Return initiated.

The benefits of your new experiences will be calculated after you have rested for the day, and absorbed what you have learned.

Calculating levels…

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… THREE (3) levels gained.

Finding items…

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Items found. You are returning with FOUR (4) items.

Transportation of new items complete.

Beginning transportation of your person.

Transporting…

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Transportation complete. Welcome back, William.

And with that, my first foray into the dungeons was at its end.

Right after each of the messages had finished displaying, a small, yellow icon of an “up” arrow had begun to flash in the lower right corner of my awareness. That was likely meant to alert me to all of the levels that I had just acquired. So now, eager to see how much stronger I had become, I pressed my finger up against the yellow arrow, and watched as a stream of new messages appeared at the center of my vision.

“Congratulations! You have leveled up!” “You are now level 2! +1 to each of your statistics.” “You are now level 3! +1 to each of your statistics.” “You are now level 4! +1 to each of your statistics.” “You have acquired NINE (9) stat points. These can be spent however you wish, on any of your primary statistics.”

That was actually a lot more than I had been expecting. Based on what I had heard during my guided tour of Westfall, it sounded like most of the fighting classes stayed here for about two years, and that they went from level 1 to about level 50 during that time, completing the Beginner’s Dungeon in the process. That meant that, on average, a person should be gaining about half a level per week. So to have gained three levels in a single trip implied that I was growing much, much faster than I would have reasonably expected.

I suspected that there were two things that might have been accounting for that quick growth.

On the one hand, my blessing meant that I could take a lot of damage, but still get back into the fight after no more than a couple of minutes. I didn’t know how healing worked in this world, but I had noticed that my HP regeneration was way above the default rate. So, if it was difficult for adventurers to heal – or even just for beginning adventurers – then that might help to explain why I had gained so much experience in my first outing, and been able to level up so quickly.

But the more important factor was probably what Torver had told me before, about the “boost” that Interlopers get when they first come into this world. I didn’t know what that boost was, exactly, or what might be causing it. But from what he said, it sounded like most people ended up advancing quite a bit in their first few weeks, before that growth began to really slow down. If I was going through that same sort of process, then I imagined that I might be able to get to about level 30 or 40, before my whole advancement started to stabilize, and I ended up becoming just a little bit stronger than most of my peers.

After that, I would probably be on my own… assuming that I couldn’t find a way to tap into the source of that “boost” for a longer period of time, at any rate.

But, whatever the causes might be, that degree of improvement was certainly quite welcome. I was especially glad to see that I had managed to gain a few new stat points to spend, and that I would be able to improve my overall fighting power in any way that I chose.

So, after deliberating for a little while about what I would spend them on, I decided that I would put the points into Agility, Strength, and Vitality. I had been relying on my Agility quite a bit during combat (in order to dodge my opponents’ blows), and that stat was also what I was using to get away from dangerous opponents. So any improvement there would be be the most useful overall, and would also probably help me out the most in making my way through the dungeons.

After that, the second target for my improvement would be Strength. That was clearly becoming my go-to stat for dealing damage, as I was relying far less on precise, targeted blows, and more on strong, sweeping or plunging attacks with my sword.

Finally, even though it wasn’t my main focus, I didn’t want to completely neglect my Vitality, either. It seemed pretty obvious that it would be important to keep my total HP growing along with my overall level, so that I wouldn’t become too vulnerable as I continued to fight.

So, after thinking things through in that way, I decided to place 5 points into Agility, 3 points into Strength, and 1 point into Vitality. That seemed like a pretty good balance, and I was sure that it would make a big improvement to my overall ability further on down the line.

After I had finished distributing my points, I asked the system what my status was. Almost at once, it sent out the following display:

Level: 4 Affected By: Blessing of Kalia HP (Hit Points): 110/110 HP Regeneration: 12.1 HP / min MP (Magic Points): 40/40 MP Regeneration: 0.24 MP / min Strength: 17 (13+4) Intelligence: 11 Dexterity: 10 Wisdom: 8 Agility: 19 Luck: 6 Vitality: 11 Insight: 7 That was a nice improvement over where I had been before. I took a moment to look at the numbers and feel a quiet contentment in the progress that I was making, and in how quickly I was advancing myself in this new world. Then, I let the screen fade away, as I returned my awareness back to the world around me. After that, I took a glance at my surroundings, in order to see if anyone else was nearby. But I seemed to be alone at the moment, and I didn’t see anybody making their way out of the dungeons just yet. So quietly, I began to walk out by myself along the path that I had taken before, and in towards the town of Westfall. Judging from the position of the sun, it must have been about the middle of the day, or perhaps an hour or two after that. The farmers seemed to have mostly finished up their labors by now, though a few of them were still continuing to work, and many more were standing around the fields, laughing and chatting with one another, as they relaxed and enjoyed a few drinks in the sunny weather. The whole sight looked quite inviting, and if I had known any of the people there, I would surely have stopped by and joined them for a little while. As it was, I simply made my way back in towards the town, as I slipped through the entrance to the large, wooden gate, and headed out towards the central marketplace, my treasures in hand.

I had placed the dagger, the coin and the pendant into my pockets, and I had put the ring on my finger, where it rested beneath my glove. I wanted to sell both the pendant and the knife, as I saw no particular use for them, and they seemed like they might be able to fetch a considerable sum. But the ring I wanted to keep for now, if I could, and I definitely wanted to keep the coin of the treasure goblin as well, as a commemoration of what I had achieved, and also as something that I could show to each of the children, as a sign of where I had been, and what I had been able to accomplish.

It seemed that the crowds in the market place were just beginning to wind down. But nearly all of the stalls seemed to be open, and it didn’t take me too long to find a jeweler who was interested in having a look at my pendant.

I had been a little worried about how I would handle the sale, and how I would make sure that I didn’t end up selling the thing for far less than it was worth. But as I pulled out the pendant, a few separate merchants came over to examine it, and it was clear from their mutual eagerness to buy it that this must be a pretty valuable object, and that at least one of them was going to give me a pretty good offer. Eventually, I managed to sell the thing for 10 small, golden coins. I didn’t know this at the time, but a single small golden coin was worth about ten silver coins, and a silver coin was about enough for a day’s worth of food. That meant that the pendant alone would be able to cover all of my food expenses for quite a long period of time, and that it would also make a pretty good start towards getting me a room to stay in, too, if I ended up needing to find a place to stay.

However, it ended up turning out that the small, gem-studded dagger was the real find. Even though the gem in the pendant had been a fair amount larger than any of the gems in the hilt of the knife, that gem had actually been relatively common in this world, and it had been the gold of the pendant that had been the more valuable part. But some of the gems in the dagger proved to be much more rare, and at least one of them hadn’t even been seen before by any of the merchants who examined it. And so, after a bit of bargaining, I managed to sell the thing for about 30 golden coins, which was quite a considerable sum of money for a novice adventurer.

The sight of all of that gold coming in to me all at once actually made me pretty excited, and a part of me wanted to go out and to start spending it, buying all sorts of nice goods and equipment for later on down the road. But still, that was just a fleeting impulse, and not really anything all that serious. Honestly, my previous experiences with money had made me pretty frugal by this point in my life, so I was in no rush to hurry off and to waste my earnings in a single splurge – especially since I’d made that gold in a pretty fortuitous circumstance, that wasn’t likely to repeat itself anytime too soon. Instead, I simply placed the change back into the pockets of my leather leggings, and began to move back out towards the exit of the town.

I did decide that I would buy one thing, however, in order to celebrate a bit. The little toy store that I had seen before was apparently having a bit of a sale, and an especially beautiful set of carved wooden figurines was available for about two golden coins. It came with a small little castle, a few treasures to place inside, and a band of monsters, along with two knights – one male, and one female – and a number of different weapons that you could place into their hands.

It was oddly delightful for me to look at, and I suspected that the children would enjoy it as well. So, I went over and purchased the set, and placed it into a small bag that I could carry with me as I headed out of town. Then, I made my way back out through the large wooden gate, and towards the small home where Lily and Aaron had been awaiting me.

As I opened up the door of the house and stepped inside, the two children excitedly ran up to greet me, and asked me a thousand questions about the places that I had seen, and the enemies that I had encountered. I told them about the whole trip in as much detail as I was able, and I showed them the small platinum coin that I had found, along with the magical ring of strength.

They seemed to be quite excited by my story, but they were especially pleased by the sight of the 38 golden coins that I laid out on the table in front of them. Apparently, even the three or four silver coins that they had found before had seemed like a small fortune to them, so the sight of all of this gold must have seemed a little bit like something out of a myth, or a legend. They were really very enthusiastic about it all, is what I’m trying to say, and each of them seemed to almost feel as if the sum of money in front of them would be enough to cover all of their expenses for the rest of their lives.

That was quite a bit further from the truth than I would have liked to admit. But, it really was enough that we wouldn’t have to worry about our food for a very long time, so I saw no need to correct them, or to inform them of the limits of the pile of golden treasures that were stretched out before them.

Once we had talked a bit more, and cooked up another meal together, I gave them the set of toys as a final present, so that they would have something else to play with while I was gone. It was just as much of a hit as I was hoping, and the two of them set out at once to play with the figurines, Lily taking the role of the female, bow-wielding knight, and Aaron – bless his heart – taking a male knight with a truly enormous long sword gripped between both of his hands.

While they played, I went over to the bookshelf once again, and browsed through a few of the tomes that I hadn’t taken a look at before. I read through a small book on dungeons, which gave me quite a few useful tips, and also a little book about some of the local flora and fauna, which ended up being pretty interesting, and had a lot of well-drawn images that were really a delight to look at.

Then, I found a large tome of history, and I read the whole, long chapter that covered the last one hundred years of the world that I was now inhabiting, which taught me quite a bit that would be of some use later on.

From what I could glean from the tome, it seemed as if the four main nations had been more or less stable during that time, and that none of the large wars that had erupted between them had seriously threatened their control over each of their respective towers. Still, the book – which appeared to have been written about five or ten years ago – did seem to suggest that some of the more recent tensions might eventually be sufficient to force a war of the kind of scale that would bring at least one of the great nations tumbling down. In particular, it seemed as if there had been increasingly contentious fighting over the issue of slavery, and many of the people here expected that, eventually, either the Kingdom of the Green Tower and the City of the Orange Tower would join together to forcibly bring the practice to an end, or the City of the Red Tower would wage an aggressive war in advance, in order to secure the primary foundation of their whole way of life against the threat of foreign invaders. In either case, it was likely to be an almost cataclysmic event, and to spell the end of at least one of the four great nations of the world, if not two or three.

There was, as you would expect, quite a lot more to it than that, as there always are in these things. But it really did seem as if the main motive force really was the contempt and hatred for slavery, on the one hand, and the defense and justification of the practice, on the other. That had made any sort of sustained, peaceful relations more or less impossible, and the increasingly frequent small, violent skirmishes seemed to be paving the road for something greater and more total that was likely to erupt further on ahead down the road.

I was on the anti-slavery side, of course, as you would expect, given my upbringing. But at the same time, I was hardly eager to see the world burst into the kind of chaos that a great war over that issue would almost certainly require. For now, I just wanted to try my best to live a peaceful, quiet life, as I figured out how to look after the children, and how to become better able to survive against each of the different dangers in this world. I hardly felt ready for anything much greater than that, and I certainly didn’t like my chances of surviving in a war that would likely be fought with thousands upon thousands of troops who were each going to be dozens of times my current level.

Still, even though I was glad to have understood the current situation a little better, I also knew that there wasn’t too much use in worrying about it for now. The only real actionable lesson that I took away from any of that was to try to stay out of the path of the warring nations, if at all possible. Fortunately, Westfall wasn’t anywhere near the likely fields of battle, and it had already earned a kind of pseudo-protection from the City of the Blue Tower, which would almost certainly be a neutral force that neither side would want to risk offending. So, all in all, it seemed as if I was about as safe as I could be for now, and that all that would remain is to prepare as best as I could, and to keep my ear to the ground for any new developments or tensions along the way.

So, I placed the book back on the shelf for the time being, then went over to spend a bit more time with the children, and also just to relax and unwind a bit after all of the different excitement from before.

Soon though, I started to notice that it was getting quite late, and that the light from outside seemed to be quickly fading. The children seemed to have noticed it, too, and each of them were curling up in their respective beds, chatting with one another while they prepared to fall asleep. So, eventually, I went on into my own bed as well, talking to each of them about the day to come as we laid together in the ever growing darkness. After a bit, I could tell that Aaron and Lily had drifted off to sleep, and I felt myself fading into unconsciousness as well. Then, the room began to drift away, as my heavy eyes closed down, and the whole world grew dark, and still.

My last thoughts were simply of the day ahead, and of what I had planned to do in the coming morning.

I envisioned heading back out into the dungeons, and I felt a real sense of excitement when I started to think about what might be waiting for me on floors three, and four, and five, and six, and…

… and, at the same time, I found myself thinking about Praxa quite a bit more than I had expected, and really wanting to see her again, and to spend a bit more time with her.

I tried not to let those sorts of images get me too excited, or to attach too much significance to what was likely nothing more than a single, enjoyable conversation on a nice, spring-like morning. But, still… I found the images coming back to me all the same, and it was difficult not to pay them quite a bit of attention. So eventually, I just surrendered to it all, as the pleasant memories of all that had come before bled into the sweet visions of the future, and of all that might be waiting for me along the road ahead.

Then, at last, I felt my mind began to grow hazy, and foggy, and dim, as I fell into a deep, restful slumber, and prepared myself for the day to come.