Biter

The gnome lunatic shopkeeper smiled wildly with dilapidated dental health “I don’t get why you’d want half a key.”

“It’s a neat trinket, now tell me, where’d you find half a key.”

“Alright, alright, but only because you paid, not everyone can understand a deal when they see one.”

“Less talky more… talky.”

A chuckle from the short man with a large nose brought forth a tired expression from Sebas, he held the strange key bow, a fully black metal ring with a triplet of circles inside the bow made a triangle of sharp needles, Sebas rested his pointer finger inside the trifurcation, the cold metal spokes pressing onto his finger.

“Well, if you believe me, or not, I found this on the surface, right at the dungeons’ door.”

“You found this?” Sebas began holding the key on his finger up, “around the dungeon entrance? The mill entrance or one of the forest entrances?”

“The southern entrance, I found it on the door.”

“What do you mean?”

“For some reason, nobody really takes a good look at those things kid, if you take it from me, everyone doesn’t know what these things are.”

“These are like dungeons, they’re symbiotic or whatever, cause the adventurers that die inside feed it, including the mana that comes from the monsters it makes.”

“Well well, someone knows more than his ignorance gives off.”

Sebas stared at the gnome, confused by the sudden insult.

“Don’t believe every single book you read kid, not everything can be explained, after all, politics are a fickle reminder that we can’t control anything!”

“Yeah okay, thanks I guess.”

Sebas began to walk away from the gnome, who began to grin at an increased level, only to be grabbed by the wrist.

The gnome struggled as Sebas tried forcing him to let go of his arm, a strange fear came as the grip of the gnome’s grasp seemed to rival his own strength, “Don’t believe everything you read.”

“Alright! Fuck! just let go of me.”

The gnome reluctantly agreed to his plight, and Sebas stomped away at the first light of freedom, key bow in hand.

“Valuables Insight better not be wrong about you.” Sebas mumbled to himself while looking at the key piece.

He sighed and pulled out the metal braids of wire his master gave him, and tied it around the key ring, leaving a small length for it to hang above his chest. He held the small key in his hand, walking towards the inner dungeons keep which held adventurer guild staff.

A large burly man held his hand out to prevent Sebas from walking further, his officer coat signified he was an official, but he didn’t say anything.

An entire minute of sour looks towards the Goliath man was wasted as Sebas was led into a small hall where a silken cloth table held a purple haired human in guild official attire, a pair of half glasses, the ones that end in a semicircle, along with a sword pin that held her hair upright.

She held her hand out, and Sebas took his ID off and the woman seemed to go through some sort of archival tome.

“Sebas Aren, Unique rank… Biter?”

“If I say no, will you deny my entry?”

The woman took her pen and placed it on the desk, she placed her hands in front of her, propping them up from her elbow to hide her mouth, “Most likely.”

“Then, yes that's me… unfortunately.”

“We have a strange trait here, it doesn’t have any known characters on it that we know of, are you able to interpret the word that your third trait is?”

“My best guess is it is the curse that Felix told me about, mind down or something.”

“Mind block?”

“I was more concerned that I couldn’t use my god window anywhere, rather than the proper terminology of my curse that resulted from my class selection.”

“The proper terminology is important, young adventurer; if someone cures you of mind down while you have a mind block you’re more likely to get cursed again than cleansed.”

“Noted, Ms?”

“Lyndess.”

“Noted Ms. Lyndess. May I enter the deep zone of the dungeon?”

“Do you plan to attempt the Mid-Boss of the first floor?”

“Not today, probably.”

She squinted at Sebas, and tossed his ID back, which he hastily grabbed from the air.

“The inns are expensive, be prepared to pay a lot of money for them.”

“Can’t I just sleep in a tent?”

“If you want to get robbed.”

“Sounds like the adventurers guild needs to do something about that.”

“We are willing to pay top rate to whichever adventurer brings in a thief.”

“If they can?”

She nodded, and pointed towards the significantly darker shade of the cavern, which Sebas walked through with renewed curiosity that the dungeon originally brought upon him.

After he began his small walk through another sconced hallway that did a mediocre job lighting up the coarse dirt underfoot, Sebas found himself in a circular bazaar that surrounded a giant stone brick cylinder with iron door that seemed to have a massive red gem above the door in a cylindrical slot made of black stone.

Several times more shop stalls and buildings were crammed into the alleyways that made up the chamber, a total of three inns made up the hall, while the crowded adventurers within stood shoulder to shoulder except for at the brickwork in the center which seemed to repel most from sitting nearby it, save for a few outliers.

Within the plentiful bazaar stalls inside the dungeon’s circular floor chamber, most were of food, some were whole rats, while others were some sort of deep fried fish.

“Hey mister, how in the gods names did you get fish down here?” Sebas asked the fried fish merchant.

“Names Tom son, and fish are plentiful down underneath the surface, not many people try fishing in the small lakes or streams that come in from above, but I’ve found plenty myself… but don’t tell anyone I have the skill,” Tom chuckled after making sure nobody was nearby.

“How much for a fish?”

“We can make it a sandwich or just the fish, which one do you want?”

“The sandwich’ll do,” Sebas said.

Tom pulled a white meat filet out of a small box underneath his stall, and made Sebas stomach rumble, much to his embarrassment.

A loud guffaw came from Tom, who dunked the fish within a white batter that sat in a tub within his stand. A massive container with some sort of red glowing runes bubbled rapidly as he dropped the fish inside, oil splashing everywhere on the table, explaining the yellowing stains on the red cloth.

“You got any preference for sauces?”

“They make sauces for fish?”

“Oh are you a local! Let ol tom hook you up with the good stuff,” Tom said with a grin.

Sebas begrudgingly paid a whole silver coin, as he thought the beautiful fried fish atop a small loaf of bread with green vegetation nestled between the meat and bread with a drizzle of some sort of red and pink sauces was something that Tom, who was secretly a god by Sebas standards, could make.

Sometimes you gotta pay a whole silver coin for a fish, something something fishing idiom, Sebas understood why the man in the saying only wanted to be fed for a day, it was quite literally the best thing he ate, considering the most flavorful thing he had other than rabbit meat and bone broth was this… delightful sustenance.

Sebas stood in front of the massive iron door of the inner sanctum chewing on the half sandwich while inspecting the carvings within the door, looking for anything similar to the key he found, unfortunately his Insight trait didn’t say anything, as his eyes were suddenly covered by a pair of hands.

“Guess who-oUGH” Adam said, as Sebas struck backwards with his right foot.

A mouth full of fried fish mumbled greetings towards Adam, “o! Adhm! Sulutatuns”

“Please finish your current mouthful, at least pretend that you were once a noble.”

Sebas obliged her request, and added a middle finger onto the request, free of charge.

“I take it they let you through only because you managed to rank up your class?” Karri began, continuing without any snarking remarks, “does that mean you’re ready to proceed to the second floor with us?”

Sebas gave her an indecisive gesture, taking another generous bite from the fish half sandwich, blessed by Tom the god of food, of fish… of fried.

“I’ll wait,” Karri said.

Adam gave Sebas a hug, which he reciprocated with a small head pat, and offered him the rest of his sandwich, which was about a bite or two left, “we missed you,” he said before eating the leftover fish.

Sebas wiped his mouth with his hands and swallowed what food he had left, shaking his head after the meal, “I’ve got a mind block,” he said to Karri.

“It isn’t a great thing to have, but it isn’t the end of the world,” she said, looking him over, staring at the word “Biter” on his ID, “can you still use your skills?”

Sebas responded by charging his weapon skill, , and struck towards the empty air. “Is there any way to tell when the alpha horned rabbits are in there? I need like… 4 horns.”

“We will be able to tell, if we pay someone, but it would be better to ask Adam.”

Sebas turned to Adam, who was licking the red fish sauce off of his fingers, before striking a pose. Sebas turned back around and gave her a sideways glance.

She gestured towards Adam again, who was striking a new pose, akin to one would before tossing a ball, flexing his back muscles.

“Adam.”

“Yes big bro!?”

“How.”

“I can ”

He looked over to Karri, then back to Adam, doing a new flexing pose, and looked back at Karri who nodded. “He successfully told me the levels of each monster before I killed them, and he passed my test.”

“Adam, are you secretly a god?”

Adam shrugged with a smile. “I-udunno”

“… oh well, it’ll be fine.”

A loud chime sounded, and the giant red gem turned green at a rapid speed.

“Adam?” Sebas asked, curious, viewing his left eyes pupil change into some sort of blue four pointed star with a circle.

“Stoneman, he’s level 13, annnnnnd he knows [Stone Fist] Level 5, and he has a trait called (Solid Stance)”

“Uhh… I’m not entirely confident in my ability to bite through stone…”

“It would be good to wait for something with flesh, at least for our party dynamic.” Karri said.

“I’m just happy to be included.” Adam said.

“What else do you need for your gauntlets?” Karri asked, which surprised Sebas.

“Karri, I didn’t know you were able to care.”

“I can be convinced otherwise.”

“Merchant called Ito Jella said he can source the broodmother pelt for me, and I have almost an entire ironshell locust exoskeleton, beyond that it’s 4 more alpha horns.”

“Have you asked why your blacksmith wants an iron shell instead of a steel shell?” Karri asked, to which Sebas just shrugged.

Sebas began to speak while sitting against the brickwork, watching “Whenever that man talks about work I’m afraid he’s going to try and do something to me.”

“Like what?” Karri asked while sitting, motioning for Adam to sit down, which the hyper adventurer did swiftly.

“Probably throw me outside again.”

“Gis?”

“I heard you mumbling before about knowing Jenva, how do you know her and her dwarf “hubby”?”

“THEY'RE DATING?” Adam yelled, drawing a crowd of looks directly into their circle.

“Adam, you're a little smooth in the skull.” Sebas said.

“Didn’t you ask the same thing before?”

“How do you know?”

“Jenva told me,” Adam said with a grin.

“I know her from my father, they used to be adventurer partners.”

Sebas looked at Karri who interrupted the tangent before it began, “who’s your father?”

“Mercer Bladewood.”

“Never heard of him.”

“Take this however you want, but for an ex-nobility, you’re a country bumpkin.”

“I will take it negatively I suppose.”

“He’s a big shot mercenary!” Adam exclaimed, before sprawling down on the ground.

“Should we tell him it’s dirty on the ground, and make him sit upright?”

“He’s a free spirit, but he doesn’t care that others might look down on him, it's not a bad thing, since he acts correctly when he deems it the right time.”

“Don’t tell me you partied with him because you were intrigued by his behavior and the underlying character hidden by its facade?”

“I am a mastermind.” Adam claimed, looking up at Sebas from the ground.

“Sure bud, I can see that being the case.”