I

Eva Observed▲ Hideki as he strolled over to meet her. She was surprised to see that he was already level 5!

“Nice fight out there,” he said.

“Seems like you did pretty well yourself,” she agreed.

“Mmhm. I picked up a couple Skills along the way—Polearms and Pierce.”

“Very nice. Are you ready to go?”

Hideki nodded.

“Ok, why don’t you lead the way?” Eva asked.

Hideki led the way with her just behind him. It was only a few miles, so getting to the right area would make finding the dungeon just a matter of time. Hopefully. Searching through the forest was worse than a grassland would be, but they were looking for a hill or cliff.

“Have you ever been on a hike like this before?” she asked.

“I visited the countryside for a class trip, but otherwise I spent my time in big cities.”

“It’s been years for me,” Eva nodded. “I haven’t really been anywhere like this since my grandparents died. I miss it.”

“Oh?”

“They had this cabin by a lake on the other side of the country. We used to go there most summers for a month—probably because my parents needed a break,” she laughed. “We would swim in the lake and fish the nearby streams. Grandpa would prepare the catch while Grandma would fry it up. Grandpa would make lemonade for us to have with the fish.

“This Tutorial reminds me a bit of those times, yet it feels hollow with the monsters and danger. At least I have some nice company to wander around with.”

“Maybe it’s not so bad despite the tragedy,” Hideki chuckled.

It took four hours before they found the dungeon. The first hill they came across had nothing despite searching for an hour. The second hill was the one with the cave. It took a bit of looking, too, as it was well camouflaged.

The inside of the musty, damp cave was as described. There were the remnants of the fire the survivors had used, and the cave went farther back to what looked like a bend. As they approached the bend, nothing seemed any different. However, when Eva stepped into the corner, a notification popped up.

You have entered The Warrens

Select Difficulty:

Basic▲

She hit Basic▲—the only option. Hideki followed her in.

“Any ideas of what to expect?” Eva asked, hoping his knowledge from books he read and games he played would come in useful.

“Monsters we have to kill and a boss as well, probably. Maybe mini-bosses or something like that too. Basically, kill everything that isn't us, and we'll clear it eventually. The monsters could drop items, their corpses, or nothing. Depends on how dungeons work here. All the stories I’ve read had one of those three.”

“Makes sense. I'll be up front,” Eva decided. “You’ll support me from the rear with the spear.”

“Ok.”

The area beyond the entrance was still cavelike, but instead of being stone, it looked more like packed dirt. The height of the tunnel was around eight feet, which gave plenty of room to fight with, and the width of around ten feet gave a decent amount of space to move around in as well.

Cautiously, Eva advanced with Hideki following a few steps behind. She used her perception to spot whatever she could, but there wasn't much to see besides the dirt walls. Dusk levels of light permeated the tunnels. It was just barely enough to see by. If she was having a little trouble, she had to imagine he would have it even worse.

Soon enough, they came to a more open room with two other tunnels coming off of them. In the room were two giant rabbits with white fur. These were the warrens, after all. Observe▲ told her that they were both level 3 lesser giant rabbits, a name that had as much going for it as giant shrimp.

“Alright. They don't look too tough. I'll take one while you take the other.”

Hideki nodded and readied his spear. Eva Charged✦ the one she had claimed. A quick air Infused★ slash was enough to bisect the rabbit. She turned to watch Hideki deal with the second monster.

He aimed his spear for a good thrust. The rabbit took the opportunity to bound towards him. She could see fear in his face as his first reaction before he steadied himself against the charge. Hideki placed his spear on the ground against his foot with the tip pointing towards the rabbit. The rabbit hit the spear a moment later, impaling itself deeply. Eva saw that Hideki was stuck. If he took the spear out, he wouldn’t have the rabbit pinned. If he kept pushing, he wouldn't be able to kill it.

“Take this!” she called.

Once he was looking at her, she tossed her old Shortsword▲. He caught it in his left hand and drew the blade. He cut into the monster with a large slash. After a few more strikes, the monster went down.

Lesser Giant Rabbit killed, 0 Experience awarded

Seeing as the other rabbit was dead, she turned her attention to the one she'd slain. To her surprise, it wasn't there anymore! Remembering what Hideki had told her about what could happen, she checked the area where it had been for something that might have been left behind. A smile crossed her face when she noticed a sparkle in the dim light.

Eva grabbed the item. It was a sharp, roughly spherical, red crystal about the size of a pea. She Observed▲ it.

Basic Augmentation Shard▲

Basic skill Observe▲ is now Level 8

“What is this?” she wondered.

Eva Observed▲ again. This time, it gave a little more information.

Basic Augmentation Shard▲

Add an effect to a Basic▲ item

She checked the ground near where the second rabbit was disappearing into light with speckles of dim light breaking off its corpse as it went. In its place was simply bare earth. The second rabbit hadn't given anything other than experience for Hideki.

“Hideki, I found something,” she said, tossing the Basic Augmentation Shard▲ to him.

She hoped he could make more sense of it than she could. He rolled it around in his hand and gave it a good study.

“Huh,” he said. “Do you mind if I try using this with my sword?”

“Sure, go ahead. Just let me have the next one we find.”

What followed was nearly five minutes of trying different things to get it to work. There were many failures, such as touching the two together or hitting them together. What turned out to be the solution was having them touch while willing the shard to activate. What happened was a slight drain to Hideki’s mana and the shard disappeared. Observing▲ the result was rather interesting.

Giant's Crude Shortsword✦

Strength increased by 5

Not only was there an effect, but the formerly Basic▲ sword was upgraded to Novice✦ level!

“Awesome!” Hideki said when he saw the result. “Let's hope this isn't such a rare drop. We've both got a lot of equipment that could get improved this way. It'll make the dungeon a lot easier as well.”

Eva agreed. For as much as she liked the equipment she had, she wouldn't throw away a free improvement to it!

They continued forward, taking the leftmost branch. Hideki suggested marking the rooms they'd been to while keeping to the same side of the dungeon when choosing future branches. She thought it was a good idea, so he used the butt of his spear to scratch crude markings into the floor of the room.

The next room they came across had three rabbits to fight, all level 3. Eva took down one and assisted on another. Two more of the shards dropped, and Hideki used his on his spear, giving a bonus to ignoring armor.

Once he marked the room, they took the exit to the left of where they'd come in.

II

When they sat down for a water break two hours later, they'd collected another eight shards, and they'd been through most of the dungeon. They'd found the boss early on—behind the wall in the direction they couldn't go at the first intersection—but they'd tried to explore everything else first. The rooms of the warren were all the same, or at least similar. Each fight was between one and five rabbits—all of the same level. It was an easy way to get experience.

Eva dropped her gathered experience into Stat Points before they went into the boss. This brought more questions from Hideki.

“If you've killed so many monsters and came in first against the goblins, how are you only level 2?” he asked.

“You know my Stats are higher right?”

“Yeah, I remember we talked about it the other day.”

“I’m past 25—where you have to break through to continue adding stats. I don’t know where the next one is, but it looks like it’s a lot more since I’m only level 2 with Stats around 37.”

“That makes sense. I’ll have to give it more thought after we get some more data points. Maybe I can crack the System for our own advantage.”

“I think you can do it,” Eva nodded. “Boss time. Let's do this!”

The boss room was marked as such with an ornate door blocking the way forward. She pushed against the door and it slowly opened to let them pass. Beyond was a larger room than they had been fighting in with an even larger rabbit in the center of it.

Lesser Den Mother Lv 8

Basic skill Observe▲ is now Level 9.

The den mother stirred as they entered the room. It turned and glared at them as only a mother could. Eva felt the stab of guilt hit her heart for harming all its children. She hoped the dungeons weren’t filled with real monsters, because if they were, some of the monsters’ deaths would begin to weigh on her mind.

Before she could react, the rabbit charged towards them. It seemed that the Glare had been more than just a look. Hideki was also frozen and unable to react. It was something they'd have to note for anyone else who entered after them—if that was a possibility. That there had been a tier choice hinted that the dungeon was reusable, but they wouldn’t be able to confirm that for sure until the boss was dead.

Eva forced herself to move. She caught the den mother's bite with her shield, which got ripped from her arm and tossed to the side. Hideki began to stir and reacted by getting out of the way. She Infused★ fire into her blade and set the den mother ablaze. It was tougher than the other rabbits and it could inflict some kind of stunning effect on them.

The burning rabbit smelled both terrible and amazing at the same time. It also was a homing beacon for Hideki to stab and slash it apart. With the two of them, it wasn't too difficult to put the boss monster down. The den mother did have some lower level rabbits to take some of the heat, but Eva took care of them swiftly while he took on the den mother alone.

When the fight was finally over, she received a small amount of experience from the rabbit. The important thing, though, was that the den mother had item drops. The first item was another of the shards. The second was a new shard, a Novice✦ version of the ones they'd been finding. The final item was a book.

Tome of Light★

The rarity was too high for her to know what it did exactly, but Hideki guessed it was a way to learn some kind of magic—if his gaming experience was anything to go by. He got the duty of testing out his hypothesis. When he opened the book, a pale white light engulfed him momentarily before the book disintegrated into dust.

“I learned the Light Skill from the book,” he confirmed.

He held up his hand and said the name of the Skill. A small orb of incandescent light hovered above his palm. It cast its radiance across the room they were in, brightening it as if it were a cloudy day rather than the dim light they'd become accustomed to.

Congratulations on completing The Warrens

Would you like to leave?

Eva decided that she was ready to go. A light similar to the one she'd seen during the Training that moved from one level to the next took her back to the entrance.

You have entered The Warrens

Select Difficulty:

Basic▲

Novice✦

It seemed that her hope had been correct. She exited the dungeon entrance rather than choosing a difficulty and awaited her friend.

III

Eva struggled with her shield now that it was well and truly messed up. The den mother had done quite a bit of damage, and she'd need to get it repaired fully—if that was even possible. With what little time she had, she managed to secure it to her arm by knotting the leather straps around her forearm. The broken wood wouldn’t be the best at stopping attacks, but it was better than nothing.

Outside the cave, the only light available was that of the moon. The trees blocked so much of the light that even her improved senses were useless. Night had truly set in. She knew, roughly, the direction they would need to hike in to get back to the village. She would have to climb a tree when they were on top of the hill closer to the village to spot the cooking fires.

With Hideki's new Skill lighting the way, they made their way west from the cave and into the woods. The going was slow despite the decent lighting they had to work with. There was surprisingly no drain on Hideki's mana—it used a set amount of mana to conjure the ball of light, but none for the upkeep in stark contrast to her own elemental Skill. As they walked, the Skill would get brighter every so often, which she could only assume was from it leveling up.

After a little over an hour into their slow hike, Eva heard some noise nearby. It wasn't just wind or anything like that as far as she could tell. No, it was likely something hostile. She waved her hand to get Hideki’s attention and put her finger to her lips before pointing in the direction of the sound. She drew her blade quietly and listened. He matched her movements and prepared for whatever was coming.

The light from his Skill splashed across the trees and underbrush, casting eerie shadows everywhere. The sound approached them before getting quieter. The sounds continued to approach—whatever it was thought it was being stealthy. With Eva's perception it might as well have been an emergency siren. She motioned to Hideki to get down and hide somewhat.

The sounds stopped as they did their best to hide. The Light Skill actively made it harder for Hideki to hide, but he still did his best to put his torso behind a tree. Suddenly, there was a whistling sound. An arrow skipped off the tree he was sheltering behind.

Eva Charged✦ the location from whence the arrow had come and found a small group of landwalkers. Two of them used bows, while another two used blades. Her first attack—a Pierce✦—took out the first archer. Her victim screamed in pain before dying from a second blow to the head.

The scream brought Hideki out to see what was going on. He faced off with the two swordsmen, while Eva Charged✦ the second archer. He Lit the battlefield with his Skill while doing his best to keep the two swordsmen at bay with his own sword.

When the second archer fell after a short chase, she made her way back to where the swordsmen were beginning to push Hideki back. In the forest, the swordsmen had a distinct advantage over him using his spear.

“I’m coming to help, Hideki!” Eva called out as she neared the two swordsmen from behind.

One turned to face her while the other kept pressing Hideki. Their blades clashed several times before a short Charge✦ gave her the speed to break his guard and end his life. The final landwalker tried to run, but Eva blocked its avenue of retreat. There was no way in hell she was going to let it go find more friends. She and Hideki quickly killed it.

“Are you ok?” she asked when she noticed he was bleeding.

“Yeah, it’s not too bad. Got nicked a couple times but nothing deep.”

“I'm going to see what these landwalkers are carrying.”

While Hideki patched himself up, she took swords and bows from the dead. Armor that wasn't too badly damaged came as well. Finally, if there were any metal bits or survival gear, it got stuffed into her backpack. When he was ready, they began the long hike back to the village in the dark.

After making it to the top of the first hill they had searched for the dungeon, Eva dropped most of her gear on the ground and climbed up the tallest tree she could find. When she neared the top, she looked out in every direction. Slightly west—but mostly north—she saw the glow of fires. She clambered down and put her gear back on once she was sure of the direction they needed to go. Twenty minutes later, they saw the faint shine of the gate's torches. Almost as soon as they did, they saw the flashlight of a guard team pointing their way.

“Identify yourselves!” came the shout.

“Eva Green!” she yelled in response.

“What're you doing out so late?” the guard asked them when they met up at the edge of the clearing.

“Checking out reports of a dungeon that should be able to help people train, so they can fight the monsters more easily.”

“Dungeon?”

“Like in those fantasy stories—that kind of dungeon. I’ll give the full report to the council in the morning. Too damn tired for that right now.”

“Stay safe.”

Eva nodded and made her way to the gate. The guards there let the group through after the commander recognized her. Once inside, they quietly walked to their lean-to. Hideki wasn’t bleeding anymore, but she wanted to make sure it stayed that way. Nightly activities were limited to a makeout session as a result.