For a second, they both watched the fire. Then Rowan sighed again. “We don’t have anything to eat?”

What little food he’d brought, the bread, fruit snacks, and bananas, had already vanished during the day. Watering Can provided them with plenty of water whenever his MP replenished, but his food stocks were depleted.

Silently, Kaidu offered him a piece of jerky.

Rowan took it. “Damn. We’re gonna die.”

“There’s plenty to eat, if you can hunt it,” Kaidu replied.

“We almost died to bugs today. What’s the chance we could hunt something?”

Silence. The fire winked out. Kaidu fed it a few dried leaves, but only a thread of white smoke emerged, no flame. He sighed and sat back. “There’s always… one last option.”

“Forage for nuts and berries? I mean, I'm pretty good at that,” Rowan said. Idly, he opened up his menu and gave Plant Identification a look. What level of identification do I have to hit before I can recognize edible plants?

He glanced at a nearby dandelion. Those are edible, technically. Let's see if it works. "Identification."

Dandelion. Found on Earth and Megafauna Forest. Common Weed.

Details.

Eradicate by digging out the roots or using pesticide. Seeds disperse via wind dispersal. Entire plant is edible cooked or raw.

The text continued, but Rowan ignored it. He grinned and reached for the dandelion. Alright. Maybe these skills aren't useless after all. "How do you feel about dandelions for dinner?"

Kaidu shook his head. "That's a waste of time. We should steal from other climbers.”

Mid-reach, Rowan froze. “Are you insane?”

Kaidu sat back. For the thousandth time, he wiped off the front of his white jacket and failed to remove the dirt stains. “Combat classes aren’t unbeatable. You saw that yourself, in the square.”

“Right, but these combat classes are going to be on guard, ready for an attack.”

“Not necessarily. Low-level combat classes are cocky. They’ve just gained a surge in strength and think they’re invincible. Like fools, they rely on skills and the System, and neglect technique and the fundamentals. I can take them on in a fight, no question. Especially…”

Kaidu looked up at the sky. Rowan followed his gaze. A darkening sky revealed a golden moon, cresting slowly over the trees. In the distance, a pillar of white smoke curled to the heavens.

“…especially if they’re asleep, and they never see me coming.”

“The plan is, we murder them in their sleep? Murder’s still illegal on floor one,” Rowan argued.

“Murder’s illegal if the Enforcers catch you,” Kaidu returned. He shrugged. “I can knock them out.”

The smoke billowed in the distance, streaming away on a high crosswind. Rowan shook his head. “No, no, I take it back, this is insane from the get-go. We don’t want to go anywhere near combat classes. Especially if we don’t murder them afterwards. It’ll be the fire ants all over again, but a whole pack of bloodthirsty, superpowered people instead. I don’t like the sound of that.”

“Then you’d rather kill them?” Kaidu asked.

Putting his hands up, Rowan backed away. “Whoa, whoa, I never said that. I’d rather we just… don’t. I’ll learn the next level of Plant Identification, we’ll eat some nuts and berries, and we’ll carry on like this, fight a few bugs, sneak our way to the exit, and leave. Exit Floor One, on to Floor Two.”

“No.”

“No?” Rowan asked, exasperated.

Kaidu stood. “How are we going to climb the Tower if we run away from every encounter? We need EXP. We have the power to kill mobs, in the right situation, if we’re careful. Even you took on that millipede. With the fire ants, we had no option, but we can’t keep running away."

"'Even you,'" Rowan muttered to himself.

"If we eat nuts and berries and sneak out the exit, what did we enter the Tower for? Conquering the first floor without gaining meaningful EXP sets us up for failure on the higher floors. And a hacker like yourself should understand that support classes need much more EXP than combat classes if we want to succeed in a battle.”

Rowan frowned, but he couldn't deny what Kaidu said. I wasn't thinking about EXP. I have to hack more in, but Kaidu needs EXP. We can’t run away. Even if I can’t level up the normal way, combat experience will be invaluable to defeating the Tower.

Though… do I have to hack to get EXP? Brows furrowed, Rowan opened his System interface.

“We should consider this our personal training grounds and stay until we hit a high enough level to take on floor two. Twenty, at least. If that takes years, so be it, but I believe we both have the potential to take on this floor. We just need to go about it thoughtfully. And get you some shoes. Which…” Kaidu glanced meaningfully at the distant smoke. “They don’t grow on trees.”

Rowan glanced down at his feet, then back up at Kaidu, face greenish through the System’s menus. He frowned and focused on the System interface instead.

Though EXP still grew past the end of his EXP bar, it no longer reached the edge of the interface window. Getting to level nine drained most of the EXP he'd added. He drew out his notebook and jotted down the number remaining: 1,347.

He continued to write, thoughtful. That’s not a nice, round, divisible-by-ten number. I’m not sure how much EXP each level takes--1,000?--but I think I’ve been getting EXP from my battles. From the frogs, the millipede, even from the fire ants… the bar fills, but I don’t level up. I ‘gather’ EXP, but I don’t ‘gain’ it. In other words, I still need EXP to fill the bar. The actual levelling up is what's locked.

Hope grew in his chest. His pen moved faster, zooming across the paper. The System didn’t block me as hard as I thought. If my hypothesis is correct, I only need to figure out the conditions under which the EXP is applied in order to gain levels properly.

His pen paused. A dot grew under the tip, blotting into the paper. Is it that simple? Can it really be that simple to slip past the System?

“So?” Kaidu prompted.

Putting away the notebook, Rowan nodded. Fuck the combat classes. I won't be cowed by them forever. I can't beat the First Floor without shoes. And floor one... they should be, what, level five at most? Ten at the outside. We have a chance. This is insane, but... Kaidu took on Terry back in the square and won. If I never try my hand against combat classes, I've given up before I started. He sucked in a deep breath. "You're sure you can take them?"

"As long as they're below level ten and I can take them one at a time. If they all wake up, we'll have to run, but... we should be able to escape," Kaidu said confidently.

Rowan let out his breath. “Right. But we aren't going to rush in, like I did today. That gets us nowhere. You know that better than anyone."

Kaidu chuckled under his breath, nodding.

Rowan drew out his notebook and grinned. "Instead... let's make a plan."