The fourth floor was effortless for Daniel and Kota. The only interesting thing that happened was that he got to try out the enchantment with his new weapon ‘Ice Fang.’ It worked by forming a hollow icicle over the spiked end of his maul. From there he had two options: he could either shoot it at a target at range or embed it into a target in melee, and that was what happened now. He swung his hammer forward and lodged the spike of his maul along with the icicle into the chest of the level four goblin warrior. Wrenching the maul out of its chest, the enchantment was left behind and began to freeze the surrounding tissue of the goblin’s chest; cauterizing the wound. Fire was a much more common way to cauterize a wound but most people didn't know that you could also freeze wounds as well which was what was happening now. Well, it cauterized it right up until the cone of ice exploded making the Goblin warrior’s chest simply vanish in a cloud of green blood and gore. A moment later Kota finished off the last puny goblin and they were back at the entrance of the Solo Dungeon.

Congratulations! You have cleared the fourth floor of the ‘Solo Dungeon’ you and your companion have gained 1,250 (2,500 split) Exp. You receive 1,000 coins.

Your class juggernaut has reached level 4 (3 -> 4) you gain +4 points to strength, +4 points to constitution, +5 free attribute points, and +5 Skill points.

Your companion Kota has reached level 4 (3 -> 4) He gains +2 points to strength, +1 attribute point, and +1 Mutation point.

With that level up Kota had enough Mutation points to upgrade his ‘Silent Stalker’ bringing the Mutation to level 2 while also revealing the next Mutation in his tree. This increase would give Kota a total 15% decrease in all noise made. Pulling up Kota’s tree he made the necessary changes. He then read what the new mutation that was revealed did.

Shadow Claws ( 0/5 ): Shadows do not care about the defenses made by mortal men, all shall fall into the awaiting embrace of shadow. Active 2-minute cooldown. When activated a claw of shadows is formed on the user's claws that extend out 3 inches. When a successful blow is made on an enemy, ignore armor to strike at flesh directly. After a successful blow, Shadow Claws will dissipate. Cost to increase 1 Mutation Point.

Daniel was happy with the new skill though it was disappointing that he would have to wait until Kota’s next level to unlock the mutation, for now, he opened up Kota’s new and improved character sheet.

Kota

Age: 7

Race: Beast

Species: Wolfdog

Gender: Male

Level: 4

Tier I Class: Silent Hunter

Strength: 21 -> 25

Endurance: 12

Constitution: 11

Dexterity: 15

Intelligence: 6

Wisdom: 4

Willpower: 5

Charisma: 6

Free Attribute Points: 3

Free Evolution Points: 0

Class experience to the next level: 139 out of 4,000

Evolution Progress: 13%

Mutations: Silent Stalker ( 2/5 )

Spells: N/A

Animal Companion of Daniel Martin

Daniel saw that Kota hadn't gained any more Evolution progress from the last floor. It was disappointing, but it confirmed that killing wargs no longer provided Kota any benefit. Daniel hoped that the kobolds would also count towards that progress, but he wouldn't know for sure until they defeated the fifth floor and challenged the sixth.

They planned on challenging the fifth floor immediately upon clearing the fourth, but Daniel had also leveled up so he had new Skill Points to spend. With this level, he had seven total points, and Daniel planned to use all seven of them to increase his ‘Powerful Organs’ skill to level 4. He was still worried about what might happen if he got another influx of knowledge from his Crafting Legacy feat, so increasing the skill for his own safety was a no brainer but at the same time, he had also noticed that his mind was sharper and his reactions were quicker than they ever had been before. He also got tired slower; he guessed this was because his lungs and heart were better at oxygenating and moving blood through his body; he couldn't be sure, but increasing the skill would provide other benefits other than making him more resistant to the literal knowledge bombs he got from his crafting legacy feat. Daniel applied all seven points to the skill and the description for the next and last level.

Powerful Organs ( 4/5 ): 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 5 Skill points.

The description of the skill had not changed, but something else had. Daniel felt a sense of power that he hadn't felt with any other skill up to this point. After jumping two skill levels in rapid succession he felt an immediate change throughout his entire body. He stood there for several long minutes silently feeling the change in him before he was finally able to put words to what had changed. His breathing was easier for starters. Long slow breaths his lungs working like the bellows in old forges. Next was his heart. Its beats per minute were a lot slower than before, but each beat of his heartfelt stronger, and when he put his hand to his chest he could feel vibrations through his diaphragm. Other changes were less obvious at first like his eyesight. His vision was sharper and his mind felt clear and focused with no extraneous thoughts invading his continuous mind; it was as if he had full control over his mind, no random thoughts bubbling up to distract him. It all felt weird to him, but at the same time, it also felt completely natural like this was the way his body had always been even though logically he knew that this change had only happened a few minutes ago. In all honesty, though it felt... nice. He also knew his other internal organs would also be improved, but he had no way of currently discovering what those changes were. He also wondered if maybe his stomach and intestines would be better at breaking down food and absorbing nutrients. If that was the case he would probably need to use the bathroom less often since his body would be more efficient. He might also need to eat less, but the reverse could also be true. His body could now require more energy to sustain itself.

Back to the matter at hand though. He had one profession point left that he couldn't use since he would need 3 to level up any of his available skills.

‘That's not true though,’ His mind corrected. ‘I increased ‘Hammer Strength’ to level 2. I should have a new skill unlocked.’

Checking his Profession Tree he saw that he didn't just have one skill available he had two. His Profession Tree branched out from hammer strength to reveal two new skills; this was the first time he had seen something like this, so decided to research what this branch in his skills meant before he made any decision, but he would still first read what his new skills were to see what he was working with.

Crushing Grip ( 0/5 ): Your grip can crush skulls, and when you grab onto something it cannot escape. Passive. When using your full strength to grab or hold onto something your grip cannot be broken. Cost to increase 1 Profession Point.

Powerful Grip ( 0/5 ): Your grip is strong but not overbearing. Why use overwhelming strength when all that would be required is a firm hand. Passive. You only use just enough strength to grab something when it does not require more. Cost to increase 1 Profession Point.

Daniel was tempted to take ‘Crushing Grip’ as soon as he read the skill, but he had an inkling in the back of his mind that made him stop from making such a hasty decision. He read both skills again, and when he did not see what his subconscious mind was trying to tell him he read them again and again until finally on the fifth read-through he finally understood what his subconscious was telling him. ‘Crushing Grip’ required him to use his full strength. How long could he really use his full grip strength for? His muscles would quickly grow tired by using such force even with his upgraded body and increased stats. How long could he truly keep up such an exhausting grip? He decided to test it out now. He grabbed his blacksmithing hammer and grabbed it as hard as he could while timing it on his phone. In the end, he was surprised at how long he had managed to keep it up for; just under ten minutes, but afterward, he could feel how fatigued his fingers and hand were. He could tell that that fatigue was quickly fading, probably because of ‘Troll Regeneration’ it had some effect on his endurance, but Daniel didn't think this would be a good option for him. The skill might be good for fighting, but this was a professional skill, and when forging he never gripped his hammer with all of his strength. It wasn't something that you ever needed to do. He saw no application for this skill in the crafting process only for combat which he didn't like.

Before he made up his decision he still needed to look up what this branching path in his Profession Tree meant, and if it was a bad thing or not. The results of his research were interesting, to say the least. Apparently, most skill trees had at least one branching path. The branch could appear anywhere after the first skill. Though most branches would normally happen by the third skill if it happened at all. Some trees didn't branch while other times you could have the choice between five different skills at the same time. Whenever you selected a skill from one side of the branch you would lose access to the other skill that you did not select. Some branches when split would come back together while others continued to branch several more times leaving some part of a skill tree lost and unknown forever.

The most interesting thing he had learned was the skill referred to as the Capstone. Each Skill tree that included both profession and class trees would have a total of five skills you could choose from. Each skill could be upgraded a total of five times each level increased to cost by one point meaning the total cost to upgrade a skill to level 5 would be fifteen points. This was all stuff Daniel had worked out on his own what he did not know however was the Capstone skill. This skill did not work the same way as other skills. This was the last skill in the set of five for skill trees and was different from the others. It was a powerful skill that was only purchased one time for a total cost of fifteen skill points. Many people apparently rushed through their skill trees to reach this skill, but Daniel didn't see the logic in that. To rush to a single capstone skill would cost a total of 12 skill points to even reach it, and then you would have to spend another 15 just to purchase the skill. If you were a tier-one class and did this it would take you until level 19 of your tier 2 class to be able to purchase the skill. That means you would have to level eight times once reaching tier 2 without getting any new skill at all in your old or new skill tree once you got to tier 2. It just didn't seem worth it at that low of a level and requiring such a large investment.

For Daniel, however, it could possibly be worth it. Since he was already technically tier 5 if he started right now he could have his capstone skill for his reinforcement tree by level 8. The only problem with that though was how many other skill trees he had access to for all he knew there was a better skill tree to be investing in right now. That wasn't even mentioning the fact that he still did not have access to his tier 5 Skill tree because he was unable to specialize until he got his mana channels. Though if he wanted to get those mana channels without it costing him an arm and a leg he would still have to put most of his Skill Points into his reinforcement tree anyway so he was stuck putting points into the tree until his crafting legacy feat was no longer a threat to his life. It was something to think about for sure, but for now, he put his last profession point into ‘Powerful Grip,’ closing off ‘Crushing Grip’ as an option forever.

With all of that taken care of, it was time for him and Kota to challenge this floor 5 mini-boss. He called for Kota to come to him. He had been laying on one of the sofas while Daniel had been going through both of their character sheets. “One more floor buddy then we get to team up with Steve for the team dungeon. Kota barked at his words and with his tail wagging, they entered the fifth floor.

There was no entrance room this time or corridor they had to walk through to reach the monster they had to fight. They appeared in a large stone room much like many of the other rooms that had come before, but this one was at least twice the size and there were no entrances or exits anywhere in the room. It was like they had just been teleported in here and for all Daniel knew they had been. In the center of the room, there was a massive goblin. It was far larger than any he had seen up to date. Well large compared to other goblins. Though by human standards he would also be considered large. This goblin was at least Daniel's height and he was no small man. Daniel stood at a height of six foot three and had the broad shoulders and thick arms common for blacksmiths. The goblin stood in the middle of the room holding a two-handed greatsword. It wore a chainmail vest and what looked like a chainmail and leather skirt; it looked common to what the roman legionnaires used to wear, but Daniel couldn't be sure he had never been great with armor and had specialized with weapons instead. The goblin also had no other armor protecting his arms, lower legs, and head.

Daniel readied his maul for the fight. The icicle enchantment on his hammer had recharged while he had been going over his and Kotas pages in the Training Room. They stood at the edge of the circular room while this new goblin boss stood in the center. Daniel went ahead and used ‘Identify’ on the goblin as he gestured for Kota to begin circulating around the room to get behind the boss. This was a strategy they had used many times in the previous floors, and he saw no reason why it wouldn't work now as long as they played their cards right and he engaged with the boss first.

Daniel had used ‘Identify’ before almost every fight he had had so far in the dungeon, and when he used it this time he heard a slight bell sound in his mind before the screen with his identification results appeared.

Tier 2 Evolved Race: Hobgoblin

Level 5

Tier I Class: Chieftain

Highest Attribute: Strength

A tier 2 evolved race. That was something Daniel had never seen before. This also raised a lot of questions for Daniel. Could humans change their race, species, or whatever? Or was this something like in old literature where hobgoblins are evolved or more advanced forms of goblins but still technically the same species? If that was the case then could humans do the same? That also in some literature talked about; High Humans. It would be worth looking into later, but right now he had an oversized goblin to kill.

Kota had continued to walk around the exterior of the room to flank the boss as Daniel had looked over the results of his ‘Identify’ skill. Kota was at about a ninety-degree angle from Daniel right in the boss’s blind spot when Daniel decided to act. He would try to finish this fight as quickly as possible. Daniel began to sprint at the boss who was about fifty feet from Daniel. As if his moving signaled the start of the fight the boss began to move as well.

The Boss let out an ear-ringing roar, and a moment later Daniel felt as his limbs became slightly too heavy and sluggish than normal. Daniel tried to fight off the feeling and with his upgraded body he was mostly able to ignore the effects of whatever the Boss had just done. When he was halfway to the boss he pointed the spiked end of Ice Fang at the boss and shot the ranged version of the enchantment at the boss’s chest after taking a moment to aim. It tried to turn its large frame in time to dodge the attack but was unable to get out of the way in time. The icicle impacted against the boss’s shoulder instead of the center of its chest like he had aimed, but it was stopped from penetrating more than an inch by its chainmail. That didn't matter for long though right After its momentum was completely at rest it exploded causing shards of ice to pierce through the weakened part of the hobgoblins chainmail into its body while also causing dozens of superficial lacerations on the boss’s face and exposed left arm nearest to the epicenter of the explosion.

The boss was reeling from the explosion when Daniel arrived. He wasn't confident to be able to hit anything vital with this small moment of opportunity, so he decided to play it safe. Stopping on a dime in front of the boss he used the momentum from his charge into a devastating sidewise swing into the boss’s knee and right before his blow made contact he activated ‘Heavy Blow.’ The strike connected solidly with the boss's knee and Daniel heard a sharp snapping sound like a stick breaking as its knee buckled in the wrong direction and entirely gave out from under the boss's own weight.

It was then Kota’s turn to deal some damage to the boss. He jumped onto the boss's kneeling form and hunched form from behind and the weight of his body and the force of the charge brought the boss the rest of the way to the ground. Kota went to bite the back of its neck, but the boss managed to get an arm up and in the way of Kotas snapping jaws causing Kota to bite down on his forearm instead of his intended target. It was then that things started to go wrong for them with Kota in his way Daniel was unable to make another blow on the boss, and that was it activated some kind of skill. The boss's muscles bulge and veins become visible all over his body as it threw Kota off of its back since Kota had not yet let go of the boss's arm. Kota was thrown a good ten feet before sliding and rolling to a stop a total of fifteen feet away. Daniel knew from the display it just put on that this had to be some kind of strength-increasing skill, but he wasn't about to let the boss get a second wind; he would finish this off now.

When the Boss threw Kota off of it gave Daniel a clear shot at its head that Kota had been blocking before. He brought his maul down intending to crush its head, but before the blow managed to land the boss rolled out of the way far faster than it had moved at any time up to his point.

‘It's not only its strength that has increased, but speed as well.’

After it rolled away from his blow it grabbed its great sword that it had dropped when it had been tackled to the ground by Kota and stood up supporting all of its weight on its good leg. He wouldn't be able to swing that massive sword without a good center of gravity. However, Daniel had a different idea. Instead of continuing to pressure the boss, he began to jog backward, away from the boss instead, “Kota come!” Kota came bounding over to him looking mostly fine from being thrown, and together they kept a safe distance from the boss as it tried to chase them. With its leg crippled as it was, it couldn't move very fast, only able to hop on one leg. Together they kited the boss around the circumference of the room Daniel assumed that this skill the boss had activated would have a duration and so as long as they avoided the boss until it ran out they wouldn't be taking any risks fighting it in its enhanced state. Sure enough after about a couple of minutes of avoiding the boss as it hobbled after them its muscles went back to their normal size and the veins that had been bulging all over its body went back to normal as well. That wasn't all though when the skill ended it boss looked exhausted far more than it should for just following them around the room for a few minutes. It also stopped chasing it as it heaved for air, its body unable to seemingly get enough.

‘The skill might have a downside. Maybe once the skill ends you're weaker for a period of time. That would explain why he looks so tired right now.’

“Now’s our chance Kota!” rushing forward they charged the boss together Daniel took the lead with Kota just behind. The boss, seeing them coming slowly, raised its Great sword above its head. That would be the best way to strike with its leg injured like it was; it wouldn't knock it off balance as a horizontal strike would. When they got close they brought its suspended sword down. The swing seemed to have very little strength behind it, mostly the force of gravity. Daniel stepped in and brought the haft of his maul up to intercept the downward swing leaving Kota free to attack the boss.

Kota jumped into the boss's chest and once again brought it to the ground. This time though Kota didn't go for the throat and instead backed off leaving the boss vulnerable, and Daniel free to bring the spiked end of Ice Fang down with another ‘Heavy Blow’ to pierce through its chainmail and drive deep into its heart. His cooldown had refreshed when they had been kiting the boss, and just like that, the fight was over. Daniel couldn't help but feel relieved that they had managed to take the boss out without either of them getting any serious injuries. A moment later they once again at the entrance of the dungeon.

Congratulations! You have cleared the fifth floor of the ‘Solo Dungeon’ you and your companion have gained 1,500 (3,000 split) Exp. You receive 1,250 coins.

For Defeating the Hobgoblin Mini-Boss Chieftain Goltheraxe please choose your reward.

An item Personalized to you, or An Item Personalized for your Companion Kota.

Daniel of course wanted to get the item for himself, but he pushed that part of him down and thought about it logically for a second. Daniel already had Ice Fang, a great weapon and its enchantment had already proved very useful to his fight in the dungeon. He currently had no armor or anything, but he had his skills protecting him, not to mention he could probably just buy some from the shop with the coins he hadn't really used up to this point. He could also just continue to make himself items. Kota on the other hand currently had nothing, and Daniel didn't know what he could buy or make to improve Kotas combat strength. To have an item personalized for his trusty companion would not only be beneficial, but it would also give Daniel an idea of what kind of items Kota would need going forward. So he made his decision.

Item Received: Claws of the Ice Born Bear

Quality: Superb

Rarity: Scarce

Enchantment quality: Superb

Enchantment Rarity: uncommon

Effect: When activated make claws of variable length appear and disappear at will.

Description: This item was made from the claws of an Ice born bear. These are bears who find areas of extreme mana density and slowly take on the element's aspects to more easily live in its new environment. These beasts are extremely hard to track and kill when within their mana habitats. The most common way for hunters to kill an elemental bear of this kind is to lure it out of its habitat with mana of a higher quality than where they are located and ambush it once it has left.

When attached to an animal companion's front paws they can extend the razor-sharp claws of an ice-born bear up to six inches to attack opponents.

A second after he had finished reading about the item it appeared on the ground in front of Daniel. From the description, these seemed like great items for Kota, and they would greatly increase the amount of damage he would be able to inflict. Currently, the only way he could really eliminate targets was with his jaws having another way to inflict damage would be great. The best part was that they were retractable meaning that they wouldn't get in Kota’s way while moving around. Bending down he picked them up and called over Kota who had been watching him closely with his head tilted in a questioning way like dogs often did. He padded forward and stopped in front of Daniel before sitting back down on his haunches.

Daniel looked at the apparent weapons in his hand. They were very weird looking and he didn't quite know how these would effectively be attached to an animal. Each of the things was four small triangular cylinders in the shapes of claws connected together by a stretchy cloth that looked like it would wrap around Kota’s ankle. He just shrugged and decided to give it a shot. Daniel knelt down in front of Kota and grabbed one of his legs and lifted it up to rest on Daniel's leg so he could work. It took him a second to figure out which one of the claw weapons went on which foot, but after he figured that out he began to put the claw caps onto Kotas claws then attached the cloth to his ankle so that the claws wouldn't fall off. Immediately after he did that the item began to reform. The caps more fully conformed to the shape of Kotas claws and the cloth extended to become form-fitting over the entirety of Kota's paw-like spandex. The cloth wouldn’t provide any protection for Kota, but thankfully it also wouldn't get in the dog's way. Daniel put down the first paw and lifted the other one up to do the same thing as before, and just like last time the claw thing adjusted to fit Kota. After that was done Daniel stood and retreated and called for Kota to follow.

Kota seemed concerned at first and did that thing you see on the internet when people put shoes on dogs for the first time. Kota didn't seem to understand at first and was doing large steps to try and get a feel for the new contraptions on his feet. It only took Kota a minute to get the hang of it since the claws didn't actually get in the way of Kota at all; it was just new to him. After that slight hang up Kota was bounding around the room with his new claws with no problems. The next problem, at least to Daniel's mind was how Kota would know how to use these new weapons. Based on the description they worked on willpower or intent. Daniel thought for a second before coming up with a new plan of attack.

Steve had only been gone for about an hour from Daniel's perspective so he would still have at least a couple more hours before he returned. Now would be a good time to go to the Sparring hall to get Kota to learn how to use these weapons. He just hoped it wouldn't be too difficult. Kota had seemed to get smarter after becoming a part of the system and hoped that would be enough.

About an hour later of trying to get Kota to extend the claws and attack something he realized that this wasn't going to work. Kota thought this was all a game and was just having the time of his life as Daniel mimed swiping at the target dummies with claws. Kota would do the same mimicking what Daniel was doing, but only what he was doing. Kota wasn't smart enough to make the connection between the new claws wrapping his feet, and what Daniel was trying to get him to do. It was that thought that triggered an idea in Daniel's mind.

Pulling up Kota’s stat sheet he saw that Kota had three available attribute points from his previous level-ups. Daniel decided to put two of them into intelligence and one into willpower. Hopefully, this would be enough for Kota to understand. After the points were confirmed Kota stopped swiping at the dummies and looked at him. Daniel knelt down next to Kota and picked up one of his paws. Daniel pointed to the claws on Kotas paw and then tried to mime them, extending and then pointing at the target he mimed swiping at it with his hand. Daniel dropped the paw then backed up a couple of steps. Kota stood there looking at his paws then back to Daniel than the target. This went on for about a minute before out of nowhere. Claws of metal six inches long came bursting out of Kotas front paws. Then within the span of several seconds the claws retracted before expanding again. This in and out motion repeated for a while with Kota just looking at the scene impassively. Then with the claws fully extended Kota tried to walk forward and tripped over feet and fell onto the ground face first. He tried again with the same result. Then Kota looked at Daniel asking a silent question. Daniel approached amazed at what Kota was doing. He tried miming again. He mimed with his hands to shorten the claws once Kota figured out what he was trying to get him to do. It was also then that Daniel realized that he was an idiot. Dogs were good with voice commands; it was probably the most common way to train dogs. Daniel put the palm of his right hand and put it to the tip of his fingers on his left hand. Then he raised his palm away from his fingers while saying “Extend.” When Kota extended the claws Daniel nodded and then reversed the motion bringing his right hand back to his fingers and said “Retract.” Kota once again did what was instructed. They repeated this several more times until Daniel was sure Kota had the hang of it even without his gestures.

Daniel then approached the target dummy and motioned for Kota to follow. Daniel got down on all fours like how Kota stood. He then raised one hand off the floor and said “Extend.” and swiped at the target then said “Retract.” before he brought his hand to the floor again.

Kota seemed to understand and approached the target dummy next to Daniel and did the same thing Daniel had done, extending his claws swiping at the target before retracting them again. After they got the hang of that things got a lot more fun for the both of them.

After another hour, this one was much more fruitful than the last; he and Kota had done all sorts of things. Running leaps extending his claws mid-air to stab into the opponent while taking them to the ground before ripping into the dummies neck out. Cutting hamstrings of some of the shadow entities that Steve had faced, and such.

The thing he was most thankful to find out was that when the claws were extended it also added extra metal around the knuckle of the attached claw for extra support and bracing. This would mean that Kota wouldn't just rip off a claw or something when using the weapons. Though Kota had learned quickly that extending the claws fully was a good way to get hurt with the extra leverage the elongated claw provided he could easily break something if not careful. A few times when Kota was doing the jumping stab his momentum would continue forward after bringing the target to the ground, but the claws were still lodged in the training dummy's chest. This was bad and after the first incident that had caused Kota to be whimpering in pain for several minutes, he had learned without Daniel’s help to immediately retract the claw after an attack no matter what. Daniel was just happy with how much progress they were making and after about another thirty minutes of practicing; Daniel with his maul and Kota with his claws Steve returned.

Steve found Kota and Daniel the same way They had found Steve just a few hours earlier. Fighting against shadowy creatures in the weapons hall. “Well, I see you boys were busy while I was gone.”

“Yes, we were. Kota and I managed to kill that Mini-Boss on the fifth floor and Kota got these claws out of it which is going to help out a lot in the future.”

“That's good to hear. Well, I got some news of my own.”

“Is it about some of the other heroes?”

“It is indeed. A number of them reached out to contact me as I had hoped, but I only managed to get immediate responses from a few. The others like us are probably in their own Training Halls and can’t get my responses. The ones I did manage to talk to were happy to answer questions about themselves and their classes and such, but when I brought up the possibility of meeting up they got skittish. Out of the three I managed to talk to two of them declined meeting up, but one did accept. They also live in the US, but they will need to take a flight to get here. They should hopefully be here this evening assuming they get on the first possible flight they can.”

“What's their name, and you said you asked about classes and such what there's?”

“His name is Josh Parker. Funnily enough, he’s a park ranger over in one of the northern national parks. He was on a job to kill a bear that had gone feral in the area when he found a different creature eating the corpse of the bear he had come to kill. He manages to take it out and gets access to the system. Apparently, he has some kind of earth mage, Or I think he might have called it terramancy. Not completely sure he didn't tell me the exact name of his class.”

“Well, it's good to know that at least one more of the heroes is willing to work with us. Do you think you will manage to convince some of the others to join us as well?”

“Not sure, but I did manage to find something else interesting out. Well, you know that hero who died, Lukas Kisan?”

“Yeah, what about him?”

“Well, I did a little digging afterwards and found out he had a brother whose name is Evan by the way. Well, I reached out to him and it turns out that Evan is also a hero. Apparently, he and his brother became heroes at the same time. He was one of the ones that we’re being a bit skittish. After his brother's death, he doesn't know if he wants to continue with this hero business. I’m going to try and get him to come and at least talk to us, but it's going to be hard.”

“Man, that really sucks. I didn't even know the man, but when I got the message his death almost felt personal. I can't help but feel for Evan.”

“Yeah, I know what you're saying,” Steve let out a long sigh. “I have a feeling that this is going to be hard on all of us sooner rather than later.” Steve and Daniel just looked at one another for a long moment, a silent feeling and understanding passing between them before Steve broke the silence “Well, shall we go see what this Team Dungeon is all about.”

“Sure, I’m ready. Do we have a plan of attack before entering?”

“I’m not too sure. I have yet to work with anyone else so far. What have you and Kota been doing up to this point?”

“Well, I have been taking the attention of any monsters we encounter while Kota tries to sneak and take a few out while they are focused on me.”

“Well, that doesn't seem like a bad plan. I can just stay behind you and cast my spells. I’ll also make sure that none of them get behind you or in your blind spot. At Least for now a simple plan is probably better. We can come up with different strategies once we have some of our teamwork down, or something comes up and we need to change them.”

“Sounds like a plan. Shall we?”

“Yes, we Shall.”

Together they walked over to the entrance to the Team Dungeon and tried to enter it. Nothing happened. No portal appeared when they approached, so Daniel reached out and touched the portal entrance with his hand.

Please select the number of Party members that will be entering the Team Dungeon.

Daniel selected two since Kota up to this point had counted as a part of him like with the solo dungeon.

Confirmed. The Team Dungeon is repeatable and scales to the number of Heros entering and their current level upon entering. You can leave the Team Dungeon at any time by returning through the portal in your starting room. If you leave without clearing the floor you will have to wait 24 hours before being allowed to try again. If you manage to clear the floor you will have to wait 8 hours before being allowed to enter again. Each floor is randomly generated and will have a minimum of one boss encounter within. Good Luck!

“Did you get that message as well Steve?”

“I did. You know it's cool that we can basically challenge this as many times as we want and it will always be a challenge. Well, that's not completely true, we will still have to wait a little while between delves.”

“Yeah, but that's not the part I'm worried about,” Daniel said. “It said a minimum of one boss. That could mean there is more than one or even a mini-boss like on floor 5 of the solo dungeon.”

“That is true. And now that we're talking about it I’m worried that we might not be ready for this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, I don't know about you, but before the system, I never really fought anything before let alone killed stuff. Now here we are killing monsters like it's no big deal. Risking our lives for some future unknown threat.” Steve was waving his arms wildly articulating his point. “And I’m concerned that this one floor might be larger than all of the other solo floors that we have cleared up to this point. We don't have any preparation whatsoever, and we can't leave unless we want to wait 24 hours before trying again.”

“You make a good point. I have some fighting experience myself from learning how to use the weapons I make, but other than that nothing else. As for equipment, I used to play some of those older tabletop games, and every time our characters would go into a dungeon we would have all kinds of things. Food, water, rope, lantern, other useful magical items. We currently have none of that. I agree we aren't currently equipped to deal with something like this.”

“Okay, here's what I propose,” Said Steve. “We go to the shop and use our available coins to buy all of the supplies we need. I want us to be fully kitted out. Weapons, armor, items that would be useful, maybe even healing potions if they exist. We will each go through the shop separately then once we have the lists gathered we will go over them together to make sure we don’t purchase the same items.”

“Sounds good to me Steve. Hey, when did you become the leader of our little group?”

It looked like Steve blushed a little at Daniel's comment “Sorry, about that I didn’t mean to offend you. I kind of have a habit of taking charge in these kinds of situations.”

“It's fine man, I was joking around. It's a good plan. Looking back now, going into the unknown like I have been with the Solo Dungeon with only a weapon hasn't been the smartest thing I have ever done. I don't know what I’ve been thinking”

“Okay, then it's agreed. But I agree it is kind of odd that we just kind of jump headfirst into danger with basically no preparation.”

They left the entrance of the solo dungeon and approached the entrance to the shop. When they approached the shop's counter an interface appeared in front of each of them and Daniel began to scroll through his as soon as he arrived. Daniel began to internally take count of what kind of items he would need. Armor was first on his list. He already had his reinforcement tree, but now that he was taking this whole situation a bit more seriously a little more protection wouldn't hurt him. Another thing he needed was a backup weapon or two that he could keep at hand. He had originally been planning on making one before he got the message about the first hero's death, then he had changed his objective.

He found some simple chainmail that would fit him for about 100 coins which he put in his cart. This one had sleeves, unlike the goblin chieftain. He might also want some gauntlets as well or maybe even leather gloves with steel plates over the knuckles. Several times he had punched a monster when it got too close and punched it in the face while activating ‘Heavy Blow.’ Having something like that would be very useful. The metal gauntlets were quite a bit more expensive than he would have wanted and most of the ones that were within what he wanted to pay were low quality and he feared that those ones would impede the movement of his hands, so he went for the studded leather gloves instead.

“Oh, yeah Steve I got this chest plate as a drop from one of my solo dungeon runs. Do you think it will fit you?” Daniel gestured to the Breastplate he had brought to the shop earlier and then forgotten about.

Steve walked over and held it up to his chest. “Yeah, I think it will. Thanks, this should save us a bit of coins.”

Daniel nodded and went back to his shopping. Next was leg protection. He decided to get a bit more expensive and picked out some plated armor for his legs. They would only protect the front of his legs with straps holding them in place, but so far most monsters he had faced were smaller enemies and that's all they reach. Though he wasn't happy with how the armor he had chosen left the back of his legs basically unarmored and exposed. In his very first fight that gave him access to the system, he had been taken down because he had been stabbed in the back of the leg and he didn't want a repeat of that event. He decided to pick out a leather skirt with strips of chainmail mixed in similar to what the Romans wore. this would provide some additional protection that he wanted. Next were his feet and he decided to just keep wearing his work boots. They were very good boots and made out of thick leather and hard rubber and should be fine. Lastly was his helmet he decided to take inspiration from the Romans again and go for a Galea. It was an open-faced helmet and went all the way down to cover his neck like a mullet before flaring out at the bottom. It also had two flaps of metal that came hanging down from the helmet to protect the side of the face. Overall he was happy with his armor, though did look a bit missed matched from each other.

Next was his backup weapon. He decided to go for a gladius or short sword. He had sold the one he had made already so he would just have to buy another. He also went for a leg knife as an additional layer of protection just in case. With that taken care of, it was time for equipment. He began to scroll through the option in the shop before he came across an interesting option. It was labeled as an Adventure Pack. opening up the option he looked over the contents of the bag, and with each line, he read he grew more and more excited. This would work nicely. It would have everything they would need already packed in a bag including food, water, and camping gear just to name a few of the items. Looking over to Steve he saw that the man was still shopping so he decided to look over some more options just to see what he might want to buy in the future.

He looked at what kind of alchemical potions there were and was intrigued at the option for sale. Temporary stat increases potions, healing, mana, stamina, alchemical fire, cure potions for all kinds of poisons and diseases. A lot of them were actually quite affordable, so he decided to purchase a few. It was then he found something more interesting. It was a strip of leather with little loops where potion vials would be inserted. It would apparently adhere to any surface, your armor or bag and it was enchanted to make any vial stored in the loops to be indestructible so long as they remain within. He looked at other similar options and was astounded at the prices. You could buy one of these with only three loops for about 500 coins, but with each additional loop added the price would double then it would increase exponentially before finally capping at ten total loops. He saw no other items with more loops than ten and wondered if such items existed or if ten was the cap. The only downside of these items was that you could only have one on your person at a time. You could though also have one inside of a bag to store extra vials that weren't on your person. Daniel decided to buy two of them, one to keep on him and one for his bag for 1,000 coins. He then bought three health potions and three vials of alchemical fire. He probably wouldn't need the health potions himself, but he was still concerned for Kota. Thinking of Kota could he buy any armor for his pupper.

Looking in the shop he saw that he in fact could, but it might just clean out the rest of his coins. He didn't want Metal armor for Kota just yet for fear that the quality of armor Daniel was purchasing would mess with Kota's movements. Though maybe in the future when he had more coins; with Kota's skill to reduce all noise with the wording that would also include his armor. Once the skill got high enough it would be a viable choice, but for now leather would work with his budget. His shopping now officially done he turned to Steve. “Find anything interesting?”

“A couple of things actually. Come here let us compare everything." They looked over each of their lists together. Steve had also found the adventure pack while shopping, and they decided it would be a good idea for each of them to purchase one since they not only came with the basic supplies they need but also items that might prove useful in a dungeon-like caltrops and ball bearings. It was then that Steve pointed out that Daniel hadn't gotten any supplies for Kota. Daniel quickly fixed this problem, and they continued on. They went over what Steve had selected first. There was some additional armor, and a backup weapon in case the monster got too close and he couldn't use his spells. Most of what he selected was leather armor besides the breastplate Daniel had given him. Steve had a few potions as well, and Daniel quickly pointed out that he didn't have any of the vial cases selected. Steve quickly saw how useful such an enchanted item would be, and just like Daniel purchases two of them though Steve did opt to spend about 500 more coins to get one with an additional slot in one of the cases.

After that, they went over Daniel's choices and found everything to be good. Then it was time for Steve's surprise. "So I was looking over some of the enchanted items and found several that will be of great use in the future, but there are three right now that we can probably afford. The first which we could probably do without for the time being is a bottle of ever refilling water. As the name would imply the bottle endlessly fills up with water well fills up until full but you get the idea. Next is a retractable ten-foot pole. This is one of those things you see in tabletop games, but this is a lot more convenient than carrying around an actual ten-foot-long stick everywhere you go and it's really cheap, at only 110 coins. And last is an illumination stone. It will provide illumination for up to four hours before needing to recharge from ambient mana. It's also fairly cheap at 260 coins."

"Those are good items and I can definitely see their utility, but I do agree we can definitely forgo buying the water bottle for now. With the adventure pack providing water at least for this dive we wouldn't need it."

"Okay, it's settled then."

"Let me check this total first though. I'm not sure if I'll have enough coins with me buying my own gear and Kota's. Though I do think that having at least two of those illumination stones is a good idea. We will have no idea what kind of environment we will be walking into on this dive. That being said, what if it's not a cave system like we have experienced up till this point. What if we are in a desert, tundra, or something along those lines we really have no idea what to expect from the team dungeon. We may need to bring cold-weather gear, but I'm not sure how we would carry all of that."

"Well, that brings me one of the other items I found. We can't afford it yet, but for 10,000 coins we can get what's called a storage ring. It would be a space the size of a small closet about five cubic feet in all where we could store items. You can also get some that can store even more space, but like with the vial storage case you showed me, they seem to add another 10,000 coins per additional five cubic feet of space.

"That could come in real handy. And now that we are talking about it, can we have equipment presets in our equipment menu? That could also solve the problem of storing extra gear for now."

“Let me take a look.” Steve’s eyes lost focus for a second and Daniel waited patiently to see what Steve would discover. “Okay looks like we can. There is a section called garments where we can place clothes. There is an option to layer items in the garment menu onto what you are currently wearing. This would probably work best for cold weather. Any hot climate we will probably have to remove armor to stay cool in the heat.”

“Okay I’ll go ahead and purchase some cold-weather clothing as well just in case it's better safe than sorry right.” Daniel turned back to the shop and bought a heavy fur cloak, as well as a winter long sleeve shirt and pants that could fit over his armor. Daniel also remembered that armor had special garments like padding that went underneath. He told Steve about this, before finding what he needed.

Daniel looked at the new total and saw that everything would cost him a little under 4,000 coins without any of the enchanted items Seve had talked about. He had plenty left over to buy the illumination stone, and a retractable 10-foot pole. Since he had the coins he decided to go ahead and look at the price of the refillable water bottle. Its price honestly surprised him; it was 1,000 coins. No wonder Steve thought it would be fine to wait for now. Daniel decided that once again it was better to be safe than sorry so purchased it now along with his other items. All told everything cost him 5,368 coins bringing him down to 1,187. He let Steve know that he had gone ahead and purchased the water bottle since he had enough coins

“Really, I basically just cleaned myself out, how did you have enough coins?”

“I had a few thousand left over from my sale of the Thermonite maul and purchasing Ice Fang.”

“Well, that's good to hear. At least we know we won't be running out of water anytime soon. Okay, let's go ahead and gear up and head into the dungeon.”

“Daniel put all of his new armor into the Equipment menu including the layer of protective clothing that went under. Then in a new tab labeled Garments, he put the cold weather gear he had purchased. Once that was done he equipped the armor and it appeared on his body. He then picked up one of the vial protectors and attached it to his belt where his new short sword was hanging from his left side to be able to draw it with his right hand. He filled the case with two health Potions and one slot with an alchemical fire vial. Then he opened up his Adventurer's bag and put the second case on the interior and filled it with the last health potion and the last two vials of alchemical fire. Then he put the refillable water bottle into an exterior pocket for easy access. When he picked it up to put it away he saw that it also had runes inscribed into the exterior of the bottle which was something he hadn't seen yet, but discarded the thought, for now, he could learn about that later. Next, he put Kotas dry food he had purchased into the bag. He wanted to keep the illumination stone and ten-foot pole which was only about three inches long on his person, but there was no way to attach them to his belt.

He decided to look back at the shop to try and find an option. He did manage to find one, but it would clean out the rest of his coins. For 1,100 coins he could buy an adaptive belt; its description said that any item placed against the belt would have a case custom made to hold it. He could see the utility of such an item and purchased it. Equipping the belt he equipped it replacing his old belt and put the illumination orb up against the belt a second later a leather pocket appeared to perfectly hold the item. That was very useful indeed. Next, he put the ten-foot pole up to it, and like with the orb it made a leather container to hold it. He reapplied the vial case and his short-sword to his new belt before he knelt down to strap his back-up knife onto his right calf. With his leather and chainmail skirt, he wasn't able to put it on his thigh like he would have wanted, but this would work. Then he opened up Kotas' equipment menu and added his new armor to the menu. A moment later the armor appeared on Kota’s body. Daniel Was just glad he didn't have to figure out how all of those straps worked. He turned to Steve. “I’m ready, what about you?”

“I am. Let's go.”

Daniel gave Steve a quick once over. He was wearing his new armor, almost all brown leather except his chest plate which was steel plate armor. He had his pack strapped to his back, and Daniel saw that the bag had a quick-release function to quickly drop the pack to the ground in an emergency.

‘That will be good especially if we suddenly get into a fight. Having a pack on your back could mess with our balance in a fight and in a battle of life and death any mistake could mean your death.’

He had his wand in a weird sheath on his belt and his shortsword like Daniels on his other hip. Steve did look ready. Daniel Hefted his own pack onto his back and adjusted the straps to better balance out the weight. He nodded to Steve and together they walked back to the entrance of the Team dungeon. They paused at the entrance and Daniel looked down at Kota who just looked at him with his tongue lolling out his mouth. They were as ready as they would ever be striding forward. The three of them together passed through the entrance this time without the door stopping them. It was time to see what this new dungeon was all about.