Back in my dorm, I stripped off my perfectly repaired armour and looked at my perfectly repaired body underneath. After removing the bandages and cleaning off the dried blood, I couldn't find a single mark on me. [Heal] can't possibly just accelerate natural healing or I'd have had a nasty scar there. I'd almost died, and two skills and a wash was all it took to remove any evidence of the fact. That cheapened the whole experience, somehow. Camus still had a scar though... Maybe it had to be healed soon after the injury to heal cleanly? But then, that slave driver Xander left me for ages. Maybe he refused to have it healed, to keep it as some sort of memento.

I flopped into bed and considered the day's events. It had been another productive one, given the cornucopia of skills from the fourth floor boss, every one of which was among my most important. It had also been a painful one. I really didn't want to go through that every day for the next two years. Even if I did, I may well just get another quest for a different dungeon after this one and have to repeat the whole process again.

I held up an arm and watched the red lines, blue curves and green patches spread down it as I activated my buffs. What sort of visual effect would the rank two soul magic spells have? Would my soul glow? I grinned at the thought of sprouting a halo each time I cast [Charisma]. But [Soul Mage] was nowhere near the top of my priority list right now. There were just too many things I wanted to do. [Determined Progressor] was correct; I was never going to be satisfied with what I had, but there was no way I was spending my whole life getting sliced up for more. I needed 'challenge', but 'challenge' did not need to imply 'risk of death or injury'. I'd obtained more skill levels duelling Xander than I had defeating the fifth floor boss, and he hadn't even been fighting back.

I was going about this all wrong, wasn't I? I didn't need to spend my next two years in the dungeon. There were other ways to grow. The System made the world feel too much like a game; kill monsters, gain experience, level up. Intentional or not, Xander's lesson today had taught me that I was still dragging along Earth baggage. This was not a game, and I could get hurt. Now I felt even worse joking with mum about losing limbs...

I would finish my week with Xander's party, then head back to the village for a bit. Tag with Cluma was at least as challenging as fighting an orc; if anything, I'd lose out because of the impossible tasks clause, rather than a lack of challenge. Overturning my previous plan despite it being only one day old, I curled up to sleep.

The next morning I was enjoying an early breakfast of eggs, potatoes and something that looked very much like mushrooms but that I didn't feel confident asking questions about. I'd forgone the sausages after finding out that they were made from the bits of orc that couldn't be made into steak. Today we were supposed to clear the dungeon. I wasn't looking forward to seeing the remaining floors as much as I was to seeing Xander's party fighting properly; thus far, they'd always held back to match my pacing. It wouldn't have been a useful lesson in teamwork had they cleared the field before I'd finished my first swing. The brief glimpse I'd had when Robin had ended the pair of scouts was enough for me to expect an impressive sight.

As I was the only one eating breakfast at the guild, I'd arrived early and no-one else was here yet. That unfortunately meant I was outside of Xander's protective ask-no-questions field and was attracting a lot more attention than usual. Despite that, no-one seemed to want to approach. Maybe the field had some lingering effects?

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

Scratch that; almost no-one. I looked up to see Anton, the politer half of the newbie pair. A glance around didn't reveal Chris hiding anywhere, so I nodded my permission.

"Chris not with you today?"

"I guess you didn't hear then," Anton answered with a frown. "Chris quit."

"Really? He didn't strike me as the sort to give up."

"He got hurt badly in a boss fight yesterday. I know that the guild receptionists wanted to show us that we aren't invincible by having us duel you, but it didn't really sink in for him until he got his eyes torn out by a goblin."

"I... see... I hope he's okay."

"Yeah, he's fine. You can't even see where he was hurt. The bigger wound was to his pride."

"That's good at least."

Anton was fidgeting. There was obviously something he wanted to ask, but he seemed too embarrassed to get the words out. "Whatever it is, you can ask if you want to. Worst case is that I won't answer."

"Really, then... I was wondering... Why are you wasting your life delving in the dungeon when you're so talented?"

My jaw practically hit the floor in surprise. I was expecting him to pry into my traits or circumstances, but he actually considered my being here a waste? I thought delving was the occupation for talented people.

"There are special circumstances that require it. But out of interest, what do you think I should be doing instead?"

"Whatever you wanted. Anything would be safer than this. You don't seem to be one of us thick headed people who can't do anything but fight. Heck, if it looked like you were going to hit rank two as early as you did, Lord Reid would probably even have given you a village to manage so you could pick up a land management class. Rank four territory owner classes are so rare that you can get an instant noble rank just by looking promising."

Obviously I still had huge gaps in my education. Didn't Freya or Kari say something about a school in Dawnhold? While I was busy retrieving my metaphorical jaw from the floor, I wondered if I could sign up, or if I was too old now. If I hadn't been so paranoid during my first visit to Dawnhold, what sort of different direction might my life have taken? Could I have ended up our village elder at age five? No, I couldn't see myself walking any sort of territory management path however hard I tried. That just wouldn't be me.

I chatted with Anton over breakfast until Xander turned up, the rest of the party not long behind him, and we headed to the dungeon once more.

"Wasn't that one of those newbies you had some sort of weird grudge against?"

"Anton. He signed up together with a friend of his, Chris. They were the ones fighting the first floor boss yesterday, but Chris was seriously injured."

"So?"

"Huh?"

Me and Freya looked at each other in mutual incomprehension. "I mean, you got seriously injured in a boss fight yesterday too," she elaborated. "It happens. That Anton shouldn't let it bother him."

"Anton was okay. Chris quit though."

Freya grinned. "Quit after one bad fight? Wow, what a wimp. Now he'll be stuck for years with a combat class he can't advance properly."

Wow. No pity there... She was partly right though; I'd been injured yesterday too, and I hadn't immediately quit because of it. Although I had ended up reconsidering a few things last night... Bah, why was nothing ever simple? If it was just a game of kill monsters, gain experience, level up, then at least I'd know what I needed to do.

We entered the dungeon and breezed through the first two floors, Xander having me attack the bosses solo. On floor three, he had Robin snipe the lieutenant before I cleaned up the mobs without magic. On floor four we fought as a full party of six, albeit with everyone holding themselves back to my level. Even with them restricting themselves, the goblin party fell quickly. Thus we reached the floor five boss room less than half an hour after entering the dungeon, with me uninjured and with full pools, having not yet cast a single spell. I still hadn't seen any of the usual mobs on the fifth floor. Did they have goblin champions wandering around here?

"What are the normal enemies like on this floor? I haven't seen any yet."

"Goblin champions, groups of three or four, armed with bows or swords."

So smaller parties and less exotic weaponry than the boss. We entered the boss room, and as the doors ground shut behind us I waited to hear Xander's strategy for how we were going to blitz through this one.

"Okay, Peter on your own. Feel free to use up your mana, and we'll rest for a bit when you're done."

Okay, never mind. No blitzing here. This time I wasn't going to make any false assumptions about the orc's abilities, but that wasn't exactly going to help me hit him. I had noted in the last battle that he could get his weapon moving a lot faster than he could stop it, so perhaps I could exploit that. Fully buffed up, I used [Far Step] to get behind him and as expected he reacted immediately, swinging his weapon in a wide arc. I used another [Far Step] to return to his front, cracking his knee before he could counter. His momentum carried his branch in a full circle, so I used [Far Step] a third time to jump backwards.

The orc roared and charged, the roar this time not causing any significant problems with [Endurance] up and my increased distance. As I was hoping, the leg I'd hit was injured, and his limping gait gave me the opening to use [Far Reach] to trip him. I jumped forward and brought the full weight of my staff down on his head. It didn't kill him, but it did stun. I had to hit twice more to finish him off, during which he didn't react at all. That made me feel a little guilty, but I'm sure he would have done the same to me.

ding

Strength increased by 1

After that somewhat anticlimactic battle I went to loot the chest, but Xander took the ingot, tossing me an extra large copper from his own purse.

"I don't want you carrying that weight for the rest of the run. I'll keep it. And from now on you won't be fighting except to defend yourself unless I explicitly tell you to."

Freya clapped a hand on my shoulder as she walked past. "Since Xander didn't say it, let me. That was fricking awesome! You have this quest in the bag."

"He also consumed half of his mana. That's fine for a one-off fight, but not for every battle."

And there goes Noah being a killjoy. Not that he's wrong, of course. Since my base stats aren't up to normal fighter standards I do need to rely on my buffs, and even if I reach the point I can keep one active at all times, I'm not going to be able to do so for all three. Since they have the bright red health potions, fantasy tropes dictate that there should be bright blue mana potions to go with them. "Are there such a thing as mana potions?"

"You have the weirdest gaps in your knowledge," commented Freya, peering at me. "Yes, a standard mana potion will restore a hundred points and cost you a couple of silver. But don't think about running the whole dungeon with them; use more than two or three potions an hour and you'll start suffering alchemic poisoning."

And there's another gap in my knowledge. What the hell is alchemic poisoning? But by this point we reached the bottom of the stairs and entered floor six, so I missed the chance to ask.

"This is where the dungeon starts getting serious. Enemies on this floor are goblin riders armed with spears, riding on dire wolves. A pair of riders to a group, and they roam the corridors rather than stay in their rooms, so keep your sense about you and be prepared for attacks from the rear. Dart traps from now on will be poisoned. On this floor they're visible, so watch out for pressure plates and switches."

We proceeded with Noah in front, followed by Xander, then me sandwiched between Freya and Jared, with Robin bringing up the rear. This was no longer a casual walk to each boss room, but now they were on guard. I kept my [Mana Sense] active, but with its short range I doubted I would get much warning of anything approaching. On occasion Noah pointed out traps, but they were sufficiently obvious for me to spot on my own.

Noah held up a hand and pointed to a corridor on our left. Everyone came to an abrupt stop, and Robin drew her bow. My [Mana Sense] caught a presence half a second before a pair of dire wolves ridden by goblin riders tore out of the corridor, turning towards us. One wolf immediately collapsed on top of its rider, a fading black bolt present in its forehead. A spurt of blood gushed from the neck of the other goblin as Noah appeared behind him, standing perfectly balanced atop of his steed. I hadn't even noticed his disappearance. Its reins loosened, the wolf growled and charged towards us. Xander calmly sidestepped and with a single swing of his sword cleanly removed its head. The momentum of the decapitated corpse allowed it to briefly continue towards us, coming to a rest at my feet.

Looking back up, Noah was already extracting the core from the crushed goblin, whose neck he had slit at some point while the charging dire wolf had my attention. Freya or Jared hadn't even blinked during the fight, which had been over in a few seconds. It was an effective display of how far I still had to go.