07

Charles stayed in the dungeon another week, trying to farm as many levels as possible before going into the outside world. He roamed all the floors below the desert, avoiding the enemies that he knew were too strong for him and at the same time trying to get some variety. In the end, however, he decided to stop because he was not gaining anything from all this killing. Barely two levels, and a whole week alone with his thoughts were enough to have him decide to leave.

He went for the stairway leading down, with his precious ring still on his finger, filled to the brim with materials and monster corpses now. Its level was unchanged, but it was just a minor issue given the enormous size of its internal space.

As he went down, he looked around at the now familiar sights of the caverns. He was fed up with this place. Maybe the higher floors would be more interesting, and the desert and the forest were a good sign that indeed higher floors tended to be more varied, but he could not go there yet. The monsters got too strong too quickly, and he wasn’t that much better off now than he was when he fought the fire wolf before. In fact, the only difference was that he had a lot more weapons in his ring to potentially destroy, because his gain in levels was still too little to actually matter.

There were a few possible reasons why the monsters got so much stronger on the higher floors, but he didn’t care about it enough to investigate it. There was nothing to be gained by knowing that, for now, and so he postponed his investigation.

In the end, it was time to leave. His plan once he got out, was to build a workshop and begin building up a nice technological base in this world. Smelting a couple iron rods to use with the railgun would be quite easy with the right tools, given that he could find the iron. As soon as he had his ammo, then going up in this dungeon would be child’s play.

Without his gun, he was powerless. Without it he was basically a weakling in this world, and everything that could help him was locked beyond the metaphorical door of having the right equipment and resources. He was forced to go the technological route since he had no system, but to do so he needed to get out of here and get his hands on some stuff first.

And he still had no connection to Eve. The ever-present AI of the empire, the only one that was always there for him. The only one that could always help him.

He reached the stairway and descended down another level. The monsters here were inconsequential to him now, as the LAI made short work of them on the way to the next ramp. There were a few parties of people here and there, but without his advantage Charles did not feel like approaching them and kept his distance. They looked weak, but looks can be deceiving. It was only a momentary setback, just until he had his lasers. Then he would walk with his head up high and just disregard anything and everything.

The more he went down, the more people appeared. Many of them did not look strong in the slightest, struggling against creatures that not even he would ever consider dangerous. Their equipment was almost nonexistent and their techniques crude and overall bad. It led Charles to think that those people were not professional delvers like the party he met on the higher floors, but rather poor people trying to make some coin by hunting here.

Perhaps they even tried to get stronger, but were being slowed down to almost a crawl by the dungeon’s very rules. Only the rich who could afford good equipment could make the jump to the higher floors and earn real levels. Or, perhaps, it took a lot of time. He had made more than fifty levels in a couple of weeks, but he suspected that the overpowered party that he killed had been dungeoneering for decades at least. If he had a decade here, then he too would become quite powerful.

This was just his theory, though, since he had no idea about what kind of society he would find once he stepped out of this place. He predicted that it would be a middle ages cliché fantasy society, considering the swords and armor, but he was not sure.

Finally, the first floor appeared before his eyes. There was a tall white archway in the middle of an empty room. People were appearing out of thin air in the middle of the archway, where a dark mist hid what laid beyond. The rest of the floor was populated with parties who had just gotten here and were fixing their equipment before proceeding. The vast majority of people were human, and even though all of them were definitely humanoid, there were a few notable mentions.

Beast people. They existed here in this world, apparently. The wet dream of all those Japanese manga characters was actual reality here, and Charles wasn’t sure what to think of them. Yes, the fluffy ears were cute and all, but that was it. A tail here and there, perhaps. Slitted eyes too, but those were not new to him as a few people in the Empire had them as well. He could have had them, but he refused the implant when it was offered to him. In hindsight it was a bad choice, but he had no idea at the time that he would have been transported into a dungeon.

There was an elf together with a party of humans. A human with a party of elves too. Some other strange people, but in truth Charles was so annoyed at the place and at the considerable amount of chatting people that he decided to barrel through the crowd while ignoring them all. The fucking crowd. He hated crowds, they were unruly, stupid and overall disgusting. The amalgam of people, each and every one of them seemingly actively working towards annoying him the greatest amount possible.

Some were in his way, some others did not notice him and went in the way, others still elbowed him while talking among themselves and seemed completely oblivious to their surroundings. A well-placed railgun shot would do miracles here, too bad he only had one bullet. Or Eve. Eve would have regulated the flow of people into the most optimal configuration. But here it was just chaos.

After a long minute of walking among the moving bodies of people that he considered to be less than objects, he arrived at the gate. He stopped for a moment before deciding to unceremoniously step through.

LAI hyperfocus active. Assuming direct control. Hostile action detected. Two armored men, weapons are spears of decent quality. Danger level unknown due to supernatural factors. Considering best course of action. De-escalation. User anger level is high, advising against impulsive action.

It was supposed to be the moment when he finally stepped out of the dark caves after so much time. The moment when a person born a raised in space finally could see the sky and the sun from a real planet for the first time. And those two people ruined it. Charles had to suppress the urge to end their life here and now, but still the anger was rising. He had no idea how strong those two were, and he supposed that they had to be quite strong in order to be here as guards. This he hated about this world. He was but an ant, and he had to swallow his pride and his anger and just stay silent.

Charles nodded, or at least performed the action while he was watching from the virtual space of the LAI’s existence. He knew very well that he should not act upon the violent desires within him, even though it was just because he valued his own life more than his pride, and for once decided to listen to the advice given to him. The LAI had his body move to a defensive stance, but threw the sword on the ground and raised the hands in the air. The guards stood in place but relaxed a bit.

“I’m not hostile.” The LAI told them with his voice. Charles could feel the calculations going on in his head, and the threads of probability that led the machine to selecting this sentence out of many possible ones.

The rightmost guard lifted the shiny metal helmet to reveal his face. He was a handsome young man, but with a nasty scar running all across his face. His expression was relaxed and confident, but at the same time curious and inquisitive.

“Why are you without your token?” The man asked.

Seeing that the situation was returning to normal, and that Charles was no longer boiling with anger and thoughts of death and destruction, the LAI returned the control of his body to him.

“I lost it.” He said.

The guard tensed. “Impossible. The tokens are bound, they cannot be lost.”

Good information, Charles thought. But irrelevant right now. He had to gamble.

“Well, I entered the dungeon, didn’t I? Could I have done that without a token?” He asked smirking.

The guard pondered the situation for a moment. “Come with me.” He said, and after motioning to the other soldier to fetch a replacement, he led Charles away.

The smirk remained. He had gambled and his gamble had paid off. Those people were illiterate simpletons, after all, and they should be quite easy to play. At least as long as he was dealing with the general populace.

Personal strength did not mean that they were smart, in fact most of the time strength made people dumber by leading them into thinking that thinking was useless.

As he walked beside the guard, Charles took the time to take in the surroundings. The dungeon was shaped like a black cylinder, imposing and monolithic as it grew out from the very ground, and after a few hundred meters it disappeared into an unmoving cloud. Looking beyond that point he could see the sky but no trace of the construction itself, making him wonder if the cloud was actually a sort of portal that took the rest of the dungeon into another dimension. Doing so would allow the place to be virtually endless, therefore it made some sort of sense, and at the same time it made for a very interesting phenomenon to study.

The rest of the sights were dull and boring. He was in the middle of a filthy, smelly and damp medieval city. The constructions were made out of stone at the bottom, then wood for the higher stories. None were higher than three of four stories, however. There was a fountain in the middle of the square that housed the dungeon, but it was crumbling and no longer working. The houses that faced the square looked cleaner and overall better off than the rest, as it was evident as soon as the two stepped into the main road.

The road was straight and gave them line of sight to the city gates a few hundred meters away, and was surrounded by tall houses in various states of disrepair and damage. The wall of the city was made of stone as well, and despite being impressively tall it too featured damage and even holes at various places. The gate was a simple wooden thing that was evidently not the original one.

They arrived at a building near the gate, something that resembled a tavern with a sloped roof and solid stone walls. As they entered, Charles saw that indeed there was a tavern inside, but also other things that made him think of only one thing. The adventurer’s guild.

There were counters with clerks, and a small queue of people with various levels of equipment waiting for their turn. There was a wall with papers hung there, presumably quests issued by the guild or by some people asking for dungeon materials and such.

The guard escorting him stopped to talk for a moment. The man who stopped them was tall, impressively tall actually, and quite muscular. He featured a nicely trimmed beard and short hair, which reminded Charles of the fact that he had not checked his own appearance for a while now. He dreaded that moment, because then he’d have to cut his hair and beard by himself.

“I’ll take it from here.” The man said and dismissed the guard, who reverently stepped away and hurried back to his post.

Charles looked at the tall man, who was evidently someone important.

“Who are you?” Charles asked.

The man smiled warmly at him, a smile so patronizing and dismissive that it almost made him raise his gun.

“I’m Giona. The guild master.”

“Nice to meet you.” Charles said. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” He asked, taking great steps to hide his own patronizing tone.

In his mind, he had all the rights to be patronizing. He was among barbarians here, in a ruined city with crumbling walls. He, who had seen what the finest minds of the empire could conceive and think, was now forced to mingle with a culture that was hundreds of years removed from his own.

“Why don’t you come to my office?” The man said, and then began to walk without waiting for an answer.

Charles followed, and the two arrived at a door on the second floor and entered. The office was just that. An office. Made of wood and with a wooden desk in the middle. The guild master sat on his chair and motioned for Charles to sit on the one opposite to his. It was just a basic, hard chair, he noted with a sigh. He also noted that he should stop complaining and comparing the stuff here to his old world, but shelved the thought. He would bring forth the change, if he decided. He would never adapt to the world, but rather it was the world that should adapt to him.

“So, I’ve been told that you appeared outside the dungeon without a guild token.” The man began.

Charles had already silently unholstered his gun and was pointing its barrel at the man from under the desk.

The gun was not something some middle ages idiots should recognize. It was made of four black rods of metal welded to the battery and ammo clip mechanisms. The trigger was in the usual location for a gun, right under the barrel. The four rods had a hole in the center where the bullet was accelerated by the shifting electrical fields the rods themselves produced. It was capable of accelerating the ten-centimeter rods of metal that were its ammo to supersonic speeds in less than a millisecond. The man would never even know what hit him.

“Look,” Charles began. He had his weapon trained on the man, so he decided that he could risk telling him the whole story and then just kill him if things went out of hand.

“I come, with all probability, from another world.” He paused, waiting for a reaction that never came. The man instead motioned him to go on. “I appeared in the dungeon, so that’s why I have no token.”

“As I suspected.” The master said.

“Did you, now?” Charles asked, hiding his surprise.

“I did. You’re not the first traveler to come to our plane, you know? And you said ‘world’?” The man asked in the end.

“Yeah?” Charles said, this time quite surprised at the question. This world seemed to be even more barbaric than he thought, not having even the idea of what a world is. “World, as in the ball of mud and rock where we all live on?” Charles said annoyed.

“Ah, yes. I’ve heard that dimensional travelers usually come from round planets. Universes without magic do not seem to like the idea of planes. This one, however, is a plane.” The master said. It was his turn to speak like he was talking to a small kid, a thing that irritated Charles greatly.

“A fucking plane. Not even a disc? A fucking rectangle floating in space?”

“I fear that I’m unable to answer that question. I have no idea about what lies beyond the boundaries, and neither do I know of this thing you call space. But I am just a minor master in a minor guild at the edge of a minor plane, which itself is but a minor existence compared to planets.” The master said smiling.

“So, I’m in bumblefuck. Nice. Where are the other travelers from, and where are they now?” Charles demanded. It did occur to him that he was not in a position to make demands, but in truth he felt that he had the right to demand whatever he felt like he needed.

“Ah, they are so rare that I’ve never even met one before. They are rare, but also very valuable to the right people. You are lucky to have appeared here, and inside the dungeon at that. Many others are not so fortunate, some even appearing inside summoning circles and instantly having their souls shackled. It is a common belief that otherworlders usually bring forth great changes, and the powers that be try to keep the potential to themselves.” The master said, sighing at the end.

“So I should not reveal my identity.” Charles asked.

“Indeed. You better not.”

“And what about the system?”

“What about it? Have you not done the tutorial?”

“What tutorial?”

The master made a face.

“Try thinking ‘status’.”

Charles did so. Nothing happened, however, and so he tried again. After a few tries, he gave up.

“Nothing.” He said, to which Giona had his first surprised reaction.

“How-”

“I received a message stating that I cannot access the functions beyond the level system. Have you ever heard of this?”

The master looked at Charles for a moment. He studied him as if he was an alien, which was in a sense the truth.

“I’m afraid not.”

“Alright. Could you give me a rundown of the system?”

The master frowned for a moment then composed his face. “The system has been a part of this universe for countless years, but it has not existed forever. Once upon a time, people used to learn magic… real magic. Not skills granted to them by the system. Magic has been all but lost ever since the skills came. Ah, right, skills are granted by the system to aid in the use of mana. They can be of any kind. Some are like magic spells, while others are more unique. It depends on the class. Classes are given by the system as well, and grant large bonuses in exchange for large sacrifices in other areas. A warrior could never learn magic, but a mage could never break boulders with his own hands. And the skills, too, depend on what class you have. You? I have no idea. I’ve never heard of something like this before.”

“Great. The system does hate me, after all.”

“I’m afraid I cannot help you more than this. Take this.” He handed Charles a token. As soon as he took it, the token exploded in a shower of little lights that entered his body. “That is an iron rank token. It gives you access to all that the guild provides. Complete quests, and your rank will rise.”

He got up.

“Just another two things. First is this. You might think that you are strong, and that your weapon is mighty. And you would be right, in a little rundown village like this.” He looked at the hidden railgun below the desk. “But there are far stronger entities even as close as beyond the walls.”

“Second thing you should keep in mind is cultivation. I do not know how you learned to do it, or how you manage to do it while not meditating… but I advise against doing it in public. That would be all. Now go and never bother me again.”

Charles left. The man managed to thoroughly surprise him, but also provided a huge deal of valuable information. He was a bit annoyed about the treatment he received, but at the same time he knew that he should not complain. He got a basic tutorial for free, so complaining would just make him a dick.

His next stop was just on the floor below. It was time to sell the mountain of corpses he had in his ring.

***

Giona, the guild master, slumped back into his chair. It was too small for his large frame, but he never bothered to get another one. He was almost never here, after all. In fact, it was a very odd thing that in the rare occasion when he decided to visit a worthless village like this, an otherworlder appeared.

There were stories about other people, who came from other universes, who destroyed entire cities just because they wanted to. This man did not look like he had such powers yet, and the token will allow some sort of tracking to happen.

Getting up from his chair, the guild master made his way down into the tavern. His eyes studied the whole space, and for a moment his gaze lingered on the silhouette of a small woman sitting at a table with a group of men, laughing.

He studied her for a while, and as soon as she spotted him, he nodded. She got up unceremoniously, and approached him.

“I have a lead.” Giona said, and the two disappeared behind a door.