Chapter 5 - Instructor Gerald

"What do you mean? You're a real Blessed too; aren't you going to take the test yourself?"

"Of course, I want to, but taking a test is expensive. If I fail, my coins will go to waste. That's why I plan to train myself first, and when I'm ready, then I'm going to take the test."

Loki nodded. "Ah, yes, it's a test, so failing is also possible."

Is that why Father sent me here to train?

"Anyway, why are you looking for instructor Gerald if you aren't going to take a test?" Leo fixed his sitting posture, curious about Loki's reason.

"Like what you said, if I want to pass the exam, I need to train; thus, I must meet Instructor Gerald so he can train me."

Leo's eyes widened. "Wait, you have coins to hire Instructor Gerald? How rich are you?"

"What do you mean? Is Instructor Gerald that amazing?"

"You don't even know about that? Instructor Gerald is a 3-star Crawler. With his capability, he can finish a 1-star Dungeon on his own. Isn't that amazing?"

Leo's explanation sounded great, but Loki didn't have prior knowledge about the 1-star Dungeon or 3-star Crawler. All he knew was that being a Crawler was awesome and that Dungeons were dangerous.

"How much do you think I will need to pay if I hire Instructor Gerald as a trainer?"

Leo lingered for a while, contemplating the answer. "I don't really know the exact amount. I guess the minimum pay is 10 gold coins."

Loki almost fell from the chair when he heard 10 gold coins. Perhaps he didn't have basic knowledge about Dungeons or Crawlers, but it was a different matter when it came to coins. He already had a hard time comprehending that he had received 5 silver coins from Father Laryatt. In any case, imagining himself possessing a gold coin was something impossible for him, not to mention 10 gold coins.

Witnessing this, Leo grinned and asked Loki. "Are you okay? Can you understand now how ridiculous your words are?"

Loki's strength was drained. He had no more desire to continue the conversation. "I'm tired; can I sleep here for a day? I pay."

"No need to pay. Just consider it my treat. Of course, I will like it better if you decide to stay."

After that, Leo informed his grandma that Loki would stay for the night. The grandma agreed without hesitation; thus, Leo brought Loki to the nearest room from the living room.

The room was small and only had a few pieces of furniture: a bed, table, and chair. However, this wasn't important to Loki; what was more important to him was the cleanliness of the room. It was spotless.

"It's good, right?" Leo said in confidence. "Me and my Lola clean our rooms every day, so you will not see any dust here. Anyway, I leave you now. Go rest and meet me tomorrow."

Loki agreed, as the room was far better than his previous room.

Upon Leo's departure, Loki swiftly jumped onto the bed and lay there for a few seconds. When he was satisfied, he sat up and opened his bag. Inside were the remaining 4 silver and 65 copper coins, the emblem, and the knife that the dead robber used.

He managed to snatch one from the merchant, for the reason that he was the one who stopped the robber who killed the swordsman. In truth, he didn't expect the fat man to give in, but thanks to his shocked state, Loki somewhat succeeded.

He played the knife for a while, pretending to be one of the robbers, slashing the wind and dashing back and forth, copying what he witnessed during the fight. After a while, he sat on the bed, panting. As he didn't want to move his body any further, he decided to open his Blessing.

Nothing much changed when he saw his Blessing, but that was fine. What he truly liked to see was the soul that he had harvested.

Opening his skill [Soul Harvest].

[Soul Harvest:

Soul: 1

Additional Effect: Soul Inventory.]

He had one soul. At first, he didn't know what to do, but after seeing the additional effect of his skill, he understood.

With a thought, his skill's additional effect was activated.

Before him was a new box, filled with more boxes. Only one of the boxes had content—an image of a green soul. Below the image of the soul was a name, Mel.

"Oh, so Soul Inventory is where the soul I harvest goes."

Without any other choice, Loki chose the single item in his inventory. When he did, a new notification appeared.

[Soul: Mel

LVL: 5 EXP: 0/1,350

Class: Rogue

Title:

None

Stats

Available Stats: 0

Strength: 15

Agility: 30

Dexterity: 16

Intelligent: 11

Endurance: 7

Skill:

Backstab

Evading Blink

Dagger Mastery (Passive)]

Those stats are huge compared to mine! No wonder they could move so fast! If Mel's stats are this high, I wonder how high the swordsman or Lorenz are.

[Do you want to send this soul to the Underworld, Yes/No?]

[Do you want to Assimilate this Soul, Yes/No?

Effects: Gain the ability to use the skill of the soul and 20% of the stats.]

"Woah, this is amazing! So, if I assimilate this soul, I will gain the skills and stats?"

Loki completely ignored the other notification. His interest was in the things that would make him an effective Crawler. Excited, he assimilated the soul, not worrying about the fact that he had no idea what was going to happen.

Upon accepting. His whole body glowed in green light, illuminating the small room he was in. Luckily, the room didn't have a window, so his assimilation wouldn't attract anyone.

A few seconds later, the light disappeared, bringing back the darkness and the deafening silence of the night.

When he checked his Blessing once again, a lot of things were added.

[Name: Loki

LVL: 1 EXP: 0/100

Class: Soul Harvester (Rogue)

Title:

Guide of the Soul

Stats:

Strength: 10 (3)

Agility: 7 (6)

Dexterity: 7 (3)

Intelligent: 8 (2)

Endurance: 5 (1)

Death Affinity: 1

Skill:

Soul Assimilate

Soul Domain

Soul Harvest (Passive)

{Backstab

Evading Blink

Dagger Mastery (Passive)}]

"Wow! My stats suddenly became amazing!" Loki stood in surprise. "And I have new skills too! This is great! But why don't I have the available stats? Not a big deal; what's important is how much my stats increased."

With new energy, Loki began playing with the knife again, doing the same thing as before. He had noticed a lot of changes. He became fast—too fast. Even though he had no prior training with a dagger, he instinctively knew how to wield it.

"Is this because of the [Dagger Mastery]? I can't wait to fight monsters!"

Amidst his excitement, a knock echoed into his room.

"Loki, are you okay? Why are you screaming?" Leo's voice came from the other side of the door.

Realizing that he was being too loud. Loki instantly calmed himself and sauntered to the door.

"I'm fine; I just forgot something back in my town."

"I see. Please lower your voice a little. Our neighbors don't really like us."

"I understand. Sorry about that."

"No worries."

When the conversation was done, Loki went back to his bed, lay there, and stared at the ceiling. His mouth sometimes widened, but Loki would immediately stop his smile, fearful of making noise. This repeated for a while until he finally fell asleep.

The next day, in front of the DCG.

"Here it is," Leo said while his hands were on his hips.

Loki's eyes and mouth were wide open. He couldn't believe there was such a building in the world.

In front of him was a two-story building. Its main material was bricks, but occasionally wood and glass could be seen decorating the majestic structure. The size of the door was massive, almost reaching half the size of the building. The door was made of wood, with intricate carving making it look imposing. On top of the giant door was another big wooden sign, announcing to everyone whose building it belonged to. With the background of two swords crossing at each other, words were displayed: Dungeon Crawler Guild.

Bustling people come and go into the guild. Some were dressed as commoners, while others wore armor and weapons.

Loki had never seen so many people before, yet he could differentiate between the Crawlers and those who were not.

"Hey, don't linger too much; Crawler hates it when someone blocks their way," Leo warned.

"Shall we go in?" Loki asked.

"Don't mind me; I'm just going to wait for you here."

Hearing this, Loki removed his curious eyes from the building and turned them to Leo. Confused, he was about to ask Leo for his reason, but when he noticed the way he acted, holding his tattered clothes while glancing at the people who walked in and out of the guild, he understood.

Do people here really value how others present themselves?

Looking at his decent attire, he couldn't help but think about how the fat man scammed him. But considering all things, buying clothes perhaps wasn't such a bad idea.

"Are you not allowed to enter the guild because of your clothes?" Loki asked in concern. If that was a problem, he didn't mind buying Leo proper clothes so he could join him inside.

"That's one of the reasons. Most of the guests inside dislike someone who doesn't belong to the place, but that isn't the main reason why I'm reluctant to enter," Leo explained, his voice trembling in worry.

"Can you tell me why you don't want to enter?"

Leo squirmed, hesitating if he should answer or not. But soon, his face changed, and he seemed to have made up his mind. "Okay… I didn't want to enter because… Because…"

"What?" Loki impatiently said.

"Because a woman Crawler is very strong, I can't escape from them! If they catch me, they are going to do something bad to me!" Leo screamed in embarrassment.

Attracted by Leo's sudden outburst, people started to throw glances at them.

Noticing this, Loki immediately took Leo away from the guild. He didn't want to paint himself as a weirdo; that wouldn't benefit his career as a Crawler.

When they were far enough from the scrutiny of others, they stopped.

Not letting Leo utter another word, Loki spoke. "Okay, fine. Wait for me here. I'm going to be quick."

Leo nodded, his face turning red. It appeared he realized his embarrassing action.

Upon receiving Leo's approval, Loki went back and directly sauntered into the guild.

As expected, everything inside amazed Loki. On one side, there was a line of receptionists entertaining the Crawlers and guests, while on the other side were benches and tables, a gathering hub for Crawlers. This was exactly how he imagined a guild would look—full of life and activities.

"Hey, kid! Move!"

The loud voice attracted Loki's attention. He turned around, searching for the owner of the voice. Before him was a giant, blanketing him with his shadow. It was a dark-skinned man; his muscles looked like they were made of steel that could endure all kinds of blows. But what intimidated Loki the most was the massive hammer on the giant's back. The hammer alone was bigger than him.

"I said move," the giant said while glaring at him.

Loki sidestepped, giving the giant enough space to get through. Thankfully, after he stepped to the side, the muscled man ignored him and continued his way to the board, where all kinds of papers were plastered.

Loki sighed in relief. That was scary.

Not wanting to repeat the incident, he hurried to one of the receptionists.

"Hi, how can I help you?" The beautiful receptionist with long red hair asked.

"I'm here for Instructor Gerald; where do you think I can meet him?" Loki ignorantly asked.

The red-headed girl lingered, staring at him with unamused eyes. "Dear guest, if you're not here to post a request or take a Crawler test, please step aside; we're a bit busy right now."

At first, Loki didn't understand the sudden change in the receptionist's behavior. However, after thinking deeply, he realized he was asking for someone high up to meet a nobody like him. Of course, the receptionist will act that way, but I don't have any clue how to meet him.

"Please, I know who Instructor Gerald is," Loki begged.

"Dear guest, everyone here knows Instructor Gerald. So please, step aside," the red-haired woman said.

Even though she stated it politely, Loki could clearly discern the annoyance in her voice.

"Hey everyone, some kid says he wants to meet Instructor Gerald!" A skinny man who had heard Loki's conversation with the receptionist shouted.

Due to this, everyone gazes at Loki and simultaneously laughs at him.

"Hey kid, how about the guild master? Do you want to meet him too?" Another voice echoed across the guild.

The laughter intensified, mocking Loki for his ignorance.

Witnessing this, Loki's body shrank in embarrassment. He had never expected to become a target of mockery when he arrived in Vestia. He was about to run, but a strong voice silenced the noise.

"What is this commotion?"

Every man and woman turned their heads to the one responsible; even Loki, who had hidden his head, looked. A man walking calmly down the stairs glared at everyone's faces.

The man had long silver hair, a lean body, and a beautiful face. He wore black tight-skin clothes that highlighted every muscle in his body as if it were a piece of art.

Loki couldn't believe there was someone so beautiful. He had completely forgotten his previous embarrassment; his attention was solely focused on the man scanning the crowds.

"S-sir Gerald!" The people exclaimed.

Loki woke up from his stupor when he heard the murmuring. That's Instructor Gerald? He is far from my imagination.

When Gerald got onto the first floor, he stopped. "Why are you all making a ruckus?"

"Instructor Gerald, I didn't know you came back from your travel." A man wearing the same red outfit as the receptionist hurriedly said. "It's because some kid is here announcing he wants to meet you."

"Where is this kid?" Gerald asked.

Everyone turned their attention to Loki once again.

When Gerald followed the gazes, his sight landed on Loki. After that, he walked closer. When he reached Loki's side, he looked down upon him. "Why are you searching for me, midget?"

Loki had a hard time composing himself due to all the attention he garnered. Regardless, he resolved himself, as he didn't want to waste the opportunity. "I-I'm here because Father Laryatt told me to come here and meet you!"

Gerald's eyebrows rose. "Oh, that old geezer sent you? On what purpose?"

Hearing Gerald criticize Father Laryatt dampened his excitement. All his awe for Gerald vanished as fast as he had gained it. "He sent me here, so you can train me."

"Why would I do that?" Gerald asked while frowning.

"I don't know; Father said if I show you the emblem, you will train me for free." Loki took the bag from his back and was about to take the emblem.

"Wait," Gerald said in a hurry. "This is not the right place to talk; follow me."

The crowd murmuring quieted like a disease spreading to every person in the guild.

Loki followed when he saw Gerald walking back upstairs. No one stopped him; in fact, the crowd stepped aside to let him through. He wanted to laugh at their faces, but he held himself back. If he did that, he was sure he would make a lot of enemies, and that wouldn't be good for his career.

Inside a small room on the second floor of the guild.

Gerald and Loki sat in front of each other, divided only by the table before them.

With an intense focus, Gerald scanned the circular stone in his hand with complicated carvings shaped like an eye. "have you shown this emblem to anyone?"

"No, only you and Father Laryatt know I have that," Loki responded.

"That's good. Ok, I will train you. But for now, leave first I need to prepare something. We will begin your training tomorrow."

Loki's heart jumped when he heard Gerald agree. He didn't know what the emblem was, but he etched it into his mind as it seemed important.

Loki stood up and bowed to Gerald. "I will leave now."

Gerald didn't even look at him, he only moved his hand shooing Loki away.

However, when Loki was about to open the door, he remembered something. "Can I take someone with me in our training? He is my friend and a newly Blessed too."

Loki thought of all sorts of excuses to convince Gerald to accept his request. But then, Gerald's answer left him speechless.

"Do whatever you want."

Loki stayed still for a moment.

Noticing that Loki was still there, Gerald finally looked at him. "Is there more?"

Gerald's question woke Loki. He shook his head, opened the door, and left.

When Loki left the room, Gerald's casual demeanor turned serious. "So, it begins."