The day started like any other. It was a perfectly normal morning. I was at the local guildhall looking to take an odd job or two with a party that needed some help.
Little did I know things were about to take a very unexpected turn...
“Hey, do you have a moment? Are you Note Athlon?” a guy called out to me.
It came out of nowhere. In surprise, I whipped around to see a young man who was slightly taller than me. He looked like he was probably in his early twenties, with short, white hair and dark, narrow eyes that made him look calm and collected. His voice was gentle, too. Easy on the ears.
But contrary to that impression, he was clad in black from head to toe. Based on his equipment, he seemed to be a thief or assassin.
“That’s me... Did you need something?”
I hadn’t seen this guy around the guildhall before. Wary that he already knew my name, I responded to him cautiously.
He seemed completely unfazed, however.
“Yeah, I’ve been looking for you. You, the guy with the Mapping skill.”
To be honest, I had no idea what was going on. He was looking for me because I had Mapping? Why? Why did he want to talk to someone with such a notoriously terrible skill? Was it to make fun of me? Was this some kind of scam?
Question after question ran through my mind, and it seemed this guy could read the confusion on my face.
“I’m serious. I’ve been looking for you because I believe Mapping can be useful.”
“You think Mapping can be useful?”
I know it doesn’t sound good coming from me, the guy with the skill, but I highly doubted that was true.
Mapping could be convenient at times, but for all intents and purposes, it was worthless. Both World Map and Area Map were better skills. Hell, any skill would have been better. I’d had Mapping for a year now, but I felt the same way about it that everyone else did—it was trash.
“Yeah, that’s right. We need your skill.”
“‘We’?”
My list of questions was only growing. How could there be other people besides this guy who needed my skill?
“Come to think of it, I haven’t introduced myself yet. I know I said ‘we,’ but the others aren’t here right now,” he said, scratching his head. “The name’s Jin, and I’m with a party called Arrivers.”
Arrivers?
Even a newbie adventurer like me knew that name. They were a famous party that specialized in dungeon diving.
Wait, what are dungeons, you ask? Dungeons are mysterious spaces that exist outside the logic of our world. Only a dozen or so have been discovered. Their entrances lay on the surface of this world, but anything beyond their gates is unbound by the laws of physics. Vast worlds unfold past them, filled with extremely powerful monsters the likes of which the surface has never seen. In short, dungeons are said to be deep hellholes that even top-tier adventurers often don’t come back from.
That’s why few adventurers are even willing to consider dungeon diving in the first place, but there are a handful who can’t help themselves. Why? Pure profit. The returns on dungeon diving are sky high thanks to materials, magic artifacts, weapons, and other loot that can’t be found anywhere else. Not to mention the rumors of the treasure that lies in the deepest depths of dungeons... A treasure that no one has yet to reach. A treasure some say was made by God.
Adventurers all like to talk a big game about dungeons, but the only ones who really went for them were elite, experienced parties. And of those elite parties, the Arrivers were said to be the closest to actually completing a dungeon.
That made what Jin was saying completely unbelievable under normal circumstances. It was hard enough to buy that I was talking to a real Arriver, much less that he needed me. For a less-than-third-rate adventurer like me, dungeons were out of the question. The thought of entering one had never even crossed my mind.
Nevertheless, Jin looked perfectly serious. He even offered his hand, reaching out as if to brush away my concerns.
“So, Note, if you’re interested, will you join our party? Consider this a formal invite.”
Yeah, nothing about this was normal.
I wanted to change myself. I wanted to change my life. More than anything, I wanted to be free of this unproductive misery. And that left me with no choice but to take Jin’s hand...
That day, my fate took another great turn.