Isekai Grimoire System

CHAPTER III: THE CURSED CAVE DUNGEON

“It’s here? It turned out to be quite crowded.”

“Well, besides getting your ID card, there is a guild office nearby; many adventurers are taking care of their needs.”

Archie and Layla had just entered Wellspring town, the closest place they could register for identity cards.

The city is bustling with traffic, and the buildings stand majestically. They can see many adventurers wearing various equipment doing their activities, whether just drinking or discussing their strategy to conquer dungeons.

That night, Archie had decided to find a cure for his mother. He had to research dungeons, looking for magic items or drop items that could be useful to him. For that, he needs to have an identity card.

In this world, identity cards are obtained from a commercial dungeon called “The Given.” Unlike dungeons in general, the size is like an ordinary house door, and this dungeon can be in the college offices or guild agencies.

After putting the horse down, Archie walked with Layla to a large building in the center of town. The building was called Guild Base, a place where adventurers and students made transactions. They can sell or buy drop items from dungeon loot, equipment or take missions provided on a noticeboard inside.

“Welcome, is there anything we can help you with?”

A maid greeted them with a big smile just as they stopped in front of an empty queue. Unlike the queue beside them—where many people were standing carrying goods and bags to be exchanged, this queue was empty as it was set aside for other business.

“I want to get my ID,” Archie replied.

The maid smoothed her short hair before answering Archie’s needs. “Okay, please fill out this form first.” Then she handed him a piece of paper and a pencil that looked not much different from his world.

The information columns on the paper include general information, such as name, family name, gender, age, and the like. Even so, Archie has a problem; he only remembers some things about his identity.

The maid’s graceful fingers began to help Archie fill out the form, and she gave suggestions that Archie simply accepted with a nod.

“Okay, this is enough. Next, you only need to enter The Given. Please follow me,” continued the maid. She came from her counter and ushered Archie into a room.

“Do you understand what you need to do inside?”

“Uh, well, I guess I know more or less,” Archie replied, his eyes gliding over to Layla.

Finished with greetings and pleasantries, Archie stood before a magical door emitting a distorted white light. “Is this The Given?”

The moment Archie stepped through the door, he found his body pulled by the magic wave, distorting his vision until he finally realized he had entered the dungeon.

If he refers to Layla’s words about The Given, for Archie, it is more like the stage of choosing a class when playing an online game. It’s just that there are differences here and there, which in short, this is not a game.

However, he is not an existence of this world—but an outlander. It was likely that there would be differences that he didn’t know about, and in anticipation of that…

A gust of wind blew out of thin air, and a book revealed its form. It’s the Grimoire of the Winds, a power that had just awakened within him.

[[Quest Encountered! Perform the Trial Given Dungeon]]

If it was according to his expectations, then he only needed to go through the dungeon like the introductory stage of a game.

A new page has been opened. Another skill has been added.

“Welcome back.”

Archie looked at the maid’s expression, who was waiting for him at The Given’s door. It looks like the registration process doesn’t take that long.

“Next, please place your palm on this crystal,” she continued, pointing at a crystal-shaped tool atop the table.

It was a device that would print out an identity card automatically, but before that, someone had to complete The Given to have their identity recorded.

[Name: Archie Shellford

Gender: Male

Class: Wanderer

Grade: Whitecaste]

“Wanderers?” The maid was stumped as she read the class column on Archie’s newly printed ID card. “Oh, sorry I’ve never heard of a jobclass like this,” she said, lowering her head.

Name, Gender, Class, and Grade are simple and only used as identifiers. In this world, there wasn’t a level system like Archie thought, but it seemed they all came under the Grade category.

The grade is the rank of adventurers. The higher their grade, they can enter and conquer higher dungeons.

Whitecaste, Greencaste, and Bluecaste are the lowest rated. Generally, dungeons with white-level, green-level, and blue-level difficulty are relatively easy.

Purplecaste, Redcaste is ranked adventurers who have transcended classes or abilities they are personally deemed capable of by the academy. In short, Archie has seen a bypass method to raise his grade.

“Your skill points are still intact, you have twenty points, and you are free to choose the skills you want.”

“Skill points…does that amount refer to one’s age, huh?” Archie muttered as he laid out the hypothesis in his head.

“Yes, right. The minimum age someone can ask for an identity card is eighteen. That meant they had eighteen points they could use to pick up any skill they wanted. However, in rare cases, sometimes one is born with special skills, and one can also acquire skills through external media such as rare manuscripts,” explained the maid.

“Okay, thanks….um…uh?”

“My name is Emma.”

The maid—Emma, handed Archie’s ID card, which was about the size of a driver’s license, so it wasn’t difficult to carry it around.

“There are many ways to acquire skills, having others teach you, using crystals skill, skill sheets, learning from the church. But either way will still consume skill points for one skill, umm…except, there are super rare skills that require more than one skill point for just one skill, so please think carefully before choosing a skill.”

Whether she was doing it because of her duty or some other reason, Emma's explanation was clear enough to understand. When the two came out of the room, the first thing that looked at them was Layla, with a sullen and annoyed face.