The Reluctant Hero - Vol. 1 - Chapter 8

Axel smiled happily and threw his hands in the air in his excitement, “Yes! My first dungeon cleared!”

In his excitement, Axel did a little dance that he would have been supremely embarrassed by had anyone seen him. Once his excitement settled, he opened his Magic Box and pulled out the Staff of the Fire Adept.

Staff of the Fire Adept

Weapon Damage: 400

Int: +10

Fire spells deal +25% damage and cost -25% mana.

Axel studied the staff for a bit before putting it back inside of his Magic Box. He’d sell it when he got back to the city. It was a decent staff but he preferred his current one. The fire staff would have been amazing if he didn’t already have the one his mother had gifted him. The fire staff had a higher weapon damage than his staff could ever reach and the bonus damage and mana cost reductions were extra nice. Sadly, it wasn’t possible to dual wield two staves at once.

After returning the Staff of the Fire Adept to his Magic Box, Axel pulled out the giant's skull. It looked just like a human skull, only it was many times bigger and the bone was much denser and thicker as well.

Giant Skull

The skull of a giant. Useful in a variety of ways to those with the appropriate knowledge.

Axel shoved the skull back in his box. He had no idea how it could be used so he would just sell it. Right now funds were something he needed so he could purchase more spells and get started on his profession. Maybe for his next dungeon he should focus on farming material drops instead of experience. Being a super high level with crap equipment and skills wouldn’t be a good idea. It was something to think about later.

“Status.”

Name: Axel Voht

Level: 55 (13%)

Class: Mage (55/100)

HP: 850/850 (+9.1/sec)

MP: 9,999/— (3,370) (+60.1/sec)

SP: 750/750 (+7.9/sec)

Str: 65

Dex: 120

Con: 75

Int: 327

Wis: 190

Cha: 65

Lck: 65

Axel grinned like a loon when he spotted his current mana regeneration rate on top of his total Int rating. Between his staff and ring he was getting nearly one hundred extra Int. That was a huge amount for someone of such a low level. Amounts like that should only appear on high tier gear for someone near Ascension.

Axel shrugged his shoulders to dismiss his thoughts and looked around the room. It wasn’t guaranteed but, the boss room had the highest chance of containing a treasure chest. It took a couple of minutes but he finally found one hidden off to the side in a little nook. The chest was only a foot on each side making it smaller than the one he’d found his ring in. This just proved to him that size didn’t indicate the size of the item in the chest. Though he obviously didn’t expect something large to be hidden in the smaller chest.

Aged Dracoberry Wine

A wine brewed from impossibly rare and perfectly aged Dracoberries. Aged a thousand years before being bottled just before The Shattering. The scent of this magically enchanted wine alone is enough to make a fully grown dragon drunk for a week.

NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION!

Axel stared at the simple looking one liter bottle covered in a layer of dust sitting inside of the chest. It didn’t look like anything so impressive and the label was so faded with age that it couldn’t even be read. Axel gently lifted the bottle out of the chest and examined it more closely. As the liquid inside shifted around, it was revealed to be a thick and viscous deep red that sparkled when light filtered through it.

“What kind of reward is this supposed to be?!” He looked a little fearfully at the wax seal that completely covered the cork, glad it wasn’t even a little cracked. He quickly stored the bottle inside of his Magic Box, “I’m just going to forget that thing even exists. If just the scent will make an adult dragon drunk it would likely kill me and anyone near me if it opened.”

Axel shrugged it off though. He might not have any idea what to do with the wine but he really couldn’t complain about his time spent in the dungeon. He was grateful for the things he did receive. Not everyone would find two treasure chests in such a low level dungeon with such nice loot. The staff and wine might be useless to him but he could just sell them for money. Money he would always have a use for.

He took one last look around the boss room before uttering the magic word, “Exit.”

With a familiar flash of vibrant colors, he vanished from the dungeon and appeared back outside in the little copse he found the entrance within. Axel looked around and noticed that the sun was just starting to go down. Perhaps he should have stayed in the dungeon for the night. Weel, he would have if he knew the exact time. Seeing night and day while inside a place with only one light setting made it difficult to keep exact track of time.

“Hoot!”

Surprised by the sound, Axel spun around and looked behind him where the sound originated from. Shuffling out from behind a tree came a skeleton wearing hardly more than tatters and carrying a sword with a broken blade. Clearly a low level skeleton and not the origin of the sound. Still, with a wave of his hand and a muttered, “Telekinesis” the skeleton was crushed and one more Bone Powder was added to his Magic Box.

With that taken care of, he looked up a bit and spotted the source of the hoot. Sitting on a tree branch, staring directly at him with bright golden eyes, was a small brown owl. He gave the owl a small wave, “Thanks for the warning! Have a great night!”

Axel spun around and started making his way back toward the city. Even if it meant travelling at night, he needed to head back. He didn’t have the proper equipment to camp out in the wilds alone, an oversight he needed to fix before his next trip. There were a few such things he needed to fix. Things that were obvious in hindsight. Like a goddamn light source, preferably a spell. Well, he would find and buy the things he needed.

By the time Axel made it back to the city, the sun had been set for hours. Lucky for him, the city rarely closed the gates. The only time it was necessary was during a monster horde, otherwise they stayed open to allow people easy access to and from the outside.

As he was walking through the gate, the guards gave him a curious look. It was pretty uncommon for someone Axel’s age to be outside after dark, alone. Usually newbies would gather their own parties to help each other out. It was pretty dangerous for someone so weak to be out in the wilds alone. Still, it was none of their business so they just gave him a once over and then ignored him. Newbies dying to overconfidence was just the way the world worked.

Axel made his way directly to the inn he stayed at previously. There was no point in looking for a different one at this time of night. It wasn’t much effort to get a room, even with how late it was the inn had someone to check in new people, like him. With everything paid for and taken care of, Axel dropped into his bed with a smile. This was definitely much more comfortable than sleeping on the hard floor of a dungeon.

Morning came far too soon for Axel’s liking, but he had a few things that had to be done today. His current funds would only allow him to stay at his current inn for a further two days. After that he would be broke. Fortunately, he currently had one hundred and seventy-two Bone Powder sitting inside of his inventory. That translated to just over eight stacks, a single stack being twenty copies of an item. He had no idea why that was, it just had been since ancient times. Selling the Bone Powder in stacks would net him more than selling it individually. He just wasn’t sure how much more.

After a breakfast that was way better than left over stew, Axel made his way directly toward the guild. It was the best place to buy and sell common monster drops. Items like the Fire Adept Staff and the Wine were better off being sold in specialty shops. The staff in a mage shop and the wine in a high class liquor store. Though… Given the age of the wine he might decide to keep a hold of it until he heads to a higher level area where people have more money. Well, provided the wine was actually worth anything seeing as how it would just kill people.

Following the wonderfully convenient signs placed all over the guild, Axel easily found his way to the item exchange. Given the time of day, there wasn’t anyone else in the exchange. It was usually busiest in the afternoons and evening when people were returning from a hard days work outside of the city. Even so, the guild was filled with professionals so he was greeted promptly, “Welcome to the exchange, what can I do for you this morning?”

Axel smiled happily as he pulled a single Bone Powder out of his inventory. Every copy of Bone Powder he had came in its own little clay urn, “I’ve got a little over eight stacks of Bone Powder I’d like to sell.”

The receptionist behind the counter, a middle-aged woman with brown hair and a kind motherly smile, nodded, “No problem. Each full stack of Bone Powder will fetch your fifty silver. The remaining individual ones will fetch you two silver a piece. Is that fine with you?”

Axel nodded so she continued, “Then please place the items on the counter, one stack at a time.”

Without further ado, Axel placed nineteen more little urns of Bone Powder on the counter. Once the receptionist counted and double-checked them all, she set them to the side while making a note in her ledger, “The next stack, please.”

And so it continued. Axel placed each stack on the counter, the receptionist would check it and make her notes. Thanks to her efficiency at her job, it didn’t take very long for the receptionist to confirm all one hundred and seventy-two Bone Powder’s. With all of it confirmed, she began to count out the money for him, “I’ve confirmed all of your items. Eight stacks at fifty silver per stack is four hundred silver pieces, or four gold pieces. The remaining twelve Bone Powder’s are worth twenty-four silver, for a total of four hundred and twenty-four silver or four gold and twenty-four silver. How would you like that?”

Axel scratched his head as he thought about it. He’d never in his life had so much money. His parents were far from poor but they didn’t spoil him. The money they gave him before he left was the most they’d ever given him before. Seeing his confusion, the kindly woman smiled, “I can see this is your first time selling off so much. May I offer you some advice?”

Axel nodded eagerly, so she continued, “I suggest you take it as mostly silver with two silver converted to copper pieces. So, Four hundred twenty-two silver and two hundred copper pieces total.”

She gave him a playful wink, “Not many stores around here like to deal with gold if they’re not high-end ones.”

Axel nodded in agreement, “That sounds perfect.”

It didn’t take very long for the receptionist to count out the money thanks to a small magical device that dispensed the coins in desired amounts. Though, just from looking at it, it looked far too small to contain the hundreds of coins it was dispensing. Well, that was magic. It did the impossible.

In less than half and hour, Axel had ditched all his Bone Powder and collected just over four gold in profits. He still had the staf to sell but so far, it’s not a bad return for about two days worth of work. Normally such profits would be split by at least four people in a group. Keeping it all to himself was nice. The only drawback to everything he’d done so far was that he wasn’t getting any progress toward increasing his guild rank. Luckily, he planned to work on that while earning more funds for some equipment.

Axel had a bright smile as he left the exchange and made his way to the Wizard’s Emporium. It was time to buy some spells.