Entering "The Goblin's Den" - Rank I Dungeon. Disarming safety protocols... error. Safety protocols were not engaged.

Nero sat on the stone floor of the landing room. There he was, alone, inside the Dungeon. With a daunting task. He couldn't clear the crawlers with Altia without risk, how would he kill the goblin?

"Accolades," Nero spoke to himself. "I will stay in here, fight monsters I can kill, and get Accolades until I am strong enough to take on the boss. It is not like I am going to get above the level limit for this Dungeon rank."

He checked his supplies. It was customary for Nero to keep all the cards and Altia, the Essence. He shook his head. Altia paid 220 thousand Essence to her father. She even asked forgiveness because she gave his part away but he shrugged. They were no longer just delving partners. If they ever were.

With all the time in the world, Nero just sat there, thinking. He reflected and wondered and thought. A memory, an image and a mess of feelings came to mind and didn't go away. Altia in her 'nightie'. He was sure his mother's had something to do with the purchase of that article of clothing, besides paying for it. That was a memory strong enough to motivate him.

Nero got back on his feet after a long time of thinking and reveling in that memory. He prepared, moved his goggles back in front of his eyes, formed his spiked buckler, drew his sword but didn't turn it on, and ran down a tunnel.

The Dungeon was his. And if Huron was half-competent in keeping Altia out, only his. The other eight Delvers that survived were already in the next Dungeon while Nero was doomed to farm this one forever. He kept running and found his first rat. A well-connected blow with the teethed slab of metal that was his unpowered sword to the skull of the rat sent the rodent flying to crash against the wall. It fell down and stayed there. The rat began to dissolve into light even before hitting the ground. Its drops were only one Essence crystal. Nero measured it. Ten Essence. Funny. With Altia, it would be only five. Perhaps having two people divided the Essence in half as both absorbed part of the energy. Nero shelved that thought and kept running.

He found that the level two rat dropped a crystal worth forty Essence. Then ninety for level three and one hundred and sixty for level four. Nero kept killing rats and picking up their drops, saving energy on his sword. The part of moving to find the next rat and picking up drops were the first and second most time-consuming activities. The level four rats might take three hits to kill, four if he missed the heat and struck the body, but the rats were no danger to Nero.

He found the sweet spot where the level three rats would spawn. He tried to stick to that height of the caverns but sometimes he was pressed to move up or down as the tunnels almost never moved straight sideways through an elevation. On the three-hundred-and-something-th rat, he got his first accolade.

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

For defeating a (error division by zero) foe three times your level, you gained +1 Agility.

He stopped to think. The diagnosis message must mean something, else the gadgeteers wouldn't put it there. The Anima of the monster had to be compatible. With what? And the energy absorbed had to be above the threshold. What threshold and how was it calculated. Attribute strain sounded like he was exerting the attribute? And did he get Agility because of all the moving and running, maybe?

Too many questions and too little time. Nero resumed his hunt. Every time he got bored, he would close his eyes and remember the visitor entering his bedroom yesterday. That made his blood pump with renewed vigor. And he kept hunting rats.

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

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

The rats gave him another Accolade. Strength this time. Why not Agility? The message said "weighing". As in a scale to weigh pigs at the market? Was it measuring how much effort he put into his Attributes and then giving him what he spent the most? Maybe from the last Accolade to this. But he didn't change his pattern. He was still running more than bashing things around. So maybe that Attribute strain was reset every time an Attribute rose. Since last time it increased Agility, the strain for Agility was lower than Strength that didn't reset. That must be it.

He stopped hunting rats and found a dead end at the topmost tunnel. He killed two level one rats in this tunnel. Nero set down his pack, prepared his bedroll, ate some food and laid down to sleep. He felt he'd suffer one bite from the wandering rat and then wake up. He left his shins exposed and outside the blanket so the rat would bite there. Flesh wounds could be healed by potions, broken bones, severed toes, not so much.

He woke up refreshed and without being bitten. Nero didn't think it was the norm even though they'd never been attacked while resting. He wouldn't lower his guard as there were reports of it happening to Adventurers. Nero broke camp, ate some breakfast, and checked his [Dungeon Clock]. Eighteen hours. Inside a Dungeon, without the sun to control your cycles, it was easier to rest when tired, eat when hungry, hunt otherwise.

And Nero had to grow. For her. For them.

He slashed at the stone serpent that fell from the stalactite, cutting it in half and showering in the gray blood. Nero panted and tried to not taste the gravelly body fluid but to no avail. He was on the third "day" of hunting and decided that he had enough of rats. He got four Accolades to show his progress, one in Agility, one in Strength, then Endurance, and the last one in Reason. For what reason that last point went into Reason, he didn't know. He was just mindlessly running and killing, why did he improve Reason?

The boost of the Accolades made him confident enough to venture into the serpent's sands. He took off his [Hot Muffler] as the piece of clothing was a serpent magnet. He could take it slow and sure, he didn't need to bite more than he could chew. The serpent dissolved and in its place laid a card and a crystal.

Nero measured the crystal of the stalactite serpent mini-boss, as he started to call that particular encounter. Serpents were levels three through six, and this level seven one was an anomaly. Four hundred and ninety Essence. That was insane for a rank I Dungeon, unheard of. Then he remembered, the higher the level of the Adventurer, the more energy he absorbed before the crystal was even created. Less energy went into its making. It meant, for him, that he would always get the maximum Essence from any kill. Adventurers would only see this kind of energy drops in a rank IV or V Dungeon. It reinforced the theory that energy was split between people.

But wait. If the energy was split by the people and it was also dependent on level, why didn't it divide again? it was one or another, not both. Nero shrugged and took a look at the card.

[Backstab] - blue - Requires +4 Agility, +4 Dexterity, +2 Perception

+3 Strength

+2 Willpower

+2 Charisma

"What, do you think it is a crappy Skill? Here, let me prove you wrong - Goblin [Rogue]."

Effect: If you attack a target unaware with a piercing melee weapon, you can spend 1 point of Stamina to deal extra damage based on Agility.

"Altia, did you see..."

Nero cursed and stowed the card. The moment of joy at finding a blue Skill was completely destroyed by the lack of someone by his side. Nero sighed and moved onward, killing more serpents. When he returned to the rat tunnels to rest again, he understood what Altia said about the sand. He had to strip nude to remove it all and he was sure he didn't get everything. He ate [Chicken Soup], a white version, and reminded of halcyon days, not too far ago where he shared this food with someone else. Now, he was all alone. He laid down and slept.

Nero woke with a sharp pain in his calf. He kicked and the rat flew down the tunnel. He decided between readying his weapon and drinking a potion. He went with the former choice. He sat up with the [Clockwork Sword] humming and let the rat come to him. As the rodent came to bite his face, he beheaded the critter. A shower of blood fell on his blanket and bedroll. Nero cursed and dropped the sword, getting away from the bedding and drinking a [Healing Potion]. He was cursing when the blanket shone and the blood on it dissolved into light.

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

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

He wondered why the message always revealed the level of the monster that granted the Accolade. He also noticed he was getting more accolades than when he was with Altia. This one was... the seventh so far. He picked up the crystal and didn't bother with the pouch. He fed it directly to his sword. Still a net loss. If you don't count the Accolade, that is.

"Back to hunting," he mumbled.

His increased Agility brought the boon of increased speed. He wasted less time going from rat to rat and increased his farming speed. He forfeited going to the serpents as his kill speed was faster and there was no sand.

Soon he did another improvement. Since he could tell the level of the rat just by the crystal as the differences were enormous, he gave up on picking crystals from rats levels one and two. After a while he stopped even waiting for the body to dissolve enough to make the drops, he just moved on. Nero was conscious he was probably missing on some level 3 rats too but he found after a brisk soul-searching that he didn't care. He was after Accolades, not drops. The bigger and easily recognizable level four rats, though, he looted.

The fourth "day" saw no other Accolades than the one the ambushing rat granted. Nero backtracked up a tunnel to find a dead end and, to his great surprise, returned to the landing room. Empty, as it was. He shook his head. What was he expecting? A portal leading out? Altia? He felt a pang of pain. Please, let Altia be outside. he would be devastated if she had entered after him. Nero slept in the far end of the landing room and found that he felt the level surface odd, after getting used to sleeping in the slope of the rat caves.

When he made camp to rest at the end of the sixth day, Nero had confirmed his Attribute strain theory. His device kept a tally of all the work he did on his Attributes, and when an Accolade happened, the device would calculate the stress, then upgrade the one with the highest value, and finally, reset that tally to zero. His high-speed rat hunt granted him two points each in Strength and Agility, plus one in Endurance and another in Dexterity. He also looted a few green cards from the rats but none worth of note. Some weapons and one [Wine] card.

He sat on the bedroll, chewing on some summoned jerky and thinking of Altia. The clock showed five days, seven hours, and a few minutes. His farming days were shorter than a full day but one week away from her was a lot. Nero only wanted to return and see her smile. He tapped his device and the card inside popped out of the slot. Silver background and no border. [Egress]. He found it a day ago, lying down on the Dungeon floor. Probably a drop from a rat he killed and didn't loot.

Nero chuckled. The Dungeon should have lots and lots of cards and crystals lying around in the tunnels. But there were miles upon miles of tunnels in each area. He was sure he'd even ran a full lap around the Dungeon if that was possible at all. He leaned back, staring at the boring cave ceiling. Then he slotted the card back, ready to depart at any moment. He wouldn't though. He made a vow and would see it through. Nero slept without suffering an ambush.

Upon waking up, he checked his Status. He'd reached seven in Strength, ten with the powered sword, and eight in Agility. Maybe he should try the crawlers. He was getting anxious, eager to depart. One week alone in the depths was degrading his mental condition. He wanted to see his parents, Altia. Even that bastard of a father-in-law. Anyone. Nero stood up. Yes, he would hunt a crawler or two and then return to the rat tunnels. A bit of diversity, something that didn't die in a single blow, would be fine to alleviate his boredom.

He descended the rat caves, crossed the serpent sands without bothering to remove his muffler. The movement and attack pattern of the serpents changed but with his improved Strength and Agility, he could take on them easily. He only had trouble with a trio of serpents that came. He sliced one, bashed another with the spikes but the third simultaneous pounce bit his thigh. Nero felt the burning pain from the venom and beheaded the offending ophidian before finishing the fourth. He removed the head still latched to him, still amused that it didn't dissolve and drank [Antidote] followed by a [Healing Potion]. He discarded the snake's head and picked up the crystals and one card. Looking at it, he was surprised.

[Warrior] - green - Requires level 1

+11 Strength

+1 Vigor

+1 Endurance

+1 Agility

+1 Dexterity

"One punch!"

Special: Increase your Strength Attribute by 20% when fighting unarmed.

He had to remember to close his mouth when he felt the string of drool reaching the sand. That was... something to envy because he couldn't use it. But the boost to Strength was something impressive. Both the raw value and the Special entry. Who needed a weapon when you could pulverize monsters with a punch? Or a kick! Nero stowed the card in his bandolier. That baby was worth at least twenty thousand Essence.

Nero crossed the sands and reached the wider and taller crawler area. He re-summoned his consumables, keeping two [Healing Potion] and one [Antidote] always ready. Time to test how much he'd grown in one week of delving. He moved cautiously down the tunnels, studying how could he orient himself to return to the rat caves. He couldn't dream of resting in the crawler area.

Nero [0/0]

Strength: +7 (+10 with clockwork blade, +8 when blocking)

Vigor +4

Endurance +5

Agility +8

Dexterity +4 (+5 inside a Dungeon)

Reason +4

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]