—————— Michael ——————
Michael sat for a drink at the tavern, he just turned 18 yesterday and in this world, 14 could consider you an adult if you were strong enough, he'd picked that up as a tip from his system when he had accidentally walked into a brothel and was leered after by some of the… lovely women and men that worked their fine establishment. He didn't blame them though, aside from the pinkish brown stains he had failed to wash out his attire was fashion they had likely never seen before, he was wearing his same shirt, jeans and a leather jacket, which he guessed looked like fancy but ultimately impractical leather armor to them. An out of town noble, and was that really so far from the truth? He did turn 18 and so he'd have legally owned all the money and properties his mad father left him… but now he'd never get to use it.
"Never say never Michael." The sweet angelic voice popped into his head, this time without the robotic monotone.
"There you are again. What's going on exactly, I've been taking this life by the horns and I've been able to ride it out so far but I think it's time I find out what I'm doing."
"I am the system that governs reality. Borrowing a method from a bothersome god, I've linked us. I am now your system, I may not provide you knowledge of things you don't know unless they are well known facts in the area otherwise it would break the oath I am under. So my knowledge at the given moment is limited to spiders, trees, guild, city laws and local culture. I can tell you this town is called Whitehaven. It's is run by the-"
"Don't plan to stay here actually." He motioned for her to hurry, which looked odd considering she wasn't in her physical form, but instead of hurrying she paused for a long moment and waited.
When Michael was fed up and was finally about to say something, she began to speak again. "There is an academy North of your location, based on the gathered data, it is well known even outside of this town, likely outside of this county. It teaches the sort of magic and adventuring you've chosen to take up."
Michael looked up at the sky in confusion, "can a system be sassy?"
"Can a kid with an overinflated ego be a needy and whiny little boy at times."
He froze up, "Touché Angel. I wasn't expecting such personality from you."
"That's because I can connect to you better than I can most if not all mortals not connected to the ******* system."
"The what?" He was curious more now than he had ever been in his life."
He could feel a smile in his thoughts, as if she were smirking, "That is restricted."
Michael's shoulders sank as his excitement died… then he nodded, "then how long to get there."
"On foot one to two days over the mountain, three to four around the mountain."
"For a horse going constantly at 40 miles per hour?"
The system nearly…laughed? It's voice went rigid once more, "- Perk Attained - Math Problem Solver Perk : Rank 1: The owner of this perk will be capable of performing mental calculations as if they were well… a calculator, or rather a computer, each rank of the perk adds 4 qubits of processing power to all calculations." The systems voice returned to its more fluid form, "using this I can determine that a horse moving that fast would arrive in 2.5 hours around, 1.5 over."
"So if I enhance myself and run it, if I take some breaks…"
"You could arrive later today no matter the path you choose ."
"Then I'll take the scenic route."
"Then I should warn you around the base of the mountain and along the path around it there have been more sightings of slavers and bandits."
"The guild warned me bandits were about but… this world uses slavery openly?"
————— Sui —————
"I suppose I should explain." Saphra began. "You were summoned to this world by an envoy of the dark god. He works in mysterious ways and thinks far ahead, a big picture kind of god. He must have picked you because you would be useful to him in some way down the line."
The red-eyed boy they'd come to know as Nui, played with his stitches as she talked, "I suppose I need, new ones, these are starting to fray." Nui pouted.
Torui looked pointedly at Nui before sighing and returning his attention to Saphra, "and what does that mean."
She rolls her eyes "I'm not exactly sure where you came from but... you made a pact with the dark lord, whether unknowingly or not, you have done it. You all have power now, you will help us conquer the world, win for the dark, if you want, otherwise you can just live out your lives... either way you must grow stronger. I'm not sure if you can find a way back to your world but I need you. Our master is dead and we need a new safe haven." She paused and looked to Sui to make sure he was following. For his part he made sure to be more attentive than the rest even if most of this was redundant information, things he already knew but unlike Saphra, he didn't always have the right words, he felt awkward trying to teach basic or complex things to people."There is an academy, the rulers that govern the academy are the ones that cause the deal to be made, for you to come here an for us to need your help. They were slavers that partnered with the inquisition and have begun enslaving and killing dungeon lords. We need to get back at them."
Torui wasn't convinced, "You sure there's no known way back to my home world??"
Nui's face lit up. "Ouuu, academy, that means I can meet kids like meeee."
"None that I know of. I guess you can meet kids with magic but certainly nun like you."
Torui punched the floor in palpable frustration, "That bitch! What's so special about us anyway."
Nui chimed in, "She just said we work for the dark lord...so I'm guessing he's like satan." He shrugged and began skipping around her in what appeared to be boredom.
Saphra took a step back, "Satan? No? And you're special because you all have this sort of violence and Leadership in your blood somewhere, or maybe your soul. He just wishes to test that."
Nui grinned, "Violence...ok I finally understand why I'm here."
Saphra joined his mad grin, "Yes you get it!!!"
"Can I touch your hair ?" He asked.
"Finally- what? My... hair? I uhh… no."
Torui's expression softened. "Violence? Leadership? I guess so..."
Sui finally interjected, "Could I touch your hair?"
She let out an exasperated sigh, "I'm surrounded by lecherous monsters." "At least one of you acts remotely rationally. So otherworldly dungeon lord... what do you know of dungeon lords?"
Torui threw his arms up, "I know nothing of any of this. I still think I'm dreaming to be honest, but I'll play along with what you want for now sconce this is all a little too cohesive and realistic to be a dream."
She nodded, "Well dungeon lord powers that all dungeon lords have are... minion creation, lay line manipulation, and dungeon creation. All managed by the Dungeon Lord system created by our god."
"Wait, so I can do that?" Torui looked at his hands in awe.
"Yes just activate the core and you'll have an innate understanding of how to do any of those."
"The core…"
"Focus on your heart and it's beating, really focus everything on that heart."
He closed his eyes and a few moments later they burst into blue flames.
She stared at him like a bedwetter staring at a ghost, then her fear and wonder turn to disgust, "I can kinda see your skull through your skin now."
Sui and Nui nodded with Sui audibly sharing his disgust, "Eww."
Saphra shrugged, "Try creating a minion?"
He closed his eyes once again and a short, thin, goblin like creature in traditional samurai armor appeared.
Nui was the first to react, "Can I stab it?"
Torui looked at it with awe, "Intriguing- wait no you can't stab it."
"I wouldn't recommend it." Sui added, "it does work for us after all."
"Lame....I wanted to play." Nui skulked off to rest on a tree nearby.
"It's just a simple minion, it's not actually alive it's like an extension of the lord... but if you keep it alive long enough it will become its own creature. Right now it's really weak but you can make more or just train him by letting it kill."
Torui struggled to hold back his grin, "This is pretty cool." Sui smiled seeing some of the man's anxiety and fears falling off his shoulders. "Now don't we have a dungeon to make?"
Sui crossed his arms, "But for that we'll need to plant a dungeon core so we should look for a semi-remote location so we can build our strength in the shadows."
Shapra's expression darkened, "Eventually but I'm not sure where? We need to be strong enough to take on the Academy and we need to be fast."
Sui nodded to himself contemplatively, "The academy is a place where paladins who are our natural enemies are groomed and trained… why don't we infiltrate it and grow our power along side them. We learn their weaknesses and get stronger but I think we should set the dungeon up first."
Torui rubbed his chin before replying, "Sounds interesting and a good plan… but how do infiltrate said academy?"
Saphra smirked, "Fake the classifications. I used to be a noble so I have some pull. We fake the classifications and join. There we spy, get stronger, learn their weak points... then the make a plan to destroy them. We need to get stronger and get money."
Torui gave her a confused glare, "Classifications? I'm confused. Are you making things up or just being very inconsiderate to the fact we're nee here."
Sui patted Torui's shoulder, "Classifications are what nobles and commoners get to boost their power, they get given a certain role or two and can gain powerful abilities and mana types from it."
Torui nodded in understanding, "I see. So we fake the classifications that suit our abilities most and enter the academy with them?"
Sui nodded, "Exactly, you're a really smart guy, I like that"
Torui nodded, "Then it's settled."
Nui shrugged, "Sounds super complicated....but I mean I guessss." Everyone gathered themselves and began their trek to the academy.
—————Torui —————
During the travel Torui pulled Nui aside, "Hey- Nui was it? Your from another world too right?"
"Uhhh I think so I was kinda confused at first but it's fun in here." Nui jumped up on a rock.
Torui shrugged, "Yeah I suppose it is... may I ask what your original world was called?"
"Earth"
"I'm bored can you conjure one of those goblin things again that was cool." Nui mimicking the size of the creature with his hands.
Torui almost cried, "Holy shit! I think we're from the same world."
Along the way Sui had braised Saphra's hair which meant she could run a little faster than before a hear a bit better as her hair didn't get in the way of her eyes and ears. She could overhear their convo. "The dark lord normally never turns earthlings into dungeon lords, earth had been reserved by the goddess to take their heroes from. But the last hero she had chosen was born in another reality so on a technicality it appears he could summon you two, and he chose to summon you two."
"Enough with the small talk." Touri stated, the friendly atmosphere chilled. "How do we get these classifications."
Saphra turned to face him, "You can't, as dungeon lords you'd be smited upon entering a tower, but I have a vast knowledge of them so I can say that you are warlocks with a second warrior classification for now. Warlock classes come in different forms based on their contracted familiar. So no one should question the heart marks you have. These marks are unique to you so they shouldn't recognize it as special marks from the dark god."
Sui turned to Nui, "your hair is rather long as well, would you like me to braid it? Nui shrugged.
Saphra continued, "there are a few ways to reach the academy, the mountain, the left path, and the right. The right is known to the lords of this region as monster territory, the left has been crowed by bandits recently and the mountain is treacherous. I've been making us walk through monster territory, it provides us opportunities for dungeon locations and to train against monsters."
Sui exclaimed in confusion, "You what- actually we could make allies along this path as well, all things considered this was probably the best choice."
"I'd like to go into more civilized places to get more efficient weapons or materials."
Saphra shrugged, "We could, but it depends how necessary you think it is. The nearest shop would be a major detour and there isn't much time until the academy stops accepting students for the school year."
"All this sitting around is making me bored let's decide on what we're gonna do and move already." Nui whined.
Torui sighed, "Saphra if I created the materials would you be able to craft me a bow?"
She laughed at the question, "Hmm, no, what do I look like a worker? I'm a researcher... use a minion for that?"
Torui gave and exasperated sigh, "Sorry, still getting used to the whole minion summoning powers and being in another universe." He asked his summoned goblin to make one and after an hour it had finished his bow.
Eventually it was night and they heard howling, and it was growing in volume and getting closer.
Sui summoned two goblins, dressed in the armor of knights, equipped with low quality stone swords. "Wolves, or worse, werewolves?" But it was something in between, six massive dire wolves emerged from the thick of trees. They were like wolves but amped from being mana born. Being about person sized if not bigger. Sui looked to Saphra , "Can I uhh… keep one?"
She facepalmed, "If you can find a way to get it to make a dungeon pact with you... but they aren't subservient creatures and they are wont just join you or understand the pact. You'll need to get more proficient with the contract magic."
Torui and Nui were the first to act, followed by the wolves. Nui left his arm open and one of the wolves lunged for it but he was quickly able to pull his arm out of the way and replace it with his blade as he lunged into the wolf impaling it's head on his sword but he was soon surrounded. Torui wasn't idle, he had run around them them moment they went to surround Nui. Leaving a few with their backs open but another set would be facing him if he got too close. He lunged anyway decapitating one of the wolves from behind. One of the wolves lunged for him as the rest lunged for Nui. Sui drew on his Eldridge flames as Saphra drew on her own fire and they ignited the wolves before they could strike. Giving both Nui and Torui a moment to breathe, but instead, they acted. Torui stabbed the wolves near him twice before taking his newly fashioned bow and shot another beside Nui. Nui for his part, hacked and slashed the remaining wolves apart. They could hear spiders but beyond the spiders they could hear a ruckus.