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Jay took his cooking knife with him as he went to leave. “Something will be better than nothing I guess.”

As Jay walked out the butchery, he left a sign hanging on the door knob: [Be back after lunch]

Of course, he wouldn’t be back after lunch.

He chuckled thinking about the people lining up only to lose patience and leave; but Jay didn’t care, he was an adventurer now. Sometime soon, he would leave this city behind and get rich killing monsters for a living.

He was quite a sadistic person in this way.

With a spring in his step and a sunny smile, he began walking down the cobblestone street.

Checking his map to confirm the direction of the stink-rat marsh dungeon, he abruptly stopped, turned around, and began walking back the way he was coming from – this time in the correct direction.

Jay blushed as he hoped no-one noticed, his first mistake as an adventurer was embarrassing to say the least.

Imagining his melee trainer bursting a blood-vessel if he heard of this, Jay chuckled “He will never know.”

It was about 15 minutes before Jay reached the south side of the village.

On his way out he noticed a merchant arguing with a stable boy. Not caring for the argument, Jay continued to walk by as he gazed at the merchant’s caravan.

“Wow, those are some nice weapons. I guess he must be here to cash in on the new adventurers. Heh, but I won’t need a weapon with my class” Jay snickered quietly to himself.

The merchant noticed someone seemingly laughing at his stock, he paused, and gave Jay an obvious fake smile.

“Hello sir, you like what you see? Well…. you’re gunna have to wait till tomorrow! Ha-ha-haa! I’ll have the booth set up by lunch time.” The short fat merchant let out a bellowing laugh from behind his moustache.

Jay inspected the merchant._.

[Bertram – Level 13]

Hp – 100%

Mp – 87%

The only details Jay could get was his name, level, and current health and mana percentages; this was the same for everyone. You would either need to party up to see someone’s class, and their actual health/mana, or touch a mana conduit.

Jay shrugged at the merchants’ teasing and left as Bertram pulled a pipe out and began to smoke it, periodically puffing smoke out as he went back to micromanaging the stable boy – who at this point had a red face and looked like he was about to tear up.

“Poor kid” Jay thought.

The cobblestone path ended and turned to a patchy dirt-grass path as he walked away from the village. It was nearly the middle of winter, no flowers were blooming and most of the trees in the surrounding forest were missing their leaves, though it didn’t get cold enough to snow in this part of the country, much of the vegetation still suffered through the winter.

Jay checked his map as he walked.

“Ok, just a little further on the path, then I have to cut through the forest to the south west.”

After making his way down the path, he turned and began working his way through the forest’s vegetation.

It was quiet as he walked through the winter forest, a light breeze waved through the trees, the only sound coming from the odd twig he snapped underfoot.

Approaching the map marker with expectation, Jay was confused.

“…what? Where is the dungeon?”

Jay expected a cave or perhaps a crystal to teleport him, yet what he found was a small brown pond surrounded by head-high grass.

The water was murky, with lily pads scattered throughout. Quite contrasting to the surrounding fir wood forest.

Jay walked around the pond as he checked his map, but the marker kept pointing directly into the pond.

“Fine, you win. I’ll walk into the filthy pond and get my shoes wet, then head back to town with wet shoes and disappointment.” He gritted his teeth in utter frustration.

After sinking his shoes into the mud and the water reaching knee-high, a notification appeared before his eyes.

[Enter Stink-rat Marsh level 1 dungeon?]

[Yes/No]

“… oh?”

Jay was pleasantly confused, but still, he accepted the dungeon invitation.

The wind swirled around him, and for a moment, Jay couldn’t breathe.

Before he realised it, he was suddenly sucked down under the water and into the mud; anyone looking at this would think he was just pulled under the water by an ancient eldritch monster.

—

Suddenly, Jay was ejected from the mud again, as if being vomited out from the earth itself.

[You have entered Stink-Rat Marsh level 1].

[Unlocked Dungeon – You may leave at any time]

Landing in the same murky water again, he was assaulted by a foul smell and another notification.

[Stink Debuff Applied]

– Persists until you leave the dungeon.

[Stink]

– You are distracted by a horrendous smell, -5% dexterity.

“Heh, five percent is nothing to someone as low level as me” Jay scoffed as he examined his surroundings. He really thought being low level was something to brag about.

The air was sticky, humid and thick. It was warm, and definitely not winter anymore.

Around him were decaying trees, waist-high grass and black murky ponds littering the black-mud landscape.

While walking to drier ground, his feet produced bubbles with every step; the bubbles adding to the stink.

“This would definitely deter anyone from becoming an adventurer” he grimaced as he held his nose, though it did nothing to stop the putrid smell.

—

Jay began exploring, avoiding murky ponds and bubbling swamps. Soon enough, he came to an enormous log.

Jay approached the side of this gigantic decaying log; it was only getting bigger as he came closer, and as it was finally within spitting distance he realised even a carriage could fit inside the log if it were hollowed out. It was as tall as a house.

Wondering how he would get over, he looked to each side. The log appeared to go off into the distance forever.

“Huh, must be some sort of soft-lock to stop idiots getting in… or just really drunk people”

Looking right, he spotted another decaying log which had fallen onto the huge log, forming a ladder of sorts – though its base was submerged in another murky pond.

Jay sighed “Damn, let’s get this over with.”

He walked back into the murky brown water, frowning as he felt the slightly colder water enter his shoes again and more bubbles being produced with each step.

Reaching the log, he found that it was stripped of bark.

The wood had turned black after absorbing the muck over the years, and it was beyond dead.

“You slippery bastard” Jay said as he spread more water over it – though no muck washed off. The slimy surface seemed to be a part of the log now.

Jay attempted to crouch-walk up it, but this was a sad mistake. After getting about half-way up, he lost balance and fell face-first into the murky water below.

“MMMMMM!!!!!!!” he couldn’t scream or the muck may enter his mouth.

He quickly clambered out of the water, causing another stir of stink bubbles.

Wiping his face in frustration, he used his shirt to wipe his lips and spat.

“FUCK!” he yelled through a clenched jaw.

He felt like his face was grimacing since he was in here, but in this situation, he realised he could break through his own limits and grimace even harder.

Perhaps his nose would implode?

“I’m sick of this place already, it’s no wonder no one would come here.”

For a moment he felt hopeless, but he pressed on.

He made his way back to the log. This time, anger and frustration helped him ignore the slime and the possibly impending fungal infections.

This time, he didn’t take any chances, gripping the log and laying on his stomach as he slowly shimmied up the log until he was at the top.

“Finally.” He exhaled and checked his energy.

[Energy – 24/30]

Looking around, it dawned on him that he had to jump down the other side, and seeing no logs to get down, he decided he would walk along the log looking for a pond to jump in. He didn’t want to risk a sprained ankle and being surrounded by monsters.

Pausing for a moment, he first took in the view.

The marsh went on for as far as he could see. Although it was humid, thick dark clouds hung overhead, placing the whole landscape in shadows.

Thankfully, he spotted movement nearby.

Approaching slowly, he walked along the log, then slid himself off the side on his belly till he fell onto the ground.

He didn’t have the luxury of jumping into a pond as that would have alerted the rats, so he decided to take the risk.

Happily, he didn’t take any damage, though his chest was covered in decaying wood and moss – not that it mattered at this point. He was filthy.

Jay walked into some nearby swamp-grass and crouched.

He blended in almost seamlessly since he was practically covered in half of the swamp by now. He pulled out his cooking knife and made his way to where he saw the movement.

Stealthily sneaking through the waist-high reeds and swamp grasses, he approached the source of the movement.

Through the swaying reeds, Jay finally saw it – his first monster. His first victim.