The Human From a Dungeon

Chapter 10

Nick Smith

Adventurer Level: N/A

Human - American

I gazed up at the lovely afternoon sky and sighed. The sun, which was shining brightly as if it were content with its existence, was floating in a sea of light blue. Puffy little clouds slowly floated by without a single care in the world.

I, on the other hand, was looking up at the sky because Nash had once again planted me firmly upon my back. I heard him jump and quickly rolled. His axe buried itself into the ground where I had just been. Wooden or not, that would have hurt.

I got back to my feet and time slowed down once again. He's open, and I'm mad. I activated slide slash and raked my sword directly across his exposed midriff, just under his belly button. I felt elation at my victory, and then a fist slamming into my forehead.

Darkness clouded my vision and I blinked a few times to clear it. Once again, I found myself involuntarily cloud-watching. It occurred to me that this was becoming a very familiar sight. I sighed as I got back onto my feet.

"I think that'll about do it," Nash said, holding his stomach. "You're getting better. Slowly but surely."

"It's going pretty quick to me!" Yulk shouted from the edge of the arena. "It's only been a couple weeks and he's already able to land a killing blow on you!"

"True, but that's due to his skills rather than his skill," Nash nodded sagely. Once he saw our dumbfounded expressions he clarified, "I mean that his knowledge of fighting is low, but his skills themselves are decent. Especially that Time Diminution skill."

"Time Dilation," I corrected. "But you're right, I need more practice."

We had spent the last two weeks trying to unlock more skills, and so far we'd been able to get three. Dash, Power Slash, and Slide Slash. Yulk and I had also been working on magic, which had led to me getting better at hearing that strange muffled voice as well. It announced whenever a skill had been unlocked, and my brothers had no idea what it could be. Neither of them had ever heard anything like it.

They'd both been somewhat concerned when I brought it up, but they seemed to get over that concern when I revealed the latest development. Whenever I thought hard about which skills I had, a list of them would appear in a semi-transparent rectangular box. When I thought about a specific skill it would open another box with a brief explanation of the skill. I thought of the Time Dilation skill and the explanation popped up almost immediately.

--

Time Dilation I

Increases the user's speed to 150% for a very limited time.

Cooldown: 5 minutes

--

"Hey, Nash, do skills level up?" I asked.

"Level up? Not that I know of. You get better at using them the more you use them, though. Like your muscles or your brain," he answered, pointing at his head.

"It's just... when I check the status of my skills some of them have a number one at the end of them," I said as Yulk walked up to us.

"Which implies that the number might get larger if the right circumstances are met," Yulk interjected. "Very interesting. Which skills are you speaking of?"

I pulled up my list of skills and listed off the ones with a number, "Time Dilation, Fireball, Dash, Earthen Dagger, Wind Spear, and Heal."

"Interesting," Yulk said.

"Well with Dash, the more you use it the farther and faster you can go," Nash pointed out. "Maybe it's tracking your progress or something."

"Yes, I think that's it," Yulk agreed. "Fireball, Earthen Dagger, and Heal are similar. The more you heal people the better you get at it, the more you use fireball the bigger and hotter it can get, and the more you use earthen dagger the deadlier the blade that forms."

"Well I'm still worried that nobody else seems to have anything like this," I said.

My brothers looked at each other and back to me as if they didn't hear me properly. Then they started laughing uproariously. I waited for them to stop, but they kept going until tears came out of their eyes. Nash fell to the floor and started rolling. Yulk fell to his knees. After a few more moments I lost my temper.

"WHAT THE HELL IS SO FUNNY?" I demanded.

"Oh, oh no, I'm gonna die," Yulk said between laughs.

"He says he's WORRIED!" Nash shouted before falling into another laughing fit.

"IT'S A VALID CONCERN!" I shouted, making them laugh even harder.

I crossed my arms and waited for them to finally collect themselves. Once they were done laughing and had got back up off the ground, I glared at them. They wiped their tears and patted the dirt off of themselves and turned back to me.

"When you first mentioned the voice talkin' to you I thought you might be crazy," Nash said.

"Same, actually. Hearing non-existent voices is a sure sign of madness. But then you mentioned seeing the box thingies and I knew it had to be something else. Madness takes advantage of what you know, it can't show you things that you don't know," Yulk explained.

"Yeah but what if it's..."

"What if it's what? A trap? What the hell is there to worry about," Nash laughed again. "If it's a trap you're boned, boy. It's already taken hold, so the only thing to do is lean into it and hope for the best."

"He's right. It's a useful tool. Worrying about it is like worrying about having a whittling blade," Yulk chuckled. "Oh no, what if I cut my finger?!"

"Well what if someone else finds out and tries to take it or something?" I asked.

"Then we kill them," Nash said flatly. "Or they kill us. No different than any other situation, really."

"Indeed. There's always someone willing to take something you own. To worry about owning it would result in owning nothing," Yulk nodded.

"Well what if they kill you two and capture me to use as a lab rat?"

"Easier said than done, but in that case just make yourself uncapturable," Nash sneered.

"How?" I pleaded.

"Fight them with every breath and don't pull your punches. Make it clear that either they kill you or you kill them," he explained.

"And even if they do manage to capture you through some sort of trickery, attack them every chance you get. Make certain that they have to constantly be on their toes. It'll exhaust them eventually. Then you avenge us or join us," Yulk grinned.

Before I could continue arguing I noticed one of the orc bystanders waving to get our attention. The size of our audience had grown a lot in the last two weeks, and Nash had even received requests to host our training sessions at certain times of the day. Of course, he ignored these requests and simply said that training happens when it happens.

I pointed out the bystander to my brothers, and they started waving us over. Wanting a break from training with Nash, I started walking over immediately. As I got closer I noticed that the waving orc was actually Irana, the local blacksmith. Unlike most of the orc women, Irana was always fully clothed. Probably due to her profession, but it's an awkward thing to ask so I don't know for sure.

She gave me a wide grin as I approached.

"Hey Nick! I've got you a present!" she exclaimed.

She held out an object wrapped up in brown cloth. There was quiet metallic clank as I took the gift. It was about the length of my arm. Just looking at it I thought it must be a mace, but then I noticed a small curve on one end. Excited, I unwrapped the gift and grinned when I held up the sword.

It was a cutlass, like the kind that pirates use in the movies. The scabbard was made of blackened leather with brass fittings on both ends. The brass on the entrance to the scabbard had a skull and intersecting sabers, and on the other end it had crossed daggers. The hand guard and hilt were also made of brass, and the hand guard featured a nude woman blowing clouds from her mouth and a ship's rigging behind her. The spaces between rope and cloud were actually carved through, and the edges of these holes were sharpened.

"Thank you! This is amazing. What's the occasion?" I asked, awestruck.

"It's a thank you for the entertainment that you've given us for the last couple of weeks. Watching you fight Nash and sling spells on my breaks has been great," she explained, with a murmur of agreement coming from the crowd.

"Well that's out of character for you," Nash grumbled. "What happened to the miserly Irana we all know?"

"Oh, I'm still miserly," she grinned. "This cutlass was commissioned by an elf but he failed to pay in full. There's not a lot of call for cutlasses with half-basket guards around these parts. I'd have to travel to a coastal city to be able to sell it, but it's not worth it to travel that far to sell one blade. So I figured I'd free up the inventory space, show my gratitude, and give Nick one hell of a starting weapon. Win-win-win."

"Yeah, and I'm sure it has nothing to do with currying favor with a new adventurer so that he prefers your shop over the much more reasonably priced shops in the village," Nash said.

"You're confusing reasonably priced with cheap. The other shops get their blades from random places and people, I make my own and they're much better than anything you'll find at those shops," she shot back. "But I can't expect someone whose intellect is rivalled by rocks to understand something like..."

As they argued, I unsheathed the blade to have a look at it. The steel gleamed in the sunlight, and even with my uneducated eyes I could tell it was well made. I turned around and gave it a few practice swings, grinning like an idiot at the swooshing sound it produced. It made me feel ready to take on anything.

"Well?" Yulk asked over the sounds of Nash and Irana arguing.

"I like it," I replied, practicing a punch with the hand guard. "It's a really good sword."

"Good to hear," Yulk grinned. "I heard that the guild lady's back. You want to go get registered?"

"Yes," I said, sheathing my sword.

"Well, let's go," Yulk said in a whisper. "If we hurry, Nash won't even notice we're gone."

"Yes I fucking will," Nash growled. "Where are we going?"

"To the adventurer's guild to get me registered," I answered.

"Fine," Nash said, with Irana giving him a smug look.

"Oh, wait, hold on. You'll be wanting to see the chief before you get registered," Irana interrupted.

"We don't require his permission to get Nick registered. He's officially part of the Alta clan now," Nash argued.

"You thick fuck, just because you don't have to doesn't mean you don't have to. Or would you rather Nick have difficulty finding a first job because Gluhern's pissed at you?" she crossed her arms. "Or maybe you'd rather that first job be hunting giant rats?"

"Oh no," I whispered. "Why's it always rats?"

"Huh?" Nash asked with a degree of hostility in his voice.

"Nothing," I quickly replied, knowing he wouldn't get the joke. "Let's go see the chief. There's no harm in it, right?"

Nash actually growled and turned away from the conversation. Losing two arguments in a row against Irana had to be bad for his ego. It was certainly bad for his mood. We all quietly decided to give him a few moments to calm down.

"FINE," he finally shouted. "Fuck it, let's go see the chief."

And so we did. We still got stares along the way, but some of those stares were followed by a wave. I hadn't exactly been a social butterfly, but getting dragged around by Nash and Yulk had resulted in making a few new friends. Like Irana the blacksmith, Korno the chef, and Multova the merchant.

When we finally got to the chief's chambers we were told we couldn't go in immediately. Yulk and Nash shared a look of concern with each other. After ten minutes or so an orc rushed out without even looking at us. He was wearing a bright green bandanna around his neck with two horses rearing away from each other on the back. He was followed by Alurn, who gave us a nod as he passed. We were then ushered in to see the chief.

"Ah, the diabolical duo seems to have transformed into the troublesome trio. Very good timing as well, but we'll get to that. What brings you here?" Chief Gluhern asked.

"We wanna register Nick with the adventurer's guild," Nash answered. "Irana told us to see you first."

Gluhern chuckled, "Well, well, well. Isn't this a remarkable coincidence? I was right about to send for you regarding this very issue."

"You want Nick to register as an adventurer because High Chief wants you to arrange a meeting between himself and Nick?" Yulk asked, ducking a thrown goblet.

"DON'T SPOIL MY REVEALS, SORCERER!" Gluhern shouted.

"Why would I have to register as an adventurer to see the High Chief?" I hesitantly asked.

"A bunch of reasons," Nash explained. "There are routes which shave weeks off of your travel time that civilians aren't allowed to use because they're dangerous. Most of the adventuring organizations can grant permits to travel these roads thanks to negotiations between them and the various governments."

"That's the main reason, but there's also a political aspect. Ulurmak is curious about you and wants to meet you. But that's not something that a High Chief does," Gluhern added. "It could be seen as an indulgence. Most of the Great Chiefs wouldn't care, but there are those who would use it to frame High Chief Ulurmak as a lay-about."

"Ah, that's true too," Yulk nodded. "Though it would be unlikely to result in rebellion. It would be more likely that Ulurmak would have to grant concessions."

"Okay, I understand," I said. "But can I check out the dungeon before seeing the High Chief?"

Nash and Yulk turned to give me a look. The kind of look one gives a child who is trying to run before they can crawl.

"Actually, that was the plan," Gluhern said.

My brother's heads snapped around to look at the chief in shock. Nash started to object but Gluhern held up a hand to stop him.

"Things are getting weird with the new dungeon area. The dungeon has shifted a total of three times since the boss has been encountered, but the hidden area and its entrance remain unchanged. We were hoping that the barrier would be able to contain the threat until the dungeon gets rid of it naturally, but that doesn't seem to be happening," Gluhern sighed. "High Chief Ulurmak is sending a team of over-twenties to investigate the phenomena and destroy the boss."

"Over-twenties?" Yulk whistled softly.

"Yes. And it would be better if they could take Nick along when they perform their initial investigation. There might be things he can shed light on. I'd rather he not take part in the fight, though," Gluhern said. "This isn't a time-sensitive mission, so it should be fine if you accompany them. Actually, Nash, you definitely should. You'd be able to help guide them to where you found Nick, right?"

"Yeah, probably," Nash admitted.

"Good, hopefully this will shed some light on..."

The orcs continued discussing the plan but I zoned out because of the blood rushing to my head. Here it was, the chance to find out more about what the hell happened to me. Even a hint might put me on the path to getting home. My mind was flooded with excitement at the possibility, and dread at the thought of finding nothing.

"And I'll grab some charcoal and paper to do rubbings just in case. When are we setting out?" Yulk asked.

"One of the over-twenties has already arrived. The rest should be here within the next couple of days, so you'll be entering the dungeon by the end of the week," Gluhern answered. "That should give you plenty of time to prepare. We're not expecting any danger, but..."

"Better safe than sorry," Nash nodded. "Understood, chief. Alright Nick, let's go get you registered as an adventurer."

Finally.