There was a whoosh as the Firebolt slipped through the air like a snake in the water and then connected with the giant cave-bat. It let out a shriek before it dropped to the ground with a thump.

A window popped up almost immediately.

Battle won!

Calculating experience!

Experience earned!

Gained 3 experience!

“See? I told you I could hit it easier then you could,” gloated Erica, looking to Tom.

“Hey, you can both hit it better than me or Roland,” Nick said, walking over to the bat. Pulling out his hunting knife he started to get to work on processing the monster. “All I can do is hop around and shout at it angrily while waving my poleaxe at it.

“Might as well take a crap on me and then go back to sleep on the ceiling. Not like I could do anything about it if it decided that was what it wanted to do. Need something ranged. Even having rocks to throw would work.”

Utilizing the practice he’d gotten recently, Nick was able to butcher the bat efficiently. He imagined he could do it much faster once he got a great deal more practice, but for day one he was fine.

Whoever gave the quest to Sara would likely be fine with the results he imagined, though most probably wishing it could be better.

Thats what you get when you want to hire a rookie though. Rookie results and numbers.

Sighing, Nick finished up and put everything from the carcass he needed into its own skin, then tied it shut. The rest of the corpse was left there on the ground.

The Dungeon itself would reabsorb it and utilize its materials for something else.

“Thats it for us,” grumbled Randal. “Time for lunch and to turn in our quests.”

He’d been about as useful as Nick had been over the last hour while hunting cave-bats. Between the two of them they’d just stood around in front of Erica and Tom, keeping the cave-bats from really getting in close to the two distance combatants of the group.

“Alright. I still have one to go,” Nick said, getting to his feet. “I’ll just lead one into a tunnel where it can’t get away.”

“Okay. Let’s meet up again tomorrow,” Erica said with an enthusiastic tone and smile. “We can pick up some quests and do them together as a group!”

Nick glanced at Randal who he expected to disagree firmly on that suggestion. After all, he was the one who had been the issue at the start.

“Good idea,” Randal said with a nod of his head. “We did better with the four of us. Would you care to join us, Nick?”

Buh… that’s… unexpected.

So, he really is an asshole, but he does know it and can reflect on it. How very interesting.

“People are strange,” murmured Lucian. “Dragons, Elves, Humans, Sex-Demons, we can all be multiple things at the same time. While also being opposite of our nature.

“Except for Gnomes. They’re just gremlins one-hundred percent of the time. The only good gnome is a dead one.”

“Sure,” Nick said, not responding to Lucian. “That’d be great. I’ll catch up to you guys tomorrow morning and we’ll see what’s what, yeah?”

“Great,” Tom said, looking rather pleased. The three of them started to troop back out of the dungeon. They’d have two caverns and a turn to pass through before they got back to the six doors.

Once the three got a certain distance away Nick got a notification that he was no longer part of their group. The maximum distance had been reached and he’d been forcefully removed.

Taking in a slow breath Nick looked around, then called up his quests.

Quest!

Bat-boy: Catch, kill, and process ten giant cave-bats. (Complete!)

Quest!

Truly Outrageous: Collect twenty magic gems/cores from any creature in the dungeon. (Complete!)

“That really did go a lot quicker with a group,” Nick said under his breath. “Given our experience penalty, we need to focus on grouping up. That or high experience single target monsters.”

That thought is why Nick had lied about his quests. He needed to test himself against something stronger than all this. Something that could give him a greater deal of experience in comparison to his own level.

And that meant going down a level or two in the dungeon.

In the Ashcroft City-Dungeon, there was ten levels. The first five were meant for the starting classes. A place to refine their Skills and party roles.

After that the five remaining levels were all meant for the first promotion classes. Where the vast majority of adventurers would discover what their role in life would truly be. There was no real way to backstep a class promotion once taken.

Now that his party had left, and indeed many more people were leaving the dungeon for hteir own lunch break and to turn quests in, Nick would have his chance.

Working his way back to the room of six doors, he immediately went through the sixth and was met with a surprise.

Standing there were two adventurers who looked very bored. They were playing what looked like a board-game between the two of them. Both were men, though one was dressed in ring-mail, and the second in hard leather armor.

Behind them were multiple sets of stairs. There looked to be four of them. One of them had a wooden trap-door over the top of it that had a lock on it.

“Hey,” said the one in leather when they looked up from the board. “New here? Haven’t seen you before.”

“Uh, yeah,” Nick said honestly. He had no idea what this was.

The man grunted at that and looked back to the board game.

“You can proceed to floors two through four,” said the man in mail armor and then moved one of the game-board tokens. “To do floor five you need the quest from the guild to fight the sub-boss of the dungeon. Before you ask why, it’s because it only spawns once every several hours. Letting people do whatever they want all willy nilly would be just stupid.”

“And that’s why we’re here,” said the man in leather. “We’re rank fours and hired by the guild to make sure the rules are followed.”

Glancing up from the board the mail-clad adventurer watched Nick for a few seconds.

“Damn, you’re a complete greenhorn, aintcha? You don’t know what ranks are,” stated the man. “Ranks one through three are how far along in your initial class you are. Four to six are your first promotion. Seven to nine are your second promotion. Rank tens are reserved for those who have reached the end of their class line.”

“Oh,” Nick said in a flat tone. It made almost too much sense. For both guards to be here, and the ranking system. The more he saw the more he believed the guild was really just a government agency. Functioning to keep everything working in the right direction. “Uhm… where should I go to challenge myself a bit? I want to stretch myself to work a little harder than just goblins or cave-bats.”

“Hell if I know,” grumbled the leather armored adventurer. “It’s not like I know who you are or what you can do.

“What I can say though is if you’re looking for a challenge, floor four. Starts spawning hob-goblins. They can be kitted out just like an adventurer and that’s where most people die. If they manage to die in the first four floors at all, that is.”

“It’s not impossible. Remember Josh? He got his dumbass killed by going after three goblins by himself. Penned him in,” argued the one in mail. “Anyways, yeah, there ya go. Have a nice day.”

The two adventurers seemed more interested in their game than dealing with Nick. Not that he could blame them.

Taking that as his cue, Nick moved past the two adventurers and entered the stairwell that was labeled “4”. Though he did notice that both men turned to watch him when he got close to the locked and closed door.

They might be willing to ignore him to a degree, but they instantly went on alert when he got closer to the goal of their job. He couldn’t just try and make a play to get past them.

Entering the stairwell Nick moved down and into the darkness below.

No sooner than he reached the bottom than the entirety of the area changed. From cave, to castle-like interior. There were even included banners, furniture, and everything that would make it feel correct.

Weird. Castle underground.

Stepping out into a hallway Nick could distantly hear the sounds of battle. That meant that there was most certainly another group somewhere on this floor.

No need to get involved with them.

Unsure of which way to go, and not really wanting to map out the interior at the moment, Nick simply continued in a straight line. Walking down the hallway that lead straight back to the stairs without looking to the side passages. They didn’t interest him at the moment.

Up ahead of himself Nick could see what looked to be a large man in a mail-haubrek and a full-helm that covered most of his head. In his hands was a fairly large two-handed sword.

Grimacing, Nick wasn’t sure if he should just turn around. There seemed to be more people than he expected and at this point he’d rather turn around.

The large man turned Nick’s way as if he sensed his presence.

Except it was no man.

Uncovered and glaring at him was the face of a brutish looking goblin. Tusks jutted up from the lower-lip and the brow looked considerably thicker than a normal goblin.

A roar slipped free from it’s mouth before it charged straight at him.

“Chain mail. Our axe blade won’t work on it. The spike might be too wide to slip through the chain mail, too,” surmised Lucian. “I’d recommend the hammer. A crushing attack is a crushing attack, after all. Mail will do nothing to stop it at all.”

Agreeing with Lucian Nick gave the poleaxe a roll, moving the hammer head on the weapon to the front. Nor did it hurt that he was growing quite fond of the hammerhead. It could just as easily punch through flesh with enough force as it could crush something.

At the same time Nick could feel the strange boiling and burning sensation traveling up from his chest again. What Lucian had termed blood lust.

He could feel a heat on his face that had nothing to do with the environment. His body had a slight tingle running up and down through it as well.

Thrusting out with the entirety of the two-handed sword the Hob-goblin made a lunge for the center of Nick’s chest.

The attack was fast and heavy. To the point that Nick honestly felt like he was acting too slow.

In fact, his attempt to deflect the sword to one side with his poleaxe was indeed not fast enough. The long-blade of his foe slipping past the head of his own weapon and continuing on.

Nick had also attempted to side-step as well, not trusting entirely to his ability to parry the attack coming his way. His feet slid across the stone-floor and gave him just enough clearance to escape the attack.

But not entirely.

Scraping along his shoulder armor, the two-handed sword sliced it neatly and managed to reach Nick’s flesh beneath. Pain instantly flared up at the point that he was struck and Nick watched was twelve percent of his health-bar fled.

“He is beyond us in strength and stamina. We can’t afford to make a mistake,” cautioned Lucian. “We have only speed and agility on our side. Of which we are only marginally better.”

“Ya think, you dopey ba-”

Nick’s words were cut off as the Hob-goblin collected itself before Nick could respond, and swung its weapon in a horizontal slash.

Unable to dodge it, or side-step it, Nick instead moved right up and into the personal space of his foe. The moment the Hob-goblin’s arms bounced against his shoulder Nick took a nearly leaping step backward and swung out with his poleaxe.

While the stroke was going to be short on the arc of the swing Nick, nor could he truly twist and put his weight into the blow, he did all he could to lever the swing with his hands.

He did try to activate Slam, but the conditions weren’t exactly met. The range and lack of power made it so the Skill failed to start properly.

Smashing into the left side of the Hob-goblin’s chest Nick was rewarded with a solid strike.

There was no pop-up confirming a critical strike or anything of that nature, but he’d at least landed the hit. At that moment the Hob-goblin stumbled to one side and then regained its footing.

It looked to Nick with a great deal more wariness now. As well as Nick’s weapon.

“What, not a fan of gettin’ hit?” Nick asked, shifting his poleaxe into a raised guard position. He could bring it down in an over-head Slam attack if given the opportunity. “Come on over, I’ll ring that pretty head of yours like a bell.”

Bearing its teeth, the Hob started to move toward Nick again. Its sword had a good reach but was still shorter than Nick’s poleaxe.

Focusing entirely on the head of the poleaxe the Hob didn’t even realize it was in trouble. Right up to the moment that Nick shoved the pointed ferrule on the bottom of his weapon into it’s face.

Hideous was the scream it let out as the point dug in deep upon the Hob’s cheek and jaw. Jerking to one side the creature dislodged the weapon as well as half of it’s cheek.

The fucking shit? I hit it’s face, not it’s head.

Why does a helmet negate a critical to the face!

That’s not fair at all.

Retreating a half-step Nick brought the head of his poleaxe around again, pointing it toward the Hob’s feet.

“Well aint you pretty now Hobby,” said Nick, feeling far more comfortable. This was a monster that could easily kill him if it caught him. Right now though, Nick had the upper hand.

So long as he was on his toes it seemed like he could fight one to one with a Hob-goblin.

Swinging back with the poleaxe Nick brought it down and low. Much like he was going to swing it upward toward the Hob’s knees.

No sooner than the Hob brought his blade around to block low, then Nick flicked the poleaxe behind himself. Then brought it around in a full over-head swing.

There was a loud clang as the hammer portion came down perfectly atop the Hob’s head. It made a ringing sound almost like a kettle being struck.

“Rang your bell you green piece of shit,”Nick said as the Hob’s feet went out from under him. As soon as the Hob hit the ground several windows popped up.

Hob-goblin slain!

Battle won!

Calculating experience!

Experience earned!

Gained 42 experience!

“Oh, nice, he was worth a bit,” Nick said, letting his poleaxe move off to the side. Thankfully he hadn’t broken the skin or caused any blood-loss, so there was no need to clean the weapon. “Shame he won’t drop his armaments. He’s probably got a core and that’s it.”

As he spoke, the armor the Hob wore, as well as his weapon, vanished. In seconds only his body remained. Even that would dissipate to nothing in little more than a minute or two.

The Dungeon was greedy and never let anything leave that it didn’t have to. There was no loot to be had in a dungeon other than what you could harvest directly from a body, or it’s magical core.

Pulling out his hunting knife, Nick set to work.

Processing a Hob will be a learning experience.

No sooner than the hunting knife punched through the muscled stomach the Hob’s guts burst outward toward Nick. The small incision apparently being too much for it’s body to handle.

A messy… learning experience. Ugh.

Though, I wonder why the group didn’t process the regular goblin. No one even suggested it.

Hm.

***

Walking into the adventurer’s guild Nick found that it was mostly empty. He was once again arriving when everyone else was leaving.

It seemed to be his luck right now that he was quite literally going the wrong way at almost every time.

Looking to the front desk area he found Sara wasn’t at the counter space. There were a number of people who Nick didn’t recognize.

Shrugging his shoulders, he queued up and got in line. There was no sense in trying to force something like encountering Sara at the moment.

Standing in line he waited his turn. He just let his thoughts wander and did very little useful thinking. Letting it wander off in any direction it liked without a worry.

Enjoying being amongst a great many people who didn’t see him as scum for being the Executioner’s son.

“Next please.”

The voice tore through his thoughts and popped him right back to reality.

Walking up to the desk he found that he had a young man waiting for him behind the desk. Looking much like anyone Nick could meet he didn’t seem that out of the ordinary with brown hair and blue eyes.

“Hi, I’m here to turn in two quests I picked up,” Nick said, then held the two papers out that Sara had given him.

“Oh, alright,” said the man, taking the quest sheets for him. Reading over them the young man nodded his head then left without another word.

Nick decided this would be a good opportunity to check his status window.

Thinking on it, he called it up.

Name: Dominic Randolph

Race: Human

Class: Fighter

Strength: 17

Dexterity: 13

Stamina: 15

Intelligence: 13

Wisdom: 10

Charisma: 09

Equipment-

Head: Leather Helmet

Shoulder: Leather-pads

Hands: Leather Gauntlets

Chest: Plated Leather Chestguard

Forearm: Leather Bracers

Waist: Leather Belt

Legs: Leather Tassets/Greaves

Feet: Leather Boots

Back: Dimensional Backpack

Left Hand: None

Right Hand: None

Level: 3(146)/3(189)/3(200)/3(154)

Experience: 13/13/13/13

Hitpoints: 362

Mana: 312

Nice. Normally I’d get a single hit point or mana point per level but… it’s for every single level on every class.

Though… wait… I can change my class. Can I change it to a level one class and then… level up more? Would it increase my hit points and mana even higher?

If I do this right, I can really abuse things.

But… it’s not going to happen quickly. Its not going to be something that happens overnight.

Suddenly, a blue message box appeared in front of him.

Quest!

Growing Roots: Reach level Five as a Prince in Hiding!

“What?” Nick asked under his breath. He hadn’t expected a quest to simply appear like that. It was almost as if it was in response to his thoughts.

“Yes… about that,” murmured Lucian. “The land recognizes you as the king as your bloodline was the one who formed the country as it exists today. It’s very likely we’ll receive constant quests from the land itself. The rewards are… unknown as the land isn’t really alive. It isn’t a spirit or a person.

“The quests themselves could end up being detrimental to our cause as well. It isn’t as if the land would really understand our needs.”

Letting out a slow breath, Nick closed the screen and then stood there.

Waiting for the person assisting him to come back.

He contemplated the fact that the land wanted to help him but that there was no guarantee it would actually be helpful. Almost like a semi-wild animal that wasn’t sure if it wanted to lick you, or bite you.