Instead of large cavernous rooms, the second floor consisted of branching, maze-like tunnels. The floors of the tunnels were uneven and interspersed with stalagmites. The illumination was just as shadowy as before, and the tall ceilings were thick with stalactites.

“Rats and bats you say? These aren’t ROUSes are they?” John asked.

“Rodents of Unusual Size? I don’t think-” Ex started and then cut off as Sally elbowed him.

“You used that one already! And then one of them bit you! Twice!” She exclaimed.

“Sorry,” Ex said with a laugh. “And no, the ROUSes are on the fourth floor. They’re almost five feet long tail to nose, and actually pretty terrifying.”

“So these are just normal sized?” John said skeptically.

“Normal sized swarms,” Ex emphasized.

“Yeah! They come in large groups and crawl all over you and bite and scratch and it’s horrible!” Sally said enthusiastically.

“Why do you sound so cheerful about that?!” John looked at Sally incredulously.

“Because fighting for your life is awesome!”

“Oh! You’re an adrenaline junkie.” John looked to Ex. “Does that make you her enabler?”

“I prefer to think of myself as her dealer,” Ex said unapologetically.

“Alright, so… how do you fight a swarm?”

“Well, Sally lets them rush her then throws herself against the ground and walls until they’re all crushed to death. Mostly they can’t get through her armor and scales,” Ex explained. “Lots of casters use fire, which is really good for mopping up large groups. You could probably sweep them up in a wave of water and drown them or something.”

John paused and considered. “Alright, I know exactly what I need, but it’s gonna be a couple minutes while I build a new spell,” he said finally.

John, quickly cast Create Mud and Move Earth, memorizing the runes, and then combined the movement rune with the ‘mud’ rune. After a few minutes he succeeded and got the hoped for prompt.

[Name: Move Mud]

[Description: A simple spell used to move waterlogged earth.]

[Current Rank: Novice]

[Current Amount: V = (1*L) 3 ft3]

[Mana Cost: 15/CF/second]

“Alright, I’m ready,” John said, and the group cautiously started off down the left most of the three passages, and began walking. For the first minute or so nothing happened, but then Sally pointed down the corridor.

“Swarm is coming, I can smell them.” She murmured.

Sure enough, a few moments later John could hear the scratch of tiny feet and the squeaking of rodents rapidly approaching down the hall. Coming to a stop he waited, wand at the ready. The rats came around a stalagmite like a squirming brown and black tide, swarming over everything in their path. They were clumped so closely together that the ground couldn’t be seen between them. John raised his wand and poured out

A torrent of waterlogged earth piled up in front of John, and in the next moment surged up and over the swarm, piling up on the writhing, wriggling bodies. The rats behind tried to scurry over the clinging ground only to find themselves drastically slowed, and prime targets for even more mud. In a few moments it was over, and all that was left of the hoard was a slowly spreading mound.

“That was actually kind of horrifying,” Ex muttered.

“Why would you think of something like that?!” Sally exclaimed.

“Is drowning in mud really that much worse than drowning in water?”

“Yes!” both of them exclaimed at once.

John just shrugged, and with a quick working of magic cleared the mud to either side so that they could walk through the hallway. As they continued walking a high pitched squeaking began to assault their ears, and soon John could see dozens of bats racing down the hall toward them.

“Oh shit!” he said, bringing his wand up and dropping a small waterfall in front of himself. The bats adjusted and simply went around the obstruction and began to harass the trio from above.

“GAH! THEY’RE IN MY HAIR!” John yelled.

“ALL YOU HAVE IS HAIR!” Sally rejoined, completely unperturbed.

“Try actually hitting them with something!” Ex yelled from where he hunkered down under a shield.

Bringing up his wand John brought the water up and around himself, turning it into a mid-air whirlpool. The bats clinging to him were quickly ripped off, and the ones circling about moved to avoid the water hazard. With a moment to think John reshaped the water into a bubble around himself. Looking around he extended the shield over both Sally and Ex who were, fortunately, still nearby.

“Well, you bought us some breathing room. Now what? How long can you hold this?” Ex asked as he stood up, putting the shield back in his inventory.

“Oh this is cool!” Sally said as she poked her hand in and out of the water barrier.

John just shook his head and considered what to do. He couldn’t actually hold the barrier for terribly long, it was draining a large chunk of water mana every second he delayed and the stone was already well used by this point.

“I’m going to try blowing up the shield,” he said finally. “If I can get them on the ground, I can use mud again.”

Ex and Sally nodded. John concentrated, trying to enforce the feeling of an explosion of movement onto the water, he then released the spell. Immediately their protective dome turned into a barrage of water that burst away from them in all directions, hitting most of the swarm with high pressure water. Many of the bats fell to the ground and John wasted no time dropping a layer of mud on the floor. However not all the bats were so easily brought down and many were now both angry and wet.

“Well that didn’t work!” John yelled as the bats started assaulting him again.

Sally laughed and Excelsior took out his shield and crouched again.

Using one arm to cover his face John waved his wand around with the other, bringing up frantic blasts of water. The bats were thick enough that usually they hit, crippling and killing bats. It took several more moments and dozens of blind casts to whittle the bats down to only a few that still clung to John and Sally. Sally promptly threw herself against the walls repeatedly, creating a disturbing crunching noise with each iteration. Meanwhile Ex helped John rip off the remaining bats and kill them with well-placed blows.

“What did we learn?” Ex asked after the last of the bats were dealt with.

“That I need fire and air to deal with flying opponents?” John questioned.

“Or better armor and muscles!” Sally said with a flex.

“I was gonna say ‘John sucks at arial combat” but both those work too,” Ex said with a smirk.

Sally chuckled and John rolled his eyes.

“Alright, how are you looking for Mana?” Ex asked, serious this time.

“This stone is almost spent, I’ve got one more and then I’m out,” John said as he waved the wand for emphasis.

“Alright, switch out your stones now, we’ll head straight for the boss. I don’t think there’s much else you’re going to get out of the swarms. The rats are too easy, and the bats eat too much of your mana. I’m not sure you should try the spiders either, but we can go down if you want. Though I warn you that their chitin is tougher than the crystal slimes, so you’ll need stronger or bigger spikes. And the webbing doesn’t readily cut. Sally and I bring lots of fire stones when we do spiders.”

“Yeah, let’s hold off on spiders. Hopefully I’ll get another level soon, which was the point,” John said.

“I’m pretty sure I’ve said you two are no fun before!” Sally interjected.

“Yep, and I intend to stay that way.” John grinned at her.

The trio set off down the hallway and Ex navigated them through several branching tunnels. John had to kill three more rat swarms and they suffered through two more of the bats before they finally reached a large, open chamber.

“Alright, what are we looking at?” John asked.

“A single giant rat-bat thing that calls swarms of rats and bats to aid it,” Ex said. “Don’t let it screech, that’s how it calls them.”

“Alright.” John stepped into the room, and like last time the entrance ground shut behind them.

A loud screech came from above and John looked up to see what looked like a giant, five-foot rat with bat wings grafted to its back. The creature circled above and screeched again, this time it was answered by the squeaking and squealing of rats, as they came pouring out of small holes in the walls.

“What did I say about letting it screech?!” Ex exclaimed.

John just shook his head and started dropping piles of mud on the burgeoning swarm. Seeing him distracted, the boss monster dropped to the floor and charged.

“JOHN! WATCH OUT!” Sally yelled.

John turned, but only got half way around before the rat rammed into him, bearing them both to the ground. He screamed as the creature got its mouth around his left arm and began gnawing, its teeth cutting straight to the bone. John flailed at it with his wand ineffectually, until the creature gnawed his arm off entirely, pulling it away with a sickening crunch and pop. The bat-rat retreated, chewing on its prize. Ex ran over to John and released a quick pulse of healing light, sealing the mangled stump of his arm.

“The pain isn’t real John! Neither is the wound! Get moving!” He said as he helped the shocked Basajaun to his feet.

“R-right,” John mumbled, looking at his stump.

He felt strangely detached, and even as he looked at it the trauma became less and less clear, as if his memory of the event were but a cloudy dream. He blinked and looked around. Sally and Ex were squaring off against the beast, which had just finished swallowing his arm. The creature opened its mouth and John reacted, bringing his wand up.

Ex and Sally both began to charge as they realized the rat-bat was going to screech again, only to pull up short as a giant spike, thick as Sally’s arm, flew past them and into the open maw. The bat-rat choked and squealed as blood sprayed from broken teeth and the puncher that now adorned the back of its throat. It thrashed around in pain, trying to dislodge the spike. As it did so a veritable wall of mud began to fall on it, quickly bogging the creature down and eventually burying it.

Sally and Ex looked at John, who was breathing heavily, his hair matted in blood, one arm missing, and a wild look in his eyes.

“IT ATE MY ARM!” He yelled, more in surprise than pain or fear.

“It’s fine, we can grow it back,” Ex said calmly.

“Yeah! The first time it ate both my legs and choked to death on them! Ex didn’t have Regenerate back then though, so I had to respawn anyway!” Sally said excitedly.

“But… but… It ate my arm! Shouldn’t I be in shock?! Totally terrified? Something?” John asked, sounding far calmer than a moment before, and even a little perplexed.

“Nah, it’s all part of the system. Think really hard about what happened. It’s got a dream like quality to it, doesn’t it? Like a bad nightmare that’s all over now? That’s the system dulling the shock and stuff, makes it so that you’re not actually permanently traumatized by what happens,” Ex explained.

“That… that’s terrifying,” John said.

Ex shrugged. “Couldn’t have a game this realistic without it. Otherwise think of what dying over and over would do to a person.”

“I suppose…” John trailed off as he stared at his stump.

Ex walked over and put a hand on John’s shoulder. “Hold still, this spell takes a minute and a lot of mana.” He started casting, even as he pulled a wand out of his inventory.

A golden light washed over John’s body and coalesced around the stump of his left arm, slowly, inch by inch, the arm began to regrow. John watched in fascination as Bone, muscle, tendons, and skin were regenerated. Halfway through Ex had to swap stones, but after a few minutes the arm was fully reformed, hair and all.

“What spell was that? Regeneration? Help, how does regeneration work?”

[Name: Regeneration]

[Description: This spell will regrow, or re-attach if available, lost limbs and organs.]

[Displayed Rank: Novice]

[Current Amount: (1*L) Dr]

[Mana Cost: 30/Dr/sec]

“What’s a D R?”

[Answer: Dr is short for Dram, there are 16 drams in an ounce, just as there are 16 ounces in a pound.]

“30 mana per dram per second? That’s… how much mana did that just cost?” John asked.

“Around four and a half thousand,” Ex said as he put the stone away.

“Wow, remind me to make you some life stones later as a thank you.”

“Oh don’t worry, I will,” Ex responded with a grin.

“Are you two done yet?! It’s time to see what loot we got!” Sally said, pointing at a wall that was slowly opening to reveal another chest. This one was of moderate size, coming up to about John’s knees.

“Alright! Hold your horses!” Ex said as he moved to follow sally.

John brought up the rear and arrived just in time to see sally throw open the chest, revealing a bunch of scrap armor, a few copper coins, and a couple small water stones.

“Bah, trash,” Ex said derisively. “You want any of this John?”

“Nothing but the coins,” John admitted.

“Drat, I was hoping you’d want some of the armor or stones,” Ex admitted.

“Three copper coins, so. One each!” Sally passed a coin to each of them.

The each took and put away their coin, and then another section of the wall slid up, revealing the set of stairs up and the set down. As John started toward the stairs a message popped up.

[Congratulations on increasing your level! 4 à 5]

[You have received 1,500 Leveling Points, please distribute them now]

“Hold up, I just leveled,” John said.

“Alright, we can wait a minute,” Ex said.

“UUUUGH he’s gonna be slow like you Ex, I just know it!” Sally chimed in.

John smirked and then pulled up his status.

[Name: Johnathan]

[Race: Basajaun]

[Level: 5]

[Mana: 300]

[MRegen: 10/minute]

[Leveling Points: 1,500]

[Attributes]

Strength: 23 Constitution: 23 Dexterity 10 Intelligence: 30 Wisdom: 30

[Skills]

Engineering – Apprentice Farming – Apprentice Light Armor – Novice Swordplay – Novice Meditation – Novice Mana Manipulation – Journeyman Mana Sight – Journeyman Enchanting – Apprentice Inspect – Novice Mana Imprint – Journeyman Measuring - Apprentice

[Spells]

Move Earth – Journeyman Create Font – Apprentice Create Earth – Apprentice Move Water – Novice Hasten Decay – Apprentice Create Mud – Novice Create Mana Stone – Novice Earth Manipulation – Novice Water Manipulation – Novice

[Boons]

Mana Stone Maker Bigger on the Inside Master Builder

“Alright, let’s increase Enchanting to Expert for 700, Measuring to Journeyman for 300, Hasten Decay to Journeyman for 300, and purchase Create Fire and Hasten Growth for 100 each.” John said after a few moments.

[Enchanting rank up purchased: 300 points.]

[Error: You cannot increase a skill or spell to Expert before level 40.]

[Measuring rank up purchased: 300 points.]

[Hasten Decay rank up purchased: 300 points.]

[Hasten Growth purchased: 100 points.]

[Error: Create Fire not found.]

“Uh… Help what spell is used to create fire?”

“Evoke Flame!” Sally yelled from near the stairs.

[Answer: Evoke Flame]

“Purchase Evoke Flame for 100 points.” John said, waving his thanks to Sally.

[Evoke Flame Purchased: 100 Points.]

“Ugh, you can’t increase a skill to expert while below level 40?”

“Yeah,” answered Ex, “it’s probably to prevent having grandmasters at low levels.”

John sighed in exasperation and considered for a moment. “Bank 400 points for later use,” he said finally.

[400 points banked]

Nodding at his selections John pulled up the information on his new spells.

[Name: Hasten Growth]

[Description: This spell speeds the growth process, causing rapid maturation in plants and some animals.]

[Current Rank: Novice]

[Current Amount: 1 creature, or V = (1*L) ­­­3 ft3]

[Current Rate: 1 hour per second]

[Mana Cost: 15/Plant/second]

[Name: Evoke Flame]

[Description: Increase the temperature in a given location.]

[Current Rank: Novice]

[Current Amount: V = (1*L) ­­­3 ft3]

[Mana Cost: 10/CF/second]

John looked at the information for a moment. “How does fire work in cubic feet?”

“It creates a uniform flame through the entire area! But it’s not very hot, if you want to make it hotter you have to condense it, and that’s hard,” Sally complained.

“Condense it?” John asked curiously.

“Yeah, overlap the area. Like make two cubic feet of fire in the space of a single cubic foot,” She continued to explain. “Like I said though, it’s hard.”

“What about… Move Fire? Control Fire? Whatever it’s called that lets you control fire?”

“Control Flame. It makes it easier to condense, but you have to make the fire first.”

“I wonder if mana manipulation will make condensing flames easier…” John trailed off as he considered.

“That skill sounds decidedly more OP every time I hear you talk about it,” Ex interjected. “Anyway, you going to be okay if Sally and I head deeper in?

“Yeah, I just take the stairs up, right?”

“Yup, you’ll come out in the gazebo,” Ex affirmed. “C’mon sally, those spiders aren’t going to kill themselves!”

John watched as Sally and Ex walked down the stairs, then he ascended the other set. After a few moments of walking, far shorter than he expected, he found himself standing in the gazebo again. He took a moment to get his bearings, and then began the walk back toward his farm.