Solomon could see the ripple of reaction as each listener processed what Kanmi had said. It didn't look like his words sat well with anybody, but it was hard to answer back with confidence after the system had pulled the rug out from under him.

"So, what, we might as well give up and wait for the alien armies to take over?" Mark finally asked.

Kanmi held up his hands in a placating gesture. Solomon relaxed slightly, relieved that his business partner had some ability to read the room. Not that he thought they were in any physical danger, but he did want to leave this place on good terms with the locals.

"The System won't let an army come through and just roll over you guys," Kanmi said. "It's giving you a chance. Not a great chance, but a chance."

Mark cocked his head. "What should we do, then?"

Solomon leaned forward along with everyone else. He'd been muddling through pretty well, all things considered, but he was still interested in hearing advice from somebody who had grown up with the system.

"First of all, put his story out of your minds for now," Kanmi said, gesturing at Solomon. "Normally, what people do is train up by fighting the monsters wandering around outside until they finish at least one grid. Get a group of people like that and you can take on the first level of the dungeon if you're smart and careful."

"You know all the grids and stuff?" Junior asked, his face lighting up. "I didn't want to spend any points if I could be wasting them."

"Think about it before you ask anything," Kanmi said. "You might be better off not knowing."

Junior frowned. "What do you mean? Is it a secret?"

Solomon frowned along with him. He'd just about lost his patience with people holding back information from him after dealing with Mort, the slippery system shopkeeper. If he had to put up with it from Kanmi, too, their partnership might be ending sooner rather than later.

"The System rewards you for figuring things out on your own," Kanmi said. "Grades your skills a little more generously. It's hard to go too far wrong in the early tiers, anyways."

That brought a round of grudging nods. Solomon had wondered a bit at his own ability to max out his skills. He believed in himself, but it seemed unlikely that he had hit the peak of human performance in two separate areas.

"Anyways, you want to hit the first level of the dungeon every day. You'll need the money and the practice," Kanmi continued. "Don't even think about taking on the dungeon boss until you've all finished a third tier grid and at least one of you has a big damage move."

Junior punched his fist in the air. "I knew there was some kind of anime super move hidden in the grids somewhere!"

"Something like that," Kanmi said. "The boss is gonna be big and mean and you're gonna need to take out big chunks of it at a time."

Solomon nodded. He certainly never would have taken on the boss without access to explosives.

"Then we take on the outpost," Dale said, putting a hand on Junior's shoulder to calm him down.

"Yeah, that's mostly about fighting smart," Kanmi said, before giving Junior a pointed look. "It's not like one of those anime where you have fun taking down small fry and maybe accidentally look up some chick's skirt. It's more the kind where the goblins are little murder machines that will do messed up stuff to your corpse."

That brought a wince out of Junior. Solomon wondered if he was thinking of anything specific. His sister would probably know. He shook his head. He'd had to deal with the little bastards himself. He doubted any kind of animated portrayal would carve nearly the same lesson into anybody's mind.

Dale rallied back first. "What about the arena?"

"Hope you get lucky," Kanmi said. "Maybe you stumble on some kind of power up, maybe they're having a bad day. Remember, you're fighting for all the marbles. Don't be in a rush."

Solomon nodded. If he had tried to take on Kanmi with shield and axe, the way he had fought the monsters, then he would have been the one suffering the one sided defeat. And that was with the plethora of attribute points that he had used ahead of the fight, far more than most people would have earned. A day of live combat against mindless opponents was no substitute for years of training.

If he hadn't had a gun, he would have been straight out of luck. And he only had a gun because he had finished a fifteen point grid, what Kanmi would probably call a grid on the fifth tier. He had noticed that the more powerful abilities lived in the higher tiers.

If one of the men in front of him could finish a grid on that level, they'd probably have a fighting chance in the arena. The problem was that the gradual increase in grid costs really started to bite at the higher tiers. The system only allowed five skills, not counting any that were maxed out. Getting skills up to level four was no joke. Solomon remembered the work he'd had to do with his hatchet to hit that level.

Somebody with five skills at level four would have forty grid points to spend. That would be just enough to fill out the first four tiers of grids: seven, nine, eleven, and thirteen points. It wouldn't even leave a point to spare for the fifth grid, let alone the eight needed to pick up the top tier's first special ability.

Unless one of the men sitting at the table with them was some kind of martial genius, they were going to have a very hard time getting up to the fifth tier any time soon.

Kanmi clicked his tongue. "You do want to get in there before the timer runs out on Third Grace, though."

"Why then?" Dale asked.

"Every time a grace period ends, aliens get to go one tier higher with their grid purchases," Kanmi said. "Taking them on once they can get tier three abilities is almost impossible."

It was Solomon's turn to click his tongue. He'd taken on Kanmi while he was limited to the special abilities granted by the first tier grids. No wonder his gun had proven such a decisive advantage.

Given another tier to work with, something on the level of Solomon's pistol would be more of a field leveler than a decisive edge. He hoped the locals could find their own edge before the week was up. He didn't want to have to fight through an enemy stronghold on his way back to his territory.