The First Dragon of Marble

Chapter 8

            Two months go by as I continue saving money for better equipment to take on better jobs for the guild. During this time, I have kept up training with Beau. He has me taught how to properly use the spear and shield along with using the axe. He would ask me if I would want to train with a sword and I just declined saying that I was just not a fan of the sword and its delicate way of fighting with it. I would rather keep distance with my enemies when fighting and have the versatility of the axe as a backup. We also trained with hand-to-hand combat where I had to change up my style from the army which focused more on buying time for someone to help kill the enemy with a gun or knife than going outright for the kill. Recently, I have been alone during jobs so learning to kill with my hands is better that just subduing the enemy.

            I didn’t just train in combat with weapons either though. I also trained with Don where he taught me basic offensive and body enhancement magic. We learned together that I have pretty good affinity with all the elements at the basic level, which intrigued Don and was rather nosy about my past. I would change topics whenever he would ask personal questions about my past. The reason for this is because I’m sure it has something to do with being the son of Odin and Tiamat, but it is not like I can tell people I am a child of gods. I would be a laughingstock and called crazy on top of being harassed by the other adventurers for playing it safe because of taking simple population control and collections jobs for the guild.

            On top of the all the training and jobs I also made full use of the library to learn about monsters, herbs, dungeons, and the geography of the area around Melcox. The monsters of the world are tiered from low-tier, mid-tier, and high-tier. Goblins are considered low-tier and the wargs I encountered were mid-tier, which surprised me because although I was in danger, I never thought I was going to lose. The monsters around Melcox are mostly low and mid-tier. I also learned that all monsters and beasts have mana stones and that I had been missing out on potential revenue for the first month.

            The herbs that are collected are used for medical and potion making. It seems that mana has even seeped into plant life giving some properties that exceed what they were used for in the past. There are actual potions that can help reattach or regenerate lost limps which left me dumfounded and wondered where these potions were for my friends who lost limps during deployments. After learning about potions, I went to an apothecary and saw that the potions were way out of my price range. Just another item I need to save for.

            Dungeons are made from mana that the gods have contained and provide resources for the people in the area around them. Each city has at least one dungeon nearby made from the gods. Interestingly though it seems rouge dungeons pop up regularly and are the responsibilities of the rulers of the cities. Most rouge dungeons are destroyed quickly by adventurers hired through jobs at the guild posted by the lords of the cities. If the rouge dungeons are not destroyed soon enough though, then monsters created by the mana of the dungeons will spill out and cause havoc and chaos in the surrounding area and possibly beyond.

I could only find simple hand drawn maps from reports of adventurers because it seems maps are considered military secrets for countries. The area of Melcox is mostly hills and forests with a river that runs from the Spike Back Mountains to the north called the Mountain Spring River named because the river’s source comes from a spring and snow runoff from the mountains. The river serves as a trading route to the east connecting other towns and villages. A road runs north and south through the city connecting to the capital of Akan, Spotic, in the north and other cities in the south before it ends at the coast of an ocean.

My level has only risen by two which is disappointing but reenforces my theory that killing the same monsters and low tier monsters do not provide much soul essence for me progress. Though my level has not gone up much but when I did level up, I did gain considerable boosts to my attributes and an additional attribute. I last looked at my personal scroll before I headed out to buy new equipment.

After these two months I finally have enough coin to buy proper equipment to take on tougher jobs. I am heading to a weapons and armor shop close to the guild. I reach outside the shop and read the sign, “Adventurer’s Lifeblood.” “I guess weapons and armor are the lifeblood for an adventurer.” I mutter to myself as I enter the store. Inside multiple types of weapons ranging from swords to halberds are on display along with chainmail, leather, and metal armor. I walk to a section with spears and notice the price for them are way out of my price range. The same can be said for the axes, shields, and chainmail that I am looking to buy. I go up to the counter to see a bull mink standing there with horns at his temples and an apron covering his body builder physique. Like all minks I have seen, his whole body is covered in fur and his face resembles a bull’s.

“Good morning, sir.” He smiles, I think, and replies, “Moring youngster what can I do for ya?” My eye twitches when he calls me a youngster, but I let it go. “I am looking for a spear, shield, axe, and chainmail, but it looks like yours displays are a little out of my price range.” I say as he thinks about my request before asking, “What is your budget youngin?” “Around three silver, sir.” I say pulling out the coin. I finally learned the coin exchange rate of Marble from Sherry. One hundred copper for one bronze, fifty bronze for one silver, twenty-five silver for one gold, and ten gold for one mandium coin, which I have never heard of before Sherry explained that it is a mana infused metal.

He looks at me with raised eyebrows saying, “Three silver ain’t going to get you much as far as weapons and armor youngin.” “Fuck. Am I going to have save more? I only have four silver, and I still need to buy some potions, clothes, and other miscellaneous things.” I think as he walks further into his shop and brings back the equipment I asked for and he says, “These are all secondhand weapons and low tier considering my displays.” I look over the equipment and notice chips and stains on the items. The spear was a short spear around four feet long and made of wood with a bronze spear head that is about six inches long. I look over the shield and see it is a small wooden shield with a wooden handle to hold on to. The axe was a simple hatchet with head of a blade on one side and a small hammer on the other. The chainmail had some links missing but otherwise holding together. “They can’t be any worse than goblin weapons that I have been using.” Before I speak, he says, “I can give you these and weapon and armor maintenance kit for the three silver. I would advise though to get better ones soon.” I think for a moment not giving my answer right away. “They seem in decent shape and should last until I have enough money to buy better, and I do need the kit. Maybe I can have him touch up the equipment along with the kit.” Finish with my thought process I say, “Deal if you perform the maintenance before giving them to me.” He smiles, “Sure sounds good to me.” We shake hands and soon after I leave with my newish equipment and head off to buy clothes, medical potions for emergency, and miscellaneous items like food rations.

By the time I am done shopping it is midmorning, I am back down to five bronze coins out of the ten silver I had saved up over the past two months. I am outside the guild and feel how light my purse is and sigh. “Haa…and now I’m broke again. It seems money is still the biggest problem in my life now.” I head inside and look at the ‘E’ rank jobs on the board. Not long after arriving at the board I hear an annoying voice that I have heard for the past two months that is a constant source of harassing me for just taking simple jobs calling my name. “Hey rookie. Hey Ladon!” I sigh and turn towards where the voice was calling me to see a man named Noah. He was with the team of adventurers I snuck by when I hatched in the forest. “What do you want Noah?” I ask wanting to get this over with soon. “I have a proposition for you.” I raise my eyebrows at him. Noah’s team has been known to take new adventurers on jobs only to have them go missing when they come back. The guild has investigated if there is ever foul play but come up empty handed each time. Once or twice may be a coincidence but I doubt that is the case for them because in the past two months two rookies have disappeared from jobs with them.

“A couple months ago my team and I found a rouge dungeon in the Whispering Woods. A job has come up from the lord’s son of Melcox for scouting the dungeon. It hasn’t been long since it appeared, so we are taking the job but want some extra hands to be safe. We will give some of the reward for the scouting job and you keep the spoils of the monsters you kill. What do you say?” I have seen the reward for scouting an unknown dungeon before and they are pretty good. I ask, “How much is the payout?” He smiles and says, “Since its pretty deep in the forest and no one has reported any scouting reports for it, the total reward has risen to two silver and twenty-five bronze. With my team and you that is twenty-five bronze each plus what monster parts and mana stones we find in the dungeon.” Considering that rouge dungeons stay relatively safe for around six months before any dangerous monsters appear… “Wait…they found a dungeon in the Whispering Woods a couple months ago? Does that mean…they found the dungeon close to where my egg landed? Hmm something has been telling me to go back to the crater for a while now and this seems like a good opportunity to do so. Though I do not want to particularly go with them considering their reputation, but I need the money, and this seems easy enough. Plus, what was all the training and hunting experience for if I don’t take some risks. Let’s at least hope the rumors are false even though Noah is an asshole. I’ll have to be on my guard around them.”

I look at Noah and nod, “Okay I’ll come with y’all as long as we get the terms in writing and with everyone’s signatures and is witnessed by a guild employee.” Noah furrows his brow mostly likely he thought I was just some rookie idiot. He quickly fixes his expression and says, “That is no problem.” “Good, when do we leave?” I ask him, looking over his shoulder for his teammates. “It will take about a day to reach the dungeon, so we are planning to leave around noon, camp in the forest at night, then continue reaching the dungeon around noon tomorrow. Is that good for you?” He answers my question to which I nod. “Fantastic we will be back here at noon. Make sure you have sufficient supplies for at least five days just in case. We only plan to scout in the dungeon for a couple of days before coming back to Melcox.” I nod and we go our separate ways. I decide to get a feeling for my new weapons since I have enough supplies for myself on hand, so I head to the training grounds where I practice with training dummies.

Soon noon arrives and I head back into the guild after casting cleanse on myself. I see Noah and his team and head in his direction. “All ready to go rookie, got enough supplies?” Noah says and I reply, “Yes, before coming to the guild this morning I had restocked on everything.” “Good, lets head out.” I furrow my brow and say, “Are you forgetting something?” He tilts his head in ignorance. I say with serious voice to let them know not to mess around, “The agreement we agreed to, Noah, we need to get one written up and signed.” I could see his eye twitch at this and says, “Ah yes thank you for reminding me I almost forgot.” “Sure, you did asshole. I know you were trying to take advantage of me.” We find an employee to draw up the agreement and they make a copy with magic for each of us and one for the guild. Once done, we set off for the Whispering Woods.

We reached the crater that had my egg at the center around noon the next day. Throughout our journey here we had to fight off goblins, wargs, and imps, which are small monsters that look like deformed furless cats with bat wings. The fights were far simpler with other people making me reevaluate finding partners for future jobs. Though it could be that it was easier because Noah’s group are all ‘D’ rank adventurers. Thinking about this I looked at the crater and noticed where the egg had been where now a mound shaped like an egg with a dark hole in it.

“Did my egg turn into a dungeon?” I look at Noah and ask, “Is the dungeon that mound at the center of the crater?” He nods and turns to the rest of the team, “Alight, guys let’s sit and rest for five minutes and make our way to the dungeon.” Everyone nods and sits down to rest and eat. I stay at the edge of the crater and notice the pull from something inside me to enter the dungeon. Confused I think to myself, “Is this longing from being born here? Hmm…hopefully this will be a worthwhile adventure.” I smile to myself finally feeling a sense of wonderment for this world and not just trying to survive day to day. Once the five minutes were done, we set off into the crater and made our way to the entrance of the dungeon.

We reach the entrance of the dungeon and after some cautionary words from Noah we proceed into the unknown. The inside was dark with glowing moss patches scattered throughout a stone passageway. When my eyes adjust, I see that the passageway shaped like a cave with damp walls and chill in the air. “Alright guys get into formation and watch the walls. The shadows could hide crevasses that are prime places for monsters to hide and ambush. Ladon and I will stay behind Abel with him being our vanguard to take the big hits and since you have a spear. Attack when you see an opportunity at a distance while I’ll protect the flanks. Musir stay around the middle and protect Loka while watching the rear.” We nod and get into formation and walk along the wet uneven stone floor.  

The reason for the walls and floor being wet is soon found. We encounter slimes crawling on the walls, floor, and even the ceiling. They are transparent with a clear stone moving around inside of their slimy bodies. I read that they can be defeated easily with magic, so Loka is the one that takes care of most of the slimes. I use a spell to kill one about to jump from the ceiling and spray us with acid that would burn like hell if any touched us. “I didn’t know you could use magic.” Noah comments and raises an eyebrow at me. I shrug my shoulders and say, “I have only recently dabbled in magic so I can’t use to many spells before mana overheat takes its toll on me. I have only been using it for emergencies.” “I see.” Is all Noah said, as I collect the mana stone from the slime since it was my kill. I see the transparent notification at the side of my vision and just ignore to check later and it eventually fades away until I focus on the notification.

We continue and all we encounter are slimes while we map out the tunnels that branch off every now and then from the original passage. Around two hours from the time we entered the dungeon we found ourselves going down a passageway that seemed to ever so slightly slope downward. Soon the scenery changes from passageways to more open areas with stalactites and stalagmites on the ceiling and floors. “Hmm seems we have reached the second level of the dungeon.” Abel speaks up from the front with growl in his voice possibly because of being a bear mink. “Noah seems we have arrived at the second area of the dungeon.” Noah takes a closer look around and observes the surrounding. “Hmm…so it seems. Is everyone still, okay? Anyone need a rest?” We all say we can keep going and that is what we do. We continue to explore and map out the dungeon.

The monster appearing in this area looks like a goblin with the same small stature but with only one eye. Abel takes care of most of them when it is just one of them, but I kill some when they come at us in groups. “I don’t remember reading about these monsters. They look like miniature cyclopes.” For the most part the mapping and fights are easy since there is a group of us. After only an hour of mapping we find ourselves moving downwards again. We continue fighting monsters and advancing downwards in the dungeon until finally we stop for sleep on the sixth level. The monsters were monsters that I had never encountered before in the forest or read about in the library. While the scenery changed at every level. The third level was a cave with a forest of stone trees, literally. The rest of the levels were just as fantastical. I felt like a real explorer or adventurer for the first time.

We took each shifts sleeping and taking watch as we slept in a passageway before continuing the next day. When it was my turn for watch I took a look at my notifications.

 [Defeated Acid Slime X5. Acid Slime soul essence absorbed. X5]

[Defeated Inferior Cyclops X6. Inferior Cyclops soul essence absorbed. X6]

[Defeated Tainted Jackalopes X4. Tainted Jackalopes soul essence absorbed. X4]

[Defeated Water Lizards X3. Water Lizards soul essence absorbed. X3]

[Defeated Fierce Rats X5. Fierce Rats soul essence absorbed. X5]

[Defeated Lizard Beast X2. Lizard Beast soul essence absorbed. X2]

{Level up}

“Haa…” “After all the fighting and killing, I only got one level and barely any improvement in my attributes.” I sigh and complain after looking at my personal scroll. “Well at least I got some monster parts and mana stones, which are small and not worth even a bronze coin…Coin is coin though and I am so poor again so I’ll take what I can get I suppose.” I continue my watch until it was my time to sleep.

The next time I woke up not really knowing if it was nighttime or daytime, we continued in our dungeon exploration. As we descended the levels of the dungeon, the monsters started to become more aggressive, stronger, and more numerous. We were starting to get tired and gradually covered in wounds. Noah and the rest had mid-grade potions to heal and rejuvenate themselves but did not bother to share with me. I only had one low-grade healing potion that I was able to afford so I am saving it for an emergency. I was worse off than the others and though I wanted to go back Noah wanted to continue. It would be a bad idea to go back on my own, so I had no choice but to continue onward with Noah’s team.

Now we are on the eleventh floor and are walking in a similar environment as the first floor except the surroundings are not covered in slime. We have been on this floor for an hour and still have not encountered any monsters. Musir the dwarf comes up to Noah and says, “Noah I’m getting a bad feeling about this area. We haven’t seen anything since we arrived and that just doesn’t happen in dungeons even the gods’ made dungeons.” Noah looks at Musir and smirks, “Don’t worry too much Musir. We have backup plans for emergencies remember.” He glances towards me. Musir then looks like he just remembered something when he looked where Noah’s eyes shifted towards me. “Ah right I almost forgot.” Musir smiles an evil smile and gets back into formation. I was oblivious to their conversation. I am tired and alert of my surroundings due to not seeing anything on this level yet.

Thirty minutes later we reach an open room with tunnels going in different directions. As we reached the middle of the room, we started hearing growls and snarls from every tunnel. “What the hell is that?” Loka says as everyone stands still trying to figure out where the sounds were coming from. “Shh” Noah shushes Loka and strains his hearing. It does not take long to figure out what was making the noise. Suddenly monsters that looked like miniature werewolves of about three feet tall started pouring out of the tunnels in front of us. I stare wide eyed and shocked because I have never seen so many monsters at once before. No one has time to say anything as the monsters charge at us.

Soon the room is filled with barks, snarls, spells hitting flesh, shields being clawed, and blades piercing and slashing furred flesh. The swarm of monsters seemed never ending and at some point, my new spear snaps as I thrust into a monster. I pull out my axe and continuing fighting for my life. Ten minutes go by, and everyone is wounded and tired but still fighting. I hear Noah yell, “Fall back to the tunnel we came in.” We start falling back with a controlled retreat. Eventually we are at the tunnel opening when I feel searing pain across my back that felt cold and hot at the same time. I fall to my knees keeping my shield up to block a monster taking advantage of my predicament. I look behind me not to see a monster but Noah smiling as he says, “Sorry about this but I must watch out for my team, and you’ll just be another coincidence. Blame your own weakness.” I stare at him with hatred not able to think of anything because of the pain on my back. He kills a couple of monsters before he shouts at Abel, “Abel, do it.” Abel nods and picks me up over his head and throws me to the other side of the room. I barely hear Noah as I fly through the air, “Alright let’s go. He should be able to satisfy the monsters while we get out of here.”

I land hard on the stone floor feeling my shield arm snap as I try to brace for the impact. I feel the air leave my lungs and I desperately try to breathe. I look up to see the swarm turn from the others to me who has the scent of blood pouring from my back. “Get up Ladon. GET UP NOW.” Whether from adrenaline or pure will power I struggle to my feet and look around. There is a tunnel behind that some of the monsters came from so I make my way down it as fast as I possibly can. I start to feel lightheaded and struggling to breathe. I can hear the monsters running towards me gaining every second. I look around the tunnel as I run and see a small opening in the side of the tunnel. The opening was big enough for me to slide sideways through. I slide through it and hear monsters coming through the opening as well. I cannot see them because my face is turned sideways just to fit through the passage. I cast earth wall multiple times behind me as I slither my way through the passage hoping too as least slow them down.

Finally, I come upon a small cavern room with only the way out is the passage I came through. I turned around facing the passageway I came through and dropped to one knee and rummaged through my bag that I miraculously somehow held on to. I prayed that my potion wasn’t broken from the fall even though I had wrapped it multiple times in extra bandages I made from shredded clothes. I found it intact and downed the potion in hurry because I could hear the monsters breaking through my earth walls. I threw the bottle to the side and reset my arm screaming as I did so. I could feel the potion doing its job, but it only healed my injuries part way. I could hear the last wall breaking down. “Shit, play through the pain Ladon.” I throw my bag to the side and pick up my shield and axe and move closer to the opening. “I need to keep them at the opening and not let them get behind me or my flanks. I’ll use the opening as a bottleneck.” I think to myself as I get ready for a fight that will likely end in my death. “Tiamat. Odin…Mother. Father. Please give me the strength to get through this.” I had never prayed in my life before because I had never seen evidence of the divine before meeting them. Now though, knowing that my parents in this life are actual gods and are real I felt like praying was the only natural thing to do in this situation.

When I finished my prayer, I felt my fatigue become lessened. Now feeling like I ran a few miles compared to running multiple marathons nonstop. I smile to no one in particular and mutter, “Thank you.” I position myself to swing downward with my shield up to protect my chest. The first monster comes into view in the small opening I squeezed through. They seem to have an easier time moving through it due to their smaller bodies though only one can move through it at a time. As the first monster is drawing closer digging its claws in a frenzy, I see another one right behind him. “I really wish I had a spear. This would easier with one and I have to save my spells as much as possible.”

When the first one is close enough, I swing down my axe onto its head splitting its cranium with the blade part. It dies and hangs limp with the opening holding its body up. The monster behind it does not stop and starts pushing it outward towards me. I move to the side a little as the body of the first falls out with the second trying to squeeze through. Before it has a chance to move freely into the room, I repeat what I did to the first and split its cranium. Now its body was being pushed as well from the monster behind it. Before my feet trip on the bodies, I kill the third monster and pull the bodies out of the way of my feet to the sides of the opening. This process continues for hours. I lose track of time and just keep killing and killing, moving the bodies to the side, and killing some more.

At one point in the fight my axe finally breaks with the axe handle snapping in two from the constant impacts. “Goddamnit!” I drop the broken axe and pull out my knife that I still have from looting Tye’s body when I hatched. The fighting became more dangerous because the knife had an even shorter range than the axe. The knife couldn’t get through the skulls for an instant kill so I would have to stab their sides wrestling to keep them in the opening until they died and by the time it took for them to die the next monster was already pushing.

I needed a breather, so I used the spell Push, a basic wind element spell that pushes the air away from me to my target. This spell would literally push the monsters out of the hole before clawing their way back through giving me about a three-minute break. This continued until the number of monsters coming through the opening started to decrease. My body is covered in claws marks, and I am suffering mana overheat. Finally, the monsters stop coming and I can no longer hear growls or claws raking the stone walls and floor. I could feel myself losing consciousness, so I used the spell Earth Wall to seal up the opening with a small hole to let fresh air ventilate, before collapsing like a rag doll onto the floor.