Dead-Eyes—the most evil and monstrous creature known to those living in Duncaster. The beast dwelled at the final gate on the Spire’s first floor, and every encounter with it was a deadly one, leaving Adventurers in pieces for their friends to pick up or leave behind, depending on how rapidly the battle chamber was evacuated. Fortunately, challenges to the creature were rare, usually once or twice a year, but every now and then parties would foolishly believe they stood a chance on their own. They’d challenge it and die—and nobody was able to recover their bodies.
Kenji swore he wouldn’t end up like them. His party would never be so arrogant as to forget their limits, and they wouldn’t be afraid to take necessary steps to ensure their survival. After all, it wasn’t the dead who would clear the Spire.
On the far side of Dreamer’s Square, he stared up at that tower to the sky, unable to see what lay at the top. Ten floors. Countless levels and passages on each—so many in fact that new ones were still being discovered on the first. Untold riches and deadly monsters. Despite all the videogames he had played, it was the fiercest raid dungeon Kenji ever heard of, and now that he had reached level 12 and Misumi level 10, their journey to conquer it had begun.
“We can do this,” he said with a confident longing in his eyes. “I know we can.”
Misumi and Amelia went to the Expedition Hall to collect their entry passes, which required a one-time payment of 40 buckles each. That place was positioned at the base of the Spire and offered a place to sell equipment or loot found by the Adventurers, and it also had Clerics on staff to treat any wounded who exit the dungeons. His two friends, however, were taking an extraordinarily long time, causing Kenji to glare at the building, then march in its direction to retrieve them.
Built almost like a medieval church or cathedral, the Expedition Hall was mighty, robust in height, though its interior only had one floor with a very high ceiling. There were crests with the symbol of a shield, staff, bow, and sword on every pillar within, and the moment Kenji stepped inside, he found dozens of parties prepping for their journey out, many of which had guild cloaks or symbols on their clothing. They gathered around tables and tweaked their weapons, sat at tables to get a warm meal before risking their lives, purchased supplies from the interior shops, talked to each other like best friends or competitive enemies, or even cashed in loot they managed to collect on their last outing. The Hall was massive in size and full of uproarious chatter, yet somehow Kenji spotted his party in the first few seconds.
He squinted his eyes and noticed them talking to another group of people at the dungeon pass counter. “What are they up to now?”
Kenji sifted through gatherings of Adventurers toward their location, only to find Misumi facing a giant man of the Warrior class, and she was vehemently defiant as he made demands of her. Amelia stayed back as three other Adventurers surrounded her.
“Give us your damn Necromancer!” the Warrior thundered. He wore armor, carried a massive broadsword, and had long dreadlocked hair. “You’re a pipsqueak who doesn’t deserve a party member like her! You’re just level 10!”
“I don’t care!” shouted Misumi. “She’s with me, now leave us alone!”
In the background, Amelia ripped her arm way from a very creepy guy who was tugging on it, trying to draw her in.
The Warrior bore his fangs and slapped Misumi. “Little bitch!”
At that point, other people were beginning to stare and Kenji raced into action, his face grimacing with a desire to hit back. And without a second thought, he rushed the Warrior and threw a full-bodied punch right at the scumbag’s lower jaw, knocking the asshole right out of him as the monster lost balance and fumbled to the floor, a fallen Goliath. However, Kenji wasn’t done, and as Misumi, Amelia, the Warrior’s party members, and whole slew of other Adventurers looked on, he concealed his right wrist and began barking several lines from Mobster 3 that he knew would come in handy someday.
“People like you don’t last long in the streets. You don’t fit. Hard lives require hard people, and you’re just an envious fool looking for a quick buck…” He raised his voice, boiling with anger as the Warrior rubbed at his lower jaw and listened, in shock. “So here’s how it’s gonna go—you pack up and leave, or I’ll kill ya. Like I did to Uncle Benny six days ago, I’ll rip your guts out and tie ‘em around your neck. Then I’ll throw ya in a sewer and let the rats nibble your flesh till you’re just a bag of bones! Do you like the sound of that? Well? Tell me! DO YA LIKE THAT?” His voice echoed in the now silent Expedition Hall. “Unzip those slobbering hog jowls, punk, and tell me if you’ve got half a mind to eat shit and die today!”
One of the Warrior’s party members tried to intervene, spurring another memorized line from Kenji that caused the man to tremble and back off:
“Scoot back, Peter Pan! I ain’t got no problem beating the shit out of a second self-righteous ass with these bloodstained hands of mine!”
Standing tall as the Warrior stared up at him with a fear and disbelief, Kenji gritted his teeth and bit the bullet, hoping to scare the bullies off once and for all.
“Get up!” he commanded, stepping forward and snatching the man’s collar, and pulling him up. “Stand up like a man and apologize! Even I—the biggest badass this city’s ever seen—know not to hit a woman! Now apologize to my friend right now!”
Now that such a large number of people were watching, the Warrior chose not to cause anymore trouble or violence, and he brushed Kenji’s gripped away. Then, looked the other direction, grumbled under his breath, and said a quiet ‘sorry’ just loud enough for Misumi and Amelia to hear. After that, he met Kenji’s gaze with a bitter glare, then glanced to his party members, gesturing for them to leave the girls alone.
“Come on, guys…” he muttered. “…it’s not worth it.”
In the midst of a deafening silence, the Warrior and his party paced out of the Expedition Hall, settling for a party without a level 100 Necromancer.
Everyone watched.
And when at last they exited the building and the front entrance shut behind them, the parties, guilds, and workers erupted in a cheering roar of applause, filling the entire Hall with shouts of praise. However, Kenji didn’t realize just how much attention the confrontation had stolen, and when everyone started cheering, he panicked and stepped back, bumping into Misumi, and was then joined by Amelia on his other side.
“What was that?” Misumi screeched. “Since when did you become such a badass?”
“I-I didn’t…” he sputtered, glancing around. “T-Those were just lines from Mobster 3. Don’t you remember? When Nicolas confronted Tommy after the Coomes Family Bank incident?”
“Oh my god, seriously? Are you kidding me?”
“Well, no, of course not.”
Misumi shrieked, “Kenji! That was really freaking stupid! What if he knew you were bluffing or saw your wrist? He was level 79 and could definitely beat the crap out of you—or all three of us!”
“Yeah, but he didn’t! What was I supposed to do? Just let him beat you up?”
She blushed and held his arm tight, slinking to the background of his peripheral vision. “No, but…you could’ve called for help instead, I guess.”
As a member of the staff approached and the cheering continued, Amelia threw in her two cents, “I, for one, find such bravery in the face of danger quite admirable. And though I do not fully understand the term ‘badass’, I believe you are using it incorrectly, Misumi. He is not a badass, but a goodass.”
Kenji facepalmed, wishing she had kept her opinions to herself.
People crowded around them shortly thereafter, and a member of the Expedition Hall’s staff reached them—a young woman with lavender eyes and smooth hair the same color. Her hair was pushed back by a headband that gave her forehead prominence.
She bowed. “Thank you, Adventurers. Nobody’s ever done what you just did.”
“Huh?” Kenji stepped back. “What are you talking about?”
The young woman straightened up, titled her head to one side, and looked genuinely confused, just like him. “You mean you don’t know? That was Argus of the guild Septic Eel. He’s incredibly powerful and usually a bully to everyone he meets, but his guild has come the closest to beating Dead-Eyes and is expected to do so within a year, so people keep their mouths shut over the abuse. Their members train harder than anyone, you see.”
“Septic Eel?” Kenji asked. “Never heard of them…”
“Oh, and forgive me,” she continued, offering another short bow. “I’m Raya. I work for the Expedition Hall, and I’m guessing you must be new to the Spire. Perhaps you just arrived in Duncaster? Are you associated with a guild?”
By that time, most of the cheering had faded away and the people were beginning to disperse, allowing everyone’s focus to move from Kenji
He answered, “Rat’s Ass. All three of us. But we’re all new to the Spire, so yeah—this is our first day.”
“Ahh, I know the guild. Flanigan runs it now, correct?”
“That’s right.”
“I had no idea he recruited such powerful members,” Raya admitted. She pointed to Amelia. “I mean, a level 100 is unbelievable for a Necromancer, and at her age? It’s puzzling how she managed to gain the necessary experience. And you, of course—I assume you’re a very high level as well.”
Kenji turned his wrist and scratched the back of his head. “Nope. I’m a measly level 12.”
Both hands flung to cover Raya’s mouth as she gasped. “Really? That low? And yet you challenged Argus like that...” She put her hands down and leaned in, squinting her eyes as the sweet smell of her floral perfume met Kenji’s nose. “Sir, you’re either very brave or very stupid. Septic Eel won’t be happy, you know, and I bet they’ll come knocking on your door sooner or later. Just watch out, okay? They’re not afraid to cause trouble.”
Like a servant, Raya bowed once again, letting her short lavender hair dangle toward the floor, then stood up and smiled sweetly. “For today, however, you’ll receive your dungeon passes for free; it’s our way of saying thanks. Now please, come with me and I’ll provide you a map as well—and some much-needed advice for beginners. You may feel brave in the city, but in the Spire, that kind of thing will get you killed.”
******
The moment had arrived. The bridge between boy and man was set before him. The hour of reckoning had come to meet face to face. After speaking with Raya, who informed them of the best route for beginners, Kenji and his party were finally setting foot inside the Spire through one of its eighteen entrances, and they followed her directions exactly. According to her, it was best to get a good feel for the passages before diving headlong into combat with the beasts lurking about, and thus she sent them to the temple quarter known as Delilah’s Rose, a place few monsters tread due to the holy power emanating from its middle sanctuary.
Inside the temple quarter were hundreds of modest chambers with little decoration, although statues of a deific female who often appeared topless or with the torso of a woman and the body of a spider. Murals were also common amidst the larger rooms and corridors, while everything glowed soft blue, like a winter’s morning where the rising sun cast shadows behind every object. There were rounded ceilings and domes, whole cities, and every now and then, they’d come across fields of black roses; lightning bugs flickered over the flowers, creating a scene only found in one’s dreams.
Despite being on the ‘first floor’, that term actually encompassed more than sixty different levels, and if it were compared to a building, it would stand more than a hundred stories tall. There were eight districts, and with the Spire being two kilometers thick, getting lost was easy—not to mention deadly. One wrong turn, and Adventurers could end up tussling with a horde of minotaurs, wyverns, or even swarms of banshees. Fortunately—and somewhat disappointingly—Delilah’s Rose was full of basic monsters like slimes and the occasional goblin clan, generally nothing Kenji hadn’t seen before, and as he walked the outer courtyard of one of the temples with Misumi and Amelia, he kicked a slime away that had hopped toward him.
“I am most enthralled,” stated Amelia as she continuously twisted around to study the area. Her French braid slapped Kenji in the face more than once. “It is like we are outside but not. Tis preposterous.”
The ceilings were all made of stone and they sparkled like stars; meanwhile, braziers burned blue flames that were cold to the touch. Every corridor and wide-open space smelt fresh, not cold and clammy, and indeed, it was fascinating to be in such a fantastical place.
Misumi also looked around, and naturally, she did so with enough energy that her hair smacked Kenji’s face too. “It’s like we’re in a fairytale, isn’t it? I could see our parents read about this place to us at bedtime.”
“Verily,” agreed Amelia.
However, while Delilah’s Rose was definitely a numinous and awe-inspiring place, Kenji expected to see more, to catch sight of a kobold or an orc, but instead, all he saw were pretty flowers and slimes. Why did slimes even exist? The only defense mechanism they had was the ability to bore their enemies out of combat.
“Ugh,” he groaned. “This is cool and all, but can we at least fight a goblin or something? I’m level 12, not -800.”
“Somebody’s grumpy,” answered Misumi. Unlike him, she was excited, and she threw herself into him and locked their arms together. She teased, “I think you’re just hyped up after that argument with Argus. He brought out the badass in you, and now you’re itching to show off for us ladies.”
“Goodass,” Amelia corrected in a quiet, sheepish voice.
Kenji respired and tried to relax amid their constant chatter, and he paid no mind to the fact that Misumi remained clinging to his arm, staring at him and fishing for a response. But maybe she was right. Maybe that scuffle with Argus made him a little too high-strung, and now the calming atmosphere of Delilah’s Rose just felt off balance.
“I think you’re both out of your minds,” he muttered.
They continued wandering through the temples, the statue gardens, and the cathedralic corridors for the better part of an hour, searching bizarre chambers and finding murals of pristine quality. There were countless stories there, ancient legends. And, the longer Kenji explored the cities of Delilah’s Rose, the more he accepted the journey for what it was: the beginning. For in the following days, he would be thrown into deadlier and bloodier circumstances where his life depended on every action made, right down the very method of his breathing. With that in mind, perhaps a little relaxation wasn’t so bad.
