Fred walked through the crowded main streets that surrounded the guild and saw many people entering and leaving the place. Everyone that had a class and wished, could become a member of the adventurer guild. From what he grasped, the guild was more like an entity that governed and controlled the entrances to the dungeon. They earned money by offering their services to adventurers that wanted to dive into the infinite dungeons, and were respected by everyone.

From what Jouti told him, before the guild existed, there was no power that watched over the dungeons, letting some dungeons overflow near human territory and causing mayhem in many places. Monster hordes quickly formed and overrun entire villages or cities. The Adventurer guild stopped that. They mapped the dungeons, classified them by level and placed protections on entrances near human territory.

After getting to the guild he saw that many people were talking. He went to the side and waited. Jouti said he had arranged a group that could keep up with him. He was eager to find who these people were.

He waited for a few minutes, until someone came to him. The man that wore dark leather armor, and had two scimitars strapped to his back. “Are you Fred?” He nodded, and the man said. “I’m Peter, and will show you to your team. Come with me.” Fred got up and followed after the man.

As he followed Peter, he entered one of the rooms inside the guild. There were some people waiting inside. Emmanuel was there, wearing heavy metal armor and wielding a huge mace. Amanda was on the other side of the room, with an armored black robe. A teenager wearing black clothes and using leather armor was beside Emmanuel, chatting with him about some things, and another girl stood to the side of the room. She had red hair and black eyes, and wore light armor.

Peter clapped and said. “Your final teammate is finally here.” The others around the room stopped and looked at him. “The one behind me is Fred. Fred, those are Emmanuel, Oliver, Diana and Amanda. They’ll be your teammates from now on. You can already enter the dungeon, but I recommend you to at least organize yourselves in clear roles before trying it.” He said and left the room, leaving the group by themselves.

No one spoke for a while, until Oliver stepped forward and said. “Hey everyone. If we are going to work together, we’ll need to at least know our roles in the team. I'm a rogue. Know how to do and undo traps, and skin and treat meat. I specialize in hiding and scouting, but know how to battle when needed.”

Diana stepped forward and said. “I’m a blood mage, but focus on healing and support. I also have some attacking skills.”

Next, Fred introduced himself. “I’m a close and mid-range fighter. I have some skills that can help on defending the team…”

“Hey everyone!” Emmanuel’s cheery voice resounded through the room. “I’m a close range fighter. I will crush the head of all our enemies.” A huge grin was splattered on his face as he said that.

Amanda was the last one. “I’m a mid/long-range mage. I have some skills that can help me escape a tight situation.”

The introductions were superficial to say the least. But he knew that the situation would get more comfortable with time. Initially, he didn’t want to dive into the infinite dungeons with a team, but Jouti convinced him otherwise. He would spend a long time in the dungeons, and spending all that time without human contact was almost impossible.

“Let’s get going then! I want to smash some heads.” Emmanuel said while walking out of the room. Everyone else followed after him without saying anything. They were not bringing any supplies, but they were obviously only going to the first layer and wouldn’t stay that long inside the dungeon.

The team walked through the guild and entered the gates that separated the building from the dungeon. They could instantly feel that the atmosphere inside it was different. “I’ll go in front, as I’m a close ranged fighter.” They talked for some time, and decided on a basic formation. Emmanuel and Fred would go in front with Oliver right behind when in battle, and Amanda and Diana would come last. Oliver would scout ahead the majority of the time, and alert them when needed.

they silently entered in formation, and began to explore. The cave was big, its walls were seven meters tall and the tunnels were wide. The place was barely lit by some crystals embedded into the walls. They were known as lume crystals, very common in the infinite dungeons.

They walked for a few minutes and entered some forks in the cavern. As they were close to the surface, there were many markings which they could use to guide themselves. They ran into some groups coming back to the guild, but didn’t say anything and just continued on their way.

After a few minutes, Oliver came back and said, “Found a group of monsters ahead.” They prepared their minds and slowly went forward. From Oliver’s information, there were a group of seven goblins ahead. They decided that the group could take the monsters on. Slowly walking forward, the goal was coming closer. The group of goblins was already within sight, as soon as the creatures realized they were coming, the goblins attacked.

As the monsters ran toward them, Fred used identify before they engaged.

Goblin

lvl 5

The creatures were level 5, there could possibly be weaker creatures in a dungeon, like slimes, but they were among the weakest ones.

With his sword already in hand, Fred materialized another on above him to attack one of the goblins, while the sword on his hand was swinging at another one. His sword cut through the creature’s head before it could react, and the conjured sword pierced the other one. He saw that the rest of the team were taking care of their own targets. Emmanuel took care of two others, while the others took care of one goblin each.

The battle ended quickly and unceremoniously. There was almost no danger in the fight. Fred doubted that even if he was alone the seven goblins could be a threat to him. The group searched around, but found no loot, after that they resumed their exploration.

After walking for some minutes, they finally encountered another group. According to Oliver, this one was bigger, being composed of 14 members, and they had archers and hobgoblins.

They knew that from going deeper into the dungeon, the monsters would become more dangerous, but this jump was too big.

After assuming their roles, the group advanced.

As soon as the goblins were within sight, Amanda released a ball of fire. The attack sailed through the air, but a hobgoblin saw the attack and stopped it with an arrow. He saw the arrow exploding inside the fireball and dispersing it.

The group advanced with Emmanuel and Fred in front. The Hobgoblin archer released another attack. Fred was ready before the attack was launched and invoked a shield to protect himself from it.

“BBOOOOOM!!”

The arrow chattered on the shield with an explosion, but the shield also cracked and became useless, dispersing.

Emmanuel approached the group of goblins to his side, and a hobgoblin tried to attack him, this one was a warrior and used a club. Unfortunately, the hobgoblin was badly matched. Emmanuel attack’s were ferocious. After three hits, the hobgoblin was on the ground, dead. The group didn’t delay, and also attacked. The archer hobgoblin was exhausted after releasing the two attacks, and his next arrows didn’t have the skill applied to it. Amanda burnt part of the group, while Oliver hid himself in shadows, and took the hobgoblin archer out with a stab to the neck. Diana buffed the group, and used blood arrows to attack the goblins.

After a few minutes, the battle was over. This one was clearly much harder, and if they were alone, could get badly hurt. This showed the importance of groups.

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

He looked at the two messages that appeared in front of him and dismissed it. They would have a long hunt ahead of them, and he would distribute the attribute points later.

They explored the caves for the rest of the day and fought to their heart's content. They had found little loot. There was only some equipment that they looted from the monsters themselves. There was no skill shard found.

Fred had hoped for a moment that he would find some skill shards. His general skills were learned through effort and training, something that took time. It was much easier to acquire general skills before getting a class, but there was a limit of eight skills that could be learned. After getting a class, learning skills naturally became much harder but you could still learn them that way, or you could get a skill shard to instantly learn a skill.

Skills from shards sometimes were very useful, and some were deemed impossible or unlikely to learn on your own. One of the most famous skill shard was ‘Second breath’, a general skill that allowed one to instantly heal from a fatal wound. Of course, one could only do that once per month in the inferior tier. But evolving to a higher tier could solve many problems the skill had. Of course, to level it up you would need to almost die, and most that had it left it in inferior tier.

After fighting for some time, they returned to the surface with their spoils. They were carrying many crude weapons. And even though those weapons were not that great., their materials could be processed and turned into quality weapons or armor.

After leaving the dungeon, they sold their spoils through the guild and divided the money. The total worth of the spoils came to be 3 gold pieces and fifty silver. Each person got around 58 silver and a few copper coins. Fred deposited it on his account with the guild.

The party members parted ways, with a promise of meeting in the guild the next day. Fred left the guild and found a lodge near it. The first floor of the lodge was a bar, and there were many people drinking. He went to the counter and asked the woman that was taking orders.

“Hello. I’d like a room.”

The woman looked at him and replied, like she had said the phrase many times before. “It’s three silver for the night, and eighteen for the week. Meals not included.”

“If I include breakfast and dinner, how much will it be?” He would be in the dungeon for most of the day, and would only return in the night. He also wanted to go to Jouti and train a bit. He would have to talk to his team and decide on a schedule. They were in a period where they were still adapting to their own skills and teamwork.

“Lodge with breakfast and dinner is 35 silver per week.”

Fred nodded and took out his card. The woman also took hers out, and he transferred her thirty-five silver pieces. “You can go to your room. Your meal will be delivered shortly. Here is your key. It’s room number twelve. Just go upstairs and turn right.”

“Thanks.” He picked up the key and went upstairs. The room was rather small, but as soon as he closed the door, all sound stopped. The bathroom had a shower, and there was hot water. After taking a hot shower, he changed clothes and sat on the bed. “I only have two sets of clothes… I have to buy more clothes tomorrow.”

Someone knocked on the door, and Fred opened it and picked up his food. There was plenty of food on the trail delivered to him. Bread, butter, milk, cheese, soup, and even an apple. After eating the meal, he opened his status screen.

Name:

Willfred

Race:

Human

Class:

Mana savant (L)

Level:

4

Strength:

41

Agility:

42

Constitution:

42

Intelligence:

63

Wisdom:

61

Status points available: 30

Class Skills

Name

Tier

Level

Mana source (S)

Common

55

infinity armaments (S)

Common

71

Mana body (S)

Common

83

Mana sage (S)

Common

80

General Skills

Name

Tier

Level

Mana manipulation (A)

Epic

6

Sword mastery (B)

Unique

100

Regeneration (B)

Rare

35

Literature (C)

Rare

85

Meditation (C)

Rare

48

Acting (F)

Uncommon

60

Identify

Inferior

08

Perks

Nature attunement

Your body is attuned to the natural elements. Gives the user extra resistance to the elements and more affinity to them.