Chapter Ten

John woke up early today despite getting to sleep late the night before. It had been over a week since he first discovered the dungeon. Since then he had been stuck recovering from his injuries and then doing tedious perimeter checks while the farmers prepared their fields. Everyday had been made even more boring since he knew there was a proverbial unexplored goldmine half a days hike away from camp. Thankfully, today was the day he was going to explore it. This time he would have a team, be ready to resist mana pressure, and know that those damn fish had heads harder than stone. He double and triple checked all his gear, got breakfast, and then went to wait for Sam and Camille at the edge of camp.

To his surprise, he saw that they had beaten him there. They were waiting at the edge of the treeline with all their gear packed and ready to go. He waved at them and called out “Am I late? I thought I was getting here early.” Sam had already gotten up and started to put on her bag as she responded “Nope. We just wanted to get out there as soon as possible.” Sam and Camille started to walk into the forest and John responded “ That's good. I’ve been itching to explore the dungeon ever since I found it and the wait has been killing me.” Sam looked back at John and said “I just want to prove that asshole Chase wrong. Ever since we went in with him he has been badmouthing us to the rest of camp. When we do well this time he will have to shut up.” After that John and Sam made small talk for a while, but eventually they ran out of topics. Thinking it would be a shame to make the rest of the hike in silence John asked Camille “ What about you? Why did you volunteer to explore the dungeon?”

Camille seemed surprised the the conversation suddenly shifted to her as she responded “Umm. Well I guess it would be nice to prove Chase wrong, but really I just go on most missions with Sam. We’ve been working together ever since I started as an adventurer.” seeing the conversation moving again John tried to nudge it along saying “Hm? Where did you get started?” Camille’s eyes glazed over a bit before she responded “ I started in Yiiza.” John’s eyes widened as he responded “Yiiza? Isn’t that a terrible place for beginners? You are the first adventurers I met from there that don’t look like grizzled veterans.” Camille nodded as she said “It feels like the place is full of old geezers while you are there too. That's part of why we came out here.” There was a brief pause in the conversation as all parties involved thought for a bit, and then John restarted the conversation by saying “If you don’t mind me asking then can you tell me why you started as an adventurer. No offense but you don’t seem to have the normal temperament of one.”

Camille nodded as she said “I don’t mind it's a bit nostalgic to think about it all now. I became an adventurer after being kicked out by my parents when I turned eighteen. They were both priests and when I didn’t show any signs of being a part of their divine plan I had to leave. The only three skills I had at that point were reading, writing, and using magic. Being a scribe seemed like a way to spend the rest of my life in a dark closet copying texts, so I decided to use my magic to make a living. I tried to learn a magical production profession, but I didn’t have any money for apprenticeship fees and I wasn’t enough of a genius for anyone to waive them. That left being an adventurer as my only choice.” John nodded and said “ That makes for a better story than my reason. I became an adventurer because my older brother was set to inherit the farm. Back then it seemed like my choices were to do back breaking work to clear land for a new farm and end up impoverished on barely arable land or go kill monsters and get rich.” John turned to Sam and said “ What about you Sam. Why did you become an adventurer.” he thought it a harmless enough question since he and Camille had both just talked about it, but he was obviously wrong because she just said “I needed some money” and then did not elaborate at all.

Seeing that Sam didn't want to talk, John turned back to Camille and said “You said you two have been partnering up since the beginning right? How did you meet if you spent all your time in a church until you turned eighteen?” Camille smiled and said “That’s actually a funny one for me to look back on. When I went to the guild to sign up as an adventurer I started getting harassed. Now I know that they were just washed up old losers, but at the time they seemed like veteran adventurers. They claimed they weren’t going to let me leave the guild until I went on a date with them, and no one did anything to stop them. The receptionists and other adventurers didn’t seem to care and I didn’t know what to do. I was just about to panic when Sam walked up out of nowhere and slapped the leading thug in the face. It almost immediately descended into a brawl. Sam fought them fist to fist in front while I supported her in the back using magic. Eventually the ruckus got big enough that the guild master himself came down and ended the fight. After that Sam and I have just always worked together.”

John said “That’s nice. I’ve always wanted a permanent partner or even a team, but i’ve never found a good enough match to pair up for long.” he switched to a less serious tone and joked “if this exploration goes well maybe I’ll join you guys. We can be Sam, Camille, and John adventurers extraordinaire” Camille smiled and joked back “ I don’t know about that. If you want to join us you have to pass the interview.” John groaned and said “Please no more of those. I don’t know if you guys had the same experience I did, but interviewing for this expedition was enough for a lifetime. Sam and Camille nodded in agreement and John started to act out the part of an interviewer saying “I see here that you have only slain twenty fire drakes. Van the hero of legend managed to kill thirty so I’m not sure you're qualified.” That got a chuckle so he continued with “If you want to be hired you need to be proficient in sword fighting. This means you should be able to use kendo, fencing, and Destreza with at least 10 years of experience each” They laughed again so he tried one more saying “ You can’t even make a teleport formation. The archmage could do that when he was fifteen. I guess we will have to dock your pay.”

That finally moved the girls from a chuckle into a full on laugh. That lasted for a while and then they switched back to friendly conversation. That continued throughout the entire forest. Only stopping when they got to the clearing in front of the waterfall. Once there they switched from friendly conversation to strategy and teamwork as they got ready for their first real attempt at delving into the depths of the dungeon.