Untitled Dungeon Story - 1

At twenty-eight Simon had worked at the same office building for the last few years. He didn't know exactly what the company did, but he kept their computers and network running. It still amazed him how people could be so tech-illiterate these days. Especially since most of the employees were around the same age. It would make more sense if he worked with a group of older folks, but he never thought he'd have to walk thirty-something through power cycling their PC.

His office was on the bottom floor. They probably would have put it in the basement if the building had one. It wasn't his office, rather it was the IT Department, but he was the entire IT Department. His specialty was Network Security and Maintenance. Most problems didn't need anything more than basic knowledge and use of a search engine to fix. The window out onto the street provided a view of the road that ran the along the side of the building and the cement wall of the garage across the street.

His attention wasn't focused on the new graffiti that had popped up over the weekend, it was a thick wooden door standing in the middle of the sidewalk. The situation was further complicated by the fact that no one else appeared to notice it. He had thought it was a trick of a reflection or something since a few people walked through it without an issue.

He didn't smell burning feathers, so he didn't think he was having some sort of medical issue. That left two options. Either he was hallucinating or there was a door in the middle of the sidewalk. He had seen prank videos online with something similar. A person would put the door in a park or something, open it, and use the cover to duck out of sight making it look like they disappeared. He could have believed that was the case if people didn't walk through it. Not as one would usually do by opening it, but straight through like it wasn't even there.

Simon tucked his cellphone in his pocket then stepped out of the office. He tried to appear casual as he approached the door. There weren't many people walking around as the workday had started about an hour ago. The first twenty minutes or so of his shift was spent staring out at the door watching people ignore it completely.

He slowed as he got closer to it. There was a charge in the air that made his skin tingle. Simon held his hand out in front of him as he walked. No one else had an issue going thought the door, but then they didn't seem to see it. He didn't want to slam his face into the door. The door felt normal as his hand reached it.

Now closer, the door was even more imposing. It stood at least nine-feet tall and was easily wide enough fit a car through. The handle at least was normal. Simon opened the door and let it swing open at its own speed. He half expected it to creak like a horror movie. Instead, it opened smoothly and came to a stop about halfway.

Simon leaned over to look around the frame. The room beyond was a simple room with stone walls and a stone tiled floor. It was lit with a warm tone, but he couldn't see where it came from. The room was empty with another door on the other side. There was no point in stalling now.

He stepped into the room. The door closed once he was inside sending a sting of anxiety along his spine. He froze. A faded blue window hung in the air in front of him. Words in a tidy, professional font appeared on it. Simon had played enough video games to recognize a one the floating thing for what it was: a status window.

[Assessing Player]
[Insufficient Experience]
[Classes Locked]
[Inventory Unlocked]

 This couldn't be happening. It wasn't that he couldn't understand what this was. This couldn't be happening, because things like this didn't happen at all. The world was too boring for that.

Further confusion was interrupted by a sound from the door across the room. He thanked all that was good and holy that it wasn't skittering. Simon wasn't a fan of normal sized spiders, and he would be happy to never encounter big ones that were common in videogames.

He tilted his head to the side as though it would help his hearing. After a moment he realized it sounded like something clattering across stone, similar to something being dropped. He carefully advanced through the first room and into the second.

This room was slightly bigger than the last. The door was on the left wall rather than directly across. There was a skeleton that was pinned against the wall with a sword through its chest. Tattered strips of clothing draped over the bones. Whatever happened to the skeleton happened a long time ago.

Simon started to move toward the new doorway when he heard the same sound as before. His eyes snapped back to the skeleton. Its boney hands clacked against the handle of the sword in its chest. Simon watched in confusion as he skeleton pulled the blade from its chest. The sound of steel against bone set his teeth on edge.

The skeleton got to its feet, raised the sword over its head, and charged.

A familiar sensation clicked in his mind. In times of crisis, his emotions switched off and his brain filtered everything through an objective perspective. It had been like that his entire life. Everything came rushing back once the crisis had ended, but in that moment, it was almost like he wasn't driving his body rather than inside of it. He hadn't thought to talk to someone about it, he probably should have.

Simon took a step forward and punted the skeleton right between the legs. It lifted up off its feet, throwing off its swing. He shifted to the side, letting the now wild swing pass by. His hand latched onto the extended boney arm that held the sword and pulled.

The skeleton's arm popped apart at the elbow with its hand still gripping the sword. Simon backhanded the skeleton with its own arm. The monster fell to the stone floor. Its form scattered across the tiles. The arm in his hand went limp, dropping the numerous bones of the hand and the sword as whatever held it together simply stopped.

Simon picked up the weapon. The weapon was old, chipped, and felt weird in his grip. His entire experience using a sword came down to hitting his friends with cardboard tubes or pool noodles when he was a kid.

[Worn Iron Sword - $5]
[Sell – Scrap]

Further inspection was interrupted by the now familiar sound of clicking against stone. There was another skeleton in the next room. Logically speaking, he had no reason to stay. This was dangerous. That skeleton wasn't playing around. It wanted to kill him. He should turn around and leave this place. The most dangerous thing he had to worry about was annoying co-workers or a broken elevator.

Simon tightened the grip on the sword and stalked into the next room. This one was bigger. It opened up into a wide space that split off into a hallway on every side. Another skeleton with a sword wandered from side to side on a lazy patrol.

He didn't wait for the skeleton to see him. Tossing stealth to the side, he rushed forward. The skeleton turned to face him just in time for the sword to smash into the top of its head. Its bones and sword clattered loudly to the stone. The short burst of activity had him breathing harder than he'd like to admit. He honestly didn't remember the last time he had actually ran.

Simon blinked. Nice. The sound of multiple bones against stones echoed down the halls. He couldn't tell which direction it was coming from. From the sound of it, there was more than one boney buddy coming to investigate the noise. He did ok fighting one at a time, but he wasn't so confident with more.

He retreated to the first room then opened the door and stepped out into the street. He quickly stashed the sword in his inventory. It disappeared with a thought. He turned around to make sure the door was still there. It was. He waited a few minutes to make sure skeletons weren't going to charge out. When they didn't, he made his way back to the IT office.

There were a couple of voicemails waiting for him, as well as a dozen emails. It felt odd going back to work, but he needed some time before he went back into the dungeon. Dungeon. Yeah, that was fitting. He was definitely going back. It was dangerous and the most interesting thing he had ever experienced.

He had come back to work for a couple of reasons. First being that he didn't want to lose his job. This dungeon thing was interesting, and he got six bucks for the short time he spent inside, but risking his life was worth a lot more than that per hour. Second, he wanted somewhere he could safely look over this system without having to worry about a skeleton giving him aggressive acupuncture. Third, he needed some time to think, and the mind-numbing tasks were a good way to get his thought process going.

After handling the emails, turn it off and on again, he settled behind his computer and tried to bring up his information. Inside the dungeon he had learned that it wasn't touch activated and the voice portion seemed superfluous. That meant it had to be linked to his thoughts, which were a little disconcerting.

It worked though.

[Experience Threshold Reached]
[Class System Unlocked]

[Classes Available-]
Explorer
Adventurer
Porter

He focused on Explorer.

[Explorer]
These intrepid individuals live to delve into the unknown. What they lack in combat prowess is made up for in the vast stores of knowledge they are able to build.

[Skills-]
Basic Auto Map
Compass
+5 Intelligence
+5 Cunning

Tempting. The lack of any combat skills worried him. He had ended up in a fight in both rooms he had been in. He moved on.

[Adventurer]
An all-around choice with a bit over everything. Adventurers are the Jack of All and Master of None. They are able to learn any basic skills and magic but are unable to access Advanced Skill.
-Advanced Skills can be unlocked via a Class Change
-Class Change Available at Level 100

[Skills-]
Basic Armor Proficiency
Basic Weapon Proficiency
+5 Agility
+5 Stamina

He was pretty much sold on that option. Still, it was best to see all of the choices.

[Porter]
A strong back and steady pace. These individuals are the ones that haul the multitude of treasures that come from the dungeon.

[Skills-]
Basic Loot Sense
Basic Appraisal
+10 Strength

Simon had no desire to be a pack mule. It sounded like an important support class. Following that train of thought led him to guess that there were others out there that could see the doors too. What good was a support class without someone to support?

[Class Selected – Adventurer]

Another surge of energy flooded his body. He could feel the change in his posture. There was a weight on his shoulders that eased as well. He pulled up his Inventory to see that another row had been added to the box totally up to thirty spots. Twenty-nine of which were open.

Out of curiosity, he touched a pen on his desk. It vanished and appeared in his Inventory. The only option was Scrap. He couldn't pick up everything in the office and sell it for a quick buck. Disappointing, but understandable. Simon reached for another pen. This one appeared in his Inventory as well in its own separate spot. He had hoped they would stack.

Black Pen - $1.50
Blue Pen - $1.50
[Scrap – Sell]

That made more sense. He opened his desk drawer and found another blue pen. It disappeared into his Inventory. A small smile appeared on his face at the new readout.

Blue Pen x2

"Nice," he said to himself.

For the hell of it, he scrapped one of them.

+1 Plastic
+1 Small Spring
[Sell – Destroy]

There wasn't a price listed. Out of curiosity, he selected the Sell option.

+$.05

That was next to worthless. Stripping his office and scrapping everything was still an option. Maybe he'd get something worth the effort if he stuck to the computers. The only thing stopping him was that trying to explain where half a dozen computers and monitors went would be a pain. He would treat the money as a nice bonus rather than count on it for anything big.

The rest of the day crawled on. He fixed minor tech issues, installed a couple of new monitors, and reset some passwords. The grand total of his time actually working added up to about an hour stretched out the entire shift. Sometimes, an idiot would download some malware or there was a software update that required more of his time. Blocking access to porn sites cut down on hostile programs and the software updates could be automated. There was a reason that he was the only person in the IT department.

It wasn't until he took his lunch break that he realized his mood hadn't crashed yet. Usually, after a crisis is over, he'd have to slog through the delayed emotional whiplash, and it would hit him when he felt safe enough. Today, that wasn't the case.

A bit of text scrolled along the edge of his vision as he tried to understand what was happening.

[Fortify Will]
Allows for calm and logical thought in times of mental upheaval. Mental disorder, panic, and fear are greatly reduced. Further advancement will completely negate the effect.

His emotional disconnect had progressed into a skill. It did make him wonder what other 'natural' abilities he had that would carry over to the system. He'd need to experiment more at another time. Currently, the most important thing was to get through the day. He'd try the dungeon again tomorrow when he had more time to prepare.

Simon headed to a nearby Sporting Goods store to search for possible gear. His first stop was the Hunting Section. The firearms were expensive. After some thoughts he didn't think a gun was a good idea. Ammunition was expensive and running out in the middle of things would be deadly. It was the same with archery, though it was more likely to find more arrows in the dungeon. The last time he had used a bow was in High School during gym. He didn’t know how arrows would work against skeletons either.

The next stop was the Camping Section. This area had a lot more appealing selection. Getting a machete was tempting. It was in a sealed package but was accessible on the sales floor unlike the knives. He already had the Worn Iron Sword which was a good six inches longer. Still, it looked really cool and was obviously better quality. He took a quick look around to make sure there weren't any cameras, or clerks, and tried to put the machete in his Inventory. Theft was perfectly acceptable for him if it meant he survived another encounter. In all honesty, stealing from a big-box store didn't bother him even for any reason. They had enough money and underpaid their staff. He wouldn't even think about sneaking something from a family-owned business.

+1 Cunning
Carbon Steel Machete - $10
[Sell - Scrap]

The price difference was a little odd. It sold for thirty-five dollars in the shop, but only ten through his inventory. Still, he could add things that he didn't own to his Inventory, and he could sell them. That was a nice little option to have. Though it did make him wonder how big of an item one Inventory spot could hold. He wouldn't be opposed to sneaking onto a car lot, popping a few into his Inventory, and sell them for a quick buck. This idea required more testing. For now, he didn't think he needed a tent, camp stove, or sleeping bag. Spending the night in the dungeon was not something he ever wanted to do. He wasn't going to clog up his Inventory with stuff. It made his inner Loot Goblin sad, but he wanted to save space for the drops from the dungeon.

The rest of the Camping Section didn't have anything that struck him as interesting. Maybe that would change after a couple of trips into the dungeon. He moved on to the standard sports area.

It was a quick browse. He didn't put much faith in plastic protective gear against swords and weapons. Some knee and elbow pads were still a good idea. It would be rather embarrassing to survive a fight with a monster only to shatter his knee on the floor. He grabbed some batting gloves as well for the extra grip. His final choice was a full-sized baseball bat since it was basically a long club. Stabbing a skeleton didn't make sense, smashing one did.

He considered adding everything to his Inventory but ended up purchasing the rest of the items to avoid raising suspicion. It did get stashed once he was out of the store. Walking around with them for the rest of the day would cause unwanted questions. There weren't many people at work he actually liked talking to. With his lunch break over, he returned to work. He planned to make another shopping trip once he had some more experience in the dungeon.

Simon tried on his protective equipment when he got home. It wouldn't hold up against swords, arrows, or whatever else monsters would attack him with. He hoped to prevent injuries from falling and such. His original plan was to put the gear on under his work clothes. Unfortunately, that didn't work. Instead, he stashed them in his Inventory. They would have to be put on once he was in the dungeon. There was no way he was going to go to work with knee and elbow pads over his business casual outfit. Now that he had thought about it, his usual work clothes weren't going to hold up. It was a miracle he hadn't split his pants from kicking the skeleton or ripping his shirt in the scuffle.

He cursed himself for not grabbing some new clothes while he was at the store. If this next dungeon trip worked out he could look into getting a workout outfit or two. He didn't much in the way of disposable income.

Simon looked around at his cramped studio apartment. Once upon a time the entire building had been a hotel. A few years ago, it had been converted into apartments. While it made a nice hotel room, it was a passable apartment. It had a half-walk separating to the bedroom space from the mini-kitchen and a nice bathroom. The AC unit was the same one from its hotel days and he'd had to wait over a month for the Maintenance people to change the curtain rod so he could actually block out the light.

Now he just had to wait until tomorrow.

Or he could keep playing with the system. Testing it, not playing. Testing. This was serious.

Simon hurried to his kitchen and opened the junk drawer. He had tossed his old cellphone in there once it stopped working. Still, it had to be worth something.

Mobile Phone - $50
[Sell – Scrap]

"Nice," Simon smiled broadly.

+$50

He spent the next couple of hours going through his apartment to find things he no longer needed or never used. Old DVDs that he had totally legal digital copies were the next thing he tried.

Multi-Media Disc - $1
[Sell – Scrap]

Well, he wasn't going to get rich by selling old movies.

SCRAP.

+1 Plastic
+1 Aluminum
+1 Acrylic

If he could scrap things into their base components, did that mean he could make things too? Was there a crafting system in this thing?

[Insufficient Skill]

There was, but he couldn't use it yet. Good to know. He didn't want to clog his Inventory with things he couldn't use at the moment. He would save scraping anything more until he could actually make something.

+$.50

"What else can I get rid of?" He muttered to himself.

His closet was his next stop. A pair of old sneakers, a dictionary he had for some reason, and a suitcase netted him an easy hundred dollars. There wasn't much else he could sell. It was a rather sober realization of how little he owned. He wasn't going to sell his TV, laptop, or gaming console. Most of his wardrobe was standard business casual. While he wouldn't mind getting rid of them, he couldn't afford to.

Now the mood was well and truly dead. He flopped onto his couch. Tomorrow he would go into the dungeon. For now, there was a show he wanted to watch.

NOTE:
This is a side project I'm working on. Thinking about getting a book written and put it out as an eBook. Any input would be appreciated.