Nero stood in line to enter the Dungeon. Despite the danger of an Overflow, an event where monsters poured out of a Dungeon in great numbers, spreading devastation for miles around its entrance portal, most settlements were built close to a Dungeon for two reasons. First, they were a source of the precious Essence and cards, and second, Dungeons needed constant cleaning by Delvers to avoid Overflow. As a Dungeon Overflowed, its rating would increase and the next Overflow would be even worse. Eventually, deadlands would form, a place where nothing except monsters thrived. Even the vegetation would be replaced by monstrous lookalikes.

It also meant that the Minnid Tribe's Dungeon would never be anything but a rank I Dungeon. They couldn't let it rest until it caused an Overflow or the village would risk its existence and the Dungeon would never grow. Similar to the ranked pink card resting on Nero's bandolier, a rank I Dungeon allowed adventurers up to level ten to enter. Anyone above that level would find that the portal would just refuse if they tried to enter and even if they forced, they would quickly die inside. Nero didn't understand why but it did.

But as if Fate played a bad prank, there was no minimum level to enter any Dungeon. A fool could stumble into a rank XX Dungeon the same way he could jump belly-first into a propped spear. With the same results, also.

"Nervous?" Altia teased, startling Nero.

"No," He grinned, pushing away the gloom mood at home. "I was born for this."

She laughed at his boast. Being the child of two adventurers of no small power, Nero was indeed born for this. Altia brushed her shoulder against his arm but shied away when he noticed. Nero wanted to invite Altia to delve with him. While large parties were shunned upon, delving in groups of two or three had inherent advantages from the added safety. He was afraid she would reject him.

"Should we party up?" She asked, drawing a big smile from him.

"Sure!" He replied, happy that she invited him.

They weren't talking, in fact, none of the recently anointed Adventurers were. The kids were just too nervous, focused, or otherwise to engage in idle banter. In twos, threes, fours, or even alone, they entered with a small interval between them. The glimmering, iridescent, and hypnotic portal would shimmer, dim, and wobble at each intruder. The shimmer was brighter along the contour of the delver as they passed through, vanishing as if going past a cascade of silver glass shards.

Their turn came and they too crossed the portal together. At the last moment, Altia grabbed his hand. Nero was dizzy for a spell but then he focused. They were in a cave, with a somewhat plane floor covered in dust and bits of rock. The walls were irregular and colorful, several veins of rocks mixing at random. The ceiling was tall, about thirty to forty feet and an eerie glow permeated the place. From where the light came was a topic for heated debate among scholars, but for these adventurers, that it always was and always will be was enough.

The two were alone in that cave and three tunnels led away into the depths. Time inside a Dungeon was distorted. No matter how much time they spent inside or when they entered, they would always leave at the next dusk. They would require food and water for the time they spent inside and while each of them had enough for two days, monsters inside a Dungeon could drop food or equipment cards that could be converted into food. It was actually a common drop and food summoned from cards outside would only vanish if not consumed before the two hours. The nourishment from what was consumed remained, though.

"Let's gear up!" She proposed, exited.

She untied the string keeping her card pouch closed and drew a few cards one by one placing them on the slots of her Arbitrium. Then she slapped the control plate and slid the fingers up. The Arbitrium hummed and shone, displaying the cards she slotted. An ironshod quarterstaff and three amber potions in glass vials appeared in front of her, floating and shedding light. She plucked the potions from their spots and slid them into her belt. Then she picked the staff. The items ceased to shed light right when she touched them.

"Gearing up," Nero echoed.

He chuckled once. It was completely unnecessary to shout that but it gave him a rush of excitement. He drew the cards. A shield, a sword, a dagger, and three potions. All of his slots were filled and he did the same as Altia. The blades appeared with scabbards and the straps to tie them to his bandolier. After his items were in place, he met her eyes and nodded.

"I'll take the front."

With a smile, Altia curtsied. Nero drew his sword and they went next to a tunnel. Focusing, they heard sounds of combat. Next, the same thing. The third tunnel was silent and they took it. After walking the slightly sloped and snaking tunnel, they heard scraping.

"Giant Rat," Nero whispered. "Wait for me to get its attention."

He shouted and hit the flat of his sword to the shield before taking a few rushed steps down the tunnel. The rat's glowing red eyes shone in the dimly lit tunnel and with a squeak, it charged forward. It was the size of a medium dog but its long tail made it seem larger. Putting himself behind his shield, Nero halted, crouched, and readied himself. The rat tried to bite Nero's shin and he brought the buckler down to smack the head of the monster. With practiced movements, he brought down the sword above its left paw, attempting to pin the monster. He succeeded and moved slightly to the side, pressing the buckler and sword against the thrashing rodent.

"Altia!"

"Hey!" With a girly warcry, Altia drove her staff down in a circular motion to smack the hindquarters of the rat. The rat slid off Nero's sword, trailing blood. Nero kicked the rat up before it could recover, spraying blood from the shoulder wound on the cave wall. Altia rose her staff and drove down, smacking it back to the floor. Nero stabbed it again, hitting the neck and driving the blade tip a handful of inches down into the torso. He pressed down, pinning the monster again. It thrashed and tried to escape moving backward but Altia struck its head with a carefully placed blow.

As the giant rat stopped squirming, its body dissolved into motes of light. Dungeon monsters were summoned creatures made out of mana. Only once they escaped through the portal in an Overflow were they converted to real flesh and blood. The glass plates of their Arbitrii shone. Nero read the glyphs.

For defeating an enemy double your level, you gained +1 Perception.

The number on the left row ticked up and he felt a tingle, the cavern around him became sharper. He could see the soft skin on Altia's face as she stared a hole into her own device. He could smell the rapidly dissolving blood on the walls of the self-cleaning Dungeon. He could see the dust and small rock fragments on the floor.

"Yes! I got a point of Endurance," Altia cheered. "And ding! Level up too."

Adventurers usually mimicked the sound of a bell when they leveled. Nobody knew the origins of that custom, lost to time. But that made Nero look at his own display and dismay. It still showed those two zeroes. He lifted his head and met her gaze.

"I got a point of Perception as an accolade," He answered the question those brown eyes were asking without words.

"Did you..." Her eyes flicked to his display plate and back.

Nero closed his eyes, fighting back the knot. He opened them to find a concerned Altia. "No. It is still glitchy. Where are you spending your level point?"

"Willpower. Chemists need it to concentrate. And it gives me one point of Mana."

There were nine Attributes. Strength, Vigor, Endurance Dexterity, and Agility, the physical ones. Reason, Willpower, Perception, Charisma, the mental ones. Endurance unlocked the Stamina resource, Willpower unlocked the Mana resource. Altia got both on her first kill.

They were lucky to earn an accolade on their first kill. Accolades were given to extraordinary feats, like defeating a foe above one's level or defeating lots of enemies around one's own level fast. As the adventurers leveled, these became increasingly harder to obtain. Above level

00, they were almost unheard of.

"Well, there's nothing we can do. Look the rat finished dissolving. Let's see what it dropped." There was only an Essence crystal. Nero picked it up and handed it to Altia. "It is yours."

"Can you keep it? We split evenly later on."

Nero shrugged and placed the crystal on his Arbitrium. The display hummed and shone, displaying the number

0. That was how much Essence the crystal had. He slid it into a pouch. A level

crystal was almost useless. Altia would need ten of these to reach level 2. His face brightened as he got an idea. Taking the crystal back, he held it in his left fist and willed the Essence to enter his body. Nothing happened. He huffed and put it back. He couldn't even use the crystal because he was still level zero.

Maybe it was a glitch with the display only, and he leveled. But no, it wasn't. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Nero, don't let it occupy your mind. Just focus on the delve. Glom will fix it."

He held the tip of her fingers and found that her smile eased his worries. "Thanks, Altia. You are right. Until we find a [Egress] card, we are stuck here. Let's go."

There was one kind of card that only existed inside a Dungeon, the silver-plated [Egress] card. It couldn't be brought outside as it vanished into motes of light every time someone tried to. [Egress], once activated inside an Arbitrium, would teleport the Adventurer back to the portal. It was a somewhat uncommon drop but the final boss of a Dungeon was guaranteed to drop one for every Adventurer inside the boss room. Most of the time these went to waste as they found more before the boss, but scary tales of Adventurers that entered Dungeons well above their rank and died attempting to even reach the boss without finding a [Egress] card was the reason most stuck to their safe ranges of levels.

Most.

They walked down the tunnel, finding intersections and crossings. They paused to listen and went the other way every time they heard combat. Nobody wanted to meet another Adventurer on a Delve because it would mean competition for monsters at best. The worst cases were stuff for nightmares. Unless the survivors told the tale, nobody would ever know what happened inside a Dungeon. Everyone inside the Dungeon practically grew together, but why run any risks?

They found a second rat. This one seemed slower and tougher than the first one. Nero shouted and rushed. It was important to keep the rat's attention on him, or it could hurt Altia. The rat hissed and bare its rotten fangs but it didn't charge. Nero shouted and taunted, hitting the edge of the buckler on the side of the blade.

The rat vomited, puking a fetid gooey mixture on Nero's direction. He moved backward to avoid getting splashed but he bumped into Altia that was right behind him. They lost footing and tumbled back, falling on their behinds. The puke hit the gravel in front of Nero, hissing and raising a plume of smoke.

"Crawl back," Nero said, his eyes on the rat.

Altia scuttled backward but the rat decided to give them no time to recover. It leaped on Nero, aiming at his face. Nero raised his sword and stabbed the rat's belly, raising his bucker to meet its gaping snout. The rat's pounce impaled it on the young man's sword but it didn't die. Instead, the rat kept thrashing and raking, scratching Nero's arms and legs. It must've weighed more than forty pounds and Nero was pinned to the ground.

"Hey!" Altia's warcry was angry this time. It connected with the rat's head, bringing it down and clamping the teeth on the edge of the buckler. She rose the staff and hit again and a third time, for luck. The metal tip had small pyramidal studs and on the third hit, the rat's skull gave in, cracking. All the thrashing also widened the gash from Nero's blade still impaling the monster and it expired.

No accolades this time. The rat quickly dissolved, freeing Nero. But even after it disappeared entirely and left a slightly larger Essence crystal, he was still covered in blood. Some rat drool on his leather chest plate too.

"Eww. Why don't these vanish too?" He groaned and hacked to clear his throat, forcing his breakfast to keep down.

"It is because once their fluids stayed in contact with your aura for some time, it becomes real. Just like injected venom or diseases also doesn't disappear from a monster's victims," Altia explained. "Otherwise everyone would be fine once the monster was defeated."

Nero raised an eyebrow and stared at Altia smiling - but with a twisted nose - face. The rat's drool was acidic and stank. Nero stood up and checked the damage. Part of his bucker where the rat bit was slightly dissolved and bent. Since the buckler was disposable, it wasn't a big concern. His clothes and armor, on the other hand...

"If we find brown moss, I can make a cleaning solution for your clothes," Altia offered.

Nero chuckled. While he received training with magic and martial arts from his parents, Altia studied for her dream, to become a chemist. "I'll take your offer on that. Spotless clothes or my money back."

She playfully hit him with the staff. "Your coin is no good here, sir," She pouted.

"Right. Let's go."

They kept moving and fighting. Ten rats later, they got their first [Egress] card along with two [Dagger], one [Mace], two [Healing Potion], and one [Sword] card. Then they paused to rest and eat something.

"Tired?" Nero asked, still chewing on his rubbery jerky.

"Gross!" Altia sighed and leaned back on the rock wall.

He swallowed. "We need to bring some blankets or cushions next time."

"Right," She chuckled. "Your..."

Nero checked. The glass shone in the dungeon dim. He clicked his tongue, annoyed. "No." He then tried to absorb an Essence crystal. "Still no."

Altia bit her lower lip and looked away, up the tunnel. They had no idea how much they descended. The Dungeon was huge, that much was sure. Nero took a sip of his canteen, decided to save water.

"I bet you could study for days inside here. Then outside, only one afternoon passed," Nero commented.

"That's true. Some nobles do. But remember, you need to be strong enough to clear the Dungeon, kill the boss. It is a dangerous gamble," Altia replied, eyes closed. "There's a story about the son of a Marquis that left his entire guard behind because they found only one [Egress] card and were barely standing well before the boss. The kid took the card and bailed out. None of the guards popped out at dusk."

That also limited party size although no hard restrictions existed. The more people you brought with you, the more cards you need to leave. The Dungeon had one final trick to play. The boss was always stronger than the rank. In the Dungeon they were in, the boss was well-known. It was a level 7 Goblin. Given that the level cap to enter was level 5 and the fat rat that bled on Nero was level 2, one can gauge how hard it is to clear the Dungeon. Fortunately, the drop rate of the silver card is not affected by level and monsters respawned all the time, far away from people. It was a matter of not killing enough.

"That's... awful." Nero bit again on his jerky.

"That's nobility for you."

After a quarter-hour, Nero stood up and dusted himself.

"Let's move on," He offered a hand, she took it.

They kept moving, fighting rats and avoiding other Adventurers. Everyone was doing it, the first delve excitement enough without needing to do Person Versus Person.

Nero [0/0]:

Perception: +1

Altia [ 1 / 179]:

Endurance: +1

Willpower: +1