Silas didn’t know how many black skeletons he killed before they ripped him apart. A few in among the group of thirty two had wielded chained hooks, a fact he noticed all too late. He’d charged in among them, thinking himself invincible. One hooked his neck as another caught his arm for others to drag away his hammer. Then one caught his ankle, flopping him to the ground. Stabbed by spears, swords, and the occasional arrow he did his best to resist, but in the end their numbers proved superior to his nanite-powered regeneration.

He lay back in his cell, panting as the single black rat squealed in his grip. Dying sucked. He definitely wanted to avoid it out in the real world.

The rat disappeared from his hand.

Suddenly he felt refreshed, like he hadn’t just fought a whole mess of skeletons and died for his trouble.

Sitting up, confused, he found Eve frowning down at him, in a military uniform with a flat-brimmed hat, her white cat ears poking through holes on each side. He raised an eyebrow, “Yes, Drill Sergeant Eve?”

“That’s ‘Sir! Yes, Drill Sergeant Eve, sir!” she barked at him.

He rolled his eyes. “What is it, Eve?”

Her shoulders slumped. “You’re no fun.” She took off the hat then tossed it aside. “This isn’t working. Seems we can’t cheat the system and get you some physical Skills without you actually doing that physical thing. Nor does me piloting around your body gain you anything, Skill-wise.”

He threw his hands in the air. “What was the point of all this, then? And how do you even know? I can’t see my own Status in here!?”

“Well,” she smirked, “in here you see what I want you to see. Out there, in the real world? You left your Status page open.”

He opened his mouth to argue that he had previously opened and closed windows in her virtual space, before realizing that of course Eve could replicate anything his ‘real’ eyes saw in this virtual place. “Fine, fine. And the point?”

Her smirk grew even deeper. “You’re not afraid to get your hands a bit dirty now, are you? While also understanding that you do, in fact, have limits?”

He groaned, not liking where this was going. “I don’t wanna.”

“You asked me to let you out not even six hours ago.”

“Yeah… But then you were going to make me…”

Her smirk slid into a full-fledged grin. “You can fight in the dungeon, or you can take another test. Perhaps we should delve into the joys of ‘Social Studies?’ History. Geography. Economics. Politics. What an understated joy, to have all those exciting topics fall within a single course!”

“I really hate you right now.” He did his best to give her an annoyed glare.

“Love you too!” She waved at him. “See you on the flip side!”

In a blink he was, once again, elsewhere, his body twirling upon a giant blade of grass, severing a series of legs from the body of an office-building-sized orange and black centipede, blocking its retaliatory headbut with a solid metal shield. The sword in his hand sparked purple lightning, though the centipede seemed to ignore the purple sparks which ran down its length and into the ground.

“The exoskeleton is too conductive,” Eve explained, as if that explained anything.

He tried to speak, but not even his mouth obeyed his commands. “Not cool, Eve!” he thought at her. “Are you giving me control of my body or not?”

“I am, but with training wheels—for now. Feel how I move. Watch what I do. Get a feel for it. You might need a Skill for interpreting all your sensory data, or a higher Wit, but I’m operating solely within the limits of your expanded senses and physical abilities. Or, quite possibly, that thirty nine Perception on your Status isn’t just for show, and you’ll handle the extra sensory input just fine. I’ll slowly increase your perception of your own sensory data over time, so let me know if it ever becomes too overwhelming.”

His body leapt over a body slam he couldn’t see coming from behind, the centipede trying for a sneak attack with the back half of its body.

Eve continued, “Once you think you’re ready I’ll let you give it a try, but I’m going to step in again when you’re about to get too badly injured. No need to let Mr. Headmaster know all our secrets. I don’t trust him.”

He grunted—or tried to. “Fine.” He didn’t trust the old man very much, either. What was he thinking, bringing Silas into this place?

She had him chop off more centipede legs on the way down, seeming to focus entirely on the legs from the left side of the monster.

Down below, he could see a squad of five sword-and-shield-wielding skeletons killing bus-sized ants, positioned beside Walker, Ai, and Headmaster Ainsley. The skeletons lost two or three of their number per ant killed, a loss Walker could manage as he continued to summon replacement skeletons from the ant corpses. Meanwhile Walker blasted the ants with a wand producing ice shards while Ai took out targets of opportunity with her sonic blaster.

Ainsley, it seemed, remained focused on his ball of spinning rings, trusting Silas and co to keep him safe.

“Why does Walker only have five skeletons out?” he asked Eve.

“Sustainability,” she replied. “Your mana started dropping at six. That was on the first floor, though. We’re on the fifth now. The denser mana might allow for more. He’s getting better at directing five, however. Already they’re dying less often than they were an hour ago. Five really is quite the crowd for a beginner necromancer to manage, much less ten.”

In the game the skeletons were autonomous, though in the history of the game’s forums no one ever praised the minion AIs for being particularly clever. If Walker could nudge them to make better choices, that was for the best. “It’s still bugs, huh? They just got bigger?”

“The entire world’s scale keeps increasing, as if us delvers become smaller with each successive level.”

“I thought there were dragons at the end?”

“The theme changes every ten floors, so I hear.”

“Ah.” He considered what miniboss might guard the tenth floor, before remembering he had no reason to go that deep.

Before long the centipede only had a few legs remaining on its left side, not enough for it to crawl forward successfully.

Eve backed off, returning to the group which had advanced away from the massive creature, weaving through blades of grass resembling skyscrapers.

“Not going to kill it?” Silas asked.

“Why bother? It doesn’t—” She paused. “You haven’t killed anything yourself, but I would assume the kills of the others and myself would have earned you experience points, if you were going to gain any from monster kills.”

“Depends on the game rules I’m under, really,” Silas said after giving it some thought. “You’re probably right, though. If I can gain XP by killing monsters, you guys should be earning me XP. Might be the ‘admin’ I have watching me thinks that would be too easy, though?”

Silas nearly stumbled as his body came to a stop, standing still beside a giant blade of grass. He patted himself down, back in control of his motions.

“Have at it, then,” Eve said. “Only way to know for sure is for you to kill something. Try not to die.”

He squeezed the handle of the lightning sword, looking out at Eve’s helpful red wireframe representations of the giant ants making their way to his blue highlighted allies, Ainsley getting his own cautionary yellow color to denote his questionable status. Similar information appeared in his restored minimap.

As he hesitated, a red ‘X’ appeared over the head of the ant nearest Silas, one on the far end of this latest batch. “Yeah, yeah, Raid Leader Eve,” he muttered, starting off with a slow jog but quickly picking up steam.

Running full tilt he burst around a blade of grass and swung at one of his target’s back legs. His sword hacked through the limb almost as wide as his own arms without much resistance. Purple lightning coursed through the ant. Like a purple Chain Lightning spell, the elemental attack branched off to zap the nearest three ants, then from each of those ants three more lightning zaps emerged. This continued until all the red outlines representing the ants nearby winked out.

“The heck was that?” Silas asked, staring at his sword.

“Powerful artifact Ainsley lent us,” Eve half-explained. “No notifications. Check your XP?”

He pulled up his Status for the first time in a while.

Status

Silas Aegis

11y 3s 23d 21h

L15 (671/680 XP)

H: 49.0/49 (49/day rest)

S: 48.6/49 (49/min rest)

M: 28.9/29 (29% eff.)

3 AP

STR: 39 (+20)

AGI: 39 (+20)

END: 49 (+20)

VIT: 49 (+20)

PER: 39 (+20)

WIL: 29

WIT: 20

SPI: 29

AFF: 29

CHA: 12

3/8 SP

29 Arithmetic (WIT)

29 Aura Control (WIL)

29 Eve (VIT)

29 Gaming (AGI/WIT)

29 Gaming Necessities (WIL)

29 Interface (WIL)

29 Mana Magnet (AFF)

29 Mana Manipulation (WIL/WIT)

29 Mana Sense (AFF)

29 Number Theory (WIT)

29 Obscurity (SPI)

29 Pain Resistance (END/WIL)

29 Poison Resistance (END)

29 Programming (WIT)

29 Sight Reading (WIT)

29 Sleep Resistance (END/WIL)

19 Algebra (WIT)

19 Bargaining (CHA)

19 Geometry (WIT)

19 Help (SPI)

19 Language: Artean (WIT)

19 Pestilence Resistance (END)

19 Piano (AGI/WIT)

19 Summon Character (CHA)

19 Trigonometry (WIT)

09 Chemistry (WIT)

09 Countdown to the End (SPI)

09 Probability (WIT)

09 Statistics (WIT)

Just looking at that long list made him groan. He needed a better way to display additions and changes to his Status. And he probably should sort his Skills by type, too, to get rid of some of the clutter.

Later, though.

Sixteen times twenty nine plus nine times nineteen plus four times nine equaled… Six hundred seventy one.

“No XP from the kill. And if I don’t get credit just because I’m using an overpowered weapon, then I need to file a bug report.”

“Mmm. Ainsley has other weapons, if you wish to try your luck with less magical aid.”

Silas considered. “Maybe when I’m not up against something that can squish me like a bug.”

“I see what you did there.” She waited, then continued, “Might we revisit our conversation on the future of those three AP? I understand your inclination to hold onto the points until you absolutely need them, but if I can get another boost I could likely do quite a bit for you, with a bit of prep time. At minimum I expect I can improve your augments by another tier. I suspect I might even be able to double their effectiveness. So that’s sixty to one hundred ten Attribute Point increases for the price of three AP.”

She made a good argument.

“You think you can get there on your own though, right?”

“Not soon. In a few months perhaps, if we live that long.”

“Don’t be so pessimistic. Honestly I’m more worried about my Charisma. It’s the one I need to raise more than any other, to improve Summon Character. Lower mana costs and a bigger Roster would go a long way to improving my survivability.

“As you’ve pointed out, my leveling is going to slow way down unless I can pick up a bunch of skills relatively fast.

“Which, from a leveling standpoint, means I shouldn’t forget about Wit either. Almost half my current Skills are governed by Wit! Raising it to tier three would raise the cap on all those skills.” He frowned, looking over the list. “Not sure I want to focus on raising those Skills any time soon, though.”