Dungeon Diving 101 Chapter 9 (Patreon)

I had traveled across campus with Crimson for the first day of class.

Twenty-five seats, though I knew that three of them would be empty.

Girls were already standing between their desks talking before class.

When I entered the class with Crimson, it got quiet, and they hurried to their desks.

To my surprise, the class wasn’t missing three, just one.

“Taylor, Priscilla. Welcome to Haylon. There were two sudden drop outs yesterday.” Crimson smiled at the two faces I didn’t recognize.

Charlotte waved excitedly next to an empty seat in the back and I realized I was standing up front awkwardly and hurried back.

“Thanks.” I said.

“No problem. The party has to stick together.” She smiled and gestured to the rest of the row. Harley and Desmonda were sitting to her right with me in the back corner.

The other back corner was empty.

“Alright everyone.” Crimson put a folder down on the lecturn up front. “Look at your row. That will be your dungeon party in the future. Get to know everyone, we are diving just on the first floor for the present so party makeup doesn’t matter much.”

“Now then. All of you experienced the dungeon yesterday, and you all probably want to grow stronger. What are the four ways that you can grow stronger amid the dungeon?” She asked.

I frowned. Three were obvious from the reading last night. I raised my hand, hoping to get the easy ones, but she ignored me and picked another girl in class.

“Leveling.”

Crimson wrote ‘leveling’ on the board. “Correct. Leveling, and in the rare event upgrading your class. All of these improve your stats and skills. Next?”

“Gear?” a girl blurted out without being called.

“Good. Gear. Before we get too far there. Would anyone want to pick up my whip?” She tossed it on Taylor’s desk and the girl recoiled like it was a viper. “Go on, pick it up.”

“How high level is it?” Taylor bit her lip.

“Fifty five. Go on, you won’t explode… immediately. You should all experience the sensation of grabbing an item over your level. Pass it around.” Crimson said it in a tone that then made Taylor grab it quickly and pass it to the next girl with a yelp. “Who can tell me what’s happening?”

Desmonda raised her hand this time, and Crimson nodded at her.

“Items from the dungeon imbue stats on those that carry them, but the magic that does it is intense. It can cause burns and, in severe case, combustion if someone too low level tries to wield a powerful weapon.” Desmonda quoted the textbook that we had all read last night.

“Correct. When you grab a weapon that is too high level, it will burn your palm. If it is only a little higher than your level, you might be able to use it briefly, but be aware most of you can only hold my whip for a few seconds before it does permanent damage.”

The student who was about to take the whip startled and passed it off as quickly as she could with a yelp.

“The third?”

“Combat training.” Someone shouted.

“Yes. Higher strength and a powerful weapon are only useful if you know how to swing a sword. Which is why many adventurers settle into a single weapon and armor type. Practice makes perfect in this instance.”

The whip made itself over to me as the last person and I grabbed the handle as a searing heat raced from my palm up my arm before I let it go out of reflex like I’d just touched a hot pan.

Crimson sauntered down the aisle to stand before my desk and take the whip. “Ken, what is the fourth?” She put me on the spot.

The other three had all been in the reading. The fourth was a Crimson special just for me.

Of course she’d pick me out for it.

Then I remember how long she’d talked to me last night about my dungeon group. “The adventurer’s group?” I hazarded.

“Fantastic. Most people focus first on their own improvement, trading groups often just to spend more time bettering themselves and diving the dungeon for more. But you’ll notice that all the top groups that dive the dungeon are rather fixed. That’s not only because they are all strong adventurers, but it is a strong class composition and they understand each other. I’d say finding the right group is the most important thing to diving the dungeon.”

I remembered she had just fixed our group into the back row, and that we were short a person.

But we had worked well together yesterday, and I felt we could reliably dive together. That just meant we’d earn more experience as far as I was concerned.

“Okay. The rest of the chapter was pretty boring. I think we all know how the dungeon works. It is a major part of our lives.” Crimson shoved the rest of the lesson aside. “We need to go over how to interact with elves. Normally this is a fourth-year topic, but I came to Haylon at the request of the United Guilds not only to teach, but to facilitate negotiations between the ambassadors from the elves. They are bringing their daughter, who will take the last seat in out class.”

The other students in the class started clamoring excitedly at the prospect of having an elf for a classmate.

Charlotte leaned over her desk. “You don’t seem surprised?”

“No. Crimson already told me. They will be staying in the visitor center with us.” I said.

Harley was leaning around Charlotte, and Desmonda was peering over on my other side. “Wait. ‘With us’? Are you staying with Crimson?!” The pink-haired bard’s eyes were wide, and she had trouble keeping her voice down, causing the row in front of her to turn slightly, listening in.

I sighed. “Yes. Crimson, I and the elves will live in the visitor center.”

Harley jumped out of her seat and clung to Charlotte as she talked excitedly. “You are staying with Crimson? What does she wear to bed?” She asked with far too much force.

“I don’t know and I don’t want to know.” Turning, I hoped to find some sanity in Desmonda, but the woman just had her brow lifted in curiosity.

“I’m more interested in the elf. Are you going to add her to our dungeon party?”

They were all impossible.

“Quiet down.” Crimson’s voice was quiet, yet it cut through all the growing conversation in the classroom. “Now. Let’s talk about the elven origin myth and move onto some of their cultural differences.”

***

Crimson had drilled us on the customs of the elves. From how they greeted each other to how they said a small prayer before they ate every time.

It was a lot of knowledge crammed into my head, and the break for lunch was welcome.

I put my tray down on a table. Our party decided to eat together. Given we were about to be spending a lot of time together, it was important we got to know each other.

Charlotte sat down to my right and Desmonda was across from her with Harley directly in front of me.

“Okay. So, I’ll start off. I’m Charlotte DuVell. My father is Marcus DuVell, and this is Bun-bun.” She pushed a bowl of lettuce and carrots off her tray as she set the rabbit down.

“We already know each other.” Desmonda sighed, but after Charlotte puffed her cheeks and fixed her with a stubborn glare, she rolled her eyes. “Desmonda Renard. The Renard family line are all warlocks.” She looked at Harley.

“Harley Sucre, it’s French. Uh… my family has a few adventurers. My aunt helped me train, but she’s only been down to the 26th floor. No one big. Right, I’m a bard.” The bard scratched the back of her head.

I smiled. “That’s outstanding. Making it in here is difficult.”

“What about you Mr. Enigma? Everyone wants to know more about you.” Harley leaned on her hands and bat her eyelashes at him.

Now that she’d gotten comfortable with him, she pretended to flirt shamelessly. Yet he knew she wasn’t interested.

“Ken Nagato. My grandfather is Uzimi Nagato and was on the team that first defeated the 30th floor boss. He trained me as an assassin.” I said.

Harley made a suitably impressed noise. “What about your parents?” When it got uncomfortably silent at her question, she winced. “Shit. I didn’t mean to—“

“No. It happened a few years ago. They died in the dungeon. I live with my grandfather and three grandmas.” It hurt, it always hurt when you lost a loved one, but it was dulled by the years of it.

“Okay.” Charlotte had been stuffing her face with a salad while we’d been talking. “What’s your favorite instrument, Harley?”

“The flute, duh. It keeps my fingers loose and I have to tongue ev~er~y note.” She sang while bouncing her eyebrows.

I did the only correct response and sighed.

Thankfully, Des joined me in my assessment. “How did anyone ever think you were straight?”

Harley just shrugged. “What about you Des, what do you do for fun?”

“Train.” Desmonda said with a straight face. “My family has high expectations. I’m the strongest of my siblings and my father has high hopes for me to continue the family bloodline.”

Charlotte wilted a little at Desmonda’s declaration, so I wrapped an arm around her to try to cheer her up.

“Say, you’ve joked about your bloodline a few times. Is it real?” I asked.

Harley was out of the loop and looked between the two of us eagerly. “Real?”

“Maybe.” Desmonda didn’t give a clear answer. “I have the best starting stats even though my two older brothers were trained rigorously, too.” She looked at Harley to answer her question. “My family believes we have a little demon blood in us.” She pointed at her red eye. “Hence the red eye.”

“Ooooh. So cool. Are you like part succubus, then?” Harley made an exaggerated noise of excitement and started off on questioning.

“No. I’m a warlock. Though I’ve heard there are ways to get a demonic race as a class, but those are dangerous methods.” Desmonda went back to eating her food, which looking like it had been proportioned by a nutritionist.

Harley’s, on the other hand, seemed far too heavy on sweats. Not that the girl needed any more energy. “What about you, Char? Can I call you Char? The DuVell family is a big deal.”

Charlotte tensed as she spoke. “Yeah, my dad did a lot of magic focus exercises as a kid. But I’m the youngest and sort of the baby of the family. My mothers dote on me a lot and was a little resistant to me becoming an adventurer.”

“My fathers were kind of like that, but I’m an only child, so that was to be expected.” Harley shrugged. “So, you are all boring that you spent your free time training. What about you Ken?”

“Training too.” I said maybe a little too quickly.

Suddenly, the images of my grandfather’s stealth training flit through my head and I felt my cheeks warm.

“Uh huh.” Harley smiled like she found something. “Got any girlfriends back home that the academy needs to hear about?”

“No. I was doing training with my grandfather after classes for the last year. Before that, I used to do soccer, but with the focus on adventuring I stopped that.” I tried to satisfy her.

Harley wilted. “We need to get you guys some hobbies. Maybe we can get Des into blood rituals and get Ken a knife sharpening set Char. At least you have Bun-bun to play with.”

Desmonda slammed a knife down on Harley’s tray. “We aren’t here for fun. We are here to learn how to dive the dungeon, an incredible dangerous proposition.”

“Hey, there are studies out there leisure activities help the brain focus on the important tasks.” Harley held up her hands, clearly not wanting to upset the warlock.

Charlotte tried to be the peacekeeper. “We have free time to dive the dungeon after lunch. Maybe we focus on that for now.”

“Extra food.” Des and I said at the same time, remembering the last time.

She gave me a nod. “Exactly. Ken has his head on. We should get some light food that won’t disturb our stomachs while we fight, then we should visit the shop and sell our goods from the last time. See if there isn’t anything we can pick up to make our lives easier.”

“Shopping?” Harley perked up.

“For dungeon equipment. Not clothes.” I reminded her.

“Still shopping.” Harley shrugged.

Another group put their trays down around our group, surrounding us.

They looked like they were first years like us. “So. You all are in Crimson’s class. I see you guys have a dude.” The girl leaned towards me. “So tell me, did you really let them snip it off so you could attend?”

Great.

I thought we were through his sort of petty shit when I was in high school.

But it seemed in some ways that Haylon Academy was an extension of the torturous institution.

Only I was far more sure of myself now.

“Nope. Though please feel free to say that to me in the dungeon.” I glared back. “I’m here because Crimson wants to train me, but she has to teach here.”

She snorted, her party leering around us. “Sure. I didn’t really think Crimson would let her secret son get snipped. So, who’s your daddy? Do you even know?”

“Neither am I her secret child.” I rolled my eyes. “Aren’t you a little too old to just go around making up gossip? I thought we grew out of that in high school. Crimson is interested in my class.”

“Aberration class.” One other said it with disgust. “I heard that Crimson herself is one now. Wonder if you are just a test subject for her to get her own class changed.”

Now that rumor actually had some merit.

“Well, it was nice to meet you all. Are you class 1-B or the failures over in 1-C?” I lifted my tray and put the rest of my meal in my CID.

By the way, they all scowled at me. I knew instantly that they were class C.

The rest of my party followed my cue and stood up, stuffing away their meals.

Charlotte picked up Bun-bun as the rabbit looked like she wanted to fight. The quiet druid started to walk away, but turned around. “So you know, you are ugly bitches.”

Harley grabbed the suddenly feisty druid and pulled her along as the bard started laughing.

“You really just shouldn’t engage with them.” Desmonda said as we left the mess hall.

“It wasn’t fair that they just came to pick on Ken. I had to do something.” Charlotte sounded exasperated.

Harley was having trouble getting her amusement under control. “Na, you did good, Char. You tell them. Besides, someone has to stick up for Ken. I mean, the cold girl act doesn’t work that well, Des.”

I shrugged it off. “They would have just kept spouting things at us. Besides, they won’t actually come after us. Or else they would really piss off Crimson.”

That reminded me.

“She said that she won’t intervene in any conflicts in the dungeon, but that she’ll kill the aggressors before they leave.” I thought it was best if my party at least knew the rules of the game. “Crimson also said she had hoped I killed Jenn yesterday. So if we get in trouble, we are on our own.”

“That’s not fair.” Harley huffed.

Des raised an eyebrow. “Did you expect anything else from Crimson, the woman who just threw us into the dungeon on the first day?”

Harley paused. “Okay, when you put it like that, it makes perfect sense.”

“Thanks for the backup.” I pat Charlotte’s head.

“Of course.” She blushed and Bun-bun stopped squirming in Charlotte’s hand to reclaim its spot on her head. “We are a party and we need to all look out for each other.”

I ran this through PWA, so hopefully it isn't as bad error wise.