Chapter 3 — Silver Wings
Rodrigo is too kind. Ren repeated in his head for the millionth time as he sat at a table in the Delver Association’s lounge area.
His dagger—Roderick—was nowhere to be seen.
No. He had not gotten rid of it or—heavens forbid—sold it. Instead, its disappearance could be attributed to Rodrigo’s second incredibly generous gift.
The Sheath Quintessence. Ren didn’t even have to ask to know this quintessence was incredibly valuable.
Hell, it was probably more valuable than Scramble; a proper essence.
As it turned out from what Ren learned asking around about Scramble, it was awful. Not just mediocre, awful. The worst. And ‘are you crazy? Why would you slot that?’.
Ren sighed as he held the Delver Permit he had gotten. Until he completed a delve with a trusted party, this would stay a permit. The problem being that nobody wanted to party with the walking liability that was scramble.
Hell, he was dumb enough to be fully willing to jump in solo if the association would let him. Unfortunately (fortunately) for him, they were smarter than that and didn’t allow any ol’ teenager to throw themselves into the death pit that was the dungeon.
No, they had to prove themselves. He had to admit it was a smart system. Show someone the truth of what a dungeon delve is with the safety net of a party to guide them. Yet that same smart system was failing him as nobody believed he was up to snuff.
It was enough to even make Ren doubt himself a little… Was he being precocious about all this?
As he was brooding, a gentle tap caused him to turn around to a lady looming over him—an elf.
Too close. He immediately noticed as she was leaning in far too close with zero regard for personal space.
“What’s got you down, kiddo?” She asked, putting her hand on his head—scruffing up his already messy hair.
“Don’t.” He snarled, sweeping her hand away. Causing her to giggle.
“Shia, please don’t bother another kid.” A scraggly man walked up behind her with a very unamused expression.
“But he’s brooding…” she pouted, earning no sympathy from the man.
A feline beastkin walked up and sat at the table with Ren without even asking, causing him to stare at her funny.
“Wha- Cato? I’m not compromising this time. We aren’t helping the moody kid!” The man cried out as ‘Cato’ looked entirely unbothered.
Wait a minute… is this a party? Ren realized, seeing the three weirdos seemingly knowing each other. Upon closer inspection they all had silver wing pins.
It might be his only chance… Perhaps this party of misfits would accept him? He swallowed his pride and raised his hand as the scraggly man continued trying to convince the beastkin and Shia to move on.
“Mat, hold on.” Shia held out a hand, as Mat’s ramblings came to a stop.
“I uh, do actually need help registering…”
“Fuuuck, you need a party to survey you to get a license… Ugh…” Mat instantly surmised, his palm dragging down his face.
“See? We should help him!” Shia immediately vouched, entirely onboard already.
“...Hold on, let’s talk to him more.” He turned to Ren. “Mind if I take a seat?”
“Go ahead.”
Mat pulled out a seat and sat down before resting his head on his knuckles as he glared at Ren.
On the flipside, Shia bounced around to the last free seat and sat down with a happy grin.
Cato flagged a waiter and everyone except Ren ordered food to talk over, at least until Shia insisted he get something on her.
“So, let’s introduce ourselves.” Mat started, sitting up and pointing to himself. “My name is Mathias.” He pointed towards Cato who was already digging into the fish they ordered. “And that one is Cato.”
“Oh, oh! And I’m Shia!” Shia jumped up.
Mat pointed his thumb at Shia. “And the elf is Shia.”
Taking the cue, Ren placed his hand on his chest. “I’m Ren. Nice to meet all of you.”
“It’s so nice to meet you too Ren!” Shia enthusiastically reciprocated.
“Yeah, yeah…” Mat dismissed, grabbing and pointing a fork at him. “First of all, I’m assuming you’re tier one?” Ren nodded. “Okay, what essence did you slot?”
“I um…” Ren hesitated.
“Don’t worry, it can be mediocre. Not to toot our own horn but we’re pretty good.” Mat assured Ren, refusing to look him in the eyes as if entirely unfamiliar with the act.
“I have… Scramble…” Ren meekly muttered, nervous of how the man would react.
Mat’s fork hit the table with a clatter and he stared straight at Ren in disbelief. “My expectations weren’t that low,” He uttered in a deadpan tone.
“S-Sorry!” Ren immediately apologized as Mat’s stare caused him to sweat.
“Quit it Mat, you’re scaring the poor boy!” Shia reprimanded as Mat’s head slowly swiveled over towards her.
“Shia.” He paused. “We are not helping him. No.”
“Yes we are!” Shia stood up to Mat.
“He is a liability, Shia,” He asserted with a pointed finger on the table.
“That’s even more reason to help him!”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“How?”
“If he’s a liability as you say, who will ever help him? We have to!” She argued.
“And risk our lives when he suddenly explodes?”
“The scramble essence can make me explode?!” Ren shouted in disbelief.
“No—Probably not. But that’s not the point. He will cause problems.” Mat clarified.
Ren did not like the uncertainty in Mat’s words.
“And? Aren’t the monsters a liability? Isn’t Cato leaping into battle without care a liability? Isn’t your lack of a third essence a liability?“ Shia’s tone biting with every pointed remark at her party mates.
Cato raised an eyebrow before shrugging and continuing to devour her fish.
Mat scowled at Shia, clenching his jaw.
Meanwhile Ren was becoming increasingly worried about the party as they argued about him. He didn’t want people arguing over him. He didn’t like being a point of discord.
He raised his hand. “Er, excuse me?”
“What?” Mat glared at Ren.
“What if… I just don’t use Scramble?”
Mat gave him a look of ‘are you stupid?’, “You are aware that you don’t get a license for being carried, right?”
“Well… yeah, but I have this.” Ren raised his hand and triggered Sheath. Roderick appeared in his hand in an instant as the space around it twisted to accommodate it.
“A knife?” Mat asked incredulously.
“Noooo.” Ren said. “It’s clearly a dagger, and its name is Roderick.”
“That’s a well made weapon.” Cato commented, now suddenly leaning over towards Ren as she inspected the dagger closely.
“Okay, a well made dagger. Sure.” Mat flippantly accepted. “But, is that really a replacement for an essence?”
“He also has a quintessence.” Shia pointed out, pointing at the dagger. “Didn’t you see it warp into his hand? That wasn’t the dagger.”
Mat pinched the bridge of his nose. “Yes, I noticed the Sheath quintessence.” He looked over at Ren. “Seriously kid, why did you slot Scramble of all things but somehow afford the Sheath quintessence and a quality dagger?” He waved his hand. “Go extract Scramble and maybe then we can help you.”
“You did not seriously just tell him to rip out a part of his spirit.” Shia was appalled by the mere suggestion of extracting an essence.
“We’re not getting into this again Shia.” Mat tried to shut down the argument.
“No, you’re not skipping out of this, You do not tell kids to rip apart their spirit.” Shia’s tone turned sharp.
Mat broke into a sweat as the air turned cold around Shia. “Er uh…” he stammered.
Cato sat up and looked serious for the first time in the whole conversation.
Mat looked back and forth, the tension in the air rising. “...H-hey will you let it go if I agree to help the kid?”
“Ren.” Shia pointedly reminded him.
“Yes! We’ll help Ren get his license!” Mat backpedaled on all resistance as Shia’s aura softened.
“See? We got you, kiddo!” Shia giggled as she ruffled Ren’s hair.
This time, Ren reluctantly let her, deciding whatever pride he had wasn’t worth testing Shia’s patience with.
Shia and Mat discussed logistics with Ren only occasionally contributing with ‘yes’ and rarely ‘no’ as he finally touched his food.
This tastes good. He focused on the food as the discussion came to an end. Perhaps that was why Cato decided to indulge in it the whole time…
Ren arrived at the center of Wilmshire, the Metallic Depths dungeon. Several parties were gathering outside of it, including a familiar trio he’d met last night.
“Hey!” He shouted to grab their attention, running up to them.
“Good, you’re on time” Mat nodded. Looking at Shia and Cato. “We’re almost ready, but I want to talk to you first.”
“Oh- okay?” Ren stood ready for whatever Mat had to throw at him.
“First of all, I’m sorry for being a hardass yesterday. I was truly thinking for the good of the Silver Wings.” He bowed as he gave a surprisingly heartfelt apology.
“Wha… huh? Thanks…?” Ren stammered, unprepared for an apology of all things.
“Now, that wasn’t all I wanted to talk to you about.” He turned towards the dungeon and pointed at it. “That there—the dungeon. What do you see?”
What? Ren looked over. “I see… a metal spire, with an open maw into the dungeon’s depths lined with menacing spikes?”
“Yes, that is the physical appearance—A literal interpretation of my words, I see.” he nodded. “But I meant it more metaphorically. What does it mean to you?”
“Uh… Opportunity? Hope? Money?” He gave several guesses as to what Mat wanted to hear.
Mat looked at Ren’s ragged clothing. “Yes, I could see that being a motivator.” He turned back to the dungeon. “But you need to temper yourself. The dungeon is not a fruit ripe to be picked.”
“Well, yeah, it’ll be dangerous.” Ren didn’t really understand what Mat was getting at.
Mat scratched at his stubble for a moment, turning again to Ren. “A quiz. What is the biggest threat when it comes to delving?”
“Monsters?” The obvious answer felt wrong even before Ren said it aloud.
“Close, but not quite. If monsters are the biggest threat then you’re in a dungeon far beyond your grade. No, the largest threat is attrition.”
“Attrition?” Ren parroted back.
“Yes. Question two, what do you think we’ll be doing most of the time during the Delve?” Mat continued his quiz.
“I’d say fighting but the obvious answer you’re leading me to is probably the wrong one, isn’t it?” Ren guessed.
“Good recognition. You’d be correct.” He acknowledged. “Most of the time spent in a dungeon is navigation. The dungeon isn’t just overflowing with monsters on every square inch of solid ground.”
“Navigation…? How?” Ren tilted his head, not understanding how it could be that hard to navigate a dungeon.
“Okay, final question—three. How large is a dungeon? I think you’ll get this one right.” He posited
Well, that practically just tells me the answer… “Really big.” He stretched out his arms to indicate the large size.
“Yes, really big would describe it.” He nodded. “But did you know the first floor is larger than this entire city?”
Ren did not know that as he tried to imagine something bigger than Wilmshire.
“The real threats are running out of supplies and getting lost. These two things are the death of many unprepared delvers.” Mat concluded.
“So monsters aren’t a threat?”
“Oh absolutely not. They are just as much a drain of resources. But it’s greatly amplified by the sheer amount of ground we must cover. Over weeks of delving? You’ll fight hundreds easily.”
Once again scratching his stubble, he decided to add an addendum, “Though, there are sometimes boss or elite monsters. Those are genuine challenges. No amount of logistics will make up for strength there.”
“So we’re going to be in there for weeks…?” Ren muttered in disbelief.
“No. Only one week. For the license you just need a report stating you went to the end of the first floor at minimum.” Mat clarified.
“Mat, are you done quizzing the kid?” Cato returned, wiping the crumbs out of her facial fur.
“Yes. I believe he understands now.” He turned to Shia, who had some kind of waist-height wooden golem carrying a large backpack at least twice its size. “And you’re done with our provisions, I presume?”
Shia saluted. “Yessir!” She giggled before skipping ahead.
Mat nodded. “Well, Shia’s not going to wait. You better be ready kid, we’re heading in.”
“Wha- just like that?”
“Welcome to the life of Mathias Gregorius.” Mat gave a curt bow, “Babysitter of the Silver Wings party. Now come on.” He walked ahead.
Ren turned to Cato who was licking the last of the crumbs. “?” She stared at Ren.
Shaking his head he followed behind Mat as they passed the guards at the entrance of the dungeon.
As he crossed the threshold, even his spirit acknowledged the sheer presence of a dungeon as he felt reality twist as he left the regular world he’d lived in his whole life, no…
This was a dungeon.
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Chaos Star Path by Yuma123—another aspiring author like myself—and it hits its writing stride later, so give it a chance!:
Chaos Star Path
by Yuma123
Cultivation Eastern Fantasy OP MC Weak to Strong Action Power Fantasy
Born with a **crippled spirit root**, Lin Chen was cast aside as trash. But on the brink of death, the impossible awakens. The Chaos Star Body. Nine elements. One body. A star vortex devouring heaven and earth. Now sect geniuses fall with a single strike… Ancient realms open at his command… And the heavens themselves begin to fear his rise.
Who would you eat dinner with?
