The next morning, I left Constans to sleep in while I went to get things ready for my departure. She had spent all night learning her two new classes in the living room of our suite. I had my new Warrior class as well, but I had no experience to level it yet, so it sat at level 0.

  I asked around the city until I found a helpful clerk at a bookstore who recommended an older woman who used to work as a tutor for merchants’ children. I found the woman at home, and after the initial introduction, I managed to convince her to take Constans under her wing by the easy method of paying her a ridiculous sum of blue orbs. To me, it only cost five blue orbs for a year of tutoring, but for the average person, that was ten silver or three hundred copper nummi. A rich sum for a simple tutor, so I hoped she was worth it.

  After that, I found a second tutor for Constans at a small martial arts studio I had passed a few times in my explorations of the city. The tutor agreed to train Constans and agreed to let me take classes as well whenever I was in town.

  My final stop for Constans was a scholar that specialized in healing. I paid him to visit Constans at the inn and give her a complete magical heal to repair any lingering injuries and to help her regrow her missing teeth. Hopefully some of the malnutrition she had suffered while growing up could also be reversed.

  Once that was done, I made my way to the blacksmith that Romanus had worked with and bought myself the best sword I could afford. I walked out of the shop significantly poorer than I had entered it, left with only nine gold orbs and twenty blue orbs, with a smattering of silver and copper in change.

  But in return, I had a beautiful longsword that was made from a blue-silver metal that Barbaros, the smith, guaranteed could cut through most monsters while never going dull. It also sparked occasionally with blue lightning. Barbaros told me it wouldn’t harm me, but it would discharge when I struck enemies and do additional lightning damage and have a chance to stun them.

  I strapped the longsword on the right side of my belt. The basic leather sheath provided by Barbaros hid how powerful the sword was. I could fight with either hand equally well, so I planned to fight with the sword in my left hand and my revolver in my right.

  Back at the inn, I found Constans glutting herself on a large breakfast. I joined her, having to look away as she ate voraciously and made quite a mess around herself. Hopefully the tutor would be able to work with her on her manners, because I wasn’t going to step into that minefield if I didn’t have to.

  After she was done with breakfast, I showed her where to find her tutor and combat trainer. Then I led her back to the docks, where she climbed on my back as we dashed back across the water. This time, instead of screaming in fright, she let out a yell of excitement, whipping me in the side of the head like I was a horse she wanted to go faster. I ignored her antics, happy she was feeling so much better so soon.

  On the other side, I led her back to where I had been staying in the northwest part of the city.

  “Now,” I said, “I’m going to need you to take what I teach you next seriously, okay?”

  Some of her excitement from earlier had faded as we moved through the ruined streets of the city, and she had flinched anytime we heard a monster nearby, although none of them bothered us. When she nodded, I reached under my cloak and drew my revolver. I held it up for her, showing her all the parts of the revolver and explaining how it worked. She stared at the gun, mesmerized as I showed her how to load it, aim it, and fire it.

  Then I handed her the gun. She immediately turned it sideways to admire it, and I pushed the barrel downward, making sure it wasn’t pointed at either of us.

  “Rule number one,” I said, holding the barrel of the gun straight down. “Never point the gun at anything you aren’t prepared to kill. A single shot from this could kill even me. Do not point it at me. Do not point it at yourself. Always keep it pointed at the ground until you need to use it, understand?”

  She nodded, looking at the gun in her hand with a bit of awe on her face.

  “Good,” I said. “Now, I’m showing you this because we are going to go farm some experience for your class. But I need you to be very careful while we do it. Got it?”

  “Yes,” she said, unable to take her eyes off the gun in her hand.

  “Let’s start with some target practice,” I said. I had loaded the gun with Stasis Bullets to reduce the danger of an injury as much as possible, although I was sure even that bullet could do significant harm if she shot me or herself by accident.

  I led us through the streets near my house, watching her carefully to make sure she kept the firearm pointed downward. I was happy to see she was very careful, never letting the barrel of the gun point upward or in my direction. She watched it like a snake that could bite her at any moment, barely watching where she was going. The gun was too large for her small hands, but I was confident she could handle the responsibility.

  Nearby, I found an older house that had several windows covered by wooden shutters that were still intact. I positioned her across the street from the house and told her to aim at the first shutter. She nervously raised the gun, but I stopped her and corrected her form several times until she had the correct stance.

  The gun didn’t have the traditional recoil of a gunpowder gun, although the sheer momentum of the bullet still gave it a bit of kick. I watched as Constans pulled the trigger, the bullet missing the shutter completely but at least hitting the side of the house. I corrected her form again and had her keep practicing until she was able to reliably hit the shutters from twenty feet away.

  We practiced on a few other buildings further down the road so she could practice aiming at targets from a greater distance. By the time I felt she was ready to try it on real monsters, she was confidently grinning every time she pulled the trigger.

  “Do I get to keep this?” she asked me after I told her she was ready to try it on something real.

  “God no,” I told her. “You would end up killing half the people in Sycae if I gave you this right now.”

  “Awww, c’mon,” she said, grinning at me. “I would be good, I swear!”

  I scoffed at her. “But as you level your Rogue class, keep an eye out for ranged skills or skills that might synergize well with the revolver. Don’t focus on melee combat, other than what you learn from your combat teacher. I do plan to give you a revolver at some point, once I am sure you are ready for one.”

  “Yesssssss!” she yelled, swinging the gun wildly in front of herself. I grabbed it hastily and raised an eyebrow at her. She stopped immediately, looking embarrassed at her outburst.

  “Oops,” she said quietly. I gave her a stern look and then returned the revolver. She took it and deliberately pointed it downward once again, looking up at me for approval. I nodded and then turned to lead us further into the city.

  As we walked, I listened for the sounds of monsters nearby and used my ability to detect them by feeling for any around me. Constans stayed quiet once I told her what we were doing now, nervously looking at the buildings we passed as if monsters could run out of them and attack her at any moment. I was sure if we were back on my Earth, I would be getting a call from CPS for taking a teenager out into an abandoned city infested with monsters and giving her a gun to play with, but on this planet, the earlier she got used to this, the better. Better to be out here fighting monsters and learning how to survive than being stuck in an overcrowded enclave and slowly starving to death.

  I sensed several monsters nearby and led us in that direction. When we got near, I heard the familiar sounds of dire rats coming from a small temple or some kind of government building in front of us. It was fitting that the first monster Constans killed was the same kind I had fought when I first entered the city. And the dire rats were a perfect first monster to test yourself against: not too dangerous but agile enough to give someone a challenge. And if anything went wrong, I could easily kill them with my bare hands and feet these days, a stark contrast to the first time I had fought them, when I was desperately battling just to survive.

  “Now,” I told Constans, “you stand here and wait for me to exit the front of this building. Do not shoot until I’m clear of the door. I will go inside and cripple the rats so they can’t rush you. Take your time and line up your shots. I will come back to your side. You hand me the revolver every time you run out of ammunition and I will reload it for you. Understand?”

  “Yes,” she said, nervously shifting her weight as she stared at the building in front of us. The gun was now loaded with Penetration Bullets, so I hoped she wouldn’t get too scared and fire at the first sign of movement, because that was likely to be me.

  “Good, here we go.”

  I unsheathed my new sword and entered the building. A long counter ran the length of the wall on the left, almost like in a bank from my old world. Filling the space were dire rats, climbing on the counters, running back and forth across the marble floors, and generally making a nuisance of themselves. As I walked in, several of them noticed me and squealed in anger. I could see a sub-boss on the counter toward the back of the building and smiled at our luck.

  The nearest rats charged me, and I used Trickster’s Dash to pass them all invisibly. When I reappeared behind them, I began cutting the legs off the monsters one at a time. I danced around the beasts, easily able to outmaneuver them with my enhanced speed. If too many got close, I simply activated Trickster’s Dash again and disappeared. The skill synergized wonderfully with my new weapon, letting me act almost like a Rogue. I could appear and disappear before the monsters knew what had struck them.

  Eventually, they were all crippled enough that I walked out of the building with them trailing behind me in a pitiful, angry train. Constans was nervously standing across from the building where I had left her, shifting from foot to foot as she anxiously waited for me to reappear. I sheathed my sword and gave her a comforting wave as I walked down the steps of the building.

  “Get ready!” I yelled at her. The first of the rats began to appear in the doorway behind me, so I jogged over to Constans and told her to go for it.

  Constans raised the revolver, holding it in both hands, and fired at the first rat to appear. Her shot missed, but she fired again quickly. The second bullet caught the rat in the head and chest, killing it instantly. She didn’t stop to celebrate, though, lining up her next shot with grim determination on her face.

  Once she killed the first few rats, she handed me the revolver and I reloaded it for her. She kept her eye on the rats the entire time, her expression one of perfect concentration as she waited for me to return the revolver. As soon as I gave it to her, she raised it again and resumed firing. Her accuracy improved as she practiced against the moving targets.

  By the time the sub-boss appeared in the doorway, she was standing much more comfortably. She aimed carefully and killed the glowing blue rat with a single shot. She handed me the revolver to reload as she watched the building in case any more rats appeared.

  “You got ’em all,” I told her, smiling at her proudly.

  She turned and gave me a fierce grin, her eyes alight with pleasure at what she had accomplished. “That was crazy!” she said, jumping up and down all of a sudden, her youthful exuberance getting the best of her.

  “Yeah,” I told her. “I know. You did great. And this is what the world is now. Better to be the hunter than the hunted.”

  That sobered her up. She stopped jumping up and down and looked around us at the destroyed city. “Yeah,” she said after a moment. “Thank you for doing all this for me.”

  I looked down at her earnest face and knew I had made the right decision to help her. “I’m glad to do it. Now go loot that glowing sub-boss up there. You earned it. Then we can go hunt some more to get you your first level.”

  She nodded and ran up the steps of the building to grab her first blue orb.

  We hunted for the rest of the day, and when the sun reached late afternoon, we stopped early and made our way back to Sycae. The next morning, I took her to her tutors and I spent the day receiving sword lessons from the martial arts trainer I had hired for us. When Constans came for her afternoon classes, the teacher put her to work doing some light exercises and cardio while I continued to learn the basics of how to fight with a sword. After our training was over, we rushed over to the other part of the city and hunted monsters along the northern shoreline for her until it started to get dark.

  A week passed and we fell into a friendly routine. These were some of the happiest times I had experienced since coming to this world, and they reminded me, painfully at times, of playing games with Michael in my past life. By the end of the week, I was getting better at using my sword and Constans had started to get to know her new home. I had given her my remaining silver and copper, telling her to buy herself whatever she needed but to make sure to bargain for everything. I hoped that would give her experience with her new Merchant class. After her first attempt to talk a food stall vendor into giving her a reduced price for her food, she confirmed that it gave her experience, even when the vendor glared at her until she paid the full price.

  We had just finished clearing a building of spiders, with the help of my necklace that let me see in the dark, when Constans finally reached level 1. She danced around excitedly, completely oblivious to the numerous spiderwebs that stuck to her.

  “Let me know what skills you can pick from,” I told her, guiding her out of the building before she became wrapped up in a cocoon of her own making.

  After a moment, she replied, “Uh, okay. Wow. This is amazing! I got five choices. Gut Wound, Stealth, Pickpocket, Evasion, and one called Ambush.”

  Once we were in the middle of the street, I had her read me the descriptions for each skill.

  “Hmm,” I said as I considered what she told me. “What are you thinking?”

  “Pickpocket!” she answered immediately.

  “Absolutely not,” I said, laughing. “The last thing I need is to come back to town and find you locked up or missing a hand, Constans.”

  “Ughh,” she replied, “that is so lame. What do you think I should get, then?”

  “I’d say Stealth, probably. Or maybe Evasion, but I don’t think that is particularly useful for you quite yet. Stealth would let you explore Sycae easier and avoid trouble, and I have the skill myself, so we could use it to sneak around the city together as we hunt.”

  “You have Stealth already?” she asked, looking up at me in surprise.

  “Yep.”

  I could tell I got her with the image of us sneaking around together and killing monsters.

  “Okay,” she said after a moment. “I’ll take Stealth.”

  “Great,” I said. “Now let’s get back to the city. Now that you have your first skill, we need to focus on leveling your Merchant class.”

  “Aww,” she replied, reluctantly handing me the revolver.

  “But you can practice your new skill as we go. Let’s see if I can spot you as we travel.”

  “Awesome!”

  Back in Sycae, we fell back into our routine comfortably, except this time I spent my mornings learning the sword with our trainer and then my afternoons scavenging items that Sycae needed, such as clothing, pottery, cutlery, and even some household furniture. The demand was high since most of the goods couldn’t be made in the city any longer. And the scavengers from Perama couldn’t compete with our price because they all had to sell through the overly complicated chain of commerce the Emperor had set up to guarantee he still got a cut of the profits.

  I gave everything I scavenged to Constans, having her get experience for her Merchant class in the evenings as I stood behind her and made sure the merchants took her seriously and didn’t screw her over too much. I let her keep a portion of the money she made from her sales, which was a huge motivator for her, but I made her reinvest the profits in buying things for us, which also helped her get experience.

  By the end of another week, Constans had leveled her Merchant class three times. Apparently, the higher the value of the items she bought or sold, the more experience she made. She chose a level 1 skill called Strike a Bargain, which helped her be more persuasive when negotiating prices. I calculated the prices she was receiving after she selected the talent and realized that she was indeed receiving slightly more for each of her sales, even from people that she had been selling the same quality of goods to for days. Each person seemed completely unaware that they were now paying her more as well. It made me concerned that such skills were being used on me whenever I shopped at a store, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.

  My new armor was nearing completion soon, and one night, when I returned with Constans from another trip to the market, I found Romanus and Valens enjoying a few drinks in the inn.

  “Alexander!” Romanus called to me when he saw me enter. Constans jumped when she heard him call my name, but I reassured her that they were the two men I had hunted the drakes with. Her eyes lit up, and she dragged me over to the table to join the two men before I could say any more.

  The four of us shared a pleasant dinner together. Romanus kept Constans on the edge of her seat with stories of his exploits. I enjoyed the company and the dinner, and good company reinforced that I had made the right choice by reaching out to people more.

  The next day, we collected our new armor. When we went to collect it, Barbaros and his assistants rolled out three mannequins covered in vibrant sky-blue armor. Each set of armor was identical in function and design, although mine was clearly the largest of the three. I hadn’t noticed how beautiful the scales of the drake had been because the monster was mostly covered in dirt and grime when we killed it. Now that the scales were polished and clean, they were breathtaking.

  The sky-blue scales overlapped, creating a perfect set of armor that would cover our bodies from head to toe. Larger scales, likely taken from the back of the beast, were formed into pauldrons, kneecaps, and elbow covers. Barbaros showed us the details of the armor, and I could see that under the scales was another set of cloth armor designed to cushion the scale mail and make it easier to remove for washing. The three of us took turns changing until we stood in the center of the store, wearing our new armor and admiring ourselves in a full-length mirror Barbaros had brought out.

  “It is mighty impressive,” Romanus said. “A true work of art, Barbaros. You have outdone yourself.”

  “Indeed,” Valens said, staring at himself in the mirror, his wrinkled face filled with admiration.

  I nodded as well, genuinely impressed by the armor. With my new sword, combined with the armor, I looked like I truly fit into this archaic world for the first time since I arrived here. If I didn’t know any better, I would think I was a seasoned dragon-hunter ready to tackle anything that dared to stand in my way.

  I wore my nanobot-enforced clothing under the armor, forgoing the cloth armor Barbaros had included in the armor itself. I didn’t explain why to Barbaros, but I planned to have my nanobots modify my clothing to mimic the cloth armor anyway, so I didn’t need his. Thinking of my nanobots, I decided to have them expand into my new sword and armor so I could gather information about what they were truly made of. I wanted to see if there was a way to reinforce them or keep them repaired with only my nanobots.

  “Do these kinds of items take enchantments?” I asked, finally getting a chance to ask a question that had occurred to me last time I was here. “I never see any on the gear.”

  “They can,” Barbaros answered, “but they require orichalcum to engrave into armor of this quality, and we simply don’t have enough to waste it on armor that is already this strong.”

  “What is orichalcum?” I asked.

  Barbaros turned me around and pointed to the back of my cloak. I looked in the mirror and saw the rune that had been sewn into my cloak when I first bought it. The rune for Concealment.

  “Ah,” I said, understanding. The metallic thread used for my cloak was orichalcum. It shimmered in the light, appearing to be copper, gold, blue, and white depending on how I turned.

  Barbaros gave me a funny look, likely not understanding how I didn’t know such a basic thing. Of course, I knew about the special ore that was required for more powerful enchantments, but nobody had told me the name of that ore. I thanked him for the information and ignored his funny look.

  “We often have enough for clothing,” he explained, “because we can remove the thread from salvaged clothing found in the city. Enchanted clothing is such a common thing that scavengers are still finding enough to keep up our supply. Plus, it can be reused so people treat anything made with the ore a bit like heirlooms to be protected and passed down to their children. But it’s rare to find enough to use on weapons and armor that is already powerful like these. For most people, it would just be a waste of good ore.”

  That night, when Constans saw our new armor, she screamed in excitement. We had to shush her quickly, trying not to attract too much attention to the pricey armor we were all now wearing. Mine was mostly concealed under my modified gray scavenger’s cloak. Romanus and Valens each had a more standard brown cloak that they pulled forward to cover their armor as well, but Constans’s sharp eyes immediately noticed the armor and she demanded all the details.

  And of course, she immediately wanted to go buy herself a suit of matching armor. When I told her it would be a waste of money since she would just outgrow it in a year or two anyway, she was not impressed. When I told her how much it cost, instead of discouraging her, it only motivated her to work harder.

  “I’ll make enough to buy myself a matching suit of armor when I’m older, then,” she told me. “Just you wait.”

  “Now that’s a good plan,” I replied, impressed by her resolve.

  We made small talk as we ate and Constans told us about her tutoring and weapons training. She surprised me by enjoying the tutoring almost as much as the weapons training. I had expected her to dislike the more formal education, but she immediately recognized the value of the education I was paying for and was working hard to take advantage of it fully. I was surprised yet again by her maturity, and I told her so.

  “Shut up,” she replied, blushing slightly.

  The next day, Romanus, Valens, and I met early to discuss our expedition to complete a dungeon together. I told Constans we might be gone all day. She gave the three of us a jealous look but left to go to her tutors without complaint. After saying our goodbyes, the three of us set out for the docks. We could have tried to go through the Emperor’s enclave since there were three of us now and the other two were fairly respected community members, but I wanted to avoid that place for now, even with company. The only downside to using my method to cross the channel was a bit of lost dignity for the other two.

  I noticed Valens pull out a small leather-bound book that he skimmed as we made our way to the dock. I asked him about the book to make conversation.

  “Just reviewing my skill and attributes before the dungeon,” he told me, putting the book away.

  “Reviewing your skills and attributes? What do you mean?”

  Valens glanced over at Romanus and they shared a look.

  “In my book? You know?” Valens said.

  “What? What book?”

  Once Valens explained what he was talking about, we immediately reversed course and they took me to what he called a bookbinders shop. I had seen the store in my exploration of the city but had assumed it was a shop that bound books. Apparently, it was not.

  “So once this is bound to me, I can open it and review my attributes, skills, perks, and things like that?”

  “Yep,” the bored clerk said as she held my hand in one of hers and a small leather-bound book in the other.

  “And it can’t be lost? It just stays bound to me and will reappear if destroyed? And nobody else can read it without my permission? How does that even work?”

  “Yep,” the clerk replied, completely ignoring my enthusiastic questions.

  A moment later, a flash of energy pulsed up my hand.

  “All set,” the clerk said, handing me the book. “Have a good day.”

  The clerk turned around and ignored me while I marveled at the book in my hand. I opened the leather-bound book and was amazed to see all the information that I had been tracking mentally perfectly displayed inside the book for me to read at my leisure.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  Name: Alexander

  Basic Class: Archer 20 / Gunslinger 10 / Warrior 0

  Non-Combat Class: Enchanter 4

  Base Attributes:

  Coordination = 18

  Strength = 13

  Endurance = 8

  Memory = 5

  Magic Power = 4

  Magic Capacity = 5

  Luck = 2

  Skills:

  Stealth:

  Hide in the shadows and move silently, blending into the background and attracting less attention.

  Trickster’s Dash:

  Dash through the air, ignoring wind resistance until you land. When you dash, you are briefly invisible until your dash ends.

  Gambler’s Eye:

  You receive a passive boost of 20% to your coordination, your vision is improved, and you gain a sixth sense that reveals when luck may be favoring you.

  Swagger:

  Your movement speed increases, obstacles bend from your path, and your step is sure and steady. Your movements subtly intimidate others.

  Duel Me:

  At the start of combat, challenge a foe to a duel. The stakes of the duel are randomly selected and may include an attribute point, a percentage of all experience gained, a perk, a mutation, a skill, or an achievement. The first to surrender, retreat, or die loses. The winner of the duel permanently steals the stakes of the duel, and the loser permanently loses the stakes of the duel. This skill may only be used once a day.

  Gambler’s Luck:

  You push luck to the limit, changing the odds around you to guarantee a more favorable outcome. Unlocks a new attribute: Luck.

  Empowered Enchantments:

  Your enchantment effects are more powerful.

  Perks:

  Captain’s Command:

  Anyone obeying an order that you give will receive a morale bonus of +1 to all attributes while carrying out your command.

  Swimmer’s Body:

  The length of time that you can hold your breath is doubled, you have improved eyesight underwater, and water restricts you less when you are moving through it.

  Monster Hunter:

  You can sense the presence of monsters nearby. This perk scales with your level and perception attribute.

  Natural Weapons:

  When using your hands, feet, claws, teeth, or any natural part of your body to strike a foe, you strike as if your strength was increased by +2.

  Regeneration:

  You gain the regeneration of Gromger the Mighty Troll King. Your body can regenerate from almost any wound. Injuries regenerate based on your endurance attribute and the amount of energy available to your body.

  Achievements:

  Dangerous Dungeoneering:

  For completing ten dungeons by yourself and without a class, you have been rewarded. You receive +2 to all attributes, and rewards from all future dungeons are increased slightly.

  Survive a Safe Zone:

  For reaching level 10 in a class, completing a dungeon, killing at least 20 monsters, and leaving a safe zone, you have been rewarded. You receive +1 to all attributes.

  Quests:

  Make a Home:

  You must establish a home and secure it from your enemies. Reward: +1 to an attribute of your choice, 500 experience.

  Contribute to the Economy II:

  You must sell goods or provide services worth a significant amount of money, depending on your region. Reward: 3 gold cores, 600 experience.

  Cull the Drakes: completed

  Contribute to the Economy: completed

  Clear the City: completed

  Well, that was extremely helpful. Romanus gently guided me out of the store as I pored through my new book. When I was finished examining everything in detail, I looked up and saw Romanus and Valens giving me an amused look. Neither of them asked why I didn’t know of such a basic thing as the book, which I appreciated. I shook my head ruefully. There was always something new to surprise me in this world. You would think I would get used to it, but it was hard to adjust when things were just so different here.

  Back at the dock, I carried them both across the channel and we made our way to the house I had been staying at off and on before settling in Sycae.

  “The key things to remember about a dungeon,” I said, “are that we can’t leave until we complete it. So bring your food, water, and medical supplies with you. The dungeon could last for hours or days, but little to no time passes here. Dungeons will have sub-bosses and bosses and often have complex situations that we may have to puzzle through to solve the dungeon. Not every dungeon requires brute force, so look for alternative solutions that could get us through without getting us hurt or killed.”

  “Got it,” Romanus said with an excited look on his face. Valens nodded seriously at my words, paying close attention.

  “Alright, that’s really it. We can’t plan for every eventuality, so we just have to hope we can adapt quick enough to handle whatever the dungeon throws at us. Let’s go find one.”

  “Yeah!” Romanus said with a wide grin. Valens shook his head at his partner’s antics and just gave me a half smile.

  I was a bit concerned about taking the two of them along. I was confident in my own ability to survive almost anything a dungeon could throw at me, but I had come to like these two men and didn’t want to see anything happen to them. Dungeons were dangerous places, but in many ways, they were easier when I was by myself because I could avoid a lot of trouble and I could heal myself easily—especially now that I had my new Regeneration perk.

  Either way, we needed to do this together for them to get the achievement and unlock quests, so I didn’t voice my worries. I just had to make sure they survived without taking any serious injuries that could kill them or leave them crippled and unable to continue their professions.

  We scouted around the area until I spotted a dungeon. This one had formed in an alley where a creature of some kind had dug through the cobblestones of the road itself, forming a large pothole. I pointed it out to the two men, and we gathered around the unnaturally dark hole in the street.

  “That’s a dungeon?” Romanus said, eyeing the entrance in disappointment.

  “Yeah,” I replied. “Not as glamorous as you’d think. They form naturally from a monster’s den or hiding place during the day, so they can appear in the strangest places.”

  “Let’s go inside,” Valens said, gripping his greatsword.

  I nodded and stepped into the pothole.

  When I appeared in the dungeon, I was struck by a wave of dry heat that immediately felt like it was sucking all the moisture out of my body. A bright sun beat down on me from above, and as I looked upward, shading my eyes, I saw there wasn’t a cloud in sight to help cover the bright sun. Surrounding me in all directions were sand dunes for as far as my enhanced eyes could see.

  Romanus and Valens appeared next to me, holding hands. Seeing me, they hastily let go of each other’s hands and looked around at the desert that surrounded us. I pretended I hadn’t seen the gesture out of respect for their privacy.

  “Wow,” Romanus said. “This is insane. It’s like an entire world here.”

  “Yeah,” I replied. “I still don’t really understand it. I’m sure there is a limit to the dungeon, but I haven’t found it yet in any of the dungeons I have completed. It feels like you could go on forever if you just picked a random direction and started walking.”

  We looked around for a few more moments and then Valens spoke up. “Monsters incoming,” he said, pointing forward. I hadn’t sensed them yet, but I was convinced Valens had unlocked a perception attribute that extended his range on his Monster Hunter perk further than mine.

  “Let’s get ready,” I said, drawing my sword.

  “Using a sword now?” Romanus said.

  “Looking to diversify myself a bit,” I responded, smiling at him as I spun my sword around in my hand.

  “Look lively now,” Valens called out.

  We spread out on the top of the dune and waited. After just a moment, my Monster Hunter perk let me sense seven smaller monsters approaching our location. When they came into view, I saw the seven beasts scampering over the nearest dune toward us. They looked similar to Komodo dragons from my world, although bigger. Their feet spit sand as they ran, and each had a long tongue it periodically flicked out of its mouth as it charged unerringly toward us.

  I could have easily dispatched them with my revolver, but I wanted to get used to using my new sword and didn’t want to spoil the fun for my companions.

  “I’m going to be limited in what I can do under this ungodly sun,” Romanus said as he watched the monsters approach.

  “That’s fine,” I said. “We shouldn’t have a problem with monsters like these.”

  The beasts charged up the dune. Valens stepped forward and activated his protective skill, illusory shields appearing to float around him, while Romanus drew his daggers, which I noted idly were once again coated in dark shadow.

  As the monsters reached the crest of the dune, Valens stepped forward and struck. His large two-handed sword cleaved through one of the beasts and buried itself in the side of another. I ran forward and drove my sword into another while kicking a second monster to push it away from me as its jaws snapped in my direction. Romanus moved rapidly to the remaining three, dodging and weaving between them while scoring deep strikes across their eyes and necks and striking their vulnerable spots as best as he could.

  After just a moment, we dispatched all seven of the beasts. I hadn’t needed to use my revolver once, and it didn’t seem like the other two had broken a sweat—other than the sweat caused by the sun beating down on us.

  “Are they normally this easy?” Romanus asked me. He sheathed his knives somewhere on his person, but I still couldn’t quite see where.

  “It depends on the dungeon,” I replied. “You generally see a mix of a large number of weaker creatures or a smaller number of strong creatures. It’s good to have a way to handle both.”

  “Can we harvest these?” he asked, looking at one of the corpses at our feet.

  “Huh,” I said, “I’m not sure, actually. Give it a shot.”

  He pulled out a dagger and began to skin one of the monsters. After a few moments, he lifted the hide, but before he could clean it further, it faded and eventually disappeared.

  “Hmm,” he said, “looks like that’s a no. Probably we can’t take anything from a dungeon except the rewards at the end.”

  “Yeah,” I replied, “that makes sense. Otherwise, in some of these dungeons, I could have carried out hundreds of pounds of equipment.”

  “Like this landscape, most of this is probably not real but just a manifestation of magic in some form,” Romanus speculated.

  Valens kept a wary eye out as we talked until he grunted at us, signaling it was time for us to get a move on.

  We made quick progress over the dunes, the sand barely hindering us with our high attributes. As we hiked, Valens would warn us when more of the Komodo dragons would approach, so we were always prepared to face them when they arrived. My sword wasn’t as deadly as my revolver, but I discovered there was a more visceral pleasure in using the sword. The combination of my body, mind, and skill with the weapon gave me a unique kind of pleasure when everything came together to let me triumph over my enemies. There were moments when I found everything lining up perfectly, my body and mind synchronizing to let me dodge, attack, and plan my next move all at once. It felt . . . transcendental. It was almost like achieving a state of Zen perfection while fighting at the same time.

  As the sun overhead began to set, we saw a temple rising out of the sand in front of us. It was a three-sided pyramid and had a flat top exposed to the sun above. We scouted around the pyramid but found no entrance that might lead us inside. Seeing no other option, we climbed up the steps that lined the sides of the pyramid. When we reached the top, we saw that it was made of flat sunbaked stones laid out in a beautiful mosaic. The moment we stepped onto the mosaic, a pulse of energy erupted from the pyramid, sending shivers through our bodies. I could feel the energy radiating outward from the pyramid, and I could suddenly feel monsters appearing around the pyramid. I was sure they hadn’t been there before.

  “Ah,” I said, recognizing what was happening. “A base defense scenario.”

  “Base defense? What does that mean?” Romanus asked, eyeing the empty desert that stretched around us with a concerned look on his face, clearly sensing the new monsters as well.

  “Have you encountered this type of dungeon before?” Valens asked, scanning the desert as well.

  “Not exactly,” I replied, “but I’m familiar with the concept.”

  Sand exploded upward in the distance, and small groups of bipedal lizardmen erupted from the sand. There was a group of lizards for each side of the pyramid. The lizardmen were the same color as the sand around us and had large frills and crests that stood proudly around their heads. They had jaws full of sharp teeth and crude-looking spears in their hands. They wore no visible armor, just a loincloth to keep them decent, but their scales covered their entire bodies, likely providing some protection.

  “Those weren’t there before,” Valens said. “I only sensed them when we stepped onto the mosaic.”

  “Dungeon logic,” I replied. “Don’t worry about it too much.”

  The sun had set almost entirely by the time the first wave reached us, which allowed Romanus to use more of his skills. We each took a side and waited as the lizards charged up the pyramid toward us.

  “This really isn’t fair to the poor monsters,” I said, eyeing the lizards running up the pyramid. “They have got to be getting tired. They just ran the entire way here.”

  Romanus laughed, twirling his shadow-daggers.

  I stood at the edge of my side of the pyramid and waited. Once the lizards were getting near the top, I used Trickster’s Dash to shoot over their heads and appeared behind them. The lizardmen didn’t react to my disappearance, so I was easily able to step forward and attack them from behind.

  I struck several of the monsters down before they realized what was happening. My sword pierced their scales easily, each attack shocking the lizards, and the strength of my blows was enough to kill them with a single well-placed strike. I dispatched the group on my side easily and then returned to the top of the pyramid. Valens and Romanus were just finishing up their group of lizards and soon joined me.

  The next wave had the same number of spearmen but included several new ones that carried crude bows. I didn’t wait for the bowmen to get in range, dashing out into the air and then downward, appearing right next to the bowmen. With two swings of my sword, I decapitated them both. The spearmen had continued up the steps of the pyramid, completely unaware, so I followed them up and killed them just as easily as I had the last time.

  Several more waves of lizardmen attacked us in quick succession. The only wave that gave me trouble was when lizardmen that could cast spells appeared. I fought them at the bottom of the pyramid, and I ended up doing a lot of dashing to avoid their spells and get behind them, which tired me out a bit. Once I got close enough to one of them, though, they couldn’t stand up to my sword. I had still managed to avoid using my revolver, trying to push myself to diversify my arsenal by using only my sword for now.

  The group after the spellcasters comprised three sub-bosses, one on each side of the pyramid. The sub-bosses were much larger than the earlier lizardmen, almost the same size as the trolls I had fought in the prior dungeon. Thankfully, they didn’t have the same regenerative abilities as the trolls. I fought mine at the bottom of the pyramid so I could have plenty of space to dash around the brute. I was able to defeat it by slowly wearing it down with strikes from my sword, aiming for vulnerable areas like its heel, knees, neck, and eyes as much as I could. I avoided the sub-boss’s attempts to grab me with its massive hands thanks to my extraordinary speed and use of my Dash. I felt a bit like a little corvid bird, darting in and out to harass my much larger foe. Of course, I could have just shot the sub-boss a few times and ended the fight, but I enjoyed using just my attributes, Dash, and my sword to stay alive.

  It was getting late into the night by the time I managed to kill the big sub-boss, and I checked on the other two, who had finished their sub-boss already. Valens had fought on top of the pyramid, while Romanus seemed to have ambushed and killed his sub-boss before it could even climb the pyramid, judging by the fact that it was lying face-down in the sand below us.

  It felt like these dungeons didn’t normally send so many enemies when I was by myself. The fact that the pyramid had three sides seemed deliberate and the fact that the monsters always spawned in three separate groups, when there were three of us, confirmed my hypothesis. The dungeon was also taking longer than normal. We had been inside for over half a day now, and we had to take a few moments to eat and drink between waves to keep our energy up.

  The next sub-boss taught me a valuable lesson about how to fight with a sword. The monster was a tall, lean lizardman with a longsword and thicker scales than the other lizards we had fought so far, except for the brute we had just killed. When I fought him, he showed me what a true master of the sword was capable of, and I knew I had a lot of work to do if I wanted to ever match up to the real deal. Every time I tried to attack, the lizardman parried or dodged my blows with ease. His strikes were so fast and precise that I would have had no chance to avoid them if not for my extremely high attributes. He moved with a grace that was a wonder to behold, and part of me wished I could just watch him for hours to study how he fought. Sadly, he had other ideas and wouldn’t stop trying to kill me.

  My Regeneration and my high attributes saved me, despite my lack of skill with the sword. The lizardman scored hit after hit against me for every one time my speed gave me the chance to strike him, but my Regeneration healed me in moments. After almost twenty minutes, I had scored enough minor wounds on the monster to start slowing him down. Sweat was pouring from my brow and my breathing was starting to become strained, but as the sub-boss slowed from his injuries, I was able to score more and more hits until the beast finally succumbed to his wounds. I felt bad at how futile all of his skill ended up being. If he had been a real person, I was sure he would have been cursing me as he, a clear master of the sword, realized he was going to die to a rank amateur. He had deserved to win the fight based on his skill with the sword, but my advantages helped me win in the end. The world wasn’t fair, lizardman. The world wasn’t fair.

  Finally, as a new dawn began to appear on the horizon, the final boss made its appearance. The center of the pyramid began to shift beneath us as the first rays of dawn struck it. We quickly jumped off the top of the pyramid and waited a few steps down to see what would happen. The top began to sink into the pyramid until a burst of pure golden light erupted upward into the sky above us. I had to shade my eyes from the sight; the light was so bright that it hurt to look at. A second later, a bird’s screech echoed up from inside the pyramid and an enormous golden bird rocketed upward, shooting into the sky. I shaded my eyes and stared in awe at the beautiful creature as it flew upward. The morning sun seemed to empower it as it burst into a golden radiance, flames erupting across its body when the sun’s rays touched it.

  After a moment, the bird banked around and seemed to spot us near the top of the pyramid. It screeched again, but this time its cry sounded angry at our presence near its home. I activated my Duel Me skill, curious what I might get from a boss so majestic and powerful. To activate the skill, I yelled out at the boss, “Duel Me!”

  Duel activated. You and your opponent have both wagered your experience. Good luck.

  The bird swooped downward and unleashed a ray of fiery golden light at the three of us. The ray struck the top of the pyramid, splashing flames all around us. We swiftly scattered in order to avoid the beam, but the bird followed me as I turned to run down the pyramid steps. I changed course, dashing forward into the air to avoid the beam, turning myself invisible in hopes the boss would ignore me for a moment. As my dash ended in midair, I used a second one to change directions, launching myself upward at the boss. As I flew upward, the heat radiating from the boss became so intense I could feel it burning me as I approached.

  My dash carried me upward to a point where I should stop directly in the path of the swooping bird. As soon as my momentum froze, I lifted my sword and swung at the wing of the bird as it passed right next to me. I felt my sword dig deep into the bird’s wing. My own strength and the bird’s momentum through the air gave my strike the power to sheer through part of its wing entirely.

  The boss cried out in anger, and the fire that surrounded its body flared out, burning me as I fell toward the ground. Thankfully, my new armor absorbed most of the flames, protecting me from the magical attack. When the bird was past me, I twisted in the air and saw it bank sharply and begin to circle back around toward me. I dashed again, turning invisible and turning my freefall into a dash, ending a few inches from the ground. A feeling of hunger and thirst began to make itself known as my body regenerated the burns that had made it through my armor.

  I looked upward, seeing the bird circling in confusion as it tried to find me. Despite my sword cutting deeply into its wing, it didn’t seem to have been slowed at all.

  Romanus and Valens came running when they saw me land.

  “We don’t have any way to reach the boss,” Romanus yelled to me as he approached. Valens squinted upward at the boss, clearly annoyed that he couldn’t attack.

  I had hoped to only use my new sword throughout the entire dungeon, but our lack of a balanced group meant we had almost no ranged capabilities other than my revolver. I reluctantly sheathed my sword and drew my revolver.

  “I have an idea that should work,” I told them, unloading my Penetration Bullets. I reloaded with the Shadow Bullets I had crafted so long ago and hadn’t had a chance to use yet.

  I took careful aim as the boss circled us in the sky, preparing to dive and attack us again. Before it could, I fired. My shot flew true, striking the bird in the center of its chest. Darkness erupted across the face and body of the boss, and its angry screech turned to cries of pain as it was covered in a cloud of pure darkness. When the bird reappeared, the darkness seemed to have eaten away at the boss, inflicting significantly more damage than the bullets themselves. The bird’s flame was dimmer as well, and it seemed disoriented from the surprise attack, flapping its wings half-heartedly and unbalancing itself left and right, as if partially stunned.

  I waited, unsure if I should shoot it again, as the boss continued to fall toward the ground, rapidly picking up speed. It got closer and closer to the ground, and I realized it wouldn’t be able to stop itself. With a dull thump, the boss slammed into the sand, a geyser of dust exploding upward from where it had impacted. The three of us had to steady ourselves as the wave of the impact reached us, tossing us up and down briefly. We all waited, staring at where the gargantuan bird had crashed to the earth on the other side of some dunes. Nothing stirred but the dust as it slowly fell to the ground.

  Winner: Alexander! You are awarded 3430 experience.

  Once the dust settled, we climbed the nearest dune and looked down on the once-proud bird’s remains. The sand surrounding the boss had been turned to molten glass for several yards. The glass was still bubbling and shifting, like a sea of boiling water surrounding the bird’s body. We stopped for a moment and simply stared at the sight together.

  I couldn’t help but think about how much experience I had just won from the duel. It was more than I had received doing entire dungeons, at least the equivalent of three or four dungeons, if not more if I hadn’t killed very much inside. Did such a large amount of experience mean this boss was stronger than the other bosses I had used the skill on? To get over three thousand experience from a single duel was spectacular.

  “What do we do now?” Romanus asked, interrupting my thoughts.

  I put aside my speculation about my skill and turned to the two men who stood next to me. “The dungeon core is probably back at the top of the pyramid now. We should head back and claim it. Once we do, we will get our reward and the dungeon will close.”

  They nodded and we slowly hiked back up to the top of the pyramid, all three of us visibly exhausted from the dungeon. My Regeneration had helped keep my energy level up, but I was starving and thirsty, even with the occasional break to eat and drink. I was craving a large meal from the inn back in Sycae more than anything right now.

  We found the dungeon core sitting on top of the pyramid; whatever device had opened to allow the boss to escape had closed while we fought it. While we were gone, the mosaic that had covered the top had been transformed from a dusty but striking mosaic into a shining, beautiful work of beauty. The mosaic had changed as well. Before, it depicted a generic design of whirling patterns. Now it showed a representation of the golden bird flying proudly through the sky. Gold inlay and fine jewels adorned the mosaic now, bringing the bird’s image to life. It was a beautiful work of art, but it was so strange that the dungeon would devote energy to forming it after we had defeated the boss. I shook my head at the sight. There was so much I just did not understand these days.

  Congratulations, you have completed this dungeon. You have earned the following rewards: 4 gold cores, 11 blue cores, 1500 experience, Skill Stone: Glass Meteor.

  I took the loot and saw that the other two also got their own individual rewards, which was a relief. I wasn’t sure how the dungeon would reward us and didn’t want to have any hurt feelings about who got what rewards.

  I examined the skill stone as I put the orbs away in my pouch. I could sense it was a magical skill, so I couldn’t use it. By its description, it sounded powerful, though. It would allow someone to call down a meteor made of glass, which would do significant damage on impact and explode into shards of glass, wounding anyone nearby as well. I could either save it for the future, in case I was ever able to figure out a solution to my lack of magic, or I could sell it now, likely for a large amount, given how rare skill stones were, especially one that seemed as powerful as this one.

  We appeared outside of the dungeon and I had to pause as the announcements from my Warrior class rolled through my mind. I had gained enough experience to level it several times over.

  Congratulations, you have received enough experience to level your Warrior class. You are now level 1.

  Please choose a level 1 class skill:

  Empowered Strikes: You magnify the power of all of your strikes. Your strength when attacking is magnified by an additional 25%.

  Protection: Surround yourself with a protective shield, absorbing damage based on your endurance attribute.

  Bash: Stun an enemy.

  Rending Strike: Your next attack causes significant bleeding.

  Charge: Charge at your target, destroying any obstacles in your path.

  I considered what would be best to take. I didn’t really need defense since my Regeneration perk was so powerful right now. A stun was nice, but not particularly helpful in the grand scheme of things. I could kill most of the enemies I was fighting right now without needing to waste time stunning them. Charge was out; my own Trickster’s Dash was significantly better. So it was between Rending Strike or Empowered Strikes. One was a constant increase, the other a special attack that did significant follow-up damage in the form of bleeding. The bonus to strength from Empowered Strikes being percentage-based made it the clearly superior skill. On top of that, it was active at all times, and I didn’t really need a bleeding attack, since most enemies died from my overwhelming attributes rather than smaller attacks over a long period of time, where bleeding might be more effective. If I fought with daggers, Rending Strike would likely be the superior option, but for now, Empowered Strikes seemed the best.

  I selected Empowered Strikes. After that was done, the attribute enhancements began to cascade through my mind. I had gained over 4500 experience from that dungeon alone, primarily from my Duel Me skill. That shot my Warrior class all the way up to level 9, granting me +4 to strength, +3 to endurance, and +1 to coordination.

  “Did you guys get anything good?” I asked my two companions after I finished reviewing the changes to my attributes.

  “More experience than a month of hunting!” Romanus said, putting his arm around Valens’s shoulder in celebration.

  “Less money,” Valens said, frowning slightly, “but much better experience.”

  “Any skills or perks?” I asked.

  Both men shook their heads. I had noticed a link between skills, perks, and the actions taken in the dungeon. It implied a certain amount of intelligence in the dungeon; it seemed to evaluate the people inside and tailor rewards based on our choices. If I had to guess, I would say I received the skill stone because of the way I killed the final boss and caused the explosion that turned the sand into glass. It couldn’t have been a coincidence that I received a skill stone remarkably similar to how the boss died. It was just a shame I couldn’t use it. The dungeon must have decided that it was worth a skill reward, or my perk that increased my rewards from dungeons had come into play. Or a little of both.

  I told them about my rewards, not trying to hide what I had received. Both men congratulated me and neither asked for the skill, which was another sign of how trustworthy they were. I considered sharing it with one of them, but neither of them were spellcasters anyway, so it wouldn’t be very useful for them. Besides, I needed the money from selling it if I decided to put into action some of my plans for the future.

  In a festive mood, we made our way back safely to Sycae. Romanus immediately ordered us a round of drinks to celebrate.

  “Is there a place that buys skills like the one I got?” I asked Romanus and Valens as we sat down at a table in the common room.

  “You could probably sell it here,” Romanus told me, “but the real buyers are in the Emperor’s enclave. Too many rich nobles with nothing better to do than buy fancy skills they will never use to try and impress other nobles doing the exact same thing. It’s risky to sell there, though, because that place is a snake pit, but a skill like that would sell for two or three times what you could get here.”

  I wasn’t quite ready to enter a dangerous place like the Emperor’s enclave. Other people who had access to powerful magic were significantly more of a danger to me than any monster had been so far. The three of us toasted to our success and talked about plans for the future until I begged off to take care of some of my plans before the sun set.

  After saying goodbye to my two companions, I made my way over the water and into Perama to visit Momma Lena’s. I purchased a Rogue book for myself now that I had the money again.

  “Momma Lena,” I asked her after we concluded our business, “do you know where I might find out more information about a physical class that would let me resist spells better?”

  “Hmm,” she said, “I can understand why you ask. Some of the Warrior classes evolve into classes that can fight mages better, but those are rare. It’s one of the weaknesses of the physical classes, especially for you since you can’t take a Mage or Scholar class and pick a few low-level skills. Your zero attributes for magic also means you have no resistance to most spells, where most people at least have some natural resistance that reduces the power of the spells cast on them.”

  “Any ideas that could help me?” I asked.

  “I have no idea,” she said, shaking her head. “But your best bet in finding elusive classes or finding out the requirements to evolve a class is to talk to the head librarian in the Imperial Library.”

  “There’s an Imperial Library?”

  “Indeed,” Momma Lena replied. “In the Emperor’s enclave, protected by his Varangian guard. Technically, anyone of the city has permission to enter if you can get yourself invited into the enclave in the first place.”

  I groaned. “Seems like fate is pushing me to go to the Emperor’s enclave, and I was really trying to avoid that place as much as possible.”

  “A good policy, I’d say,” Momma Lena responded. “You should probably stick with it.”