Once they were in, the entrance closed behind them. The weary and tired duo cautiously took a look around. They were in a small cavern devoid of any sort of light or any other featured except for a small crystal on a pedestal in the center that emmited a very faint glow. Aiden approached the crystal cautiously, once he was less then a meter away the crystal brightened and started to pulse with a green light, he noticed his fatigue was easing slightly. Intrigued, he cast an inspect on the thing.

“Crystal of restoration: Those in its proximity will have their resource pools slowly restored and their bodies cleansed of any negative effects. Found in most Dungeon rest areas.”

Aiden relaxed slightly after he finished reading it and relayed the information back to Victoria. He opened up his menu, and entered the help tab where he checked out ‘dungeon rest areas’. They were what he figured, no monsters could enter a rest area and they were used by adventurers as a safe place inside a dungeon where they could eat or sleep. There was always one at the start of each new level of a dungeon, and he wondered why there wasn’t one in the previous dungeon.

After a bit of further reading he found the answer. There were different types of dungeons, and the one time dungeons were just that, for use one time. The system didn’t waste resources on them, hence no rest area. One time dungeons were more like events then dungeons really.

He read up a bit more about dungeons and was interested to learn that they could evolve over time. They were basically a construct built by the system to channel and use the excess Mana that leaked from a planet in particularly Mana dense areas.

The excess Mana could be dissipated by killing the dungeon monsters and then be claimed by the system. If a dungeon is not explored frequently the monsters inside slowly grow stronger over time, (although it takes a good deal of time for that to happen) Eventually casuing the dungeon itself to grow and expand.

Aiden also learned what the spawn times for dungeon monsters were like. There was basically a set amount of monsters per floor of a dungeon. If a monster in a room of the dungeon was killed it would take another one around an hour to be born from the Mana the dungeon was channeling. Which relaxed Aiden somewhat since he believed they could farm the various rooms for essence until they were strong enough to kill the floor boss.

Another Interesting fact was that strictly speaking dungeon monsters didn't really need to eat. They were intead sustained by the mana produced by the dungeon. If a dungeon contained different type's of monsters however they would often fight for territory and feed off each other.

Done with the bit of interesting reading Aiden shared what he learned with Victoria as they ate. They were both quite hungry as it was already 12:40 pm and they didn’t eat any breakfast due to the unwelcome interruption this morning. They had enough food in their respective inventories to last them over a week, more if they rationed, so Aiden figured he made the right decision coming in here.

If they could farm the monsters here and get stronger, maybe even acquiring their second classes then they would be that much more likely to escape the damn ant tunnel. Victoria agreed and they made plans to stay in here for at least a few days maybe a week. The others would be worried and the trip was basically a wash at this point but they really had no choice.

After a little impromptu making out session, both having the need to reassure themselves that the other was fine after their earlier ordeal, they headed into the dungeon proper. Unfortunately they both forgot about the fact that they would be locked out of the system shop once in a dungeon so they were conserving their 9 remaining night vision potions for any boss fights by using only torches.

They still had about 15 of them left. 6 from the original camping kit Aiden bought before the first dungeon and 9 more from the second one Victoria bought before they set out on this trip. Hopefully they would last them long enough. There was still also Victoria’s Cloak of the Explorer that had the dark vision skill.

Aiden was pissed that he was forced to leave his Mana lamp behind. It would have been useful in here, not to mention it had cost him 10,000 system credits having been a luxury item.

The safe area only had one path forward, a narrow tunnel that after a bit of walking started to widen into a broader passage that could fit four people side by side. Thankfully that glowing moss from the first dungeon was also growing here so their fears of being in complete darkness if they ran out of torches and potions lessened somewhat.

The passage led them at a downward slope along a curved path until finally it exited in to a large open cavern. There were cracks in the ceiling that seemed to lead to the surface as there was enough sunlight shining in to make them both douse their torches. Aiden wondered if they could climb up into the cracks if they could leave the dungeon and the previous train tunnel, although he doubted it.

Looking around the cavern they could see no enemies so they continued forward. When they were about half way towards the other side of the cavern (a distance of around 100 meters) where they could see another opening in the wall they were both startled when an ear piercing screech sounded out and reverberated across the hollow space enhancing the loud noise. The screech was followed by another one then many more.

Aiden was frantically looking around for the source, and not a moment too soon noticed a winged creature diving towards Victoria from the air. He shouted out a warning while already running towards her. He tackled them both to the ground just before the thing would have reached her. Rolling and getting them both up he quickly noticed there were more of them circling around and cast an inspect on one.

Shrieker Bat: Rank (F)

lvl 21

Health 300

Stamina 200

Mana 80

Vitality - 30

Endurance - 20

Strength - 24

Agility - 32

Dexterity - 22

Skill - 19

Intelligence - 6

Wisdom - 7

'An (F) rank Level 21 with decent stats all around except for int and wis with a focus on speed, at least they were unlikely to throw any magic around, best to go ranged and keep them at bay.' The assessment passed through Aiden’s mind in less then a second and he relayed his instructions to Victoria while equipping his bow. “We sprint back towards where we came in, use your bow while we go, keep them in range and away from us,”

They each shot an arrow at the closest bat and started to sprint back, taking shots as the went and occasionally ducking a swipe that came from one of them. They managed to bring two of them down before they were half way back.

Suddenly one of them screeched and they all swooped towards them at once slamming into both of them from multiple directions knocking them both to the ground and started biting and scratching. 'Great, they use pack tactics' Aiden cursed checking their status while punching one of the bats off him and rolling and pinning another one underneath him.

Health: 328/430

Stamina: 308/330

Mana: 220/220

Health: 193/270

Stamina: 200/220

Mana: 270/270

He punched down into the one he was straddling then rolled over again and used frost wave on the three that were attacking Vicky while she batted at them with her bow. They shrieked and tried to fly off but the ice and slow effect from the spell prevented it and they fell to the ground allowing her to get back to her feet and cast a quick heal on herself while stomping on one of the downed one's and resume shooting.

Aiden immediately after activating frost wave rolled once more, backwards this time getting back on his feet into a crouching position, he had discarded his bow and now had his sword out using it to cut into the wing of the next bat that attacked him and preventing it from flying. He stood back up and hacked into the downed enemy doing 60+ damage with each swipe of his sword. The tough bugger finally died with the third consecutive strike.

“Come on! We keep going!” he called out to Victoria and they resumed their retreat to the cavern entrance more cautiously this time, killing another three before they reached the relative safety of the entrance. Aiden now stood in front of Victoria at the mouth of the cave swatting down any bat that came too close while Victoria fired arrows from over his right shoulder. There were still over two dozen of them left but they were slowly bringing them down. It was difficult as they were fast and dodged many of the arrows sent their way.

Another five minutes passed before Victoria ran out of arrows forcing them to swap places. The fight finally ended a few minutes later when Victoria speared the last one that dived towards them just as Aiden shot another one that was about to do the same.

As soon as their battle was over they were both hit with a euphoric rush not comparable to any either of them felt before, the feeling made them see stars and nearly double over. Once they regained their senses they found out what happened when they read over all their messages.

“Congratulations! Your Party has slain Lvl 20 Shrieker Bat: Rank (f) 600 essence gained” x18

“Congratulations! Your Party has slain Lvl 21 Shrieker Bat: Rank (f) 620 essence gained” x32

“Congratulations! Your Party has slain Lvl 22 Shrieker Bat: Rank (f) 640 essence gained” x12

“Congratulations! Your Party has slain Lvl 23 Shrieker Bat: Rank (f) 660 essence gained” x4

“Total essence Gained 40,960/2= 20,480”

“You have leveled up!”

“You have leveled up!”

“Your Party member Victoria Leblanc has leveled up!”

“Your Party member Victoria Leblanc has leveled up!”

“Congratulations! World First bonus! Your party is the first on your world to survive and win a battle with 25 or more enemies with a higher level then your own. +1 permanent bonus to all stats per party member”

“Congratulations! World First bonus! Your party is the first on your world to survive and win a battle with 50 or more enemies with a higher level then your own. +1 permanent bonus to all stats per party member”

“Congratulations! World First bonus! Your party is the first on your world to survive and win a battle with 10 or more enemies double your level. +1 permanent bonus to all stats per party member”

“Congratulations! World First bonus! Your party is the first on your world to survive and win a battle with 25 or more enemies double your level. +1 permanent bonus to all stats per party member”

“Congratulations! World First bonus! Your party is the first on your world to survive and win a battle with 50 or more enemies double your level. +1 permanent bonus to all stats per party member”

“Congratulations! World First bonus! You are the first in your world to kill 25 or more enemies with a higher level then you in a single encounter. +1 permanent bonus to all stats.”

“Congratulations! World First bonus! You are the first in your world to kill 25 or more enemies with a level double your own you in a single encounter. +1 permanent bonus to all stats.”

“God damn,” Aiden said breathing heavily with his hands on his knees and head down. “Those little bastards are annoyingly tough, but it was worth it for these type of rewards. Are you reading this? I just gained 56 stat points all at once just from those world first bonuses. This is insane! ”

It turned out that Victoria had indeed been reading and she recieved the same exact bonuses as Aiden after that fight. Aiden was doing a happy dance inside and was extremely ecstatic that he chose to enter this Dungeon now. This type of Dungeon might have been hard for most people below the recommended level but he forgot that they weren’t most people.

As a newly system integrated world its inhabitants had access to many world first bonuses and the duo of Aiden and Victoria both already had a few before they came in here. Now Aiden had around twice as many base stats as anyone else at his level with 136 extra stats, and Victoria was not far behind with 104.

After they spent their free points they both went to loot the cavern which was by now filled with dozens of glowing lights depicting loot drops. They also made sure to pick up any arrows they found that were still usable which was most of them fortunately. Each bat dropped 5-6 medium grade Mana stones earning them 18,200 system credits each. None of them dropped any equipment however.

They continued exploring this floor of the dungeon after that, running into more bat’s and a room with Giant centipedes which Victoria was freaking out over. Apparently where Aiden hated spiders with a passion, the same was true for Victoria and centipedes.

They never found another cavern the size of that first one however and only had to deal with groups of enemies no larger than 15. They managed to clear out the entire dungeon before they found the door leading to the boss room.

Eventually one of the bats did drop a piece of equipment which Aiden now wore on his right ear. It was rather odd honestly, he was worried he would have to pierce an ear to use it but as soon as he held it up to his ear it just sort of attached itself. Aiden shrugged and figured it was some sort of system magic.

Shrieker Fang Earring - (Uncommon) / Quality (Average) / +3 Agility

They decided to rest for the night back in the safe area so they had to backtrack and kill a few more enemies that had already respawned on the way, although they did sprint through and mostly avoided the fight back in that large cavern. They ended up gaining a further two levels and another 32,690 system credits each. Once they got back to to the safe area they set up their sleeping bags and quickly drifted off, expecting another day full of heavy fighting tomorrow.

Status:

Aiden Winters: Age 22

Race Human: Rank(f)

War Ranger: lvl 14 - Mana essence: 6687/15000

Class 2: None (Unlock at Class 1 lvl 25)

Woodworking: lvl 9

Health: 590/590

Stamina: 460/460

Mana: 310/310

Defense: 46(95)

Mana Defense: 31

Vitality - 54(59)

Endurance - 46

Strength - 53(58)

Agility - 51(59)

Dexterity - 38

Skill - 40(43)

Intelligence - 33(37)

Wisdom - 31

Skills:

Battle Aura Lvl 1 - (75%)

System credits - 67,890

Victoria Leblanc: Age 21

Race Human: Rank(f)

Battle Healer: lvl 13 - Mana essence: 6940/14000

Class 2: None (Unlock at Class 1 lvl 25)

Herbology: lvl 13

Health: 400/400

Stamina: 330/330

Mana: 380/380

Defense: 33(79)

Mana Defense: 38

Vitality - 35(40)

Endurance - 33

Strength - 38

Agility - 40(45)

Dexterity - 30

Skill - 30

Intelligence - 47(52)

Wisdom - 33(38)

Spells:

Healing Wind - lvl 1 (95%)

System credits - 72,305