Thirty minutes later on the dot Daniel walked back into his shop with Kota trotting by his side and saw Steve staring off into space with his eyes unfocused while sitting on the old and stained sofa that Daniel kept in the shop. “Hey, Steve I'm back so how do we go about getting to this shop you were talking about?”

Steve’s eye refocused from whatever screen he had been looking at that Daniel couldn't see. “It's as easy as willing your training hall to open.”

“Okay let me give it a try.” Daniel approached one of the walls of his shop and willed the training hall door to open onto it. To his surprise, a golden shimmering door opened on the wall he had been looking at. Turning back he saw Steve standing behind him waving for him to enter the doorway.

Turning back to the portal he walked forward and past the threshold of the portal and into his new training hall with Kota by his side. Nothing happened when Kota walked through the portal at his side; he didn't know if something was supposed to happen, but he was glad that nothing did. The room they entered was a massive dome with several different doors lining various points along the circular wall. There was the entrance to the solo dungeon and a door to the combat hall on the opposite side across from the dungeon.

Turning back where he had entered from he saw Steve who was waiting just outside of the horizon of the portal. “Well now's as good a time as any to see what will happen.” Steve reached out a hesitant hand to touch the portal, but before he was able to cross the threshold of it his hand was stopped by an invisible wall and at the same time Steve made contact with it Daniel received a message.

Warning someone is trying to enter your personal training space. Would you like them to enter? Yes or no?

Daniel selected yes and suddenly Steve's hand was able to pass through the portal.

“What happened?” Steve questioned.

“The System told me someone was trying to enter and asked me if I wanted them to be able to enter.”

“Interesting, it seems as if The System wants heroes to work together or it wouldn't give you the option to allow someone else into your training hall.”

Daniel just grunted neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Steve’s assessment. He clapped his hands together “now let's find out whether or not we can sell these weapons that I made.” as if summoned by his words a new door appeared on the wall labeled Workshop. “Well, that answers that I guess.”

Walking over to the new doorway he peered inside. The room he saw looked very similar to his own workshop, but as he looked forward he realized that it didn't just look similar, it was the exact same layout and everything. “Well that's a bit freaky but, whatever.”

Steve walked up next to him “isn't that your workshop?”

“I think so. I wonder how it did this.”

“Did what?” Steve asked.

“How it picked my workshop. Did it know what I wanted, or did it read my mind or something? It's just… weird” Shaking his head Daniel entered the room.

Welcome to the workshop. Any item or material in the workshop can not leave this room unless purchased from the shop. All materials are provided to you, but the cost of materials will be subtracted from the final sell price of any item produced. Any item purchased from the workshop will only cost the total price of materials used for its production since the labor was your own.

This was all very novel to Daniel. Anything he made could be bought basically at cost while any item he made wouldn't cost him anything. With the time dilation of this place, he could possibly make a lot of coins depending on how much a weapon like his was sold for. This also did not take into account that this workshop just solved his rarity problem. All of the material that his mind was telling him he could make weapons out of was now well within his reach, but he decided that he would test something first though. He walked past Steve and went back through the portal and into his workshop and grabbed five of the superb quality weapons he had made as well as the excellent quality spear and brought them back to The Systems workshop. “I would like to sell these items, how much would each sell for?” a new screen popped into his vision telling him that he needed to place the items on the appraising table. Walking over to the table he placed each of the weapons onto it showing. A second later a new screen floated up above the table showing him the breakdown of each weapon's worth and how they had been evaluated.

It looked like each superb was around 100 coins, some were a few more or less. He could only assume that some weapons were more desirable than others which accounted for the higher cost. The excellent quality spear on the other hand sold for 1,121 coins which was quite an increase. ‘Did quality really have such a big impact on price? What if I used some of the other metals my crafting feat has told me about, what would an excellent quality sword made of blue steel or quicksilver sell for?’ right now he could only guess at the answer, but he would have to test it.

“Well, Steve, it looks like I might have solved our money problem. And with my knowledge, I can probably exponentially increase the amount of money my Weapons can sell for. That mana stone isn't out of your reach just yet.”

Steve looked at the screen floating over the table and whistled at what he saw. “You are right about our money problems, but there are still other things that we need to deal with. Foremost if you want to save the money needed to buy the supplements you will still need to go into the dungeon and level up so you can put more skill points into your body improving skill tree, not to mention you will be earning fewer stat points per level until you choose your class specialization.”

“Yeah, I forgot about that. I can clear the first few levels of the dungeon, get a bit of coins and experience that way, and is there a team dungeon we can do together. After I finish the first few floors. I mean there is a team dungeon, right? The System wouldn't let you in here if there wasn't one right?”

“I’m not sure. Hold on, let me read the wiki.” After reading for several minutes, Steve's eyes eventually focused back on Daniel “Yes there is, from what I read. It is meant to be a place to work on teamwork in a group setting. The dungeon scales to how many people enter up to a max of 5. If we have more than 5 people we can challenge the arena instead which also scales to the number of people who enter, but with a minimum number of entrants of 5 and a maximum of 10. The Arena is a place where we fight increasingly difficult waves of monsters. We get experience on how many total waves of monsters we defeat, the downside of the arena is that we can't loot the monsters which means no coins or any other items only experience. The arena, however, is repeatable unlike the other dungeons, but it always starts on wave one; however you get decreased experience each time you beat a wave that you have already beaten, so eventually, you will get no experience for beating the lower level waves. There are some other rewards in the arena though. Every 10 waves beaten will give you a choice between three class-specific items. Though you can receive this reward a total of three times, the choice of items stays the same from when you are first given the option.”

“Okay, I have a plan!” Daniel started clapping his hand together “I will go ahead and enter the solo dungeon, clear the first few floors to gain a few levels and a few coins, then you, me, and Kota will enter the team dungeon, to get a few more levels and coins. I'll go ahead and sell all of these items and give you the coins so you can purchase your spell focus while I’m clearing the solo dungeon. If you wanted to, you could probably clear the next level of the solo dungeon at the same time as me.”

“That sounds like a good plan, but you don't have to give me the coins for the spell focus. I can just wait and earn the coins in the team dungeon.”

Daniel grew quiet and contemplative. “This still kind of feels like a dream to me sometimes. I have had The System for a little over two weeks now, but I almost died to the goblins that attacked me and they did kill this other woman. I haven't been into the dungeon yet, but it will probably be a life-and-death struggle just like the first time was. Any advantage I can give myself there could be something that saves my life or yours, so do me the favor and take the coins for both of our sakes.” Daniel said in a serious voice.

Daniel turned and sold the six weapons he had placed on the appraiser’s table. The Weapons once he had confirmed that he wanted to sell them simply vanished into thin air. They had been lying on the table one second then he had blinked and they were gone in the next. The six weapons had sold for a total of 1,556 coins. He turned back to Steve and just like he had when he had opened the training hall door he now willed to send 1,500 coins to Steve. He mentally confirmed the transaction and a second later he saw Steve's eyes unfocus as he received a message.

“Thank you, Daniel,” Steve said in a solemn voice. “My own initiation into The System wasn't easy either, but I fear that it was nothing compared to what you went through. I’ll be sure to pay you back in time, but for now, is there anything else you need?”

“I don’t need payment from you. You are already doing me a favor by helping me open up my mana channels. Though it will still take me time to earn enough coins and to level up to be able to go through the process.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear it. When will you be ready to enter the first floor of the dungeon?”

“Right now. I’m thinking about using a maul in the dungeon. I have a hammer skill because of my profession and I’m hoping that the skill will work on the maul since it's essentially just a large hammer, and it's something I already made, so I won't have to waste time crafting up a new weapon. If my plan works though, I'll be making myself the best possible maul I can with the material provided by the workshop. I also have this Active skill that I haven't learned yet called heavy blows, so I might learn that as well with my remaining Skill points.”

“Well, that sounds like a plan. I hope it works out.”

“Thanks, I want every advantage I can get.”

Daniel once again exited the training hall and grabbed the Steel maul that he had made earlier that week. It was a simple-looking weapon all function with none of the normal decoration. It was basically just a cylinder of metal with a spike that he had drafted a hole through. It had a hardwood handle flared at the bottom for extra grip like a woodsman ax. He had also wrapped the handle in leather for even more grip. He hoped that it would be enough. He had lots of experience wielding large hammers, but never one as large as what he was now carrying.

He had noticed after he got The System that his strength had vastly increased. That was one of the many reasons why he had been able to work for 11 or 12 hours a day without tiring, so despite the maul's larger size than a normal sledgehammer, it still felt light in his hands. He wondered just how much his new stats affected his body. He had 5 free stat points at the moment he wanted what would happen if he just dumped them all into intelligence, but it was a fleeting thought. He didn't want to waste anything given to him by this new world, and if that meant that he couldn't currently explore his curiosity then so be it.

Entering back through the portal into the training hall for the third time. He walked past Steve who was looking at a new vibrant ruby wand that he held in his open palms. Daniel decided not to bother the man who was obviously in the middle of something.

Daniel approached the solo dungeon door with Kota trotting by his side. He stood in front of it for a second then opened up his character sheet and put a Skill point into Heavy blows. He also decided to put his last point into Reinforced Muscles deciding that since he would already have to advance this tree to be able to survive the opening of his mana channels with mana stone that he might as well start now.

With that taken care of, he took a deep breath and strode into the dungeon entrance.

He and Kota appeared in a large rough stone room. He was glad he was right about his hunch that Kota was able to join him in the solo dungeon as an animal companion. Looking around he saw that they had appeared in what looked almost like a cave except it was missing the stalactites and stalagmites and everything else including the walls were too smooth; it was a bare room with nothing in it except an open corridor on the other side.

He crept forward and peered into the corridor. It went forward for about 20 feet then opened up into another room. Creeping forward he looked into the next room. Inside were 4 goblins ‘Goblins again; well at least this time I have a weapon in hand and skills I can use’ Daniel stopped peering into the room and backtracked back to the room he had started in and began to breathe rapidly. He leaned up against the wall and slowly slid his body down onto the floor. He held his head in his hands and began to hyperventilate. He didn't know if he could do this. Back then it had almost felt like a dream, but now seeing the same creature who had almost killed him brought the whole situation back into focus in his mind. The blood on the teeth and hands of the goblins as they had looked up at him in the alley. The sharp copper smell of his own blood as that one goblin had stabbed him in the back of the leg. The pain he had felt in his body as he had laid on the ground bleeding out. This was all too real for him now and he realized that he could die for real this time. He started to feel phantom pains all over his body where he had been stabbed. I Can’t do this, not again.’ It was then that Daniel felt a wet nose touch his arm bringing him back to the present. Looking up from his hands he saw Kota looking at him with his big yellow eyes full of concern “What is it, Kota?”

He whined at Daniel and sat back down on his haunches. Taking a deep breath he stood up and grabbed his hammer. He looked around the entrance room again while whipping his eyes with his shirt. He saw that the door they had entered though was gone. “Only way through is forward,” Daniel whispered out loud. He still didn't think he was ready for what came next, but he knew that if he did nothing not only he would die here but so would his trusty companion Kota and he would not let the green-skinned bastards take another life. looking down at Kota who was down at his side he nodded. Together they rushed back through the hall and into the room with the goblins. He decided that if he was going to have another panic attack he would do it when there weren't goblins to kill.

Daniel rushed into the room sprinted towards the closest Goblin who had its back facing him and brought his hammer down on its head; its head was crushed with a meaty slapping sound that had the other goblins scrambling for weapons.

Kota. went for the neck of another goblin and brought it to the ground with the weight of his body. With a sharp shake of his head broke its neck. Its child-like body fell limp and lifeless from his jaw and landed with a slap of flesh landing on stone. That left only two.

The remaining Goblins backed away and stood shoulder to shoulder waiting for them to make the first move. Daniel decided to oblige them. Rushing forward again he swung his maul in a horizontal arch like a baseball bat; one of the goblins managed to jump away in time but the second was just a tad too slow and was clipped in the shoulder. The goblin's shoulder let out a crack and was flung back from the force of the blow.

The second goblin seeing an opening rushed forward and tried to stab its shiv into his leg, luckily Kota was there and pounced on the goblin pinning its shoulders to the ground with his large paws before it reached him. Binding his head down Kota ripped the goblin’s throat out

Daniel walked over to the last goblin. It was the one that he had clipped in the shoulder. It was back on its feet clutching the knife in a tight grip; He felt bad for the goblin but quickly quashed that feeling he knew what these child-like creatures were capable of. Before he decided what to do Kota decided for him and ended the fight just as brutally as with the other goblins.

Daniel Bent down and tried to loot the bodies like in old-school video games but nothing happened. He assumed it was like Steve said, he would only get rewards until he cleared the floor, which meant he still had more enemies to kill.

Looking around he saw another door to the left of the room that he hadn't seen when he had first spotted the goblins. He gestured for Kota to follow and they began to walk down the next corridor. This one was also only about 20 feet long and inside the next room was a monster that looked like a bigger goblin. Instead of being only 3 feet tall, it was 5 feet tall. It wore a rusted iron helm and wielded a rusted shortsword, and it was already looking towards the entrance as Daniel and Kota appeared. ‘It must have heard the sounds of battle from the previous room.’

He decided that before he engaged with the monster he would finally try out that ‘Identify’ skill he had received when he had first been given his class.

Hobgoblin level 2

Tier I Class: Warrior

He didn't get much information but it was good enough for him.

It got in a defensive stance as Daniel cautiously approached. He gestured for Kota to Circle around behind the Hobgoblin and surprisingly Kota seemed to understand his intentions and followed his instructions; when the goblins head turned to follow Kota that's when he struck, he rushed forward the remaining distance between them. He raised his maul over his head and brought it down on the goblins head, but this time he tried to activate his skill ‘heavy blows.’

It worked and with more force, than he could have managed with just the strength of his arms, the blow came crashing down on the goblin at surprising speed. The blow connected with the side of the goblins head. Its helmet deformed with the blow as its head snapped to the side with the force of the blow. The goblin fell to the ground and surprisingly was not dead for he did not receive a message. Something interesting happened after he used ‘Heavy Blows’ he could feel an internal time ticking down inside of his head. ‘That must be the cooldown for heavy Blows.’ Dismissing the thought Daniel decided to finish it off with another blow to the head with just the strength of his arms this time. Then the next thing he knew he was back at the entrance of the dungeon with Kota standing by his side.

Congratulations! You have cleared the first floor of the ‘Solo Dungeon.’ You and your companion have gained 500 (1,000 split) Exp. You receive 250 coins.

Congratulations! You and your companion have reached level 2.

Your Tier V Class has reached level 2 and gains +4 points to strength, +4 points to constitution, +5 free stat points, and +5 Skills points to allocate.

Your Tier I companion has reached level 2 and gains +2 points to Strength, 1 free attribute point, and 1 Evolution Point.

Steve looked up from his book he was reading and smiled at Daniel “well that was fast. Will you be going for another round?”

“Probably but first I need to sit down. That was a lot more intense and emotionally draining than I thought it would be. Not to mention the fact that Kota and I both leveled up and I needed to assign stat points and stuff. Not to mention the fact that Kota gained something called an Evolution Point? Could you look up what that is for me while I Go over my Character sheet?”

“Sure thing that's not a problem.”

Daniel Sat down on a chair that hadn't been in the big entrance room before he entered the dungeon. He just sat for a second absorbing everything that had happened in there. IT had been more so than he had been expecting. If not for Kota breaking him out of his spiraling thoughts he didn't know what would have happened. After that first dungeon run his priorities had changed. Before he had been gaining levels and experience to increase his blacksmithing skill. His improvement from before The System to now was amazing, and he had wanted to continue to get better but now things were different. He didn't know what The System wanted and why it had come to earth, but he knew that he never wanted to feel helpless again, and he never wanted to see another innocent person killed in the street by what could only be described as monsters. He would not let something like that happen again if it was within his power to stop it.

He had tried not to think about it, but every day since the day he had gained The System he would walk or drive past that bloodstain in the street while going to his shop, and every day he would try and ignore it, but not anymore. He would not let these creatures or these monsters invade his planet and kill his people without doing something about it. He would gain the power he needed to help people, and he would use his crafting skill to arm the world to fight against whatever The System had planned for them.

His decision was made and his mind hardened to his new task He went ahead and opened up his character sheet to see everything that had changed, and to see the new power he had gained.

Daniel Martin

Age: 27

Race: Human

Gender: Male

Level: 2

Tier V Class: Juggernaut (Class Specialization Perk Available)

Primary Profession: Crafting Legacy: Level: N/A

Secondary Profession: N/A

Tier I Profession: Blacksmithing Level: 2

Strength: 21 -> 25

Endurance: 13

Constitution: 19 -> 23

Dexterity: 13

Intelligence: 10

Wisdom: 10

Willpower: 11

Charisma: 10

Free Attribute Points: 10

Free Skill Points: 5

Free Profession Points: 4

Coins: 611

Class experience to the next level: 139 out of 2,000

Profession experience to the next level: 1550 out of 2,000 (Blacksmithing)

Feats: Troll Regeneration, Crafting Legacy

General Skills: Identification ( 1/5 )

Class Skills: Tough Skin ( 2/5 ), Heavy Blows ( 1/5 ), Reinforced Muscles ( 1/5 )

Profession Skills: Hammer speed ( 1/5 ), Master of the Forge ( 1/5 )

Spells: N/A

He Had five new Skill Points to use, and he needed to come up with a plan. The final goal was of course to earn enough money and levels that he could survive the process of opening his mana channels, but in the meantime, he needed to be able to survive long enough to get there. He needed a plan for his skill points. If the pattern remained in the skill trees then if he leveled up ‘Reinforced muscles one more time then he would be able to see the next node in the tree. Deciding that that was the best course of action he applied the points, and as he had predicted he saw the next node.

Powerful Organs ( 0/5 ): The power, strength, and toughness of your organs are unmatched by any other of your species. Passive. Increase the Efficiency, strength, and toughness of your organs. Cost to increase 1 Skill point.

If he wanted to, he had enough points left to also upgrade this Skill two times to also reveal the next node, but he decided he wouldn't do that for now. Now that he knew Kota could join him in the solo dungeons he had a plan on how he could capitalize on their cooperation he just hoped that he wasn't wrong about what he suspected. He put one point into the ‘Death Blows’ Skill and read its new description and hoped for the best.

Death Blows ( 1/5 ): All who stand against you on the battlefield will only become fuel for your and others’ survival. Passive. when you or a party member deals fatal damage to an enemy, recover a portion of your damage dealt to the enemy. You may also direct this Recovered health to a Party member. Note that the Healing received is still proportional to your damage done. Cost to increase 2 Skill Points.

Score! That was exactly What he was hoping for. The skill had given a hint about the possibility of healing others, but now it was a certainty. He put his last 2 Skill Points into the Skill. This would allow him to heal Kota while they were fighting together in the dungeon. He knew that this would put him slightly back with his goal for body reinforcement, but he thought the cost was worth it. Putting those points into the skill also reveals the next skill in the chain.

Death's Embrace ( 0/5 ): It is your fate to one day receive death, but it is your destiny to deliver it. Active 5-minute cooldown. You can choose to receive the damage dealt to an ally within 30 feet of you within 5 seconds if it occurring. Damage absorbed in this way is reduced by 20%. Cost to increase 1 Skill point.

It was another interesting skill, but for now, he didn't have any need for it. Though he did think that there was another hint about how the skill might evolve in that description, for now, it didn't matter even if he wanted to skill he had no skill points left to spend.

Next were his professional skills. He Currently Had 4 Profession Points from completing that quest. He decided that he would put 2 points into each of the skills. He had thought he had noticed an increase in his hammer speed in the dungeon especially when he had activated heavy blows. But for now, he wasn't certain, and Master of the Forge was a great skill. Doing this would also reveal the next skills he had access to.

His ‘hammer speed’ total increased from 5% to 15% with this increase in the skill and revealed an interesting new skill while also showing that if he upgraded hammer speed again he would gain another 15% hammer speed increase bringing it up to 30%. It seemed that each level was increasing the percentage gained by 5%. If this trend continued at level 5 he would have a total of 75% hammer speed with the skill maxed out., however, he was slightly disappointed about his other skill. The Forge skill did not reveal any new skills when he increased it. He didn't know if it was because how he had earned the skill was the problem or something else, but it was still a powerful skill and the chance to increase the quality of a completed weapon was a welcome one.

Hammer Strength ( 0/5 ): The strength of the blows of your hammer shakes the ground as you work. Passive. Increase the strength of your hammer strikes by 5%. Cost to increase 1 Profession Point.

If this skill was similar to Hammer speed then he would expect the same 5% increase per level the skill was increased which would be a nice bonus.

The last thing he had left was his 10 unused Attribute points. He decided to continue to hold off using them until he saw a reason to use them. For now, it didn't feel like he was struggling with any one task so he saw no reason to spend them.

Now that that was taken care of it was time to see what Steve had found out about Evolution Points. “So, what's the word, Steve? Find out anything interesting.”

“Actually I have. It turns out that Evolution points are unique to animal companions. How normal evolution for a beast works is a bit different. How a beast triggers evolution is by building up enough mana in their bodies. They do this by killing other beasts or I guess really anything they kill but I’m not too sure about that. They gain a portion of the mana built up inside their bodies as their own. When they gain mana they are forming a beast core in their body to contain this mana. Normally while a beast increases the mana in their bodies it will also trigger spontaneous mutations from mana not absorbed by their forming Beast cores. This is how beasts gain what you and I would call skills. Evolution points allows the animal companion's master to more directly control how their companion mutates by controlling this flow of mana. One of the biggest problems in the wild are these uncontrolled mutations causing the beasts to go insane. A beast forming a companion contract with a human basically allows them to form a symbiotic relationship with humans allowing them to gain power and not suffer the effects of going insane through evolution. These twisted Beasts are called demon beasts and their cores are corrupted by the mana in their body. The Tier of a beast is determined by its beast core. A companion's Tier of power works much like our own; at each level, they will gain an evolution point to spend based on their tier of power. “

“That seems simple enough, but how do I know how close Kota is to evolution?”

“Hmm, I'm not sure, maybe just look at his Status page it might tell you there.”

He did what Steve recommended and looked at his boy’s status screen.

Kota

Age: 7

Race: Beast

Species: Wolfdog

Gender: Male

Level:2

Tier I Class: Silent Hunter

Strength: 19 -> 21

Endurance: 12

Constitution: 11

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 6

Wisdom: 4

Willpower: 5

Charisma: 6

Free Attribute Points: 1

Free Evolution Points: 1

Class experience to the next level: 139 out of 2,000

Evolution Progress: 1%

Mutations: N/A

Spells: N/A

Animal Companion of Daniel Martin

Kota seemed to have his own Skill tree because of his class? He didn't know how he had received his class but dismissed that thought. As for his skill tree, he wasn't sure what he should call it, maybe a Mutation Tree, but it looked to work similar to his own so he opened it up to see what he could pick. He only had one skill to choose from because Kota was still Tier I.

Silent Stalker ( 0/5 ): No prey will hear your deadly approach. Passive. Reduce all noise made by 5%. Cost to increase 1 Evolution Point

It seemed like a good skill and based on the scaling he had seen with some of his own skill at max level it would reduce all noise by a total of 75% when it was maxed out. It was also his only option at the moment, so even though it wasn't currently the best it was all he had so he put Kota's 1 Evolution Point into the skill to purchase it. Now that this was all taken care of it was time to harden his resolve and continue on with his plan. “Kota, how do you feel about going for another round?”

Kota in response jumped up on his hind legs and barked. “I’ll take that as a yes. Steve, I'll see you again in a bit.”

“Sure thing. I may go into the dungeon myself here in a bit, so if I’m not here when you get back that's where I am.”

Daniel waved behind him and acknowledgment as he entered the dungeon with Kota quietly trotting at his side.