waking up at cause of someone yanking the blanket off your almost warm enough body causing cold air to rush in to steal whatever warmth he desperately tried to maintain to be able to sleep sucked, which was the reason he currently loathed jiruo, whom was currently looking very awake in addition to slight amusement, already fully clothed and ready to head out, spiky white hair seemed to glow in the dim morning ambience, it stuck out in its usual mess. His ordinary clothes looked the same as always along with his moon whistle hanging from his neck, glinting and taunting him.
"Do you plan on getting up? You do have all that crap to put on you know, if you're gonna put it on anyways"
Glancing at the multi function bracelet he had on his left arm he moaned "Jiruo, its too damn early, why didn't you wake me up with the others?" "Im gonna need any extra time for dragging riko out of bed, so i dont plan on coming back to the room" murmuring "right" while uncoiling himself from his snake like position on the bed along with putting his feet in his sandals to avoid the terrifying cold floor.
he began changing into his attire, which he had bought himself, unlike most of the inhabitants of the orphanage whom got granted standard, generic clothes to them that the kids used for daily wear as well as cave raiding and pretty much every facet of their lives, his clothes were not cheap, but they didn't burn a hole through his pocket either.
from the little savings he had managed to collect over the years of tedious work and accounting he had managed to buy a set of more specialized clothing.
Said clothing consisted of a dark green, wool sweater, which was thick enough to keep him warm but still allowed a strong breeze through its fibers to regulate body temperature, as for the legs, cargo pants of the same color yet made of a stronger material which consisted of tightly woven, thick cotton, the pants were resistant to tears and scrapes from sliding on rocks or falling on gravel, it also has various pockets, a very useful feature in breckan's opinion.
Tying his orphanage granted boots while tucking his pants in them in order to prevent insects from crawling in which would probably lead to him running off some ledge and plummeting into some beast's mouth, or more likely becoming a crunchy meat pancake.
Shaking his head to rid himself of the ominous thoughts while strapping an assortment of guards on which consisted of forearm guards, shin guards, knee guards and elbow guards, all made of boiled leather.
Jiruo had an issue with all the equipment he had bought calling it in his words "a waste of money, you're the most paranoid person here, excessive as well" breckan snorted at that thought, screw jiruo, he was gonna be paranoid all he wanted, yeah he knew jiruo was a moon whistle and supposedly knew what he's talking about, but hell if he cared, all these people were insane, everybody knew first hand about the plethora of dangers inside that hell, people Died and were never found and if they were, it was rare to even find bones, yes, maybe he was paranoid, but he would rather be paranoid than insane, besides, everybody aside from Jiruo who was our caretaker, had to dig for artifacts which means being on your knees, so most of the red whistles actually has knee pads, it made total sense to have elbow pads as well right?
Grabbing the frankly huge delving backpack that the academy issued along with the rope, water skin , food rations, rappel device, and last but not least, pickaxe and two knives, finally being ready.
Breckan left his room with a purposeful, strong stride with a determined look on his face, if he only knew that he is going to sorely need that determination in a not so far away future.
Meeting the delving party consisting of the ragtag bunch of natt, riko, shiggy, jiruo, along with breckan, falling in formation as the March began, he put on his dark green soft cotton wide brimmed hat over his head tightening the leather retention strip to his neck.
The small contingent thudded along the stone road in a rough line behind jiruo who led, with breckan being last.
As the party Neared their destination jiruo spoke up in a commanding tone that warranted no dissent or argument "none of you are authorized to proceed below a depth of 200 meters" the comment prompting riko to outburst "but jiruo we are allowed to reach 550 since we are red whistles, thats unfair!" "Your staying at 200 because i TELL you to, dont forget that I'm your teacher, and that I outrank all of you. I expect you all to follow your handbooks to the word and when you're stuck on something, remember your training" riko hmphed in an affronted manner crossing her arms tempting breckan to pat her head in an attempt to further anger the already angry girl, the act caused riko to slap his hand away while he just snorted at the whole affair.
Nearing the drop off where red whistles oftentimes descended to a relatively safe area with little vertical drop off's or hammerbeaks which were seldom common in the first layer, jiruo ordered them all to loop their roaps around metal anchors embedded in solid granite around the rappel zone, everyone doing as told, attached their rappel devices to the sturdy rope, with this done, all the red whistles turned their backs on the hole, kicked the ends of the ropes into the hole and one by one carefully eased themselves off the edge with their feet towards the cliff face and began descending fearlessly.
Breckan, however, stood still gazing after the others as they passed the forcefield and disappeared into the inky blackness.
"You know what to do" was all the encouragement Jiruo spared him before also disappearing from his line of sight.
"What an inconsiderate teacher that guy is, cant believe lyza the annihilator took him as an apprentice, maybe she should have taught him to be nicer" breckan said ending with a huff.
Lifting his gaze from the abyss he looked at the breathtaking town of Orth during a sunrise one last time as he resolutely closed his eyes, and took the leap of faith into the darkness which seemed to welcome him into its depths.
Authors notes:there may be some action in the next chapter guys so watch out for updates while I try my hand at writing it.