Milo found consciousness again, mind lurching in confusion. What the hell was that? It was like…like…he couldn’t find words for what it was like. A strange discontinuity in his existence.

Also, he was somewhere else now. Sort of. At the very least, it seemed he was no longer lying in the cave. He was instead suspended in absolute blackness, system-generated words hovering in his vision.

-

It appears you are alone. There is greater safety in numbers. Join a willing party?

-

Milo stared at the words. This is…weird. I breached the Unending Descent, which I’m assuming is a dungeon. With my dick, by the way. And now the system is offering a dungeon group matching service?

Things were happening too fast. Milo felt like he had mental whiplash; he thought he’d been dealing rather well with having been magically, impossibly transported or, or copied to another world. He had had a plan that he felt good about, and now suddenly he was being wrenched in a completely different direction out of nowhere. Maybe the system would let him back out?

Exit, he tried. Cancel. Stop. Abort. Leave. Return. Uh…disembark? Let me out! How was I supposed to know putting my penis in that hole would have these consequences?

There was a life lesson in there somewhere.

Doing his best to adapt, Milo focused on the prompt in front of him: “Join a willing party?”

He didn’t really love the idea of dealing with a bunch of random people—who might not even be human—on top of whatever else the Unending Descent (ominous much?) had to throw at him. On the other hand, he was a whopping level 0, and he’d played World of Warcraft before. Dungeons as he knew them were meant to be assaulted in groups; you could only really go alone if you were overleveled. Milo was decidedly not. On the other other hand, if he could increase his cap, then he probably had enough experience banked to rapidly grow and totally own a beginner area. But was he going to a beginner area? The monsters he’d killed had been levels 13 and 14 where he’d breached, so…?

He thought.

Yeah, if I’m going into that area I’m gonna need a group to even stand a chance. This isn’t some story and I don’t have plot armor. Even if I get transported to a total newbie area, I could still benefit from somebody showing me the ropes. Of course, anybody else opting to party up with random strangers in a real life-or-death situation is probably coming from a place of desperation rather than strength…whatever. It still probably benefits me to join forces.

He selected the option to join a party, at which point a new message appeared.

-

You may not enter the Unending Descent before choosing a class. Choose now:

Basic: Emergency Medic, Explorer, Juggler, Sketch Artist, Tumbler, Lumberjack, Primitive Weaponwright, Photographer, Strongman, Hunter, Warrior, Miner

Journeyman: Sniper

Advanced: (Elite) Scholar

-

No…no! Milo looked frantically at the words floating in front of him, hunting around mentally for any way he could circumvent what was about to happen. He did not want to be railroaded into some common, second-rate class. To his horror, he found he couldn’t switch from this screen to even look at his fusion options.

This could permanently cripple his potential. Obviously he didn’t know that it would, but he was missing out on both the opportunity to start as a magic user and the possibility of starting with an ultra-advanced fused class like he’d been hoping. This was bad.

This isn’t happening! Come on! He strained mentally, but it was like trying to wrestle the pen into the air with his mind; reality implacably and disinterestedly ignored his efforts.

Slumping, Milo stared glumly at his options. He had a few classes that were obviously suited to combat, and a couple more that could maybe be useful in combat if you squinted at them just right. One was even journeyman rank, though that one in particular didn’t interest him even a little. Sniper. He wanted a reread of the class descriptions, but he was scared to give any of the classes a mental nudge in case the system mistook it for him choosing the class.

Okay, so if I had to choose right now, with no more information, what class would that be? Strongman might be cool, or maybe explorer. Definitely don’t want basic warrior.

However, considering what options he had available, Milo knew what it had to be. Perhaps it was completely boneheaded of him, given that he had actual combat classes available and the fact that he was headed into a dungeon, but his gut was urging him to take Scholar, his most advanced class. Literally advanced. He remembered he would get extra points for choosing it. He didn’t know how good that was, or even how powerful he could expect any of his classes or future skills to be. Still, the higher tier was pretty much all he had to go on.

Also, knowledge was power. Milo believed that very firmly, having played many many games of all sorts over the years, including sports. You didn’t need overwhelming strength, though that was obviously very useful; what you needed was information. With information, you could leverage everything you possessed to its greatest effect, getting the best results for the least effort.

Additionally, Milo was missing a hand. He hoped to get it back one day, and he’d proven against the puma raptor that he could fight without it, but as things stood there was no way he’d be as effective in a pure combat role as someone with all their limbs. He’d specialize elsewhere.

Feeling as good as he could about his decision under the circumstances, Milo gave Scholar a mental nudge.

-

(Elite) Scholar: Leaving the plebeian muscleheads and power-mad mages to their misguided dungeon diving, you have opted instead for a life centered on the quiet pursuit of knowledge.

-Gain skills and knowledge to aid in acquiring even more knowledge.

-(Elite) Scholar is an Advanced class. Advanced classes award an additional two skill slots and modifier points at level 1 and an additional two Legacy Skill slots. Class fusion available.

Make (Elite) Scholar your class? This choice is permanent. If chosen, all future fusions for your class must include this class (or its future variants).

-

Okay, so it will still let me read the descriptions. Noting that Scholar now had a class fusion he hadn’t noticed before, he excitedly tried to see what it was. Unfortunately, the option to do that wasn’t currently responding to him. Annoying.

After some thought, Milo realized it probably didn’t matter anyway. It seemed like he would be able to fuse after choosing his class if he wanted; he would simply be limited to only combining classes with his current class. Now that he knew he could, he nearly went to check all his other class options, but that would only be delaying the inevitable; he knew he wouldn’t find anything in the descriptions to change his mind. With a mental sigh, he nudged his acceptance of (Elite) Scholar as his class, confirming when prompted. I’ve got to be the only person ever to choose Scholar for dungeon diving. It’s in the freaking class description.

-

Choice confirmed. Advancement to (Elite) Scholar queued.

You do not meet the level requirements to enter the Unending Descent at breach site. You will be redirected to one of the Shallows.

This is your first Descent. Congratulations! You may choose a (minor) Boon. Please select one:

-Adventuring Pack

-Potion of Lesser Healing

-Mana Stone

-

Well this was unexpected. Feeling cautiously excited, Milo gave the mana stone a mental tap.

-

Mana stones are tools for improving mastery over mana.

-

Hm. Well that’s not super informative. I don’t know if I need to be a mage in the first place or if this will help me to unlock my mana pool. Frustrated, he selected the pack, finding the description similarly helpful.

-

A pack full of mundane but useful supplies.

-

The healing potion was simply “an alchemically produced magical healing aid.” It might have been nice to know how many health points exactly it would restore. Milo had noticed this world didn’t seem to operate on numbers so very much though, judging by when he’d looked at his status screen. He actually agreed with that the more he thought about it. Health was more complicated than a number. After all, if you had 100 health and got stabbed in the arm 50 times for 2 points of damage, should that really kill you?

Feeling conflicted, Milo weighed his options. First of all, he didn’t know how long he’d be in the dungeon or what he’d find there. He also didn’t know if the system would be teleporting any of his belongings with him to the Shallows, whatever those were, so the pack could wind up being indispensable. Magical healing could obviously be useful, but Milo’s gut told him this particular potion wouldn’t grow his hand back, so it went down a peg in his estimation. He didn’t plan on getting wounded anyway.

Of course, most people didn’t plan on getting wounded but it still happened anyway. Hm.

The mana stone was a wild card. Best case scenario, it would possibly somehow allow him to get a magical class fusion option. He doubted it, however. Worst case scenario, it would be dead weight in his pocket while he starved to death from lack of supplies or bled out from a giant mutant rat bite, wishing he had a potion.

Though the sheer boringness of the choice pained him, he opted for the pack. Lacking knowledge of what he faced, he needed as many options as he could get, and he felt the pack was likely to provide that.

-

Boon selected. You will receive an Adventuring Pack on entry to the Unending Descent.

There are currently no others seeking a party. Would you like to wait?

-

Shrugging, Milo selected “yes.”

-

Estimated time of wait based on historical average: 39 days, 15 hours, and 7 minutes. You and your gear will be placed in stasis to prevent physical and mental deterioration.

-

Shouldn’t it have told me that before—

—it let me choose? Wait a second. That felt funny. Another message popped up in his vision.

-

A willing party has been found. Due to exceeding predicted wait time by 1000%, you will be compensated with a second (minor) Boon. Please select one:

-Potion of Lesser Healing

-Mana Stone

-

Milo shook his head. 1000%? That’s insane. That means I’ve been here for like, over a year. It’s a good thing I don’t have anyone waiting for me on the outside. Here, anyway.

That suddenly brought to mind thoughts of his sister and her family, and others Milo had inadvertently left behind on Earth. He didn’t have any kids of his own or a girlfriend or anything, but he had parents and two more siblings, a brother and sister. As a staunch introvert he didn’t have a large circle of friends, but there were a few he’d kept in touch with since high school via the internet and sporadic in-person meetups. There was also an ex he still thought fondly of, and whom he harbored some thoughts of reconnecting with. An image of her flashed in his mind, her smiling face ringed by reddish-brown curls.

Had a year passed back on Earth? What was the hypothetical Milo One up to now? He’d only intended to stay with his sister for maybe six months. Perhaps he’d started working as a trainer for real. More likely, though, he’d used his military benefits to enroll in yet another, totally unrelated training program. That’s what he’d been doing the last several years, bouncing from field to field. Most recently, he’d been eyeing a commercial diving program, thinking it sounded fun and adventurous.

Milo never had the remotest idea of what he ultimately wanted to do for a living, other than maybe wanting to be both an astronaut and pro tennis player at age 7. Honestly, dungeon diving in Altabar was better in some ways than anything he’d envisioned for himself on Earth. He did miss his family though. His older brother would have been a great ally to have with him. They’d always played and competed together growing up.

Would he never see them, any of them, ever again?

Unexpectedly, a wave of homesickness hit him hard. He’d never been the type to get homesick, even in basic training.

Okay Milo, focus on the here and now. No point in thinking about stuff I can’t do anything about right now.

Shaking away the intrusive thoughts, he concentrated on his two Boon options. Finally, he decided to go with the mana stone. It had the greatest potential payoff in his mind. He could make do with first aid if he got injured, but if the mana stone was able to help him access his “untapped” mana pool it would be a huge win. He selected it.

-

Boon selected. You will receive a Mana Stone on entry to the Unending Descent.

-

As soon as Milo read that message, the blackness around him began to change. He recognized what was happening now; it was the same odd sensation he’d felt when he’d been ripped from the little cave above the swamp place. The last thing he saw before his mind stuttered to a halt was one more system message.

-

You will face many trials ahead. May power and fortune find you.