Growth Hero

by Brent Tyman

  “Now that your illness is over, should we try for the Dungeon later today?” Vencia was saying to Juliana.

  “I suppose…” Juliana said, seemingly lost in her thoughts.

  “Dungeon?” I asked, perking up and turning from the window out of curiosity. “What’s that?”

  “You know…” Vencia said, but I didn’t, that fact clearly reflected on my face.

  “Ugh, this village of yours must really be behind the times,” she commented.

  “It’s the main attraction of Tringall,” Juliana answered me, motioning towards one end of the carriage.

  “To the north of the city lies a Dungeon where adventurers delve to get stronger. It’s an underground maze, full of monsters, creatures and fiends that provide rewards upon their deaths. It remains one of the top ways to increase one’s stats.”

  “Really? That seems to be exactly what I’m looking for. How do I sign up for this?” I asked excitedly. Diving into a Dungeon where there would be regenerating mobs was a staple RPG mechanic that I definitely wanted to take advantage of.

  “Simply go to the Adventurer’s Guild and they will provide you all the details—in a much more thorough and professional fashion than I can,” Juliana said, smiling. “I can see that this is something you will most certainly do?”

  “Of course,” I grinned. “If I want to survive here, I need to get much stronger than I am now.”

  That was one heck of an understatement. Technically, I couldn’t be any weaker than I was at the moment, so any improvement could only increase my odds of survival.

  “I see,” Juliana said. “As the heir to my Clan, it is expected of me to excel in the Dungeon, demonstrating that I have the power to rule after my father.”

  Juliana was heir to a pretty powerful position of some kind, judging from how she acted, talked and projected. While I did want to ask about it, my mind was squarely focused on one thing.

  “Just to clarify, though, this Adventurers’ Guild sponsors dives into the Dungeon, where adventurers kill these monsters and get experience for stat increases?” I asked.

  “Just so,” Juliana affirmed. “As I said, you can simply head there if you want to pursue this.”

  “Ugh, there will be stiff competition this year on Dungeon levels from the other clans,” Vencia complained with her arms crossed. “And no doubt plenty of weak adventurer’s vying for my Lady’s attention.”

  “Competition for what?” I asked, soaking up all this information like a sponge.

  “Not only has my Lady come of age, but so too have the heirs to the Hoganna Federation and the Yunissa Republic. So many major Clans attempting to gain renown in the Dungeon will naturally attract many eyes.”

  Could a Republic even have heirs? I wondered how that worked, and this wasn’t the first time the ladies had mentioned these ‘Clans’. Just as I was about to inquire, there was a knock on the door to the carriage before it opened.

  Doyle’s familiar head popped into view.

  “My Lady, we have passed the checkpoint into the city,” he said, and that was when I noticed that the carriage had stopped.

  “To the manor as planned, or…?” As Doyle’s eyes met mine, he gave me a solid nod.

  “Glad to see you alive, lad. My Lady said your name was Alex. I won’t forget what you have done for us.”

  “Oh, uhh, thanks Doyle,” I said. I guessed I was glad to see him again, as well.

  “To the manor as planned, Doyle, but Alex says he will disembark here,” Juliana replied in her velvet smooth voice.

  “Very well,” Doyle said, moving back to clear the way.

  “Well, guess I’ll head out,” I said.

  “Please take this,” Juliana said, producing the sword I had swiped off that bandit.

  “This sword actually belonged to one of my guards, but for your service, it is now yours.”

  She held the sword with both hands as she proffered it to me like a noble gift. I took it gently from her and hooked the belt attached to the scabbard around my waist, as I had before.

  My instincts were correct when I’d figured the sword had looked too good for that bandit.

  “Thank you kindly, Juliana,” I replied once it was firmly in place. Her smile couldn’t have been any wider.

  I nodded to both women. “Thanks for the ride, it really has helped me out. Maybe we will meet again in the Dungeon.”

  “Do you know where you are going to stay?” Juliana asked as I got out of the carriage.

  “I haven’t the foggiest, but I’m sure I can figure it out,” I replied, turning around to face the carriage.

  “Our manor is in the High District and we both spend our time at the Academy, due to our lineage. I hope I see you again,” Juliana blurted out as Vencia moved to shut the carriage door.

  “Yeah, me too, and thanks again,” I said with a wave as the door closed and the carriage moved on, followed by the rows of soldiers behind it. I spotted Doyle giving me a final wave as they moved along a wide road deeper into the city.

  I had to admit, I missed the sight of Juliana’s face already.

  With the carriage gone, I looked around and marveled at my surroundings. It was truly incredible, as people from all walks of life hustled and bustled around me.

  I trudged slowly in the same the direction the carriage and soldiers had moved off in. That main road seemed to be where all the action was. There were many houses made of marble, stone, or brick. Though there were also some of them made, apparently, of steel, too.

  I probably wouldn’t choose to live in a steel house, but to each their own.

  In addition to the cat girl I had seen earlier, there were the standard elves and dwarfs from many classic RPG games and mangas. I supposed you couldn’t possibly have a fantasy world without them, but it was strange to see them in the flesh. Besides that, the beast man race was also present, but far more presentable and cleaned up than those bandits.

  There were other races too, but I wasn’t able to put a name to them other than maybe lizard, or bird like people. I would have to meet them properly to find out more about them.

  The more I walked around and saw the sights of this city, the more that Goddess’ words echoed in my mind. Specifically, she said that this world would be more suited to me, and for some reason that felt true. I wasn’t sure how, though, since everything was alien to me.

  The signs were in another language than my own, but I understood them somehow. The air felt fresher here, though there was the occasional whiff of manure or something even more pungent that soured my nose.

  That reminded me that I still hadn’t had to use the restroom. I was sure that would be a less than pleasant experience, living in this type of world. But everything felt so real to me, that although my stats were trash, the belief that I could improve them lit a bonfire in my heart. I felt like I belonged here, and I grinned as I followed the signs to the building I was looking for.

  The Adventurer’s Guild.

  It was time to take my first steps to delving the Dungeon, and I couldn’t wait to get started.

  5

  The layout of this city was fairly simple now that I had walked around for a bit. There was one main road that split the city in half with most of the major services along it that I expected: food stalls, weapon shops, armor shops, tailors and all manner of fantasy styled stores fronted the wide road.

  I had noticed that many of the side-roads that branched out from this main avenue led to either residences or inns. I figured I’d need to traverse them later to find somewhere to sleep.

  The Adventurers’ Guild was so easy to find, that once I did, I had a hard time believing it. There it stood, taking up the space of maybe six shops in total, near what must be the city’s center. It was one of only a few buildings that was more than one story tall.

  All signs along the main road seemed to point here, so perhaps the Adventurer’s Guild had a bigger role in this world than in the other fantasy games I’d played. In any case, this w
as my first step to getting stronger, and it was time to go for it.

  People of all races entered and left the building in droves, in what clearly looked to be party groups. A particularly large group of what I could only describe as giant bipedal lizards with their long snouts and greenish scales bustled out the guild in front of me.

  There were so many of them that I almost bumped into one as I tried to head inside. I bit my tongue in frustration as they shouted and cackled to each other while heading back the way I had come.

  “Make less noise… Jeez,” I muttered as I finally reached the entrance and stepped inside.

  From the outside, it had looked like a giant warehouse, if even fancy warehouses had marble trim around and between all the windows.

  Inside, well…

  “Come join the Raven Heart Clan, the best up and coming Clan in this entire guild.”

  “Recruiting for the Far Reach Clan is well underway! We managed to get to the second floor of the Dungeon in just twenty-seven days!”

  “Applications for the Roost Clan are available; we will accept anyone with at least a five in speed!”

  It was like I had walked into one of those days at my old college where clubs set up booths on campus and tried to recruit new members. The fact that I needed a five in the Speed stat didn’t bode well, but I swept away that tiny piece of doubt as I ignored the recruiters.

  It was just as well that I did, as a professionally dressed lady in a long skirt stormed over to the recruiters with a stern face.

  “I’m sorry, but you must take your recruitment business outside the guild’s grounds. Some members have started to complain.”

  “But…”

  I ignored the very center of the room where all this was happening and looked around. There was a bar like area right next to me where adventurers sat and conversed, while the other side of the room had a large board filled with strips of parchment.

  It all seemed fairly standard so far, as I presumed those scraps were full of requests for adventurers to fulfill. The back of the room was the most interesting to me, though, as that housed the reception area with rows of men and women siting behind desks, like customer service.

  It was a good bet that I’d need to go there first, so I circled around the recruiters and various other adventurers to head to the reception area.

  One thought that came to mind was that while this room was big, it still fell far short of the size I had expected, given its length outside. Could it be that the rest of the building was for the administration of the Guild? That seemed a bit excessive to me. Maybe there was an associated warehouse to store gear or something.

  Luckily, the reception area had little traffic around it, so I simply went to the closest person who was available.

  “Welcome to Tringall’s Adventurer’s Guild. How can I help you, Sir?” a woman with a fairly long ponytail said as I neared. All the receptionists wore a similar uniform, with a fancy, embroidered green blazer over a white top being the main theme.

  “Hi,” I replied back, in just as friendly a tone. “I’m new to this city and was hoping I could sign up to be an adventurer and grind in the Dungeon.”

  “Of course, I can help you with that,” the woman said as she pulled out a stack of papers from under her desk. “I’m not familiar with this ‘grind’ term, but I assume you mean you would like to train in the Dungeon, is that correct?”

  Seriously? Grind wasn’t a term they used here? That was odd, but I shrugged it off.

  “That’s right,” I replied as I pointed to the chair in front of me next to her desk. “May I sit?”

  “By all means,” the woman said as she pulled out one of those feather quills from somewhere. I just knew I would end up missing normal pens, looking at the quill.

  “Please fill out this form Sir, and while you do, I will explain how the guild operates.”

  I liked how formal this woman was. Juliana was right that the guild would explain all the basics to me in a professional manner. The form she gave me was pretty basic, but it asked for my stats, my name, and my place of origin.

  Putting one in all my stats really felt like a kick in the teeth, but my origin was a bit of a trouble spot. I wished I had asked for common village names in the area when I was with Juliana, but I didn’t think they would ask me for where I was from.

  In the end, I just named the town I had actually grown up in back home. If anyone asked, I could say I was new to the country too, or something. The receptionist was explaining the guild’s code of conduct, but paused when I handed her the form back after finishing.

  “Ahh, Sir,” she stopped and looked up with a puzzled expression. “What language is this? I’m afraid I am unfamiliar with it.”

  I was sure she was about to comment on my trash stats, but this question also threw me for a loop.

  “You can’t read that?” I asked, and she shook her head.

  “The symbols are beautiful and very… uniform, but I dare say I haven’t seen any language that resembles this.”

  Well… shit.

  I had to think up an excuse fast.

  “Uhh, it’s an old dialect my mom taught me,” which wasn’t untrue, technically. “It’s the only language she taught me, as well. I’m sorry if my writings isn’t readable… could you just write out the answers for me?”

  “I see,” she said, thinking before she gave me a professional smile. “I certainly can. Let me organize another fresh sheet of parchment.”

  Feeling like I had dodged a bullet, I let out a small sigh of relief when she wasn’t looking. It turned out that, although I could read this language of theirs, I couldn’t write it at all. What a strange problem to have.

  It made me wonder why I could understand anyone around me.

  The receptionist kindly took my answers for the form and wrote them down for me. I tried to keep a straight face when I listed off my stats.

  “Hmm,” she said when we were done with that. “Are you sure you wish to pursue the adventurer’s lifestyle, Sir? It appears you would start at a stark disadvantage, compared to the more common type of applicants we receive.”

  I was fairly sure that was a very polite way of saying my stats were just trash. Well, everyone had to start somewhere. I felt a bit better about it than before.

  “Totally sure,” I affirmed. “This is what I want.”

  “Very well,” she said. “Let me continue with the rest of the guild’s rules, and then what we will expect of you.”

  The rules of the guild could be summed up with ‘don’t be an ass and everything will be fine’ from what I heard next. Fairly standard rules, really, so nothing of note there.

  The juicy part came when she described the Dungeon.

  This world had giant Dungeons that ran from aboveground to deep in the planet’s crust. Most countries had only one, but Tringall was a tad different—in that the city and its environs was more of a city-state, flanked by three nations.

  That was all the receptionist gave me about that tidbit, though.

  As for the Dungeon itself, adventurers would start at the first floor and work their way down through each floor. There was no mention of a Dungeon core or anything like that.

  The goal was simply to keep working one’s way down… endlessly.

  Logic dictated that the Dungeon would surely end somewhere, but no one had ever come close. The farthest a group had cleared was level fifty-two, and that was a group led by ‘Heroes’, as the receptionist called them.

  Heroes were individuals who came along roughly every century or so and possessed incredible power.

  As for me, my priority would be to start out at the first floor and grind through enough monsters to trade in their drops. Every monster, once killed, would drop either its pelt, a scale, or some other material that crafters could use to produce goods.

  I could sell these crafting materials to the guild for coin. The guild had various deals and infrastructure in place for re-selling them to the crafters.

/>   That was the long and short of it, from what I could tell. There were ranks in the guild as well, but that was mostly to ensure that the requests on the board I had seen earlier were appropriately dispersed.

  If someone wanted a specific monster killed for its drop, then they could post a request for it to be fulfilled. Requests were sorted, based on what floor of the Dungeon the monster resided in.

  I gained a copper badge from the receptionist, but I wasn’t too interested in doing any requests. As an avid RPG gamer, the grind was what I focused on the most. I hoped to grind some big gains for my stats.

  “That covers everything in detail, I believe. Would you like to me repeat any particular topic?” the woman asked.

  “No thank you, that was what I needed,” I said as I moved to get up.

  “I do have one suggestion for you,” she said as she grabbed another piece of parchment.

  “Normally most applicants would be fine starting the first level in the Dungeon on their own, but for yourself, I would…” She paused, looking apologetic. “I would strongly recommend you join a Clan.”

  There was that word again, Clan. Juliana had mentioned it before, but I still didn’t know what it meant here, as opposed to what it represented back home.

  “Clans… Can you explain them to me?” I asked, and she smiled.

  “Of course. Clans are like familial bonds, but also extend between a group of non-related individuals. They share their experience together and gain bonuses based on a clan’s size and organization. A good way to think about it, is like the structure of noble houses that govern a nation—if membership in a noble house was available to anyone the clan leader allowed in.”

  Noble houses? She must have meant medieval dynastic houses or something to that effect. Was I able to join one of these Clans as I was now?

  “So, is it like forming a party with other adventurers?”

  “Yes, to some extent,” she confirmed. “Clans extend to every facet of your life, though, not just your experience in the Dungeon. For example, Clans may recruit their own blacksmiths, tailors or armor smiths to craft items solely for its members, which can result in a binding commitment of providing for the Clan. The shared trial of working together in the Dungeon is the origin for the majority of Clans in the city.”