Mort seemed to pick up on Solomon's distress as he held out his hand in a calm down sort of gesture. "Look, first things first. Wasting time isn't going to make finishing that dungeon any easier."

Solomon glanced down at the timer in the corner of his vision. He'd assumed that the end of the timer would see more monsters flooding into the outside world. It stood to reason that it would make the dungeon more dangerous as well.

"Here," Mort said, reaching into the pocket of his bathrobe and pulling out a crumpled piece of paper, "take this."

Solomon took the paper from his hand. Smoothing it out, he saw the words "INTRODUCTORY TICKET" written in block capitals.

"You get 100 system coins of store credit to start you off," Mort said. "Go spend your grid points before you make any decisions."

Solomon nodded, putting the ticket in his pocket. From the ads Mort had posted behind the counter, most beginner gear ran around 25 dungeon coins. Maybe the system did have a sense of fairness after all.

He headed for the dungeon doors first. He'd like to get a peek at what he was dealing with before he made any irrevocable decisions. As soon as he put his hand on the door, a message popped up.

Would you like to enter the dungeon?

WARNING: Once you enter, you can only leave by clearing a floor.

Solomon yanked his hand back like it had been burned. Never mind.

He backed away from the dungeon and headed for the wall opposite from Mort's store. Besides wanting to keep his privacy, he also felt a little self-conscious about talking to himself in public like a crazy person.

He sat down with his back against the wall. "All right, let's put another point in the tutorial grid."

This would be his third invested point. After this, he would need to spend three more to finish out the tutorial.

Congratulations! You have gained access to the Party system! You have been awarded an attribute point!

Invite a friend to try out the party system!

That option was probably pretty useful to the people who weren't completely isolated from the rest of humanity. "I'm the only person here."

You should try making friends! Friends are important to your mental stability and personal happiness!

Solomon frowned. "I have friends. They just aren't in this zone."

A strong imagination is also an important trait!

He rolled his eyes. "Just put the next point in the tutorial grid."

Congratulations! You have gained access to the Options menu! You have been awarded an attribute point!

Say "Options" to open the options menu!

He crossed his fingers, hoping for the choice of lower difficulty. Or maybe some kind of automatic cleaning system, if he was going to be stuck out here away from indoor plumbing. "Options."

Unfortunately, the options all had to do with customizing his interaction with the system. There might come a time when Solomon wanted to change the color of the system's blue boxes, but for now he left the defaults in place.

"Okay, next point."

Congratulations! You have gained access to the mental system interface! You have been awarded an attribute point!

Access the system with mental commands instead of talking to yourself like a crazy person!

Solomon grumbled to himself before he tried it out. It took a certain effort to direct his thoughts "at" the system, but that was probably better than having windows pop up all the time by accident. He did appreciate the ability to interact with the system in silence.

He spent the next grid point with a thought.

Congratulations! You have gained access to the context sensitive help menu! You have been awarded an attribute point!

For completing the Tutorial grid, you have been awarded 6 Grid Points!

Solomon would have appreciated having access to the help menu earlier. Well, maybe not. He hadn't had much free time to read since the system arrived in his life. Anyways, better late than never.

Unfortunately, a quick spin through the help interface didn't provide him with any earth-shattering insights. He confirmed that the system's attributes worked pretty much how he'd expected, though he held off on assigning any of his attribute points for now. He was able to get a sneak preview of the two grids that were open to him now that he was done with the tutorial grid. And he got a little more concrete information on skills.

Earning ranks in a skill was, as Mort had said, accomplished by showing off the skill to the system. As a practical matter, this generally meant killing something with it. The system would recognize the highest tier skill that was used in combat. This was why he hadn't gotten anything from killing the big furball. He'd relied on pain resistance more than his ability with a knife to get the win, and his pain resistance as demonstrated in that fight wasn't any greater than what he'd shown in cutting off his hand, even if he hadn't maxed out the skill.

Each level in a skill gave a number of grid points equal to the level. The first level gave one point, the second two new points, the third three new points, and so on. The highest skill level was ten, which was why he'd gotten fifty five points for maxing out a skill.

There was one other benefit. Generally speaking, system users could only have five skills tracked by the system. However, skills that were at the level cap didn't count against that limit. For Solomon, in addition to his Improvised Weapons Mastery and Pain Resistance, he'd be able to register four more skills. That would be that, unless he could get another skill up to level ten.

Before he headed into the dungeon, he had grid points to spend, attribute points to spend, and money to spend. The first thing to do was to figure out which grid he wanted to pursue.

Grids were opened up by the skills the system had recognized. Solomon had his choice between the Berserker grid and the Field Engineering grid. Each required seven points to unlock fully.

The Berserker grid offered an attribute point for every other grid point spent, with every other attribute point being locked to physical attributes. After four grid points he would get access to the Blood Rage ability, while filling out the whole grid would give him the Enhanced Blood Rage ability. Both abilities kicked in when he suffered an injury, and temporarily increased his physical attributes while decreasing his perception of pain and mental clarity. Enhanced Blood Rage had a stronger effect all around.

The Field Engineering grid offered an attribute point for every third grid point. After four grid points he would get access to the Disassemble ability, which would let him use mana to break dungeon items into their component parts. Filling out the grid would give him the Affix ability, which would let him use mana to attach one thing to another.

The Berserker grid looked like it would give him quicker access to more combat power. Solomon hesitated, though, as he remembered the furballs idiotically charging to their deaths over and over again. He had a feeling that if he wanted to succeed in the system in the long term, he'd need to keep his wits about him.

He had points to spare, anyway. With a thought, Solomon spent seven grid points on Field Engineering.