The next day, Talio woke up feeling sore after lying under a tree for a good ten hours.
'I seriously need to fix my sleeping habits. Otherwise, my posture's going to hit the point of no return.'
The day before, after signing up for the dungeon raid, Talio had been given a map with a circled location and a timestamp—since he didn't own a communication device. Talio, who was used to situations like this, quickly read the map, which showed little more than the city and some empty plains to the south.
The city was called Ceres, named for its rich history in farming. However, one might wonder where this city grew its crops, given that its land was widely known to be infertile. Perhaps a historical discrepancy—but one that didn't concern Talio in the slightest right now.
Leisurely, Talio strolled to the marked spot on the map without much thought, occasionally distracted by ideas of what he might do with the money. Unfortunately, luxuries weren't on the table. There were more practical things he could spend his prize money on—like information.
Information was a necessity for Talio right now. For the past eight years, he had done nothing but wait, patiently. It was about time he started preparing to repay his debt.
After about half an hour of walking, Talio checked his antique watch: 10:55 a.m. He sighed, relieved to have arrived with five minutes to spare. In front of him stood a moderately sized building, with a line of people waiting to enter.
Assuming this was the right place, he queued up and waited his turn. When the person in front of him finished, it was his go. A black-haired man sat at a desk, looking him up and down with a scrutinizing gaze.
"Imperium is at Disciplina, Quantitas is at Rivus, and Qualitas is at Modicus... Overall rank: Progressor."
Finally something for me to comment on. Well I will keep this brief just so you guys can understand. In this world there's an energy called Vis Mundana which flows in the atmosphere and inside everyone. People can learn to control it through training or simply being born lucky.
Imperium is your control over Vis Mundana, Quantitas is the amount of Vis Mundana you have and Qualitas is the quality of your Vis Mundana. The ranks are simply all these aspects added up into a rank.
After reiterating information Talio already knew, the man simply stared, expecting no response. Social situations were not Talio's forte, for rather obvious reasons. Eventually, the man handed him a badge marked with the number 3.
Talio took the badge silently and walked inside. The building turned out to be a large hall, with a stage at the front and rows of chairs arranged like an audience setup. The chairs were parted down the middle to create a walking aisle.
There were ten chairs per row, but due to the central gap, only five were adjacent in a group. Each cluster was numbered, presumably corresponding to the badges. Talio made his way to Group 3 and sat down.
After about a minute, a woman with navy-blue hair and a... noticeably curvy build walked onto the stage. Talio struggled with facial recognition—his mind tended to blot out faces with an X cross—but over time he'd trained himself to identify people by the exact shade of their hair and... other distinguishable features.
Honestly... kids these days need to get the heads out the gutter. It's ruining generations.
"Testing... one, two, three. Hmm, seems to be working fine. Alright! My name's Leah, and I'll be leading this mission."
As she spoke, Talio picked up on murmurs from several male attendees, expressing dissatisfaction with a woman in charge. Their doubts were quickly silenced when she released an intimidating aura, heavy enough to make the whole room reevaluate her presence.
"A lot of you seem dissatisfied with me being the leader," she said, removing the mic from its holder and slowly walking down the center aisle. "However, it seems I'm the only one ranked Dominus in this room—making me the strongest here. If you've got a problem with that, feel free to leave."
Silence fell over the hall. No one moved.
Leah smiled, then continued.
To be honest, Talio was already zoning out, catching only the important bits—like the fact they'd be split into 40 groups of five to reduce the likelihood of being detected by monsters and to cover more ground. The dungeon was bug-based, which meant fire would be especially useful.
After gathering that, Talio mentally checked out and dozed off—until he was jolted awake by a slap on the head. He turned swiftly, only to see… a bald guy? It was hard to tell—Talio couldn't see any hair, but with faces blocked out in his mind like X marks, he couldn't confirm whether the guy was fully bald or just had a really short cut.
"Well, you've got nerves of steel. Sleeping while we're being briefed—how fearless."
Talio stared at him, unsure how to respond. He just shrugged and asked:
"Are you part of Group 3?"
"Yep. Name's Alex. Our group includes that blonde guy over there, and those two female twins."
Talio glanced toward them and sighed inwardly. He never took the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover" seriously—there was often a lot to glean just by observation. And if he were being honest with himself, their survival odds didn't look too great.
'Cheer up, Talio. Being pessimistic won't help you survive, will it?'
Leah's voice cut back in, cheerful as ever.
"Well, now that you've all gotten acquainted, you'll be given a week before we depart. We'll meet back here at the same time next week. Until then, guys!"
With that, she walked down the middle aisle, reached the door, and waved goodbye to everyone. Slowly, people began to follow her out, and Talio did the same.
Despite it being barely past noon, Talio felt utterly drained. He decided to turn in early, hoping to feel refreshed enough the next day to go shopping—at least with what little money he had.