First, stable dungeons are all owned by the State, which has the sole right to lease and regulate access to them as it sees fit. Second, the Army and Guards may, at their discretion, enter and clear any dungeon deemed a clear and present danger if – and only if – Delvers are not present before they enter.
Generally when you catch someone entering or leaving an unstable dungeon, they are committing a serious crime. Sometimes it's the local town’s Guard. Rarely, it's the Army, and you smile politely and thank them for their service. Don’t fuck with the Army. But you can fuck with the Guards a little bit. They’re almost always assholes, anyway.
- Delver’s Guild Handbook, Section 10.3 – “Delver’s Legal Rights to a Dungeon”
The rest of the day passed swiftly. We piled up and burned the bodies of the rattlescorps before we moved on, but made good time after that. We stayed on the move for several hours without any more monster attacks. Mason finally directed us off the path and we moved south towards a nearby cliff of the Shadow Hills.
The area Hassan had picked for our camp was a slab of thick, fairly flat rock right up against the cliff face. It felt much more exposed to me than the cave we’d been in the night before, but we also didn’t have to fight any spiderwolves for it.
Mason and Hassan were disappointed to realize that I couldn’t re-infuse my gun with Create Bread until the next day. I asked if they could cast the infusion for me, but apparently that wasn’t possible. Instead of playing tag with Raylan, I ended up working on my precision shooting with my slugs and more of Hassan’s Illusions while Raylan worked with Mason. The Archer was able to give me a few tips on things like my stance, showing me that I could put more weight on my front foot to help absorb the recoil of the gun.
The additional practice was really useful, and I was pretty sure the extra Level in my Shotgun Skill was helping me improve faster than I would normally. That was critical because I couldn’t shoot many times with the slugs using so many mana for each shot. All too soon I was out of mana and Hassan had me go join Mason and Raylan while he went off to look for something to supplement our rations for dinner.
Mason was sparring with Raylan with a training sword against Raylan’s knives. When he saw me approaching, he stopped the bout and gave me one of his slightly scary smiles.
“Az, how are you with a blade?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I was better than most of the kids in Sunland, but I don’t know if that means shit out here.”
He laughed and tossed me the blunted training sword. It was small for him, but still a bit heavy for me. At least I had more Strength than I used to, thanks to my Levels. I took a guard stance and faced the Knife Fighter.
At first, I was able to use my reach advantage with the longer blade to keep him away from me, but he was slippery and when he managed to close the distance I struggled to evade and block his attacks. His Swift Strikes Skill, combined with the inherent quickness of his knives, definitely outclassed my speed even with my improved Dexterity. After several minutes Mason had us stop.
“Az, you’re better than I expected. Good balance and anticipation, but obviously the lack of Skills is holding you back. Still, I think you’re good enough to push Raylan for at least a couple more Levels.
“Now, we’re going to work on something a bit different. With short blades like knives you almost always have a reach disadvantage in a fight with another person. The goal is to be able to close that gap with both skills and Skills, getting close enough to seize the advantage. But that isn’t always easy.
“Sometimes you have to accept a hit in order to get through your opponent’s defenses. What we’re going to do now is simple. You’ll spar as normal, but whenever I call out ‘go’, you’ll instantly attack all-out, doing whatever it takes to get through Az’s defense and striking her a minimum of three times. If either of you feel your barrier is close to breaking, call out and step back and we’ll wait for it to recover before going again. Clear?”
“Can I use Quick Step?” Raylan asked.
“No, that would defeat the point of the drill, since Az has no counter for it. In that situation you shouldn’t need to get hit at all. The assumption here is that you’re unable to penetrate her defenses any other way.”
Raylan nodded with a grim expression and I copied him. Shit, I’m glad I’m not the one training to sacrifice my body to get up close with an enemy!
The first time Mason called ‘go’ I was just starting a thrust, and Raylan almost impaled himself on my blade as he responded to the command in Mason’s voice. We went back and forth for several rounds and I noticed that Mason always called ‘go’ when I had a momentary advantage, forcing Raylan to move into strike after strike. Each time, I noticed his follow-up attacks coming faster and harder as he tried to get me back for all the hits he was taking.
Raylan’s barrier gave out first, which wasn’t a surprise since I doubted he’d put many, if any, free points into it. I’d managed to drive him back with a flurry of hard blows and was ready and waiting when Mason called ‘go’. As Raylan lunged for me, I stepped to the side and whipped my blade across. I saw his barrier flare as it shattered, and then my training sword smashed into his body just below the leather of his cuirass.
My blade was rising as I slashed and the placement was perfect. The combination of my hard cut and his forward momentum almost folded him in half around my blunted blade. I stepped back in alarm as Raylan collapsed to the ground, wheezing.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Nothing serious,” she reported. “Fractured t’ bottom rib and a spot of internal bleeding, but easy enough to fix. You want t’ usual?”
Mason nodded, and the glow intensified for a moment before she stood and she jogged off towards Elin. Mason looked at Raylan, who was still on the ground, and said, “You’ve got until your barrier is recharged, then I want you up and going again.”
My eyes widened. “Can’t he have a little time to recover? I hit him really hard, I’m sorry Raylan.”
“Two points,” Mason stated firmly. “First, he should have called for a stop before his barrier broke. Second, while I don’t want my students getting hurt sparring, fighting through pain is a valuable lesson and I won’t waste the opportunity for you to learn that when it arises.”
Scowling, I went over to Raylan and helped him to sit up. “Are you OK?” I asked, and he nodded shakily.
“I’ll be fine,” he replied in a pained voice.
“What’s the usual?” I asked, curious. It was Mason who answered.
“Fix the damage, but leave the pain. And before you complain, you should know that it’s the standard Guild approach to training injuries, even with veterans. It’s also often necessary,” he emphasized the word, “in a real combat situation. Healers need to conserve their mana and dulling pain, while cheap, still takes mana that might be needed to save someone’s life later.”
I reached up and lightly touched the scar running down my face.
“Well, I know all about Healers running out of mana… but leaving the pain when it isn’t necessary sounds… uncivilized,” I replied after a moment. I had thought about saying barbaric, but changed my mind at the last second.
Mason just laughed and gestured expansively at the desolate landscape below us.
“What about this makes you think we’re in civilization right now? The Guild rarely operates in what anyone would call civilization, and the monsters certainly don’t give a shit what you think. Truth is, I've seen time and time again that pain is an excellent teacher. In fact, most of my teachers learned at a time when you literally started sparring matches by taking turns swinging at each other until both people’s barrier were down. Then the real match actually started.”
I stared at Mason with a suddenly dry throat. I’d been intimidated by him before, for sure, but this was a new type of scary. The mindset needed for that kind of training was… different. I’d picked up more than my share of bumps and bruises sparring before the Tutorial, but for the most part we were always paired up with an adult who had a barrier.
We were allowed to hit them as hard as we could, while they were good about pulling their strikes so they didn’t hurt us. Now that I had my own barrier, the idea of just standing there and letting someone break it, specifically so that it would hurt if I got hit afterwards… I shuddered.
The training session only got more intense after that, with Mason scolding me several times for not taking full advantage of Raylan’s ginger movements. At least we were both careful to call a stop before our barriers could break, so I supposed that Mason was right about us learning that lesson. We eventually had to stop when our stamina was running low, both soaked in sweat and breathing hard.
Hassan had returned without meat but with some fresh yucca, and he had cut it into strips like fries and was searing them on the camp stove. With just a tiny bit of oil, they were much less tasty than the fries we’d had back at the inn, but I’d eaten plenty of plain yucca over the years and didn’t complain. Mason assigned watches again, and this time I was on second watch with Hassan.
“Set an alarm for 2230,” he instructed me, “and try to get as much sleep as you can before then.”
How do I… “PAST, can you wake me up at 2230?”
[Of course, Citizen! I shall wake you without fail!]
I crawled into my bedroll and was asleep before the last of the twilight had faded.
I awoke to an awful blaring sound in my head. “Stop! I’m awake already! PAST, what in the hells is that noise?!”
[It is not NOISE, Gunner! That is the noble Reveille of the United States Army, calling you to do your duty!]
I groaned softly. “PAST, never play that again.”
[It is the alarm you requested, Citizen!]
“Display my alarm settings, then!”
System Alarm Settings:
Alarm Volume: reduced | normal | enhanced
Alarm Selection (free): Reveille | PAST’s Anthem
Alarm Selection (paid): Star Spangled Banner | rooster | chime | custom
...
Piece of shit! I already hate Reveille and I’m sure I’d hate whatever the fuck PAST’s Anthem is even more!
“PAST, set alarm volume to reduced.”
[Of course, Citizen! I will of course increase the volume if you fail to awaken promptly!]
I summoned my armor as I climbed out of my bedroll, nodding at Raylan who was already heading for his own. Hassan’s armor had turned black, a silent shadow lurking near the cliff. I paced quietly around the camp to keep myself awake, the moon providing enough light to avoid tripping.
It felt like our watch was nearing its end when I heard a soft sound behind me. I turned and was surprised to see not Hassan, but Mason, approaching. In the moonlight he was again oddly colorless, the way I’d first seen him up close in the town square after the Tutorial. It was like all of the colors had fled from him, leaving only black and shades of grey behind.
“What’s going on?” I whispered as softly as I could. Mason put his finger to his lips for a moment, then pulled out a small cube-shaped object. It glowed faintly, and I felt the air still around me. A privacy ward, I realized. I’d heard of them, but never seen one before.
“We can talk normally now,” he said. “Hassan thinks he spotted a dungeon portal and he’s going to investigate.”