Alice and Sam made their way down the alley to where the signs pointed towards Willy’s Forge. After a couple of turns down the alleys they came upon the store. The store front had a small thin window that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned in years a layer of grey dust covering it all over. Sam attempted to look through it but could only see blurs. “Looks like the kind of place a blacksmith who is too busy making weapons would own” Alice said. “Yeah, it kind of reminds me a bit of Barlow’s place in Rimour” he said. “Barlow?” Alice questioned. “Yeah, I used to frequent his store just to look as I couldn’t afford to buy anything while I was staying in town to study. He gifted me a multi tool for my birthday” Sam said pulling it from his storage space for her to see. “So, what you’re trying to say is that this place seems like it will have what you’re after?” Alice asked. “Well, I hope it will” Sam replied as he opened the door and stepped inside.
As he entered Sam was greeted by a strong scent of burning coal and smoke. The room was dimly lit by candles along the stone walls and there was a thin haze in the air. Sam looked around at various pieces of equipment, armour, tools and weapons sitting on tables or hanging on walls. “Looks how you would expect a shop run by a blacksmith that only wanted to blacksmith all day would look like” Alice said looking at a pile of shields stuffed under one of the tables. “It certainly does fit the stereotype” Sam replied as he continued to take in the shop.
“It doesn’t look like there is much organization in how things are laid out. It seems like they were just dumped wherever there was some free space” Sam noted. “Or where there wasn’t” Alice corrected as she looked at a pile of random tongs or something similar that were all piled on top of one another and all seeming to be different sizes. “There is a lot of stuff just piled up although it does look to be pretty good quality, not that I’m an expert” Sam said.
Sam began looking through the piles of equipment, tools and weapons trying to find what he was looking for. He thought he had found what he was looking for only for him to remove it from its sheath to find it completely rusted. “This sword here has seen better days. Looks like water’s been leaking on it” Sam said pointing to a damp spot on the roof that was the likely culprit.
He continued his search looking through the piles of swords, daggers, axes and much more when he finally found what he was looking for. A short sword with a simple leather scabbard. It was plain steel with a brown wrapped leather handle, but it looked like it was really good quality for a low-grade weapon. There were no price tags on any of the items however so he hoped it was within his small budget and that he could afford it. “Looks like you’ve found what we originally came here for” Alice observed. “Yeah, I’d still like to try and find a short mace as well thought. Since there will be a lot of skeletons in the dungeon and I’d like it have one with me in case the sword proves too ineffective” Sam explained.
They continued looking around when Alice pointed at a short mace she had found “I found one Sam” she called to him from the other side of the store. “Nice find” he replied as he made his way over to her. “Yeah that looks like a pretty good one as well” Sam replied picking it up and examining it. “Now the next question is how do we pay?” Sam asked as he looked towards the empty counter at the end of the store. “Maybe there is a bell or something” Alice mused as they headed over to attempt to buy the weapons.
“Well, no bell on the desk” Sam said as he scanned the top of the counter. “I guess we just have to shout then” Alice said. “HELLO” Sam called. “I WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ONE OF YOUR WEAPONS”. For a few moments there was silence however they soon heared the sound of someone walking towards them. “Ah, sorry kids. I was working at the forge in the back. What can I do for you?” A dwarf with arms the size of tree trunks said as he walked through the back door. “I was wanting to purchase this sword and Mace. How much are they each?” Sam asked.
“Hmmm” the dwarf who Sam assumed was Willy mutter under his breath. “The sword will be one silver and two coppers. The Mace will be three silvers and five coppers” he said. Ouch, that was a lot more than Sam had expected. He double checked his money and counter two silver coins five copper coins and two small copper coins. “I’ve only got enough for the sword so I will take that please” Sam said producing one silver and two copper coins and placing them on the desk.
“Pleasure doing business with ya” Willy replied as he placed the sword back on the table. Sam collected the sword and put it into his storage space. “There is something I would like to get as well. Can you wait for me outside?” Alice asked him. “Sure” Sam said heading for the exit. “PLEASE COME AGAIN” Willy yelled as Sam open the door and exited the store walking back out into the cleaner city air.
Alice exited the store a few minutes later. “Did you get what you were looking for?” Sam asked. “I did, hope I didn’t keep you too long” Alice quizzed. “No, I was just checking the sword out a bit while I was waiting” Sam responded. “Well, now that we’ve done that is there anything else you wanted to buy?” Alice asked him. “Yes but I don’t have the money for it. I’ve only got one silver and three coppers left until the beginning of next week and I need to pick some food up as I don’t currently have any in my storage space” Sam explained with a sigh. “Alright, then let’s take a slow walk back to the carriages” Alice suggested as she turned to walk back out of the alleyway.
There were a few other students waiting by the carriages when they arrived, but most were still out looking around the shops. Alice and Sam boarded their carriage and waited for the rest of the students to return. It was almost an hour before the last students returned and they finally departed the shopping street heading back towards the academy. “You find what you were looking for?” Albert asked Sam during the ride back. “Yeah, I found a good quality steel short sword from a place called Willy’s Forge. It was a bit of a mess, but the stuff all seemed like good quality gear” Sam explained. “That’s good, I was able to find some magic trap detection tools. They were pretty pricy but should be good for when we move onto F rank dungeon’s” Albert said. “There are no magic traps in G rank dungeons?” Sam asked. “No, that’s apparently one of the qualifying factors for a dungeon to be G rank is to only have conventional traps” Albert explained. “I see, I suppose that makes sense” Sam replied.
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“Did you find anything Chloe?” Alice also asked once Sam and Albert had finished. “No, the items that would best suit me were much too expensive or too high grade. They didn’t really have any lower grade healing support items” Chloe answer. “And Darren?” Alice asked the boy who was looking out the window. “Nothing caught my eye” he replied turning to face them. Sam and his party continued chatting during their ride back to the academy discussing different things about the dungeons in the beginning before falling into a more casual conversation as the carriage ride dragged on.
As the carriage rolled into the academy courtyard Sam pulled back the curtains and saw that it had already gotten dark out. Looking at his pocket watch he saw that it was after 6 in the evening. “That was so much longer than the trip into the city” Darren complained. “I know, I can’t believe three separate carriages had blocked all three main roads. What terrible luck” Albert sighed. “I hope we don’t have to stay for too much longer as we need to get back to the palace” Alice said.
They came to a stop and got out of the carriage. The professor hadn’t ridden back with them for some reason, so they had to wait for her to show up. After 15 minutes of standing around in the courtyards another carriage arrived and the professor stepped out. “Sorry for the delay everyone” she said as she approached the waiting group. “Now let’s head back up to the classroom to do a quick debrief and I will go over our plans for the next couple of weeks” she said. A collective moan sounded out from the students. “You will run into bigger delay’s than this in the dungeon. Just think of it as extra experience. Now the quicker you all get to the classroom the quicker we can be done” she said waving them along towards the door to the academic building entrance.
The students reluctantly made their way to the classroom. They all sat down with their individual parties and prepared for the debrief. The debrief luckily passed by fairly quickly and before long they had moved onto the plans for the next few weeks. “Okay, the last thing I want to cover this evening are our plans for the next three weeks. Our Monday and Tuesday classes will cover the layout of the “Small Cave of the Undead” and where the traps are located as well as loot chests. Then our 4-lesson session on Thursday will be in the dungeon simulator where you will have to navigate though a dungeon floor and defeat all the monsters. Each party should get two runs through before the end of class. The following week on Monday and Tuesday we will focus on what monsters are in the dungeon and how best to defeat them. Then on the Thursday three of the six parties will go into the dungeon. To decide who goes we will draw lots. Those three will then go into the dungeon one after another allowing time in between for you to progress a floor as only one party can be on any one floor at a time unless they grant another party access after entering the floor. Once the three parties have gone through the dungeon on the Monday and Tuesday of the following week we will do a debrief. The three parties that won’t be diving the dungeon that week will continue practicing in the simulator and will dive the dungeon the following week” Professor Voss explained. Now does anyone have any questions on what we will be doing?” she asked the class. She waited for a few moments to allow them time to digest what she had said. There were no questions and the professor dismissed them now free to head out to get some dinner.
“Are you two going to be joining us for dinner?” Sam asked Alice and Chloe. “I doubt it but ill see. We’re already nearly four hours later than normal” Alice said. “Maybe they’ll view another hour as no big deal” Darren encouraged. “I highly doubt that” Chloe said shooting down his optimism.
Sam, Albert and Darren arrived at the dining hall after seeing Alice and Chloe off. There were only other students from their dungeon diving class still there with everyone else already having eaten and left. They discussed their day over dinner and said goodbye heading back to their individual dorm rooms.
Sam was feeling pretty tired but thought he would get in a bit of reading and make a start on one of the new books he had picked up from the library the previous evening. At least that was his plan but as he lay down on his bed he was instantly hit with fatigue. He closes his eyes just to rest them for a moment before he pulled out the book to start reading.
Sam woke up still dressed in yesterday's clothes. It seemed like he was more tired than he had thought as he had quickly fallen asleep. He quickly changed and headed down for an early breakfast. After breakfast he went through his sword practice routine in the grassy space next to the dorm building. Once he had finished his practice he moved onto his next bit of early morning training. Since he had a double skill up class later this morning he wanted to try and get some practice in trying to level up his dimensional storage skill before the class. While it wasn’t overly necessary he didn’t want to look like he hadn’t done any practice while everyone else gained their skills although he knew most of his classmates still hadn’t gotten it despite practicing in their own time.
Sam filled his storage with sand from a pile that was sat down behind the archery range and removed it repeating this over and over until he gained another level in the skill. ~Natural Skill ‘Dimensional Storage’ level gained. 'Dimensional Storage' is now Level 4~ Sam continued filling his storage for another 15 minutes before making a slow walk toward the academic building for homeroom. On his way over there he ran into Bryce whom he walked with up to the classroom filling him in on the details of their journey into the city.
“Seems like a pain, not being able to get dinner until after eight in the evening is not something I would be happy with” he said. “Yeah, we were all hoping to get to eat after we returned but the professor had other ideas. Thankfully we got a decent amount of information about the coming few weeks for the class so we can make some extra preparations. I for one want to get my sword skill levelled up a couple of times before we have to dive into the dungeon” Sam said. “Well, good luck with that. I’m still trying to get that damn mana manipulation skill. It’s turning out to be quite a pain to get it” Bryce added as they entered the classroom and sat down next to Albert who was already waiting in the room.
