A week had passed since Kalden came to the world of Ashitra. A sort of routine had developed, wake up, change, freshen up, snag some of the complimentary sandwiches the Guild Hall prepares in the cafeteria, then dump the last night’s laundry into the dry cleaning desk, along with the payment of 10 denarius. Then it was training in the Guild Hall grounds, for the next four hours, with an hour reserved solely for shooting training.

Afterwards, lunch, which was whatever street food looked nice at the time while he was out in the streets of Reme, familiarising himself with the city. After an hour or so of wandering, it was either to visit one of Reme’s numerous museums, of which entrance was free for Citizens of the Empire, or the grand library situated right in the city centre, a grand marble structure rivalling that of the Remulan Senate building situated just a few blocks away to read about more about the Remulan Republic and the wider world as well as its history and cultures.

With marble statues and fountains seemingly a theme for the city, it was no surprise that the grand Library had one in front of its steps as well. It depicted a giant bird, rising out of a pile of books, its wings outstretched, casting a shadow on the people below.

Every evening, at about 7 o’clock, when Kalden is leaving the library, he would pass by the statue, and offhandedly deposit some loose change he had into the strongbox installed into the marble, a donation to the library’s A-Book-A-Day programme, set up to create a culture of learning especially in the rural areas of the country.

It was when he was depositing his day’s loose change when he finally noticed, he was running out of money, the week’s expenses had left him with about 3,000 denarius. Without any source of revenue, Kalden estimated he had only about two to three more weeks with the way he was spending his money. With ammo expenses taking the largest chunk, spending a hundred denarius each day just to keep his magazines topped up.

It has always been a given that he would have to get a job sooner or later, the plan at first was to take two weeks to explore and familiarise himself with the city and the local culture, but with the rate he’s been spending, Kalden came to the conclusion to get himself a job, one that paid well enough to cover his expenditures for the month.

Which brings him to now, standing back in front of the missions’ board in the guildhall, scanning through the plethora of request, and they did not look good. Majority of the jobs posted were either low paying security jobs, courier to some far-off land or worse, catacomb/sewer clean-ups and while Kalden has gone through his own fair share of sewers during his younger days, he had no intention of going back in there if he could help it.

“Hey there kiddo, how have you been doing lately?” Sivle suddenly appeared behind Kalden, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Just fine Mr Sivle.” Kalden politely replied, “Starting to get used to living here.”

“That’s good.” Sivle nodded, “So, found a job you like yet?”

Kalden shook his head, sighing, “Not really, the bandit hunting request looks interesting enough, but having to look for them on the Reme-Almora highway is going to be tedious. And it's not like the pay is great too, 700 denarius is too low for a job like this.”

Sivle grinned, patting Kalden’s back sympathetically, “That’s the life of an adventurer for you. The best jobs normally won’t be posted here, they would have already gone to some famous Adventurer’s company or adventurer. You do have to keep in mind, the Adventurer’s Guild Hall, is here to facilitate agreements, nothing more nothing less.”

“Of course, they do.” Kalden sighed, rolling his eyes.

“You know, I’ve seen you shoot, I’ve also seen you fighting the dummies out in the middle court, you are a good fighter, why not join one of the companies? I heard the Ansar Company is hiring, rumour has it they snagged a big contract in the Kingdom of Usea, that place is always a money-maker for adventurers with skills.”

Kalden thought about it for a moment and shook his head, “Sounds too constricting for me. Besides, I would like to stay in Reme for the time being.” He answered, omitting the fact back on earth, he had worked with Private military contractors before, while most are fine, professional even, the bad ones had and still gave him nightmares till this day.

“If that’s the case…” Sivle hummed, deep in thought for a moment, then his face lit up, “Why don’t you come with me? I’m heading out to the town of Silmar tomorrow, I’ve been asked to help with the establishing guild operations there.”

“What’s there at Silmar?”

“Haven’t you heard?” Sivle grinned from ear to ear, “A new dungeon was recently discovered there, and the Vitchiny Mining Corporation had just bought the mining rights. They are opening the dungeon up to adventurers tomorrow. Every adventurer without a job is flocking there in anticipation.”

Kalden had read about the Dungeons before in the library, having been referenced in various books, and texts. The discovery of one usually being seen as a blessing, for the Dungeons brought with them tremendous wealth in two forms.

Soulic crystals, crystals made up of pure mana, the key ingredient in producing potions and medicine, it also has many industrial uses, such as serving as this world’s equivalent to a light bulb.

And Sciontine, a highly efficient ore commonly used as a fuel source which while could be found naturally in deposits deep underground, the dungeons offered the highest purity and concentration of it. Sciontine was also found to be highly explosive in nature when liquefied and appropriately refined, making it the go-to ingredient for making things explode.

To extract the Sciontine from the Dungeon, however, one must be able to traverse the entirety of the dungeon, and destroy its core, only then would the dungeon transform itself into one large cave full of nothing but pure Sciontine and Soulic Crystals.

There is, however, a downside. Dungeons would continuously generate more and more wild animals and monsters, leading them to inevitably spill over to the surrounding areas, it’s one of the reasons why the Remulan Republic has been continuously battling with aggressive wildlife and monsters, eight, now nine, of the world’s twenty dungeons were located within the republic.

But to Kalden, all that meant one thing, Money. The books have frequently gushed about the fortunes made by adventurers who worked in these Dungeons and Kalden was not about to let an opportunity like that slip away.

“What’s the fastest way to get there?”

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From his vantage point on top of the hill, Kalden could see the town of Silmar just below, blanketed by a veil of smog from the nearby half-built factories, already in the process of belching out more smoke and just beside his boots, is the contents of his breakfast, deposited onto the ground due in no small part by the stench the cool morning wind brought with it.

This was worse than the smell from the sewers, the air here smelled like human waste, rotting flesh and sulphur all rolled into one giant concentrate. Breathing the air alone felt like breathing in acid, each breath burning Kalden’s throat and lungs. It was so bad that Kalden was tempted to get himself one of those full NBC suits with its own oxygen supply and he would’ve if the weather was not so damn warm today. Which most probably made the smell worse and the fact the suits and oxygen tanks cost upwards of a thousand Denarius to run daily, made it a non-starter.

“Got it out of your system?” Sivle laughed, patting Kalden’s back roughly, he looked completely unaffected by the stench, breathing huge lungsful of the corrosive air as if they were nothing.

Kalden nodded weakly, still leaning against the tree for support before finally gathering enough strength to stumble back to the truck.

“You’ll get used to it eventually,” Sivle said in an attempt to reassure his passenger as he started up the truck’s engine.

“I sure hope so.” Kalden croaked out softly, as he leaned into the truck’s horrible excuse of a cushion to an attempt to make himself as comfortable as possible while they cut through the source of the smell, steeling his nerves and nostrils for what was to come.

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The guildhall here in Silmar was new, built only two weeks ago, when the dungeon was first discovered, made entirely out of wood, resembling an oversized cottage, a far cry away from the massive almost palace-like building back in the capital.

At the back were where the public facilities were located, there were no proper toilets, just rows of outhouses, showering would be done by splashing cold water self-serviced from the only well with a small bucket in a small bathing booth outside. All that was left to do was to remove the picturesque rolling green landscape with rocky, dusty Mountains, add some sandbags and machine guns and Kalden would be right back at base, in Afghanistan, suiting up for his next assignment.

He could not help but break out a small nostalgic smile at that, not so much the smell, that can die in a ditch for all he cared, which he supposes, was what the smell is in the first place, rotten caresses in the warm sun.

With what’s left of last night’s dinner quickly covered up with some loose soil and gravel, Kalden promptly made his way inside the Silmar Guildhall.

The inside was functional, a hodgepodge of whatever wood the builders could get their hands on, a small staff counter at the side, with the rest of the first floor was taken up by the pub which even in the middle of the afternoon was already full of adventurers, drinking, chatting and brawling.

Old man Sivle had already found a table with a tankard full of what Kalden presumed to be ale in his hands. Kalden debated whether to join Sivle, or just head straight for the dungeon.

He was leaning towards joining Sivle for a drink and was about to make his way towards the table when he saw a lady dressed in a guild uniform with a similar tankard in hand sit down beside Sivle and begun chatting.

The dungeon it is.