Chapter 1

Earth
Ottawa, Ontario
August 12, 2019
06:30 EDT

I slapped at the obnoxious noise coming from the nightstand next to my bed then turned back over to try to get some more sleep. ‘It’s too damned early,’ I thought. A few seconds after I got comfortable again, I remembered why my alarm was set in the first place. I quickly got out of bed and started dancing around my room.

I heard some laughing coming from behind me. As I turned I saw my mother standing in the doorway. “Happy birthday, Jonathan! When you’re done celebrating, wash up. Breakfast is almost ready,” she said.

“I was just about to. I want to get going as soon as possible.”

She rolled her eyes. “Well, go ahead,” she replied, stepping out of the way so I could make my way to the washroom.

I closed the washroom door and undressed and checked myself out in the mirror. I’m a pretty good looking dude, if I have anything to say about it. I’ve got short black hair, blue eyes, and a nicely chiseled body. Over the past few years, I went through a massive growth spurt and topped out at six foot five inches and two hundred fifty-three pounds. I put a lot of work in to put on muscle, partly for high school football, but mostly for when I turned eighteen and could finally delve into some dungeons with my friends.

I thought back to my history lessons in school. People have been delving into dungeons for their treasures and to get stronger for thousands of years. It used to be that anyone could delve into a dungeon. It was at a point about eleven hundred years ago where all everyone did was delve into dungeons. Parents were even taking their young children into dungeons with them because they couldn’t find anyone to watch them. As the result of so many people doing dungeons, society and progress all but halted, and the Middle Ages were the result.

Luckily, high level adventurers recognized what was happening, and decided to try to put humanity back on track. They formed the Adventurer’s Guild and started heavily recruiting other adventurers to start policing the dungeons. They began guarding the entrances to dungeons and limiting who could go in. No one under the age of eighteen was allowed to enter a dungeon, and for a few years, parents weren’t allowed to go into a dungeon if they had young children at home.

They began opening up schools to prioritize education, and eventually allowed adults with children back into the dungeon, but only during the hours where their children were at school. It took a long time, but eventually it evened out to where there were still a lot of adventurers, but there were also a lot of people who had other jobs.

There were also a lot of people who dedicated themselves to knowledge, rather than adventuring. As a result, science developed alongside magic, giving us the things we have today. Some things are powered by mana, while others are powered by electricity. For example, nearly every neighborhood is powered by electricity, but every home has a backup generator that runs off mana. If power is interrupted, then the occupants of the home can use their mana to charge up the generator to keep power in their home. Most personal devices, like phones, as well as vehicles run off of mana, rather than another source of fuel.

I stopped thinking about history and moved over to the shower. I stepped in and turned it on to the temperature I like. I quickly cleaned myself and shaved before drying off and heading back to my room. I got dressed in my leather armor, grabbed my new backpack and weapons, and walked downstairs. I set them down on the floor near the front door and then went to the kitchen.

“Good morning,” I greeted, as I arrived. My father was reading the news on his tablet while my mother was finishing up breakfast.

“Good morning, Jonathan. Happy birthday!” my father exclaimed.

“Thank you,” I replied, moving over to get a cup of coffee. My father always had a pot of coffee ready, so I grabbed a mug from the cupboard and filled it up. I put a little bit of cream and sugar in it before moving to sit at the kitchen table.

Taking my phone out of my pocket, I checked my messages. It was still early, so I wasn’t surprised there weren’t any messages from my friends. I sent off some quick texts to my friends telling them I’d be picking them up in about twenty to thirty minutes.

I put my phone away as my mother started bringing over large plates loaded with food. She set them down in front of my father and myself, and then went back to get her own. Hers had significantly less food than either my fathers’ or my own. We both tended to eat a hell of a lot of food.

I quickly dug into the food in front of me. There was a stack of pancakes, bacon, sausages and eggs, and some roasted potatoes to go along with it. I loved my mother’s cooking, and I quickly demolished every last crumb on my plate. I got up and rinsed it in the sink, then put it in the dishwasher. I refilled my mug full of coffee, and then sat back down at the table.

“So what time do you want me back tonight?” I asked.

My father finished chewing and then answered, “No later than 20:00. Some people you need to meet are coming for dinner tonight. If your friends aren’t busy, bring them too.”

“Who do I need to meet?”

He shook his head. “You’ll have to wait until tonight to find out. Make sure you’re back in time,” he warned.

I looked at the clock that read 06:58, so I would have over twelve hours to work with. I drained my second cup of coffee, rinsed it and put it in the dishwasher as well. “Well, time is wasting, so I’m going to go meet up with my friends. I’ll be back by 20:00,” I said, moving over and kissing my mother on the cheek.

She smiled. “There is a basket of food for you and your friends by the front door,” she said.

I nodded and picked up scabbard, spear and backpack. “I’ll see you guys later.” I made my way out to my truck, putting my things in the back before going back for the food basket. I put it between the front seats, then got in and went on my way...

I made my way to my best friend Mason’s house. I knew he probably wouldn’t be up yet, so I turned off my truck and knocked on the door. After a moment, a petite woman my mother’s age opened the door.

“Good morning, Jonathan. Mason is still sleeping, so you’ll have to wake him up,” she said.

“Morning, Mrs. Reeves.” She stepped to the side and I made my way upstairs to Mason’s room. I knew the perfect way to wake him up. He was pretty big into drumming when we were younger. We used to talk about forming a band with our friends. He was so into drumming that he got his parents to get him a drum set one year for Christmas.

Opening the door to his room, I saw that he was completely dead to the world, like always. I sat down at his drum set. Coincidentally, I got pretty good at drum solos after he got his drum set, so I broke out one of my favorites, Led Zeppelin’s John Bonham - Moby Dick.

After a few seconds of playing, Mason tried covering his ears with his pillows but I continued playing. After another thirty seconds, he got up and threw his pillows at me. “Asshole,” he spat, making his way out of the room.

As he made his way to the bathroom, I shouted, “If you’re not ready in 10 minutes, I’m leaving without you. I’ll be downstairs.”

I walked back downstairs and talked to Mrs. Reeves until Mason came downstairs with his rucksack on his back, carrying a large halberd in one hand. He gave his mother a kiss on the cheek and turned to me saying, “Let’s go, and as punishment for waking me up, you’re buying me breakfast.”

“Already taken care of,” I chuckled. “Bye, Mrs. Reeves.”

“See you later, boys!”

Mason put his stuff in the back of the truck while I got in and rummaged through the food basket until I found what I was looking for. When he got in the passenger side, I handed him a breakfast wrap and one of the thermoses full of coffee.

“Thanks,” he grumbled, still waking up.

I nodded and started the truck, heading to another of our friends’ house next. When we got there, Benjamin was already waiting for us. He was sitting on the front steps of his house looking as his phone. I had to honk before he looked up. When he saw who it was, he put his phone in his pocket and came over. He quickly stowed his own stuff in the back of the truck and got in the back.

“Hey guys, good to see you,” he said.

Mason was too busy stuffing his face, so I replied for both of us. “You too, Ben. You have everything you need?”

“Yeah. I was looking at a list on my phone to make sure I had everything.”

“Okay. Let’s hope the girls are ready to go,” I said, putting the truck in drive. It was another short drive to our final stop. As we pulled up, I was amazed to see that the girls were ready. They too, were engrossed in their phones and I had to honk to get their attention. Mason and I got out of the truck and helped them with their stuff.

“Hey girls,” I said. “Sorry we’re late, Mason slept in again.”

“We figured...” Anja replied.

“ ... let’s go,” Sonja finished for her twin.

We put their stuff in the back of the truck as well and headed to our destination.

When we started moving, Anja and Sonja were the first to speak. “Happy birthday, Johnny!” they chorused.

Mason and Ben wished me a happy birthday as well.

“Thanks guys,” I laughed. “So are you all excited for your first dungeon? I sure as hell am.”

Mason snorted, “Of course we’re all excited. We had to wait weeks for your dumb ass to turn eighteen since we agreed not to start until we were all able to go in.”

“Well sooooooorry,” I replied with a chuckle.

“Don’t mind him, Johnny,” Sonja said. “He’s got a few screws loose, and it’s early. Has he had his coffee yet this morning?”

“Yup,” I nodded. “My mom put together a lunch for all of us and included a couple thermoses of coffee in there. She knows Mason is incapable of functioning without a couple cups of coffee.”

“Assholes,” mumbled Mason, before taking a long drink of coffee.

“So how far are we planning on going in the dungeon today?” Ben asked.

“We’ll play it by ear,” I replied, looking at the clock on the dash. “It’s almost 07:30 now, and it’ll take us another half hour to get there. The evaluation will take another hour or so, so we’ll probably be able to start at 09:00. My parents want me to be back at home at 20:00 for dinner, and to meet some people. So we’ll need to be out of there by 19:00 to give us enough time to get back. So as far as we can go in ten hours, I guess. You’re all invited to dinner as well.”

“Cool. ten hours is plenty of time for our first delve.”

“Who do they want you to meet?” Mason asked.

“I have no idea. My dad stressed that I needed to be home by 20:00, so it must be important.” I answered. “Changing the subject, I’m assuming we’re still going with the specializations we talked about?”

“Sonja and I are still decided. Sonja will be using a bow initially, and I’ll be using daggers or short swords. Once we get to a certain level, we might switch, and I’ll use a bow or crossbow, and Sonja will use daggers or short swords. Once we get high enough level, we’ll probably specialize further,” said Anja. “Are we sure we don’t need a mage or something?”

“Nah, I’ll have that covered,” Ben answered. “I’m still planning on going with auras, so I’ll be able to deal damage or modify everyone’s damage to a different type if it’s needed. With different auras, we should be able to bypass any defenses we come up against.”

“Awesome,” I said. “I’m still going sword and board until we hit higher level, so that only leaves you, Mace.”

“I wouldn’t have brought my halberd if I had changed my mind,” said Mason.

“Great! We’re set then,” I said.

We spent the last twenty minutes of our trip discussing our plans before arriving at the dungeon that had sprung up in the middle of Gatineau Park. A couple of kids camping with their parents found it while playing, and their parents called the Adventurer’s Guild right away to report it.

When a dungeon is discovered, the Adventurer’s Guild sends in a team to determine the rating of the dungeon, and to set up a monitoring station outside the dungeon. Every adventurer interested in delving into the dungeon is required to show their ID and sign in to the dungeon before they can go in. This allows the Adventurer’s Guild to keep track of how many adventurers are in the dungeon at all times. The rating of a dungeon is determined by how many floors there are, and how difficult it is. For example, the dungeon in Gatineau Park has a rating of 20-I. This means it has 20 floors, and is suitable for adventurers from level 1 up to 10, as noted by the roman numeral ‘I’. There is a dungeon in the Amazon rainforest with a current rating of 523-XXXV, which means that it has 523 floors and is suitable for adventurers from level 341-350. Every couple of months the ratings change as more floors are discovered, and the difficulty increases.