It took me several minutes to calm myself enough for rational thought. That man, the same one who was now with my friend and the goddess, had been the one to cause our accident. He had betrayed me, betrayed everyone.

This always happens. People always watch out for themselves. When he comes here, I’m going to rip him apart!

Again, I calmed myself. There was no need to get myself so worked up. That man would train himself, the same as the rest of my friends. He had killed me and forced the rest of my friends into a dead end, and none of them remembered at all. Maybe they would be able to pull out the memories like I had, but there was a possibility they would never know.

The most annoying thing of all was that I didn’t remember why he had done it. All I could recall was his hand as he pushed me off the roof. As I fell towards the floor, the world blurred and we all appeared in front of the goddess with the memory of agreeing to her little deal. It was impossible he had planned for that, so there was no reason to overthink it.

All I could do was match them, step for step. For now, I couldn’t remember why he had done it, but that would come with time. Either way, there were more pressing matters.

And the first would be to understand the use of my abilities.

“Strengthen!”

The word came out louder than I had expected. Despite the fact I was alone, it still embarrassed me to shout out the name of my ability. Maybe there would be a way to silently use it in the future, but for now I would have to follow the rules of the world before I could break past them.

My muscles clenched up a little, but not much else happened. I tested my grip on the metal sphere. Unfortunately, the scene of it being crushed in my enhanced grip didn’t appear. The chunk of metal thunked onto my desk as my thoughts turned to the next ability.

“Accelerate.”

The second time was easier than the first as the word echoed out. A slight vibration passed through my legs, as though an engine had turned on beneath my feet. A few quick side-steps confirmed there was a noticeable increase in speed, but not so much that it would make me accidentally face-plant a wall or something.

After I had tested both of the buffs, it was as though a black hole had appeared and absorbed all the energy in my body. My guild card confirmed my mana, which had a maximum amount of one hundred points, sat close to zero. The two buffs each cost a large amount for their duration, but the rest had been dried out by my little experiment with Transmutation.

I flicked through the tabs on the guild card. Most of them were empty, but there were several categories that caught my eye. Passive effects would be permanently active, toggle effects would give me the choice of when to turn them on and off. There was an entire section for debuffs, but it was unlikely I would want to check the card if one of those effects did land on me.

Now the buffs at least showed their total costs and durations, and what I saw did not impress me.

The main issue I had was a limited mana pool along with its pitiful recovery speed. My recovery was set at 1% of my total pool per minute. To regain it to full would take one hundred minutes. Compared to the cost of fifteen mana per buff for a duration of five minutes, it was an absurdly low rate of regeneration. I would have to predict the best times to use my buffs, or their effects would be wasted.

I need more buffs, I need them to last longer and they need to cost less. If I can’t get all three, I need at least two of those at once... But how?

I laid down on the bed. The best option would be to speak to my new friends when we met up again. that would help me avoid any obvious pitfalls if they gave me a few hints. Now that I had hit level five, my options had opened up. I dropped down into my bed and closed my eyes.

I’ll check out these dungeons tomorrow. If they aren’t fast enough, I can always look for another option after.

Bryan woke me again in the morning, though at least this time I was asleep on the bed rather than the floor. I had decided to go along with their dungeon plan as I had a good idea of what it would entail. 

“Can we see Karen first?” I asked as we left the guild. All of the materials she had given me had been processed, minus around ten percent that had failed. Bryan had assured me failures were expected and accounted for, so I shouldn’t worry too much.

“Sure, John will be getting us signed up anyway.” Bryan lead the way towards the town exit. “You picked a good trader to link with, Rook. Karen’s as true as they come.”

We arrived at the exit in good time. A small queue had formed around Karen’s wagon, so we joined in at the end and waited for her to be free. Bryan explained the process she would follow to assess the processed goods. Most traders had acquired a specific skill to scan materials and confirm their exact rank and quality, so it wouldn’t take too long to go through the haul. Even the lowest rank would be high for my goods.

Karen worked through her customers in a speedy manner. Most of them bought similar goods to the ones she had provided me when we had first met. At the most basic level, they wanted rations, emergency first aid treatments. They rarely wanted single-use items, such as potions or scrolls. Only the better-dressed adventurers bought the latter, and their prices varied wildly based on the effects.

“Hey, Rook. How’s the processing?” Karen turned to us after she had waved away her last customer. I smiled and hefted the sack onto the cart. It was lighter now than when she had first given it to me, but it was still tricky to lift up to the cart.

“It’s done, sorry if I didn’t get the quality you needed.” I picked out an example of each material. I had packed them at the top of the sack and had picked out samples that were about average from those I had created. Karen picked up the finished products and gave me a stern look.

“You didn’t spend all your time working on these, did you?” She turned to Bryan and fixed him with a stare. “I thought you lot were watching out for him?”

“It’s fine, he had some spare time.” Bryan tapped the sack. “So, want to tell us how he did? I’m very interested in the results.”

Karen raised her eyebrows at Bryan and turned back to the products. She held each one in her hand for a second or so before she placed them into several piles on her worktop. As she went through each pile increased in size, though I noticed the lower quality products were larger in scale than the perfect results.

“I guess you bet on him doing well, and John bet on the opposite?” Karen grinned across at me. “Ignore them, they always make stupid bets. You did good, Rook.”

They bet on how well I did, and John bet on me failing... I'll remember that.

When she had sorted the piles, it had seemed obvious my workmanship was poor, but her smile proved otherwise. It wasn’t like she would lie to boost my confidence, she was a trader after all.

She passed me a purse and told me how much I had made. It was lower than the batch I had sold her previously, but this money had been earned by my own hard graft. She even gave me a bonus for the speedy delivery and tried to give me another haul to process.

“You can have him later, we’re going to the dungeon.” Bryan shouted back at Karen as he lead me down the street. The book had said dungeons were areas that actively created monsters. They were either naturally formed, or man-made. The manually created versions had a smaller scope but could be adjusted to match the requirements of those who entered.

We moved to the centre of the town and met up with John. He waited outside of a peculiarly shaped building. It was quite short, but the roof sloped down rapidly to the ground behind it. A set of stairs peaked out through the open doorway, which hinted that the name ‘dungeon’ wasn’t just for show.

“You took your time. How did you do?” John patted my shoulder. His smile faded as he noticed the grin on Bryans' face.

“Oh, he did great.” Bryan patted my other shoulder. “Our Rook is a processing prodigy, apparently.”

John sighed as he passed a small pouch to Bryan. He turned back to me with a wan smile.

“I’m happy for you, Rook. Next time, I’ll bet on you.”

"You'd better. I want to be in on the pool next time. Easy money." I grinned at his reaction as a small portion of my anger faded away. It was difficult to take offence after I saw his dejected look. Karma had already smacked him in the face, so there was no need to add insult to injury. John turned back to the stone-fronted structure and walked in through the doorway. A small corridor greeted us, flanked on one side by a desk manned by an armoured guard. He wasn’t one of the pair I had met at the entrance, though a slight glimmer of recognition shone in his eyes as he glanced at my face.

“Three man, basic.” John placed three silver coins down on the desk. My share of the forest haul had sold for less than John had just thrown out. Even if I used all of the money I had just earned, it would be difficult to raise the required number for just this one jaunt into the dungeon.

The guard gathered the coins and passed us three carved slips. Each piece of wood had a small number one etched on its surface and all three of them had a slight blue hue along the edges. Another group passed by and gave their markers back to the guard.

“Enough sightseeing, let's go.” Bryan pushed me along the corridor. The whole thing was bizarre, as though we had walked into a theme park and had bought tickets for the haunted house ride. The thick-slabbed walls stretched up to meet the ceiling high above, which was partially hidden past the reach of the flickering torches.

I clasped my wooden slip as Bryan pointed out a raised podium before he and John took the others beside it. I stepped up onto the platform and glanced at the others.

“See you on the other side.” John waved at me before a flash of light blinked him from existence. Before I could say anything, a flash of white blinded me momentarily. I blinked several times to clear my eyes before I finally saw where I had arrived.

It was a sealed room, not unlike the one I had just left The walls dripped with water and the floor was moist underfoot. I looked around for the others, but they were nowhere to be found-

“Focused Blow.”

I heard the voice an instant before a huge force crashed into my back. My body rolled along the mucky floor and crashed into the wall at the far side of the room. I spat out the horrible water and pushed myself up against the wall. Despite my armoured outfit, the damage I had taken was difficult to ignore.

My breath came in short spurts as I searched for my attacker. It didn’t take long to spot the only other person, who had appeared beside the platform in the centre of the room.

It was the masked man. Again.

“You failed the test, marked one.” The man shook his head. “You have one more chance.”

“Why are you doing this!?” I yelled, though an intense pain racked my chest a moment later. Nothing felt broken, but my muscles still burned from impact against the wall.

“This is a test for you, and you alone. If you speak to the others, we will take them down before you can leave this place.” The masked man turned on his heel and walked towards the far wall. “We know their skills. Even if they were uninjured, it would be easy to take them down. Think about your next move carefully, marked one...”

He walked up to the wall and pushed against a random brick. A section of brickwork shuddered aside, which let him stomp out of the room without another word. For a few moments, I remained stock still before the pain overwhelmed me once more. My hand shook as I opened my bag and scrabbled around inside. After a minute or so, I pulled out one of the vials that had dropped to the bottom.

From what I could tell, the red liquid was a health potion. There was no time to worry about that as it burned its way down my throat. A second later my pain subsided slightly, though it was still difficult to hold myself off the floor. It took around a minute for the potion to take full effect, after which I could once again stand upright.

It was still painful, but at least I could move.

“Hey, Rook! Where are you?” A shout echoed out from the exit. John and Bryan walked in through the same doorway my attacker had used. My hands clenched tight as various ideas formed in my mind.

“Where were you guys, I couldn't find you.” I spoke finally with an awkward, forced smile. “Come on, let's get going.”

I can't fight that guy alone. If I say something and get the others killed, then I'll have no chance of reaching level ten. At least when we're together, Bryan and John will be able to protect the others.

I grit my teeth as I joined the others. I hated liars most of all, and now this masked attacked had forced the role upon me. Though that was a small crime compared to his ambush, it just added to the fury rising in my chest. 

When the dungeon was completed, I'd find out who he was. And after that...