Haeros Dungeon - Chapter 1 preview (Patreon)

What Came Before

Reincarnated into a new world after a long and fruitful life on Earth, Bai Lin only has the barest glimmers of understanding of why he has been brought to the planet of Tionerth. A vague recollection of a conversation with an old man, a mental block that repays any attempts to breakthrough with pain and a singular skill.

Unlike most such stories, Lin’s skill is nowhere near as overpowered as the chosen one’s. Conserve allows him to save a portion of anything affecting him, to be utilized later. Two years of learning the language, the customs and the world after his appearance, he is finally ready to pursue the mystery of his appearance.

To do so, he’ll need to delve into the core of the world, the one place where the gods of this world are supposed to live. They and ’Tionerth’s World Core are the reasons for the strange magic and skill that everyone born into this world has. It is also the source of riches.

His first step to solving the mystery is delving the dungeon, and to increase his chances of survival, Lin joins the infamous Aeres Academy. Anyone can join the adventuring college, if they can survive their initial trials.

Decades of experience as a martial artist in his previous world sees Lin in good stead, as he blows through the entrance exam and manages to acquire the third highest number of points. Only two others stand ahead of him – Kira, a Flame Friend whose ability to conjure flame and elemental fire wisps makes her deadly, and Rayzan – a legacy adventurer’s child whose extensive training and powerful equipment allows him to wade through the monsters with little fear.

Training in the academy is hard, with lessons in monster physiology, dungeon environments, martial and physical conditioning and skill practice enforced every day. The rigors of training winnow the class down through the year, even as Lin finds his initial reluctance to socialize with the “‘kids”‘ waning. Some are fascinating, like Yorrick the street-savvy leech, whose ability to steal life force from others upon injuring them leaves many fearful of his potential, and yet drawn to it. Brand is another, a powerful Copy, who can mimic other users’ skills with his own, making him the most versatile of the group, and Sophia, a Fifth Day Turner whose belief in the Core is a fundamental religion and whose skill to create monofilament-edged dimensional fractals could split the very planet itself.

Forced into impromptu teams, Lin descends through the Aeres fault, a secondary entrance into the Haeros dungeon. Safer and more contained than the dungeon itself, the fault is a training ground for new adventurers and where the year-end test is held.

Together, Lin’s impromptu team of Kira, Yorrick and Brand race Rayzan’s wealthy group to crack the fault first, only to find that a mutation in the final boss has seen Rayzan’s group battered and himself nearly slain. Joining forces, the team does battle with the boss, achieving victory by inches and exiting the fault to graduate first in their year.

Now alumni of the Aeres Academy, the team stands ready to begin delving the deeper and more dangerous portions of the Haeros dungeon.

Chapter 1

By unspoken agreement, we found ourselves standing before the academy’s armory door. Kira was the first to arrive, waiting beside the door impatiently, her flame wisps not present at the moment. In the early morning light, her red hair danced like the flames of a campfire, the shade somehow having grown redder, brighter over the course of the year. If I didn’t know better, I might have accused her of using dyes because it was at a level that was just unnatural without the aid of peroxide and artificial colors. Then again, we were in a magical world and the way core magic interacted with human genes – if you could call whoever lived on Tionerth human – was a little bizarre.

We exchanged short greetings; the girl looked internally distracted so I left her be. Instead, I ran through a series of stretches, a habit from having grown old – and not as necessary now, in this newer body. Still, I was conserving healing and momentum, so any added movement and aid I could provide my body in both those areas was always helpful.

Brand and Yorrick appeared not long after the second bell that marked sunrise, walking alongside one another and chatting somberly. Brand always reminded me of those big Hollywood heroes, the Chris’es. You know, blonde, blue-eyed, fit and handsome. Yorrick, on the other hand, was your average anti-hero in my mind, the kind who lurked in the shadows, made dire pronouncements and might just be on the verge of cracking and going over to the villain side. More Louis than Lestat, you know?

Mind you, that was more the “‘feel”‘ of them, than their actual physical characteristics, and certainly not something I’d ever mention. The fact wasn’t helped that Yorrick really was thin and gangly, though slowly filling out as his body caught up with years of malnourishment, and Brand, being a leatherworker for ages, was quite well built.

“Brand. Yorrick.” I waved a hand at the pair, not gloved since the weather was warming enough that even the early morning hour wasn’t that cold yet. Useful, when we went down, of course.

“Lin.” The pair greeted me, and I had to smile. I might have lost portions of myself – the old body I had, the family I’d developed, portions of my memory because that old man didn’t want me to asking why pain!¸ but I’d kept my name.

“Still refusing to heal all the way?” Kira asked, catching the grimace when the bolt of pain had shot through my head stopping me from thinking about what had happened in pain.

“I… well. Sort of.” I touched my head. “Headaches.” True enough, if not exactly the truth.

Rather than continue the conversation, I reached out and tugged on the door to the armory. The door, made of a single, massive wooden piece and then reinforced with steel laid across its width, refused to move from the gray stones. The armory itself was a squat structure, made of the same gray granite that made up a good chunk of the buildings in Haeros, what with the dungeon supplying the material so readily.

Only those buildings on the outer quarters, where wood was simpler and cheaper to acquire, were made of that ubiquitous substance, and even then, broken granite pieces, clay bricks and porcelain coverings helped to keep the fire risk down.

Our conversations were quiet and desultory until the door swung open, the young attendant behind it giving us a quick once-over.

“You the winners?” he said, hiding a yawn behind his hand.

“Yes,” Kira said. “We were told you were ready for us to select?”

“We are.” He stared at us for a long moment before he finally sighed and turned around. “Come in.”

The bottom floor of the armory was were where all the mundane items were held, and so the attendant led us right past it up the nearest set of stairs to the second floor. He obviously understood that we had little interest for such items at this time, not when we had a selection of a piece of equipment burning a hole in our pockets.

Not that pockets – the internal ones, not the pouches that everyone wore – were that common. The extra space needed for a slack fit, the extra time taken to do the sewing, the reinforcement and work required was not something most did. I had added a couple to my own clothing, just out of habit, though I’d kept them concealed on the inside of the vests and jackets for practical purposes.

As graduates, we would always have access to the academy’s store, though with Kira’s contacts it was not actually as much of an advantage as it might have been for other graduates. Another bonus of the somewhat reluctant grouping that I had found myself in.

Once more, I found myself immensely grateful for the woman, but more excited to make it to the enchanted section of the academy’s store. This time around, I not only had the special selection from being the first party through, but also my share of the stones from the delve and what little I had saved up on top of that.

I could do more than just window-shop and could plan for the future delves inside the main dungeon.

It was only as we headed up the stairs that I thought to ask.

“Do people have any idea of what they’re looking for?” I noticed the attendant leading the way perk up, paying more attention to what we had to say now. Which made sense, since this would let him get rid of us faster than if we just browsed.

“More protection,” Brand replied, immediately.

“I’d like a better weapon,” Yorrick said. “Some of us didn’t get one fall into our lap.”

I grinned, flexing my right hand. Of course I was not wearing the oversized gauntlet at the moment, but I could feel the weight, the density of the enchanted weapon I had taken off the boss knocker. We had decided to deduct a small amount from my share of the final loot as penalty for taking the gauntlet, but it had been small because of the low desirability for punching weapons. Even if it was enchanted, if there was no demand…

Well.

Stayza Gauntlet of Rending

Draw: 2%

Piercing Protection: Low

Blunt Force Protection: Moderate

Cutting Protection: Moderate

Additional Abilities: Increased piercing and rending damage, Minor increase in speed

Synchronization Level: 39%

I’d jumped up quite the amount in synchronization level. The pressure of fighting the minotaur boss had pushed synchronization to a high degree, and every moment since, I’d been attempting to get better used to it. Mostly, the synchronization level allowed me to make better use of the abilities, in this case, growing more fluid of the spike in the gauntlets and making them larger.

In time, the other enchantments might also increase. Funnily enough, though, I was still wearing my other gloves – and those were stuck in my belt right now – because the gauntlet was only for one hand. Still had to protect my off-hand somehow.

Maybe I could find something useful today, to replace or add to the gauntlet.

Thus far, the floors we had cleared and the goods we had acquired from the dungeon were the most basic kinds. No one was particularly interested in getting into a fight over what could be acquired right now, knowing that once we became “‘real”‘ delvers – and realistically, in some of the levels just before, the sheer volume of enchanted items would increase.

Not that the volume of good or useful enchanted items would increase, though. One of the aspects of the random, mutated and warped nature of the mana flows was that many of the spontaneously generated enchanted items were, well, weird.

Who needed a spoon that made anything you ate too salty?

Or a shoe – a single shoe – that filled with muddy water every week?

Okay, so that one was actually useful. The shoe was used by a gardener, since supposedly the water was actually very good for his plants, and so he measured out the amounts he added to his garden. However, it was still only enough for his own gardens – and for providing a few, carefully regulated, restaurants with the tomatoes and other vegetables he grew. I say tomatoes, but like with almost everything else, it was me translating it to the closest variation of the vegetable: in this case, something that grew on vines, had a slightly more meaty taste and made great sauces. Tionerth tomatoes were a little less acidic and tomatoey than real tomatoes with more umami and a slight green-bean flavor, but it worked.

“I’m not sure,” Kira said. “Possibly a necklace of elemental control if they have one. Something to aid my magics”“. I’m going to take my time though, because I have to weigh what there is with what my family could acquire.”

Having reached the second floor, the initial attendant slipped to the side politely and two others waited. One of the two – a dark-haired, more tanned woman who I recalled very fondly from previous interactions, smiled at us as we stood there.

“Welcome to the armory. Now, if that’s the case, Fiona will take you, Adventurer Kira,” the woman said, gesturing to her companion. “Xan, please deal with the two other gentleman. Their needs are similar enough that you should be able to handle it.”

I watched the pair of groups depart with a slight small, and tilted my head to the lady who stayed behind. I cudgeled my mind for her name again, failed, and just chose to ask rather than dilly-dally and act as though I could remember. I was too old for such games, and so was she. Even if she was somewhat younger than I was – mentally, at least. “I’m sorry, I have to admit, I’ve forgotten your name.”

“Petra, Adventurer Lin.”

“So formal,” I said, with a grin. “And here I thought I was a friend.”

“One who could not remember my name?” She arched an eyebrow, and I shrugged.

“If you knew me, you’d realize that was not so uncommon. Terrible with names and details, I am. But smiles and eyes…” I let out a long, dramatic sigh. “Those, I cannot forget.”

“Is that so? I’ll be interested to hear all about that – as we pick out what you’re looking for.”

I dipped my head in acknowledgment of her point.

“Well, let’s get to it then.”