It took me quite a while to recover from the shock of what I had just seen.

If I’d had a more skeptical mind, I might have still doubted whether what I had seen in the dream was true.

But right then, I really felt absolutely convinced.

The vaults did exist.

Not only that, but one of them was waiting for me right there – right in that canyon that I had seen in my dream.

And if that canyon was the same as the one that lay to the north of the City of the Blue Tower… then I knew exactly how to get there.

Of course, I knew that there must be a lot more to it, or else I imagined that someone else would have found that canyon before I had. But even still, I was more than a little excited right then, and a part of me wanted to go out and to search for that canyon right away.

But, there were a few different considerations that made me decide to stay in Westfall for the time being.

As I mentioned before, that canyon to the north of the Blue Tower was right on the border of the “wild lands” - the part of this world that was uninhabited by the sentient races. I would almost certainly encounter quite a few different monsters out that way, which meant that I would need to improve my level by quite a large amount if I really wanted to survive.

Of course, I might be able to go out there a little more quickly if I hired some sort of mercenary group to go with me, or if I rounded up a couple of high-level friends to come with me along the way. But I had a pretty vivid memory of a movie that I had seen about treasure hunters in the Sierra Madre, and my recollection of that movie made me pretty worried about telling anyone else what I had found. I didn’t exactly want to be alone in a huge canyon with a pile of treasure in front of me, surrounded by 3 or 4 armed escorts who were dozens of levels ahead of me, if you know what I mean.

So for the moment, there was nothing to do but to train, and to get stronger, and then to head out towards the vault on my own as soon as I was able.

Of course, after the great fortune that I’d had in the dungeons the day before, I was kind of tempted to take the day off, and to relax back at home. But now that I knew that there was nothing standing between me and the vaults apart from my own lack of power, I decided that I would get stronger as quickly as I could, and head to the dungeons every single day, until I had made it to level one hundred. So after talking with each of the two kids for just a moment longer, I grabbed my stuff up off of the ground, then started to make my way out towards the entrance to the dungeons.

Along the way, I found myself thinking about the dream over and over again, as I really soaked in what had happened, and prepared myself for all of the extraordinary treasures and secrets that might be waiting for me just a little ways inside of that great, and ancient canyon.

Eventually though, that memory of the dream started to fade out a bit, as I made my way through the forest, and directly in front of the town of Westfall.

As I began to make my way towards the path that led out towards the dungeons, I noticed that there was quite a bit more traffic along the roads today than usual. I was curious about that at first, and was trying to figure out why that was… but then, I overheard a few of the people along the way talking about how there would be a big debate later on in the evening today, and I imagined that must be why so many people seemed to be heading into town.

It was hard to focus on anything other than the vaults right then. But it also seemed like it might be fun to go to a debate a little later, and to see what an education in this world was like. So I decided that once I had made it back from my training, then I would head into town for a bit, and go to check out the event.

I imagined that it would be an interesting experience.

Anyway, after walking along the path for some time, and passing by a number of different people, I eventually made my way towards the entrance to the dungeons.

There were a few other people there right then, but no one that I recognized. So after saying a few words of polite greeting to the folks who were gathered outside, I made my way in through the entrance, and headed up towards the first floor of the dungeon.

I won’t go through all of the details of what happened next, since I’m sure that you’ve already realized that this story would become much, much too long if I described every single one of the 350+ floors of the dungeons in as much detail as I had done before. But, I will try to keep hitting on some of the most important points, so that I can give you a sense of what my journey was like back then, and of how I ended up making my way through the world.

After I had arrived back inside, I started to make my way through the jungle that I had explored the day before, as I tested out my new abilities against the lizard-creatures who called that floor their home.

I had of course expected that the fights would be a lot easier now than they had been before. But even so, I was quite surprised by just how much easier they had ended up becoming. Because my Agility was all the way up to 19 now, I found that it was nearly effortless for me to dodge the lizard-creature’s blows, and that my leaping was so improved that I could jump over the tops of their heads when they lowered down to charge, and get into flanking position in an instant. Not only that, but my much, much higher degree of Strength made it so that there was a lot more force behind each of my blows, and that battles that would have lasted for a minute or so before were now often over in a mere matter of seconds, with a single decisive strike.

It was really nice to feel that difference in power, and to have such a tangible example of the improvements that I had made just yesterday.

Of course, I knew that my progression wouldn’t be so easy for the rest of my journey. Because of the way that my stats increased, I was going to be doubling my power quite a bit early on – but after a while, increases in levels were only going to provide marginal improvement to my overall abilities, and it was going to become harder and harder to scale up higher into the upper floors of the dungeons, and especially into the Intermediate and Expert dungeons, if I ever reached there.

But even so, it was still a lot of fun to feel myself becoming so much stronger, and so much more agile, as I darted around the fields, and took down each of my foes.

After a little while though, I felt like I had learned what I wanted to about each of my new abilities. And so, after I had tested out my improved powers on the lizard-folk, I then started to make my way up to the second floor – where I had a bit more fun running and chasing after the mole creatures – before I eventually made my way up to the floor above (a ruined, ancient castle, in the middle of an enormous forest)… and then, to the floor after that (a huge, snow-covered field, with beautiful slopes and mountains all around)… and then, to the floor after that, and to the floor after that, as I continued to climb up higher towards the peaks of the Beginner’s Dungeon.

A few hours later, after I had managed to make my way up to about the mid-way point of the seventh floor, I was starting to feel like I had probably done just about enough for the day. So, I let the system know that I was ready to head back outside, as a warm, beautiful column of light began to envelop me, and to slowly transport me back to the place that I had been before.

Then, I was back outside, as a cascading series of messages let me know about all of the progress that I had made, and the three additional levels that I had gained in the dungeons.

Afterwards, I placed five more points into Agility, three more points into Strength, and one more point into Vitality. Then, I took a moment to appreciate all of the gains that I had made, as I began make my way back towards the town of Westfall.

I had been pretty excited ever since I had woken up that day. But now that my training was over, and there was nothing more that I could do to speed up my progress towards the vaults, I let myself enjoy the present moment as fully as I could, as I soaked up the beauty of the surrounding farmlands. There was a real sense of peace in the fields right then, as the farmers rested beneath the shade of the trees, or sat beneath the porches of their homes, gently laughing and chatting with one another, and unwinding from the labors of their day. There was something quite idyllic about the whole scene, and I could have stayed out in that place for quite a while, just enjoying the whole spectacle of it. But eventually, I made my way back to the large, wooden gate, that stood as the half-way mark along the road back towards home.

As I was making my way up towards the town of Westfall, I happened to notice a man in bright, red armor, who was walking up towards the gate of the town. He was walking alongside an older scholar, and the two of them were clearly friends, though they didn’t happen to be speaking together at the moment.

There was something very regal about the man in the red armor’s bearing, and so the instant that our eyes happened to meet, I nodded my head slightly, as a sign of respect to his person. He seemed to be a little surprised by my gesture, but he gave me a dignified nod in return, and a warm – but firm, and reserved – smile. Afterwards, he made his way in towards the barracks of the town, as I headed further on into the marketplace, in order to pick up a bit of food for myself and each of the kids.

There were quite a few notices about the coming debate posted all throughout the town, and it looked like the debate was scheduled to take place in about three hours (so that it would conclude just before the sun went down). That gave me plenty of time, but, I still wanted to make sure that I wasn’t late. So, I hurried into the market square, bought about a weeks’ worth of food, then began to head back out towards the little house in the woods.

When I at last stepped in through the door of our home, the two children ran over to greet me, and each seemed quite glad that I was home. The three of us then took a little while to talk about what I had seen, as I gave each of them a little trinket from my time in the dungeons, and told them about my adventures. After we had talked for a little while though, and played a game together, I let the two of them know where I was headed, and that I would be back with plenty of time to spare for dinner. Then, I grabbed up a few coins off of the shelf – in case I needed them for anything – and made my way back out towards the town of Westfall.

Along the way, I heard quite a bit of commotion coming from up ahead… and for reasons that weren’t exactly clear to me, I felt a little bit afraid, and on edge.

Still, I couldn’t really think of any good reason to be nervous right then. So, I merely made my way through the quiet woods, and up towards the large, wooden gate, as I stepped inside, and tried to place my mind into the right state for the events ahead.