When the pair of adventurers reached the front of the line, an attendant greeted them. She was medium height, buxom, red haired, and bronze-skinned with brown eyes. “Hey Jode, I see you finally took my advice about going in alone.”

Jode grunted. “Hey Mal. The kid is paying me to teach him the ropes. Can’t say no to free money.”

“I hear you on that. I wouldn’t say no to a raise myself.” She replied cheerfully. “By the way, the offer still stands. Feel free to come by my place sometime, we’ll have a little party.” Mal winked at Jode, who grunted noncommittally.

“Oh, looks like the dungeon’s ready for you, so head in.”

Jode nodded, and put his palm on the door. It creaked open ominously, seemingly of its own volition. Erin could only see a black void when he tried to look through the doorway. Once the door was fully open, Jode strode through, and Erin followed. He felt a tingling sensation as he entered the wall of visually impenetrable blackness, but after a second the sensation faded. Erin found himself in a dimly lit cave. Strangely, there was no light source, but the very air seemed to give off enough light to see by.

“Right here’s the plan.” Jode spoke up, interrupting Erin’s observations. “You stay behind me, and cast spells. If any monsters get close, yell for me, and I’ll rescue you. Other than that, I’ll fight in melee, and try to keep them focused on me.” Jode reached a hand into, and through the open air in a way that Erin’s eyes couldn’t quite track. When Jode withdrew his hand, he was clutching a sword the length of Erin’s arm.

Erin immediately activated the skill himself experimentally. He could feel the exact space he targeted become distorted by his magic, and there was an accompanying visual shimmering effect in that location. Erin shoved his hand in, and found that he could barely fit his fist into it. After a second of experimentation, he determined that was as large as a level one storage space would allow. Erin also noted that keeping the storage open was slowly draining his MP. After a second of thought on what he could do with the small space, Erin poured water from the jug into it so that he wouldn’t have to tip his hand on creation magic if the jug broke.

Jode nodded approvingly. “Glad to know you’ve got some brains in there after all.” He commented.

Erin sighed. “I’d really appreciate if you stopped putting me down. It’s unnecessary.”

Jode snorted. “Well, I don’t appreciate you guilt-tripping me into being your babysitter, but I’m still taking your money in the end. You want my respect, earn it.” Erin nodded in resignation, and Jode continued. “Now let’s get a move on, the cactus is burning.”

“The cactus? What?” Erin asked in confusion as they began walking toward the entrance to the next room.

“You’ve never heard that expression?” Jode asked, equally confused.

“Well, uh, no not really.” Erin replied after failing to find an excuse.

Jode began muttering about “sheltered mage order brats” and Erin did his best to ignore him. After a few seconds, they entered a long tunnel, and Jode stopped talking, body language on high alert as they moved through the passage at a slow walk.

“This dungeon is primarily earth themed, so you need to be careful of tunneling monsters. If you hear suspicious sounds coming from the walls, jump out of the way.” Jode informed him quietly

“Man, how do you solo this dungeon every day?” Erin muttered.

“Experience, and a lot of points in toughness. If you plan to go solo after we’re done here, I recommend investing what you earn from this run into toughness, and HP. You’ll need to be able to take a hit.” Jode muttered back.

Erin nodded thoughtfully, but his response was cut off by a scratching sound from beneath his own feet. Taking Jode’s advice to heart, Erin jumped backwards. He reacted just a fraction of a second too slow, as a terrifying mole-like creature with bladed fingers, and a perfectly circular mouth that housed needle-like fangs rocketed up out of the ground. One blade-like claw left a shallow gash on his arm before Jode’s hand snapped out; plucking the creature from mid-air. With a single squeeze, he snapped the creature's neck, and then dropped the corpse into his dimensional storage.

“Blood shrews. Not that dangerous in a straight fight, but good at ambushes. If you survive the ambush, they’ll disappear back into the wall, and try again.” Jode commented dispassionately.

Erin nodded numbly, and realized after a moment that he was hyperventilating. With an effort of will, he forced his breathing back to a more even cadence.

Jode nodded approvingly. “Good, you did better than some. A healthy fear response might keep you alive as long as you don’t get overwhelmed by it. If you ever do join a party, avoid the people who aren’t afraid. They’ll get you killed.”

Erin just nodded, still focused on regulating his breathing as the spike of panic slowly subsided. When he finally felt like he was back in control, they resumed walking.

“What about you? You don’t seem afraid.” Erin commented after a moment.

Jode snorted in amusement. “I’ve run this dungeon enough times that I know which parts to be afraid of, and this isn’t one of them. Now check your skill points. You need every advantage you can get down here. I’d say either boost toughness, or keep increasing mana. It’s up to you though.”

Erin opened his stat page, and found that he did in fact have twenty-five new stat points. After a moment’s thought, he increased his toughness stat by two points. He doubted the difference between five and seven would be significant, but you never knew what might save your life. Erin glanced down at the gash on his arm; watching as it slowly knit itself back together.

“By the way, are skill points from kills split between everyone, or does everyone just get the monster’s value?” Erin asked.

“They’re split between everyone who participates in the kill. If you hadn’t gotten hit, there’s a decent chance you wouldn’t have gotten anything from it.”

“Wait, does that mean you’re giving up hundreds of skill points this run?” Erin exclaimed, feeling guilty at the sudden realization.

Jode stared at him flatly. “What I’m doing is earning a few extra Quinn. Now be quiet, if you make that much noise, you’re going to draw in more blood shrews. You couldn’t even dodge one properly, imagine two or three at once.”

Erin closed his mouth instantly, and trudged along behind Jode silently. They encountered two more blood shrews in the long tunnel before they reached a room. Though he didn’t receive another wound, Jode made sure that Erin got a hit on each of them before snapping their necks. Erin understood why Jode no longer feared the blood shrews when he saw that their claws were unable to penetrate his skin, as he held them for Erin’s attacks. For his part, Erin maintained a safe distance, and attacked with water magic. Erin quickly slotted the fifty skill points into another three points of toughness. It went against his instincts from time spent crafting builds in games, but it was more important that he work on surviving for the moment.

“By the way, how much toughness do you need to completely negate the blood shrews attacks like that?” Erin asked after the third shrew.

“I’d say around a hundred to meaningfully lower their damage. A hundred-fifty to negate it entirely.” Jode answered.

“And how much do you have?” Erin inquired, lost in performing calculations.

“Never ask someone for their exact stat or skill numbers, it’s a good way to start a fight.” Jode commented dryly.

“Fair enough. I guess I wouldn’t want to tell people either.”

Jode nodded, and they resumed walking. Two minutes later, they emerged into a cavern filled with shining crystals. Erin was so caught up in the wonder of his surroundings that Jode had to shove him out of the way when a brown spider the size of a large dog fell from the ceiling; directly on top of where Erin had been standing a second earlier. Erin screamed and scuttled backward; drawing water out of his jug with magic, and forming it into a foot-long pointed needle that pierced one of the spider’s eyes.

Though he had clearly hit a weak point, the spider was undeterred as it scuttled towards him much faster than he could crawl. Jode cursed, chasing after the spider as Erin panicked; launching himself to his feet, and sprinting back towards the tunnel they had emerged from. He could hear the spider closing on him when he heard the telltale scratching sound beneath him. Screaming, he threw himself forward. Behind him, the blood shrew launched into the air like a bullet; penetrating through the spider’s midsection. The wound finally caused it to slow down, and despite his panic, Erin began peppering it with darts of water.

In the chaos, Erin had lost track of the blood shrew, so when he heard the scratching sound again, Erin instinctively recoiled. This proved to be both a blessing and a curse, as it caused one of his water needles to be poorly targeted. Instead of hitting the spider, the needle tore into Erin’s own shoulder. Though it did significant damage to him, it also saved his life as the impact shoved him forward at high speed; launching him over the spider to smack unceremoniously into Jode. For his part, Jode didn’t even flinch; not injured in the slightest by Erin’s impromptu escape.

Sighing, Jode grabbed Erin, and tossed him back into the small cavern. Before Erin could gather his wits, Jode had dispatched both monsters with contemptuous ease. The needle of water had dissipated the moment he wasn’t paying attention to it, leaving him with a gaping hole in his shoulder that revealed his bones. Erin cried at the pain, only partially conscious of his surroundings. While Erin lay on the ground, pain wrapped around his mind like a cloak, Jode moved to stand over him. Jode’s face was furious. He knelt down, and grabbed Erin’s face; turning it so they were looking each other in the eye.

“Put the points you just got into HP right now.” Jode told him, voice wrapped in anger.

Erin tried to respond, tried to tell him that he couldn’t think, or move through the pain, but all that came out was a pitiful squeak.

“I don’t want to hear it. You chose to pursue this life, so you get to deal with the consequences. Now do what I say, or I’m leaving you here to die.” Jode told him with the ring of finality in his voice.

Erin pushed at the pain, barely managing to focus enough to open his stat page. It was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life, but he forced his will into the pain until suddenly there was relief. The change was mild, gradual, but each increase to his HP lessened the pain in his shoulder; freeing up more room for conscious thought. In the end, he distributed fifty-four stat points into HP, increasing his max HP by forty, and leaving him with twelve skill points.

Jode nodded approvingly. “If you’re badly wounded after a fight, and you have the points, you should increase your max HP. It might save you from bleeding out, especially this early on.”

Erin coughed, his throat sore from screaming. He reached for his jug to drink water, only to find that it was smashed next to him; the liquid already seeping into the ground.

Jode shook his head. “This is why water mages should stay out of dungeons. That was enough water to keep a man alive for several days, and now it’s gone because you had to play adventurer. If you really want to do this, learn a different kind of magic. Otherwise you’re just condemning others to die of dehydration.”

Even though Erin logically knew that he could magically create as much water as he needed, Jode’s words still stabbed his heart with guilt. All Erin could do was nod numbly.

“Now, what did you learn from this?” Jode asked, his voice softening somewhat.

“That I’m a coward.” Erin replied sulkily. That knowledge stung his soul in a way he wasn’t sure how to process.

“Good. What else?”

“I need to learn more magic because water magic isn’t great for dungeons. Most likely I should practice earth magic since there’s so much dirt and stone here.”

“There’s one more thing to learn from this. Do you know what it is?”

Erin thought about that for a moment. “I need to be more aware of my surroundings because the blood shrew could have killed me as easily as the spider.”

Jode nodded. “Yes, that’s it. Because you ran around screaming, you attracted the blood shrew. You got lucky since it hit the spider, but most of the time, attracting more monsters when you can’t even deal with the one you’re already fighting is a good way to end up dead. Next time it might not get just you dead. It might get someone else dead too.”

Erin nodded sullenly. The knowledge that his cowardice might get others killed was somehow worse than knowing he was a coward.

Jode sighed. “Alright, get up. From now on that bit of water you have in storage is only for emergencies. If you need to fight then use earth magic. Also, try not to move that shoulder too much until it’s fully healed. You don’t want it to heal wrong.”

Erin glanced down, and noticed that his shoulder had already regrown some of the muscle that had been lost; though it hadn’t regrown the skin yet so he could see the muscle flexing as he moved. He was also gushing blood.

“Should I be worried about bleeding out?” Erin asked, concerned.

Jode examined his wound critically for a moment. “No, you should be fine. Your HP will keep you going until your body is done healing.”

As Erin watched the wound slowly close, he received a notification.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, but how does HP work anyway? I mean how is losing HP different from being wounded?” Erin asked as he pushed himself to his feet one-handed.

“HP is your life-force. If you take a hit, the HP will be spent on healing the wound. The more you have, the faster you heal. On the other hand, the less HP you have, the slower that healing will happen. There are also certain kinds of wounds that kill you no matter how much HP you have. Not much point in high HP if you lose your head. That’s where the toughness stat comes in.”

Erin nodded. “Alright then, I’m ready.”

Jode chuckled. “You keep telling yourself that.”