I took a few steps into the darkness and then I was bathed in light.

What? How? Even though I’d been warned, it still took me by surprise. I was in a large open area, much larger than the hill the cave had gone into. There was a sky, or a reasonable facsimile of one. It was impossible, but apparently normal for this world.

Looking around, the area was like a big bowl, with a river in sight running from my left down the centre to the right. Behind me, the rock wall rose steeply, curving over slightly. I’d been told that the sky was fake, and if I managed to climb the walls, I’d reach where they became coloured blue. I’d pass - a lot of effort for no reward. The river was where the most valuable creatures of this level were found - the tiny Galcan newts. They had sounded like a pain to catch though, and with less XP, which was my main goal today. That meant I should be scouring the brush for Yonen skinks and Idnul lizards.

The vegetation in here was totally different from outside, which was good news for my [Identify] skill. I’d picked up the names of 6 new random plants before I saw it, sunning itself on a flat rock.

[Identification] : Yonen Skink (Male) - Threat Level: 2

It hadn’t seen me. I started sneaking towards it and was soon in range.

You have inflicted 20 damage!

The monster twisted wildly, snapping in all directions. Somehow it managed to latch on to my arm and bit down painfully.

You have taken 5 damage!

“Aaaaggggghh!” I screamed. Fortunately it hadn’t grabbed my weapon arm, so I stabbed it again.

Attack failed.

Continuing to hold on to my arm, it brought its body around and tried to do more damage with its claws. However, my frantic movements dislodged its grip and it went flying, twisting like a cat to land with its feet on the ground. It hissed at me. I was still invisible, but it could probably smell my blood.

I moved forward for another attack. [Weapon Mastery] guided my arm as I struck.

You have inflicted 29 damage!

For killing a Yonen Skink, you have earned 40 XP

You have gained a Level!

You have been awarded 25 Ability Points

You have been awarded 5 Development Points

You have been awarded 2 Skill Points.

Yes! Finally! Wait, don’t get cocky, thats how they get you. Heeding my advice, I checked carefully around to see if anything had been attracted by by scream. Then I took the lizard corpse and hung it from a branch to bleed out. I still wasn’t certain if I was going to take these things back. If they bled out into my satchel it’d be ruined and soon too stinky (skinky) to carry. Maybe I should have gotten a cheaper sack that I could throw away after each trip. For now though, I put my back to a rock and contemplated my [Status]

Name

Kandis Hammond

Profession: Phantasmal Artificer Level 2 [Unspent Ability Points] 39 Age 24 [Unspent Skill Points] 3 Abilities [Unspent Development Points] 8 [Strength] 3 [Unspent Spell Levels] 20 [Agility] 3 [HP] 60/60 [Finesse] 3 [Stamina] 180/180 [Soul] 3 [Mana] 240/240 [Intelligence] 4 [Charisma] 9 Skills [Body Development] 1 [WM: Dagger] 1 (2) [Stamina Development] 3 [Deceive] 1 (3) [Perception] 2 [Charm] 2 (3) [Identify] 2 [Conversation] 1 (2) [Scribe] 1 [Dodge] 2 [Calculate] 2 [Jump] 1 [Mana Sense] 2 [Climb] 1 [Mana Development 2 (3) [Run] 1 [Illusion Magic] 2 (5) [Stealth] 1 [Creativity] 1 [Memorise] 1 [Disguise] 2 [Bargain] 1 Unlocked Skills [Enchanting] [Intrigue] [Research] [Teach] [WM: Axe] Traits [World Walker] Level prerequisites for Professions are overridden. +1 bonus to all stats [Gift of Tongues] All languages are understood. [Female] +1 bonus to Charisma [Silent Casting] Allows you to cast spells without a chant [Subtle Casting] Allows you to cast spells without gestures Spells Mana [Static Image] Creates an unmoving image of a single object not more than 1 cubic metre in volume. (upkeep 1/hour) 5 [Light] Creates a light that can be moved, brightened, or dimmed. (upkeep 1/hour) 5 [Unseen Sound] Creates a sound from a source you designate. (upkeep 1/hour) 5 [Simple Invisibility] People and Creatures are unable to see you. (upkeep 3/hour) 15 [Disguise] Modify your appearance and clothing as required (upkeep 3/hour) 15 [Conceal Mana] Hides a casters mana from others (upkeep 2/hour) 10

Okay….gaining a level restored everything to maximum? I looked at my arm and saw the wound was completely gone. My HP, Stamina and MP pools had all doubled, which probably meant that they were multiplied by my level. I wonder if it affected skills the same way? I identified the nearby lizard corpse.

[Identification] : Yonen Skink corpse - Quality: Mediocre

Quality? I hadn’t seen that before. I checked my logs, and I’d managed an Effect Level of 22, which was significantly higher than I’d ever managed before. I tried again on my dagger and got a 17 and no extra information, then tried again, and got a 23. This time the extra information was there.

[Identification] : Steel knife - Quality: Average

Huh. I wondered if there was additional information at the 30 or 40 levels. The only other skills I was getting above 20 were [Charm] and [Illusion Magic] and they didn’t give me notifications of additional bonuses. I got the impression that higher effect levels made [Illusion Magic] more difficult to see through, but that was just speculation.

I turned my attention to my new points. I now had 38 Ability Points, which was enough to put one of my lowest skills up to 4. That wasn’t bad… but I wanted to put my Intelligence up next. Or even my Charisma. I resolved to try and find out how often I was likely to get more points before I spent them.

Development points… were much the same. There were a lot of things I’d like to buy with them, but I might need the points to change Professions, or face some specialised need where they would come in handy. They could wait. Skill points also. I was definitely looking to by [Enchanting], [Intrigue] and maybe [Research], but I kept coming across skills like [Bargain] which were a sudden necessity.

Next order of business… the lizard corpse.

Ugh.

Next order of business, get some more lizards while I wait for that to drain.

Now that I was Level 2, everything became much easier. I could move more easily through the bushes without making noise, I no longer missed with my dagger strikes, and I could even find the lizards more easily. The downside was that I now got 20 XP per kill instead of 40. Every time I killed a lizard, I brought it back to that first clearing to drain, and it wasn’t long before I had 6 corpses hanging there. Two of them were of Average quality, and one was Poor. The couple of hours I had spent had been enough to level both my [Stealth] and [Weapon Mastery: Small Bladed] which were now both at two.

It was time to decide what to do with the corpses. Most of them had stopped dripping now, at least, and I’d had an idea that might help with the mess. I’d found some wide leaves that seemed like they’d be pretty absorbent, and half-filled my satchel with them. I placed the drier corpses in, and covered them with more leaves. I now had a stuffed full backpack containing half as many skinks as it should, but hopefully I’d still have a backpack at the end of this.

As I prepared to leave I heard voices coming up from the river. Another adventuring party? What do I do? I should probably… introduce myself? I thought about it, and it seemed like the right course of action. I hadn’t been warned about adventurers poaching on other people’s kills, and if I hid and got found it would look suspicious. Speaking of suspicious, I was still invisible and needed to reset my disguise. I took care of that and moved back towards the dungeon entrance.

I saw them first - they weren’t showing any concern for the dangers of this level of the dungeon. Which was unprofessional, but probably OK. From what I’ve seen the lizards didn’t go out of their way to attack people.

Oh, wow. My first non-humans.

It had been only humans in the guild and around town, but this group was a mixture of races. There was one human, in metal armour and armed with swords. He had a medium one strapped to his back, and two shorter ones at his sides. I don’t know swords, so thats all I could tell. There was some sort of Beast-person, with blonde fur all over him and big pointed ears. A cat-man? Wolf-man? He was in leather armour and carried a bow. The third one had to be a dwarf. He was short and stocky and had a red beard and hair. He carried lot of knives. The final one was something I didn’t recognise. She had grey skin and black hair, and some sort of black speckles on her skin which I couldn’t make out. She was wearing normal clothes, though she did have some sort of leather armour strapped to her arms and legs.

“So thats when I - Oh, hello, are you new?” It was the human that was talking and now looking at me.

“Yes, I’m a new adventurer at Oakway Guild. My name’s Katherine, pleased to meet you.” I approached with a smile on my face, hiding my nervousness. I’m not sure if it was my Charisma or Charm, but somehow the words flowed out of my mouth like it was the most natural thing in the world. It was like being drunk, without the mental impairment. Not that I was normally shy, but these people were heavily armed, and gave off a… dangerous vibe that I hadn’t seen before. Not the sleazy ‘probably a criminal’ vibe that I’d felt at the Guild, just… dangerous.

“Well, then fellow guild member, let us introduce ourselves.” said the human. “I’m Sean, this is Eric, Edvard and Nina.” He pointed at the Beast-kin, the Dwarf and the grey woman in turn. “We’re all silver rank, just coming back from a trip to the third level. And you?”

“Bronze, and I’ve just been killing lizards.” I held up my bag.

“Its how we all got started,” he said, reassuringly. “Well except for Nina - she started with giant cockroaches.” He held his hands about a foot apart to indicate what ‘giant’ meant. “Really nasty.”

“That does… sound really nasty.” I said uncertainly. I looked over at Nina, who was rolling her eyes at her companions antics.

“Would you like to accompany us back to the Guild?” Sean said. “I can regale you with the tale of how Nina got started as an adventurer.”

“Sure, that would be fine, I guess.”

“I warn you, its not a tale for the faint of heart. Lots of tiny insect parts and ichor.”

“Shouldn’t Nina tell the story, since its hers?”

“She doesn’t tell it right, not nearly enough embellishment.”

As we headed back into town, I found myself in an extraordinary contest with Sean. I wanted to ask about them, about higher-level adventuring and the next level of the dungeon. I didn’t want to pester them with questions, especially ones that might give away my lack of knowledge about this world, so I was letting [Conversation] do the work. Sean wanted to tell stories of excitement, adventure and really gross things and seemed to have a [Conversation] skill higher than mine. Not high enough that I couldn’t win, but he won more often than not.

We fought furiously for control of the conversation, while at the same time keeping the mood light. Sometimes it was like chess, laying conversational traps to be triggered later. Sometimes it was more directly brutal, a quick joke or insult to incapacitate the other long enough to get word in edgewise. The others participated in the conversation, but not the conflict. I don’t know if they were even aware of what was going on.

I did manage to learn that Nina was an Oread and Eric was Cat-kin, that all four of them were Level 4 and that they weren’t locals, but were passing through to challenge the Oakway dungeon. Reynard had a requirement that you be gold rank before fighting the final boss on the 3rd level, so they were grinding missions for the guild to get there. Sean told a number of extremely gross and disgusting stories, but the less said about them the better.

I’d planned on asking the guild where I could sell my corpses, but they took me right to the skinner’s stall and left me to haggle.

“It was a pleasure jousting with you Katherine,” he said. The others looked confused. “I look forward to the rematch.”

“Me too,” I said, and it wasn’t a lie. There was a certain kind of pleasure in having to exert my skill to the utmost that my regular conversations just hadn’t had. The ebb and flow of our contest, the jokes and teasing comments. Wait a minute. Have I been flirting with Sean? I blushed, the realisation coming not late enough that Sean didn’t catch my flush on the way out. He gave me a wink, the bastard. I took a deep breath and turned to the skinner to sell my wares. I got 3 copper for the pair of Mediocre corpses and 5 for the average ones. After I emptied out the leaves, the backpack was still useable. The skinner pointed out a tool that most collectors used - it was a long stick with some small nooses along half of it. You could string up 8 lizards and sling it over your shoulder. It was gross, but better than ruining a bag. I told him I’d think about it and headed back to the inn. I wanted to get a meal before sunset, and my next shift.

I was feeling really good for my second shift. At level two, I could keep up with the other girls, turning a nightmare march into… a fairly easy nights work. The difference between a child and an adult. The mood of the room was good, and the ale flowed freely. Harold seemed happy, and even smiled at me occasionally.

I wasn’t even worried when some adventurers showed up - Reynard and a couple of his buddies. They didn’t fit into the crowd, but found a table in the corner and kept to themselves. No one seemed shocked, I guess it wouldn’t be unusual for adventures to occasionally switch taverns, but I had my suspicions as to why they were here. Suspicions that were confirmed when Eve came up to me.

“He wants you to take his order,” she said gesturing. I looked over and Reynard was look at us both with satisfied smile. Ugh.

“Thats fine,” I said and collected a pair of tankards before I went over. “These might be on me, boss.” I told Harold. He scowled and scanned around the room.

“Trouble?” he asked, his gaze fixing on the adventure’s corner. It really was ridiculous how much they stood out from the rest of the townsfolk.

“Nothing I can’t handle,” I said with a smile. I headed over to their table. Wanting to get it over with, I went over to Reynard first.

“What would you like to drink, sir?” I asked, with a reasonable amount of politeness.

“Giving up on adventuring already, Katherine?” he grinned. Oh great, he remembers my name.

“Not at all, I just like to hedge my bets.” I said

“I bet you do.” He leaned forward and beckoned me closer. I obliged, to an extent. This dress had a pretty high neckline, so I wasn’t worried about giving him a show or anything, I just didn’t want to get too close. I wasn’t close enough for him to whisper, but he spoke softly. Over the noise of the tavern, I doubt his friends could hear.

“I know you lied under the Truthstone, girl. Saw your illusion.”

[Deceive] took over, locking my face into an unworried and unamused expression. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

His grin got wider. “You’ve got some front, I’ll give you that. And it was a good, solid image. But I’m a level five Ranger, darling, you can’t deceive my eyes.”

Fuck. My illusion had been around effect level… 53, [Memorise] helpfully provided. If he was level 5, and had, say, 5 Intelligence and only 3 perception, that would be 5x5x3… 75.

“If that was the case, then you would have spoken up at the time,” I said calmly. [Deceive] was still trying to cover my ass.

“Lets just say, I saw an opportunity, for you to have your secret kept and me to get… a little favour.”

I didn’t like that idea, and I let it show on my face. He just laughed.

“Don’t worry, nothing you haven’t done already. It will take me a while to setup, so I’ll get back to you with what I need.” He got up and turned to leave, his friends tagging along. “Just make sure you stick around town - I’d hate to have to send hunters after you in the Kings name.”

I watched him go, and headed back to the bar. This wasn’t a problem I could solve by dumping a tankard on their head. Harold looked at me, somewhat pleased. At least he was getting his beer back.

“You got rid of them - good.”

“You’re not concerned about losing customers?” I asked. He shrugged.

“Their money is good, and they didn’t cause any trouble, but… I don’t like their type.”

“Adventurers?” I hadn’t actually mentioned joining the Guild, but it wasn’t something that would stay secret long.

“Nay, layabouts. The moneys good from delving, so a lot of that sort just do enough to pay for their daily ale, and not a jot more.” He scowled. “Pisses me off that those doing honest work do a full day all week, while they work two days, if that.”

“Not everyone does that?” It was true, that I’d made more this afternoon than I would working for a week at the tavern.

“Equipment’s expensive. If you want to progress, you need to upgrade, get potions and such. So you need to bring back more to afford it, go deeper to get better loot. Which wears out your gear.”

“Its a cycle…” I said, considering. “They keep going round, selling goods, gaining Levels, spending money in town.”

“Aye, that sorts good for all sort of commerce, whereas the other lot is only good for buying ale.”

“Which you do… but your customers are the townsfolk, who buy ales when business is good for them.”

He nodded. “You’ve put it in a nutshell. Now go take Ridiley’s mead out to him.”

I woke the next day in a far better state than last time. I love being Level 2! With all this extra energy, I considered starting a morning exercise routine. What would help? I could do jumping jacks to work on [Jump] but doing it in here would make a hell of a racket. I could jog when I was heading out to the dungeon, as I planned on making that a regular thing. Climbing… there were rock walls in the dungeon but I didn’t think that would be very safe. Nor did I want people around town seeing me climb walls or trees… I had my dignity to maintain after all. I resolved to think on it further.

I took a trip around the market, looking at the more expensive items this time. There was a bookseller, which interested me, but when I asked about prices, the man told me they started at 5 silver. [Bargain] told me I could probably get him down to 2 or 3, but that was still out of my price range. For now.

There was a wide variety of weapons and armour, and [Identify] told me various items were of Average, Good, or Excellent quality. Most of the armour was leather, with lots of types. Most off it was made from lizard skin, the vendors were quick to tell me that it was made from local dungeon lizard. Some of it was basically heavy clothing, some of it had tiny plates of hard leather sewn all over it. There were heavy gauntlets, and hard pieces you could strap on to various body parts. I learned that they all had different names, like ‘vambrace’ and ‘bracer’. I was going to have to get some advice about armour, so I put it on the list of things to ask Sean’s team.

There was even more variety in weapons. Most of them were made of ordinary steel, but some of the more expensive ones were of ‘darksteel’ and ‘silversteel’. Aside from the obvious difference in look, it wasn’t clear to me what they were good for. More questions for some experienced adventurers.

Heading back to the Guild, I got into a conversation with Paige - she told me Sean’s team had already gone back into the dungeon. I mentioned I’d been looking at books, and she told me that the Guild had a small library if I was interested.

“Its just a few books on adventuring-related subjects” she said.

“Thats just what I’m interested in. Can I see?” I asked.

She lit a lamp and took me through the door at the back into the Guild offices. There was a small windowless room, with a table and chairs, and bookshelf.

“I’m afraid you can’t take anything out, you have to read in here.” she said, leaving me with the lamp. It only took a moment for me to go over all the titles - there were only 4 books on the shelf. They were:

On Advancement

Bestiary of Latora

A Compendium of Dungeons of the South

Coleman’s Herbarium

I started with On Advancement. My progress was slow, [Scribe] kept cutting out on me, but I persevered. This book contained a lot of details about the System that I’d missed so far. Ability points for example. Apparently people got 10 ability points every year until they were 25. Yes, from age one. There was a lot of talk about how important it was to stop kids from spending their points until they were old enough, but I couldn’t see that working. Skill points were much the same, one each year until age 15. Development points were two each year until age 25, but the book talked about ‘inherited situations’ which caused development points to be pre-spent. For example, if you were born into a family, you didn’t get any points until the development cost for that had been paid.

It seemed a little unfair. If you were adopted by a family later on, you didn’t have to pay the points. It looked like I was really fortunate, to just appear in this world with all my accrued points at once.

Moving on to Levels, Level 2 happened at 100 experience, which I knew, and Level 3 happened at 1000 XP? That was a big gap. Level 4 was even worse at 10,000 XP and Level 5 was ‘speculated’ to happen at 100,000 experience. Given that the System didn’t display your experience, I guess it was hard to get people to add up their logs to 100,000, but the pattern was pretty clear.

Every level got you an additional 5 Development points, and 2 skill points. Extra ability points were more complicated. I’d gotten 25 points when I got my level, and according to this, I’d get another 25 each year from now on, for the next 10 years. If I got to level 3, I’d get 50 points every year for 5 years. Fourth level was 125 points for 2 years, and fifth was a once off 250 points. Why they made it that complicated instead of giving you 250 points every level, I don’t know. The book had no answers there.

I was skimming through the advice on purchasing Abilities when the door opened and a teenaged girl walked in.

“Hello, do you mind if I join you? My name’s Felicia.”