"I'm understanding it the same way," Lucas tells me. "We can't leave until we've beaten the furthest Zone available to us. And if each Zone is one Rank higher than the previous…"

"Then we're going to be in here even longer," I say. "As I get strong enough to handle things. This place isn't meant for a single combatant to journey through."

"I don't have much in the way of fighting skills," Lucas says. "And while I might be able to learn to fight from you, even if we spent six months, it wouldn't be enough. Sure, that's enough time if I spend two or three hours a day training, but at the same time, I'd simply not be strong enough. I also wouldn't have an appropriate weapon to fight the monsters with. They'd obliterate me."

This is the first time he's mentioned possibly learning to fight from me, and it's part of a conversation where it would make sense. Thinking back on it, that seems rather suspicious. Not in a bad way, though. Did he realize I'd be hesitant to teach him out to fight, thus increasing his chances of hurting me? Or does he truly not wish to learn to fight?

"It's a shame," Lucas sighs. "I don't seem to have a knack for learning magic. Otherwise, I could start building up magical power and my mana reserves, like you, and help you in the fights."

So he does want to try to help, but I can tell he's reluctant on that. He'd only learn to fight to help me.

However, he's right. Every day, he tries for an hour just to perform a basic shaping technique, to manipulate his magic or some element in some way. Water, light, air, and earth are available in abundance here, and we have a fire going at all times, too.

Looking at our wood supply, I'm going to need to chop down a tree. The twigs, sticks, and branches we've collected are running out. I've gathered everything in my usual hunting range and this room. It's either collect from further or chop down a tree, but the latter also means using green wood or needing to wait.

Thinking about the trees reminds me of a thought I had on my way back here, but Lucas sighs again before I can voice it.

"It's an even bigger shame, though," he says. "That we need to limit how many Skill Levels we gain. Otherwise, we'll just open up another Zone, and that will make it take even longer for us to leave."

"At the most," I tell him. "We'll only have to do three Zones. I'm pretty sure, anyway. I figured out the question for the System regarding that and got the information on the way back."

"Really?" He asks. "So Dungeons only have three Zones? Wait, you said you're pretty sure?"

"Zone 1 is the default Zone," I tell him. "Every Dungeon opens with only that Zone. However, after a total of 50 Skill Levels are earned within it, Zone 2 opens up. After a total of 500 Skill Levels earned within it, Zone 3 opens up. A total of 5,000 Skill Levels for Zone 4. It requires ten times as many Skill Levels for each next Zone. So if we end up in Zone 3, we might unlock Zone 4, but no further considering the steep increase."

This is total Skill Levels, too, not just the amount by those currently within it or per person. Once we leave, the amount we earned here will remain, and any the next people to enter earn while within will add to that.

In other words, Dungeons slowly open up new Zones, probably over years, decades, or centuries. I couldn't find a cap to how many Zones a Dungeon can have, so it might extend infinitely. Or there's a cap, and I just can't find out how to learn it.

"I can think of two theories for that," Lucas tells me, then holds up a finger. "First, Dungeons tend to open up the first few Zones rather quickly. But most people probably don't gain a ton of Skill Levels while in a Dungeon, like you are. So after the first two or three new Zones, maybe four, it starts to take years to open up each next Zone. This could be done to prevent people from completely clearing a new Dungeon as soon as it appears."

"Second," he holds up a second finger. "People living in Dungeons is a regular thing. Anyone strong enough to enter the first Zone is more than powerful enough to simply live here. The System may have put the requirements to unlocking additional Zones as a way to ensure that those who live here a long time find it more difficult to leave the longer they live here and the more people there are who live here. A Dungeon is a perfect place for grinding out new Traits, after all."

I hadn't considered that possibility, but I suppose it could be true. It could also be wrong. Why would the System let people live in Dungeons, grinding out Skills and Traits?

Then again, it's letting us do that. There's been nothing to force us to move on, which lends credence to Lucas's theory, now that I'm thinking about it. Could Dungeons actually be homes for more powerful adventurers?

It would explain why Dungeons don't have a set cap on how many people can be in them – to prevent a party from essentially holding a Dungeon hostage. Well, outside of a case like ours, where they're inside before the Dungeon's been completed, but that's different. After it's been completed – or at least, the available Zones have been – there's no such restriction.

This is confusing.

"Wait," I realize something he said during Point 2. "You said 'strong enough to enter the first Zone', Lucas. We're in the first Zone."

"I don't think so," he tells me. "I think we're in what's essentially the lobby and Zone 1 is after defeating the big daddy of all squirrels. I could be wrong, and this could just be part of the first stage, but I'm pretty sure that we're actually not in the Dungeon proper yet."

"The what?"

"The actual Dungeon part of the Dungeon," he explains. "If my second theory is true, then this area would be where most or all of the people who live in the Dungeon itself live. Newly-minted adventurers, craftsmen looking for resources and reagents, people needing to do something in one for a Quest – they could all enter the Dungeon, then find either a trainer able to help them learn to fight against the monsters that are actually inside or they could find someone to help them through it. They leave and the resident returns."

"I see," I say. "Oh! Right, talking about helping people, Lucas, would you mind giving me some help?"

"With what?" He frowns.

I pull off my shirt, letting him see all of the bruises from the fight with the squirrels and the daddy squirrel. This is another of those leaps of faith, but I don't think it's so much a leap as a step. He's earning my trust, little by little. The fact that he's intentionally earning my trust does make me suspicious, but he hasn't done anything else to raise that suspicion.

"Damn," he mutters. "I keep forgetting how fit you are."

"I do practice my martial arts an hour or two a day," I tell him.

"Really?" He looks confused. "When?"

"When I do everything else I don't want you seeing," I tell him. "While you're asleep."

"Oh, right," he mutters. "You tend your own injuries, Carter. I'm not so sure I could be of much help with that. What would I do for bruises, anyway? What did you even get into a fight with?"

"A lesser daddy squirrel," I tell him. "May or may not have been yours. Its pelt is one of the ones in the bundle I put there."

I indicate the pile of pelts from that fight. It seems there's a chance at kills awarding loot taken from the body, though I'm not sure what affects it. Why did the fight against the group of squirrels give me loot, but not the kills of the other squirrels I've hunted, or the fish? Because of an elite monster? Because there were more involved in the fight? Because it was more difficult? That would explain why the fox gave me one on the first kill.

Without fighting more and noting when loot drops, I can't know for sure.

"So what do you want my help with?" He asks. "Because with you being shirtless, all I want to do is ogle you."

"You do that anytime I get shirtless," I say. "I don't know why you forgot I'm fit, Lucas. Anyway, no. I think that everyone has innate talents for magic, but for different types of magic. It's a theory I've had for awhile. One person might be good at fire, air, and lightning magic, while another might be good at earth, water, and light, and another might be good at healing or curse magics.

"With me," I say. "It's pretty clear that I have magical bloodlines. I think there's at least two – the Elmar bloodline, which gives me an innate talent for nature and holy magics, and another bloodline, which is more of a generalist magician bloodline."

Now for the bigger leap of logic that I made while thinking over all of this over the last several weeks. If Lucas shoots it down, then I'll assume it might not be true. If he doesn't right away, then there might be something to this theory.

"My family," I tell him. "My real family lived in town. Just like yours. In fact, they have for hundreds of years. They were among the founding families of the town. I'm talking about several branches of it. Not something like 'yeah, in my mom's side of the family, we have an ancestor who was there at the town's founding', Lucas. I mean on both sides. And several families who have been there a long time."

"What are you saying?" He asks.

"The only reason I can think of," I tell him. "For a bloodline to exist so strongly in me to actually help me right now is if it was continued to be strengthened. Either my family still practiced magic, or they were ignorant of it all."

"I'm lost."

"If they were ignorant of it all," I say. "Then why would my bloodline be so strong?"

"Um," he thinks for a few moments.

"Because," I say. "It wasn't just one or two magical families living in town. Something my grandma told me, after she rescued me, is that many of the town's oldest families all settled here at the same time. I think that our town was a settlement of refugees from another world, and they bound their magic to prevent themselves from being tracked. The reason my bloodline is still so strong, Lucas, could be because it had other magical bloodlines entering it from time to time."

He reaches up with his left hand and pinches on his lower lip, something I've noticed he does when he gets deep in thought. The fact that he didn't outright reject the theory as ridiculous is enough for me.

Many of the people from our town are descended from magicians from another world. That means I'm not the only unique case in our town – there are others out there, outside of my family, who have innate affinities for magic.

Most of Earth's residents probably don't have innate affinities, despite what I said when I started this. I think that innate affinities are developed over the generations by families of magicians. Because of that, most of Earth's residents will struggle, like Lucas has, to learn magic.

They may not even have any Mana Regeneration when they finally cast their first spell, and [Cast a Spell I] would help them with that. The mana potions are enough to restore nearly to full from empty if what we start off with is standard. What if having an artificial recovery method causes the first point of it to be earned?

Then there are the people from my town, and maybe very few people outside of it. For three hundred years, the families that have lived there for a long time have either bred with each other or with others who settled in. So the magical bloodlines have probably weakened some, but they're still there.

"My gut tells me," I tell Lucas. "That you're from one of these older families, and that your bloodline didn't weaken into disappearing. And I think I know what your affinities are."

"How?" He asks.

"Just a gut feeling," I tell him. "And Grandma told me to follow my gut."

I usually ignore it, but I'm taking a step of faith here.

"So," I sit on a boulder. "Get yourself over here, Lucas, hold a hand over one of my bruises, and imagine flowing healing magic into it, healing the bruise."

"You think I'm a healer?" He asks.

"I think you're a druid," I tell him. "Just like me."

Standing, Lucas walks over and kneels in front of me. He examines my bruises, then settles on a smaller one on my stomach. While we could have just used one on my arm, I really want to give him some more trust. It would relax me a little bit if he proves he can be trusted more. So I let him pick the bruise, and I think he picked one on my stomach out of a hope to touch my stomach a little.

When he presses his palm against my stomach, his hand feeling a little hot against my skin, which is cool from the air, I try not to pull away. I also manage to succeed.

Lucas closes his eyes and takes a deep breath, and I try to focus on feeling his magic as he does this. A few minutes pass before I notice a change, suddenly able to feel his magic as it touches me, enters me. At the same time, a notification appears in my vision.

Skill Acquired: Magic Sense Experience Acquired: +1% Skill Acquired: Mana Sense Experience Acquired: +5%

Uh… I wasn't aware I was attempting to sense Mana, but I can now. Why is it such a higher Tier Skill, though?

My sense for it is weak. Even my own Mana, which is nearly full, feels faint to me through the sense. Lucas's Mana feels even weaker to me, and the same goes for his magic. I can also sense him quickly draining his Mana.

It takes only moments for it to deplete completely, then he sits back, looking at the bruise.

"It's mostly healed," he says. "I'm going to need more Mana, more Magic, or a higher Level Skill to heal one that size completely in one go."

I poke the bruise a little, confirming that it's healed most of the way, then I shut off both of those magical senses because they're giving me a headache.

"You managed to learn that spell quickly," I tell him. "Which only pushes my theory that you're from a druid bloodline, too."

"Another Elmar?" He asks.

"Possibly a branch family that came over," I say. "Or from another founding family, or just from a druid lineage that isn't one. Regardless of what it is, there's no relation between us. My grandma has records of my family going back to the founding of the town. Yours isn't part of it, and she was very thorough."

She wanted to assure me of my true family.

"Okay," he nods, leaning back. "It'll take me what, five and a half hours to recover all of that?"

"I think that's about how long it took me," I say. "I'm not sure. I wasn't really paying attention to how long was passing. Anyway, if you manage to learn a nature spell quickly, then it'll be proof."

"How, exactly, would I learn a nature spell?" He asks.

"Same way as learning any other spell, I guess."

"What's that?"

"Using your Mana to exert your will into reality," I tell him. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to learn how to heal bruises, then take care of these."

My test is completed, so I don't need his help anymore.