11 Chapter 11 Ambush At The Dungeon

It's been a couple of days and after doing some reading, Thomas found that the inn he's been staying at is called The Rolling Ship Inn, and that the city he is located in is called SeaPoint City. SeaPoint City has an Ocean to the West and is surrounded by open fields with weak monsters the rest of the way around. He also discovered that the name of the library Lara works at is called SeaPoint's National Library, he also found out that she is the only employee there and doesn't get many days off, although she can leave during the nights she often chooses to sleep there and only leaves for food occasionally. Thomas, who has frequently been visiting, has learned much more English from her and even quite a bit more about various other things, not only that but his injuries have gotten much better as well. Not only that, his mana pool fully recovered recently and Lily, Toby, and Thomas all sold the monster parts they had gotten, they decided to split the profit evenly and each ended up with forty-three copper coins each. Toby and Lily seemed pleased with this number; however, Thomas didn't seem all that interested and just stored them away. Once emptying the monster corpses from his inventory he also noticed that it takes roughly around half the mana to take the item out as it did to put the item in, he also noticed that despite it being in his storage for a while it did not spoil and had no signs of decaying in fact, all the dead monsters were still fresh, not even a single berry on the poison berry boar has spoiled. After all this he waited at the tavern for Lily who said that she'd meet him there and said that they'd both do some quests together, although upon arriving, one of the other adventures immediately had an issue with him.

Thomas stood there, ignoring him as the man shouted things like "A demi-human in a place like this? Don't be ridiculous! We all know demi-humans are one of the weakest races, so why bother becoming an adventurer?" After a few minutes of constant harassment, Lily walked in excitedly as she shouted, "Thomas, are you here yet?" Thomas glanced at her for a moment as she began to walk over to him, looking excited as she said, "I made a request yesterday and Grace helped us out." Once she got to him, he asked, "What is it?" Lily smiled as she said, "I requested that we get to be the first people to enter the easiest dungeon around once it regenerates." Thomas thought for a moment as he asked, "What's a dungeon?" Lily thought for a moment as she said, "It's a monster filled place that also spawn treasure, and the one we're going to is considered to be the easiest, it's a bit further to the east than we usually go, but it's still in the field, I think Grace said its known as the Rookie Dungeon, it's about two hours away if we walk, she also said that the boss monster will be weak compared to most other dungeon bosses." The man who was bothering Thomas overheard this as he smiled and said, "Mind if I tag along?" Lily glanced at him and seen that he was a blonde man with a scare going down his left eye as she said, "No, thanks, I'd rather just go, the two of us." The man's smile immediately faded as he angrily said, "Tch… whatever, I didn't wanna go anyway." After the man walked away, Lily said, "We should probably go before Toby tries to come with us and tries to take some of the treasure." Thomas stared at her for a moment as he asked, "But wouldn't it be safer?" Lily glanced away with a disappointed look as she said, "Yeah but… Isn't it a hassle for him whenever we constantly bother him." Thomas thought for a moment as he shrugged and said, "I don't know." After he said this, Lily smiled and said, "Exactly! We don't know, so we probably shouldn't bother him for a while… besides… I'm pretty sure he's been out in the field killing the same three monsters… four if you count the field boss." Lily stared at him for a moment as she said, "Well, we should get going, it'll take us a while to get there."

After traveling for a short while, they arrived at a massive hole in the ground with a warning sign that read, "Warning Rookie Dungeon ahead, proceed at your own cation." Lily pointed at the sign excitedly as she shouted, "This is gonna be so cool, it's our first-ever dungeon!" Thomas stared at the sign for a moment as Lily ran off ahead as she excitedly said, "Last one in is the rotten egg!" After another moment or two, Thomas heard a familiar voice behind him. Thomas turned around to see the blonde man who was pestering him at the tavern standing there with a few other people, there were two people who looked rather strong and they both had two daggers on their sides. The blonde man smirked as he said, "Hey demi-human, you wanna play a game?" Thomas stared at them for a moment before asking, "Who are you?" The blonde seemed annoyed by this as he said, "Seriously? I sat around you for over an hour making fun of you, and you can't even remember me?" Thomas continued to stare at him as he said, "Nope, not a clue." The man glared at him as he angrily said "I was originally just gonna pay these two to rough you up a bit… but now… I think I'll pay them to kill you." The blonde man pointed at him as he said, "Kill that demi-human and then let's make a run for it because I doubt you'd both want to kill a child." The two men quickly drawn their weapons as the bigger buffer one of the two excitedly said, "Leave this to me!" The smaller, skinnier man glanced at him as he said, "But what if I want to kill him?" The other man glanced at him with an annoyed stare as he said, "You got to kill the last one." Thomas watched as they bickered amongst themselves as he asked, "Can I leave?" The two men glanced at him and then back towards each other as they nodded at each other and then both shouted, "First to reach him gets to kill him!" The two men both ran at him with their daggers as the buff one shouted, "I'm going for his left!" The skinnier one then shouted, "Alright, I'll go for his right!"

Thomas continued to stare at them in confusion as he asked, "Is this the kind of fight Grace warned me about?" Thomas quickly evaded the first two swings that were aimed at his side from the buff man as he said, "Grace said I'm not allowed to kill other adventurers, but if I'm provoked and have enough reason, I'm allowed to defend myself." Thomas quickly drew his sword and blocked two dagger swings from the skinnier man as he asked, "Does this count?" After a few moments of Thomas dodging and deflecting their attacks, Lily came out of the dungeon holding a torch and asked, "What's taking you so long?" Upon seeing Thomas blocking and evading a few attacks, she shouted, "What are you doing, hurry up and beat them!" Thomas glanced at her while ducking under a dagger attack as he said, "But Grace said not to attack other adventurers." The blonde man glanced at Lily with an annoyed stare as he said, "Damn it, … now the kid knows… we'll have to kill her to." Lily stared at Thomas who didn't seem to be having too much trouble as she shouted, "Grace said you could kill them if they try to kill you, it's enough evidence to overlook what you do to them." Thomas stood there thinking for a moment as he leaned back avoiding one of the daggers and then saying "That makes sense." Just as Thomas raised his short sword above his head, Lily shouted, "Wait! You don't have to kill them, you can also fight with your fist or just injure them with the sword!" Thomas put his sword back in its sheath while leaning to avoid an attack as he said, "Alright, I'll finish this peacefully then." The buff man scoffed at him as he said, "You've just been lucky, you can't actually beat us." After saying this, the man went for a stronger blow, putting all of his weight in to it while aiming for his chest while shouting "Now do us all a favor and die." Thomas pushed the man's arm away, causing the man to fall to the ground and then immediately stomping on his head, causing a slight cracking sound.

After doing this, Thomas took his foot off of his head and said, "He probably won't wake up for a while." Thomas stared at the buff man as he nudged him with his foot and said, "Yup, … he's out." Lily climbed out of the dungeon still holding the torch as she excitedly shouted, "Alright, only one more!" The skinny man hesitated for a moment as he mumbled, "He knocked him out with just that?" The skinny man kept his distance as he said, "You think beating one of us is that impressive… if that's the case, I'm done holding back!" Thomas glanced at him as he said, "Oh, … so that's why it wasn't very difficult." The man seemed nervous as he smiled and said, "That's right." The skinny man stood there as he said, "This time you can make the first move." Thomas stared at him for a moment and then dashed at him while drawing his sword with a smile while saying "Alright then! I'll come at you with everything I've got as well." The man seemed even more nervous, but as Thomas reached him, the man fell unconscious and passed out on the spot. Thomas stood there in front of his unconscious body as he curiously asked, "Is this some sort of battle tactic that Toby hasn't taught me yet?" Lily walked over beside him as she said, "I don't think so." Lily stared at the man's pants as she said, "I think he wet himself out of fear." Thomas glanced at the blonde man who was holding a sword as he angrily shouted, "I knew hiring those newbie thugs was a bad idea… they were completely useless!" The blonde man raised quickly raised his sword above himself and slashed at Thomas as he shouted, "Just die, you worthless demi-human!" Thomas quickly pushed Lily aside and blocked the attack as he said, "Sorry." As Lily landed on her butt she saw Thomas face to face with the blonde man, they seemed to be at a stalemate, neither could push the other but neither wanted to give in to the other's strength, so they stood there weapon to weapon waiting for the other to budge. The blonde man smiled as he said, "It's a good thing I was taught some swordsmanship." The man swept Thomas's foot out from under him, dropping him to the ground as the man said, "Say goodnight you shitty demi-human!"

Thomas quickly rolled out of the way of the sword as the man tried impaling him through the ground. Upon standing up, Thomas took a battle ready pose and asked, "If you had this much strength, why didn't you just attack me yourself?" The man began to laugh as he said, "I'm an adventurer and so are you, although after this, I won't be able to be an adventurer no more, or at least not in this shitty city." The man smiled as he said, "Now then, prepare to die." The man seemed to vanish, but as Lily shouted behind you, Thomas turned to see the man with his sword by his side. The man smiled as he said, "A sword skill like this is priceless to an adventurer." As Thomas stood there, Lily pointed at him and shouted, "Your stomach!" Thomas glanced at her and then placed his hand on his stomach for a moment and then stared at his hand. Upon staring at his hand, he saw that it was covered in blood and that his stomach and chest had a long slanted cut on it. Thomas then glanced at the man as he smiled and said, "That's… a pretty cool trick." The man stood up straight and turned to Thomas with a smile as he said, "Thanks, but a compliment from you means nothing to me." As Thomas fell backwards, the man turned to Lily and said, "As long as I kill you and have my metal plate tampered with, I'll be able to continue being an adventurer here." The man grabbed his sword, still smiling as he said, "Now then, prepare to die." However, after saying this, the man coughed up some blood and then said, "What?" The blonde man then glanced down to see a short sword poking through his chest and as he glanced behind him, he saw Thomas smiling at him holding the short sword as he said, "That guy really was showing me a pretty helpful tactic." As Thomas twisted the sword and pulled it out, he laid on his back and said, "Now I know why Grace wanted me to carry some medical supplies." The man held the hole in his chest with both hands as he angrily shouted, "A-are you kidding me? I'm going to die… to a worthless demi-human?" After a few seconds of the man raising his sword above Thomas, he dropped it and soon fell dead right beside Thomas, to which Thomas cheekily said, "You're a lot quieter now."