mind making it my thing,” I said.

“Wouldn’t that be great? Not even a noble or someone from a knight order could drink this kind of wine every day. They don’t sell much of it. Quality over quantity. They even limit how much you can buy, raising its value quite a bit. I would’ve traded a full case of this wine for this ring you got me. I must thank you for this. What is your name? I’d like to remember it by the next time I come around. Ah, how rude of me asking your name without saying my own. It’s Svarath,” said the jewelry merchant who was apparently named Svarath.

“I’ll make sure to remember you name Svarath,” I started to say before I realized that the merchant had already fallen asleep. Such a weak drinker he was. Or maybe I was just a very good drinker thanks to my shield. I had never drunk this kind of wine before so I had no comparison of how it’d be without my shield and I wasn’t going to set it down. I still needed it to assist in my arm regrowing.

Tom came over and wiped the table while taking away the bottle of wine that the merchant had been drinking from. He put a stopper on it and slid it onto the pile of drinks that were set down by the workers who had long since left onto their next job. I wondered if he planned on giving the wine back to him when he woke up or keeping it for himself.

“So, old friend will you tell us about your arm or that sword now? You were in a rush to hide in your room then run around town earlier but things seem a bit calmer now. Ready to open up?” asked Tom.

I was. Now that my arm was regrowing, I could retell the story in good humor. With a few knocks on the bar, most of the people turned to look at me and I raised my stub. That caught their attention as I told them how I had lost the arm to the dungeon. The crowd followed my every word up until the point where the flaming sword chopped off my arm.

At which they booed and stomped on the ground in anger. When I told them how I had defeated the sword in the end and that I took it for myself on my waist at that moment, the crowd cheered. It was as if they were the ones who had lost the arm, not me. Finally, I ended the story by saying that my arm was now regrowing without telling them why. Which made them complain and call me a braggart.

In a few days, they wouldn’t be able to call me a braggart. I let them believe I was lying, not giving them all the details so I could later surprise them with my regrown arm. To wrap things up, I pulled out my sword as flames spread across the blade before sheathing it again. That was enough to stir up the crowd and make them believe in my story a bit, if not all.

Pretty much all of them bought a round of drinks after my story, much to Tom’s delight. And with that, I decided my time at the bar was up. I downed the rest of the wine and headed out. Telling that story made me restless and worked up. With the alcohol in my system, I felt a bit impulsive. If I did not need to sleep or eat, nor could I go to sleep, then there was only thing I could do. I went to the dungeon and decided that I would do some more fighting, even with my arm still healing.

The area was not empty as it usually was. There was a group of various people carrying weapons and wearing armor. Guards of the merchant caravan and adventurers who had tagged along, taking advantage of the local dungeon entrance for some extra income. Among them was Jerry, Chris, Matt, and one other person sitting together. They noticed me and Jerry walked up to me.

“Feeling a bit better now? I see a bit of space helped you come to terms with losing your arm and you decided to keep going. That’s great news. Come over here and meet our newest member, Stephan. He joined us just yesterday and haven’t had the chance to introduce you,” said Jerry. I decided not to humor him nor his friends, choosing to walk by them into the dungeon instead.

It sickened me that he tried to act like everything was normal after what they did to me. Who cares about a new member? I planned on giving him a piece of my mind after my arm healed fully. Until then, him and his friends earned the silent treatment from me. If they would just admit what they did and made it up to me, I might even be willing to forgive them. I wouldn’t work with them anymore, but I wouldn’t treat them like I hated them.

This wasn’t the time to think about them as it was dungeon exploration time. In this first room, I found myself in an orange-ish brown area. And it was extremely hot to the point I was being drenched in sweat just standing there. At the center of the room was a monster that resembled a dog. Like the room, it was an orange-brown color and seemed to radiate heat. From its mouth came smoke as if the dog’s insides were on fire.

While the last dungeon was ice oriented and was to my advantage, it seemed like this dungeon played to my disadvantage. I drew my sword and it made the heat around me even worse and I felt tempted to drop the blade. The dog monster rushed at me on all fours. Not making the mistake of assuming the flames on the sword would do anything, I made a proper slash at the monster.

It cut into the head of the dog creature hard, so hard that it was wrested from my grip and slid across the ground with the dog. The loss of balance caused me to collapse onto the scaldingly hot floor. At the very least, it seemed like my slash had killed the dog since it cut halfway through its head. Nonetheless, this was a less than optimal outcome to a fight.

I dragged myself to my sword and quickly sheathed it as it burst into flames again at my touch. This was not a dungeon I could complete with one arm no matter how I thought about it. Heck, I wouldn’t touch this dungeon even with both my arms intact. Using my spear would probably net similar results to the spear. Good enough to kill one with a bit of backlash but unable to handle two and the one might still injure me if I’m not careful.

With all of that weighing on my mind, I left the dungeon. I found myself back in the outside world, covered in sweat and breathing heavily. The cooler outside air felt great on my body and if not for the fact that there were people in the area, I might’ve collapsed then and there. Jerry and his three followers weren’t there anymore, heading back to retire for the day or back in the dungeon.

A few of the adventurer’s seemed to be whispering about something while pointing at me and laughing. They were making fun of me for the state I came out of the dungeon with since I had obviously been only on the first floor with how little time had passed. To them, I was a weakling who fled and sweated from cowardice, not someone who was forced to flee after facing a mighty opponent in a tough environment.

Should I care about how they saw me? Obviously, I shouldn’t have but did. To prove them wrong, I decided to re-enter the dungeon immediately. No resting or seconds thoughts about the dungeon until my arm healed. This was my chance to prove myself, not just to these adventurers, but to myself. So I dived back in for another go at the dungeon.

This time the dungeon was a generic greyish silver color. And the monster was hanging from the ceiling. It looked like a water droplet about to fall from the top. I couldn’t tell what the hell it was, but it was definitely moving a bit and I could see veins on its skin or whatever it was on the outside. Everything about it was weird and creepy.

Seemed like a good time to use my spear but if I used that, it’d be hard to tie it back to my back and it was weaker than my sword. Maybe the flames from my sword would provoke it since it was a living thing. That was my plan when I pulled out the sword and the flames brightened the area up quite a bit. I just noticed it was actually kinda dark and the color of the walls just made it seem bright.

In response to the flame, the mass hanging from the ceiling started to move and unfold like an onion, revealing the beast inside. What I had thought to be skin was actually wings and the creature revealed itself to be an enormous bat. Akin to a rat with wings, it was a mass of fur with leathery wings and nasty looking teeth.

I really didn’t want to fight something like this. Giant rats and humanoid ones were bad enough, now one that could fly. It hung from the ceiling upside down and let out an eerie shriek that was extremely high pitched and hurt my eyes. Falling to my knees, I kept my hand covering one of my ears and tried to do the same with my stub but failed. I could barely hear myself think against this enemy, much less concentrate on fighting it.

Which just pissed me off. Who cares if it could fly? In such a small space it could do barely anything. I’d cut it down just like I had cut down and bashed the brains out of the previous rats.

 

Chapter 14: Knight Order

Spoiler

While I was on the ground, holding my head down and covering my ears from the sound, the bat thing dropped down from the ceiling, flipping its body around and landing on its feet, no longer upside down. Then it started crawling towards me at a leisurely pace. At the time, I had recovered from the sound other than a ringing in my ears. Did it think that I was vulnerable and an easy kill?

I grabbed my sword when it was only a few steps away and slashed upwards. It barely had any time to react to this I managed to complete my attack without too much resistance. For a moment there, I thought I had only grazed it or even missed it. Then, its head fell from its body. I had been lucky enough to decapitate it with my random swing. Its body fell to the ground and violently thrashed about until it finally came to a standstill.

Faking weakness, or actually being weakened but recovering before the enemy expected me to was a good strategy. One I hoped to apply elsewhere if other methods didn’t work first. With the enemies like this, I might be able to reach the sixth floor before being forced to leave or doing something like a grind or fish. However, I decided on leaving this dungeon.

Who cares if I could defeat the enemies when I’d go deaf in the process? My ears were ringing and I could barely hear myself groan from a headache. So much for proving I was actually tough but just down on my luck to the other adventurers. Once again, I was leaving the dungeon only a few seconds after entering it. Or maybe by this time they would get off their asses and go into the dungeon themselves.

Once I was back outside, I found that they were basically all still there. Thankfully, I was still half deaf and couldn’t hear their gossip. Jerry was still there as well, but not the others. He walked up to me and started trying to talk to me but I couldn’t understand a word he was trying to say. After two failures in the dungeon, all I felt like was doing was finding a nice spot to sit down and drink, but he was blocking my way.

Even more annoying is that my hearing was starting to come back in bits and pieces. Sometimes I’d be able to hear what Jerry was trying to say normally but then my hearing would become sensitive and I’d overhear an odd comment from the adventurers behind me. It got to the point where I wanted to shout at all of them to be quiet. Instead, I simply walked away into the forest a bit where I’d have some privacy or would have some if not for Jerry following me. He kept talking on and on, mostly about my arm.

I didn’t care enough to pay attention as I shoved my finger into each of my ear holes and rubbed around as my hearing slowly cleared up. And when it did, I wiped my hand on Jerry’s shirt. That thankfully got him to stop talking as he looked down at his shirt baffled by what I had just down.

“Alright, now that I can actually hear and you stopped talking, let me be clear about something. I know what you did with your friends when it came to my ale. Just come clean about it already,” I said.

“Ale? What are you talking about? And what do you mean by actually hearing me?” asked Jerry.

“Some sort of monster using sound attacks. I was recovering from it still, that’s why I came here to be alone. Didn’t work out too well. As for the ale, it’s the ale I recovered from the dungeon. Your friends and Tom were the only ones who knew about it and I came back from the dungeon with my arm chopped off and half my ale drunk in the room I rented. Three mugs were lying on the ground outside my room and you guys saw exactly when I left the bar. Who else am I supposed to suspect other than you guys?” I asked.

“I’m serious. I have no idea what you’re talking about. While I knew you were pissed off about something, I thought it was due to losing your arm and pushing the blame onto us for not giving you enough advice. Even now, I was going to talk to you about letting you retire without paying us back the rest we owed you so you wouldn’t have to enter the dungeon in your current state,” he said back to me. If not for the fact that my arm was coming back, I’d appreciate the sentiment of him cutting his losses on the debt for me.

However, I still felt like he was lying or twisting the truth. After all, stealing from a one-handed man was far worse than stealing from an able man and he didn't want to get that kind of rep. So, he was still claiming ignorance. Then again, I had an idea that would make him tell all no matter how much he wished the bury this incident.

“I know that you wish to join a knight order. What if I told you that the goddess I follow wants a knight order to be formed from scratch? Not just that, but I possess more than one of her divine items so the groundwork for at least one more member of the knight order is there,” I said.

This was something he couldn’t refuse since it was his dream to form or join a knight order, which is why he operated in a group. I didn’t actually want to make him a member with the time he tried to rob me and how he betrayed me, but I wanted to hear him admit it and then crush his dream right in front of his face. Besides, I needed to hold onto this necklace and shield until my arm rehealed. It wasn’t something I could give away.

“What sort of effects does your goddess grant?” asked Jerry while looking off deeper into the woods. He didn’t want to face me as it’d show on his face how he lied before. This was basically admitting the crime and he wanted to make sure the payoff for coming out was worth it. That was everything I needed but I decided to play along to see how far things could go.

“Endurance and healing. The necklace is double healing while the shield is one of both blessings,” I said while showing off the necklace and shield so he could confirm that they were both divine items with the same symbol, the same divine.

“Those aren’t too useful for adventurers or knights. It’s more of something for common people as it can’t help you kill stronger monsters. I would rather have something like being able to shoot lightning out of my hand or increasing my strength,” said Jerry.

“Trust me, the hand lightning doesn’t work out too well. Then again, healing won’t help much either when you’re being attacked by a hundred enemies at once,” I said while thinking of the young man that died during the convergence dungeon.

“What?” asked Jerry, having no idea what I was talking about.

“Nevermind. Just think about it this way, as someone who’s been using these buffs I’ve been able to avoid having hangovers, think clearly while drunk, and even heal from some pretty nasty wounds. Everything from bruises to cuts to back pain washes away within hours,” I said.

“With all that healing power, you still can’t bring back your arm. They’re purely support effects that can help keep you going in the dungeon with less downtime, but become useless as you get more used to the dungeon and have more of an issue with having enough power to kill dangerous monsters and survive encounters with elemental enemies,” said Jerry. Elemental enemies? Probably those beasts I fought for this sword and the dagger. Turns out they knew about them after all.

“Now that’s the best part, Jerry. I just got this necklace now after a particularly dangerous dungeon dive and with its power stacked with my shield, I’m regrowing my damn arm right now. Which means if you join up you’ll have to wait until it finishes healing my arm back. In exchange I’d let you borrow the shield if you lose a limb later on,” I said while waving my stub in his face and pointing at how the skin was getting reddish at the end of it.

Not sure why it was doing that, but I’m thinking it was part of the healing process. Before I had imagined stuff like the bone healing first and having a skeleton hand then the muscles and skin and stuff growing over it. However, it seemed to be rebuilding stuff from the inside and stretching out the skin on the outside. Would the skin grow more as well or break as my bones regrow and need more space? Heck, giving it a little cut on the stub might help with the healing process, but my spearhead still had traces of monster blood on it and my other weapons were magic enchanted and would hurt me.

“If what you’re saying is true, then I do see it becoming useful as insurance if I get hurt badly in the dungeon and the endurance might help in day to day life. Alright, I admit it. Chris, Matt, and the new guy, Stephen went off and drank from your ale. They brought it up with me how you were holding out on some ale you brought from the dungeon and felt like we deserved it with how we loaned you weapons and gave you advice. I refused to take part myself and tried convincing them that you’d probably share it later just like you did with the liquor. At the same time, I’m just as guilty as I didn’t stop them as they went off nor did I tell you about it,” said Jerry telling me everything about their theft.

He still insisted that he had no part in it yet admitted guilt. Even if he was still lying it was close enough that he came out about it. As for making him join my knight order, I had until my arm healed to make a decision on that. For sure, with his knowledge of the dungeon, he’d be useful. There were some issues with trust but he’d be locked into only being able to be a part of my goddess’s knight order if he joined, which guaranteed loyalty.

Maybe Jerry joining the knight order wasn’t such a bad thing. It seems like every day I change my mind about him. I definitely needed more people to help me and those people already having skills in the dungeon was preferable. However, was it really the best idea to hire Jerry? Literally, this situation was a life or death situation for me. Mistakes were not something I could afford too many of and it seemed like trusting him in the first place was already one mistake.

“Right, so until your arm reheals I can be an honorary member of your knight order, sir. We’ll, of course, have Chris, Matt, and Stephen join as well. We’ll have to work hard to get divine armaments for them so they can be official members. As for the incident with your ale, I’ll talk to them about it,” said Jerry. He called me “sir.” I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Jerry walked with me as we went back to the dungeon entrance and waited for each of their members to pop out. None of them had found good grind or fish targets so we didn’t have to wait long. Maybe ten minutes it was rather than the hour or so it would have taken if one of them found a good target. Each of them looked at me with a strange expression. Not sure if they were weirded out by my missing arm, imagining something similar possibly happening to them one day, or if they knew the gig was up and I knew they were the ones who drank my ale.

Nonetheless, they all gathered up under Jerry’s instruction and we walked back towards the outskirts of town. We weren’t heading back to the bar as it would be packed even now and was no place for a good long conversation. At least, not one about something as serious as this. I would take a long talk over alcohol any other day. Not that the day was up yet.

The place we ended up at was what I could only describe as a barn. It was a large one-room building with a large door which felt like it was designed with livestock rather than people in mind. We entered the building and it even looked like a stable with a variety of side rooms with only a door and walls up to my stomach separating it from the rest of the place. In the back, there was a long wooden table with a bunch of chairs. The table was covered in various items from ores to weapons messily piled up.

“What did I say about leaving the place like this guys? We’re just asking to be robbed like this, go put it away,” said Jerry as the others rushed over to dump the ores into a nearby chest and the weapons were placed on holders on the wall. His words hit close to home with what happened to me. Was I really asking to be robbed when I simply left the curtains open and the keg on the table despite it being the second floor?

“So what’s going on Jerry? Why’d you drag us away from the dungeon so abruptly? Does it have anything to do with one arm over there?” asked Stephen, the new guy. I disliked him already and started to believe he might’ve been the one swiping my ale instead of Jerry.

“He’s one of us, before unofficially and now officially. We’re now one group and need to establish a few things. From now on, call me the Vice-captain or sir rather than Jerry. We’re going to establish a knight order from scratch by the order of a divine that wishes to have a knight order to its name and we even have two divine items belonging to that divine,” said Jerry, or should I call him the vice-captain now? He was really getting into this knight order thing.

“Uhh Jerry, I mean vice-captain, are you being serious right now? Are we really making a knight order ourselves? I mean I know we said we’d join one together if we had the capabilities, but making one from scratch ourselves sounds absolutely crazy,” said Matt, understandably a bit overwhelmed at this announcement.

“If you’re the vice-captain, who’s the captain of the knight order?” asked Chris. He probably wouldn’t like the answer to that question.

“More importantly, what effects does this divine grant upon their items? If it’s something bad, I’ll continue working with you guys, but I’m not going to join the knight order fully and commit to that,” said Stephen. Not very loyal to the group but very practical it seemed.

“Simple. The one who owns the divine items and got the quest from the goddess is the captain here. I’m totally serious about this matter as it’s something we can actually do. As for the effects from this divine, it’s healing and endurance. Which sounds a bit disappoint at first but get this, the captain’s arm is regrowing currently. Once it regrows, I’ll get one of the divine items and we’ll all work towards improving our headquarters here and getting more items blessed by this divine. With this divine, we won’t have to worry about injuries and can focus more on fighting aggressively,” said Jerry.

The three of them looked at each other, gauging reactions and overall being unsure about the whole thing. After all, this was a major decision, yet not one they had to commit to yet as we only had two items. But once that second item was passed to Jerry, their friend they would rather stick with, it’d be like them committing to it as well unless they decided to abandon their friend in favor of keeping their options open or going to greener fields elsewhere.

“This feels like some sort of joke suddenly making him the boss of all this. It’s cool that his arm will come back but I doubt I’d warm up to this whole healing and endurance thing until I get my own arm lobbed off. And I have no intention of letting that happen,” said Stephan, as if I had a choice in my arm being lobbed off.

“Whatever you say Vice Captain, I’ll stick by your decision,” said Chris.

“I guess we can work with this. After all, we don’t have to decide on this until his arm regrows. And those effects aren’t really the ones I want but they would be awfully convenient. I have my doubts but I’ll stay with you guys for now,” said Matt.

“As I said before, I dislike this but I’m staying as it still benefits me. Maybe this whole knight thing will work out but even if it does I doubt I’d stay unless as an honorary member. So yeah, I’ll play along as we pretend to be knights,” said Stephen.

“Now that everyone is in agreement, I now declare us to be the knight order of,” Jerry started to say before looking at me. Oh right, I had never told him about the goddess’s name.

“The Knight Order of the Goddess Sanae Patil,” I said, revealing the divine’s name and making this a formal, or closest thing to a formal, formation of the knight order. I had no doubt that this was nowhere near enough to heal my liver but was good progress towards that goal.

 

I'm rooting for Liver Cancer.

 

Chapter 15: Fishing

Spoiler

With that all out of the way and the knight order supposedly formed, it was time to go back to Tom’s bar to grab something to eat and get a mug or two of that ale before finding someplace to sleep. By this time, I imagine the room has been rented out so I was going to settle down somewhere outside. Right as I was about to leave, Jerry started to talk again.

“Alright, first business of the knight order is to apologize for stealing his ale for a few drinks. I’ve already admitted that it was us and to prevent any friction in the new knight order we should all apologize and try to make up for the incident,” said Jerry.

“Wait you told him? I thought we all agreed to keep that under wraps,” said Matt.

“We didn’t really do a good job of hiding that it was us. He would’ve found out eventually. Alright, I’m sorry for doing that captain. I was jealous that you managed to get so far into the dungeon and got a whole keg of ale that you didn’t bother sharing with us. I was also jealous that you managed to fish up two ores in a single morning after two runs in the dungeon. Even now, you lost your arm and got a cool sword while your arm is growing back. I admire your luck and tried to back at you due to those feelings and that was wrong,” said Chris. He had quite a way with words.

“What ale? I have no idea what you people are on about,” said Stephen. I wasn’t sure if he was truly ignorant and it was actually Jerry or if he was just a good actor. He just wasn’t the kind of person I liked.

“No need for a full apology from everyone. I understand why you did it and I forgive you all. Let’s put it all behind us and go grab some drinks. I’m paying,” I said while pulling the leftover ores out of my shirt and setting them on the table.

This was a risk, entrusting them with the rest of the ores. However, I had a feeling that this might actually grow into the knight order I needed. Maybe I was a fool to trust them after two incidents, but a part of me really wanted this to work out. Like they admitted they did it and apologized to me and now all I needed was enough divine items to give to all of them so it becomes in their best interest to support me.

Actually, I just needed to share what I get from the dungeon enough that it became their best interest to support me even without divine items. Until then, I was going to get them drunk and see how they actually felt about the whole ordeal. Nothing like some beer to loosen the tongue.

We all went down to Tom’s bar and had a late lunch or early dinner. There would be food being made almost constantly with the merchants around. Even more so than during the harvest festivals. Plus, with the merchants around, it was easier to get more exotic foods from far away. As such, Tom was grilling up some strange bird that was the size of a pig and on the side, he was cooking what looked like a piece of greenish wood but was actually some sort of vegetable. Whatever it was, it smelled great and tasted okay. I honestly preferred chicken but it was nice to eat something different from usual every so often. Tom raised an eyebrow at me eating with Jerry’s group again but served all of us with no questions asked.

There was plenty of beer passed around and lots of chatting. Mostly about the formation of the knight order. I didn’t really manage to get any deeper level of information from them while they were drunk. Mostly them being shocked that they were a knight order rather than a band of adventurers now. After drinking, they all went back to the headquarter or barn and brought me with them. Apparently, there was another bed in one of the pens that I could use. There were around twelve of these pens that bad converted into makeshift rooms.

In fact, two of them were being rented out to some adventurers from out of town. That explained why Jerry was anxious about hiding their loot, but they left their weapons on display in plain sight. Then again, if those disappeared they’d be easier to track down than the ores. Surprisingly enough, these rooms were quite nice for sleeping and since they could have a total of twelve people sleeping here at one time it did actually work as a pseudo headquarters of barracks that we could build upon and add more onto since it was on the outskirts of town.

The next day, everyone other than me went off to the dungeon while I laid down in bed. The reason being is that my skin had ripped open and exposed my bone. I was in no state to go into the dungeon and used the cloth I normally used to tie my spear to my back as a sling to keep my arm in a better position and not move it. Even if my arm was healing back, there was no guarantee it would grow back properly without proper preparations.

Days passed as my arm visibly grew. The other members weren’t discontent as I did provide a bunch of ores before I went out of commission and I even pulled out the ale and drank it with them, not withholding it from them at all. It was a way of me telling them I didn’t hold it against them and trusted them again. Maybe I really did. A part of me wanted to believe I was being cautious against them and purposely lowering my guard to see their true nature or something of the sort.

As terrible of people as they were, I couldn’t help but come to like them, except Stephen. Something about him just got on my nerves. Ironically, he might be the only decent person in the group. As it was revealed while they were all drunk from the ale that Jerry revealed he had drunk the ale before somewhere.

It got to a point where my arm and hand were fully healed and I was ready to enter the dungeon once again after four days. A week after I had gotten the shield and this quest to create a knight order. My hand was still a little shrunk and my fingers slim, so I kept both the necklace and shield as I entered the dungeon. While I could have brought a new bludgeon with me, I decided to just use the spear and sword.

By this time, the merchants had thankfully left town. Around the time they left, Jerry approached one merchant and managed to sell off most of the ores the group had collected over a month or two at an actually decent price. One of my ores had ended up being silver ore which raised the amount of coin we got by a considerable amount. It didn’t matter too much to me as I had been bored these past few days of doing nothing but hearing from people about things that had happened.

The first room of the dungeon this time around had a purplish hue and the floor was covered in water that just barely reached above my toes. This was very odd, and even stranger was the monster. It was a giant grey fish covered in scales, making it look almost reptilian in nature. However, the water level wasn’t high enough for it so it was flopping around helplessly. I almost felt bad for it as my spear skewered its eyes and put it out of its misery.

As bad as I felt about it, I was sorely tempted to wheat grind here as it would be completely helpless every time it spawned. On later floors, it was easy to expect what would happen. The water level would rise and it’d be able to freely travel around and it’d keep getting deeper and deeper until I’d be forced to fight completely underwater. Then again, I really wanted to try out the fishing method as it was the only method I hadn’t tried out, so I went to the next room.

There, the water level had risen as expected and the fish monster stayed in one place rather than flopping around as it was high enough for it to breathe if monsters needed to breathe. Unlike the first room, this fish was able to react when I came closer. It kicked itself into the air and tried to slam its body into me. I was able to dodge to the side and then stabbed it with my spear.

Except, I wasn’t able to pierce into its body fully as I struck it on its scales instead of the eyes. Armored. Thankfully, its eyes were huge and easy to hit. Sliding the spear across the scales while keeping it pinned down, my spear found its way into its eye and finished it off. And then I went to the next room as the only way I could do fishing is if I went at least three rooms in then went back two.

I would be fishing in a dungeon full of fish, the coincidence was not lost on me. The third floor was the first real challenge in this dungeon as there was enough water for the fish monster to actually swim. Although it was significantly harder to hit, there was a part of its body still above water, making it easy to track. And even better was the fact that its only attack was slamming into me, so I could touch it freely. The way I defeated the fish monster in floor three was by watching its swimming patterns, kicking it and keeping it pinned down under my foot and using my spear to kill it.

Part of me wanted to try using the sword to see if it could cut into the armor-like scales on the fish, but the fact that there was water everywhere made me wary of using a fire sword. For all I knew, water could damage the blade or it would react with the water in some way to my disadvantage like exploding in my face.

After killing that fish, I had the choice between going onwards or heading back to just try out fishing. And I instantly chose to head back. With my luck, if I had gone onwards I’d encounter another elemental beast and get my newly healed arm chopped off again. That day my only goal was to enter the dungeon and try out the fishing method. Nothing more, nothing less.

Passing through the second floor, I saw the fish slowly decomposing from the inside while the scales stayed mostly intact. It was tempting to bring a scale out with me to test if I could, but I could try that with one of the fish in the first room. Back in the first room, I sat down and felt the water soaking my pants slightly but it was better than having to stand the entire time.

Within fifteen minutes, a new fish monster fell from the ceiling almost instantly and started flopping around. There was no long, drawn-out sequence of the fish squirming through the wall, it just fell. Which was nothing to complain about as I got up and skewered its eye. The faster they came in, the easier it was to kill them.

The fishing technique showed its worth as the next one came within ten minutes, then five, and then it was back to only being one minute between each monster. Rather than having to wait hours for things to drop down to one a minute, it only took a little under half an hour. And then the grind started as I walked around killing every fish that fell from above before they could even react, not that they could do anything even if they could react.

After killing about fifteen of the monsters, an ore dropped and fell into the water. I picked it up and slid it into my shirt and it made my shirt soaking wet. This was extremely inconvenient, keeping things within my shirt. Every time I moved or fell down, they chafed and cut into me. My desire for some sort of bag or rucksack grew like the wet spot on my shirt.

Around fifty kills in, I was forced to switch my weapon. My spear got stuck in the head of one of the fish monsters and another fish dropped before I could pull it out. Either the dark dagger or the fire sword were my options. Or I could just ignore the fish as it couldn’t do anything in this amount of water and continue to pull the spear out. Then again, these monsters could do strange things when there was more than one of them.

As I didn’t want to get onto my knees every time I killed one of the fish, I pulled out the fire sword despite all the water. There were none of the problems I expected to happen. In fact, the sword worked better than expected as it could kill the fish with ease. If I struck its scales, the sword would cut through them and kill the fish by cooking it from the inside. If I stabbed into its eyes, everything within its head would melt into a soup that not only the sword couldn’t get stuck in, but it also didn’t stick to the blade.

It resulted in far cleaner kills than the spear. Just to make sure, I even dipped in the water and it did nothing other than extinguishing the flame at that part of the blade until it was brought out of the water and reignited. Even then, it cut through the fish’s scales without much trouble. The blade was sharp without the influence of the flames.

For almost an hour I constantly killed monsters, barely keeping track of how many I had killed. It wasn’t until a second ore dropped that I considered what to do next. Kill more monsters for an hour or so until the next loot came out or leave to grab a drink and some food. My stomach growled in response so I ignored the fish that fell from the ceiling and went out the exit. There, I found Chris and Stephen sitting down in the grass nearby, taking a break from work and chatting idly.

They waved at me but made no attempts to start a conversation so I started walking towards town. As I was leaving the area, I heard them whispering to each other but didn’t understand what they were saying. It didn’t matter anyway. A private conversation or two was to be expected and it’d be rude to barge in uninvited. They could have been talking anything from the new knight order to girls.

Back at Tom’s bar, I found an unusual situation. There was a group of heavily armed strangers despite the fact that the merchants had already left. Which meant these men could be anything from travelers to adventurers. If they were merchants, they would’ve followed the caravan as it had the benefit of being well guarded and hard for bandits to raid, saving on traveling costs when it came to protection.

There were a total of nine of them and they all wore similar looking armor. When I went up to the bar and ordered some food and a beer, I noticed something that shocked me. The symbol of a divine on various items they held. These were no mere adventurers. These were full on knights, all of them following the same divine and heavily armed, there was no doubt about it.

The one sitting next to me noticed my staring and looked back at me, glancing at my shield and necklace. He smiled at me but I didn’t feel like it was a friendly smile. It felt inherently hostile, which made no sense as it was a smile. I felt like if we weren’t in a town, he would have cut me down where I stood and even rested his right hand on the pommel of the sword on his waist.

“Nice to see a fellow believer of a divine in town, especially one that happens to be good at collecting,” said the knight, pointing out the fact that I wore not one, but two divine items.

“What brings a prestigious knight such as you to such a small town as this?” I asked.

“Just looking around. Our knight order, the order of Mans Tontrua, ends up traveling throughout the lands quite a bit. Without a permanent home as of yet,” said the knight. For some reason, that unnerved me.

If a knight order decided to move here and stick around, it would interfere with my plans and might even force me to go to another town to complete the task. Especially with a knight order like this who obviously disliked me or my goddess.

Between my knight order made from scratch with only two divine items and this fully decked out knight order, who would people rather join? Then again, who knew if they would even accept people to join them. However, if they stuck around people would avoid joining my knight order simply to keep their options open to join this one. For all I knew, Jerry and the other would jump ship at the sight of this knight order.

After all, I had kept a hold on all the divine items and never gave one away. So, they could always leave and the knight order was in name only. Everything was falling apart at the seams.

 

Chapter 16: Mans Tontrau's Grudge

Spoiler

There wasn’t any further interaction with the knights in the bar. I ate my lunch and then took my leave, barely remembering what I even ate with how tense things were and then rushed back to the headquarters to share this new info about the knight order. While that seemed counterintuitive to let them know about it, it would be a good way to test their loyalty and they’d likely find out anyway. After all, knight orders functioned similarly to adventurer groups and would head to the local dungeon entrance in time and bump into the other members eventually.

At the headquarters, I found everyone already gathered chatting with each other. There was also a bunch of bags lying next to some of the unused stable rooms. Which meant that people were renting them out. Did the knight order buy a house or two then the tenants came here to stay or did merchants come along and I somehow didn’t notice?

“Good timing captain, we have some news,” said Jerry.

“I have news as well. There is a knight order that came into town. I bumped into them at Tom’s place,” I said.

“Same as my news then. You’ve already found out. However, this works to our advantage as they’re renting out our spare rooms in our headquarters. They apparently dislike staying in multiple places like splitting up between the rooms in Tom’s place and a few willing landlords. We made a deal with them and they’re all staying right here,” said Jerry.

Just as I had suspected, these rented rooms had something to do with the knight order. However, I didn’t expect it to be the knight order itself. With how hostile they were to me, I wasn’t too comfortable with the idea of them staying under the same roof as me. However, there was a problem if my math wasn’t wrong.

“I thought there were nine of them in the bar yesterday, not seven. So I guess they’re doubling up here?” I asked.

“Nope, all nine of them. Stephen and Matt are going to give up their rooms later today. They’re paying us more than enough for them to rent someplace else. The excess cash will go towards getting them new weapons or armor from Jeff so they’re fine with it,” said Jerry.

“I’ve been needing a new hatchet as this one’s gotten a lot of chips in it and I don’t mind staying at my old family’s place for a few nights. It works out well for me,” said Matt. His hatchet did look really worn out. Not sure why we didn’t have it repaired before, we should have plenty of funds for that.

“It’s annoying to change to someplace else when I’ve had my room all set up the way I like it. I don’t really know too many people in town so I might just have to stay in the upstairs of Tom’s bar, but the ruckus from downstairs would keep me up all night,” said Stephen.

Did he really dislike Tom’s place that much? The beds were far comfier and the sound could be drowned out with a few drinks and if that didn’t work, could always join the noise downstairs until it died down. Then again, people without this shield would get a hangover with that and they were always going to the dungeon early on. I was sorta envious of him because he got to sleep away from the hostile knights and in a comfy bed, or did he?

“No, Stephen keep your bed. I’ll move out of my room for the next few days and stay at Tom’s. I don’t mind the noise anyway. In exchange, keep an eye on the knights as they seemed a bit rude if not a bit hostile,” I said.

“Thanks, that’s a relief. I’ll keep my eye on them, but in my opinion, they’re just a bit prideful since they’re an actual knight order,” said Stephen.

Even when I tried hinting at how hostile these knights might be to us, he still thanks me for trading places with him. He couldn’t say I didn’t warn him when they turn out to be terrible neighbors. Not that I hoped he would die, just that he might suffer a bit from this situation. After all, these knights may be rude and hostile, but they’d have no reason to actually attack anyone.

“Truly a model captain, giving up his room for the newest member. I’ll go with you to Tom’s place since I haven’t eaten yet and pay for the nights you’ll be staying there,” said Jerry.

“Maybe we should wait a bit since the knights are still there,” I said.

I didn’t want those knights to know I was staying at Tom’s place. Nor did I want to bump into them at all. That was the whole point of staying at Tom’s, avoiding them until I knew if it was safe to be around them.

“Right, we need to clean out the areas you and Matt have been sleeping in so we can let them know it’s ready to move in if we bump into them,” said Jerry, misunderstanding what I meant.

My room didn’t have anything in it so we just had to clean things up which didn’t take long. Matt’s room, on the other hand, was filled with a variety of knick-knacks and empty bottles and mugs lying about. By the way, despite calling me a model captain, Jerry, as the vice-captain, had no intention of giving up his room for Matt. I wasn’t sure if that was on purpose or he genuinely didn’t make the connection.

Chris, Matt, and Stephen started heading back to the dungeon for another run while Jerry and I went back towards the bar. On the way there, we bumped into the group of knights who were on the road to go towards the dungeon. I kept silent while Jerry talked with them about which rooms were theirs and what not. Thankfully, there wasn’t any sort of conflict and while they looked scary in their full plate armor and none too friendly, they remained peaceful.

A part of me wanted to be wrong about them. After all, it was just a gut feeling that they disliked me or even wanted to kill me. If I was wrong about that, it would be nice. There were also stories about how people stronger than you would give off an aura that made them seem terrifying. My feelings might just be due to me reacting to their strength. But that didn’t make any sense as everyone else seemed quite casual around them.

Once Jerry explained everything, we went our separate ways. While passing by them, one of the knights stuck their shoulder out and bumped into me, knocking me onto the ground. Why would he do something like that out of nowhere?

“Oh sorry, I didn’t see you there? Hope I didn’t hurt you,” said the knight in a monotone voice. The apology felt empty and meaningless. He did that on purpose and tried to brush it off as an accident.

I watched in shock as they moved on as if nothing had happened. Then Jerry offered his hand and helped me get up. He didn’t seem to care too much about what had happened. Either he was ignoring it on purpose to avoid conflict or he genuinely believed the knight’s story about it being an accident. Since he didn’t bring up anything about it in conversation, I didn’t either, choosing to keep quiet about it.

In the bar, we found Tom with a broom out, brushing a bunch of food scraps into a pile while one of the afternoon drinkers helped him wipe down the absolutely filthy bar table with a rag. The area was where the knights had been before and they had left a huge mess.

“What happened here, Tom? Looks like the lunch hour did a number on you. Hope you haven’t thrown everything into the pot for dinner yet as I’d like a portion even if it’s just some scraps,” said Jerry.

Poor Tom had to deal with this terrible mess and still people like Jerry would bother him about getting food past the usual serving times. As if I wasn’t torn about how I felt about Jerry enough already. I really needed to get my arm healed and pass this necklace over to him soon.

“The knight order that came to town recently wasn’t very refined in their eating habits. Which is nothing new, large groups tend to be messier than individuals. Just wish they tried to be a bit neater. Half the time it felt like they were deliberately spilling stuff or dropping it onto the floor. As for lunch, I haven’t even had the chance to throw the rest in the pot so you’re in luck,” said Tom.

They probably were doing it deliberately with how rude they were. What did they stand to gain by acting like this? Was this just how they usually acted, acting away the same as home? Or were their intentions more malicious? All I knew is that I just wanted them gone, and quickly at that.

Jerry happily dug into a portion of food Tom quickly slapped in front of him that was probably cold by now while I helped out with cleaning. It was the least I could do and was promised a free beer for the help, likely the reason the other bargoer was helping. I had to pass some time until Jerry set up the room with the funds for our knight order and he prioritized getting his fill of food first. Then again, I would also eat before dealing with a place to stay the night.

Once Jerry finished eating, he waved towards Tom and said, “How much would it cost for the captain here to stay for a week? The barn’s getting a bit cramped and we’re renting a lot of space for a decent price.”

“Captain eh? Is that what people are calling you now?” asked Tom of me while ignoring Jerry’s question. Captain was as good as name as any.

“At least the people in my newly formed knight order, as minimalist as it is, call me captain. Maybe one day I’ll deserve the name,” I said.

“I still don’t understand that business, but I’m fine with you renting a room for a week or so. Just make sure that you stay well, lend me a hand once in a while without having to regrow a new one afterward, and pay back your debts when you can,” said Tom. At this point, I might have actually had enough money to pay off my tab but as most of the finances were managed by Jerry, I wasn’t sure.

I could always request that Jerry use some of the money to pay it off, but there were things like Matt’s new weapon that took priority. He always seemed to be keeping a tight hold on the group’s cash and I wasn’t completely sure about that. Sometime I would have to confront him and make sure he wasn’t embezzling. As for right now, there weren’t any signs of money disappearing, in fact, there was plenty of cash in our so-called war chest with the new tenants. So, I was content to think of him saving up money to build a new, proper headquarters, or have enough money to buy a divine item of Sanae Patil the next time the merchants came through.

Since that one jewelry merchant knew of my affiliation, he probably would try to buy any relevant divine items for me. I would do the same for him in the dungeon, but my chances were far more slim and random than his. Nothing I could do but find some other divine item or maybe an enchanted one I’d be willing to part with along with some cash to buy it if he finds any.

Jerry and Tom began negotiating the price while I focused on my free beer, which always tasted better than a paid one even if I had the cash to pay for it. They quickly agreed upon a price that was probably in Tom’s favor. Which was fine as Tom had given me plenty of free things and I owed him a lot, so him fleecing me a bit when I had money was no problem. In fact, if it was still in Jerry’s and as a result, my favor, then my debts to Tom, monetary or morally, would increase.

“Alright, now that we’ve got your room set up, would you like to come with me as I get a new hatchet or something similar for Matt or will you try challenging the dungeon again?” asked Jerry.

“I’ll go with you to Jeff’s place as I haven’t been there in a while and I also picked up a few ores in the dungeon. Might as well pay for the weapon with those and keep a bit more cash on hand,” I said.

I had only challenged the dungeon out of boredom and to try out the fishing technique. My hand was still a bit small and awkward to use so I thought it’d be best to rest one or two more days. The more I rested, the faster my hand would heal. Or at least that was how I expected it to be. Honestly, I had no idea how it worked but I had done more than enough work for today.

Most members of our knight order would only bring back one ore or none at all each day, mostly due to being unable to find a good dungeon after a bunch of attempts or tiring before the fishing or grinding would bear fruit. Just by grabbing two ores in this one day, I was pulling just as much weight as Stephen for the whole week, making up for my time off.

When we reached the smithy, we noticed something a bit strange. The door was partially opened which would normally send Jeff into a fit of rage as he shut it immediately. Even if Jeff left the smithy for a time, he would close it up and lock the door to keep anyone from prying it open and letting out the heat. Even Jerry saw this as serious as he ran up to the door and peeked inside.

The smithy was a complete mess with tools, scrap metal, and ores lying all over the ground. Jeff was rushing around the place, trying to clean things up and putting everything back in the places he always kept them or expected them to be. With this much of a mess, he had likely been too busy to even notice that the door was cracked.

“Jeff are you alright? The door was open a crack,” said Jerry.

His words seemed to send Jeff into even more of a rage as he threw a piece of metal he had been putting away across the room. It might have been better to just ask what had happened and left out the part of the door. After all, he would have never found out if not told. We could have just closed the door behind us with him none the wiser.

“No, not alright,” said Jeff, which was obvious from the state of the smithy.

“What happened here?” asked Jerry, another silly question.

“Who did this?” I asked.

“Followers of Mans Tontrau. Messy pricks they are. They bear a grudge,” said Jeff.

The knight order from before again. This time it couldn’t just be explained away by them being in a group and messy eaters. They were purposely trashing places. But why would they bear a grudge if they’ve never been here before?

“A grudge?” asked Jerry, finally bringing up a good point.

“Against my god. And by extension, anyone related in some way,” said Jerry.

Against Jeff’s god and if I remembered correctly, his god was allied with mine which is why he made me that belt and sheath. If Mans Tontrau was hostile with Jeff’s god, it stood to reason that he was hostile to my goddess. This explained everything. I was not paranoid. They acted upon the whims of their god to an extreme. Since they couldn’t attack me or Jeff in town, they were instead rude to us and made messes.

Such a petty course of action, but it worked. I was angry at them and also afraid of being alone with them. It was the right course of action to sleep at Tom’s from now on. Best to also make sure they wouldn’t find out I was there as there was nothing to stop someone from climbing up as demonstrated by the people in my knight order. Even worse is the fact that they might do bad things to the people who stayed at the headquarters. I needed to warn Jerry and Chris about this.

“Jerry, we need to go to the dungeon and warn the others. Mans Tontrau is the divine of the knight order in town and they might damage the headquarters or other things in the name of their god. My goddess does not have a good relationship with their god,” I said to Jerry as urgently as I could.

“Are you sure about that? I mean maybe they just got annoyed with Jeff not talking enough and people make messes at Tom’s bar all the time. We shouldn’t come to conclusions so quickly,” said Jerry.

In such a desperate situation, Jerry still had doubts? We were literally an informal knight order under a divine hostile to ours and it wasn’t like we could hide that fact. They saw me with Jerry and the whole town knew about the knight order no thanks to lots of drunken bragging. It wouldn’t take much for them to make the connection and take action to sabotage us.

“What would I have to do to convince you of the importance of this situation?” I asked Jerry.

“Well, technically we’re not officially a knight order as the only person with any divine items is you,” said Jerry while looking at my necklace, “Perhaps, I could be convinced by being a bit more involved. I know you need to finish healing your hand but you were able to do a dungeon run so maybe I can have it during dungeon runs while you hold it at night to finish the healing process?”

He made no attempt to hide his desire. Without a divine item, he didn’t feel like a true member of the knight order nor was he truly loyal. His suggestion was good but it still annoyed me. This situation was obviously important but he held out on purpose to force my hand. I could do it all myself but without Jerry’s support, it would be much harder as he was acknowledged as the true leader of the group, vice-captain or not.

I reluctantly took off the necklace and pass it over to Jerry. My neck felt weird without it after wearing it for a week and immediately felt the itchiness from my hand healing disappear, replaced with a feeling of tightness as if my skin wasn’t long enough to cover everything. Yet, my hand functioned just fine without any stiffness. I still wanted to heal it fully at some point.

Jerry held the necklace by the cord as the symbol of Sanae Patil shone in his face. He was fascinated yet didn’t put it immediately on, even frowning a few times. If he put it on, he’d never be able to wear another divine’s item and would be considered my divine’s follower. Or not, I wasn’t totally sure how divine items worked as I might be able to wear another divine’s item if I just didn’t use the shield for a while. After a few minutes of contemplation, Jerry put the necklace on and became an ally I could hopefully trust.

“What now?” I asked Jerry.

“Do we know for sure that Mans Tontrau is hostile with Sanae Patil?” asked Jerry.

“No, but I know we’re allied with whatever divine Jeff is with and his divine is hostile with Mans Tontrau,” I said truthfully. It was a logical assumption.

“Is there any way to make sure?” asked Jerry, still trying to worm his way out of helping after receiving the necklace. Or perhaps trying to avoid causing hostilities where there were none.

“We could ask Sanae Patil ourselves in the temple. Not just me, but even you can do it with that necklace. Just pray while kneeling with your hand over the symbol. Works in any temple or place of worship apparently,” I said.

Without another word, Jerry started heading towards the temple. I followed along as I wanted to check myself if my assumption was correct. It would be nice to say hi to Jeoffry and check my progress on the quest to heal my liver. For all I knew, I might have already completed the quest with the informal knight order and adding Jerry to the membership officially with the necklace.

When we reached the temple, like Jeff’s smithy and Tom’s bar, there was a mess that Jeoffry was dutifully trying to sweep up. Dust and dirt boot prints covered the floor of the temple. We didn’t even need to ask Jeoffry to know what happened and he wasn’t in the talking mood. The two of us found a quiet corner and started praying. I wondered if it would be different for Jerry since I was granted a quest or if it was simply the same for everyone.

 

Chapter 17: Confrontation

Spoiler

I met with the goddess and I could feel Jerry’s presence there as well. Everything was laid bare in this ethereal state. Knowledge of my quest’s end goal, my goddess’s relation with Mans Tontrau, and even things about Jerry entered my head. It was an unusual experience that seemed to last hours but I knew would only last minutes in reality. Eventually, we woke up and looked at each other with a new understanding, both good and bad.

“I knew you were one of three that drank from my keg. Things didn’t add up with Stephen being the third perpetrator. Not just that, but you’ve considered running off with the money for the group several times. I believed that you would put it to good use for the knight order,” I said.

During my time with the goddess, I had seen glimpses of memories from Jerry. Mostly ones leading up to him joining me like his desire to steal my shield, his envy of my ability to get so much from the dungeon, and his dreams of becoming a knight. However, there were ones like him drinking my ale with the others and knowingly ignoring the irony of commending me for giving up the room while not doing so himself. As for the money he’s been hoarding and not spending on the group, he saw it as his money and embezzled from it a few times.

“You did and thought of some pretty rude things as well. Constant doubts about the knight order you created with me and thinking about keeping the necklace to yourself even after your hand healed. Then there’s the dark dagger you’ve hid from us and all that silver from the copper ore you still keep on your person, worrying about whether or not to give it to Tom to help pay off your debts or save it for what exactly? You’re the same with money as I am, just you’ve been trying to get freebies constantly to keep yourself from using it,” said Jerry and everything he said was correct.

If I had known that praying together would have produced a result like this, I would have never done it. Now it was too late and Jerry knew too much about me for me to ever cast him aside. Not that I didn’t know plenty of secrets about him that he wouldn’t want to be revealed as well. As embarrassing as it was, perhaps this was a good thing. Everything about us was revealed to each other so there were no more second thoughts about things. We knew how we felt about things and what we wanted to do, with many of our goals overlapping to a degree.

“Let’s work together to make this knight order a proper thing,” I said.

“Of course, after all, your life is on the line while I have no other avenues to achieve my dream. We’re past the point of no return. I would say sorry, but we both know I’m not sorry. So how about some mutual acceptance of our differing opinions and actions?” asked Jerry. That was quite the mouthful but it was better than an apology he didn’t really mean.

“Right, now to deal with Mans Tonrau’s knights, or at least minimize the damage they’ll cause to us,” I said.

Unfortunately, my worst fears had come true and the knights hated the divine we served and would stop at nothing to inconvenience us. As their god wasn’t an evil one, they would not kill or heavily injure us unless we attack first. They only kill in self-defense and to achieve that, they would relentlessly annoy us and maliciously damage us in ways not directly harming us to trigger a response.

The best option was to find a way to kick them out of the headquarters and warn the others not to react to their provocations. After that, we’ll… do something. We can’t really force them to leave and if we leave, what would they do in the town? Would we even find anything left of the headquarters if we left and came back? What would happen to Tom, Jeoffry, Jeff, and the other townspeople who had done nothing wrong?

“So, what do you think cutting our losses by selling the barn and leaving town with the others for a month or so? I’ve always wanted to visit the city,” said Jerry mercilessly.

“What about the townspeople?” I asked.

“We can warn them all. It’s up to them if they believe us and take our advice or not,” said Jerry.

That was true. If they knew about Mans Tontrau and their grudge against us, it would no longer be our problem and they might even approve of us leaving town. The sooner we left, the sooner the knight order would leave in their eyes. If only it was that simple.

“Let’s just go to the dungeon and grab the others. They’re the ones in the most danger and the knights were heading that way. Best not to leave them out of sight for too long,” I said.

On the way to the dungeon, I paid far more attention to the surroundings and noticed changes. There were parts of the ground on the paths through town that were dug up for no reason and some houses had scratches on the wood. Little things that added up. All it took was nine men to chip away at an entire town, to create a feeling of being unwelcome.

Nine men bearing weapons and plate armor along with any number of divine or enchanted items. They could do whatever they wanted and no one could stop them. Complaints from the populace would fall on deaf ears until they took action and lost. Blood would be drawn in such a situation, none of it from the knights. In a way, it was worse than the knights attacking the town outright.

At the dungeon, we found the others standing around the entrance of the dungeon, which was blocked by the knights. It seemed like they were trying to enter the dungeon but the knights refused to let them. All the while, the knights refused to go in themselves, making the blockade all the more unreasonable. I heard one of the complaints as I got within earshot.

“What’s the point of stopping us from going in? We all go to a different place inside. There’s no competing over resources and the order we go in is pointless. Just get in there and we’ll go after you,” said Chris.

“Just stop it, Chris. They’re not listening to us. Let’s just wait until they lose interest and leave us alone,” said Matt.

They went silent as soon as they noticed us walking up. The knights of Mans Tontrau reacted to our presence as well with one of them walking up to me. It was the same one I had sat next to at Tom’s bar.

“Hello there again. I see that you’ve multiplied like cockroaches, filthy believers of Sanae Patil and wannabe knights. We’ve already crushed your predecessors and we’re not afraid to stomp you out before you even become a problem,” said the knight.

So that’s why Sanae Patil wanted a knight order to her name. She had one before and it was destroyed. That would have been nice to know back in the temple.

“We’re not afraid of you. Stand aside and give us access to the dungeon,” said Jerry. Which wasn’t true, we were very afraid of them.

“Not for the next hour. We’re going to cause a convergence artificially and if you go into the dungeon, you’ll get caught up in it. So, don’t use the dungeon or we’ll treat your presence as an invasion on our dungeon run with the intent to harm or sabotage us,” said the knight. In other words, he’d use it as an excuse to kill us.

“Then go. We won’t enter until the convergence effect is over,” I said.

“No, you won’t. Not at all. This dungeon entrance is now our personal property. Anyone who goes in without our permission is trespassing and will be dealt with,” said the knight.

“You can’t claim ownership over the right to enter the dungeon. The dungeon is everywhere and is something anyone can publicly enter,” said Stephen, jumping into the conversation despite not fulling understanding what was going on.

“Watch us. The dungeon is free to enter anywhere other than here for you all. With the exception of you three if you leave this fake knight order,” said the knight while pointing at Chris, Matt, and Stephen.

Exploring the dungeon for loot was currently their livelihood. Not being able to do that was tantamount to being jobless. They would have to find work elsewhere to make a living. That, or betray us by leaving the knight order officially so they could use the dungeon again. It was a decision I hoped they would never have to make or at least one I'd like them to make under different circumstances such as offering them a divine item from Sanae Patil.

None of them spoke up and the Mans Tontrau knights went over to the dungeon and pulled out an item that made the color of the dungeon’s portal change from an almost holy white to a menacing dark blue color that swallowed up all the knights one by one. Inside the dungeon all nine of them would be in the same place, defeating monsters with ease and making it to later floors with much less effort.

Although the others didn’t speak of leaving, there was no doubt the thought was in the heads. Loyalty to us wouldn’t put food on the table. Unless we cut into our savings to try and subsist until the knights went away or we found a solution to this conflict. There was nothing more we could do at the dungeon so we went back to the headquarters silently.

Of course, the headquarters was trashed and looted of all the stored ores and weapons. Thankfully, the money was kept on Jerry’s person so not all was lost. Stephen, Chris, and Jerry went into their rooms to find all their stuff broken or thrown about. Matt and I got out of this relatively unscathed, but that wouldn’t last. Who knew how long it would take for the knights to go after Matt’s family or for them to go upstairs in Tom’s bar.

“I’m going to kill them. I was annoyed when they kept us from the dungeon, but breaking my stuff is unforgivable. I don’t care how well armed they are, I’ll take at least one of them down,” said Stephen as he flew into a rage, ranting and raving about.

“Calm down. We need to figure out what’s going on before acting,” said Chris quite reasonably.

“Do we need to figure anything else out. They’re coming after us because of the divine we’re making a knight order for. I’m sorry, but I might have to leave if it stays this bad. My family needs the extra income from exploring the dungeon and I’ve already been taking back less so the knight order could save up money for things,” said Matt, also a reasonable thing to say.

None of them had a real reason to stay with us beyond friendship, monetary ties, and loyalty. Money wasn’t flowing too well and loyalty couldn’t be kept on friendship alone. I would not hold it against them if they left, though personally, I wished they would all stay.

“Stephen, that’s what they want us to do. Their god holds them back from killing unless we try to kill them first. All you’d be doing is giving them an excuse to draw their swords on us. We’ll get your revenge somehow, but not by fighting them head on,” said Jerry.

For around an hour, there was back and forth arguing about what to do. No one could find a solution that didn’t have some sort of major downside. Everyone wished we could magically make the knights go away but they were here to stay. Eventually, we decided that we would try to counter their strategy by annoying them.

After all, if they could not strike us but could harass us, could we not do the same. Until we attacked them directly, their hands were tied. So, we camped outside the dungeon, waiting for them to come back. Even after the portal turned back to white and we could enter without ending up in the convergence, we held back from going inside while taking note that they couldn’t prevent us from going inside the dungeon completely.

Finally, after night fell, they exited the dungeon in a group and were met by us circling surround them in a half circle. Their hands immediately fell to their swords and unsheathed them within seconds. Stephen couldn’t help but pull out his weapon too, but no fighting ensued. They had tried to make us panic and attack before it seemed like they could, and we almost fell for it thanks to Stephen. Once again, Stephen managed to make himself even more dislikeable in my eyes.

“What’s this supposed to be? Were you hoping to ambush us, take us unaware? Such a petty trick would only quicken your demise in the eyes of Mans Tontrau and to our amusement,” said the knight.

“We know that you cannot do anything to us unless we do something to you. So no, we’re not ambushing you. This is simply a greeting. You can choose to push your way through and leave. We’ll enter the dungeon in your absence. Or you can stay for a while and we’ll stay just as long to see who’ll snap first. There’s always the dungeon behind you if you want to run away as well,” I said.

It was surprisingly satisfying to say that and confront them now all together. It felt like I was taking all the frustrations they sent our way and throwing it back into their faces. At this point, I really was willing to wait things out as long as necessary.

“I’d sooner chop your arm off than give into your weak pressuring. Just know that if you go into that dungeon, you might not find a town when you come back. Everyone here is a hostage of ours,” said the knight.

“I already lost my arm once, I can lose it again if I so choose. As for destroying the town, you’ve already started doing that and you can’t kill anyone. As long as the people live, the town can rebuild. No matter how you justify it, killing the entire town would make your god look bad,” I said.

There were no more words spoken as we stared each other in the eyes, gauging how serious the other was. The knights started to get impatient, moving around and wanting to fight. Stephen put his weapon away but kept reaching towards it to try and psych out the knights in front of him. Matt seemed like he was about to run away any second now while Chris and Jerry stood stock still as if they had done this a thousand times.

The knights conceded first, granting us a victory that felt somewhat hallow as they pushed past us and walked towards town. A win was still a win and we couldn’t help but smile as we watched the knights walk away. Before they disappeared from our site, the knight who had been talking to me before shouted back at us.

“If you dare to enter the dungeon, you will no longer have a home in this town!” he shouted.

Those words were empty as proven by the results of our standoff. It was tempting to just go back to the headquarters and sleep after this long day, but we decided to all go on a dungeon run to spite the knights. With that win, we were all pumped up and went in high spirits. If only we had an item with a convergence effect, we could enter the dungeon together and take it on in a group like they had done.

Once again, I was all alone in the dungeon. For the first time, it was a relief to come here as it was isolated from the troubles on the surface. Everything around me was purple, including a monster flying in the air. It looked like a dragonfly with its long body and a double set of very thin wings. Flying enemies left a bad taste in my mouth after last time, but now I had the fire sword to help me out.

I pulled it out of its sheath and watched as it let off a bunch of smoke but no fire. For some reason, the blade could not burn and created a constant plume of smoke. After a fit of coughing, I sheathed the blade and pulled out my spear. If the sword didn’t work, I’d try the spear again and hope this insect was a slow one.

It lifted up its tail and shot towards me in a straight line. I lifted up my spear to meet it while keeping my shield at the ready in case it was needed. Needed it was as the insect slipped to the side and dodged my spear and continued onwards toward me unimpeded. Its charge was only stopped by my shield and with it in such close range, I dropped the spear and reached for the dagger in my shirt.

The fast bugger tried pulling away with from the glint of my dagger as only a glancing blow hit it before it dropped to the ground twitching. Dead just from that? There weren’t any visible wounds and it seemed like the dagger had only skimmed it, not even drawing blood if it even had blood. For all I knew, it was faking its death so I stomped on it, splattering green fluids from its body all over the place with a sickening crunch and low squeal of air being released. Not sure if that meant it was still alive or if it just made that sound every time its shell was broken.

Who cared as it was dead now and I had a new strategy of beating it. Why even bother with the spear or sword if I could just block it and then swipe at it with the dark dagger. After all, it seemed to have quite the effect on monsters and I had been neglecting it for far too long. Mostly because it required me to get up close and personal with monsters. However, with these insects, it was going to be hard to stop them from getting close with their maneuverability and my fire sword’s issue.