"Over there is the Larchat forest. My dad lost a wagon over there. He only had two casualties, though, so it wasn't so bad. It was… I think someone who hadn't gotten their Class yet, and a new Bronze Class. There was a pack of wargs that had escaped a dungeon, and he was a little drunk that day. He's drunk every day, so that's not important, but I think it's probably pretty important. Anyways…"
Mariusz, the owner of the wagon, enjoyed telling stories he'd heard about people dying or losing cargo on trips nearby. He was now on his third, focused on one of the misadventures of his father. Astrid wanted to either rip off her ears or fill his mouth with dirty socks, and she was getting real close to both as he continued talking about how a poor kid, being carried along to get to her extended family's farm, fell from the wagon and was eaten by wargs while Mariusz's father watched. Astrid only counted herself lucky that there wasn't a child in the wagon to listen to the stories and get traumatized.
Their next stop was a small town called Schteld, one whose entire economy was propped up on new delvers coming in and killing the monsters in the nearby dungeon. Astrid had never been, but she knew what they were looking for. A smaller town that was effectively the full day's travel away from Stalstadt with no buildings of note except for the Delver's Guild where the delvers had to pay their taxes and trade materials. Already they'd traveled through lunch, and the wagon driver had assured Astrid that they were making good time and would make it to town before
"... so then he just cut his losses." Mariusz finished the story lamely. He didn't care, seemingly just enjoying the captive audience to the grim tales of ill-fated journeys. Before he could jump in to the next one, the horse's ears pricked up as it looked around with an obvious sense of fear.
"Your horse usually pretty jumpy?" Astrid asked, though she suspected she already knew the answer. She put her helmet on and crawled to the front of the wagon where Mariusz sat. She was too tall to stand in the covered wagon, but she strapped her shield on and kept her right hand on the head of her hammer.
"No." Mariusz shook his head. "I'd guess we're about to get a story of our own."
No sooner than he had spoken did a warg jump out of a nearby bush at the horse. Astrid felt her adrenaline surge into overdrive as she leapt out of the wagon. Pulling her hammer into her hand, she smashed her shield into the warg's face, turning it from hobbling the mare. It snarled back at her, and, for the first time, Astrid saw a living monster.
A face that was a wrinkly and grotesque imitation of a wolf's long before she'd hit it seemed to consider lunging at her. The monster's body was taller, thicker, and not quite as long as a wolf's, and it didn't have any fur. Instead, its black skin sported various lesions and its claws were longer and sharper than a wolf's.
Instead of continuing to take in the sight, Astrid pressed the attack. Holding her shield low and at the ready, she stepped forward. The creature took a step back, trying to circle around her. She didn't wait for it to and, as it circled around her shield to her right, she swung her hammer forward in a sweeping blow. It crunched into one of the warg's feet and it whimpered as it hopped backward.
"Uh oh!" Mariusz wordlessly exclaimed as Astrid scored the first hit. She had no idea what that was supposed to mean, but she quickly learned as another warg crashed into the back of her thighs. It nearly knocked her prone, but Astrid managed to plant the bottom of her shield in the ground to keep herself on her feet. She wanted to kill the wounded monster, but she couldn't let her ambusher continue crunching on her greaves. When she turned to deal a blow against the damned creature, it dodged back, and Astrid saw two things.
The first was that Mariusz's horse had begun to bolt. Already, the wagon was getting further and further away. The second thing she saw was that there weren't two wargs. There were three. Fortunately, her second, sweeping strike had warded off the third warg's attack. Unfortunately, there were still two completely uninjured monsters ready to kill her. She was all alone on her very first fight.
She needed to keep the momentum, or she'd be harried. With a shout of challenge, Astrid rushed the second warg, making it dodge back as the third circled around her. She couldn't avoid that with multiple foes in a wide open road, so she decided to leverage that. From the ambush she'd sustained, she knew that her greaves could hold up for a single attack if they needed to. Thus, she ignored the third warg behind her. The attacks she brandished at the second weren't real attacks, though they couldn't know that. Instead, she was trying, over the sound of her heart and breathing, to listen for the third's coming.
Astrid swung once, twice, three times, and then she heard the scrape of claws on the paved road behind her. She braced herself as if she was going to charge the second warg, but waited for the third to attack. It obliged, thick jaws fighting to pierce her flesh protected under the metal of her greaves. As soon as she felt the touch of the monster, Astrid swung her shield around her. The heavy wood and steel smashed into its ribs and it cried out in pain. She refused to give it the chance to recover, though. It stumbled to its feet, but her hammer struck its spine just between its shoulder blades. Bone crunched and it fell to the ground. Forelegs went limp as the warg tried to move itself but couldn't, and Astrid was down to a single foe.
The remaining warg came around and caught her right hand in its jaws. She felt her bones crunch under its jaws and she screamed as her hammer fell from unresponsive fingers. The rivets of metal kept the teeth from piercing too deep through the glove and into her flesh. While it tried to whip her around by the arm, Astrid lifted her shield with her left arm and smashed it into the monster's skull. Its jaws worked for a second, seemingly trying to continue chewing on her, but she could see the blood covering its eyes from the split skull. With a roar of challenge and victory, Astrid smashed her shield down on the monster's skull again.
It went limp, and for the first time, Astrid saw a kill notification.
Warg slain. 5 Experience gained.
5 experience. That meant it was level 1. With a groan, Astrid activated Quick Recovery and felt the bones in her hand shift back a little bit more towards where they belonged. Carrying her hammer still hurt, but she'd be fine. Turning, she saw the mostly paralyzed warg nearby and stepped forward to deal the killing blow. With the hammer and a still target, it took only a quick swing to dispatch the creature.
Warg slain. 5 Experience gained.
The first one to appear wasn't close by, though. Astrid could see that it'd hopped off as fast as it could manage, but one leg down, it wasn't making good time. With a roar, she sprinted towards it. In fear, it tried to use its hurt foot to propel it to greater speeds, but that was a foolish move. The broken bone bent where it shouldn't have and sent the monster sprawling on the ground. Astrid caught it, and as it struggled to its feet while snarling, she delivered another hit to its remaining front leg. Bones cracked, and then she dealt the final blow to the final monster.
Warg slain. 6 Experience gained.
Astrid breathed heavily as she happily realized the first one, the crippled one, had been level 2. If that hadn't been wounded in the beginning of the fight and had instead been the second monster, the one to successfully ambush her, she might have sustained serious wounds in her first fight. Even worse would have been if there'd been the next tier of Bronze here, and a level 6 had appeared. Her adrenaline slowly died down as she looked off into the distance. Mariusz's wagon continued rushing into the distance, and Astrid knew she was being left behind, even if he'd seen that she survived.
"Duchess's latrine!" Astrid cursed. "He's got my staff and pack in there as well!"
She nearly sprinted off after him right that second, but instead, she remembered what to do when she killed a monster. Stowing her hammer, Astrid pulled her side knife out and cut the warg's ears off. Usually, the Guild only needed the right ear, but it could be unclear with wargs. She figured she could show all six and claim only three. Seeing how much walking was laid out before her, Astrid jogged over to the other corpses and cut the ears free. She had a small pouch on her hip for trophies just like this, though she'd never expected to have to use it so soon.
The work was quick and dirty, and Astrid was glad for her gloves. Her right one had a single puncture in it where the warg's teeth had managed to pierce through it, but that would be easily repaired. Once she was done, she put her shield on her back and hammer in its loop of leather, and set off jogging down the road towards Schteld. She idly checked her Status as she did so.
Status
Name: Astrid
Class: Warrior (Bronze)
Total Level: 1 (16/1,000)
Attributes
Current
Per level growth
Power
13 (+1)
+5
Alacrity
10 (+1)
+3
Fortitude
13 (+1)
+5
Magical Potency
6
+1
Self-Mastery
7
+1
Acumen
7
+1
1.6% of the way to level 2. Astrid sighed as she realized just how much work would go into each level. Each level got harder and harder to achieve too. But that was something for someone in town to worry about. All that she needed to think about now was how quickly she could manage to get to town. She continued jogging.
***
"It was real sad. I tried to help her, but there weren't nothing for me to do. She screamed for me to run, so I did. May she continue fighting under the Duchess's guidance in the next life. Now, I've got her stuff, and I figure it's for the best if I just sell it in her memory. I've gone through the backpack, and it's got plenty of useful things. If you want to know specifics, then you can–"
"You can shut up and give me my stuff, hoping I don't kill you where you stand, you robber." Astrid panted as she shoved into the inn. Mariusz was standing in front of the bar with her backpack and staff laying there. Some of her damned breast wrappings and underwear had spilled out of the carelessly tossed pack.
"You didn't protect me, you just rushed… I mean, I don't know who you are!" Mariusz protested weakly, but with a young delver coming in while well-outfitted but without their pack confronting a shady story… well, he quickly realized the crowd was against him and he volunteered to get some early rest. Astrid glowered at him as he walked up the steps to the room he'd rented. She counted herself lucky that she'd kept her purse stuffed inside her chain shirt above her belt. The bastard would have stolen that too if he'd had the chance.
She was stuffing her clothing back in her backpack when a heavy hand smacked her shoulder. When she turned to meet the eye of whoever it was that'd done that, she saw a large bald man, a hair over 2m and only a bit shorter than her, wearing armor quite similar to her own, though with more steel plates than fine chain mail. It showed the scars and scratches of battle, and his face, though scarred, was cracked in an honest smile.
"You're new here, friend. What's your name?"
"I'm Astrid Brigidsdo–Astrid Warrior. Yours?"
"Well met, Astrid Warrior. I'm Grom Shieldsman. Welcome to Schteld. Tell us, what's the real story of what happened on your way here?"
Astrid found herself grinning as he asked. The delvers trusted their own more than a random merchant. She pulled her helm off and then the arming cap. "If you'll cover my meal, I'll buy your ale and I'll tell the story." Most of the inn went quiet as she did so, and uncomfortable whispers began to fill the space. It took a second for Astrid to realize what was happening. Everyone here thought she was a Barbarian. Never mind that they were several hundred kilometers away from the border, she was tall, dark-skinned, and had bright hair. She fought down the anger, after all, she was going to need to build a party here. But that these people were already looking at her like that just because—
"Sounds good, Astrid." Grom replied as he cut her off. He lifted his hands to get the watchers to shut up. "Now, you all know I'm from the south, nearly at the Bulwark. I've seen Barbarians. Astrid here isn't one. She's too damn small, first of all, and the mouth is all wrong. She's just big. In my hometown, we call people like her blood-touched."
His voice was authoritative, and he brooked no disagreement. Then, turning his attention fully back to Astrid, he said as he gestured to the innkeeper behind the bar to bring out a meal, "I'd guess you worked up a right appetite. To prove my genuine excitement to have you in our hole of the Dungeon, I'll feed you however much you want tonight."
"You sure about that?" Astrid asked, a smile fighting to get back to the corner of her mouth. "I've got a bit of a reputation in Stalstadt for how much I eat."
"Oh, that's where you're from?" Grom asked. "But yeah, I got it. I'm level 7 and should have moved on already, but the Guild subsidizes me sticking around and making sure that there aren't any breaks, or just in case there's a Surge." His words brought on some good-natured jests about how he was a paper pusher more than a delver and he waved them off.
"Makes sense to have a couple high leveled people here for that." Astrid nodded. "Your party around here as well or they already in bed?"
"I think they're out for now." Grom shrugged. "I'll make sure you meet them before tomorrow. Even so, I still have the question–what happened?"
"It's not too much." Astrid shrugged, trying to play it off. "His horse was getting a little twitchy, so I got ready. I see a warg jumping out of the bushes at it. I figure one shouldn't be too bad, and I need to get it anyways, so I jump out and bash it with my shield. From there…"
She told the story without embellishments, though she didn't explain how badly her hand had been crushed and how she'd continuously used Quick Recovery for the past three hours to get it basically all healed. When she finished, Grom nodded appreciatively. He wasn't the only one, the others that'd stayed nearby and listened as she'd spoken between mouthfuls of a meaty stew with barley bread dunked in it.
"You really killed all three and got their trophies?" A woman with light leather armor and a staff on her back asked.
"Yup." Astrid said as she reached into her trophy pouch and nearly pulled a handful of ears out. She caught herself in time, thankfully, because they were, in a word, disgusting. They'd been hot and gross for the past however many hours, and touching them would have ruined her appetite. Two empty bowls lay in front of her, and Astrid was pretty sure she'd go for a third.
"That's impressive for a first engagement." Grom said. "Especially alone. Most people have a couple experienced delvers with them before they have their first real fight. I'm glad you didn't get seriously injured. Now, you can take these ears yourself to the Guild, or I can take care of it for you, let you get clean and ready for rest. In the morning you can find some people to party with, at least for a little while."
Astrid nearly did what he said. After all, getting out of her armor and into bed sounded perfect. But a mixture of caution and pride had her say, "No, I'll take the trophies if someone'll tell me where I need to go."
"You sure you don't want a rest?" Grom insisted. "It's no problem."
His insistence put her more on guard. "I'll get a rest when I'm done for the day. Would someone else give me some directions?"
"She's got you there, Grom!" Someone called.
"Yeah, she's passed enough of your tests, hasn't she?"
"Yeah!" The chorus of voices that filled the space let Astrid know that there was something that she'd missed. With people letting her know that something was up, Grom raised his hands in surrender.
"I'm sorry for all this, Astrid. We'd gotten word someone would show up today, and since you haven't been a part of the Guild until now, I wanted to see what kind of delver you are. Decided to put on this song and dance for your benefit. Sorry." Grom looked a little abashed, but largely unconcerned with how she felt about the test she'd unwittingly been put through. "Now I see you're competent, straightforward, excited, and have a good head on your shoulders, even if you're still a little inexperienced. As such, I'll make a more complete and honest introduction.
"My name is indeed Grom, but my Class isn't Shieldsman. I'm Grom Shieldmaster, the liaison for the Guild in Schteld. I am, in fact, the person you need to bring these ears to, but I was gonna say something about how you should only trust your party when you gave me the trophies. You're a little too quick on the draw for me, though, huh?"
Astrid's jaw fell as she looked around at a couple dozen faces excited to see her reaction. They weren't disappointed and laughed. Partly at her expense, and partly in a way that made her feel less alone.
"So the reaction about me being a Barbarian?"
"Honestly," Grom sighed, "if we hadn't had a heads up about that, it might have played out exactly the same. Anyone from the south like me, or anyone who's seen more than one Barbarian will know you're not at all one of them, though."
"Oh, ok." Astrid nodded before continuing, "And Mariusz was in on it too, huh?"
"No." Grom's voice and face fell. "He's just a right goblin spawn mixed with louse. Greedy little parasite. I have half a mind to kick him out of my place, but I figure making him stay in here around all these angry delvers will do more to teach him a lesson than being thrown out on his ear. What do you think? If you just want him outta here, I'll do it."
Seeing that he was serious, Astrid thought about it for a second. Then, she shrugged. "I'll let you make that decision. I'm just here to delve. You can deal with all the complicated stuff."
Her answer got a half dozen cheers in response, and the inn was filled with sounds of merriment while Grom waved his hands in mock exasperation. People pressed in close and gave greetings she quickly forgot, but Astrid quickly felt why she'd always wanted to be a delver. She spent the time eating another serving and listening to a few stories, but then, she retired to her room, finally ready to enter the Dungeon for the first time.