Day 1…

After Tier went to sleep… and then promptly woke up, there hasn’t been much for anyone else to do in the sole room of the dungeon between the core room and the outside ‘okay… Tier made me into a commander or what not… how do they act? Stern? Strict? I dunno… I’ll just… roll with what I’ve got’ Kaide nervously told himself as he looked around the room ‘I should… train the others right, I should train the others!’ he mentally gave himself a pat on the back.

Kaide with his new authority granted by Tier decided that they should do some light sparring with their weapons to improve their proficiencies which did actually give all the kobolds novice proficiencies with spears and help their knife proficiency out a bit but it will take more than an hour of light sparing to improve proficiencies further than novice.

Tier approved of this and decided to teach the kobolds on some techniques they could use with their knifework, what uses a knife can have, the proper stances on how to use a spear, how dodging works as in you take a step or move your body instead of… rolling around everywhere like in whatever a video game is… all of which is actually very useful to the kobolds and Aenirus even helped out a bit as well ‘okay… this has gone better than I’ve hoped’ Kaide told himself in a more hopeful tone.

One of the kobolds Verk has started trying his hands in crafting some basic things like sharpening a twig to form a spear, creating a fire with some helpful advice from Aenirus and even repeating the fire hardening process tier did. While he wasn’t as good as the core when it came to creating items, he was steadily improving his weapon manufacturing ability which he gained and even made a simple tripwire trap that would let a taut sturdy twig with some spiky bits slam into any enemies whom were not cautious.

Another Taika has been learning all she could be probing the brain of Aenirus over and over about all the knowledge she could get. Most of what she learned was about something called… magic, even Tier the creator got interested in the topic though Kaide didn’t paid attention. There were others as well, Meena, Galdra, Barmas, Parl and of course Hraeta.

‘things seemed to be pretty good around here, others were practicing their spearworks, Hraeta was… doing whatever she was doing, Taika is asking Aenirus a bit about whatever magic is… Verk is doing some crafting, the monitor is… wait is that thing fucking asleep?’ Kaide thought as he surveyed his surroundings *whack* “WAKE UP!!!” He screamed at the now hurriedly waking up monitor which hissed at him before going back to its guard duty as it doesn’t seem to like improving at all.

‘it’s hard… very hard to be strict… I’ve got to do it either way… been chosen for the role… have to make them proud… it’s like putting on a facade and acting like someone... different’ Life seemed good for the denizens of Tier’s dungeon though Kaide wasn’t feeling well at all and sighed as he opened his status, looking at whatever he gained which isn’t much:

Status:

Name: Kaide

Species: Reptilari Terranimus Drakcaenius (Kobold)

Gender: Male

Age: 2-hours old

Stats:

Strength - 16

Perception – 16 (+1)

Endurance – 16 (+2)

Dexterity – 16 (+1)

Intelligence – 25 (+3)

Wisdom – 10(+6)

Charisma – 9 (+6)

Creativity - 7

Destiny - 17

Mysticism - 2

Karma – 10 (+2)

Willpower – 20 (+1)

Traits: Darkvision (allow the user to see in the dark yet without colors; 500m range)

Skills: Fleet footed (lv.4) (increase sprinting speed by a small amount for 8 seconds per activation, 30 second cooldown)

Abilities: Communication (lv.4) (allows user to better communicate with any creatures capable of understanding your speech or intent); Commanding presence (lv.2) (the user can command a group of creatures assigned to him or her allowing them to buff the fighting ability of those who are under them; only works when in command and giving orders); Poison resistance (lv.1) (the user is somewhat resistant to poison)

Proficiencies: Trap making (novice), Knifes (trained), Spears (amateur)

Magic type: none

Magic potential: 0

Mana affinity: none

Other than the obvious abilities, the charisma gained by ordering the others around, the endurance and poison resistance from eating some of the poisonous Tuto mushrooms which he mistook for the regular mushrooms that he saw Aenirus ate… it was terrible... but it did something good. There was also some small percentage gains on both his knife and spear proficiency and some of the other stats through other means. He doesn’t feel much improvement at all especially compared to Verk who was working with his craftsmanship or Taika learning all she could form Aenirus.

He sighed again but this time Aenirus who had finished explaining something to Taika heard it and perked up asking “what’s wrong Kaide?” after she sat down behind him without a noise ‘I swear she could kill all of us without a noise’ Kaide thought as he jumped back from her voice.

“no-nothing’s actually wrong, it’s just that I feel like I’m not improving fast enough” he explained, in truth he felt many different problems from his nervousness to feeling like he doesn’t deserve his position, scared of not acting like how others expect him to act but most importantly, a feeling of weakness... a feeling of not wanting to dissapoint others....

“improving stats, getting new skills, gaining proficiencies, all of those take a good bit of time to achieve, the only reason you’re even growing that fast is due to dungeon cheats and because you’re only two hours old” Aenirus gave an explanation “I know that… do you perhaps know of a way to improve faster?” he asked with a bit of hope “you know what, I do know a way for you to improve faster, come with me” Aenirus responded as she got up from where she was laying and walked to the pond in the South East with Kaide following.

“now then, try to spearfish” she suggested which Kaide didn’t understand as he never heard of the word spearfish before “it means to catch finis with your spear there, just try thrusting in order to catch something” Aenirus explained after noticing his confused expression ‘right’ Kaide thought before trying just that… emphasized on the word ‘try’ as he stabs his spear into the water again and again with no luck at all “keep trying, life is never easy you know” Aenirus elaborated on.

“of course” he blurted out before going back, after fifteen long minutes he changed tactics and instead of just trying to wildly attack the finises in the water, he waits and bides his time to carefully and meticulously thrust his spear into the water at the perfect timing. Even then, the finises were fast, slippery and fighting on their home turf and they also don’t want to die so it took a couple of attempts and another fifteen minutes before he managed to impale a fish on his spear.

Even then, the finis still fought on but Kaide finally ends his fight with the finis by thrusting his dagger into its head. Kaide was exhausted in his fight with a small foot long finis but Aenirus just chuckled a bit before telling him “check your status again Kaide, you may notice a difference” Kaide did so and was shocked by the differences:

Status:

Name: Kaide

Species: (Kobold)

Gender: Male

Age: 2-hours old

Stats:

Strength - 17(+1)

Perception - 17(+1)

Endurance - 18(+2)

Dexterity - 20(+4)

Intelligence - 25

Wisdom - 10

Charisma - 9

Creativity - 10(+3)

Destiny - 17

Mysticism - 2

Karma - 10

Willpower - 22(+2)

Traits: Darkvision

Skills: Fleet footed (lv.4)

Abilities: Communication (lv.4), Commanding presence (lv.2) , Poison resistance (lv.2)

Proficiencies: Trap making (novice), Knifes (trained), Spears (amateur)

Arts: Aimed Thrust (the user to studies their targets for a period of time before suddenly unleashing a stab at their enemy, 10 second cool down)

Classes: Hunter (lv.1) (those who hunt other creatures for whatever reason with either ranged or melee strikes relying on perception and dexterity)

Magic type: none

Magic potential: 0

Mana affinity: none

“did you noticed any changes at all?” Aenirus asked him “woah… that is way faster than simply just training” Kaide said with shock “what are arts?” Kaide asked her “how did I improve so fast?” very quickly “ho-”

“okay… slow down young fella, I’ve got some explaining to do, so basically arts are like skills in that require user activation, they can also be used at any time for any purpose and can level up and rank up as well, they are useful if not hard to get with a few exceptions like the Aimed Thrust art that you probably got from your question about arts and they can be powerful but are also very limited in how you can use it” Aenirus stared to explain.

“okay, you said limiting but what do you mean by that?” he asked “excellent question, it should say something about requiring you to study your opponents, that is why most arts are limited, it takes too long before you can activate it, time that can be used for other things like simply attacking and arts also do not level up or anything and requires actual experimentation and constant use to familiarize yourself with, their effectiveness relies solely on the user’s skill and way of use” Aenirus explained.

“I also gained a class, how do they work?” Kaide asked “excellent question as well, let me take a quick breather first”

‘inhale’

“classes, are not unique to any singular person, you can get classes by either getting taught how to be that class or self-taught yourself whether by coincidence or not, you probably got the hunter class by stalking that finis, carefully waiting for the perfect moment to strike your prey with a well-aimed thrust which got you both the class and the art” Aenirus explained the way classes are learnt.

“what do classes do?” Kaide asked impatiently “I was getting to that, classes do nothing more than make it easier for you to learn certain arts, abilities, skills, traits, you name it but also give you them for free at certain levels, you can gain level for classes by doing what people with those classes are supposed to do like you who can gain levels of hunter by hunting or that kobold who is keen on making things gaining levels from his crafting related class whatever it is by creating things” she explained before going “also, almost forgot to mention this but classes can rank up or combine with other classes to create better classes” she finished explaining

“but that still doesn’t explain how you know what class or art I gained” he pondered rhetorically out loud by accident.

“easy, I have the rare and obscure analysis skill which give me information on pretty much anything as long as my perception can beat the things willpower but it’s so wonky at times and it feels like I’m getting forced feed false information half the time so I don’t recommend you get this skill as it’s way more trouble than what you can get and it’s an absolute pain in the arse to level up…” Aenirus accidentally went on a tangent explaining something totally unrelated.

…

“…Tier can get it for free at max level because he’s a dungeon but he’s limited by his domain or territory or whatever you want to call it” she continues on “so… have you ever went on a massive tangent before? No? well you just witness one first hand right here” Aenirus said proudly yet jokingly “I actually know because of my knowledge from open road travels… which is another reason why the skill sucks, it is useful for gaging rankings though however that means almost nothing”

“my willpower’s pretty high, what’s your perception score” Kaide asked as he is intrigued not caring about the being a tangent thing.

“come on, Kaide I’m not going to give you all the secrets but as a tip, my perception is in the triple digits and your willpower’s is only average when compared to a human adult so you better start training and grinding hard if you want to be good enough to protect the dungeon by yourself, I’m tired so I’m gonna go to sleep now, good night” Aenirus left a stunned Kaide as she went to sleep near the entrance to the core room.

“you have over 100 in perception?” Tier asked being shocked as well “counter question, how old do you think I am?” Aenirus asked curiously “7?” “it’s…” the conversation moved away from Kaide but he swore he heard a number that is above the 6 he was thinking of by a large margin.

Kaide thought that he was doing pretty good but his highest stats are just average to a human which he assumed will be a common invader of the dungeon in the future means he isn’t trying hard enough. He thought about how much he improved with the spearfishing and assumed that if he did things under pressure than he will be able to improve much faster than just pretending to do things. He needed to get better, at being a fighter, a commander, a leader… even though he felt like he was the wrong one for the job…he needed to try his best… to not destroy his cre-Tier’s trust… even if he just wants to hide in a dark corner sometimes…

He went back to the others under his command and gave the order for actual sparring to first bloodied rather than just a light sparring and saw that improvements came much faster than before. However, this sparring would not be enough so he ordered everyone under his command to start training hard with physical exertions including himself who aimed to train harder than the rest which Tier went to encouraged.

He also trained the others to go have a swim in the pond alongside him just so that no one would die if they get knocked into the small round quarter circle pool with an 18ft radius. Another thing he did was force feeding every creature in the dungeon the poisonous Tuto mushrooms excluding Aenirus because she was a friend of the dungeon and the flying kanids because he wasn’t sure if they were capable of surviving said poison. Kaide also found out that he and the others could use their fleet footed skill in combat which helped boosted it up and also taught the other kobolds how to use the Aimed Thrust art.

After an hour of hard training, harder sparring and physical exertions while also force-feeding everyone else along with himself to get or improve the poison resistance ability which… Tier had no comments about, he finally saw some noticeable improvements on his status:

Status:

Name: Kaide

Species: (Kobold)

Gender: Male

Age: 3-hours old

Stats:

Strength - 18(+1)

Perception - 18(+1)

Endurance - 22(+4)

Dexterity - 21(+1)

Intelligence - 26(+1)

Wisdom - 13(+3)

Charisma - 15(+6)

Creativity - 13(+3)

Destiny - 17

Mysticism - 2

Karma - 12(+2)

Willpower - 25(+3)

Traits: Darkvision

Skills: Fleet footed (lv.5), Morale boost (lv.1) (boost the morale of nearby friendlies increasing combat effectiveness by a small yet noticeable amount)

Abilities: Communication (lv.6), Commanding presence (lv.5), Poison resistance (lv.4), Training (lv.3) (allow user to help train others, increasing the speed in which they can gain skills, stats, proficiencies, etc… as long as the user is better at what they are teaching and can do it)

Proficiencies: Trap making (novice), Knifes (trained), Spears (trained)

Arts: Aimed Thrust (lv.4)

Classes: Hunter (lv.2), Commander (lv.1) (those who command units of troops given to them from a small group to many thousands relying on their charisma and karma to lead their soldiers and keep morale up)

Magic type: none

Magic potential: 0

Mana affinity: none

Kaide was ecstatic at the improvements he had made when it came to his status, gifting him with new skills, abilities, improved stats and even a new class that might help him in his future. He was about to begin another training session before looking back and realizing how badly the others were doing after the harsh hour long training and force feeding of poisonous mushrooms that thankfully ran out before the hour was over.

“yeah… I’m not going to spawn any more of those mushrooms… for a while… at least until my mana refills to a decent amount” Tier said before Kaide even asked “also because the others will hate you if you keep force feeding them those mushrooms so go train or stand on guard duty as I figure out if I have a healing ability or not” ‘I mean… I guess so’ Kaide thought as he saluted.

Kaide took up the guard post that watches the narrow natural tunnel about 4ft wide by himself than to force one of his now exhausted… defenders to watch as they could rebel, desert or just plain old fall asleep and he was the least tired of the bunch though he did keep Batra on the ceiling to help detect what he could not see.

Kaide watched the tunnel for what felt like hours but was most likely just a few minutes as he held his important position as everyone else was fast asleep, especially that lazy monitor who seemed to have found the best napping place in the cave and slept peacefully like a princess whilst Tier was doing… something. He kept his ears open for any threats or dangers as he watched the tunnel standing behind a large rock they moved here as cover as he heard many sounds over his watch.

He could hear the sound of the distant heavy rain from the entrance to the cave system, he could hear the snoring of that lazy monitor, the quiet drop of water on water as droplets fall onto the pool, the sound of soft scales on rock as the serpent that thought it was quiet and unseen started creeping into the cave following the mana trail yet ‘oh… erm… what do I do now?’ he nervously asked himself as he kept watch on the small creature with his spear ready.

It didn’t seem like much of a threat or to be any danger so he let it go as he watched it found a spot it liked and coiled around the small mossy rock before it too fell asleep. Kaide watch it for a minute longer before he truly felt no threat by the small critter which was now automatically claimed by the surrounding pure dungeon mana before going back to watch the entrance to the cave “huh, I did not know that I could automatically claim critters… good to know” Tier was heard saying in the background as he returned to doing whatever he was doing.

After an hour of keeping watch, he looked back to see that the others were now fully rested and ready to continue their duties of being natural… the order still felt strange to Kaide as he still felt strange about himself suggesting something to Tier the core but he put it aside as he went back to concentrating on the entrance and he thought he’d do something a bit daring.

“excuse me… Tier but I could I an exploration towards the rest of the cave system?” he asked the core “okay… you better have a good explanation as to why you are suggesting this” came Tier’s response “ermmm… I thought that… if we scout out the entire cave system… we can be better prepared for any threats that are too much for just numbers so we can set traps or strategize a better way to defeat them” Kaide answered with a hint of nervousness.

“alright then, I could ask Aenirus myself but… what’s the fun in that” Tier said in response in “it is also a good experience for all involved… alright then, you have my consent but no fighting just scouting, pick…two volunteers to help you out at most” the core agreed to the proposal ‘wait what? He agreed to another one of my ideas? I thought… maybe… no… no… just don’t think about that kind of thing’ he thought.

Kaide was… a bit surprised about the fact that Tier agreed to his proposal like when he suggested about giving them equipment but he shakes it off to find his 2 volunteers. He got another kobold named Hraeta and a flying kanid currently still unnamed to go in blind with him. Keeping himself low to the ground using his darkvision to peer into the next room without any colors of course.

The hallway took a turn to the north after a few feet and expanded from the 4ft width to a 7ft width though there wasn’t anything interesting save for a few loose rock and stalactites and stalactites. After 13ft of travel, they peered into the next room to find that it was a square like room with again no light with a diameter of about 34ft but they can’t make any details due to darkvision not giving any color and the Flying Kanid they bought can’t communicate with them.

“why are we here again, isn’t it safer to wait for the creator to wake up first?” the young female questioned her commander too loud to be quiet “of course it is, it would be safer for us but I want to scout ahead a bit for at least this room to see if there are any threats so we can be better prepared to face them, also Tier agreed, also quiet down” Kaide whispered and Hraeta just nodded before quieting down.

‘stay calm… do not panic…’ Kaide told himself as he went through the tunnel into the room ‘do it for the others, act like how they expect you to act…’ he continues telling himself.

They moved into the room as stealthily as they can and they could finally see some detail in the room as it contained some moss, loose rock, big boulders about 3ft wide, cave shoots, cave dill, a rat here and there and even more of those poisonous mushrooms ‘always nice to help improve poison resistance before coming to any actual poisonous threats’ Kaide thought as he observes.

After checking around the room a bit, Kaide gave the order for them to move to the next room via the passageway to the West when the flying Kanid started screeching out of nowhere, Kaide annoyingly pondered ‘why of all times now when we needed to be stealthy that the Flying Kanid started screeching, they should only screech when they… spotted… an enemy’ he suddenly realized before turning back.

There it was, it was a serpent like the one that willingly let itself be claimed on his watch but this one was much bigger being 9ft long instead of a foot long. The thing was dangerous and was in striking position ready to strike his companion kobold without her realizing it and almost in instinct Kaide acted. “be quiet, th-” Hraeta managed to get out before being tackled by Kaide to the side “Kaide, what t…” she let out as she got up before noticing the large serpent that missed its surprise attack with its venomous fangs that barely frazed his left forearm.

“thank me later, flank the thing from the side and do not get bitten!” he shouted an order and his companion followed immediately with both eyes glaring at the serpent which has regained its bearings. They could run but the thing blocked the only path to the room they know and they do not want to go further out to the land above so they would have to fight it or hold out until reinforcements came as Kaide knew Tier would be watching from one of their eyes so he activated his morale boost skill.

The serpent flared its hood up as it stared at its enemies who are now flanking it from two different sides and picked a target which happens to be Kaide purely by a 50-50-coin toss from its simple reptilian brain. Kaide saw as it now stared directly at him letting out a loud hiss before its hood flare up much larger this time as it spits out a ball of poison directly to his face in hopes to blind him. Kaide realized something was up and by instinct dodged out of the way by side stepping to the right avoiding the dangerous poison spray at his eyes whilst his allies both stabbed and bit it in the sides unfortunately not doing much damage.

“change of plans, we stand side by side and hold the line steadfastly!” Kaide ordered and the female kobold with him raised her spear alongside him staring down the serpent as long as the both of them combined. The flying Kanid also changed tactics and went to pick up as big of a rock as it could carry in hopes of dropping it on the serpent to help out its allies.

Kaide activated his Aimed thrust art unlike the other times he used it, he glared at the serpent focusing on the exact spot just below the head to strike as it would lunge at him and he bid his time patient as a hunter. The serpent likely frustrated that these smaller creatures were not in its stomach, angered at the fact that it was injured at all and not being smart enough to realize their tactics readies up another lunge.

A few seconds go by before Kaide activates his fleet footed ability to give his strike extra momentum as the serpent lunged thrusting through the scales right below its head dealing a critical blow. The serpent hissed painfully as it foolishly charged at the readied battle line against 2 spear wielders but a stone tipped twig spear isn’t going to stop a 9ft long heavy lunging serpent that knocked Kaide into the ground as it thrashes painfully.

It is unknown who actually killed the serpent whether it was the 9kg rock dropped by the flying Kanid onto the serpent’s cranium, the Aimed thrust to the right side of the head by the other kobold or Kaide’s obsidian dagger plunging deeply and hard enough through the things left eye to get through the eye socket and into the brain.

The battle lasted exactly one minute twenty-seven seconds resulting in a large dead serpent and a Kaide that was now experiencing both a real battle for the first time and the fast acting venom that could’ve killed him if he didn’t force fed himself all those poisonous mushrooms. “well that was exciting” understatement of the day said by Kaide.

Kaide however… wasn’t as calm as he acted, it was his first fight, his first life or death situation, in a normal circumstance he would’ve run, he would’ve hide… yet he doesn’t and he kept a straight face for the sake of Hraeta and the others… for the sake of Tier… also he’s bleeding from the bite on his left arm at the start of the fight.

“ermmm… orders now sir?” Hraeta asked “I’m too poisoned to be thinking straight but help me drag this serpent back to the dungeon and we can call it a day” Kaide answered calmly contrary to his internal screaming before getting up with the serpent’s venom still inside of him “aren’t you in danger of dying?” she asked again.

“of course I am, but you certainly wouldn’t be able to carry that thing back and we can recover faster in the dungeon from what I can feel” Kaide answered her questions “anymore questions?” he asked but received none so they both bring the serpent back into the cave receiving cheers from the other denizens who were going to reinforce them before Kaide promptly collapsing onto the ground as he reached his limit of enduring the poison and fell into unconsciousness with a disgruntled Tier yelling something in the background…

‘if I do die from the venom… hopefully he replaces me with… someone who is better… suited…’ Tier though before his consciousness fades and darkness consumes him…

Ending Stats for Kaide:

Status:

Name: Kaide

Species: (Kobold) (ready to evolve)

Gender: Male

Age: 5-hours old

Stats:

Strength – 23(+5)

Perception - 20(+2)

Endurance - 26(+4)

Dexterity - 22(+1)

Intelligence - 26

Wisdom - 14(+1)

Charisma - 15(+1)

Creativity - 14(+1)

Destiny – 20(+3)

Mysticism - 2

Karma - 14(+2)

Willpower - 31(+6)

Traits: Darkvision

Skills: Fleet footed (lv.6), Morale boost (lv.2)

Abilities: Communication (lv.6), Commanding presence (lv.5), Poison resistance (lv.11), Training (lv.3), Stealth (lv.1) (allow user to better hide or move without notice)

Proficiencies: Trap making (novice), Knifes (trained), Spears (trained)

Arts: Aimed Thrust (lv.5)

Classes: Hunter (lv.2), Commander (lv.2), Scout (lv.1) (those who take up a mantle of reconnaissance at their own will so that others may know what lies ahead), Fighter (lv.1) (those who fight against dangerous foes with whatever weapons whether natural or not that they could find)

Magic type: none

Magic potential: 0

Mana affinity: none