Prince Class 2: A Spicy Dungeon Life LitRPG (Finale), page 1
Prince
Class
2
Warden Locke
Copyright © 2024 Warden Locke
All rights reserved.
ISBN:
ISBN-13:
1
Jon stared at the locked gate, as well as the hourglass on the table just behind the bars. The top half held far less sand than the bottom. The battle would start soon. He was running out of time.
It’s now or never, Jon boy.
He cleared his throat and turned to scan the group lingering within the cell. The stench of filth and sweat assaulted his nose as his eyes went from one fighter to the next. Jon needed to size up the competition, which was pointless since he couldn’t see their levels until the fight started. They didn’t concern him much though. All he cared about was finding a suitable partner.
“The fuck you looking at?” a red-haired brute grunted when Jon’s eyes swept over him. The guy had to be waiting for Jon to look at him, because he barely caught the man’s face before his gravely voice rumbled the air. He was a few inches taller than Jon, but outweighed him by fifty pounds, at least.
“Just passing through,” Jon grumbled with a forced smile.
“Oh, so I ain’t worth your time, am I?”
Jon knew the type all too well. Big, nasty, and stupid. You couldn’t enjoy an ale at a pub without running into one of his kind, one who wanted to fight as badly as he wanted a drink. Jon made a point of never accepting a group offer that included a lug like the red-haired man shooting daggers at Jon with his eyes. They were more trouble than they were worth, no matter how good the coin was.
He couldn’t afford to put the man in his place, not in Elsfar Arena. The fighting pit was on the outskirts of the higher-level part of Granvar, the largest dungeon in the world. To date, Jon and his team of Azarian women had only tiptoed around the safe zones, gaining experience and levels while trying to avoid the Oathsworn guild members.
Playing it safe was no longer an option, not after what he saw last night. He and his group tracked down a party of Oathsworn members. The foul twats ransacked a village the day before, killing all of the men while stealing their women folk. The discovery was like a dagger through his heart, as well as Bexxa’s, the Azarian princess who gifted him with his class codex. Bexxa’s theory was that whoever ordered the attack was the man who held the codex of her mother, the Azarian queen.
The theory was confirmed when they tracked down the group. After a brutal battle, Jon and his team tried to continue on their journey, only to have a portal opened by the Azarian king. The number of Azarian warriors standing behind the masked man chilled Jon to his core, making it impossible to sleep until he figured out how he would contend with the army.
It was hard to believe that he thought he had bigger problems before last night. The leader of the Oathsworn, Marcus Vanderon, had Jon kidnapped and brought to Granvar to participate in Recruitment Day. On the surface, Recruitment Day was a competition held once every generation, a means for Oathsworn to bring new members into the guild. It was a farse though. The dark truth was that the guild felt the need to cull the competition, so they scheduled the competition to thin the herd, so to speak. Only a handful of the recruits would become members. The rest would be murdered in cold blood, with Granvar taking the blame.
Marcus Vanderon wanted one last, glorious battle before he handed the reins of the guild over to his son, Myron. That’s where Jon came in. As a former member of the Five Rings, the second-largest guild in the country, he made a name for himself as a capable adventurer. His reputation also made him a target of the Oathsworn, who tried to recruit him on several occasions. Turning them down made him an enemy, which explains why he was kidnapped and brought in as Marcus’s foe.
What Marcus Vanderon didn’t know was that his son had plans of his own. His father swore to uphold the old ways, to use Recruitment Day as the only means of knocking out the competition. With so many new guilds and adventurers popping up over the years, the event could no longer hold back the oncoming tidal wave. Myron wanted to deal with the competition directly, even if that meant having to take down the guild commission, the only organization the Oathsworn answered to. With Marcus out of the picture, and the guild commission destroyed, no one would be able to keep the Oathsworn from blockading every profitable dungeon. Adventuring would become a thing of the past, as would every guild seeking expansion.
“Hey, I’m talking to you, runt,” the red-haired man grumbled and took a step forward.
Jon didn’t have time to deal with the guy, not when he needed to find a capable fighter to join his group, the last line of defense standing between Vanderon and the end of adventuring. As of now, his group lacked a healer, which he didn’t expect to find at the arena. What he did hope to see was someone who could track down Bexxa’s sisters, as well as the men who held their codices.
“You’ll get your shot at him outside, Grant.”
The voice responding for him held a hint of anger in the tone, as well as some potential. Slowly Jon leaned to one side to see around the brute. What he saw made him smile. A tanned woman with lean muscles walked up to them, burning a hole through the man’s head with her gaze. She was taller than any of the women in his group, and one look at her said she was a capable fighter.
“Don’t stick your nose in my business, Jaeda,” Grant growled and whipped his head around to glare at her.
“I’m sorry, I thought I heard you say something,” she sighed, stopping beside the two men with her green eyes locked onto the biggest of them. “You see, I was under the impression that this was my arena, and nobody disrespects me on my own turf.”
“Go blow it out your ass,” the man grumbled and leaned forward to display his height and size advantage. “Or get down on your knees and blow me, bitch.”
“How about a compromise? I’ll kneel down, then blow it out your ass. Bad way to go though, I imagine. One minute, you’re basking in the glorious sensation of these wonderful lips wrapped around your tiny little cock. The next, your organs are spewing out of your backside.”
Yup, she’s a keeper, Jon chuckled in his head. Prolly make Sara wet herself, but we need someone with some balls. Well, other than me.
Grant sneered down at her, but Jaeda maintained her knowing smile, a look that practically dared the brute to take action. He didn’t get a chance though, not when a sea of guards walked over to the gate to announce that their time was up. The brute gave them both a look, shook his head, and promptly followed the others out the gate.
“You should watch your back,” Jaeda breathed and gave his back a hard smack.
“I can handle a twat like him.”
“Oh, I didn’t mean it that way,” she chuckled and walked backward towards the gate, smiling at him. “I meant me. I like to give newcomers a warm welcome.”
“Right.”
Why the bloody hell did I sign up for this?
Jon met her gaze until she turned to follow the rest of the group. A long breath escaped him as he waved off the guard opening his mouth to unleash a threat. In the outskirts of Granvar, Jon wouldn’t have thought twice about slamming the guy into the wall. The middle of the world’s largest dungeon was another story though. NAPs (non-adventurer people) weren’t to be trifled with the closer you got to the center of the map. He’d heard stories about adventurers who got drunk and decided that the innkeeper would make a good training dummy, only to discover that the man’s level was replaced with a skull. Any adventurer unfortunate enough to make such a discovery soon found themselves respawning nearby, minus one of their resurrection stones.
And I only got one, so I’ll mind my manners.
The legend of Elsfar Arena soaked into his skin as he trekked the tunnel leading to the center. Legends were seldom accurate, but those involving his surroundings held some consistency. From the way it was told, an adventurer could enter themselves in an arena battle. The fights were seldom the same though. Some were a free-for-all, every man for themselves, so to speak. Others involved teams of two, four, or six. There were other battle types, but those were few and far between, like all twelve gladiators taking on a hill giant.
Jon had only spent half an hour in the tunnels, but the way his eyes reacted to the sunlight made it feel like days. Thousands rose to their feet to cheer as he fell in with the group. To him, they were one big blur, all except the large area with a canopy on the other side of the arena. He didn’t need a quest to know that the arena master sat in the shade the canopy provided, or that he’d have to appease the man or woman to gain a sizeable reward.
Right now, I’d settle for another bloody resurrection stone. Only having one is making me a bit irritable.
Trumpets blew in the distance while the guards motioned for the fighters to walk out into the center of the ring. The place didn’t look like much. Just dirt mixed with rocks, surrounded by a twelve-foot-tall fence to keep the fighters from trying to escape.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” a voice boomed all around them. “Game Warden Artis humbly welcomes you to today’s main event. Give…”
Jon groaned and rolled his eyes as the announcer made the crowd cheer or jeer the fighters, then unleashed a long speech about what they could expect, and to offer a warning to those with ‘weak constitutions’. He nodded as the speech dragged on, only perking up when he saw a man in fine robes rise from beneath the canopy. He walked out to the railing with his hands out, making the crowd explode before motioning them to settle down.
“Yes, yes, we are all eager to see the game get underway,” Artis spoke in a soft voice, yet his words projected outward, filling the entire stadium with his dulcet tone. “Today, we have a special event for you…”
Damn.
“…for we shall not proceed with the usual battle royale. Instead, my good people, we shall witness…The Maze!”
The crowd erupted. At first, he thought the ground shook because thousands were clapping. He was wrong. It wasn’t their hands, but rather the stone platform rising from the center of the arena floor. Dirt and rocks rained down like water to further the noise, forcing Jon to turn to see what fresh hell awaited him. All he could see was a mammoth-sized cage, but he doubted it was filled with pixies.
“The chains holding that thing have to be bigger around than my stomach,” he muttered to himself.
“Not quite,” a familiar voice chuckled beside him. He whipped around to see Jaeda staring at the cage as well, wearing an unfitting smile as she leaned closer to him. “I bet you wish you hadn’t signed up for this.”
“How do you know I wasn’t dragged in here kicking and screaming?”
“Because. I didn’t hear you scream,” she sighed with a wink. “I don’t recognize you, so you must be one of those ridiculous adventurers. I hope your level is high enough for this.”
“Depends on what’s in the cage.”
“A less than merciful death.”
“Probably not then.”
“Well,” she laughed and clapped his back. “At least you’re honest. Now then, The Maze is supposed to involve all of us taking on the monsters…”
While she spoke, other platforms rose as well, each with a unique size. A few were smaller than his head, but the way they were stacked said he’d have to deal with multiple enemies at once.
“…but, since you pissed off Grant, you’ll have to deal with him too.”
“Looking forward to it,” he lied and scanned the scene until he found the red-haired brute standing off by himself. “Why you bothering to tell me all of this?”
“A few reasons, but you haven’t earned the right to hear them. Oh, you may want to take a step back.”
Jon thought his reflexes were catlike, but his mind and body took too long to get onto the same page. His foot rose from the ground before he could look down, sending him staggering back as a wall rose in front of him. Another rose from his right and behind. He turned in time to see Jaeda waving goodbye, just before another wall rose between them.
“Begin!” a voice boomed.
“Right.”
Jon felt a swell of guilt as he pulled out his codex. It wasn’t the fact that he still had forty-two points to spend, but the knowledge that none of his Azarian companions would receive credit for the kills he was about to perform. He was already five levels ahead of them, and it looked like the gap was about to expand since they were all out of range.
“Just have to make it up to them, I guess,” he huffed and checked his attributes. The points burned a hole in his pocket, but he didn’t want to spend them without knowing what level the monsters were, or what kind of attacks they would use. The strategy had served him well in the past, so he stowed the device, drew his sword, and stepped toward the path.
A man’s scream sounded, followed by a thunderous round of applause. A loud gong came next after the crowd died down. While he’d never stepped foot in Elsfar Arena before, it wasn’t a stretch to assume that there was one less gladiator to worry about.
“Doubt it’s Grant. Couldn’t get that lucky.”
Jon was about to turn the corner when a shadow fell over the floor. He thought it was Grant, at first, right until he realized that the arms were long enough to reach the ground. Grant was a gorilla, for sure, but he looked nothing like the literal gorilla that walked out in front of him. It was tall, eight feet, at least, and had to weigh upwards of seven hundred pounds. Not only that, but its fur was pure white, and someone had been kind enough to strap reinforced armor plates over its vital organs.
“Aye, you’d make a nice familiar form for a certain princess I know,” he chuckled and took a step forward, only to see level twenty-eight appear over the gorilla’s head. “Or perhaps not.”
Jon drew in a slow breath as the monster stepped closer, all while he reminded himself what he managed to accomplish yesterday. One of the women he fought was level twenty-two. He had to spend a resurrection stone to bring Sara back after the battle, but he pretty much handled the warrior by himself. He’d leveled up since then, and the gorilla wasn’t an elite, so he forced himself to accept the situation and readied his first attack.
Lightning flashed across the narrow passage as Jon shot forward. The ability was called Lightning Charge, a gift from Sara when she reached level ten, and he used it to close the gap and surprise the beast. The gorilla threw an arm in front of itself for protection, but Jon didn’t aim to take it head-on. Instead, he shot toward the other arm of the beast, showering it in lightning as his sword tore across its thick arm. When the move ended, he was six feet to the side of his target, staring at a health bar that was missing at least ten percent.
“Good enough for me,” he chuckled as the crowd cheered. He didn’t know how they could see the fight since the walls of the maze were so tall, but he ignored his curiosity and began his next maneuver. Triple Strike. Another maneuver from Sara, one that layered his sword with lightning as he performed two lunges and a spinning swing. The first was unfortunate enough to hit the plating over the gorilla’s stomach, but the second stabbed it in the shoulder and stole a small chunk of health. A smile curled across his face as the final step of the maneuver unleashed itself, but the monster didn’t stand still and take it. With a growl that vibrated his loins, the brute slammed a meaty fist into his chest mid-swing. The impact was harsh enough, but going head-first into the wall was twice as bad. A quarter of his health was lost, and the way the area swam in his eyes didn’t fill him with much confidence.
“Get out of the way!”
Jon didn’t want to take his eyes off of the armored gorilla, but it wasn’t smart to ignore the shouting from behind either. He started to turn when a hand grabbed his arm and yanked him to the side, accompanied by several light footsteps that shook his feet. Once more, he crashed into a wall, but he kept his head from striking it this time. The gorilla beat its chest and roared, signaling to the other hefty gray creature with two massive horns that its presence didn’t intimidate him in the slightest.
“You might want to stand back.”
2
Jon just assumed that Jaeda wanted him to step back so she could have room to perform some amazing maneuver that would heavily damage both of the creatures. That wasn’t the case, and it didn’t take long to figure what the true purpose. The armored gorilla and the other creature went at one another immediately, inflicting heavy amounts of damage with each attack.
“Come on,” she stated and grabbed at his arm. “We need to leave before one of them wins.”
He heard her words but he shrugged her off and went back on the attack. Jaeda scoffed at him when he lunged in to slash at the unknown creature, followed by another attack on the gorilla. Back and forth he went, measuring each attack to ensure that he didn’t draw the attention of either beast. After a full minute, the gorilla fell, forcing him to put all of his attention on the other creature. It was clinging on for dear life, so it didn’t take long to finish it off, freeing him to lean against the wall to catch his breath while he checked his codex.
“I hope that was…”
He turned to see if Jaeda noticed another monster, but her eyes weren’t on the path. They were locked on his device, filling his imagination with ideas as he looked at his attributes.
“Sixty points. Not shabby, love. Too bad you ain’t got one of these. We would have made double.”
“Double?” she asked with an obvious lump in her throat. Her eyes never looked away from his device throughout, like it sang a beautiful song that only she could hear.
“Possibly more,” he sighed and tapped his finger beside his unspent points like a decision was being weighed. “A lot of factors involved in…”
