The Human From a Dungeon

Thunra Grantuf

Adventurer Level: 23

Orc - Nillisonian

I chuckled happily to myself as the rest of the party checked their gear. Working for the High Chief is grand. We're gettin' paid 15 gold each to investigate a beginner's dungeon. To get pay this high you usually gotta take a job directly from a wealthy family, and that comes with all sorts of risks. Customers are much more likely to stab you in the back without guild support. But with the High Chief you know everything's above board.

Hell, they even warned us about how dangerous this boss is. Ripped right through the over-fives and carved up at least two over-tens. It's nice to be told that what you're gonna be fighting can and will kill you without a second thought. Makes things nice and simple. No need to wonder if you should seek a non-violent option or try to talk your way out of a fight. I'm not very good at talkin'. People say I'm funny sometimes, but tryin' to convince somebody of somethin' just ain't my strength. Neither is lookin' for clues, though.

I looked around at the other adventurers. We had a hell of a roster here. Four over-twenties and the three we're escortin'. Over-twenties usually work alone or in pairs, but the High Chief wants intel and he sure as hell ain't takin' no for an answer. I kind of know one of the over twenties by reputation, but I'd only ever worked with Yhisith Mulock and Matri. Yhisith's a speed sword, and she's our leader for this little expedition. Matri is a rogue that's got a stereotypically tragic backstory. Dropped her last name because of a scandal with her family or somethin'.

The other over-twenty is Jino Parunich, one of the more renowned sorcerers in the chiefdom. A quiet kind of guy, but I bet he wasn't quiet when he was told that he'd be in a support role. Sorcs all have a hell of an ego, but the thing we're fighting is a bad match for spellcasters. The main reason he's coming at all is for the investigation portion of the quest. Our eyes met, and I gave him a smile before turning away.

My eyes rested on the weird lookin' short thing standing next to one of the Alta brothers. A human, apparently, found in the dungeon of all places. If this job had come from a noble family we'd probably get a twist order halfway through to seal the damned thing back in the dungeon. Somethin' told me that was a bad idea, but I couldn't quite place what it was. He looked squishy enough, but the sword at his hip tells me he isn't some type of mage. A level five shouldn't make an over-twenty nervous. Just ain't right.

The Alta brother with the serrated axe saw me starin' and met my eyes. It wasn't a look of hostility, but it was definitely a warning. I looked away with a grunt. Best not to fuck with the Alta clan. Not just because you'll end up worse for wear, but because their family has the gratitude of multiple nations. Including the one my parents are from.

One of those Alta adventurers saved Nillison from an undead horde single-handedly. My grandparents would have died if it weren't for him. If I get on their bad side my ma and pa will beat my ass. A chill ran up my spine at the thought.

Honestly, it's kinda cool that their family stretches all the way out to the boonies. I wonder why, though. Their parents probably moved out here for work or something. Maybe I should ask the brothers about it if I get the chance.

"Alright everyone, make sure your gear's stowed and your weapons are handy. It's a long walk to where we're going," Yhisith called out.

"I'm all set," I said, shouldering my pack with a grin.

Matri chuckled and shook her head. To the untrained eye, I probably look like a buff merchant. But these guys all know that I'm a brawler. Like my pa and his pa before him, I fight without weapons. Not only am I really good at it, but I find it satisfying as hell to feel bones pop under my strikes.

My brothers don't have the talent for unarmed fightin', so my pa was super excited when we discovered that I did. The training was brutal, but it's kept me goin' this long so I'm not too sore about it. My brother's are sore that I'm the new favorite, and that I'm a lot stronger than them, but that's the way it goes.

"Good, let's head in," Yhisith nodded towards the entrance to the dungeon.

We followed behind her, like baby kwackers behind their mom. Very deadly baby kwackers. Roasted kwacker sounds delicious right now. Slow-roasted to the point that the skin is nice and crunchy but the meat is wonderfully tender, seasoned with salt and whatever else the cooks use. Kwacker meat can be found in every big city, but probably not out here. They might have kluckers though. Klucker is almost as good as kwacker, and it's cheaper too. My mouth started to water as I overheard part of a conversation next to me. I looked, and it was the short thing talkin' with Matri.

"Air molecules get heavier when they're colder and lighter when they're hotter, and that makes wind. All I do is visualize that," the thingie said.

"Actually, the air spreads apart as it heats up, which allows the thicker cold air to drop down through it. That motion is what we perceive as wind," Matri smiled. "Still, you were close enough to trigger the spell. From what Yulk says, it's probably a good thing you didn't nail the visualization immediately."

"Wait," I interrupted. "You're a sorc? Why do you got a sword when you can do magic?"

"I can do both," it replied. "I've got skills for sword-fighting, unarmed melee, and magic so far."

"Basic skills," the axe-wielding Alta said. "Don't get full of yourself, Nick."

Its name is Nick, then. Kind of expected a more complicated name, like something an elf would have.

"Wait, did you say unarmed melee?" I asked. "That's fightin' without weapons, right?"

"Yeah," axe-wielder replied.

I grinned, "So you're a brawler like me sometimes! What kinda skills you got?"

Nick suddenly looked nervous, "I... well I've got one called Breathtaker Strike. The others can be used with weapons too. Haven't had much of a chance to get more skills that use my fists."

"Well shit, if we survive this dive I could train with you!" I said excitedly before remembering my manners. "Oh right, my name's Thunra Grantuf, Puncher of Trolls, Kicker of Kobolds, and Strangler of Drakes. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you, I'm Nick Smith of the Alta clan. I don't have any titles beyond that, yet."

"The Alta clan? But you're not an orc... Are you?"

"No, their mom adopted me so that I could be a member of the village," he said, gesturing to the brothers.

"I'm Nash Alta, Destroyer of Ents and Maker of Trouble. Ignore that last bit, that's from Gluhern," the axe-holder chuckled.

"And I'm Yulk Alta, Seeker of Arcane Lore, Entrusted Sorcerer, Mender of Wounds, Maker of Mischief, etcetera," the other Alta brother said. Then with an unsettling grin he added, "If you're gonna train Nick it'd be best if I was around for it. Having an over-twenty train a level five is bound to result in some pretty nasty wounds."

"Sure, but I plan on going easy on 'im. Easier than my pa went on me, anyway," I laughed. "So where're you from, Nick? Never seen nobody like you before."

"I'm from another world. One that has people like me all over the place, but we're the only ones who are sentient that I know of. We don't have magic, orcs, elves or anything else like that. I was going home from the store when I got in an accident, and next thing I know I'm in a hospital bed in the village," Nick explained, a sad expression making its way onto his face. "Nash found me in this dungeon."

"Ah, sorry to hear that. You lookin' for a way back home?" I asked sympathetically.

"Yeah," he answered.

"Well, if we find you a way back home, maybe we'll also find a way that you can come back when you want" I said with a smile. "Then we can do a rain-check on that training!"

"Uh... yeah, sure! Sounds great," Nick stammered with forced smile. My own smile turned into a grin at the completely undisguised dread in his eyes.

I turned back to my own thoughts as the others began to chat with the human. I definitely don't blame him for bein' wary of my training. It hurts, no matter how it's done. That's the point, though, sweat in training so you don't bleed in battle. Bruises are better than broken bones, but if you've got an inexperienced trainer you'll end up bleeding with broken bones during training.

Thankfully for Nick, I learned from pa's mistakes. I can pull a punch much better than he could. Still get dreams about seein' my own ribs now and then. If it weren't for our neighbors bein' pretty good at healin', I'd have died before my thirteenth birthday. It was still pretty close, though.

I shook myself from these thoughts and started eavesdroppin' to pass the time. The conversation had turned from favorite foods to where he lived before he got here. It was like one sucker punch after another. First, he can eat meat, fruits, and vegetables all on their own without getting sick. Next, the cities where he's from have giant towers made of glass and steel! Their roads were paved with a mixture of sand, rocks, and some type of pitch! And they don't have magic, so their magicarts run off of explosions instead! What kind of crazy people would strap themselves to somethin' that's explodin' so they can move faster?

Then the conversation turned to weapons, and Nick got real quiet all of a sudden. He started answering questions without all the details he was spoutin' earlier. Apparently humans use weapons that are similar to bows, but much deadlier. Don't know how you get deadlier than a poisoned barb arrow, but he wouldn't answer any more questions about it. We walked silently until Yhisith finally called us to a halt.

"Alright, according to the sand-vial we should camp right around here. Get the barriers set up and unpack, we've got more walking to do tomorrow," she said.

I took off my pack and watched as Yulk and Jino set up some barriers to keep out any wandering monsters. Other adventurers were delvin', but that didn't mean that monsters wouldn't be slippin' past 'em. The barriers went up and I noticed Nash was starin' at our way forward with a concerned look on his face.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Huh?" he replied. "Oh, it's just... we should see the light from the hidden passage from here."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, I remember being annoyed at it keeping me awake. But now I can't see it at all..." he trailed off.

"The dungeon shifted though, right?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I thought that the hidden passage didn't move," he said. "At least, nobody mentioned it moving."

"Well, the passage we're in probably just got longer," I nodded wisely as Yulk and Nick walked up to us.

"We didn't have any turns or anything. How did the entrance move here but not outside?" Nash scratched his braids.

"What's going on?" Nick asked.

Nash and I brought them up to speed and Nick looked as if he was gettin' a headache.

Yulk laughed, "Shifter dungeons rarely follow the laws of physics. This side of the dungeon entrance doesn't necessarily correlate to the entrance in the overworld."

"Yeah, what he said." I grinned. Then I turned to Nick and whispered, "What did he say?"

"The dungeon entrance moves inside the dungeon without moving outside the dungeon, I think," Nick answered. "So we're farther away from the hidden passage?"

"Probably," Yulk replied. "Or the passage has gone back to being hidden. Which would be... inconvenient."

"Disastrous, more like," Nash grumbled. "Well, let's hope that's not the case. Trying to find that passage again is going to suck."

We all nodded in agreement and set about getting our camping gear unpacked. I claimed a spot near the barrier, just in case, and joined the others for some chow. Lighting a fire in a dungeon is usually a bad idea because of the smoke, so it was just survival rations. Chow started out quiet, but once a few of us were done eating we started swappin' stories and braggin'. It was Nick's turn to listen in amazement.

"And as you can imagine, ogres don't take kindly to being castrated so I had quite the fight on my hands," Matri said. "Once they had my scent I had to abandon tryin' to be sneaky about it, too. Ended up disemboweling one of 'em before the other knocked me senseless. It was nearly the end of me, but I managed to recover in the nick of time and kicked his axe back into his face. Slit their throats and took their balls back to the guild for a hefty payday."

"Damn, I knew you were a ball-buster!" I joked. More than a few chuckles came from the rest of our party.

"What did they want ogre balls for?" Yhisith looked disgusted.

"I don't know for sure, but they were offerin' fifty silver per ball, so whoever ordered 'em was probably tryin' to use 'em for an aphrodisiac," Matri answered.

"More the fool are they," Jino said. "Ogre testicles aren't useful alchemical ingredients in any way, let alone to raise one's flag."

We spent some more time swappin' stories before eye-lids started to droop. I stood up, stretched, and walked back over to my bedroll. I took one last look down the passage, trying to make out even a glimmer of the light Nash had mentioned. I didn't see nothin', though, so I laid down and started countin' puffy bleeters.

Tomorrow's gonna be an eventful day. Hopefully...