The dungeon used to have its entrance at ground level; one could see the mountain above, which stood alone and proud in the middle of a field, with the doors no taller than 7 feet high in front of them while feeling the grass under their feet; albeit a bigger mountain than normal, it wasn’t an unusual sight for a dungeon. Then one day, without previous warning and, to even now, no expnation, the dungeon’s mountain suddenly raised itself from the ground, not by a lot, maybe a foot or so, but with time, it happened more and more often, eventually doing 5 days in a row of rising. However, from then it began rising slower than before, until it stopped having reached the magnificent height which made Luca consider his perspectives in so many things. In order to reach the entrance now, the fortress was raised, using some sort of mechanism to keep it up with gravity magic. That same magic however, was used on the lifting ptforms, devices that were pushed by the same gravity magic from the ground and pulled by the same magic from their respective ‘rings’, which referred to the outer fortress floor-adjacent ptform they fit into, a convenient way for people to move from the ground to the elevated fortress. From the fortress then, another ptform used gravity magic in order to take the dwellers towards the dungeon’s doors.
The magic was simple: they take the ptform and, with a mechanism, use gravity magic to force it to go towards the doors at a certain speed, then a mechanism near the door pulls from it, forcing it to slow down and stop right at the entrance, when the ptform needs to go back, the mechanism does the same thing in reverse. The range of the magic is double the length it would need to make the distance, and the spells are so simple that a machine can be trusted with performing them; even more, it was so simple even Luca understood all of it! There was clearly no danger.
He repeated this in his mind while looking at the lifting ptform from a couple feet away, squeezing Alyska’s hand, it was easy! Nothing to be worried about, just get on the ptform and move somewhere higher than he had ever been before…
“Luca, people are starting to get on, the man in the white hat is counting, c’mon, as long as you are with me, there’s nothing to worry about, remember?” Alyska whispered, her tone trying to be calm, but a sense of urgency crept into her voice.
She was right, people had started arriving at the inner walls and slowly but surely figuring out they had to get onto the lifting ptform. On the ptform, leaning against the handrails was an old man, human, with a hint of a tan and a white jacket with gold stars on the sleeves; he had a long face and a white rancher hat, plus a little notebook, and every time someone got on, he seemed to write a line on the notebook, counting.
“Listen, the ptform’s big and secure; I heard that no one has fallen off of it since they built it like this.” She reassured him the best she could and he started to control his breathing.
“T-The handrails do seem solid…” He took a final deep breath and closed his eyes. “You think there’ll be a problem if I sit down?”
“U-Um… maybe? I mean, there’s like forty people here, but to be fair, the ptform seems big.” She stood on her toes to look at it from slightly higher. “It’s like… 30 feet from one side to the other, then again, it's still forty people so not that much space.” Luca took a deep breath.
“Okay… I’m ready.” He opened his eyes and slowly started walking to it, making his way through the people to get as close to the center as possible. When they arrived, he stood completely still, unsure on how to act. “Alyska the highest pce I’ve ever been in was the top of a tree, how can I do this?” Alyska sighed and smiled at him, squeezing his hand a tenth of what he was squeezing hers.
“I don’t know.” She giggled “How tall was the tree?” He gred at her and she left out a chuckle.
“... I can do this… I’ll be fine.” He gnced at the old man with the white attire, he was doing a headcount of everybody, Luca tried to control his breath, then looked up and started losing control of it again, Alyska sighed.
“Hey Luca?” Alyska sounded patient and Luca looked at her, with any hope of her providing some safety. “Sit down before you pass out or break my hand.” She spoke with a smile, which turned into a defeated sigh when Luca immediately sat on the ptform, wrapping his arm around his leg, in order to take as little space as possible.
“T-Thank you Alyska…” He started breathing slower, taking control of it faster. “Sorry for being a nuisance.” He took a deep breath and felt himself rex, for now.
“No nuisance at all Luca, we all have our fears.” She looked at the man in the white hat and put a hand on Luca’s shoulder, crouching next to him. “But if I ever see a spider in my room, you take care of it, no matter how big, deal?”
“Deal” he smiled at her, feeling his heart skip a beat at her proximity, but for some reason he kept his gaze on hers, which went for what seemed like an eternity until he noticed the scenery change behind her as the ptform started moving.
“Oh! See? It's smooth as butter.” She smiled and stood up, joining the group of people who looked over the railing at the huge city from above as they rose above it. She was right, there wasn’t any trembling or shaking, it was smooth.
The ride was shorter than he expected, he stood up, legs still trembling as everyone got off, he followed and somehow Alyska’s hand found his in the multitude, he grinned, looking at her, he felt like he already forgot about the fear he felt a second ago, before he could continue his thoughts, a voice broke out.
“I-I-It’s enormous!!” Multiple people gasped and looked over at the dungeon, gasping and stuttering at the sight of it, now much clear without any buildings or walls in the way. Both Luca and Alyska looked proud, after they noticed each other’s reaction both ughed, following the man with the white hat in a much smaller group of people, as he stood near a huge set of marble gates.
“Every time…” he sighed, then noticed the small group of people who weren’t marveling at the mountain. “Y’all saw it before huh?” They all nodded and agreed. “Good, we have some folks who look up at the very least. Ah fuck it, they’ll figure it out, let’s start going in.” The man gave a couple of hits to the doors, and after a second they started splitting, slowly but surely the gates opened revealing a shiny inside, the man nudged towards the doors, signifying them to enter with him.
From up close, the fortress was even bigger than it looked, inside however, one could see why, the ceiling was as high as 20 feet, even more perhaps, the walls were of a shiny mix of copper and gold colors, and so was the floor, the tiles of which, alternated between a darker tone of the color of the walls and a lighter one, reflected as if they were water. The hall they walked through had arches supporting it, and the walls were decorated with paintings of different scenes: battles, meetings, portraits of wealthy families, etc. Once in a while they would see a big set of doors (not as big as the entrance ones by a mile), and even less often they’d see normal walls, still tall but recognizable. At the end of the walk, they arrived at the front of an incredibly wide set of stairs, which diverged into another set of stairs, one to the right and the other to the left. Two simir hallways to the one they just went through stood to each side, the entire time he was there, Luca noticed the exotic and healthy potted pnts, and the small tables and chairs, something to fill the space, presumably, but what was by far the most noticeable was a huge painting, which very quickly became clear—the map of the dungeon. From afar, one couldn’t see exactly every detail, but it described paths and sections of the dungeon, at the bottom of it, the paint seemed to have run out, and the strokes were at half, probably intentional; it stopped at level 7.
“Ah, the rest are finally joining us.” The man decred before turning around towards the painting, Luca gnced over his shoulder and indeed saw the group of other new guild members coming up to them. “She should be here any minute now…”
While they apparently waited for a certain ‘she’ to appear, Luca inspected the people around him. The group was varied, from humans to half-foots to a couple dwarfs and even a guy with two big tusks, which he assumed was half orc at least. The group he entered with was the best representation of the variation he thought, the orcish fellow with a leaner physique that he would’ve thought one would have and taller than him, an older human man with a ragged beard and leather armor under a long jacket, who was also mind you taller than him, and finally a half-foot, who, because of their pink and white clothing with cute accessories and strawberry themed cap, Luca assumed was a child at first, but that couldn’t be, they wouldn’t allow children in Zenith… surely… He was really inexperienced with other races.
“Lot’s of… Zenith Symbols.” Alyska was looking at the tops of the arches, and indeed, there were banners with them hanging from every arch, the symbol of course, being a white Z in front of a blue rhombus, and the bottom line of the Z turned into an arrow that pointed downwards, representing the delving that made them so powerful.
“Probably so people don’t forget where they are.” Joked Luca.
“Yeah, easy to forget.” He snickered at her follow-up, he wanted to continue but sadly, the man in the white hat interrupted theirs and everyone’s conversations.
“Ah, finally okay, everyone! Listen here now.” As he spoke he turned to face them, standing on the st step of the stairs, he cleared his throat, grabbed the pels of his jacket, and spoke with his chest, projecting his voice among the halls, making an echo. “My name is Professor Liam Petyr; I teach monsterology at Zenith University, and this lovely dy,” he said, motioning behind him to a woman descending down the stairs. “Is director Delih Caushmar, board member of the city of Zenith and director of the university.”
He cpped, signifying everyone else to do the same, and the crowd followed, the director title confused Luca, same as Kreaspell, did he retire?
The ‘Lovely’ Director Caushmar, was an old human dy in her fifties at the very least; her peculiar hairstyle put her hair upwards in an almost heart shape that raised her height significantly. She had faded blue hair and few wrinkles on her face, she wore an intricate-patterned dress with a bottom of a gown and a chest that made her bust look prominent, the dress was a deep purple that made her look almost like royalty, but to be fair, she might have been. She walked down the stairs, inspecting the crowd, she stopped at the top of the first set of stairs (before it diverged) and spoke, her voice not as booming as the professor’s, but the silence brought by her presence made it seem even more prominent.
“Good evening to you, new members of Zenith’s guild.” She spoke with a regal tone, which served to mask the bitterness in her voice, kind of. “You all are the st group of the new members of the Zenith’s guild, along with the recent graduates that lived nearby and the ones who lived nearby but were accepted without studying in my university.” She began descending the steps slowly, still addressing them. “Tomorrow will officially begin your tour of all the instaltions and training, this will go on for the following week, at the end of it you will all go into your jobs as novices; if your job is regarding the dungeon, that week you’ll only delve once, the next twice, and the next, you should be ready to go anytime you wish, though accompanied by a professional group.” She stopped a couple steps above the floor, standing tall over all of them. “The following week will be full of events and your schedules shall be packed with preparations, the following ones I expect go the same despite the ck of events, does anyone have a question?”
The silence was deafening, Luca had questions, but he felt that if he asked them now, something bad would happen, he didn’t even know what, but something primal inside him told him to be wary.
“Good" The booming voice of the professor came back. "Now, to be efficient cause it’s getting kinda te, me and the director will take a group each and give you separate tours that shall end back here. Simple right?” Some of them nodded and agreed, he then turned to the director. “What division? Age seems pretty-”
“Gender, simple enough.” She decred, without looking at the professor, who shrugged and sighed.
“Alright, women to my right, men to my left… and uh…” he turned again, she spoke before he did.
“Just, put them with the men.” He nodded at her and turned.
“Y’all heard the director; c’mon now, dies right, anything else left.” He made a couple clicks, which Luca recognized was typically used for cattle.
Luca squeezed Alyska’s hand before parting from it, he looked at her as she walked over to the other group, both seemingly pretty equal. He patted his pocket with his now free hand and rubbed his other arm with it, he felt weird not having her hand in his… Luca’s first day was filled with a lot of emotions and self-discovery, like now, where he realized he was clingy as fuck, so he shook his head and brushed the feeling off best he could, focusing on Professor Petyr, who walked towards their group.
“Alright, y’all are with me; like I said, we go one way, they go the other, and we meet here after.” He started walking towards the hall to their right. “C’mon now, don’t waste more sunlight.” He whistled and cpped his hands so the group followed which they did, again, Luca felt like cattle.
They walked around a little bit, with the professor not saying much beyond ‘for staff’ every time they went by a door and every time they passed a bigger set of doors ‘for meetings’ or ‘ballroom’, finally he stopped in front of a big set of doors and put his hands on his hips.
“Alright boys, settle down and listen up, this here is one of four pnning rooms, the pces where you and your future party of fellow delving companions will be assigned missions, informed of stuff, and sent to the dungeon, it will also be the pce where you are rewarded with compensation.” He hit the doors a couple times and again they opened, no one behind to do so. Inside it, one could see a big U-shaped table with its respective chairs and a map on the far end of the room. On the walls were multiple decorations, the most prominent being a rge feline head with a mane dispyed on a wooden pque above the dungeon map. “Not much more to say ‘bout this one, so let’s keep going.”
The group resumed their tour, however, this time someone spoke before the professor did.
“Professor, you said that we would be compensated for each mission, what is the standard payment?” The professor chuckled.
“Weeeell kid, depending on the mission you do, payment increases or decreases, for example, a trip to the first level and back will be 5 gold coins an-”
“F-FIVE!?” Someone interrupted, “Just five coins for a delving?!” Luca understood the reaction, 5 gold was a lot to earn with one day's work but, this was Zenith and they were talking about the dungeon.
“... five gold coins, but wait, cause that’s only half the payment.” The professor rummaged in his pocket and pulled out a coin-like trinket. “This, is a Guild token” it was an octagon, not a circle, with round edges and a Zenith symbol carved into it and a hole of the same 8-sided shape in the middle. “You earn around 5 of these for every gold coin and they have the same value as one.” The guy who interrupted looked confused, as was Luca and others around.
“I-I’ve never heard of this token thing, but just as much as a gold coin?” This time another voice asked.
“Yeep, so for every 5 coins after a delving into level one, you get 25 of these suckers.” The professor tossed it in the air, opened his pocket and the token fell in. “Someone know the catch to these things?”
“They can only be used in Zenith.” This was stated by the older man in leather armor, with a stoic tone, the man in the white garbs chuckled.
“Attaboy, respect the ones older than you guys; they’ve got the experience.” After he stated this, they reached an intersection, to the left another hall, and to the front was a big set of wooden doors, open and letting into view the start of a spiral staircase. “Now, moving on, from here to the left is another hall like the others, but the only door you care about right now is the one in the middle that leads to the deeper inside of the fortress, which are the training grounds.”
A mutter of excitement occurred; the group was excited to finally see where they’d get weapons and armor and such, even the older man grinned seemingly excited, to be fair, so was Luca; the time a hero picks their weapon was one of his favorite parts of the legends.
“Yeah yeah, I know, but to train, you gotta have good physical capabilities, and so a good way to get on those is climbing stairs.” He turned and got into the pce with the spiral stairs. “So come on, first the library, and next the training, c’mon now.” He started taking a few steps on the staircase before looking back and seeing that everyone was still eyeing the hall with the training room. “HEY! I said now dammit, move your asses here!”
They all followed hurriedly, some tripping like Luca, who got his footing and started following the group, he would be the st on the staircase, but he was too focused on getting a st view of the rectangur barn-like walls on the hall to the left which lead to the training grounds, he however also followed.
“Good, now,” the professor started climbing up the stairs again, which looking up, Luca saw were inside one of the towers that could be seen from outside, he knew this because it was the only way to justify the sheer height of it, however he also saw some movement and a couple heads poking out only to suddenly pull back in. “The Zenith city’s library is nothing to sleep on gentlemen… a-and others if there are, we hold multiple of the biggest collect-”
“NOW!” A yell caused everyone to freeze, the professor already on the stairs, and everyone else near to the first step, suddenly looking up, to see the source of the noise. A big barrel was dropping its contents onto the group, which all took too long to notice and were hit with a bunch of dust or sand, whatever it was, it was bright pink and tinkled, as the big chunk of it fell, some of it was still floating downwards, all the while giggles and ughs could be heard from the perpetrators.
“M-Mother in the…! Every time! No matter the security, huh you sons of b-” The professor, who was saved from the prank by the staircase above, took off his hat and smelled the air, suddenly dawning a face of panic. “Oh no…” He suddenly put his hat over his face and leaned on the railing, “It’s Succubus dust!! Don’t breathe it in you morons!!”
