Authors Note: This story is a unique take on the classic regression story, so if you aren’t ready to try something new I suggest you drop this. Also, the main character is able to break the 4th wall, which is why you’ll see him talk to the reader a lot. To continue, the chapters in this novel are shorter than usual chapters of other novels and release dates won’t have a pattern or be fully guaranteed, due to a lack of time to make these chapters. Finally, this is also my first novel and I am open to ONLY Constructive Criticism in the comments which I would appreciate a lot. Now that I’m done, I hope you enjoy the story and enjoy this very strange twist on the concept of regression!
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I walked down the hallway nervously until I reached the wooden door of dread. I used all my willpower to do a light knock knock knock and say “It’s John, who you called for.” I waited a few minutes and then a response came. “You may enter.” A soft, female voice replied.
I opened the gigantic wooden door and enter the room. You may be wondering, who is in the room? Obviously, it’s the guild leader. Guild leader? Yeah, guild leader. According to the history books, the first dungeon, the Death Valley dungeon, appeared 272 years ago in Death Valley, Arizona.
You can probably guess what happened next- monsters came out of the dungeons, humanity found a way to conquer the dungeons and drive the monsters back by gaining a new power called mana and using it, people got very rich by conquering dungeons, adaptations happened over time that gave some people but not all mana glands, people formed different groups called guilds, sects and mercenary groups to conquer dungeons, blah blah blah. You might be wondering, what guild am I part of?
I’m part of the current #1 guild in America, Rampaging Hearths, not to brag. This guild was one of the first to be created when the first dungeon came and was formed with the sole intent of driving the monsters back and conquering the Death Valley dungeon. And they did exactly that. Anyways, I’m sorry for the info dump. My head hurt when I learned this in history class, so I’m certain that your head does too.
Anyways, back to this meeting. The guild leader called me out of the blue, and I was very nervous since the guild leader barely sees anyone and when she visits someone she’s described as “scary, frightening, worse than looking at John’s face”… okay, whoever said the last one is done for.
When I entered the room, I just saw a very attractive woman. However, the last time I thought that a woman was “attractive”, my friend Jason decided to spar that woman (a different one form my guild leader) at the annual multi-guild individual ranking competition and got destroyed by the “attractive woman”, losing his ranking of 34 and going down to 124.
That’s why I was scared of women, and you’d be wise to be scared of them too.
Well, I’ve been getting sidetracked too much, so I’ll talk about what happened next. I froze. Froze in front of the guild leader due to her overwhelming aura, her unmatched beauty, every aspect about her was superior to every human being I’ve ever seen in my life combined.
“Yes, um, this is John, who you called for a few minutes ago, here and present.” I somehow managed to say.
“Well, I did call John. If you don’t know me, my name is Susan Hyde, ranked #13 in the world and I am the official guild leader of the top guild in America, the first guild to successfully complete and dungeon, and a guild ranked #7 worldwide, Rampaging Hearths. I called you on official business.” The guild leader replied.
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She’s supposed to be scary but she’s bragging right in front of me with information I already know. I scoffed in my mind and gave a reply.
“Well, uhm, Ms. Guild Leader Hyde, ranked #13, would you be kind enough as to tell me what you called me here for.”
“Ah, well, I called you here… for a promotion.”
My eyes widened in shock. Out of everything I expected, all the possibilities I had in my mind, this one was the last one and the least likely to me.
“Um, well, I don’t know if I’m qualified for this promotion.” I replied. I thought I wants since I may have messed up in a few dungeon raids thoroughly my career, but I was still strong, ranked #179 worldwide when I just left my prime (I’m currently 45 years old and I need to work like 7 more years before I can retire with generational wealth and when I was in my prime my world ranking was past 100 at #45, which is really good but now I don’t focus on ranking competitions and more on dungeons so I can have a very early retirement).
Sorry for all the unnecessary information. Still, the promotion would let me retire earlier and have even more generational wealth to pass on, which is very nice. Then I can settle down nicely with a wife, have a few kids, and pass on peacefully but still help out whenever I’m needed.
“Well, you have messed up a few times, but you were very highly ranked, you are very strong, and you can easily solo-clear dungeons up to tier 5 out of 7 (7 is the highest tier, while 1 is the lowest). Because of these statistics and the recent firing and a new hiring of a Guild Department Head, you are being promoted from a Team Captain to a Guild Executive. Congratulations.”
My body reeled backward, unable to handle the wave of shock that overcame me. How did I get promoted 3 places up to a Guild Executive? Ah, you must be confused. Don’t worry, I’ll explain.
These are the guild rankings of each guild from lowest to highest: Guild Apprentice (who were apprentices of Guild Seniors and students of academies), Guild Member, Guild Senior, Team Captain, Batallion Commander, Batallion Leader, Guild Executive, (8 people which are the helper of the department heads), Guild Department Head (only 8 members) and finally the Guild Leader. The Guild Leader and the Department Heads formed the Guild Council of 9 members which handled every major deduction in the guild.
Guild Apprentices, Guild Members and Guild Seniors make up teams led by a Team Captain. 5 teams make up a battalion, which is led by a Battalion Leader which focuses on the battalion as a whole (ex: Teams 1 and 3 go right, Teams 2 and 4 go left, Team 5 go straight) and 5 Battalion commanders which focus on a specific team, their performance and the condition of each member in the team.
In the worst-case scenario, the Battalion commanders go themselves to save the team. I’ve seen it happen a couple of times, but it never happened to my team, since I was there to always hard carry them and save them so we wouldn’t get in trouble. The few times I hard-carried them to the risk of me dying was my few “mistakes”.
“Because of your reasoning, I will accept this promotion. Thank you for giving me a promotion such as this. If guild leader so kindly permits it, I will take permission to leave.” I replied.
What I said at the end was basically a polite way of asking if I could leave, which I learned the hard way.
“I permit you permission to leave. Also, your promotion will also be effective starting from tomorrow.” The Guild Leader said and turned away to her own work, which was my signal to leave.
Before I did, I quickly sensed what seemed to be a burst of energy near the edge of the right-side window in the Guild Leader office, but it was for a second do I let it pass.
When I looked at the guild leader, she was looking at the same spot, but with a worried look on her face. Then, she suddenly turned and looked at me with a scowl.
“I permit you permission to leave.” She emphasized coldly while raising her bloodlust aura. She was telling me to leave.
“I will follow the respects of the guild leader and accept the permit of permission to leave.” I replied, and left really quickly.
Now I see why they were saying the guild leader was scary. The bloodlust she gave off chilled me to the bone and the cold demeanor made it worse. To add on, if looks could kill, the scowl could kill the rank #1 in the world in less than 1 millisecond.
Anyways, I stuffed that experience at the back of my brain and quickly went to tell my friends the good news.
“Yo, guys, I got a promotion.” I said to my friends who were at the lounge we were hanging out in before I got called, with looks of relief that I was alive.
Right after that statement, there was an explosion.
