The Reluctant Hero - Vol. 1 - Chapter 5

Axel lay in his comfortable bed luxuriating in the afterglow of a delicious meal. So far the quality of the food and the bedroom in the inn had made it worth every last silver. He’d even managed to hear a couple of interesting things.

Apparently, outside the city, the number of wild undead has been increasing lately. Nothing overly alarming but something to be aware of when traveling. No one had spotted anything but unintelligent undead so it wasn’t a huge worry, just odd. Though an older man had pointed out that the same thing had happened nearly twenty years ago. He claimed it was nothing to worry about as long as people were careful.

The more worrying thing he had heard was about the disappearances of several second-tier people. Groups would go into tier two dungeons and never come out. Other people would find the bodies of most of the group members but usually, a single person would be missing from the group. None of those missing people had been found or seen again. It wasn’t something he had to worry about right this moment, but it would be a problem soon enough.

Axel sighed and adjusted his position in bed. Despite his full belly and warm bed, he was having trouble falling asleep. He felt like he was a little kid again, unable to sleep the night before his birthday as excitement kept him from easily drifting off. Tomorrow he would have his Status Plate and be off on his adventure. It was too exciting. He let his body and mind go limp to eventually drift off into a light sleep.

The following morning he blitzed through his breakfast and quickly made his way to the guild. When he arrived in the registration area, the same burly man from the day before was sitting at the counter. As Axel approached, he smirked, “Oh, you’re back newbie.”

Without waiting for Axel to reply, he pulled out a small rectangular piece of thin metal and set it down on the counter, “Your Status Plate. Don’t lose it. Replacements are one gold. Now take it and get out.”

Axel ignored the man in favor of grabbing his Status Plate and excitedly looked it over while exiting the room.

Axel Voht

Level: 1

Class: Mage

Monsters: —

Quests: 0

Rank: F

After checking over the Status Plate, he made his way to the supplies section. Only registered members could buy items from the guild. He quickly purchased a map that showed the dungeon he was interested in as well as several days' worth of rations. Not the most delicious food but it would last for weeks without rotting. He had everything else he would need already. With his purchases stored inside of his Magic Box, he left the guild and went directly toward the nearest city gate.

The area around Victoria was filled with rolling hills, large collections of trees, and large fields of grass and wildflowers. The dungeon he was heading for was located to the north, a couple of hour's walk from the city. Not too far all things considered. On the way, he would be mostly out in the open walking up and down hills for most of the day. There were a few small sections of trees he would need to pass through. The dungeon entrance was located in one such section of woods.

“Equip.”

With that single word, Axel retrieved his ‘Staff of the Adventurous Youngster’ and held it in his hand. It was the only piece of equipment he had and frankly, it was leagues better than what most beginners would have available. If his mother hadn’t given it to him, the best staff he would have been able to afford wouldn’t have done more than give him weapon damage of about fifty, compared to the one-fifty-one he had now.

Axel set the staff on his shoulder and began to whistle as he walked. It was a calm, peaceful day with the sun shining down and warming him. He could see individuals and groups of people around doing their own thing. The solo people looked to be collecting herbs and other small things that had uses for people. The groups seemed to be hunting monsters. He’d seen one or two large boars and the occasional undead in the distance. Other groups took them out and they got nowhere near him.

Two hours later he approached the first copse of trees in his path. He came to a stop to observe the area he was about to enter. It wasn’t a very dense area so he could see through a good portion of it. He wanted to make sure he didn’t miss any obvious monsters, that would just be pathetic. His caution paid off as he spotted two undead off in different directions. If he’d just walked in they likely would have spotted him and attacked together.

“Mana Armor.”

A soft blue glow surrounded Axel and would protect him from damage. With his preparations complete, he lifted his hand and aimed at the zombie to his left, “Arcane Bolt.”

A sound like a whipcrack followed by a meaty thud signaled his Arcane Bolt being fired and slamming into the head of the zombie. The force behind the bolt was enough to shatter the zombie's head into small gooey chunks. It was also enough to alert the second undead, a skeleton wearing rotted leather armor, off to the other side.

“Telekinesis.”

Axel made a grasping motion with his hand aimed at the skeleton ambling toward him. The loud sound of shattering bones filled the air as he obliterated the skeleton with ease.

Level up!

Level up!

With the fight officially over, he was granted his experience and finally leveled up! Axel threw his hands into the air and shouted, “YES! I’m no longer and level one loser!”

Magic Box detected.

Loot: 1x Bone Powder, 1x Zombie Eye

Automatically stored.

Axel blinked at the newest message, “Huh, no one told me it could do that! Why didn’t mom mention that little fact?”

Axel shrugged and just figured that she forgot with everything else she was telling him. It was such a minor thing that it wouldn’t matter. He shrugged it off and resumed his journey to the dungeon. For the remainder of his walk to the dungeon, the only thing he had to deal with was the sound of birds singing in the woods and the gentle breeze blowing through the rolling hills.

It was a rather nice calm walk to get to the dungeon, but once he arrived he became more serious. Sitting in the middle of a small dark copse of trees was a stone arch. Inside the arch was a shimmering curtain of rainbow colors that signaled the entrance to the dungeon. It was so strange to see the ancient-looking stone arch just standing in the middle of nowhere. It gave off an eerie feeling of danger to his senses. It should, given it was recommended for people twelve levels higher than he currently was.

Axel took a moment to go over what he had inside of his Magic Box. Once he entered the dungeon there were only two ways out. Either he succeeded and cleared the dungeon, or it would spit his corpse out. Once inside he would be completely alone. He felt no fear. He’d conquer this dungeon, level up a whole bunch, gather a ton of loot, and return to the city.

He walked over to the dungeon entrance and placed his hand against the shimmering curtain of color. It felt cool and solid to his touch but most importantly it triggered a message.

Undead Dungeon - UD330294875402

Select Difficulty Level

Easy 15-20

Normal 21-25

Hard 26-35

Hardcore 36-45

Death Zone 46-50

Axel looked at the list and paused. In normal circumstances, he wouldn’t be at this dungeon at all. Taking anything higher than ‘Easy’ should be suicide. His finger moved toward ‘Death Zone’ but paused before touching it. He so wanted to get as much experience as he could but he knew that his supposed massive mana pool was affecting his judgment. He might have four to five million mana saved up, but he would burn through that in no time at all if he took on such high-level monsters.

Hard difficulty selected, entering the dungeon.

The rainbow of color in the doorway wrapped around Axel and pulled him into its embrace. He saw nothing but the swirling colors for a few seconds before finding himself in a dark and dank stone passage. The only light in the area was provided by bioluminescent moss that grew on the walls and ceiling. It provided enough light to see by. If it hadn’t he had something for that.

With his staff in hand, he moved forward and quickly came to a flight of stairs leading down into darkness, “That’s not ominous at all. Mana Armor.”

The blue glow of his Mana Armor surrounded Axel once again to protect him from danger. He walked down the stairs while keeping his eyes open for any surprises. The stairs led down to a room with three exits to it. In the darkness of the dungeon, he couldn’t see much of where the exits led to. He shrugged his shoulders and took the passage to his right.

This led him into a single room with no exits and two shambling skeletons. Each one was wearing heavily damaged and rusted iron armor and wielding a melee weapon. One held a large Zweihander sword while the other held a simple arming sword and shield. Once he crossed the threshold, the two skeletons focused on him, small red lights flaring in their orbital sockets as they charged at him.

“Arcane Bolt.”

The small bolt of arcane energy flew through the air and slammed into the skeleton with the Zweihander sword. The bolt did a fair bit of damage, cracking several of the skeleton's rib bones and breaking a couple. It didn’t stop the skeleton's charge though. Axel clicked his tongue in disappointment, though he wasn’t surprised. The skeletons were over twenty levels above him.

“Telekinesis.”

The level gap could be closed though. Bones shattered with loud cracks as he overpowered the level gap with the sheer weight of mana. As the pieces of broken skeletons fell to the ground, the sweet notifications floated in front of Axel.

Level up!

Level up!

Level…

Lev…

…

Magic Box detected.

Loot: 2x Bone Powder

Automatically stored.

Axel couldn’t even wait a moment longer and quickly checked his status to see just how much stronger he had become.

Name: Axel Voht

Level: 15 (34%)

Class: Mage (15/100)

HP: 450/450 (+4.6/sec)

MP: 9,999/— (1,050) (+16.8/sec)

SP: 350/350 (+3.5/sec)

Str: 25

Dex: 40

Con: 35

Int: 95

Wis: 70

Cha: 25

Lck: 25

Axel couldn’t stop himself from grinning like a madman. Just barely into the first room of the dungeon and he was already level fifteen. Maybe he should have gone into the Death Zone difficulty. Well, either way, he still had the rest of the dungeon to go through and many more levels to gain. Hopefully, he wouldn’t be in here more than a day or two.

He turned and left the room to go into the next unexplored section. He was only just beginning and he had no intention of stopping any time soon.