Dungeon Academy - Test chapter (Patreon)

This is entirely raw, zero editing. Just a test of how the idea in my head would come out.

“It’s for your mother. She wouldn’t want to see you alone.” My grandfather, the old coot, prodded me. “You need a girlfriend or two.”

We were sitting at a table enjoying breakfast. I’d have to go soon and I was a little reluctant, because I might not be back for a while.

“Grandfather. I am a young man that’s just finished high school and am about to take the Adventurer’s exam so I can get into a good Dungeon Academy.” I picked at my food with my chopsticks.

The old man always had his mind on women.

Though, don’t let the frumpy old man fool you.

My eyes flickered to one of the posters in my room, when I was younger, I’d idolized him. It was an old style of art, one that hadn’t been used for at least twenty years. But on it was a man garbed in high level blue robes with a headscarf that masked everything but his eyes.

They had a fierceness that I only saw when my mother disappeared down in the dungeon one day. My grandfather had gone in alone, down to the twenty’s and retrieved the entire party’s bodies.

Despite all of that, I wanted to become an adventurer like almost every kid in my high school.

Trick was, not all of them had an old professional grandfather to teach them.

I snapped my wrist sending a chopstick straight at my grandfather’s head while he was distracted. It was hard enough that it would injure someone.

But he lazily rolled his wrist, catching my chopstick out of the air with his own. “I mean really. You should have a whole bevy of women. That way when you dive into the dungeon I can be sure they have your back.”

He always suspected there had been foul play with mother.

“I am still young. Besides, I would need to be a high level to attract more than one woman.” I changed tacts and tried logic.

Grandfather stroked his chin with a few days old scruff. “I thought that was why I was training you? Didn’t you once get on your hands an knees begging me to train you so you could have a harem.”

I couldn’t meet his eyes, because it was true. In my defense, I had been younger and I knew what to say to get grandfather to agree.

“That’s why I taught you the ultimate stealth training technique.” Grandfather nodded proudly to himself.

He took me to the public baths to peep on women…

“If you can hide from a woman, you can hide from a monster.” I said knowing that was what came next and cutting that conversation off at the bud. “But now I need to hide from monsters.”

“You have my techniques. Besides, we don’t know what class you’ll get when you do the exam. Once you put your hand on that dungeon stone, the whole world will change. I’ve prepared you for anything though.”

Thankfully the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it.” Jumping to my feet with a predator’s grace I practiced my grandfather’s footwork even in the simplest tasks.

Opening the door there was a delivery man with a fat brown paper bag. “For Mr. Osaka?”

I sighed already knowing what this package was. “Thank you. I’ll give it to him.” I smiled and closed the door.

There was a rustle of the wind behind me and I turned to an excited old man.

“Gimme.” He wiggled his hands slowly reaching for the package, but too proud to snatch it out of my hands.

“Here.”

The brown paper seemed to explode when my grandfather touched it, yet the magazine inside was untouched.

“You really shouldn’t read those things grandfather.” I looked at the glossy front page of a stylized drawing of Mistress Crimson, widely considered the best DPSer in the world.

With a long whip and a shorter blade she was famous both for the damage she could deal in the dungeon and for her looks.

She was a leather wearing class and the magazine in grandfather’s hand had drawing of her that exaggerated her shape as she was tied up with her own whip. Something that would never happen.

“They keep me young and vigorous.” Grandfather licked his lips. “Just imagine if you got to learn from her.” He nodded excitedly. “That would really make the lessons sink in.”

“Please stop. Besides, she’s a graduate of Haylon and she’d go back to her alma mater when she finally stops diving and teaches.” The problem being Haylon while often considered a top tier academy for adventurers, was only open to women.

My words only made my grandfather’s eyes shine and a little drool form in the corner of his mouth. “Haylon.”

Alright, that’s it horny old man. “I’m going to head to the exam grandfather. Please wish me luck.”

He became serious in a flicker as he bowed to me. “Good luck. I hope to hear of your success soon. I’ll be watching it on TV. Every morning and every night I will pray for you to earn your harem.”

“Grandfather!” I scolded him.

“Do not blame this old man. You are the last of his blood, and he only wishes for you to continue the family, repeatedly.” At the last he smirked a little with a new fire in his eyes. “For our blood cannot be contained!”

Sighing, I knew he was just in one of his rambunctious moods. “Thank you for your prayers grandfather.”

The bag had been packed for over two weeks, but now that it was time to go I hesitated.

No. Hesitation was the enemy.

Grabbing the duffel bag I slung it over my shoulder. I would become an adventurer.

Stepping out of the house felt momentous, followed by ordinary in a strange dicotomony, but I continued down the block to the train station.

The TV at the corner store was turned up to the max as some set of broadcaster started to debate the academy entrance exam that would start this afternoon.

Everyone in the country and the world as a whole would be watching.

Adventurers that dove down into the dungeon were celebrities. TV personalities debated the merits of each time all day long while praising or criticizing a team’s success or failure.

The dungeon was an expansive structure that opened up all over the world. The deeper you dove, the more you connected with other areas, and eventually connected with other worlds as well.

Yet dungeons were critical. If they weren’t regularly cleared monsters would start to crawl out. Then there were dungeon crystals and magical items spawned with monster’s deaths.

It was critical to business outside the dungeon. Those who went into the dungeon could earn fame and fortune at high risk. People died in the dungeon far too often.

But that was why I wanted to go to a dungeon academy rather than dive directly in myself. It was not only a great way to learn to dive the dungeon, but also dungeon academies gave fruit to some of the greatest adventurer parties.

The major guilds pretty much exclusively recruited out of them.

That’s to say, they were the path to the top.

I felt my nails dig into my palms with how hard I was clenching my fist.

I would become an adventurer.

Not because it would get me fame, women and money.

But because I would be able to tread the same path of my parents. I will become an adventurer.

When my mother passed and I moved in with my grandfather he had started to train me to get over my sudden fear of the dungeon. It had given me purpose and now I wanted to see the same sights as my parents, dive the dungeon and maybe go far enough to see new worlds and new people.

***

“Ticket please.” The man at the stadium held out his hand. He was grizzled and bored looking like he had much rather be doing just about anything else.

There were thousands of applicants like me slowly moving through the maze of ropes and pylons to the dozens of attendants signing us in.

I handed him the neatly folded up ticket with my name and high school information. It also had academy preferences written neatly on the back.

“You understand that the United Guilds is not liable for any harm during the testing and that the class activation is one time and permanent? Sign here.” The bored man slid me a piece of paper to sign.

I was practically vibrating as I scribbled down my name and slid it back to him.

“Good. Go through there, you’ll have a quick psych test to make sure that you won’t lose your shit, then you’ll be put through practical examinations, followed by the dungeon stone.”

When someone first enters the dungeon it assigns them a class, from their it determines their future. Someone can class up or in some strange events, multiclass. But it all starts with the class you get when you first enter the dungeon.

I would have done it before now, but Dungeons are closed by the government to those under eighteen years old. Too many teenagers didn’t understand the gravity of diving the dungeon and lost their lives. My birthday was only a few weeks ago, and many people would wait for the dungeon stone.

Some even said that since it came up from the 50th level of the dungeon that it gave better or rarer classes than just simply walking into the first floor.

I wasn’t sure about the veracity of that, the internet was filled with almost too much information on the debate. But I could wait two weeks on the off chance it was true.

The dungeon stone was a slab carefully brought up from the depths of the dungeon and would work in place of entering the dungeon.

As I passed through the stadium’s entrance down to the field, it sat in the very middle a testament to the groups strength that brought it out of the dungeon.

It had to be the size of a car and the surfaces of the dungeon were far denser than anything found on the surface. It would have been line carrying up a block of solid steel.

Next I was surprised by the number of participants. From all over the nation, people had gathered here for the dungeon academy exam.

Each of the prospective academy’s were seated up in the penthouse.

Even from here, I could see the bright colors that marked each of the prominent academies.

“Keep the line moving. Everyone needs to finish their psych evals first.” A member of the staff urged me and many of the others to step forward through the retractable belt barriers that made neat lines.

A lot of them were getting lost staring off at the stands.

“Ken?” A tall lanky boy waved at me and scooted back through the line a little to talk. “I knew you’d be here.”

“Machen.” I couldn’t keep the surprise out of my voice. We both had commiserated more than a few times about growing up in mixed families. Machen was the tallest guy in our high school, but he wouldn’t harm a fly.

I was shocked to see him trying out for the dungeon academies.

“Bet you are surprised to see me.” He scratched the back of his head awkwardly. The dude was wearing a shirt that hung off of him because he had nothing but skin on his bones. “I went into a dungeon just to get my class and realized I should probably at least try to control this.”

“You went into a dungeon?” I was even more shocked.

“My dad put me up to it. Though I didn’t fight anything.” He looked around awkwardly. “Think any of us from the high school will get into one of the top four?”

I couldn’t help but glance back up at the penthouse where I knew that Haylon, and the other three were all watching us. Even now the test had begun.

“It’s nerve wracking.” I kind of half assed the line. Really, I was confident in my abilities, my only concern was the dungeon stone.

Grandfather’s teachings had been broad, but he was an assassin, and naturally leaned towards teaching me combat. What if I showed off just how good my combat skills were only to get something like a cleric?

“Best of luck.” Machen turned around and I realized we were at our booth for the psych evaluation. Only the best would be selected by the academies that meant they wanted people who could withstand the mental pressure that a dungeon dive entailed.

I waited at the front of the line as Machen went behind a curtain. People were continuing to show up and go through their psych evaluations.

Some were even showing up with a few pieces of gear.

My hand went to my duffel bag where grandfather had bought me a knife if I needed it. But it was looking a little dinky compared to some of the outfits people were showing up in.

Either way, I kept my thoughts positive. They might have gotten a few shiny items, I had the training of a once legendary adventurer.

“No!” A shout from Machen’s tent rose above the din of the crowd.

But something was wrong, his voice warped, growing deeper with the word.

The tent bulged and a chair ripped the curtain off the rod.

I acted quickly throwing my duffel bag to slow it and coming behind, grabbing two of the legs and swinging it down to the ground where the chair shattered and the two legs broke off in my hands.

Machen was there, but his breath was giving off steam, his eyes had gone red and most of all, his shirt no longer hung off him so loosely.

His noodle like arms had been replaced with ones corded with muscle of someone who hit the gym every day.

“Machen?” I shouted trying to get his attention.

It worked, and then I immediately regret it as those beady red eyes locked onto me without an ounce of humanity.

In that moment, I realized what was happening and why Machen would come try and make it into a dungeon academy.

Machen’s class was berserker.

An famous class in the legends of what they accomplished and infamous in the rumors surrounding those they’ve hurt when they lost control.

Machen roared as he turned and swung at me. He had a class and one that gave him an extreme advantage in hand to hand combat. The way his body had swelled with muscle told me his strength stat was way above mine.

None of it mattered as grandfather’s training kicked in.

I dodged low, flowing around his arm and bringing up the two chair legs hard enough to break them against his ribs.

The berserker staggered to the side, clutching at this ribs and a commotion was rippling through the crowd. Machen brought his hand up bloody, where my chair legs had scraped a shallow cut.

He bellowed in rage and came at me again the injury to his side not slowing him down, but making him faster.

I acted quickly, grabbing the nearest belt from the barriers and catching his fist with it, tangling it up and twisting my hips as his motion when from him throwing a punch, to me throwing him.

Sorry Machen, but you are too damn big.

I finished the twist and used his own force to slam Machen into the ground face first, driving a furrow in the astroturf.

He knocked over several of the other examinees and the berserker got tangled up in the belts and stanchions.

Machen roared and struggled amid the mess.

“Interesting.” A broad shouldered man appeared next to me. “A berserker. Pendulum Academy would like to make you an offer Mr. Berserker.”

Machen’s only answer was another bellow as he stood back up.

His strength and stamina must be off the charts like this.

“Ah. Then let’s have a friendly chat later aye?” The man from Pendulum smacked Machen on the back in what seemed like a friendly greeting.

But the way Machen’s eyes nearly popped out of the back of his head said differently. He let out a huge rush of hot air and the berserker shrank back to the Machen that I knew.

Only he was unconscious held aloft by the Pendulum representative.

“Haha.” The man held Machen up as if he weighed nothing. “Sorry for the disturbance everyone! Pendulum will take care of this.”

P-p-Pendulum Academy! My breath caught. They were among the top four.

Then he looked at me. “Not half bad. He a friend of yours?”

“Y-yes.” I was startled by the sudden attention from one of the top four academies, but kept my cool.

“Good. I’ll be keeping an eye on you during the exam. If you can demonstrate more of what I just saw, Pendulum is very interested.” He shot me a broad grin before turning.

I was frozen as I fought to keep myself from cheering and dancing with joy.

Holy shit. I just practically got into Pendulum.

Calm down.

Calm down.

It’s nothing. That wasn’t an acceptance, I still needed to perform.

But holy shit! I couldn’t help but get excited all over again.

Eventually, my mind settled down enough to also realize something.

That Machen was accepted entirely based on his class.

Classes were still a huge part of what made an adventurer. I couldn’t let up. Psych evaluation then I had to absolutely crush the show matches and aptitude tests. Then came the dungeon stone and my class. I wondered if I would be a rogue to set me on the track of assassin like my grandfather.

I would make it so that Pendulum was impressed enough to solidify them from ‘interested’ to full on sold to admit me.

Because making it into Pendulum would almost guarantee me a spot in a competent guild and dungeon party.

I dig it. Have notes for 1-2 more chapters. Will leave them as rewards I get to work on if I get my goals for dao done later this week.