Chapter 19

I awoke from a dreamless sleep to find that I was alone in my bed, which was a first since my public punishment. I was tempted to activate the map to see where they were, but that would have been unnecessary, I would see or hear from them soon. I noticed that the trolley was gone, so perhaps they went to get breakfast. I got up and stretched, thankful that I had decided to shower last night. I picked out some of my Dungeon clothing and belted on my sword, though I was unsure if I was going to need to wear my belt from Amenthia. I was still thinking on it when the door opened, and the girls entered the room. Both looked well rested and freshly showered, which answered my question of where they had been. They were both wearing dresses, much like what they had worn the day before, but with a more modest design. They noticed my state of dress, as well as the sword on my hip and gave me a perplexed look.

“Unfortunately we can’t spend all our time in bed, there are some things we will need to go over. I noticed on the display last night there is an open area behind the Pact house, is that for training?”

Amenthia nodded, “For archery and spellcasting practice, yes. There is also a training room on the second level for close quarters combat.”

“Then for today we will be going there. I would suggest you both dress in your Dungeon clothing for this, as it will provide some padding. Have you two eaten anything yet? I noticed that the trolley was gone.”

Enti shook her head, “Not yet, Pathios, the cook came by looking for the trolley and that woke us up. You stirred but were still fast asleep. Amenthia had pondered waking you up with a blowjob, but we smelled like death, so we went and showered instead.” Enti paused for a moment, then added, “None of our belongings were touched while we were in there, so perhaps it is just occurring with you.”

“Very well, meet me in the dining hall once you have changed, I will have plates of food waiting for you. Then we will head upstairs and begin working on our close combat.”

They nodded and headed out to their rooms and I couldn’t help but admire them as they left. Given we were going to stay in the Pact house, I decided to leave Amenthia’s belt, but locked it in my footlocker. I locked the door behind me and strolled over to the dining hall, greeting people as I passed. More than a few smiled and returned the greeting, some nodded, others said nothing, but only one responded negatively. He responded with ‘Go to Hell’, though I didn’t know why, but I was sure it had to do with either my party members or the dragon.

A quick check of the time on my bracer showed that it was morning meal still, so I went in and began to load plates for the three of us, picking a table not too far from the buffet. Once I had the food and drinks prepared, I gave my map a quick check and saw that Amenthia and Enti were a minute or two away from entering the dining hall. I was about to begin my meal when the individual who had the ‘Go to Hell’ response approached me.

“You think you’re so much better than us? Well, I got news for you, I am going to make sure that you get taken down a peg.”

I stood up quickly, causing him to flinch and stared him straight in the eye, noticing his bravado falter.

“First, I don’t think I am better than anyone. If you are referring to my companions, Amenthia and Entivala were assigned to me by Tyr. If you have a problem with it, take it up with him. I am not above the rules, as you saw by my very public punishment, and I still have the scars from it. You have an issue with my quick recovery, take it up with Tyr, though it isn’t really any of your business. Trethraz was assigned to me by Tyr and if one small thing had gone differently, we could have been defeated or even killed. So spare me your arrogance, your bravado and your attitude. I have worked hard to accomplish all I have in the time I have been here and it’s fortunate that I have innate skills, despite the amnesia. If you believe you’re so much better than me, come up to the training area and prove it. Otherwise leave me to enjoy my breakfast.”

He turned red and I could see in his body language that he was debating throwing a punch, but his eyes kept glancing at the sword on my hip. He let out a frustrated noise and stomped away, looking around I could see the eyes of everyone else in the room on me. I ignored them and sat down, trying to enjoy my food, when the girls entered the room and saw my sour mood.

“What’s wrong, Pathios?” Amenthia asked, concern evident in her voice. “Did something happen while we were getting ready?”

I nodded, “Just another person who seems to believe I am standing on a pedestal that they should have, wanting to take me down a peg. It’s fine, I knew that I would have to deal with this crap when I first arrived, but I can’t say it doesn’t bother me. Either way, the only opinions that matter to me at this point are those of Tyr, Esmerelda, Brot’k and the two of you.”

Both girls smiled and gave me a kiss on the cheek, Amenthia on the right and Enti on the left, as always. They sat down and thanked me for the delicious food before digging in. We didn’t say much during the meal, instead focusing on finishing our food quickly and ten minutes later we were dropping off our plates and heading towards the second level. There were still areas of the first floor to explore, but this would be the first time I had ventured to the second level. It looked no different than the floor below as we ventured through the corridors, but my map showed that the rooms were much larger and spacious than the ones below.

“How many active adventurers are in this Pact house?” I asked the girls, hoping to figure out something that was bothering me.”

Enti thought a moment, then replied, “At last count, I believe that it was three hundred and forty-nine, you brought it up to an even three hundred fifty; why do you ask?”

“Based on my math and the size of this facility, the first-floor houses half of the members, so roughly one hundred and seventy-five people. My math for this floor shows at least another hundred putting the total at two hundred seventy people. That means, at least fifty to seventy people reside on the third floor. Is there anyone in the towers?”

Amenthia shook her head, “No one right now. The towers are reserved for our best adventurers, but no one has earned the prestige needed to be awarded one. The central tower has not been used in some time, as that is awarded to the winner of the centennial games.”

“What do these games do exactly? The first I heard anything about them was from the book.”

“It determines the available slots a particular Pact house will have. We gain slots every year, based on average growth, but there are extra slots awarded based on both events. In the case of the centennial, if we were to win, we would gain nearly one hundred slots and have our Pact house upgraded.”

“Okay that makes sense,” I replied, “but what happens if, say, this Pact house were to lose ranking and didn’t win the competition after a few years.”

“We would not get penalized too much,” Enti answered, “but it could affect our enrolment totals, as we could end up losing people to other Pact houses. In your case you were sent here totally at random, but for those who live on Eden, our will plays a part in where we go.”

“What would it take for us to get one of the rooms on the second floor? Is it limited by level, prestige or a mixture of both?”

“I am not sure,” Amenthia replied, with Enti shaking her head as well. “We never asked before, but it is something you plan to ask Brot’k about later.”

I nodded, as they were right; it was something that could wait until after we had finished in the training room. We arrived at double doors, nearly identical to the dining hall. A large symbol of Tyr was carved into both doors forming a whole when the doors were closed. Carved in a circle around the symbol, were five words in elder futhark. They read Blóð, Sviti, Stolt, Hollusta and Sigur, meaning Blood, Sweat, Pride, Devotion and Victory. I used my amulet to open the door and looked around to see how they were utilizing the space.

There were wooden replicas of every standard melee weapon that would be used by adventurers lining the walls. There were ten sparring zones placed around the exterior area of the floor space, with two boxing-style rings in the center two spaces. There were multiple areas open for use, so I gestured for the girls to go pick one and followed them. Enti and Amie found staves for themselves as well as one for me and I met them at the mat they chose.

Amenthia tossed the staff to me and once I caught it, I began going through my Shushi No Kon Dai form, letting my muscle memory lead the way. I let my body determine the speed and I was a bit surprised that I was able to get through the entire kata without making a mistake and at nearly full speed. I turned to see the girls looking at me with shocked expressions and I wondered if they had ever seen anything like that before.

“That was amazing,” Amenthia gushed. “Where did you learn to move like that? Are you sure you want to fight with a sword and shield?”

I laughed and replied, “I spent over six years doing Shotokan-style karate when I was younger. I was bullied a lot as a child, and I wanted to learn self-defense and progressed well. I liked to use a bo staff, not unlike this one, as well as swords. I also tended to do rather well in my hand to hand combat.”

“Yeah, we saw that firsthand,” Enti said with a giggle. “I was amazed when you dealt with those nasty men who stopped us on the way to the Dungeon.”

“True, but I wish that I hadn’t had to do that. We are taught that we are to only use force as a last resort. With creatures in the Dungeon, they are always attacking us, though there are ones that are neutral. Against flesh and blood people it is different, so we learn to try and de-escalate a situation, or we put them down fast and hard.”

“Like with Jonta,” Amenthia said softly. “You tried to get him to leave, then when he wouldn’t and threatened me, you goaded him to make him angry. You knew if he got too angry, he would become sloppy and you used that to win.”

“Correct,” I answered with a nod. “Now, why don’t we get off this morbid topic and I will go through some basic forms for you two to practice. This will need to be done every day, whether we are in the Dungeon or not.”

For the next six hours, we went through the beginner forms and movements that I was first taught and during the last hour we were sparring. I returned the staff to the wall and took a sword and an axe to use against them. I hoped that with the sparring, we would be able to get them used to defending against different weapons. They had received combat training in preparation for being paired with a rebirth, but for Enti it was mostly spells, with less emphasis on close quarters combat. In Amenthia’s case, she received training in short swords, never expecting to get a bow that could double as a staff. I would have to figure out a way to do practice in the Dungeon, without resorting to using real weapons that could injure or kill.