Depths of Ambition - A LitRPG Saga Part 1

TODAY WAS FINALLY THE DAY.

I bounded out of bed and checked the calendar hanging above my desk just to be sure, grinning when I saw the circled date. It was September 1st, and that meant I was finally old enough to apply for my dungeon diving license.

The excitement gripped me as I brushed my teeth, dripping toothpaste all over the sink as I stared back at myself in the mirror. Today wasn’t my birthday—that had happened a couple months back.

The first day of September was important because on this date every year, Dungeon Divers United, a special guild that monitored and maintained all the dungeons in the country of Aspatria, decreed that anyone who had either turned twenty years of age in the six months prior to September 1st, or would turn twenty years of age in the six months following, were allowed to try out for diving licenses.

And there was nothing in this world that I wanted more than to be a dungeon diver. Not just any diver though, but the one who completed the Path of Progression.

The Path of Progression was comprised of the Big Five dungeons of Aspatria. They were ranked from easiest to hardest, and only the most talented and experienced divers completed all five of them. If you managed to defeat the boss at the bottom of the fifth dungeon, you were rewarded with more riches than you knew what to do with as well as more fame than you could possibly imagine.

It wasn’t just the riches that drew me though. It was the sense of adventure. It was testing myself in ways that I’ve never been tested. There was also a legacy aspect to it as well, as I was reminded that morning when I entered the kitchen for breakfast.

My mother was standing over the toaster right as two waffles popped into the air. She caught them with the help of the plate and then dropped three dollops of butter on each of them in the shape of a smiley face. To complete the plate, she drizzled some syrup on each of them.