Kaito's First Dungeon

After obtaining his adventure card from Elise and complementary starting funds from the guild for beginning adventurers, Kaito and Rina head out to a local blacksmith shop Rina was familiar with.

Upon entering the shop, Kaito was greeted by an extremely tall guy, who was much taller than the door to his shop.

“Gah, he’s huge!” Kaito unexpectedly spouted out.

“Ha ha, I get that a lot,” the tall man said. “Is this your first time seeing someone of the giant race, son?”

Before small talk between the two could start, Rina introduced him. His name was Edwin, and Rina visits his small shop often for equipment. Most others would go to a dwarven blacksmith, but Rina liked his wares more for their low price and durability.

“We’re looking for some starting gear for Kaito here,” Rina explained to Edwin. “Something on the lightweight side would benefit his class.”

“Sounds good,” Edwin responds as he starts to pick out a few pieces of equipment for them to look at. “And your continued services are much appreciated, little lady.”

“I simply provide services to the merchant with the best quality products,” Rina stoically says as she realizes that Kaito is only focusing on the weapons Edwin picked out for them. In response, she started to pick out proper armor in his stead.

“This one, I’ll take this dagger,” Kaito announces as he decides on the dagger he wanted.

“We’ll take this equipment as well,” Rina adds.

Kaito, in his excitement about the weapons, didn’t even realize the armor and clothing Rina picked for him, but as he trusted her opinion, he bought everything without a second thought. After their purchase, Kaito took the time to equip all the gear, but it became apparent that he had nowhere to put his old clothes.

“Where am I supposed to keep these old clothes now?” Kaito complained. “Maybe I should just throw them out.”

Edwin, stopping Kaito from throwing the clothes away, proclaims, “Those clothes look like they can fetch a decent price. Are you sure you want to do that?”

“The price isn’t really what I’m worried about. Don’t want to carry this around all day,” Kaito complained once more.

“It looks like it’s time to learn your first skill,” Rina interrupts. Rina then walked in front of Kaito and drew a circle with her finger in mid-air. Doing so opened up a small portal.

“This skill is called Inventory,” Rina explained. “Pretty much every adventurer knows this skill as it is an essential one to have.” Inventory is capable of creating a small space that can store small items within it, such as weapons or materials.

“Give it a try,” Rina instructs Kaito.

Kaito proceeded to draw a circle in the air like Rina just did. To his surprise, it worked!

“My first skill,” Kaito said in awe as he threw his old clothes into the portal.

“We’ll be using this skill in the dungeon ruins as well to gather up the material the monsters drop,” explained Rina. “So let’s get going.”

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Rina and Kaito arrived at the dungeon ruins, which were just on the outskirts of Giora Town. After Kaito and Rina explained their game plan, they headed in. Since it was an easy dungeon, Kaito would be at the front to get combat experience. If he started to struggle against an enemy in any way, Rina would step in to help.

As the two traversed the ruins, it became quite apparent why this dungeon was regarded as easy. There were hardly any enemies in the dungeon. Eventually, the two did encounter their first enemy. It was a large rat-looking monster that didn’t seem to notice the two despite them being right in front of it.

“That monster is blind,” Rina said, providing insight. “Draw its attention with noise and strike after you dodge its attack.”

Kaito, taking his blade out, tipped the edge of the metal on the dungeon floor. The monster, alarmed, ran towards Kaito and jumped towards him. Following Rina’s instructions, Kaito evaded the monster’s attack and slashed its side, instantly killing it. Visually, it was quite an underwhelming fight, but Kaito was completely invigorated at his first monster kill. In his excitement, he looked sillily towards Rina, hoping for a compliment.

“Good job,” Rina said reluctantly. “Once you kill a few more, we can head deeper in.”

The two continued to venture through the dungeon, Kaito defeating the monsters along the way, and picking up the materials they dropped. Kaito, feeling comfortable with his accomplishments, convinced Rina to let them head deeper into the dungeon.

On the lower floors, Kaito was eager to have a go at the stronger monsters. At this point, Kaito was speed walking, causing Rina to have to slightly adjust her speed to keep up with him. Approaching a corner faster than he should, Kaito was greeted by a colony of bat-like monsters.

“GAAHHH!” Kaito panicked.

Rina, stepping in swiftly with a flurry of slashes, was able to dispose of the monster colony. Sheathing her sword, she slowly turned towards Kaito, who was now on the floor. Kaito could see the look of dissatisfaction on her face.

“They’ll only get more aggressive as we go deeper,” Rina had to clarify. “Keep your guard up at all times.”

“Right,” Kaito said in embarrassment.

Kaito, picking himself up off the floor, noticed Rina now looking at some text that was on the dungeon’s wall. Upon analyzing the text for himself, he was able to recognize what the text was saying.

“For those who can read this, I provide you a test. Complete this dungeon, and you will get the rest,” Kaito read out loud.

“What was that?” Rina questioned.

“Oh, I was just reading the text on the wall,” Kaito answered.

“Wait, you can read what this says!?” Rina said in the most excited tone she has spoken since Kaito met her. “How!?”

“Y-yeah, I kinda just can,” Kaito spurted out in shock.

Kaito was able to read the text as it was actually Japanese. He wanted to explain that to Rina, but he did not know how he could tell her in a way she could comprehend. Plus, Kaito wasn’t sure if he was allowed to tell people about his reincarnation lest he get punished by Goddess Rachael.

“So it wants us to do something at the end of the dungeon,” Rina quietly mutters as she thinks to herself.

Kaito, at this point, has been awkwardly keeping to himself, as Rina seemed to be very intrigued by the text on the wall. Breaking Rina’s one-sided conversation, Kaito offers to help translate any more text she knows of in the ruins.

Rina was thinking about what Kaito suggested for a bit until she finally responded. “No, for now we’ll head back up and come back better prepared another time.”

Kaito, taking this as a sign that she wanted to continue partying together, was happy with Rina’s decision. So with Kaito in agreement, the two left the dungeon and returned to town.

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The next day, Kaito found himself at the guild early in the morning as he was antsy about getting to continue adventuring with Rina. As he was waiting at the guild hall, Kaito noticed some adventurers laughingly approaching him.

“So, are you waiting for the girl you adventured with yesterday?” one of the adventurers asked.

“Yeah, I’m waiting for Rina. Why do you ask?” Kaito specifically responds with Rina’s name to try and imply they are close.

After Kaito’s response, the group of adventurers started laughing out loud. Kaito, confused at why they were laughing, tried to get an explanation out of them.

“What’s so funny?” questioned Kaito.

One of the adventurers who was able to calm down from the group’s laugh fest started to inform Kaito. Amongst the adventurers in Giora, Rina was well known as the ‘Lonely Queen’. She was a high-level swordfighter who was known to leave adventurers she partied with after helping them train in the dungeon ruins for a day. She never joined others’ parties, always adventuring solo. Many beginning adventurers, like Kaito, would fall victim to her aid and end up waiting at the guild only to be greeted by a no-show. Even if she did appear, they would then get disappointed by her standoffishness.

As Kaito was left feeling embarrassed by being swindled by Rina, she entered the guild hall. Kaito, noticing her, got up from where he was sitting in order to give her a piece of his mind. The group of adventurers watched Kaito approach Rina in the hopes of receiving drama, but they did not get their wish.

Before Kaito could release his frustration, Rina said, “So, are you ready to leave Kaito?”

Both the group of adventurers and Kaito looked confused as Kaito replied to get a better understanding of what Rina was implying.

“Wait, so you’re not planning on disbanding our party?”

“No, why would I?” Rina confusingly answers. “Come on, I’m going to teach you some more skills before we head back to the dungeon,” Rina concluded as she started walking out of the guild hall.

The group of adventurers, now standing in awe, watched Kaito follow Rina out of the guild hall as Kaito turned back to them with a smug look on his face.