In a small office, a sharply dressed man works through papers, piling some of them up while he tosses others into the fireplace. He sips some brandy as he watches them burn. Suddenly, a knock sounds from his door.

“Enter.” His tired voice says.

A man with a sword strapped to his waist and leather armour walks in, smelling of sweat.

“Sir, reporting. It was as the hunter said. Only fifteen minutes south from the village, the remains of a glade deer has been found. Another animal corpse was found nearby too, an ox-badger – it appears that it was beaten to death with the glade deer’s head. I’ve never seen such violence.”

“Hmm, I see. You’ve already had the forest marked as a no go area for now?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. I want teams of five at least, patrolling the forest, and focusing on the south side of town”.

“Sir.”

With a salute, the man begins to leave. He places his hand on the doorknob but doesn’t turn it. Looking back as he asks “What do you think it is, sir?”

“For now, assume it’s a ferocious animal. No need to start rumors and scare the villagers.”

He nods as he leaves “Yes sir.”

—

Margie smiled at Jay as he exited the building “Take care of yourself dear.”

Jay smiled and waved as he went out the door.

Entering the courtyard, he found all the new recruits lined up in their respective disciplines – melee, ranged, manacraft – before them was the same man Jay had seen at the gate with the crossbow girl.

He was currently standing on a small wooden podium just in front of the administration building holding a green crystal – similar to the one Sullivan had. They were all faced towards the administration building that Jay just left, and Jay momentarily froze from the stage fright.

The muscular man turned around, frowning at Jay.

“Get into formation” he said in a cold voice.

Scurrying into the melee formation, Jay hoped not to trip over – he felt like he might even forget how to walk from all the mocking eyes glancing at him._.

Waiting for the crowd’s attention to come back to him, the man at the podium began.

“Congratulations on learning some basic skills during training today recruits. I trust it was enlightening.” He said as his eyes momentarily drifted onto Jay ‘Hmm, I wonder if we should teach him about his system before he leaves today… hmm, nah. He’s level five, he’ll be fine,’ he thought. After a pause, he continued with his speech.

“Today, we will be putting your skills to the test.” He said in a confident tone “We will be heading to an unlocked level 2 instanced dungeon called Carter’s Demise. You will pair into parties of two or three – one melee, one ranger – and some of you will have a manacrafter in the party too. You will have one hour to find a partner and add them to your party so you can share experience points. Manacrafters, since there are less of you, you will be able to pick which duo you would like to join.”

Jay had a confused look on his face ‘Experience share? Huh? How am I supposed to join a party?’ but before he gave it any more thought, the man continued.

“Now, usually we would head out into the forest and learn some basic bushcraft so you can all learn how to make some basic weapons, such as wooden spears – however, for undisclosed reasons, the forest is currently off-limits. Your weaponry is not our responsibility, and you are not permitted to use the wooden training swords as they are specially made to deal zero damage, so if you don’t have a weapon yet, you will have to buy a weapon from the village.” He pointed at the gate.

“Lastly, about the dungeon. You’ll be fighting monsters called bayring’s, which will be anywhere from level two, all the way up to level 7 – but you won’t get that deep into the dungeon so don’t worry.” He hushed the crowd with his hands and continued.

“It is an instanced dungeon, meaning each group that goes in will go into a separate, private dungeon – this particular one is named Carter’s demise as it was discovered by an unfortunate man named Carter Bushley. Upon entering the dungeon, there’s a small chance that some of you may trigger an event which sends you into a different level four dungeon. If this happens, exit straight away – then you will be able to retry entry into the level two dungeon. Do not attempt the level four dungeon.” He said with a stern expression.

“On an unrelated note, we are in no way responsible if any of you perish. After the dungeon you can either return here if you’re wounded, or head straight home. Your one hour to find a dungeon partner starts now.”

A cold shiver went over the audience on the last part of his speech, but was soon replaced by talking, chatting, then eventually laughing.

[23 Exp]

As Jay looked around, he smiled, realising he was being freely levelled even while just waiting around doing nothing. Suddenly, he found that many of the other adventurers were staring at him – the only level five there.

His smile disappeared quickly as he stared back at them coldly – and no one approached because of it. No one realised that he was experiencing stage fright again.

Most of the other adventurers were level two, a rare few were level three, while there were no level fours. To say that Jay stood out would be understating it; he was more like a beacon. Thankfully, someone walked out of the crowd and approached Jay, breaking down Jay’s stage fright – as well as the people starting to circle him.

“Hey mate, found anyone to party up with yet?” It was Mark.

“Not yet. I’m a melee class so it looks like I’ve got to find a ranger…”

Mark put his hand under his chin, as he reasoned “Well, not exactly. There’s twice as many melee recruits as there are rangers. We make up about half of all recruits. So at some point, there will be groups of two melee classes together – maybe even groups of two melee’s and a ranger I’m betting.” Mark smiled “But it’s a level two dungeon so they probably only want us in pairs so we each get a decent amount of experience”.

“Oh yeah, good thinking. Maybe if we wait long enough we could party up” Jay said “by the way, how-“

Before Jay could finish his question, he was interrupted by the muscular man’s hand on his shoulder. With a small fright, Jay looked up.

“Jay?” said the man.

“Yes… sir?”

“Michael, but you will call me captain. The guild master wants to see you again. Report immediately.”

Jay pursed his lips “Oh ok”

“Oh ok what?”

“Sorry, Yes captain.” Jay nodded.

Frowning, he made his way through the crowd. Everyone seemed to be excited and smiling except him.

‘Wonder what he wants this time.’ Jay thought. Entering administration, he was greeted by the kind old lady again who similarly told him to head upstairs to Sullivan’s office again. After knocking, the door was opened again with a sulking stare from the same blonde girl as before.

‘This is kind of stupid. Why bring me up here again.’ thought Jay as he sat down.

“Jay. Thanks for coming by again. For the dungeon today, you will be partying up with Anya here.” He gestured at Anya.

“She has been informed of your class and will keep it a secret – obviously, I couldn’t let you party up with the other adventurers or they would see your class.”

Jay looked confused “So people can see your class without a mana conduit?”

“Oh, I suppose you missed today’s lesson about your system. If you’re in a party, yes, along with your attributes, actual health, and mana pool”.

Anya began to walk to the large window behind Sullivan and observe the adventurers running around outside, while Jay was giving Sullivan a confused look “Oh.. ok.. Uhh, so how do I party up?”

Sullivan did a half-smile “Anya here can teach you.” he tilted his head to the left where Anya was standing.

Jay glanced at Anya – still staring out the large window behind the guild master. She turned back to give Jay an uncaring look, before gazing back out the window as she surveyed the recruits.

“Obviously, in exchange you will protect her” said Sullivan with a sinister smile. “..with your life of course”.

Anya looked back and smiled at Jay as Sullivan said this. “Stop scaring him.”

Eyes bulging for a moment as Jay said solemnly “I understand” – He realised his situation, he wasn’t an idiot. ‘They’ve got me by the balls… At least it’s only a level two dungeon’ he thought, ‘I guess I’ll have to play along for now..’ Jay looked conflicted for a moment before he got a notification.

[23 Exp]

Getting more experience points always made Jay smile. Sullivan raised his brows for a moment seeing this. ‘Is he an idiot?’ he wondered.

Anya turned around and cut into the silence “An hour is almost up, and it looks like most have formed duo’s or trio’s. We should get back before more people notice we’re gone.”

“Very well, off you go, and make sure you teach Jay about the system.”

“Yes, F… Sullivan.” she said, then looked at Jay “Let’s go.”

Jay nodded at Sullivan as he got up, following Anya out the doorway and down the stairs as he analysed her.

[Anya – Level 3]

HP 100%

MP 100%

‘Hm, not bad. Looks like she got some extra training yesterday’.

As Jay and Anya left the building and mixed into the crowd, she seemed a little embarrassed by Jay for some reason. She began teaching Jay about the system they kept mentioning.

“The first thing is the most important. Get something from your ugly bag and say ‘inventory’.”

Jay frowned at her rude comment mixed in with the lesson as he did as she said, holding a soap rat tooth.

“Inventory”

[Inventory – 0.01% Full]

The rat tooth disappeared as Jay widened his eyes, he was shocked at first, then quite annoyed. ‘Man, if I knew about this yesterday I would’ve been able to take more loot… dammit…’

Jack continued to take things out of his bag, his frown slowly disappearing until finally he smiled as he took off his bag and said “Inventory”.

Anya pinched the bridge between her eyes “Finally, you were the only one in the crowd with a bag.”

“mmm, oh well.” Jay didn’t care for anyone’s opinion, but he hated awkwardness, so he had to say something.

Sighing, Anya continued. “You probably already know the ‘status’ one since you’re level five. There’s a few others but for now they only teach you map, inventory, status and party.”

“Well, let’s party up?” Jay quizzed her.

“Just look at me and say ‘party’”

Jay tried but nothing happened. “Uh, I’m having some trouble with this one.”

Anya rolled her eyes and stuck out her hand “It might be easier to visualise with a handshake”

Jay reluctantly grabbed her hand and said “party” as he shook it, before receiving a notification.

[Anya had joined the party]

“Sweet” Jay smiled.

“When you get better, you can do it without the handshake, and eventually without having to say the words.” Anya added as she stared at Jay “Huh, so it’s true…”.

Jay realised she must’ve been analysing him. Returning the favour, Jay still needed to say “Status” out loud.

[Anya]

[Ashwind’s Accuser – Level 3]

[HP – 54/54]

[MP – 24/24]

[Strength – 20]

[Dexterity – 30]

[Vitality – 20]

[Energy – 20]

“What the hell is an Ash-” Jay’s sentence was cut off by Anya’s hand over his mouth as she began to whisper in a serious, low voice.

“Tell anyone, and I’ll kill you. Slowly. My class is as secret as yours is.”

Jay nodded as she slowly removed her hand and a dagger which Jay only just realised was there and aimed at his ribs.

“Well, can you tell me about your skills at least?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.” said Anya as she half-smiled while looking around, making sure no one saw her with the dagger.

While waiting for the groups to finish forming, Jay noticed the woman who was making wooden birds from yesterday. Today, she was still looking as bored as ever while she was erecting a tall stone pillar with four sides. After it slowly raised itself from the ground, she then stuck a map on each side, showing where the Carter’s Demise’ dungeon was located.

“Hmm, I wonder what her class is…” Jay could only wonder.

Jay’s map updated with the co-ordinates as Anya shared them in the party.

‘Seems like she already knew where we were going..’ Jay squinted at her.

Once more, the captain grabbed everyone’s attention.

“Ok, now that you’re all partied up, take these map coordinates” he pointed to the stone pillar “and meet us at the bridge on the north side of the village in one hour. You should have enough time to get a weapon and grab some supplies in that time. Usually, we wouldn’t escort you to the dungeon, however the woods may be dangerous right now, so we are taking precautions.”

And with that, he left the podium and went back into the administration building. One by one, the groups of adventurers began to leave through the floating-stone gate.

As Jay left he felt a sharp pair of eyes on him again as he began to walk towards the gate with Anya. ‘Thanks Sullivan’ he sarcastically thought as he shook his head. It was pretty obvious to him now who’s eyes those were.

Jay turned to Anya “Well, I need to get a new dagger so I’m going to have a look in the market area – a weapons merchant came to town yesterday.”

“Ok. I don’t need anything. I’ll be waiting at the bridge. Don’t be late.” she walked off without looking at Jay.

With a tense feeling in his chest from the recent events, Jay sighed and made his way to the fat weapons merchant and the skinny top-knot guy.