The Outlands

Gramps’ personal warehouse was a large, crowded building a short walk from the guild. It wasn’t cluttered, just…full. There was stuff everywhere, arranged into neat rows of shelves, boxes, stands, and other containers. Gramps led them through the stuff, walking with purpose towards what appeared to be a row of armor stands in the back. Once he got there, he led them down the row until he reached two stands with a bin next to each. One set of stand and bin was labeled as “Thomas”, and the other as “Ellie.”

“Go ahead and grab your stuff.” Gramps told them, “This is the best you can equip without any prerequisites, at least for leather armor and quarterstaffs. I picked those because they were the easiest to use with the minimal training you have. The gloves and boots will boost the power of the martial arts I taught you, but use those as a last resort, at least until you’ve had more real practice. Just use the staffs to hit things at a distance, and if they get close, then you can use your fists.”

As they suited up, Gramps began to tell them the particulars of the gear. “The gloves and boots are each a 10% boost to your unarmed attacks, the armor gives 10 extra Defense and Magic Defense, as well as 10% resistance to elemental damage. The quarterstaffs just add 10 to your Power. That all should keep you pretty safe from basically anything we’re going to encounter in the first dungeon, but I’ve got antidote potions and healing potions in that little satchel in each of your bins. It’s extradimensional, so just reach in and think of what you want, and you’ll be able to take it out.

“Once you hit level 5, you’ll be able to use the addon to your bands that will let you identify items, so let me know once you get there and I’ll give that to you.” He looked over the two, then nodded. “It looks like you’re all suited up, so let’s get this show on the road!”

Gramps led them out of the warehouse and down what Thomas assumed was the main street. People would, on occasion, stop to say hello to Gramps, and he would usually respond by returning the greeting and having a short, friendly conversation before excusing himself and the kids. Eventually, Gramps stopped in front of what was, in essence, a stereotypical wizard’s tower. It was tall and crooked, with small offshoots at seemingly random intervals.

And, strangest of all, it had a mailbox out front. No…not a mailbox, whatever those locker things were that apartment complexes had. Thomas didn’t know the name, as he had never lived anywhere that even had an apartment complex and hadn’t bothered to learn such a small detail.

“Um,” Ellie said, “Is this the dungeon? Why is there a mailbox?”

Gramps smirked. “Sure is. Each floor of a dungeon has a safe area to start with, and for whatever reason safe areas usually have some form of housing built in, complete with bedrooms, running water, electricity, and even internet access. They never used to have any of those last things, not until they started to become common, but now they do, and it baffles absolutely everyone. So, the guild rents those safe spaces out. It’s pretty handy to live next to a potential source of income, so rooms in dungeons are pretty popular, especially in a city like this.”

There was a line in front of the entrance, but Gramps just walked right to the front. There were two guards there, one of which was handling the line, and Gramps called out to the other. “Elias, can I have a moment of your time?”

The guard bolted upright and scurried over. He was, if Thomas was any judge, a dwarf, but Thomas didn’t know what shorter races there were, so he didn’t want to definitively pin down the species in his mind.

“Ah, Guildmaster, what’re you here for? Inspection’s not for another week…right?” Elias asked, peering curiously at Thomas and Ellie. “And who are those two?”

Gramps smiled. “You’re right, inspection’s not for another week. These two are my cute little grandkids, and I’m here to bring them on their first dungeon dive. I don’t have the time to spend all day waiting in lines, so I figured I’d just pop on in through the resident’s line. Oh, and I’m still working on getting their paperwork filled, but I can personally vouch for their trustworthiness, so do you think you could let us in?”

Elias rolled his eyes. “You know you don’t have to ask, Guildmaster. Have fun, kids!”

Before either Thomas or Ellie could reply, Gramps towed them through the large door that was propped open. All of a sudden, the atmosphere changed completely; the slight mugginess that had pervaded the air outside had vanished, and the temperature went from warm to perfect, like the place was air conditioned.

The sound dimmed noticeably as well, and when Thomas looked back, there was nothing but a featureless wall behind them. The room they were in was bigger than the tower had appeared to be from the outside and had significantly less people to boot. There was a hall to the side that was labelled “residents”, a large, ornate crystal in the middle of the room, and a couple of wooden stalls where merchants were hawking wares. Directly opposite the resident’s hall, there was a door labelled “Floor one”, and aside from that, the space was empty.

Gramps hopped down from the raised circle they were on and led them towards the crystal. “Each floor has a teleport pad on it. Stand on it and think about the floor you want to go to, and it’ll take you there. You can’t actually enter the dungeon on floors if you haven’t cleared the previous floor, but you can go to the lobby if you want. The pads let you exit the dungeon too, so get used to using them. Don’t worry if someone else is on the pad, it’ll just teleport you, so don’t think you have to stand in line or anything.” He reached the crystal and put his hands on it. “Except if you use this. This here is a Party Crystal, which you can use to form a Party. Go ahead and put your hands on it, you’ll understand how to use it.”

Once Thomas did, he found he was vaguely aware of everyone else currently touching the crystal, and he knew that he could invite them to form a Party. He wasn’t exactly sure what a Party entailed, but before he could think about it much, Gramps invited him, and he accepted.

Gramps took his hands off the crystal. “Parties can use the teleporter together, but they can’t teleport further than the person who’s gone the least in the dungeon. There’s also experience and drop sharing, but the most important feature of a Party is that it lets you use the same instance of a dungeon as other people in your party. Every Party has their copy of the floor, which resets once all party members have left the floor. If someone dies on the floor, their corpse is ejected when everyone’s left, and then they can be taken back to the local revival station to get resurrected. It’s not cheap, nor is it pleasant, so try not to die, alright?”

When he noticed their unsure expressions, he gave them each a pat on the arm. “Don’t worry about it too much. I’m going to be signing you two up for the guild’s premium insurance, so don’t even think about the payment, I’ll take care of it.”

And with that, he towed them through the door to the first floor. It opened into a circular room, the edges of which were recessed and filled with water. There was a walkway to a large circular area in the middle, upon which rested a round green blob that could only be a slime.

“Ah, pattern D.” Gramps mused. “Dungeons have a few variations for each floor, the number of which is dependent upon the dungeon itself. In the early ones like this there are only a few variations, but big ones have a lot. Still there are some commonalities between patterns, so the guild gives out info pamphlets to help people out. Since I know this dungeon like the back of my hand, that wasn’t necessary today, but I’ll show you where to get that info when we get back. Anyway, that slime isn’t going to attack until one of us sets foot on that center pillar, so one of you two go fight it. With the gear you have it isn’t even worth being called a threat, so for practice you two should take turns with the slimes we see.”

“Dibs!” Ellie called, running forward to the pillar. She took out her quarterstaff and brought it down hard on the slime, which instantly burst apart. A moment later, the remnants of the slime turned into this sort of oily rainbow vapor and vanished, leaving behind what appeared to be a small pile of coins and an orb of some sort.

“Good job.” Gramps said, “Pick up your loot and put it in the other satchel I gave you, we can sell it once we get back to the guild.”

Ellie reached down, her hand passing directly through the orb as she grabbed something. She pulled her hand up to reveal a small coin of the type that the pile was made of, which she put into the satchel.

“That all?” She asked, looking over the room. “That’s kind of underwhelming.”

“Slimes don’t drop anything good.” Gramps said, shrugging. “What’d you get, Thomas?”

Thomas walked forward to the pile, bending down and counting the coins. “Looks like 10 of those coins and a little orb thing.”

“What?!” Ellie yelled, “You didn’t even do anything! Not fair!”

Gramps nodded sagely. “I wasn’t sure if your blessing would affect drops, but it appears that it does. Usually, people get way less or don’t even get drops if they don’t contribute much to a monster kill, maybe a couple of coins if they have high Luck, but what you got is about as valuable as drops from regular slimes get. That little orb is a core, which is used in magic, and those tend to sell nicely. Slimes also drop a couple of pieces of equipment, but they’re bad and only have really niche uses in alchemy, so they’re much cheaper than the core. Given that this variant of slime is known to only ever drop one thing at a time, coins excluded, that really is the best outcome for you. Next kill, try and aim for a piece of equipment, see if you can change what you get at will.”

Thomas nodded. “Alright.”

“Oh, that makes sense.” Ellie said, calmer now, “Looks like you can just be my good luck charm, eh? I can run around and do the killing and you make us a killing!” She elbowed him gently, then walked over to Gramps, who had moved to the other end of the room.

“Wait, I still have to put everything away!” Thomas said, grabbing all the stuff. “Is there a faster way to do this?”

“Not until level 15.” Gramps said, “Then you can use the autocollect feature of the bags. It…usually isn’t a problem, but I suppose you in particular will have some more trouble. Come here when you’re done, the slime in the next room is all yours.”

Once the drops were collected, Thomas ran over, and they went through the door at the far end of the room. The next room was a simple square room, with no distinguishing features save for the slime in the middle.

Thomas gripped his quarterstaff and strode forward, heart pounding slightly. He was only 5 Strength lower than Ellie when she had fought her slime, and she took it out in a single blow, so it shouldn’t be too hard…right?

He struck out with all his power, squarely hitting the slime.

Unlike with Ellie, it didn’t blow apart, but all the same it melted in place and turned into that same rainbow haze that Ellie’s had burst into. This time, however, it left behind a pile of coins and…a shirt that was dripping with green slime.

“Is a green slimy shirt one of those pieces of equipment you were talking about?”

Gramps nodded. “The most valuable one of the lot. It’s generally sold for about 5 copper, so honestly, it’s probably not even worth handling for you. You’ll just make your hands sticky and that’s quickly going to become chump change for you, so I wouldn’t bother. How much experience did you get?”

“13. Is that good?”

“It’s the most those slimes give. These ones have been documented as giving 4 to 13, so it looks like your blessing probably works for experience too. I should note that, unlike drops, you are completely unable to earn experience if you don’t somehow assist in the kill, but that’s pretty easily dealt with if you know what you’re doing.”

“I’ve been meaning to ask,” Thomas said while picking up the coins, “how does experience scale?”

“Complicated.” Gramps replied. “There are no diminishing returns when killing things lower leveled than you, and no greater returns when killing a higher leveled opponent, but when you level up your experience is reset, and you need more to get to the next level.”

“That doesn’t sound too complicated.” Ellie said.

“That’s not. The complicated part is how much more you’re going to need. It’s not a percentage increase or anything, it just goes up to a certain amount. Getting to level three takes one hundred and ten, four takes another one hundred and ten, five takes one hundred twenty-five…you get the point. There’s a table back at the guild of how much it takes to get to a certain level, up to one hundred and thirty-seven. That’s the highest we have the value for, but we’re pretty sure there’s no hard cap to level. If you ask me, don’t bother looking at the table unless you’re curious or you need to hit a level by a deadline or something and you need to plan. Alright, Ellie, you’re up next.”

The rest of the floor went pretty much the same way. Walk into the room, hit the slime once, grab the loot (which Thomas was keeping to cores), move on. They went through two more rooms like that, before suddenly finding themselves in another safe area, which looked nearly identical to the first.

“Not bad you two.” Gramps said. “This dungeon has 5 floors, with the fifth being just a boss. In this dungeon, each floor is nearly identical and will just give you one more slime than the last floor in each encounter, so you’ll be able to share from here on out. You two should be able to handle that no sweat, so I’m going to meet you on the next floor.”

He teleported away, and Thomas looked to Ellie. “I suppose we should get started then.”

“It’ll take no time!” She said exuberantly, “Heck, we’ll probably take more time picking up your loot than we will killing slimes. Let’s go!”

True to Gramps’ words, the second floor was just about the same as the first but with one more slime, and they sped through it without issue. The most notable thing they discovered was that, apparently, distracting a creature’s ally counted as “helping” defeat it, as Thomas was able to gain EXP from the slimes Ellie defeated, and Ellie got normal drops and EXP from the ones Thomas defeated.

And, it was in the last room that Thomas heard a ‘ding’ when he killed a slime. Once the room was clear, he checked his Status and then turned to Ellie. “Looks like that ding happens when we level up. I didn’t get any Skills or a Class or anything, but all my abilities went up by the maximum, so I guess that’s something.”

“Lucky.” Ellie grumbled. “I’m still thirty-three away from a level.”

 Once they reached the safe area of the third floor, Thomas relayed his finding to Gramps.

“I expected as much.” Gramps said, “You won’t get any Skills or Classes from levelling up, those come from other places. I’ll tell you more about them when we finish the dungeon. I’ll meet you on the next floor!”

The third floor was similarly uninteresting. Ellie leveled up, and Thomas went up to level 3, but other than that nothing really happened. Gramps checked in on them and went up to the fifth floor, and they trudged through the fourth. Ellie and Thomas both leveled again, and soon were in the safe area of the fifth floor, which was much more crowded than the previous areas.

“Ah, there you are!” Gramps said jovially. “Ready to do this? I’ll be going in with you to make sure nothing happens, but I’d probably one shot the boss even without any equipment, so I’m going to try and refrain from interfering unless it goes wrong. It shouldn’t, though, it’s a really easy boss.”

“Why is it so crowded?” Ellie asked.

“The boss drops better stuff, so if people are farming for money, then they’ll generally farm the boss, at least in this dungeon. It varies on a dungeon-to-dungeon basis, but the general theme of boss floors being more crowded tends to hold. Now let’s go, time’s a wasting!”

As they reached the door, Gramps stopped them before they went in. “Just so you’re aware, you can’t proceed through the exit door in the boss room until the boss is dead. You can retreat, but some bosses will try and cut off your exit route. This boss isn’t one of them, so you don’t need to worry about that, but in the future remember that it’s always better to leave and survive than it is to die.” With those words, he opened the door and walked in.

Thomas and Ellie followed Gramps through the door and found themselves in a large circular room. It was featureless, save for the shimmering door on the other side, so their attention was immediately drawn to the enormous slime sitting in the middle of the room. Where the other slimes had reached perhaps half of the way to their knees at the largest, this slime was as tall as a person.

“This one’s named Big Bertha. She’s just a big slime, nothing special about her aside from that. She’ll take more hits and deal more damage than a normal slime, but she’s not terribly dangerous, so have at it!” Gramps said cheerfully.

Ellie rushed in and gave Big Bertha a whack, the quarterstaff sinking into Big Bertha but not bursting her. In retaliation, Big Bertha rammed herself into Ellie while she was off-balance, causing her to stumble backwards.

Thomas rushed in and took his own whack, not putting his full strength into it so he didn’t end up like Ellie.

 The staff sank into Bertha slightly, but he just wrenched it out and jumped back as Bertha made another lunge.

At this point, Ellie tugged her quarterstaff free and hit Big Bertha one more time, killing Big Bertha.

Thomas heard the ding of a level up but paid it no heed as he looked at the drops. Big Bertha dropped a single silver-looking coin and a core a fair bit larger than the other slimes, so he put the core in his satchel and showed the coin to Gramps. “I’m guessing this is a silver? How many coppers to a silver, and what’s higher than a silver?”

“One-hundred coppers to a silver, one-hundred silvers to a gold, one-hundred golds to a platinum.” Gramps replied, moving to the far door. “Think of a copper like a cent, so a silver would be a dollar, a gold would be one-hundred dollars, and a platinum would be ten-thousand dollars.”

“How does the economy not crash with all this money coming in?” Thomas asked.

“It flows out at a pretty similar rate. Some magic, most notably resurrections, use money as part of their components, some Skills use money, some equipment’s powered by money. It all balances out in the end. That’s enough talk though, let’s go get your real reward!”

Before either of them could say anything, he opened the door and walked in, disappearing from sight. The two teens shared a shrug, then followed. The room they found themselves in was small, a large crystal not dissimilar to the Party Crystals in each of the safe areas taking up most of the space.

“The first time you clear each dungeon, you get an opportunity to use its Rewards Crystal. Touch it, and you’ll get either a Class or a Skill. You can get another opportunity to use the Rewards Crystal if you clear the dungeon from start to finish a certain number of times, the exact number of which varies from dungeon to dungeon. This one you can get four more attempts at 10 clears each, so when you have some free time, I’d recommend working your way towards getting those four attempts. Now, go ahead and try! The Rewards Crystal will give you a pop-up when you use it telling you what you got, so you don’t even need to use your bands!”

Thomas, filled with anticipation, placed a hand on the crystal.

Right, so the goddess of Fortune was kind of scatterbrained. Good to know.

“What’d you get?” He asked, turning to Ellie.

“Swordswoman Class!” She said. “You?”

“The Legendary variety of the Underdog Skill.”

“Well, that’s perfect for you.” Gramps said. “Not that I’m surprised at this point. As for you, Ellie, a Class is great. Swordsman is pretty average, but it’s a Class. Let’s head back to the guild and I’ll tell you more about Classes, OK? Just leave the room the way you came in and you’ll be back in the safe area.”

So, having performed Thomas and Ellie’s first successful dungeon crawl, the party made their way back to the guild.

Fighterman481

You might notice that the start of this series is a bit rough, and that's mostly because I was still getting a feel for how the series worked, and also because these first couple of chapters were written late at night in one sitting, so there's that lol.

Also, a fair amount of exposition in these first few chapters, that too.

But...dungeon apartments. Another element of that dream I had, in there they were just straight up part of the dungeon floor and people had to move through the living areas to get to the top.

 

That doesn't work for what should be obvious reasons lol. Still, I really like the idea of the guild renting out dungeons as apartments, so I found a way to keep that in.

 

This chapter also starts to outline the general dynamic of Thomas and Ellie. Ellie will lag behind in level but be stronger, and Thomas will have better Skills and Classes, which only partially catches him up to Ellie, at least in terms of raw combat ability.

 

If you were curious, Ellie was hitting mid 30s on Big Bertha in that fight, so even accounting for the fact that Thomas didn't do a full-power swing, she still was dealing quite a bit more damage than him.

 

In about a chapter or two we should be completely caught up with everything the dream gave me and the "true" foundation for the series will be set. So, look forward to it!

 

And, as always, thanks for reading!