This explains why the names we use for many of these dungeon races date back to pre-System Earth. For example, we have no idea what the race we call dwarves actually referred to themselves as on their world of origin. Since the concept of a race of short, strongly built people with human features already existed in the American language under the name ‘dwarf’, when they appeared on Earth any references to their original name in their mother tongue were translated by the System to ‘dwarf’ in their very minds.
This phenomenon, when repeated across the entirety of the concepts that define the identity of a people, naturally destroys their ability to recall and define their own culture in any terms other than those available in American. This forces them in some sense to conform to preconceived cultural notions about what such a people would be like. All known dungeon races have been affected by the same cultural devastation, perhaps easing their integration into human society at an untold cost.
- Rufus Veres, Level 29 Prolix Historian,
Unsurprisingly, no one was brave enough to speak up. That, and Thompson really had covered things thoroughly, except for explaining the whole dueling bit. The Tier 4 woman waited for a few moments, then nodded sharply and raised an arm. The all-clear signal sounded again.
“You’ve just heard the assembly signal, now show me you were paying some attention.”
With that, she turned and marched back into the administration building, while all the students filed out into the square. There, we found Leon and Zenia, along with a number of other instructors we hadn’t seen before, standing around the square calling out Squad names. Apparently the students coming from LA had already organized themselves and picked their names.
“Squad Champion!” “Squad Deathdealers!” “Elite Squad!”
I rolled my eyes at some of the names, but wasn’t sure where to go until I heard a deep voice call out “Squad Azure!”.
The entire group of us – including Alex and Alyssa – made our way over towards the voice. The source was a compact, wiry man wearing dull brown leather armor – except on his right leg, which looked to be made of metal rather than flesh. The black metal reminded me more than a little of the golem we’d fought, though his was more sculpted, resembling an actual leg.
Name: Wolf
Class: RangerStolen from RoyalRoad. Support AzureInk by reading the original.
Tier: 3
“Wolf?” I asked, then flushed as I realized I’d blurted it out. The man just laughed at my slip and held out a hand to shake.
“Callsign, obviously,” he told me as we shook. “Real name is Elias. I’ll answer to either. Nice to meet you, Azure.”
“Instructor, ah, Wolf – what about us?” asked Alyssa. “We came with Az but we’re supposed to join the standard track.”
“Hah, no need to be so formal with me, girl. You’ll be with us today, then someone smarter than me will figure out what Squad to put you in. Don’t worry, most of the Squads here are going to get shuffled a bit, balance them out.”
As Wolf introduced himself to the rest of the group, I felt the prickling sensation of being stared at. Turning, I found that we had ended up standing next to a group of the trainees, and several of them were looking our way with varying expressions. One of them in particular was fixated on me, and I realized that his armor and hair matched that of the kid whose bodyguards had confronted Thompson. I’d only seen him from behind, but I was sure it was the same guy.
Name: Yuri Kalmár
Class: Knife Fighter
Tier: 0Stolen from RoyalRoad. Support AzureInk by reading the original.
I didn’t have time to do more than glance at the information before he was striding up to me. Yuri was slightly shorter than me and had an average build. He sneered as he looked me up and down.
“ is all it takes to get into the advanced track?” he spat out contemptuously. “We’ll see about that.” He raised his right hand, and I stepped back on reflex as he swung an open – gauntleted – palm through the space where my face had just been. My eyes were wide with shock.
“I challenge – “ he cut off abruptly as his brain caught up to the fact that his slap had missed completely. Laughter erupted from a pair of girls in his group, one of whom was – I pulled my eyes away from the blonde as a furious Yuri raised his hand again.
“I SAID, I CHALLENGE – “ his shout pulled everyone’s gaze towards us before he cut off with a strangled squawk as his hand was caught and he was yanked backwards.
The woman in the scale armor had appeared out of nowhere and grabbed Yuri by the wrist. More laughter rang out, from other groups who’d missed the initial exchange, as she effortlessly pulled Yuri around to face her. As I glanced around I saw that H’ruk and G’hala had stepped up to flank me on either side, my head not even reaching their shoulders.
The distractingly good-looking blonde girl’s gaze hardened and she turned away with a huff. that
“What are you doing, Yuri?” the instructor hissed, and I quickly Identified her.
Name: BlurStolen from RoyalRoad. Support AzureInk by reading the original.
Class: Blade Dancer
Tier: 3
“Let go of me! I was about to show that girl who belongs in the advanced track!”
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“You were lucky she moved, or you’d be in the BASIC track right now!” Blur barked at him. “This isn’t your little duelling club in Central! We don’t slap each other in the face to issue a challenge! Not to mention the fact that challenges aren’t allowed for the first two weeks! Now, come with me!”
The Blade Dancer made even an angry stomp look graceful as she herded the entire Squad away from her. I caught a glimpse of the blonde’s green eyes before she turned to follow.
Name: Tara
Class: DefenderStolen from RoyalRoad. Support AzureInk by reading the original.
Tier: 0
“Why didn’t stop him, Elias?” Raylan’s voice came from behind me, his tone sharp.
I turned to see the instructor chuckle before giving Raylan a friendly slap on the shoulder.
“Stop him? I was he’d hit her! Shit, I could have given him a ass-chewing for that… Too bad Blur’s a bit of a suck-up to those snots. Personally, I think she’s angling to get out of the Guild and land herself a cushy bodyguard gig somewhere. Anyways, I could have stomped on him a lot harder if he’d hit one of my students unprovoked.”
Raylan’s eyes narrowed, but he didn’t say anything.
“Your students, Ranger Wolf?” Zaire asked, and I realized I hadn’t caught the phrasing the man had used.
“That’s right, young Mage,” Wolf answered. “You’ll be studying with most or even all of us at different times, but each instructor is given primary responsibility for a Squad. You’ve been assigned to me. So, since the excitement is over, let’s get the tour started, shall we?”
“We already had a tour when we arrived,” I pointed out, and he grinned widely.
“Even better! Follow me!”
Wolf led us straight to the bar, where he proceeded to order himself a pitcher of E50 beer. At his direction, we pushed a couple of tables together and sat down. The bartender brought out a pitcher of beer and two of water, along with a bunch of glasses.
“Do touch my beer, this shit will literally kill you. And then I’ll have to do paperwork it’s not even funny,” Wolf instructed as he poured himself a glass.
He took a deep drink and smiled in satisfaction.
“Great, now I can fill you in on the rules and shit nice and comfortably. Let’s start with how duelling is to work, since I imagine you’re all wondering that right about now. First off, no duelling for two weeks, as Blur said. Second, no slapping people, you just tell them you want a duel, and you tell your mentor – that’s me.
“There’s a bunch of rules about the details, but the main thing is that duels are just a method for letting you take out some aggression on each other without – usually – anyone getting killed. They’re not a part of regular training here the way sparring is.”
He paused for another drink and H’ruk jumped in.
“Why not? Surely it is vital to know who is the strongest!”
“The strongest, eh?” Wolf asked with a grin. “Tell me, mighty H’ruk, who would win a duel between you and Azure here?”
The big orc frowned for a moment, taking the question seriously.
“It would depend on the conditions,” he finally stated. “If we began the match at close range, I believe I would triumph, while if we started far apart, Azure would have the advantage.”
“Correct,” Wolf responded with a slight smile. “So what exactly would be the benefit of such a match? We’re not going to learn much about your skills like that. However, part of the exams include evaluation matches against opponents.”
“What’s the difference between sparring, duels, and evaluation matches?” Alex asked, looking interested.
“In a duel, you’re working against each other with one goal – to win. When sparring, you should be working , not against each other – the goal of sparring is for both people to improve, not to beat the shit out of each other. Those aren’t always mutually exclusive, of course, but sparring is fundamentally about improvement.
“Maybe one person is working on defending while the other works on attacking. Doesn’t matter. The point is, sparring will make you better, while dueling is just for showing off. Evaluation matches are in between – you’ll be trying to win of course – but without the hard feelings that usually precede a duel.”
“If duels aren’t useful, how does one prove they are better?” Unsurprisingly the question came from H’ruk.
Wolf laughed harshly. “You live longer than the other guy. Only the best last in this job,” he said forcefully. “We’re not here to fight people. Of course, you’ll end up fighting a lot of things that like people, but make no mistake about it – anything inside a dungeon is a monster. Outside a dungeon, you meet a fine pair of orcs like yourselves, well, you better treat them with respect or you’ll end up in a blood feud.
“But inside a dungeon? Some people claim that dungeons aren’t , but that line of thinking will just get you killed. Dungeons are . You’ll need to learn to make a switch in your mind and flip it every time you delve. You can’t hesitate in there just because something is shaped like a person.”
I flinched, seeing in my mind the mask-like faces of the dwarven children, exploding in bursts of gore when I shot them. Wolf caught my look and nodded.
“I saw your reports this morning. Thinking of the dwarves?” I nodded. “Rough for a first go, but unfortunately you’ll get used to it. Isn’t terribly common to find ‘kids’ in a dungeon, but delve enough of them and you will. Either way, you’ll be killing a lot of things that are technically capable of speech. It’s just that they’re more like automatons than people.”
Elias had to explain to me what an automaton was before I got it, but his words made sense – intellectually at least. I felt better afterwards anyway.
We chatted a bit more, learning that we’d have a fixed class schedule determined by Elias and Thompson. It would be six days a week, with Sundays off. There was going to be a mix of training and classroom work. We’d alternate between the two to let our resources recover while we sat down for a lecture, then taking the burden off our minds and putting it back on our bodies. The idea was to make each day as productive as possible and to find our limits.
Naturally, Raylan brought up his Squad name idea again, and Elias seemed to like it.
“Better than some of the shit names you kids come up with. I swear, if I have to train another Squad Death-something-or-other, I’m gonna change their name to Squad Pigeon instead!”
I sighed, still not having any better ideas. We reluctantly – except for Raylan – adopted Squad Hard Limit as our team name for the semester. A few minutes later, we heard the blaring of the assembly siren, and our mentor drained the last of his beer. Not seeming affected in the slightest, he led the way back out into the bright sunlight.
Wolf
[LitRPG] [Cultivation] [Crafting] [Smart MC]
Synopsis (Click to Expand)
To transcend the heavens, one must first forge the ladder.
He is a Cultivator who values volume over speed.
He is a Chronicler who will not stop at the sky.