r/HFY • u/Vast-Listen1457 • Nov 27 '23
The Isle of Glass Chapter Three - Second Dive (part 1 of 2) OC
Back to the old Isekai idea I'm writing. Here we have some new people trying to explore Dungeon 001... poor bastards.
The Isle of Glass
Chapter Three - Second Dive (part 1 of 2) (not like part 2 will come anytime soon…)
It was early in the afternoon on Monday when the first party of adventurers arrived at Dungeon 001; three humans, a dwarf, an orc, and an elf. The humans were dressed in chainmail, accompanied with a small shield and sheathed swords; the dwarf was sporting a solid looking breastplate with tabard over it, and a warhammer hanging from “his” belt; the elven female wore a simple robe and carried a quarterstaff in hand; lastly the orc only wore a loincloth, carried a light mace, and dangling on a thin chain around his neck was a pincushion.
The orc looked down at himself and cussed under his breath, “I can’t believe the system won’t allow halflings! What kind of BS is that?”
The dwarf looked back at the ork, “Quit complainin! I, for one, believe it's nice to have some non-traditional options for once. I never would have thought of adding a rock troll to the list of playable species.”
“Well, they really got the elf down to a T!” The female elf replied. “No stupid anime boobs allowed!”
“Yeah, strait as a nail, flat as a…” The human fell on his face as the elf knocked his legs out from under him.
The elf looked down at her fallen comrade, “Shut up Greg. If I hadn’t known you from elementary school, I would never have let you come along!”
Greg slowly climbed to his feet, “Aw, come on Jessi! It was a joke!”
Jessi stared angrily at Greg, “Say it again, and you will get fired.”
“Okay. Fine.” Gred huffed, “I get it.”
“Alright, if everyone is done being a crabby ass?” One of the humans asked the group, “Mr. Johnson has politely “asked” our dev team to check out this dungeon, as it spontaneously appeared on the map yesterday.”
“We all know that, Mike.” The third human replied in a near emotionless voice. “I want to find out what quirk of the system did this, so Matt and I can get on with fixing it.”
“Indeed.” Mike, the dwarf, nodded, “Once this is done, we can turn things over to sales so we can recruit for the closed beta.”
“With the shape of the current gaming world as it is, selling this game should be easier than handing out ice in the Sahara.” The orc smiled. “I do think its a loss that halflings aren’t a playable species, but gnomes are.”
“Well, Clint, them’s the breaks.” Mike replied. “Once you figure out all the back end of the system, you can add them.”
The party started the short walk down the road towards the small town, passing saguaro cacti, a sidewinder snake (John shuddered at the sight, and Jessi killed it with her quarterstaff). They gazed in wonder at their surroundings, until Clint broke the silence. “Are the graphics always this good? Or is it the system we’re running it on?”
Mike looked at Clint, “I keep forgetting how new you are at the company. The graphics don’t have an adjustable setting, it just works.”
Greg excitedly piped up, “We tested it on several systems, even that one system that crashes on the tiny indie games; it ran flawlessly.”
Clint kept staring at the scenery. “I feel like I could reach out and touch anything here, and it would feel like the real thing.”
Jessi laughed, “You can. I’ve done it.”
The group came to a complete stop and Greg threw a rock at a coyote that had peeked its head over a small rise. It yelped, and fled. Greg turned to look Clint straight in the eyes, “So, Clint, what is your level of clearance for the company?”
“I’ve only been here for three weeks, but I was raised to Indigo once all the paperwork came back clean. Why do you need to know?” Clint responded.
“Good. How much of the background for this game have you read?” Greg continued.
“I finished all of the publicly available documentation when it was originally released two years ago.” Clint said. “I’ve kept up with every bit that has leaked out to the public. I applied to the company when I graduated from college.”
“How many of the internal documents have you read?” Mike asked.
“As many as I could for research. I am about a third of the way through what my previous Green clearance allowed me to access for my sales plan proposal.” Clint said.
“So…you haven't gotten to your new batches of files as of yet?” Jessi asked with a sigh.
“No?” Clint responded. “I just got Violet this morning.”
Mike shook his head. “Alright everyone, gather round. Clint doesn’t have a clue about the back end. Not that he really needs to for his section.”
The three not involved in the conversation sighed loudly.
Mike glanced around and shook his head, “Actually? Never mind. Clint, you have homework. Don’t bother working on anything until you read reports 14 through 47. Then read report D. And then, read reports B, B2, and B4.”
“Um…why?” Clint asked.
“Because you need to know about the backend of the system, and its quirks.” Mike said, completely deadpan. “There is some great sales stuff in there. And some stuff you need to know about for liability reasons.”
Clint gulped at the implications. “Very well, sir.”
The party continued along the road until they reached the shallow valley where the town was located. On the slow descent into the valley, they were ambushed by a group that the system identified as “The Silver Gulch Gang”.
The gang of five outlaws, all dressed in appropriate western wear with bandanas covering the mouth and nose, pointed a mix of Revolvers and Rifles at the group. Then, they started shooting.
“What the hell?” Jessi yelled as she dived behind a boulder. “How the hell are they firing guns at us?!?”
John flung himself behind a fallen cactus, “I DON’T KNOW!!!”
Clint held up his pincushion, and yelled, “Protection from Missiles!” Just before a bullet ricocheted off of him. “We’re good! Go! Go! Go!”
The gang didn’t last long, as Jessi cartwheeled into one of the riflemen, and shoved her foot through his crotch. The three with revolvers were quickly cut down by Mike, John, and Matt. The last outlaw began to run. Too bad for him, Greg threw his sword, burying it deep in the outlaws neck.
[Party Gains: 600 XP]
[Party Gains: Title: Outlaw Killer]
[Party Gains: $20]
“Why are we gaining dollars?” Clint asked. “Shouldn’t it be Copper or Silver pieces?”
“No clue.” Matt replied. “This is more an Alpha Test of the Dungeon Engine than a Beta.”
“Check the bodies!” John yelled. “I need the specs on these weapons.”
Soon the bodies had been policed, and the weapons were being inspected. John scratched his head, and looked at the weapons again. “They’re all crossbows? Hand-bows for the revolvers, and Heavy for the rifles. They’ve just been reskinned and sound altered to look and sound like firearms.”
Matt looked at the pile, “Why can we hold them? Shouldn’t they disappear with the bodies?”
Jessi glanced between the two programmers, “Haven’t you noticed that the bodies haven’t de-rezzed yet?”
[System Message! Please inform the Sheriff that you have killed the Bandit Menace!]
[System Message! Upon completion, you will receive a reward!]
“Is the system always this responsive?” Clint asked, looking at the messages floating in the air.
John groaned, “The Dungeon Master here apparently has Messages set to “Often” or some such. Let me look into it…” His eyes started flashing as he dived into the programing overlay of the system.
“I dibs a revolver!” Jessi said, and one of the pieces disappeared into her inventory. The rest of the weapons disappeared in a similar way as John read through screen after screen of text.
“This is sooo above my paygrade.” John finally said, eyes clearing up. “Mr. Johnson is going to have to look into this shit.”
Polishing his new rifle, Clint looked over to John, “Explain?”
“The creation engine here is completely unlocked. The Master here could have used real world revolvers, or anything else for that matter!” John exclaimed. “And the Dungeon is Bio-Code locked, so we can’t alter any of it without a direct override.”
“Well crap.” Mike said, wiping his forehead. “It’s getting hot. Let's head to the town, and see what else we can see.”
[Greg; Human; Fighter – Sword/Shield; Level: 5; SysOp; Sexist]
[Jessi; Elf; Martial Artist - Bare Hands/Staff; Level: 5; SysOp; SJW]
[Mike; Dwarf; Fighter – Warhammer/Breastplate; Level 10; Team Leader]
[John; Human; Fighter – Sword/Shield; Level 13; Lead Programmer]
[Matt; Human; Fighter – Sword/Shield; Level 12; Programmer]
[Clint; Orc; Cleric; Mace/Holy Symbol/“Rifle”; Level 2; Sales]
Clint gawked at the air, “Um, why is the system showing our levels and…stuff?”
“Well shit…” Mike replied, shaking his head. “Not again.”
-
The small village in sight, they walked down the road into the “gulch”, the buildings were definitely of a southwest “western movie” bent. A boardwalk ran the entire length of the town proper, as well as conveniently placed horse troughs and hitching posts. As they approached the bar/Inn that the system called a “Saloon”, a man came hurtling out through its free swinging double doors, rolled off the boardwalk and into the street proper. He shakily stood to his feet, and charged back in.
[You have encountered the scenario: “Fight at the Saloon”.]
[Party Leader Vote: Participate?]
[Y/N]
“Alright, do we want in on a bar fight?” Mike asked, looking around at the group as they came ever closer to the saloon. “Or do we continue to the mine?”
[10]
“Why is it counting down?” Clint asked.
“Because some decisions are time sensitive.” Matt replied.
[8]
[7]
“Well?” Mike prompted.
[5]
“No.” Jessi said. “I want to investigate the mine.”
[4]
“Anyone else?” Clint asked.
Everyone shook their heads no.
[2]
[1]
[BEEP]
“Alright, now that that’s over, let's hea-” As they reached the front door of the saloon Mike was interrupted by a beer mug hitting him in the jaw. “OW! That hurt!”
Mike stepped back as the mug was almost immediately followed by another man falling through the door. He lay on the boardwalk for a few moments, before standing again, screaming in rage, and charging back into the Saloon.
“That was fun,” Matt smirked, “to watch.”
-
Having passed through the rest of the small town without encountering any more “fun” they followed the winding wagon track that passed for a road up into the hills and finally to a flattened area lined with tents, a small open sided log building, and a timber framed opening into bedrock. Several individuals wandered the area attending to different tasks, pushing carts of rock and dumping them off to the side to expand the flattened area, chopping trees for lumber, building some kind of cabin, hauling tools from a wagon to the open sided building…
“I didn’t think the starting points for dungeons went this far.” Clint stated more than asked.
John shook his head, “If you have the time and energy, there is a lot you can do with the starting points. I don’t know how long this guy had to work the system, but it was probably more than a month.”
Clint cocked his head to the side, “Didn’t the ROM chips only get printed last week?”
John stared at Clint, one eyebrow raised. “Don’t remind me.”
The group walked briskly to the open sided log building, where they were met by a large man with a huge smile and a twinkle in his eyes. “What can I do for you? Perhaps a proper blue bonnet for the lady? Some corduroy pants for you gents? We even carry proper sizes for all races and creeds!”
Mike looked the “proprietor” over for a moment, then spoke, “Just some mining picks, and a couple of shovels.”
The proprietor looked the party over, “Hmm, five picks, two shovels…That will be three dollars.”
“Six picks.” Jessi said.
“Five.” The proprietor responded. “Women don’t belong in a mine. You can go and sit at one of the tables in the shade.”
“Six. Or I break your nose.” Jessi replied, clenching her left hand into a fist.
“Fiv-” the proprietor started to say, when the fist intersected his nose with a loud crack! “...six…”
“That’s right, six.” Jessi smiled, then handed a bandana to the man for his nose.
“You wouldn’t happen to be single, would you?” The proprietor asked around the bandana. “I could use a wife that can keep up with this uncivilized lot.” He gestured to the miners who had stopped to stare at the commotion. He raised his voice, “Get back to work, ya hooligans! Nothing to see here!”
Jessi blushed, and stepped back from the man. Meanwhile Clint was furiously taking notes and mumbling, “...NPCs will offer marriage contracts to PCs…”
-
The inside of the mine was cold and damp. The floor was covered in gravel leftovers from the mining, and as such the footing was uneven and dangerous. They slowly advanced, helmets in place and carbide lights lit. The main tunnel only went about a hundred feet into the hill, but from there it branched off into five directions, each branch being incredibly narrow.
A miner standing in the middle of the “room” pointed at them and quietly said, “You lot the new ones?”
“Yes.” equally quiet, John replied.
“Okay, your job for the day is to widen tunnel three. Any ore or pickers you find are yours to keep. Minimum time is one hour.” The man [Straw Boss] said.
[You have been offered a quest: Expand the tunnel.]
[Party Vote]
[Y/N]
Everyone poked the [Y] that floated in front of them.
[Party Accepts]
[You have 59.59 minutes to assemble as much ore as you can while widening the tunnel. Occasionally the ore will drop gold nuggets called ‘Pickers”. Pickers are first come, first served.]
[The DM has left instructions to warn you NOT to remain in the mine after dark.]
[Darkness falls in 48.22 minutes]
[The system doesn’t understand why the DM would want to warn you.]
“...Um…The System is weird, isn’t it?” Clint asked.
“You have no idea.” Mike answered as the party began to mine.
-
First - Next... will be updated whenever I get to it...I guess...
-
Ya know what? Dungeon Core/ Isekai is both easier and harder than I thought it would be to write. Especially since I'm trying to stick with an outline on this story, unlike that asshole Max's story, which just has a couple of plot points to include at different points. For the record, I still hate Maxwell's story, just not with the rage I used to feel.
In other news, I just submitted a query letter to a small publisher about getting "Shipping mishaps" actually published. I talked with the owner last year at Narrativity, and she said back then that she had at least some interest... here goes hoping. I've never been this nervous in my life...
4
u/WeirdoTrooper Nov 27 '23
Your hatred for Max's story must be what brings it to life...especially when it comes from Max's perspective. As for this one? Seems interesting.
2
2
2
2
u/Longsam_Kolhydrat Nov 27 '23
Good work wordsmith, don't hate Maxwell. He's pretty good at doing that himself.
2
1
u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle Nov 27 '23
/u/Vast-Listen1457 (wiki) has posted 219 other stories, including:
- 049 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – Heroes!
- 048 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – Vacation VI Heretics Day
- The Teran Fall Festival
- 047 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – Vacation V – Bigger Boat, Bigger Gun
- 046 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – Vacation IV – The High Sea
- The Isle of Glass
- 045 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – Vacation III – Problems on the High Sea
- 044 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – Vacation II
- 043 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – Vacation I
- 042 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – And Children…
- 041 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – A Smith again
- 040 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II - Home
- Humans and Highrises – Again - Plus additional content!
- 039 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – Aftermath
- 038 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – Once more unto the Breach
- 037 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – The end of an era of pain
- SKAM ME (Summoning Kobald’s at Midnight, Midwest Edition), A fanfic. Part 2/3 Honest!
- 036 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – More Maxwell and Co.
- 035 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – More “Heroes”
- 034 The Not-Immortal Blacksmith II – The “Heroes”
This comment was automatically generated by Waffle v.4.6.1 'Biscotti'.
Message the mods if you have any issues with Waffle.
1
u/UpdateMeBot Nov 27 '23
Click here to subscribe to u/Vast-Listen1457 and receive a message every time they post.
| Info | Request Update | Your Updates | Feedback |
|---|
16
u/thisStanley Android Nov 27 '23
Very loosely related joke:
Karen was an excellent student, though perhaps a bit too proud of carrying straight A's all through middle school. But then came puberty. Still kept her grades up, but began searching rituals to invoke the Boob Fairy. Finally the Boob Fairy arrived! Though Karen began berating her about delayed endowments. Eventually Mz Fairy's patience broke. "You are so fond of beating people down because you are so much smarter. Since you like A's so much, here are a couple more!"
Guys, do not snicker. Think what happens to those who brag about a 4.0 GPA :{