And so they delved. Nero and Altia entered the Dungeon to risk their lives for that tiny sliver of power. Such was the life of an Adventurer.

Upon entering, Nero's device lit up.

Entering "The Goblin's Den" - Rank I Dungeon. Disarming Limiter... error. Limiter not engaged.

But something changed. Nero looked at his device, read the message and sighed. "The gnome from yesterday set my Arbitrium to diagnose mode and forgot to change it back. I'm getting some weird messages. Look."

She read the words on the display. "That's weird. What is this limiter?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. No, wait. I think it was the thing my father told us, that outside a Dungeon Adventurers have their Attributes reduced to save energy. But honestly, that 'find out for yourself' attitude gets on my nerves," Nero complained.

"Yeah," She mused. "Me too."

"Now, you should get your staff ready. You need a weapon.

Next, she summoned the staff with [Permanency]. Nero wanted to have another [Enchant +1] but he knew these were rare and expensive. He used up all three he got from his parents.

[Iron Staff] - Main Hand

+2 Vigor

+2 Willpower

+1 Charisma

Every Attribute point counted. At least now Altia had a weapon and two spells to play with. And with ten points of Vigor, her survivability in the Dungeon skyrocketed. Just as Nero wanted. Now all they needed to do was kill things until the two silver cards dropped.

She did a few practice swings with the staff, her improved Dexterity lending precision to her moves as if she'd trained for months with the staff.

"I'm fine," She smiled and hit the ground with the butt of the staff. "Let's go kill things."

They went. The rats and serpents were quickly put behind, a couple dozen of each killed for getting in their way. Soon they were in the third and final section of the Dungeon before the boss.

Nero had a bug biting him in a corner of his mind. It wasn't a crawler though one was nearby. The bug told him they should've waited, that they could've killed thousands of crawlers and bought yellow Skill cards for Altia. His fear of stunting her growth, when a full yellow set of Class and Skills would've given her eighty-five Attribute points, was clouding his judgment.

And in a Dungeon, distractions were dangerous. A crawler with an unusual multi-segmented limb that looked like a whip took advantage of that and whipped Nero's thigh with its barbed leg. When it pulled, it dug deep furrows on his leg, bringing Nero down on a knee, screaming in pain. He did a backhand swing with the clockwork sword and severed a few limbs, but the crawler was moving past him and toward Altia.

"[Magic Arrow]!"

The projectile flew as if shot by a war bow. It skidded upon contact with the limbs but still pierced the crawler's main body. She shouted and ran to meet the crawler, bashing it from below with her staff and launching the deadly but lightweight monster up. The whip limb lashed Altia's exposed hands as it flew to hit the ceiling. Nero was drinking a [Healing Potion]. The monster came down and Altia bashed it from above with her staff, smashing it against the ground. Pinned, it could not evade Nero's sword.

The monster dissolved and Nero's device lit up.

Compatible Anima detected. Energy absorbed above the threshold. Processing upgrade. Weighing Attribute strain.

For defeating a (error division by zero) foe seven times your level, you gained +1 Strength

"Altia, your hands!" Nero saw the monster striking her hands from below.

"[Cure Wounds]." She used the spell on him. "I'm fine, Nero. It's just a scratch."

Nero stood up, lamenting the sorry state of his pants. Clothing damage was one reason some Adventurers delved almost naked. He gave Altia a disbelieving glance and she showed her hands.

"Ten points of Vigor," She bragged, then smiled and coyly lowered her eyes before meeting his gaze again with a bright smile. "Thank you."

And Nero realized. Even though his parents had a relatively high level of wealth for commoners, they wouldn't spend millions on Altia. They did spend millions on him with all those Anima crystals and he was grateful. But they couldn't kill thousands of crawlers if Altia hadn't equipped the green Skills and blue Class. They couldn't farm thousands of crawlers even in their current state.

Seeing him silently brooding, Altia picked up the card and crystal the crawler left behind and hugged his arm. "What are you worried about? What Accolade did you get?"

Nero checked his device. "Strength. How much mana do you have left?"

"One.

Nero scanned both sides of the crawler tunnel they were in. He measured the Crystal Altia picked up, the level seven crawler left behind a crystal worth two hundred and forty-five Essence. It was a lot for the rank I dungeon.

"That's odd. Were these monsters supposed to drop this much Essence?" He asked. A level 1 rat dropped five Essence. For a level 7 crawler, the gap in levels did not justify the gap in Essence, in Nero's mind.

"I have no idea. People usually don't farm the crawlers. They use the Essence from the rats and serpents to reach level six, then move to the rank II Dungeon. Crawlers are deadly monsters. Maybe they have a boost to their Essence because of that."

"I didn't think of that."

"Or maybe... I don't have a pen and paper here, but I need to do some calculations. Let's keep moving."

Altia could cast only four times between rests. And not the short breaks for a meal or just to get off of one's feet. She needed to rest for several hours for the mana to return. But the spells' power would scale with her Attributes and so would her mana resource.

They hunted crawlers for another full "day", farming Essence and cards before finding the two silver cards that would take them back to the surface world.

Back home, they found that Byron moved Altia's belongings from her father's house to the guest room. After having dinner, Nero was stitching his pants while Altia tried to do some calculations.

"Tomorrow is the big day, eh?" Nero asked.

"Yes. I hope my father doesn't kill you," She poked her tongue at him.

"I did you no dishonor, milady."

"I know," She replied without lifting her head. Altia sounded either disappointed or really focused on her math.

He finished with his pants and moved to their cards. After some prodding, Altia gave hers to him. Spreading his handkerchief down on the table, he gleefully stacked, piled, sorted, and studied their cards. They'd obtained another two green weapons, a spear and a greatsword, nothing too special. The crawlers were really better at dropping greens.

"Nero, give me your Essence. Let me tally everything."

He handed her the pouch and went back to playing with his cards. A moment later, he stopped.

"We need some way to carry your quarterstaff while keeping your hands free."

She nodded, finished counting a batch of crystals and then spoke.

"I thought of it. I have a strap of leather I can tie to the staff and then sling it over my shoulder and head. It will be awkward with the full backpack but it can be done."

"Okay," Nero went back to the cards.

He separated the food and drink into stacks of sixty, tying the completed stacks with straps. Three and a bit. Then the weapons, the few pieces of armor, potions, Classes, and Skills. Halfway through the pile of cards, he found something interesting.

"I didn't know we got red." A red background card, he meant. just like the Modifier cards were pink.

"Oh, yes. Nothing great, I didn't think it was worth telling."

It wasn't, but red cards were a hard drop, and each was exclusive to the monster that dropped it. Nero examined the card.

[Rat] - gray Pet

+1 Perception

"60% disease-free."

Effect: Summons a loyal rat pet.

An ordinary rat. Not a giant one. Some exotic pets could fetch millions of Essence to the right buyer, and each owner could have only one pet. These constructs of Essence weren't living beings but remained until dismissed or killed and could follow their owners in and out of Dungeons but had to be fed like any other creature. For this [Rat] card, the best they could get was Razzer's crappy "three for one" trades. He wasn't interested in visiting the leopard-kin again. Nero separated the pet card into the 'trade away' pile.

"So, how are our finances?" He asked after he was done organizing the cards.

Altia paused, rested the pen and looked at him. "Not bad. But we can't visit Razzer anytime soon. I think I should be more active hunting the crawlers, to kill them faster. You are getting too confident. The monsters from now on will have Skills. That whip one, I am sure that was some sort of special attack. Or a freaky mutation."

"We can go back to the serpent area. Not the rats, though."

"I hate the sand," Altia whined. "It gets everywhere."

Nero blinked but said nothing. The only other choice would be to move onward to the rank II Dungeon. Altia could level up to 8 right now and activate her last Skill, she'd be golden as someone's support. Not his, though. If Nero had a problem with one mutant creepy crawler, what could be said of the even stronger monsters of the next rank?

Without much else to do, they went to sleep.

The next day they had one dilemma. They could stay behind and delve, meeting Altia's father at night, or wait outside and meet him when he arrived. When Nero proposed, Altia was adamant.

"No. We are delving every day. Where is your resolve to grind your way out of the stigma of being a level zero?"

And so they delved. As they crossed the Serpent area, now that the rats were just an afterthought, Nero's spiked buckler bashing their rodent snouts to paste easily, Altia noticed something.

"I figured out how to orient ourselves in the serpent zone," She declared with glee.

Nero stopped and smiled. "What? That's awesome. What is it?"

"I was always bothered by the serpent that ambushed us from the stalactite so I got to watch the roof while you scan the sand. I noticed that the walls of these tunnels aren't the same color as the sand, but the roof is. And if you look at the formations, there's some ribbing where the roof is degraded in one direction. It is as if some kind of wind is blowing from deeper down the Dungeon in the direction of the rat cave."

Nero gave her a thumbs up.

"Good call. Now we can move back to the rat caverns if we want." Sarcasm oozed from his speech.

"I think we need to coordinate in fighting the crawlies. I could distract them to give you an opening to attack."

Nero paused. It hurt his pride that he couldn't fight the crawlies, but then again, he was supposed to have a Class and Skills. He imagined how easy would be if he could, let's say, use [Dash n' Slash] on the crawlies. One point of stamina and bang! Crawlie dead. And Altia's Vigor meant she could shrug damage better than him.

"We will try to coordinate. You will stand on my left so that the shield can cover you a bit. Then we kill the crawlies together. It will be hard to practice but we can try." He checked his potion hoops. Two [Healing Potion], one [Anditode]. Altia was looking at him. "What?"

"I thought you would say 'no, I must protect my bride-to-be from harm, you stay behind', or something like that."

"Uh. Maybe if it happened a couple days ago. But not now. Disappointed?"

She shook her head and smiled. "No. At least not in a bad way. We fight together, we bleed together."

That was one of the reasons he stacked Vigor for her Skills and gear. That plus ten wasn't a joke. If Nero had his way, Altia wouldn't even set foot on the Dungeon. But power had value and she would need to be as strong as his mother to avoid being swayed by those above.

"I still hate it, just for the record."

She made a faux-salute. "Duly noted, sir. Lead the way."

The serpents were boring by now. Nero could detect their ambushes by the energy they emanated, the red glow seen through the goggles and dispatching them with the clockwork sword was piece of cake. They would come out of the sand, get cleaved in half, pick drops, rinse repeat. The worst part was to wait for the activation of the sword and for the teeth to come to a full stop before moving forward to engage the serpent.

Nero was impressed with themselves and thankful for their parents for the Anima crystals. He felt useless, worthless, but he was as powerful as a full-white level 10 Adventurer with some equipment. Altia, on the other hand... was like the scion of a lesser House at her level.

Two serpents popped out at the same time. Nero slashed one and pinned another to the tunnel wall with the spiked buckler, then severed the ophidian carefully to avoid splatters. After a week of training, he managed to do what Karse taught him, to swing the sword from a stationary position and compensate for the sudden Strength bonus. The serpents dissolved and dropped one card each, both falling face-up. They were green and blue respectively text and background. Nero wouldn't mind if the opposite was true.

"Two green Skills," He noted.

[Stoneskin] - green - Requires Vigor +3, Endurance +3

Vigor +2

Endurance +1

"Not really stone."

Effect: Upon 1 second of concentration and 1 point of Stamina, increase vigor by 15% (minimum +5) for 1 minute.

[Envenom] - green - Requires melee Skill, Agility +2, Dexterity +2, Willpower +2.

Willpower +1

Perception +1

Charisma +1

"Keep away from children."

Effect: Instantaneously spend 1 mana to coat weapon in poison for one strike with a melee Skill and a piercing or slashing weapon. If successful, the target will receive a [Poisoned] debuff that deals damage based on Dexterity and Willpower every second for Charisma seconds.

"Mana usage on a rogue Skill seems so wrong," Altia chimed.

"Yeah, but cards are like that. Let's move into the crawlies' den."

Leaving the sand behind and stepping into the wider creepy crawler tunnels, they started to carefully seek the rolling balls of murder. Side by side. They stopped to train some movements, trying not to tangle their armaments or hit one another. After an hour of training, they went and found their first monster. The crawler picked up speed after noticing the Adventurers, thirsty for blood. The clattering of the sharp limbs on the ground as those in front was pushed down to roll was another unnerving trait of the monster.

"Jumper!" Nero called.

Crawlers had several ways of attacking, depending on limb composition. Some would aim for the legs, others jump and lash at the face. Others with special traits, like the long-limbed with a whip, were unpredictable. But they only spawned deeper into the tunnels. The crawler was suddenly pressed down on the ground and sprang with the strength of a dozen insect legs straight at Altia's face.

"I got it!" She shouted.

Nero moved his spiked buckler out of the way. Altia took a step forward to meet the crawler on the rise and brought her staff down, a move that was impossible in the narrow tunnels of the previous two sections. She connected with the airborne crawler although the creature shifted its limbs to change its flight path slightly. It flew to Altia's right, straight into Nero's path. He lunged with the clockwork Sword and clipped tens of limbs as the monster passed next to the blade, grabbing the flat side and pushing the body away from the point.

The monster jumped away from the blade. Severed limbs twitched on the ground. It wobbled for a moment before stretching some limbs to compensate for the loss. It rolled again to gain momentum and jumped, lower this time. Nero moved sideways, Altia bashed it down. It fell closer and whipped two limbs at the girl's legs. Nero took a step forward and chopped the body. The iridescent glow from the body was a sure sign of their victory.

"Good. Next one that jumps at you, I'll block with the buckler. You take a step back, I'll block and slash, then you bash them."

"I don't think I did any damage," Altia remarked with a note of sadness in her voice.

Nero shook his head. "Against crawlers, it doesn't matter how much damage you caused, what matters is how much damage you take. But are you feeling better?"

She nodded. "Yes. That's how it should be."

"Next crawler then."

They fought, fumbled, killed, healed. Despite the varying tactics of the monsters, It wasn't as if the crawlers were hard to kill. Tougher than the serpents, faster, stronger, and vicious, yes. But once you got the knack for it, your worst problem was to get too used to it. Because they did show new tricks every now and then.

The crawler they were fighting in the deeper tunnels, where the levels six and seven lurked, was one of them. Before engaging, it seemed like any other crawler, just a bit bigger. It moved forward and they readied to block as it seemed a jumper. The crawler, however, instead of picking up speed, reared up and bounced away from them.

"Uh?"

Altia mumbled her confusion but Nero's instincts shouted at him. He thought he felt a tingle on his left arm and saw something red shining in the gloom of the Dungeon. His hesitation in acting on his instinct cost them. The creepy crawler had fired several spines from its legs when it jerked its body back. These spines hit them on the relatively unprotected legs and arms, a few bouncing or sticking to their brigandines without piercing through.

"Protect your face!"

Nero shouted, shifting his shield to its larger size, a knight's kite shield. The plates unfolded and clacked as the gears in the device frantically pulled more from underneath his device. He eschewed the spikes as he would be maneuvering next to Altia and it could hurt the girl.

The crawler wouldn't give them time to breathe. Another volley of spines flew, and Nero put himself in front of his girl, using the still-expanding shield and the flat of the broad clockwork sword to parry. He still got one sine lodged above his right knee. He felt Deja vú but dismissed the feeling. The monster was keeping its distance. Whittling their health this way, it might not win but would severely hinder their farming speed.

Another volley came and Nero raised his shield. The third time, he recognized how to see the dark spines against the gloom of the Dungeon. Since they were wrapped in the same red aura his goggles revealed emanating from all monsters, he was able to know when the monster fired, even if he couldn't track all the spines from just that hazy aura. The spines hit the shield and fell to the ground harmlessly.

Nero tried to advance but the crawler backed away, keeping the same distance. Nero stopped after the second step, his heart pounding. Getting lured down a tunnel by a monster was how monster trains were formed.

A monster train was when an Adventurer ran through a Dungeon, angering monsters and eventually creating an unkillable throng of monsters chasing the Adventurer. As the monsters were tireless, eventually they would catch up and kill the hapless person. But that wasn't the real danger of a monster train. Often, in highly populated Dungeons, the one running would go past another Adventurer, causing the death of an innocent third party.

And retreating monsters was one of the ways you could start a monster train. You'd chase the monster, finding more monsters down the tunnel who would gladly go after you and then you were fleeing. Adventurers that triggered a monster train and survived at the expense of others usually found their lives cut short if word came out that it happened.

"Altia, shoot it and move back down the tunnel. We need to goad it into getting closer. Save mana, use a [Shortbow]."

Nero blocked two more volleys before Altia could stow the quarterstaff, fetch the card and summon the bow. Nero was hit by two spines so she used a [Cure Wounds] on him.

"I'm ready!"

"Good. Now, listen for the sound of the spines hitting the shield. Then I'll move away and you shoot it. Be quick, don't waste time aiming."

He didn't want to expose her for too long. He was counting his heartbeats between volleys but it seemed irregular. The next time the spines hit, he pulled sideways and Altia shot the monster. Nero used this time to study the creature. It was impossible that the monster would be able to shot forever. The problem Nero faced was, how much would they spend before killing it? That was one gaping flaw of their setup. They were weak at ranged combat. Altia didn't have a mage's mana resource and her ranged attack was pitiful right now.

She shot the crawler but as expected, the writhing mass of limbs blocked the arrow. Nero moved to block the next volley, moving the shield to get most spines. Then he moved away and Altia could shoot twice, causing some damage. She was going for a third shot but Nero moved back to block her. He felt goosebumps at the back of his head.

"I have a weird feeling. It is like this crawler is goading us. Biding his time, playing with us. I don't like it."

Another volley, another arrow. This time Altia managed to hit the central body. The crawler was hissing in pain and anger.

"What should we do?"

"Ready some [Mana Potions]. Then shoot the crawler with everything you got. Alternate between the short bow and the spell."

Nero blocked the next volley and saw a couple spines flying straight at his head. Before he could move the shield, a sheet of metal popped out of the kite shield and covered his face. The spine hit the clockwork shield's extension and fell to the ground harmlessly. He moved away and Altia fired the short bow, casting her spell right after that. The two projectiles went almost together, the first veering a bit to the side but the spell flying true as the magic was based on intent, not physical skill. And as the crawler moved its limbs to parry the mundane arrow, it was open to taking the magical one straight down its softer core.

Nero moved sideways but Altia took a step forward.

"[Magic Arrow]!"

The second spell did less damage but still stuck to the crawler's body. The monster rolled to move the arrows out of the way and shot a volley of spines at the girl. Altia raised her left arm to cover her face and took a couple spines on that arm. The movements of the crawler were hindered by the two arrows stuck to its body.

"Altia!"

"Leave it to me! [Magic Arrow]!"

She shot the short bow after the spell. A few legs were broken by the projectiles and the monster feebly shot only two spines. Nero moved forward to block these and Altia used [Potion Toss] on herself to restore mana and cure a few of her wounds as well as washing her exhaustion away. She raised a hand over Nero's shoulder and her final spell killed the monster.

Nero sighed in relief when the motes of light scattered from the creature's corpse. He looked at Altia. She was tired and wounded but proud and excited.

"We got it!" She cheered with a shout.

"Yes. That monster..." A sudden glow on both of their devices interrupted him.

Compatible Anima detected. Energy absorbed above the threshold. Processing upgrade. Weighing Attribute strain.

For defeating a (error division by zero) foe six times your level, you gained +1 Vigor

"Vigor! Did you get one too?"

She nodded. "Yes. 'For defeating a foe double your level, you gained +1 Willpower'."

Nero was shifting the shield back into a buckler. He nodded. Altia would now have five mana per "day" to use her spells.

"Cool! Let's check the drops."

Altia held him. "Let's get these spines out of us first."

Nero blinked and noticed that they still had some spines stuck to him. In the heat of combat, he didn't notice. After Altia removed them and spent her last points of mana on [Cure Wounds], he looked at the bundle of barbed spines in her hand.

"Why didn't they dissolve?"

"Probably the same reason the blood doesn't. They were contaminated by our aura."

Nero frowned. "A weird souvenir."

Altia smiled victoriously. She was clearly enjoying the moment, the thrill of victory more than Ner

"Monster parts are valuable," She replied. "But maybe we want to keep this as a souvenir. To remind us of when I killed the monster the mighty Nero Zero couldn't."

"The what?" He felt a pang of outrage.

"Nero Zero!" She teased and poked her tongue. "The mighty!"

He could tell she was happy from participating. Maybe it was payback from all the coddling he submitted her to. "Even you, Altia?"

She blew a raspberry. "And our luck hasn't run out yet. Look."

Altia pointed out where the monster died. A silver card and a white crystal were on the ground, the latter shedding a soft light in the dim Dungeon.

"Seriously?"

He picked the last [Egress] they needed and the Anima crystal. Weighing it on his device, it showed as a rank II crystal, as it came from a level 7 monster.

"Use it," Altia refused when he offered her the crystal for safekeeping. "I know it is valuable but you need all the Attributes you can."

He kissed her before putting the crystal on his device and willing it to absorb.

Anima infusion detected. Energy is 1 rank above the threshold. Processing upgrade. Weighing Attribute strain.

+1 Perception

Two Attributes from the same monster. Nero held Altia's hand. "Well, I guess it is time to go, clean up and get engaged. What do you say?"

"I agree on all three counts. Let's go meet my father."

Nero [0/0]

Strength: +3 (+6 with clockwork blade, +4 when blocking)

Vigor +3

Endurance +3

Agility +4

Dexterity +3 (+4 inside a Dungeon)

Reason +3

Willpower +2

Perception +3 (+5 inside a Dungeon)

Charisma +2

Equipment: [Rending Clockwork Blade of Regrowth +1], [Self-Cleaning Brigandine of Regrowth], [Dungeon Goggles], [Elven Boots], [Hot Muffler], [Dungeon Clock], [Spiked Clockwork Shield of Regrowth +1]

Altia [Chemist 3/179]

Strength +2

Vigor +10

Endurance +5

Agility +5

Dexterity +6

Reason +2

Willpower +4

Perception +3

Charisma +6

Chemist:

- Special: All your benefical combat consumables restore a llittle more of all resources.

- Special: You use 20% less ingredients with Alchemy.

- [Potion Toss] - Allows the use of benefical combat consumables on others at a range of Dexterity / 2 yards.

- [Quickbrew] - The act of brewing alchemical concoctions or activating combat consumable cards requires 30% less time.

- [Empower Potion] - The effects of benefical combat consumables and the speed of their effects is increased by 20%.

- [Cure Wounds] - Allows user to heal wounds for 1 Mana. Healing based on Reason and Charisma.

- [Magic Arrow] - Allows user to summon and shoot a physical arrow for 1 Mana, dealing damage based on Reason and Willpower. This spell does not ignore armor.

- Empty Skill Slot

Equipment: [Self-Cleaning Brigandine of Regrowth], [Elven Boots], [Hot Muffler], [Dungeon Clock], [Iron Staff]