Three beasts stumbled out into the clearing. They had thick bodies like that of a bear but no hair covering their green skin caked in dirt. Their red eyes glinted from the flames shooting out at them— Kat was quick to react.

[Ogrebear – Lvl 14

Ogrebear – Lvl 13

Ogrebear – Lvl 16]

“Fuck! They’re way above our levels!” She tossed a fireball that engulfed them in an explosion. The flames burned at the trees and the vines and the fallen leaves, while the blast left a crater where it struck.

Still, the ogrebears came. Trace unloaded on them with her measly pistol, but her bullets barely dug into their skin. “What the hell are these things made of?” She could see their weak spots thanks to Deadly Sight, yet each attack inflicted little damage to them.

“They’re too fast— you’ve got to take them down!” Ken yelled. He dashed to the legs of the foremost ogrebear before it could leap at Trace while Kat and Jakob took on the second. The Rogue spun as a red glow overcame the edge of his dual blades, slicing open four sets of wounds at its knee with two strikes. “Aim for their legs to immobilise them!”

Trace saw the purple blood dripping down the ogrebear’s shins. She quickly loaded a new magazine into her pistol and took her shots. Even with Improved Accuracy, it was hard hitting such fast-moving targets. Her first three bullets barely grazed its thighs, and the fourth completely whizzed by. However, as Ken flipped over the ogrebear to draw its attention, she managed to lodge the remaining four bullets deep into its right leg.

It roared as it fell to one knee, still trying to swipe at Ken. He was too elusive and quick for it to catch him. Trace ran back, shouting.

“Its neck is where it’s most vulnerable! If you can injure it there, I’ll be able to finish it off!”

He nodded as he leapt out of the way of its terrible claw. It tore the ground open, leaving a scar on the earth, knocking dirt up into the air like a trail of smoke. He made an ‘X’ shape with his daggers and burst up to its neck, the red aura around his weapons striking out like extended blades.

Trace watched the blood spill out of its throat— the guttural cry from earlier turning into more of a damp cry. She almost felt bad for it, if not for the fact that it tried to crush her just moments ago.

She raised her pistol and steadily aimed at the deep gash. “Last in the Chamber.” She fired, and a blue line streaked out. It tore a hole through the monster’s neck as it gurgled its last breath. Then it collapsed, dead.

[Your party has defeated an Ogrebear – Lvl 16.

[(G) Improved Accuracy has reached level 9!

(F) Deadly Sight has reached level 7!

(F) Deadly Sight has reached level 8!

(F+) Last in the Chamber has reached level 3!]

Behind Trace, Jakob and Kat finished off the second ogrebear, leaving its body a charred mess like it was a quivering pile of ashes from a stack of coal completely burnt out.

“You guys alright?” The redhead panted as she stumbled over to them.

Kat placed a hand on her chest, sighing. “Yeah, but Liz—”

Liz felled the third one all by herself. “Whew, that was hard, wasn’t it?”

Trace stared at her. “You took it out on your own?”

Wiping her forehead drenched in perspiration, she flicked off the blood staining her blade and sheathed it. “It was the lowest-levelled out of the three. And I took the longest to defeat it. Not gonna lie though, I’m pretty impressive, aren’t I?”

The redhead struggled to come up with something to say; she had never seen this side of Liz before. Yes, they had fought against the bladeworms just earlier. But those were fodder. Barely a threat.

Ken smiled, patting Liz on the shoulder. “And this is why we wanted you on the team.”

“Aw, you’re making me blush.” She grinned, scratching the back of her head.

“Come on. Let’s loot these bodies.”

The party, barring Trace, proceeded to cut into the corpses of the ogrebears. They didn’t dig too far before producing thin white cards from the monsters.

“This is disgusting.” Trace scrunched up her face, watching them wipe their credits clean of the blood and ichor. “And people use that as money?”

“Not us. But some people think it’s valuable.” Ken handed her one of the cards. It was worth 50 credits. “Here, this is your share.”

“What are you going to do with these credits, buy gold or something?”

“Gold is worthless.” Jakob spoke to Trace for the first time since the Dungeon’s entrance. “It’ll lose all its value in a few days. Cryptocurrency, however, will last.”

“Here we fucking go again.” Kat rolled her eyes.

Trace cocked a brow. “Why cryptocurrency and not gold?”

“Because he’s a nerd, that’s why.”

“It only makes sense,” he said, insistent. “Gold is only worth what it is because big companies have a stake in its price. Once they’re all gone, poof. It’ll all be worth nothing.”

Liz tapped a finger on her chin. “Aren’t you talking about diamond?”

Trace snorted. “No, that’s a monopoly.”

“What I’m saying is… there’s nothing artificially propping up the price of cryptocurrency. All you need to use it is the internet. And the internet is not going anywhere.” He wouldn’t yield, not that Trace even disagreed with his point in the first place: she was just curious.

“Why’s that?”

“Because there are already people out there working on using magic to maintain the transfer of data. I read a thread about it, and it makes sense. It can work if enough people around the world coordinate with each other. The only problem is setting it up before internet access is lost.”

Is he an idiot? Trace Taylor wasn’t familiar with how the internet even worked. She had not applied to college for engineering or a STEM course— she was never good with technology. However, she wasn’t sure whether Jakob was an expert either, so she took it all with a pinch of salt. Slightly dubious but not outright questioning him. After all, she didn’t want to antagonise him any further.

Kat patted her on the shoulder. “Jakob is a weirdo. As I said, he’s a nerd. He even has a strategy to ‘game’ the System or something fucking dumb like that.”

“You do?” Liz perked up.

“It’s called min-maxing.” He nodded. “And it’s not something I came up with. You basically want to maximise a specific trait while keeping everything else at a minimum. For example, take dexterity. By maximising your dexterity to be several ranks higher than your level, even if you are not the strongest or your magic is subpar, you can be the fastest. That one significant advantage over others should theoretically be enough to offset all your other flaws.”

“I’ve heard of that.” Trace furrowed her brows. It made sense to her too since it was essentially just specialising a certain skill like most athletes did. “But isn’t that term a video game thing?”

Kat mouthed a word. “Nerd.”

Jakob ignored her. “It is, but when everything works like a video game now, it applies very well.” He began to explain. “It’s a little different because we have vocations and crafts too. However, I believe it only makes min-maxing easier.

“All you have to do is ensure that both the vocation and craft you choose boost your main trait. So, if you’re a Warrior of some kind, your main trait would be strength, right? Well, you’ll then want your vocation to be something related to it— perhaps a Builder or a Logger. Similarly, your craft should be, say, a Dancer. With your class, vocation, and craft all focused on a single trait, you could theoretically get your strength up to B rank by the time you’re level 30.”

“Seriously?” Liz was practically bouncing on her feet. She shadowboxed with the air as she spoke. “You mean I can be super badass if I choose the right vocations and crafts?”

“Have you not chosen a vocation yet?” Trace eyed her best friend.

“Nope. Haven’t had the time to think it over cuz I thought it wasn’t important. But I might just choose one right now!”

“And it works too,” Jakob said. “KSR-194 confirmed it. You can ask your AIs about it if you don’t believe me.”

Is this true, Ex? Trace asked mentally.

[Affirmative. There is no penalty or restriction placed against this ‘min-max’ stratagem proposed by Jakob.]

“Interesting.” She rubbed her chin, in thought. “Still, there have to be some downsides to it, right?”

Jakob grunted in affirmation. “There are. You’ll want to consider it carefully before doing anything with it.”

Trace wasn’t sure if she’d even be able to min-max; she’d already chosen her vocation, and it wasn’t something she wanted to change— if she even could change it. She didn’t think it was a good idea. It was quite risky, overspecialising, especially if she neglected vitality as a trait.

But Liz, however, was very intrigued by it. “I see, I see. If I could…” She was murmuring to herself.

“Come on.” Ken clapped his hands together, drawing all their attention. “I think we’ve got enough rest for now. Let’s continue. This place is starting to smell.” He glanced over at the ogrebear corpses, and Trace agreed.

* * *

A casual stroll through the forest floor turned into a frenzied run as ogrebears raced after the group.

“Why are there so many of these things up here?” She spun around, firing round after round at the charging monsters. “Didn’t you say they belonged to the third floor?”

“Well, while they usually remain on the third floor, there have been other oddities, such as with the bladeworms, so it is evident that something is amiss with this Dungeon,” Ken explained like he was a professor in a university lecture hall.

“And is no one going to question why that’s the case?”

“We’re too busy running for our lives, Trace.” Liz shook her head, sighing even as she sprinted full speed ahead. “If you haven’t noticed.”

“Oh, piss off!”

The redhead overtook her friend, her higher dexterity showing itself here. Before all this, Liz had been the faster of the two; now, Trace reached the giant stone spire just after Ken.

She spotted a trap door lying at the base of the obelisk at the centre of the forest. With a wheeze, she threw it open and gestured for her friends to hurry.

“Come on!” She raised her pistol and heard a click. Out of bullets? She grimaced as a dozen ogrebears exploded from the thicket of trees, the first of them swiping for Kat. “Fuck, I hope it’s been an hour.” It probably wasn’t. But when she pulled the trigger, a powerful blast knocked her back.

Her Last in the Chamber fired. The skill’s level had increased, so its cooldown duration had simultaneously decreased. It struck the injured ogrebear back, and Kat spun around, throwing a fireball. The explosion finished off the monster as the last of the party reached the trapdoor, stumbling in.

[Your party has defeated an Ogrebear – Lvl 12.

[(G) Improved Accuracy has reached level 10!

(G) Improved Accuracy has reached max level!

(F+) Last in the Chamber has reached level 4!

Spellshot has reached level 9!]

Trace slammed the trapdoor shut just before an ogrebear crashed into it. Thump. The redhead stepped back, waiting with bated breath. But nothing else came.

“They gave up.” She sank to her knees as the bands of terror around her throat relaxed. Glancing back, she saw a dark stairway spiralling deep underground as her party regained their composure.

“I told you—” Liz smirked, panting and leaning against the wall. “This place is hella lit.”

“That’s… not how I’d describe this place at all.”

“C’mon! Doesn’t it get your adrenaline pumping?”

“It did. But not in a good way.”

Liz laughed. “Hey, at least killing that ogrebear with Kat got you up to level 9.” She offered Trace a hand as the party descended the steps. “Maybe you’ll hit level 10 before we reach the boss. You’ll get fancy new skills when your class evolves, you know?”

Glowing crystals decorated the walls as though they were lamps, but they weren’t powered by electricity. Trace yanked one out, and it continued to shine, even when connected to nothing. They were just rocks that emitted light.

“What’s the last floor like?” She took stock of her remaining ammunition; there was still enough for a few more battles with ogrebears and bladeworms. “Please don’t tell me it’s filled with ogrebears.”

“Ogrebears were supposed to be rare, even on the third floor.” Ken led the way, his voice echoing up back to Trace. “Honestly, I’m more surprised by the lack of monster variety. The Dire Pits is supposed to have more than just ogrebears and bladeworms. There are supposed to be scythingmantises, stonecrawlers, and shredderbats— oh, speak of the devil.”

The redhead readied herself as she heard squeaking from up ahead. The stairway opened into a long corridor that forked off many different paths. A single bat with razor-sharp teeth zipped its way to Ken, and he sliced it in half.

“They’re low-levelled though, so there’s no need to worry too much about them.” He flicked his dagger around his wrist, playing with it. “Just keep an eye out for anything else. The boss room should be this way.”

The group pressed on, following markings that had been left on the walls. The third and deepest floor of the Dire Pits was a labyrinth. But apparently, Ken had already scouted the area and found the boss room yesterday.

Trace walked next to Liz and warily kept an eye out for monsters around any corner. Only shredderbats showed up. They were killed quickly, without much effort, as they were originally inhabitants of the first floor.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” she muttered.

“Famous last words, huh?” Liz chuckled as Trace punched her in the arm.

“Don’t even joke about that, asshole.”

“There.”

Ken’s voice interrupted their bickering. A set of decorated double doors lay before the group. It was massive— like it was made for the ogrebears to fit through.

“Are we ready?” Ken’s gaze swept over them. He received several noncommittal shrugs in return. “Be prepared for anything: not all bosses play it fair and wait for you to prepare yourself. That’s how Jonathan Harrison died to a boss that was his level.”

Gulping, Trace gripped her pistol with sweaty hands as she watched Ken and Liz reach for the double doors. Jakob pumped his shotgun, while Kat readied a fireball. Be ready for anything, the redhead told herself.

They pushed the doors open—

And Trace blinked. “Aren’t there supposed to be, y’know, bosses in boss rooms?”