"It's nice to meet you!" The elven lady says while rising to her feet. She walks around to the opposite side of the table and stands behind the seat next to the man. Her hand points to the chairs opposite the couple as she says, "Come, sit down."
Anna and Reid look to each other for a moment before nodding. With hesitant steps, they sit down at the table.
"I'm Lena, and this is my soon to be husband Ida!" She declared in an excited tone before a jovial squeal sneaks its way out. "Sorry, I'm still not used to saying that." She moves her hands to cover her blushing cheeks.
"Congratulations? It's nice to meet you too." Reid replied diplomatically.
Meanwhile, Anna sat next to him motionless with a scowl on her face. A small part of her anger came from their unprofessional behavior, but most of was because the flirting triggered a memory of the awkward situation she put herself into the night prior.
"Sorry for all this by the way." The man started. "We've been so busy lately that we haven't had any time with each other in weeks. In the end we got a bit carried away." He explained.
"Its fine. So, about the mentorship…" The boy said, not wanting to linger on what just happened.
"Right. Let's start with a proper hunter introduction. We'll treat it like the two of you are hunters asking to join our party. I'll go first.
As she already said, my name is Ida. I've been a hunter for 12 years and I'm currently sitting at high B rank. My role in the party is going to be a frontline defender. Depending on the threat, I'll use either a heavy two-handed heavy shield, or a light one-handed shield and mace combo." He says before looking over to his future wife.
She nods at his gesture before starting.
"Once again, I am Lena. I've been a hunter for 16 years and I was recently promoted to A rank. I am going to be the party's leader. I'll occupy the center of our formation so I can give orders and handle any unexpected threats. My weapons are a rapier and a short mana-bow." Now that her initial burst of excitement was over, the woman was back to speaking like a proper hunter.
As she finishes, she gestures for Anna to continue. Seeing the woman in front of her finally act like an adult, the young girl relaxes and decides to follow suit.
"I'm Anna. I've been a hunter for almost a year and was recently promoted to D rank. My role is-"
"Wait." Lena interrupts her. "When you're the one asking to join a party, it's considered bad manners to declare your role. You should describe your class or skill set instead." She calmly corrects her.
"What's the difference?" Anna complains, still miffed from earlier.
"Your role is assigned by the leader of the party. By declaring your own role, you're basically telling everyone in the party that you know better than them, or that you think you deserve to be the leader. Either way, it's enough to piss people off. I've seen a lot of fights happen for that very reason." She calmly explains.
"Oh. I hadn't thought about that…" Anna admits.
"That's what we're here for. Like I said, I've been doing this for 16 years. I've seen it all. Sometimes the biggest and baddest hunters can have the most fragile egos of all. You have to be careful with what you say and who you say it to."
"I'll keep that in mind." Anna nods sagely. As much as she didn't want to admit it, Lena was giving good advice.
"Go ahead and give it another shot."
"Okay. My name is Anna. I've been a hunter for almost a year and was recently promoted to D rank. I am an elemental spearman and can imbue the water element into my spirit. My weapon is a spear."
"Good." The elf gives her a satisfied nod. "Next." She turns her attention to Reid.
"My name's Reid. I've been a hunter for three months and I'm currently D rank. I'm a runic spearman. I have enhanced senses that allow me to work as a scout. I can also work as a mobile caster and have limited healing capabilities. My weapons are a spear and runic magic."
"That's quite an impressive skillset." Lena noted. "Though you should know that it's typical for mages to list out their spells. That's not a requirement pre se, but it helps the party leader make more informed decisions later. Plus it goes a long way towards building trust in a party." She explained.
"Okay, I can do that, but before I do, there is one more thing I need to mention. I have the 'dual soul' talent, meaning I have two souls in my body. That's why I have such an extensive skill set. I'll switch places with him and let him introduce himself as well as give you our spell list, but please be prepared, Ms. Lena." The boy warns.
"Why me specifically?" She asks as she raises an eyebrow.
Reid hands her Amadeus' guild card.
"Really?" She asks in disbelief.
"Yes. Get ready."
Reid let's her prepare for another moment before switching.
The effect was instant. As soon as his hair turned white, Lena jumped to her feet.
"No way!" She shouts before swiftly sinking to one knee while bowing her head. "Thank you for gracing me with your presence my lord."
"Uhh, Honey?" Ida was utterly baffled at seeing his powerful and prideful partner bow her head so readily.
"Please, lift your head. Despite what you may be feeling, I am not a true primal spirit. Relax."
The elf woman hesitates for a moment, fighting the reverent urges pouring into her body. With a deep breath, the tension in her body fades and she manages to reclaim her seat.
"Good. My name is Amadeus and I am the other soul inside of Reid's body. I have been a hunter for 3 months and am D rank as well. I am able to cast runic magic from inside Reid's body, allowing me to be a mobile caster who doesn't need to be guarded.
My spell list is extremely extensive. I can give you a full written list later, but for now I will give you the highlights. I know all beginner tier elemental spells, including patch. For novice tier, I know stone pillar, carve earth, pitfall, flare, and bolt. For apprentice tier, I know earth lance, stun bolt, and shock bolt.
I have multiple custom spells as well, but explaining their functions and effects would take too long. Finally, it should be known that I know higher tier magic as well, but I don't have the mana capacity to cast them yet."
Ida nods at the lengthy list. He looks over to his partner. With her face still frozen, he continues in her place.
"That's an impressive spell list for a D rank, and you said that was just the highlights?" Ida asked.
"Yes." Amadeus replied.
With the introduction done and the list provided, Amadeus takes the opportunity to switch Reid back in. With the primal spirit's presence gone, Lena fully relax. She takes a second to collect herself before taking charge once more.
"I must admit, I've never had an introduction like that before." She says. After a dry chuckle at the absurdity of the situation, she continued.
"Now that I know what you can do, I'll make some formations for us to try out over the coming months. My goal is to have you experiment with a variety of roles and responsibilities, that way you can find what you specialize in. And, this is just my opinion, but learning about how each other's roles work helps you work better as a party."
"That's actually a good point." Anna said.
Seeing the young girls expression soften and hearing her tone relax, Lena felt a smile creep onto her face.
"Thanks." Lena replied. "Moving on, do you know the difference between hunting monsters in a dungeon and hunting monsters in the wild?" The woman asks.
"The loot?" Reid answers.
"Correct! As I'm sure you know, all sorts of materials can be harvested from a monster after they die. The meat, pelt, claws, and so on, can all be sold for profit. But that only applies to normal monsters. When a monster born in a dungeon dies, they completely turn to ash, aside from their monster core.
When everything is said and done, you earn 100-200 times more per kill with real monsters as opposed to dungeon monsters. In that case, what is the purpose of hunting in a dungeon?" She asks the two.
The young hunters share a look, searching each other for the answer. For his part, Amadeus knew the answer, but he stopped paying attention shortly after he switched out. Instead, he chose to work on designing a new piece of enchanted gear.
After a long silence, Lena continue her explanation.
"The answer is to grow stronger." She lets the statement hang in the air before continuing.
"When a living being dies, the chain that binds their soul to their body shatters, causing a small amount of their life essence to flow out. We can absorb this life essence through our own chain and expand the limits of our soul. Basically, we become stronger with each kill. This is true for dungeon monsters as well.
Even though they are mindless creatures, they still release life essence that we can absorb. When you combine that with the fact that dungeons have an incredibly high concentration of monsters, you get the perfect area to grow stronger."
"Wow! So, every single fight we're gonna get stronger!" Reid shouted as his mind went wild with possibility.
Anna found the concept incredibly interesting. It meant that anyone, no matter where they came from, could grow stronger. It made the future seem brighter, and that in turn made her happy.
"Lena…" Anna said, feeling a twinge of guilt.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry. I've been acting rude this entire time, and you didn't do anything to deserve it." She admitted.
"Oh, don't worry about it. If I was in your shoes and saw my new mentors flirting like that, I would be annoyed too. Let's just forget the whole thing, okay?" Lena asks with a radiant smile.
"Okay."
Lena's forgiveness only made the girl feel more guilt. Especially since she knew that she too was guilty of flirting in public. Even if it was just to tease her friend, or as a defense mechanism, that didn't change the hypocrisy of the situation.
Completely oblivious to the girl's internal turmoil, Ida continued their conversation.
"Oh, here comes the waitress. If you two haven't had lunch yet, go ahead and order something on us. You'll be heading to your first dungeon dive after this, so make sure you're fueled up."
"Can do! I'm starving!" Reid admitted.
⁘⁘⁘⁘
Reid stood before a massive stone tower that was 150 meters in diameter. The structure was constructed of smaller stone pillars arranged in a perfect circle that rose towards the heavens in a spiral pattern like the braids of a massive rope. It was dark gray in color, with accents of green peaking out from the crevices where the individual pillars met.
Looking toward the sky, the boy failed to find a definitive end to the structure. To his eyes, it seemed to simply fade away, as if consumed by sky itself. The incredible scale of the tower left the boy feeling insignificant, that he was a nobody in the grand scheme of the greater world around him.
Next to him, Anna looked on in equal amazement.
"Impressive, right?" Ida calls out from behind them.
The young hunters turned to greet their seniors. The two groups had separated briefly to allow the night ravens to equip their hunting gear. When asked why they weren't already wearing it, Ida simply responded 'my gear's too big to bring to a café', and he certainly hadn't exaggerate that claim.
His massive two-meter-tall frame was covered head to toe in black and gray plate armor. Azure ornamental feathers stuck out from the gaps in his armor at his wrists and elbows, as well as from his boots. A massive shield, almost as tall as him, covered his back. It was dark gray and boasted an enormous portrait of their party's emblem, an azure raven.
Next to him, Lena looked small by comparison, barely able to reach his chest. Her gear hadn't changed much since their meeting at the café, apart from a black cloak that covered her body. The cloak's outer layer mimicked the appearance of feathers. Her black hair was tied up into a bun that was held in place by wooden rod that was decorated to look like an azure feather. Her black and blue weapons were hidden underneath her cloak.
"Oh my gods… That's so cute!!!" Anna couldn't help but admire the armor their seniors wore. She had always dreamed of wearing matching gear with her 'special someone'. Until recently the only person in her party was Lance, and the prospect of them wearing matching gear with him scared her enough to nearly abandon the idea.
"But maybe now…" She thought before turning to the boy next to her.
"It's super impressive. It looked so much smaller from the city gate." Reid answered.
"We get that a lot. Did we keep you waiting?" Lena asked.
"No, we just got here a few minutes ago." Anna said.
"That's good. Are you ready for your first dungeon dive?"
"Yeah, I'm a little nervous though." Reid answered while Anna nodded in agreement.
"Good. I'd rather have you be a little nervous than overconfident. So, for your first day this is going to be your goal." Lena says while handing them a guild quest.
Reid and Anna hold it between the two of them to read together while Lena continued.
"Our quest is to retrieve 10 wind monster cores from the first floor and 5 from the second floor. That's why we're here at the Helios Dungeon. Do you see those green accents on the pillar?" She asks while pointing to green crevices on the dungeon's exterior.
"Yes." Reid answered.
"That color indicates the main type of element you'll encounter inside a dungeon. Green for wind, red for fire, blue for water, and so on. Of course, that only applies to mana dungeons. Spirit dungeons don't change elements like that. Go ahead and do a final check on your gear before we head in."
"Okay!" Anna replied excitedly.
"Wait is there a difference spirit and mana dungeons?" The boy asked Amadeus.
"Yes. Weren't you listening when Lilly was teaching you?"
"I was trying, but it's hard to pay attention after Aron or Barboda kick the crap out of you. Cut me some slack."
"Fine. Mana dungeons are large towers that reach into the heavens. They are reported to be a direct connection to Onesel, the realm of mana. Mana flows into Stahlnine through that connection. As it transitions between realms, a portion crystalizes and turns solid as it interacts with the ambient spirit energy in the air. That crystal creates a shell around the rest of the mana, the resulting item is called a monster core.
Once a monster core is created in the dungeon, it will gain a form based on the floor on which it was created. Higher floors mean stronger monsters. No one knows exactly how or why they take the shape of monsters, but I will investigate that in time.
Spirit dungeons are large constructed pits that lead deep into the ground. They function identically to mana dungeons except they connect to Itwonna, the realm of spirit. Additionally, instead of producing monsters, spirit dungeons produce golems from their monster cores."
"Oh, cool." Reid replies while doing the final checks on his gear.
"Please pay more attention, I refuse to become your personal encyclopedia."
"But you're so good at it!" The boy jokes.
"You're right, my memory is good. I certainly remember all the times you snuck a peek at Anna's butt when you thought no one was looking. As an encyclopedia, isn't it my duty to share that knowledge?"
"Whoa! Hey, no need for that! I'll pay more attention from now on, you have my word. You're looking at super student Reid here!" He replied in a panic, not even attempting to deny the accusations.
"Good! Now let's focus on the dungeon."
With their gear prepped and ready, they group makes their way toward the dungeon. The entrance was a point on the ground where two of the spiraling pillars unfurled slightly to create a gap. That opening led to the hollow interior of the tower with an ascending staircase that followed the path of one pillar.
As they passed through the doorway, they could feel a change in the atmosphere. It felt thick, almost heavy.
Amadeus briefly activated his mana sense and saw that the air around them was heavily saturated with ambient mana.
"Be careful on the stairs." Ida warned while taking his spot at the front of the party.
The large spiraling stone staircase was wide, but it had no railing to keep people safe. It was a nightmare for anyone with a fear of heights. The staircase led to a hole carved into the flat stone ceiling that marked the beginning of the first floor.
They passed the poorly lit transition area between floors and finally walked out onto the first floor. The young hunters eyes went wide at the sight before them.