'This world is amazing…' He thought as he walked down the road.
He had walked around the town many times in the game that he had genuinely lost count and the original Klaus also worked here on the way to his workplace which was somehow blocks away from the Adventurer's Guild.
'If you exclude the Carriages.' He thought as he looked down at the road where the carriages passed, he wasn't the only victim of flying mud as he saw several commoners being hit by them after he had changed.
However his own seemed to be the biggest one as his whole body had been covered in mud… absolutely drenched to the point he'd looked like a swamp monster.
'I had to climb five hundred floors up,' Klaus thought bitterly, his legs still aching from the memory. 'FIVE HUNDRED. Then I had to borrow a mop from the janitor on Floor 450, clean the mud trail I left on every single floor going up, wash the mop in three different buckets because the first two turned into liquid dirt, apologize to the janitor, return the mop, and THEN finally change clothes.'
The janitor had given him the most judgmental look Klaus had ever received in either of his lives.
In other words, he was absolutely exhausted… His calves burned and his back hurt too. He'd also discovered muscles he didn't know existed, and they all hated him.
But that didn't matter right now.
He was walking past the Brass Mug, Klaus's former workplace, and outside was the owner of the establishment… Mr. Bart, a pretty average man much like Klaus himself, wearing simple commoner clothes and sweeping the front steps.
Klaus had to admit, the guy was quite an honest man.
He was also hardworking and air and he respected that.
From the original Klaus's memories, Bart was married to a beautiful commoner woman who had very specific ideas about how the tavern should be run.
Specifically, she believed only young women should work there because "they brought in more customers."
For the past three years, she'd been making Klaus's life subtly miserable while also trying to seduce him, attempting to get him fired. Klaus, bless his oblivious heart, had somehow never noticed.
She'd failed spectacularly for three straight years and that made him sweatdrop.
'Quite a wife he has…' Klaus thought with a sigh as the man looked at him and waved.
"Klaus boy." He said with a smile. "It's been a while since I've seen you around… how're you doing?"
"Ah, Mr. Bart. Yunno I'm doing fine." He said and Bart raised an eyebrow.
"Yunno? Have you been reading them books again Klaus…" He chuckled. "That's just like you, come over."
Klaus walked over to the man and he leaned off the broom, reaching into his pocket and pulling out five silver coins from his pocket making Klaus's eyes widen.
If this worked as in-game currency, this man was giving him five hundred bronze coins… one silver was equal to a hundred bronze as usual, and one gold was enough for commoners to go rabid for it.
"I know you left this place because of my wife even though there's no more work around… I hope you can achieve your dream of being a mage, know that I'll be supporting you." He said as he pushed the coins into his hands and walked back inside, Klaus pocketed the money and so the wife glaring at him from the windows so he walked off.
'That wasn't why Klaus stopped working though…' Klaus thought.
The original Klaus wanted to chase his dream of being a Mage… for some reason, he seemed utterly confident despite barely having any living money. Finally after a short walk, he was in front of the Adventurer's Guild.
It was a very tall building with four main floors, this was the General Guild. Alongside the General Guild which anyone could join… there were other special guilds, but they were in main cities, not in places like this at all.
"Bruh… this place is huge as fuck." He muttered as he looked at it, there was a plaque right above the door holding a sword and shield resting next to each other and he entered the Guild building, there was a small chime that followed up and he stepped inside.
Immediately, several eyes were on him… there were tables at the ground floor and adventurers of different races, whether it was Beastkin or even elves were here.
There were also some people at the far end of the Guild looking at the mission board on the wall and the place where he was aiming for… The Item Pawner's table.
It was on the far end and a man that looked like he was in the 90's which was actually somewhat rich clothing in this world and one monocle over his right eye… It gave a sketchy look but the man was actually the most honest man in the Guild.
He walked to the receptionist table… These receptionist tables were split into six, so six of them were working at once and he went to a free one.
The woman inside there was a human and she looked up at him though her eyes dimmed when she realized that she was a commoner…
'Pure discrimination, you're a commoner too.' He thought as he sighed inwardly. Nothing good would come from trying to beef with a receptionist.
"Hello there, I'd like to register as an Advent-"
"Okay, that will be 1 silver for a registration fee." She said and his throat bobbed… When have they ever taken registration fees?
There was an arc in the story where the protagonist would need to register the first time as an Adventurer with a Heroine and this specific receptionist attended to you.
She was a lot nicer and smiled in her sprite… now she was straight up frowning.
"If you don't have it, then you can't become a-"
He placed a silver on the table and she took it before providing him with a singular form.
"You'll need to fill in your information there to be registered into the magic database." She said and he took a feather with ink from the side… there was no pen.
First was his name and he filled Klaus, followed by his age and gender as well as his address and occupation which was written as First Class Wizard Apprentice.
After filling it out, she took it and brought out a colorless orb.
"This is an Affinity Orb… press your hands against it. I assume that upon coming here, you have verified that you've awakened as well as your Resonance." She said. "Please don't waste the Guild's time."
He pressed his hands against the side and poured mana into it… as his mana got into it, the colorless orb began turning blue and then a piece of metal floated inside the orb.
"I see you're a Metal mage, honestly that's the same as me." She said.
Metal was pretty common… Everyone said it was like that because commoners were meant to be in the mines.
"Alright, I will be processing your Guild identification card and prepare to plant the rune."
'Right I forgot they do this- Wait.' He thought.
"Aren't we going to be checking my attack spell or something?"
The receptionist raised an eyebrow.
"Like I thought we were all aware, Metal mages aren't rare… the Guild doesn't check if one has the affinity unless he's a noble." She said as she typed into a small machine and extracted a card from it… she had been using wooden keys and that was something like a wooden typewriter.
She brought it above his hand.
"Hold still… you're officially a member of the General Guild however I need to place the rune." She said.
The Guilds had to place a rune on your hand so you could pull back and place your ID cards anytime.
He held out his hand and she pressed it down on his forearm.
"Mark of Registry, bind to flesh and bone."
The card turned to a rune that looked like a pie chart on his forearm and it remained like a tattoo.
"Congratulations, you're an E-rank Adventurer. An E-rank adventurer is only allowed to go to Floor 5 of the Galen Dungeon… To reach D-rank, you have to kill about 20 monsters and sell them over here. The bodies and cores go for money, just ensure to leave the bodies in good condition, maybe one stab wound." She said.
However he was an E-rank and moreover, a metal mage like her… she had been so disappointed by her resonance that she had given up.
It felt good to see someone chasing their dream, no matter how bleak it could be, it made her feel a bit motivated.
"You know… if you need anything, you can ask me." She said and Klaus gave her a look before smiling.
"Cute."
"Hey… whatever, shoo shoo, I have another customer." She said and Klaus looked behind him, there was a person that wanted to register… he seemed to be a commoner more or less like himself.
'Alright, registered.' He thought as he walked over to the pawn table… he was probably going to draw attention after this but hey, he would get what he wanted after all.
He dropped a hand at the table with a small smile.
"Pawner, I want to sell something nice." He said and the Pawner looked up at him.
"If it's scraps then I'm genuinely not interest-"
He pulled out the bottle and showed it to the pawner and the man's eyes widened with greed.
"Please appraise it for me and give me a fair price… if you give me one, maybe I'll give you more later." He said and the man took it, rolling it in his hands.
This piece looked as if it belonged to a top tier healing potion… it was simply elegant and the estimated market value was…
'10 Gol-'
"10 Gold. I want you to give me that for it." Klaus said and the man's eyes widened, how had he known?
"This item is only worth 5-"
"I'll go Lady Margarie's." Klaus pointed to the place opposite the Guild, these two people hated each other and would do anything to take the other's customer.
It was in the game and he was glad he remembered… he was not ready to be manipulated by this guy.
"Fine… However I don't have ten gold in coin. Do you want to buy items?" He asked and Klaus placed a hand on his chin.
"Yes. First of all, I want to buy a storage ring. A used one." He said and the Pawner's face grew a bit downcast… it seemed like he knew that there were usually used rings sold as new.
'What a conniving bastard.' He thought.
"Next give me some light armor… the Leather chest piece and bracers." Klaus said and the Pawner nodded. "Four used blunt swords… then three mid-grade magic potions then Iron Spells: Metal Sense and Polish Tarnish. How much is that?"
Metal Sense was a Tier 1 spell which would be good for sensing while he gathered the metal… while Polish Tarnish was a Tier 0 spell which was also known as stat spells… Metal mages could use it to sharpen pieces of metal and take care of it which was why their weapons never rusted.
However that was normal.
The Pawner took a few moments to bring out everything he wanted onto the table.
"Everything costs 195 silvers."
"Remove it from the money you're owing me and give me the rest." He said while looking at the armor… he hadn't even started with something so-low ranked at the beginning of the game.
'Let's just go…'
…
Klaus now stood at the north side of the big town… he was wearing everything while wearing one sword at his waist, there were several adventurers as well and everyone was heading into the black circle-like rock.
This was the gate to the dungeon… it gave off magic and mundane humans weren't advised to come close.
Before getting in, you had to show your Identification and they would verify. It was pretty hard to get through once the Town was active since it was something like late morning and after several minutes, he was in front of the gate with the guard at the side checking his card.
Once the guard was done, he got it back and walked through the gate… he didn't appear on the other side and instead appeared in a cave.
This was the first floor of the Galen Dungeon after all and it was a business hub or rather a place where parties formed.
"Need a Fire Mage, Hourly Pay: 30 Bronze!"
"Get yourself healed here! I only charge 1 silver per healing!"
There were a dozen other shouts, monsters didn't spawn here so he walked upstairs and finally got to Floor 2.
This was where the real battle started and it was a very wide floor with the stair on the far end.
'I got enough mid-grade mana potions…' He thought. He was planning to finish that quota today and get promoted. 'I should be able to spam my ability a bit…'
He was also interested in whether he could grab metal parts from the ground or sense and grab ores or something…
"Whew. Let's kill some monsters." Klaus said, cracking his knuckles. He was genuinely interested… the game had amazing battle graphics after all, and he'd watched plenty of combat montages.
How hard could it be?
He pulled out his sword. The blade gleamed razor-sharp thanks to Polish. It felt heavy in his hand, way heavier than he'd expected.
The balance was weird and the grip felt awkward but he looked cool, and that's what mattered.
The first monster rolled toward him… a Slime, its gelatinous body glinting with tiny iron particles suspended in the goo.
In the game, these were basic enemies… practically tutorial mobs like him and were literally the weakest monster in the dungeon.
Klaus held his sword in what he thought was a proper stance… he'd seen anime so he knew how this worked and charged forward with a battle cry.
"HAAAA!"
He swung and the slime bounced.
Klaus's sword hit nothing but stone floor, the impact jarring his wrists so hard he nearly dropped the weapon.
The vibration rattled up his arms and into his teeth.
"Ow, fuck!"
The slime jiggled mockingly.
Klaus spun around, readjusting his grip. "Okay, that was a warmup. I've got you now."
He slashed again. Horizontal cut, just like in the tutorials.
The slime hopped over the blade like it was playing jump rope and Klaus stumbled forward from the momentum, barely catching himself.
"Oh, you little—"
He tried a stab… A thrust… and an overhead chop that would've looked really cool if it had connected.
The slime dodged every single attack, bouncing around like it was having the time of its life.
"Fuck!" Klaus gasped, already breathing hard. "I can barely hold this properly!"
His arms were burning and his shoulders screamed.
Nobody… NOBODY had told him that holding a sword like this took this much effort!
In the game, you just pressed the attack button! You didn't feel your forearms cramping or your palms blistering or your back muscles deciding to retire early!
The slime made a sound that Klaus could only interpret as laughter.
"Oh, you think this is funny?" Klaus panted, sweat already dripping down his face.
He'd been fighting for maybe thirty seconds. "I have magic, you know! I'm not just some—"
He stepped forward for another strike.
His boot landed in slime residue from where the creature had been sitting.
Klaus's leg shot out from under him like he'd stepped on a banana peel.
"WHOA—!"
He went down HARD, his arms windmilling and the sword flew from his grip and clattering across the cave floor.
His back hit the stone with a meaty thud that knocked the air from his lungs.
The slime bounced closer, peering down at him curiously.
Klaus lay there flat on his back, staring at the ceiling with every part of his body aching.
"This," he wheezed, "is bullshit."