OutRanked (The Weight Of It All): A LitRPG Fantasy Adventure Read online

  “Yes, but that’s not even the best part. I found out that we’ve graduated! All of us!” Zane exclaimed.

  “They said that we weren’t required to finish the last month of school. So, there’s no ceremony, but they’ve confirmed that anyone who was still a student at Prep by the time the Collapse happened is okay.

  “We graduated!” Zane yelled, earning another set of cheers from everyone in the room.

  “This calls for a true celebration; let me get out the wine!” Griff said, getting up and heading towards their cellar.

  “Yes!” the others cheered before the night became a party.

  *****

  “But everyone else is having some, Dad. One sip?” Elise said, trying to grab a glass from the table.

  “No, Elise. Tell Terrence about your day instead,” Dad said, pushing the glass further away as they sat in their chairs beside me.

  “Fine. So we went to Auntie Holly’s apartment, and Lin complained a bunch, but I think she and Mr Adam will go to a dungeon sometime soon, which made her happy. Then, we went and got some food in the market, which was gigantic! So much bigger than back home. And they had so many types of swords in this one shop. I should go there with Jen; I bet she’d be able to help me pick out a cool sword. And then…” Elise went on, barely taking a breath as she went through their day’s events. I listened, eager to hear, but just thrilled that she could look through the city and focus on something that wasn’t sad.

  I talked with her a bit more until a couple of Griff’s kids finished their food and came to grab Elise. They were slightly younger than her, but they all left to play around the house.

  “She’s doing better,” Dad said, watching her leave. “She still has nightmares, and every now and then she’ll think of mom and start crying, but nothing we can’t handle. How are you holding up?”

  “I’m good,” I lied, choosing not to tell him about my own nightmares. “Really, I just want to get back on track. Receive my Dungeoneering Rank, hit up some dungeons, move on.”

  “Yeah, moving on,” Dad almost whispered as he focused on the wine in his hand. I knew I’d said the wrong thing, and immediately thought of a way to brighten the conversation.

  “I need your help, though. My arms have gotten bigger, and with all the monsters we’ve been fighting, I think I need these to be fixed up,” I said, holding out my arm guards. “I don’t know if you’ll be heading back to Huag anytime soon, but if you could find a smithy to rent while we’re here, I’d love if you could help fix them,” I asked.

  It felt odd taking them off. I didn’t wear them while sleeping, but otherwise, they’d become like a second skin in most of my daily activities. I relied on them so much and it hurt to hand them over as Dad put them to the side.

  “Yeah, son. I can do that. Looks like you’ve worn out the scales quite a bit on the outside. And I’ll need some more metal to fix the coiling inside, but I think I’ll be able to. I might even pick up some work here since they’ll need extra hands while they prepare for the war.

  “It’d be nice to head home, but I think we’ll stay here for a while. I’m hoping to prove myself in a smithy so that they don’t send me off. My days of fighting are officially over after Krader. I overextended myself quite a bit, and I don’t see myself doing something like that ever again. My body won’t let me, and I wouldn’t want to,” dad said plainly.

  Dad looked tired. His muscles were still there, but his eyes and face told a different story. With people being recruited into the war, I worried more about him. Hopefully, his idea to be helpful at a Smithy in the Capital would work well enough to let him stay with Elise.

  “Thanks for letting them stay with you Holly, I really appreciate it,” I said to Holly, who was sitting a few seats down with Lin and Adam.

  “Elise is a delight, and your father is an old friend. The pleasure is mine. They’ll be okay, Terrence. I’ve got friends in town that will look after Elise if we are all recruited. For now, just get used to the city,” Holly said, smiling.

  “Come to the dungeon with us before we’re forced to leave! Go become an F-Rank, and you’ll be able to join us!” Lin jumped in, motioning to her and Adam.

  “We’ll see,” I laughed. “It’s on the ever-growing list of things I need to try and do. G-Rank first.”

  “Oh, that’s easy. Just—"Lin said before Adam interrupted.

  “Let him find out for himself when he goes to the Dungeoneering Guild Hall. They have enough to think about for now,” Adam said, giving me a thumbs up. “Since you’ll be heading there tomorrow, try to do it then.”

  Great, more surprises.

  I tried to let myself enjoy the party for the rest of the night as everyone celebrated our graduation and Noah’s potential apprenticeship. My worries about the war, family, and future never left, but I put them aside for the evening as I had fun with my friends and family.

  *****

  “Well, you shouldn’t have had that sixth glass of wine then! Get moving!” Britta yelled, spurring Cassie to catch up to the rest of us.

  “You had even more than me! You just have that stupid Skill of yours,” Cassie gasped to catch up.

  “We’re just built different, don’t blame me for your own lack of fitness. Now stop talking, and let’s run!”

  I felt for her, but I needed to worry about myself as we ran across the walls of the city. Luckily, Britta hadn’t been idle while we were walking around, and she’d figured out a great spot for us to train. Without a designated area for training available, the number of people in the city would have been a pain to navigate through.

  Plus, leaving the city was an option, but we wanted to avoid the many refugees coming and going. So, she’d instead had the idea of using the walls themselves to train.

  Luckily, the inner walls were accessible to anyone who didn’t loiter for too long. These walls weren’t nearly as busy as the streets below, and it was beautiful as we ran our way around the perimeter of the city.

  We’d started around the middle and were yet to reach either of the ends, despite running for an hour. The wall itself didn’t even wrap around the entire city since the south side was the sea.

  We were finally nearing one of the edges as we weaved past another man in uniform standing on top of the wall. The run was tough, but the water made the entire thing worth it as we crested another bump in the wall. From there, we could see the vastness beyond as we looked south towards Southern Isles. We couldn’t see them, but I knew they were there.

  Britta and Jen’s pace was blistering as we reached the edge of the wall, and all stopped to take in the sights.

  “Beautiful,” Jen said, smiling at the sight.

  “I’ve only been to the Isles a couple times, but the trip never ceases to amaze me,” Zane said, panting some. Of course, we were at a disadvantage compared to Britta and Jen without the ability to enhance our legs. Still, our pace was faster than even a few weeks ago as our conditioning improved, and our energy continued to strengthen us.

  “Goddess, damn it,” Cassie said, finally catching up and collapsing. Cassie still had difficulty whenever we upped our pace since she started after us.

  Britta let her rest a few minutes before telling us we needed to run back to where we’d started.

  Cassie looked like she wanted jump off the bridge before doing the entire run again, but thankfully, she decided against it and trailed behind us as we made our way back to where we started.

  The run hadn’t been as strenuous as some of our other workouts, but it felt nice to get my body moving again. We’d talked about getting Griff to work with us some more, but knew he needed to spend time with Pauline and his family without us around all the time.

  With that finished, we cleaned up and made our way to the Dungeoneers Guild.

  Today I got Ranked, I became a G-Rank Dungeoneer.

  *****

  We walked into the large guildhall. The streets were as busy as ever, and the guild itself wasn’t any different. The
hall seemed to be split into two, with one side used to eat and talk and the other side for discussions with guild staff. A bar was placed on the seated side, while the other side sported a massive line in front of the receiving windows.

  “Do we wait in line?” Britta asked, also noticing the line.

  “I really hope not. Let me ask around,” Zane said as he walked over to the tables.

  Minutes passed as we watched the line reduce slowly. Each time someone reached the front of the line, they spoke for minutes to the person behind the windows.

  Just in case, Cassie and Britta jumped into line.

  I continued to look around and even noticed a similar board to what I’d seen with Uncle Tom all those months ago in Huag’s Guild Hall, a list of monsters and their bounties.

  I started looking through the list, noticing there were so many monsters in the area. Some bounties would have had us going to places even further than Krader to find. It seemed like the list spread across the continent as I found rewards for monsters in Borson, near Lake Pinslo, and even up north near Dire.

  I didn’t have to wait too long before Zane called me back over to stand with the girls.

  “So, we’ve got a few options,” Zane started to explain. “Among the everyday things, this lineup is being used to look through the catalog of refugees, which is why it’s so long. It’s also where people are lining up if they’d like to petition the Guild Leader to have them miss the war.

  “I’m being told a lot of these people are wasting their time anyway since the Guild Leader isn’t giving any exceptions. Still, they keep trying. Some of them supposedly come here every single day.”

  “Can’t blame them, really,” I said, looking at the lineup of refugees and Dungeoneers with a new light. “In their shoes, I might try to do the same. Either that or be labelled a traitor for not showing up.”

  “Otherwise, I’ve been told we can skip the line if we say we’re here to receive a new Rank,” Zane continued. “We’ll just flag down the bartender, and they’ll take us to a separate room where they have us do our oaths and take down our information.”

  “Okay, well, we can always look at the list another time. We’ll check when we have a bit more time to waste. Let’s go become Dungeoneers,” Jen said eagerly. None of us disagreed as we made our way to the bartender.

  Britta got their attention, and within minutes we were taken to a separate room upstairs.

  Saying goodbye to the main room, we walked into a much smaller room where a woman sat at a desk. She didn’t look pleased to see anyone enter, but I was thrilled to see Vice-Guild Leader Constance Powell sitting at the desk.

  “Oh crap, are they revolting or looking for Gerard again? If I keep using ‘Suggest’ on these grumpy assholes, people will think the Guild is trying to control them.…” she said, looking at the attendant with disdain but getting out of her seat in anticipation.

  Apparently, it happened often enough she was ready.

  “No, not yet,” the bartender said. “We’ve got some kids looking to get their first Rank, and everyone else is busy downstairs. I was hoping you might do the ceremony again.”

  “Yes, yes. Anything but those people downstairs. This is all just a mess. The king starts a war, then leaves the rest of us to deal with his bullshit. I’ve got this Preem, thanks.” Connie said, dismissing the bartender.

  She took a seat again and finally looked at the rest of us in the room.

  “It’s you!” She shouted joyously, noticing who we were.

  We all waved awkwardly and ignored the whole thing about her ‘Suggest’ Skill. I could see she was just frustrated.

  “Yeah, we’re finally ready!” Jen said, taking the lead. “Weren’t you with the Azarans?”

  “Yeah, but that got squashed as soon as the King sent a memo mentioning we’d be fighting them within months… just a mess. The ambassador stormed off. Said that he was worried I would try to capture them and use their group as political leverage. I was offended, but I understood. He didn’t even let us help them cross the border. Again, for fear that we might reveal their location to the King and his ilk.

  “It’s all just ridiculous, and yet I can’t blame them. They came here to stop a war, and somehow, they were placed right in the middle. Look at all this crap,” Connie said, motioning to all the papers on her desk.

  “People begging to get out of fighting. Lower nobles offering bribes of gold and orbs. Investigators trying to figure out if the Azarans were involved. And somehow, I’m left to deal with most of it as the vice leader.

  “Don’t get a desk job; you’ll regret it for the rest of your life!

  “But enough about me, I’m so excited for you all! You’re young and all so capable. And because of your age, you can’t even join the war for at least another year. That means you’ll have many opportunities to hunt monsters and check out dungeons.

  “In fact, we’ll need you, since we’ll be reducing our numbers significantly to supplement the war.”

  “So, some people can get out of fighting?” I asked, hopeful for my father’s prospects.

  “Yes, absolutely, but please don’t ask me for anything special. I really don’t want to turn you down. We have our own selection criteria, and it's rigid. Of course, reputation means a lot, but I also need to meet certain quotas to keep this place running. All very boring stuff, but when the war ends, we still need to be here after all,” she said, leaning against the desk.

  “Okay, so what do we do then?” Britta jumped in, probably eager to move past all the bureaucracy.

  “Oh, yes. Where is it? Oh yes, here,” she said, pulling a book from the bookshelf behind her desk. “So, you all have officially graduated from Prep. Congrats. As such, you get to bypass the test necessary to become a G-Rank Dungeoneer. Even that isn’t much; we just need to make sure you can either fight or have an Affinity. Since you were at Prep, we’ve already confirmed that.

  “Past that, you’ll need to let us know your Affinity, your current Rank, your name, and your next of kin. If you have a team or a group you plan on joining, we’ll also take that, but some people like to keep that one a secret,” she said, turning the book to a specific page and handing it to Jen, who was at the front.

  “Read this, add those details to this piece of paper and sign the bottom, and you are done. G-Rank is easy!” Connie finished, sitting down at the desk.

  Jen took a moment to review the page in the book, then passed it to Britta.

  “But how will people know our Rank? Like when they don’t know us?” I asked, still not sure.

  “Good question,” she said, jumping up again and grabbing what looked like a stamp from another case on the bookshelf.

  “If you’re wondering why we keep this in plain sight, I’m not worried about anyone stealing it; it wouldn’t work for them either way. The box itself is enchanted, along with the stamps within. We have extra protections throughout to make sure they aren’t abused. Still, it’s a reasonably simple enchantment created even before my parents joined the guild.

  “Most of the time simple is better.

  “Do everything I just said, and I’ll put this somewhere on your body. You can choose where I put it, and I promise it will be painless. This allows certain people to see your Rank immediately. I’m one of those people, as are all the Guild leaders, any of the staff assigning bounties, and anyone guarding a dungeon.” She said, holding up the stamp. “But first, your pledges. Some guy wrote it down way back when and it stuck, so it’s a bit unoriginal.”

  The book finally got around to me. On it, the page read:

  I pledge that I am choosing to become a Dungeoneer of my own free will.

  That I am aware of the potential dangers and still choose to proceed.

  That the resources I receive from the Guild will not be used to harm other Dungeoneers unprovoked.

  But most importantly, to protect others, my own interests when they won’t directly harm others, and those of the Guild.

  F
lipping through some of the other pages, the book itself had a variety of information, from a code of conduct to locations of guildhalls around the continent and abroad.

  We looked through the book before signing the paper with all our information. Afterward, Connie had us go through each of the pledges in turn.

  While taking the pledge, I felt some of my energy used to make the pledge. Like nothing I’d ever felt before, the pledge was being enforced magically.

  This only became even more noticeable when a dialogue I’d never seen before suddenly appeared.

  Dungeon Pledge:

  Acknowledged!

  “Perfect,” Connie said, once we’d all finished. “I’ll give you all a stamp, and you’ll be ready to go. You are now G-Rank Dungeoneers. Congrats again!

  “Now, I know this has already been a lot, and I wouldn’t offer this to everyone, but I’ve seen most of you fight in the tournament. Unfortunately, like I said, we’re also short-staffed, and I’d appreciate some people who can take care of themselves at the earlier Ranks.

  “Want to get a triple congrats from me today by becoming F-Rank?”

  Chapter 8 – Gerard the Red

  We left the room and walked down the stairs to the main room. The lineup looked unchanged, as did the number of people drinking around the room.

  Noticing us, a few people started to clap. Britta loved it as she waved like royalty at all the people congratulating us on our ascension to Dungeoneers.

  “Want to see something interesting?” Connie asked, noticing that I was staring at the crowd before grabbing my arm where she’d placed the stamp. I felt some of her energy enter my body, an odd sensation, but within seconds I saw the Rank of everyone around the room. Above each of our heads was a large ‘G,’ while Connie had a different icon altogether, a diamond where everyone else had a letter.

  Looking around, I noticed some of the Guild staff had nothing at all, indicating they might have been regular humans. Around the room were a slew of different values. I noticed a few G-Rank, but everyone seemed to be F or E Ranked mostly. One man stood out because he was D Rank, but I couldn’t see any C Rank, let alone anything above C.