Dungeons and Dalliances Ch. 027-039

1.27 - Tour

"Okay," Sammy said. "So. I'm sure you've heard a lot about the guilds, and it's my job to clear things up. What do you think of them?"

Sammy had guided Natalie out of the large entry hall, where freshmen candidates had been swarming the various tables ready to be greeted by guild officials. It seemed Natalie had skipped the line through an odd, if fortunate, series of events. And she was getting a full tour, rather than the casual, canned discussions she'd been hearing back at the hall.

"What do I think of them?"

"Like, in general." She shrugged. "Your perception."

Natalie thought about it. Well, Harper had been pretty frank, so her appraisal was probably the right one. "They're places to socialize and train with people who fill a similar role to you, practically speaking. But ... they're basically frats, besides that. Or sororities. Whatever the co-ed term is. Party houses," she finally landed on.

Sammy gave her an amused look. "If this was an official tour, this is where I'd tell you no. That you're wrong. And on the record ... I did." She winked, then took a stern voice. "The guilds are professional organizations, and we don't throw parties, we throw 'school pride' events."

"The getting hammered part is coincidental."

"Officially, yes," Sammy said, grinning. "But no, really. Even if we have lots of members join who only care about ... our less professional side, that doesn't mean we don't have anything to offer."

They'd been walking through a wide hallway, and now Sammy veered them to the left, through a set of open double doors.

"For example!" she said cheerfully. "The library. Honestly, it might be the most comprehensive collection of books in the country, for our specific niche. Delving commentary, combat styles, class and role duties, anything you could imagine when it comes to tanking. And plenty of general advice, encyclopedias, and so on, too."

Natalie blinked around at the shelves piled with tomes of miscellaneous size and color. Like the rest of the guild, the room was in good order: clean, organized, and well-lit ... though the iron-bar windows were a bit out-of-theme with the interior.

Like Sammy said, it was a staggering collection. Many times larger than what could be found back at a town like Tinford, so Natalie was more impressed than the average Tenet newcomer.

"Though, if I'm being honest," Sammy said, "the library doesn't see much use. Probably more than the fighter's guild does, but our sort tends to be a hands-on type. Still, the amount of insight in these pages could last lifetimes. I really ought to get in here more often ..."

The words piqued Natalie's interest, because, she realized, if there was a place she could find information on paladin classes—how exactly patrons worked, if they 'worked' at all—it would be here. Or if not here, then Tenet's main library, or one of the other guild libraries. But the tank's guild, a certain possibility.

Not that it was high on her list of priorities, but having somewhere to start was nice.

"How do you find what you need?" Natalie asked, walking up and inspecting the nearest shelf. A Study of Armor Durability and Maintenance, one dark-blue spine read. The one next to that was, The Mechanics of Defensive Equipment: Form, Function, Design.

"We follow the same decimal system the rest of campus does. Though ... sometimes things get misplaced. You might have to do some hunting if you're looking for something specific."

"Decimal system?"

Sammy tapped the bottom of a book spine, drawing Natalie's eyes to a series of numbers scrawled on a white slip. "There's a catalog at the front desk, if you want to hunt manually. But it'd be easier to ask Nelle or Fay. Those are our librarians."

"Two? For this whole mess?"

"Tenet handles most of the inventory stuff. Nelle and Fay just deal with ... our half of responsibilities." She shrugged, as if she didn't know exactly what that entailed.

"Do you have to be a member? To check anything out?"

"To even get in here, actually," Sammy confirmed. "We're open for freshmen, today, and the next few days, but after that, members only."

She wasn't surprised. Hoarding information had been a way of life for the guilds, back in the day. Less so in the modern age, but not entirely gone. Knowledge was power, as the saying went. Why share with the competition?

"Which actually segues to the main point," Sammy said. "Membership, and what you get."

Natalie nodded, prompting her to continue.

"There's actually two tiers," Sammy said. "Everyone on campus has to align with a guild, but most people, it's a superficial relationship."

"So, members in name only," Natalie said. "Then, there's full members. Like you. People who work for the guild?" She smirked. "The frat-slash-sorority members."

Sammy, like before when Natalie'd called the guild that, seemed amused. "You really shouldn't call us that. Especially if you join. We have an act to keep up."

Natalie snorted.

"But yeah," Sammy said. "Full members. Being aligned—'half members'—means you get access to the training rooms, library, and other basic utilities, but being a full member is ... well, a job, but with benefits. Depending on your position in the guild, you could get a room," she gestured above them, toward the ceiling, where Natalie could guess the bedrooms were, "a token stipend, access to the treasury, and ... well, a bunch of other stuff."

"Treasury?"

"A communal one," Sammy said. "I guess it's not even the first day for you guys, so you haven't gotten the Tenet tour. You'll need to rent out a treasury room, assuming you don't want to sell everything the moment you get it. If you're a full member of the guild, you can store stuff in ours." She hesitated. "Though, if you're storing a bunch of junk, some of the upper years would probably get annoyed. Even if we have plenty of space." She shrugged.

"Huh," Natalie said. It sounded useful, even if she didn't know she was sold on trying to become a full member. She already knew she'd probably align with the tank's guild, but further? She didn't know. "And what's it take to get in?"

"There's a few things. Minimum academic standards, your job responsibilities, whatever they are, and stuff like this."

"This?"

"Event days. Showing the newbies around, or ... whatever else is going on, where the guilds need a presence."

"And how often's that happen?"

"Not super, but not rare, either. Every few weeks? But you don't need to go to every one. It doesn't cut into your time too bad. Tenet wants us delving, first and foremost. But it's not a free ride, either. It's work."

Natalie hummed in consideration. "Doesn't sound awful, I guess."

"It's not." She shrugged. "But I'm biased. I picked it, didn't I?" She gave a sheepish smile. "And, there's a few extra benefits. Being on the ground floor for ... whatever's going on, can be nice."

"The parties," Natalie said.

Sammy nodded. "Like I said, it's poor form to say it out loud, but it's half the reason most of us join up." She gave Natalie a pointed look. "It can be hard to get alcohol onto campus, you know. Security looks lax, but it's really not. So ..." She raised her eyebrows, emphasizing the point, though Natalie just found it funny how she was tiptoeing.

"And you're at the parties, often?" Natalie asked.

Sammy grinned. "Oh, here and there. Everyone needs a break once in a while."

"When's the next?" Then, even more forwardly, "The next you'll be at, I mean."

Sammy just gave her an amused look. "I see through you, freshman. You're just trying to get out of the barracks for a night." She quirked a teasing eyebrow. "But I suppose I'm feeling benevolent. There's one tomorrow, and maybe I'll give you a place to stay, if things turn out."

Natalie grinned. She liked the sound of that.

"Sounds like a plan." She wasn't excited just because her class was encouraging this. Sammy was cute, friendly, and honestly, a good connection to have, considering her place in the guild. Natalie'd gotten lucky, being guided her way by that blond boy.

"Anyway," Sammy said, coloring slightly at the bluntness of the exchange. "Let's keep the tour going."

"You said there's training rooms?"

"Sure. Let's go check them out."

1.28 - Closing Introspection

Sammy's tour lasted a half-hour more. She seemed frustrated about having to cut it off, but she 'really did have something she was supposed to be doing' and couldn't entertain Natalie all night. Her assigned duty for today's freshmen hadn't been tours, as she'd said earlier—and one-on-one tours weren't really a thing anyway—but had made an exception for Natalie, taking interest.

Which was great news. Natalie suspected tomorrow night, during the first party of the year—sorry, 'school pride event'—she'd be getting lucky. There'd definitely been chemistry between them. Though not especially of a romantic kind ... but that wasn't either of them were looking for, she thought.

How lucky? She guessed she'd be finding out. But she all but had an open invitation to stay in Sammy's room, so unless she fucked things up, her night ought to turn out well.

As for Natalie's problem—the thing between her legs—well, she'd handle that as it came. Jordan had taken it in stride, but she was Jordan. Would other girls be fine with it? That was assuming she even got that far. But she thought she would. Sammy's intentions—and Natalie's—had been pretty clear.

After the tank's guild tour, Natalie, as planned, checked out the other guild halls. Fortunately, or unfortunately, none were as interesting as her adventure with Sammy. It was, however, amusing—and intriguing—seeing each of the guild's personalities. Individuals were individuals, of course, but each guild had a specific air about them: both on the large scale and the small scale.

The fighter's guild was similar to the tank's, but louder, more rambunctious ... Sammy had mentioned that while the fighter's guild's parties were worth attending, you had to be aware that more property damage and injury happened there than the other four guilds combined. Safety definitely not guaranteed, when things got going. Which was a selling point to some, Natalie, honestly, included. It sounded like fun. Apparently, it was a recurring minigame to escape the campus enforcers when they showed up to quiet things down. Natalie loved that sort of chaos.

The mage's guild, and the last of the buildings she visited—Natalie decided she would check out the healer's guild if a skill developed for that branch, but not until then—had the most subdued atmosphere. Unsurprisingly, most mages were academics of varying sorts; the representatives hosting the freshmen welcoming events for the tank and fighter's guilds had been loud and extroverted, but for the most part, the mage's guild spoke in quiet, polite tones, moving about in a stiff, if expeditious manner. Her trip there was the shortest.

Depending on how Natalie's class developed, it was likely that she'd end up enrolled at the mage's guild. Though, she'd learned through her talks with Sammy that there were more politics at play between the guilds than she'd thought. Tenet allowed students to enroll at two, but students looked down on it; there was tribe mentality at play, and especially between specific guilds. The tanks and fighters stuck together in much the same way the mages and healers did; the rogues, as always, stood apart, the third point to the trinary system.

But even among tanks and fighters, dual enrollment was met with disapproval. She could do it, sure, and in fact she might have to, because the mage's guild would have information she'd want to sort through, but if she wanted smooth sailing in the tank's guild she'd have to not. Maybe she could make a friend in the mage's guild, and get access to their library that way? Natalie thought the whole situation was kind of stupid. Who cared if someone was in two guilds? But she also understood, kind of. There was comfort in banding together—in pack mentality.

The event took up most of the evening. It was dark when Natalie set out back to the barracks. She settled down for bed early, before the lights had even gone out. She did have an early wake-up tomorrow, considering her decided-upon morning routine. Early showers, where she could be alone ... and where she wouldn't be caught taking care of her problem.

Settled down in bed, pajamas donned and alarm set, she stared up at the ceiling and considered her future. Not intentionally, but because how couldn't she? Today had been packed, and had been the first full day away from home.

That was where her thoughts wandered first: home. She wondered how Mom and Dad were doing. For all Mom's wailing at the train station, she had to be somewhat grateful for having the house empty. Though, she was definitely worried for Natalie's safety. Tenet had outwardly seemed not far from a regular university campus—which was hilarious, because Natalie, going to university?—but the truth was, she'd be seeing the reality of the situation shortly.

This was a school designed to create hardened delvers ... Natalie was pretty sure a normal university didn't have a death rate roughly equal to its wash out rate.

The good news was, she'd made a friend of sorts through Sammy. A contact, at least. She'd need to make more of those. She hadn't bumped into any of the 'politics' that Tenet was infamous for, but she suspected that was because classes hadn't actually started.

It would be nice if Natalie could get away from it all. As a nobody from a nowhere town, she might be able to, right? The politicking of the major houses was pervasive, but it would be a load off her shoulders if she could simply sidestep aligning herself with any of them. Though that came with its own problems. Having allies—even if it meant having enemies—might be better than cutting herself off from it all.

She sighed, knowing it was sure to be a headache.

Eventually, the lights shut off and the bustle of the barracks slowed. With so many people, and no strictly enforced sleeping hours, there remained a low buzz of noise ... but Natalie's tiredness eventually overtook her.

2.01 - Facility

Finally, the first real day begun.

Tenet's training facility was an enormous, sprawling structure, the largest of any Natalie had seen so far. Which made sense. Tenet was, at its core, a combat academy. So this structure—the training facility—was the cornerstone of Tenet: where students learned how to maximize their abilities and survive in the brutal kinds of life-and-death combat that pervaded dungeoneering.

The grounds sprawled much past the facility, too. Natalie and Jordan passed students in a variety of routines: spars, warm ups, conditioning, or whatever else.

The upperclassmen were easy to spot, and not just because of the distinguishing badge affixed to their right shoulder: black, for 'fourth year', where Natalie and Jordan wore green for 'first'. They moved in a blur, faster than Natalie's eyes could track ... and fought inside reinforced sparring rings, where shimmering magical shields rebuffed their attacks with sparkling fanfare. Natalie could feel the impacts of their blows, even if she couldn't see all of them, with how fast they moved.

That kind of strength was what awaited Natalie, assuming she made it to Tenet's upper years. It was hard to wrap her head around. Each of their blows could probably bend metal. Natalie didn't know how hard it was to make those defensive shields tremble, but some of the combatants were doing just that.

Inside the training facility, she and Jordan beelined for the map. They weren't the only first-semester student there: a small crowd huddled around the board, either looking for their destination, or inspecting what sorts of equipment were available to them. The first portion of the morning was theirs to do with as they wanted. Combat classes started at nine thirty.

As first years, many of the facilities were closed off to them. Tenet's resources were vast, but not unlimited. Most of the groundbreaking facilities were reserved for the upperclassmen—though lower-year students could schedule their usage during specific hours. But walk-in usage during morning training was reserved for the students who had earned it.

Natalie was interested in using some of the fancier equipment and facilities. There was, apparently, a room that actually simulated dungeon monsters. How, she hadn't a clue—but it was apparently realistic, and hosted a whole variety of common monsters. She doubted she'd get to use it any time soon. It was one of the more premier tools, and the upper years had priority.

"Heading to the mage hall?" Jordan asked.

"Yeah," Natalie said, somewhat reluctantly. She didn't have much choice, there.

She'd rather join Jordan in a physical training routine, but it was clear as day that wasn't the aspect of her class she needed to improve. Her [Illusion] spell needed practice more than anything else. And spellcasting fundamentals in general, assuming she would receive others spells in the future. Seeing how she'd gotten one at level one, that seemed safe to assume.

Having memorized their destinations, she and Jordan split up. Natalie walked through twisting halls, peering in through glass windows at students in various stages and intensity of their warm-up or training regiments.

Arriving at the mage section of the building, Natalie leaned against the receptionist desk.

"Hey," she said. "There's like, lessons, right?"

"There's a board over there," the receptionist—a name-tag identified him as Rodger—said. "But I can help you." He slid over a clipboard and flipped through it. "What level are you?"

Natalie's first thought was that he meant the question literally, which would've been an oddly intimate question, even knowing Natalie was a freshman and almost certainly level one. Levels just weren't talked about in specific terms, most of the time. But she realized a second later he meant the question in the general sense.

"Uh, beginner," Natalie said. "Like ... I didn't expect to get a class that used magic. Starting off from scratch."

Rodger gave her a sympathetic look. "Happens more than you'd think. Let's see ... we have two student instructors for beginners. Silas and Tess."

No faculty-level instructors, only volunteer students. That made sense. Real instructors would be leading classes for higher level training sessions, where their talents were better suited. Natalie didn't need world-class instruction for the bare-bone basics.

"Tess?" Natalie asked, picking, naturally, the girl's name.

"Outside," Rodger said. "Pad twelve." Then, looking up and seeing Natalie's blank face, he said, "Out that door, all the way down, into the courtyard. There's sixteen pads in a big grid. She'll be on number twelve."

"Gotcha," Natalie said, tapping the desk. "Thanks."

"Have a nice work out," he said idly.

Outside, the air was chilly, biting into her. She'd forgotten, having warmed up in the facility's heated interior. Still, not uncomfortably so, just enough Natalie rubbed her hands together absently. She preferred when it was cool out—kept her focused, and was better for training, so she wasn't sweating up a storm.

Which still mattered for mage training. It had a similar effect on the body as physical effort did, though not as pronounced.

As Rodger had said, the outside courtyard—one of many—was arranged in a huge grid of four rows of four concrete pads. The scale of the training facility really was impressive, even for Tenet's standards.

She found her way to block twelve. There were a few students gathered there, already.

Like usual, she could tell a group of mages. Mages had a tendency to seem frail when stacked up against their tank and fighter counterparts. And they lacked the lean musculature of a rogue, too. The flimsiest looking role by a significant margin, besides maybe healers.