Chapter 16: Chapter 15 – Off To The Dungeon

Chapter 15 - Off To The Dungeon

 

It was decided. This sword was exactly what I needed at that point in time and I could not wait to fight with a proper weapon finally.

"I'm getting this one, no doubt about it — this is the one," I said to Toriel, the weaponsmith. "I will also need a scabbard that I can place on my hip to go with it."

The smith searched in the back for a scabbard in the same color and with the same patterns as the sword I decided to get.

"Actually, can we make it black?" I asked the smith.

"Black? Are ye nuts? The sword is white, black is the goddamn opposite of that."

"That's the point," I said.

Toriel let out a slight grumble as he went back to the other room to find a black scabbard.

When he came back, he was holding the simplest, plainest scabbard there was. Just a black case. Nothing fancy to it. No patterns, no coloured signs or outlines, no metal pieces attached to it, forming symbols. Just a black hollow thing to rest my sword in. It looked nice, but it was kind of... plain.

Toriel placed both the sword and the scabbard on the counter and I went to grab them, eager to head out and put them to the test.

"Aren't ya forgetting something?" he said as he grabbed my hand, stopping me from actually getting them.

"What? The tomahawk? Maybe another time, I don't think I really need it right now. Plus, I don't have the mon— ooh, right. The money"

"Ooh, right, my Elven ass. This is no charity, you gotta pay up," he grumbled.

"Well, I don't have the money to pay for it, but I have a trade to propose to you," I said and made my pouch appear in my hands.

"I don't accept this kind of trades anymore, I have a wifey waiting for me at home," he said, looking away, slightly blushing.

"No, I'm not talking about this kind of trades," I responded, slightly irritated. I pulled out of my pouch the [Cool Staff] that I found inside that weird chest in the forest.

"What would you say if I gave you something like this in return?" I said as I placed the staff on the counter next to the sword.

Toriel glimpsed at the staff and then looked away again. He managed to keep his stare away from it for a few seconds but, eventually, his curiosity was victorious and he grabbed the staff in his hands, examining it from every angle, checking every detail, especially the small, purple crystal that was stuck inside the wooden stick.

"Ye know what, this is some cool stuff you got there," he said. "How did you get your hands on this beauty?"

"I found it in the forest, a few hours' walk away from here, inside some kind of weird, jumping chest."

"Oh, so ye beat the [Tiny Forest], huh? You know, these foxes that live there have the best kind of meat. Real delicacy! But these damn hunters are too afraid to step in there 'cause they just might get their ass whooped."

"Tell me about it..." I said, reminiscing the taste of fox. It got me a bit hungry even though I had breakfast a couple of hours ago. "Anyway, do we have a deal?" I asked the smith.

"We have more than a deal, hold yer horses," he said and run off to the back once again. He came back with a small pouch full of coins, which he gave to me.

"This is too valuable to trade like that. Here, have these 11 silver coins too and we are even. A real weaponsmith does fair business and turns metal scraps into works of art. Miss any of the two and you're an imposter," he said.

I took the pouch of coins and put it inside the bigger pouch where I kept all my stuff. I then grabbed the scabbard and attached it on my belt, touching my left hip.

Finally, I picked up the sword and was about to sheathe it when Toriel interrupted me.

"Are you not going to name her? Take good care of her and she will take good care of you. Bet she will save your Anthir ass a bunch of times."

A name? I had never thought about giving names to weapons. I looked at Jack and asked him if he had also given a name to his scythe.

"Yes-o, of-o course! Her-o name is-o Justine."

"Of course it is..."

It seemed that everyone named their weapons, which meant I should probably do it too. It was the normal thing to do, if nothing else.

Coming up with a name for a sword that I had just received and never used before was tougher than it seemed, so I stood there in silence for a few minutes, thinking of an appropriate name.

But I finally made my decision. I lifted my sword high, pointing towards the ceiling.

"I shall name it..."

"her," Toriel corrected me.

I gave him a mean look with the edge of my eye. Then I looked back at my sword.

"I shall name her... Illuminator!"

Jack and Toriel looked at each other and shrugged a bit, having an expression of approval on their faces.

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I then finally sheathed Illuminator, satisfied with the name I gave it her.

"With-o what-o you are wearing-o, the name makes-o perfect-o sense," Jack pointed out.

I nodded in approval.

"Now it's finally time to go take it for a spin, don't you think?"

"Yes-o, we gotta go, we will barely be on-o time at-o this-o point-o. Let's-o go!" Jack said and immediately rushed outside.

I thanked and valedicted the weaponsmith before running behind Jack, slamming the door behind me. Careless. Excited. Armed.

 

---

 

Jack and I ran all the way back to the Peacemakers' guildhall, where everyone was outside, with their little backpacks on their backs, impatiently waiting for us to return. We were not late, but if we arrived just a couple of minutes later, we would be.

By the time we arrived, we were pretty tired and out of breath already as we spent most of our energy trying to be there on time. Especially me - I was panting and dripping with sweat from that long-distance all-out run.

Jack, on the other hand, took it much better. He was breathing heavily for about a minute after we arrived, and then he seemed perfectly fine, ready to conquer the day. I did not expect that, based on the sheer size of this man and considering he was carrying along his armour and his scythe, which must have been pretty heavy by itself. I expected him to stop running half way here or at least gasp for air once we arrived.

It seemed that there would be five people in total going in that spider dungeon, including myself and Jack.

I would have much preferred going alone. I had already proved that I could survive without help, by myself. Except for the healing potions and strength beads Guen gave me, but now I could probably afford my own with that extra [Coins] Toriel gave me.

Thankfully, I was 'the scoundrel' that day, so that should at least make things much better for me — I would not have to deal with any of them.

Before we left, Jack gave me a weird piece of really stale brown bread to eat. I did not know what was the reason behind it, but if there was one person I knew I could trust at that moment, it was Jack.

I ate the piece of bread, which proved to be really hard to swallow. Both because it tasted horrible and because it was almost impossible to break with my teeth. He could have as well given me a rock to chew.

To my surprise, after eating the small piece of bread, all that exhaustion I had built up from the running suddenly left my body and I felt fresh, like I had just woken up.

After that, everyone was ready to head out and we begun our journey towards wherever these spiders were.

We walked all the way to the city's walls, exactly the opposite direction from which I initially came from. The wall's guards did not ask us a single question, they just happily greeted us and let us pass through without any trouble. Apparently, the Peacemakers were really famous in the City of Prosper.

In front of us, there was a big, almost endless field of grass, just like at the place I spawned. Straight ahead, the field only stopped because there was a gigantic mountain blocking its way. Almost as tall as it was wide. Gray, without any vegetation growing on it, except for some small patches in the foothills. The top part was completely covered with snow, giving the mountain an intimidating look.

Looking at my left or my right, there was not too much more to see. More of that green field, until, far away, I could see what seemed like a sea. An ocean. Although, it was so far I could not be certain whether it was indeed that or small lakes or rivers. But it did seem that the small river that was flowing in the City of Prosper ended up in these two bodies of water, eventually.

Jack, who was obviously the leader of the group, told us—and especially me—that this mountain was where we were heading to. It turned out I was not the only one that did not know where the dungeon was and it seemed like this expedition was aimed for the new recruits to gain some confidence and experience.

I wondered what was the level of everyone in the group. I had not checked even Jack's level so far, but I did know he was much higher than I was.

Judging by how Guen reacted when I used [Identify] on her, it must be a pretty rude thing to do, so I had refrained from doing it to anyone else so far, except for Kulnir, the Dwarf that was in the same cell as me, but I did not really care if that particular person thought I was rude or not.

But I wanted to know. Should I ask? What if it was a taboo question? But then again, Jack and Toriel had no trouble at all asking me about my level, so it was probably okay to ask. I would expect Toriel to not have trouble asking any question, no matter how taboo it would be, but this was not the case for Jack. Jack seemed like a softie.

"So, what level are you, guys?" I decided to ask. After all, we were going to a dungeon together. I should definitely know what was each person's level and what they were capable of.

Even though I was only level 9, I was right in the middle in terms of levels, compared to the rest of the group.

There was a young, Elven archer, Tim, that was also having his first expedition ever and was sitting at level 4 currently. At that level, there weren't really many weapons he could use, and he had to make do with what looked like a combination of a crossbow and a slingshot. At least it took real arrows, which he was keeping at the right side of his hip, inside an almost overflowing quiver.

Tim was the only long-distance fighter in the entire team. And then, there was Sanor, who was the exact opposite of Tim. Although he was an Elf too, he only fought with his bare hands. Well, he was wearing a pair of leather gloves, but this did not really make any difference whatsoever. He was only level 6, but he looked like he was much higher level than that, as the size of his arms and the width of his back were comparable to Jack's. He looked and acted nothing like one would expect from an Elf, and the only way to tell he was indeed one of them was because of his ears.

The final person in the group, other than me and Jack, was a female Goblin, Wrel. She was higher level than me, level 12 already! And she had unlocked her class. She was an [Assassin]. I wondered when would I get my class and how. Maybe there was a shop back in the city where I could browse classes and buy one.

On second thought, that was probably not the case. The 'Class' information was visible in the [Profile Screen] from the start, which meant it was something more universal that I would eventually get. More like my [Race], less like having a weapon or armour on me.

Wrel was there to act as Jack's right hand. Being a Goblin, she had a better grasp of the battlefield than the rest of us and she would be able to help us have a more strategic approach in a fight inside the dungeon, if needed.

Jack told us that inside the dungeon, Wrel would be the one giving orders once spiders approached, and we would have to listen. Everyone, including Jack himself.

And then there was me, of course. Jinden. The one who would slay the Demon King. The mighty swordsman. The scoundrel.

In my head, this was a competition. A competition on who could kill the most amount of spiders, and I was not going to let anyone do better than me - not even Jack. I should be able to breeze past this if I ever wanted to avenge my fallen friends. And the more I managed to kill, the more [Exp] I would earn, getting even closer to my end goal.

I was thinking about all that stuff and was unconsciously gripping the hilt of my sword when I heard Jack shout at us, since he had moved a few meters away from the rest of the group.

"Everyone, come here! I found-o the entrance!"

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