“Alright!” I say. “Registered!”

“Same!” Tyler grins at me. “Let’s go to the waiting room!”

We make our room to the waiting room, which has dozens of people waiting inside of it. They’re all bigger and stronger than us, and almost no kids.

“The problem with the lower Floors,” Tyler says to me. “Is that they’re a mix of people of varying Levels and strengths and skills. As you get higher up, it tends to be more consistent. We could be stuck down here for weeks before we manage the seven wins without three losses we need to move on up, just because of that. At least they try to pair people who are on the same match number, though that comes into a flaw down here as well. At least we only have three mandatory battles per day, if we’re well enough to keep going.”

“Mandatory?” I ask.

“Yeah,” he nods. “You can do more after, but you aren’t required to.”

“Tyler Eztar, Loris Kane, Arena C,” a voice comes over the intercom. “Colton Black, Thomas Night, Arena E. Tyler Eztar, Loris Kane, Arena C; Colton Black, Thomas Night, Arena E.”

“Good luck!” We tell each other, then make our way to our separate arenas.

I face my opponent, a man in his late thirties and built of muscle. He laughs when he sees me.

“I’ve got a kid!” He chuckles. “This is going to be an easy fight!”

That fires me up, making me know I will not lose this fight.

“Fight!” The ref slices a hand down.

The man moves to attack me, and I run past him, ducking under his arm as I do. I jump off the ground as I spin, landing a kick to the back of his head. He tumbles to the ground, rolling several times before coming to a stop.

+1 AGI!

+1 WIL!

I gained willpower from that? How?

The ref checks my opponent, who just groans.

Muscle doesn’t necessarily equate strength. I’m small, but my muscles are dense. Combined with my speed, that was a hell of a hit. Depending on his current Level, that could have been a pretty hard blow. I probably barely got him with that, though, since he did try getting up.

“Winner!” The ref indicates me, and the crowd cheers.

“Look at this!” I look at the screens as a woman calls out. It’s split between a replay of my fight and a replay of Tyler’s fight, as he kicks his opponent in the stomach. “Two new fighters, Tyler and Colton, and they both took out their opponents with a single kick! To make things even more interesting, they’re both kids!”

I make my way back to the waiting room, and give Tyler a thumbs-up. He returns it, grinning, and we sit back down.

“Your kick was cool,” I tell him.

“The way you ran behind him,” he says. “Then jumped and kicked? That was awesome! We both got lucky, being able to do that! But we can’t lose three times before we go up a Floor, or we have to start over.”

“Want to do some training with me,” I ask. “After we finish our mandatory fights?”

“Sure!” He says. “There’s a Level 1 Dungeon not far out of town, so we can both fight in there!”

“Want to make it a race?” I ask him. “See who can finish it first?”

“We have to set a rule, though,” he says. “You have to kill every monster in there!”

“It’s a deal!” I hold out my fist, and he bumps it.

We wait almost an hour before we’re both called up – to fight different people. This time, the opponent is probably expecting me to go behind him and kick, so I do Tyler’s kick – a pivot on one foot with a kick to the stomach.

That takes him out, and looking at the screen as the announcer comments on me and Tyler again, I see that he did my kick.

We meet back up in the waiting room, grinning at each other and hoping our next match is just as easy.

It is.

“So where’s this Dungeon?” I ask him as we leave the Tower.

“This way!” He grins at me, then takes off running.

I chase after him, and half-an-hour out of town, we arrive at a glowing circle on the ground in the plains.

“There are five groups of monsters in here,” he says. “All of them Level 2 or Level 3, and five and seven Experience, respectively, or halfthat, if you’re more than five over their Levels. It goes lower if you’re more than ten, and none if you’re more than twenty.”

So I’d get two and a half and three and a half, each.

“The Bosses,” he says. “Are Level 5, Level 6, and Level 7, each, and give 20, 25, and 35 Experience, each.”

So I’d gain full Experience from this.

“Dungeons,” he says. “Are meant to be done with parties of five, but I bet the two of us could handle them as a team. While you need the Looting Skill to get drops automatically, Dungeon Bosses always drop a Dungeon Boss Core. Let’s see who can beat the Dungeon first – or if we can’t beat it, beat the most Bosses!”

I bump fists with him, then we both access the Dungeon.

Visits:

3/3

Enter (Will use up one daily visit): Y/N?

We count down to zero, then enter at the same time.

The dungeon is a cave, and I entered on some glowing runes on the floor of the cavern. There’s an entrance to another cavern opposite me, along with a group of five goblins blocking the way.

Drawing my sword, I charge the goblins. They fight with their fists and clubs, and while they’re a little tough for me to handle by myself, that’s more from their numbers than their strength. I manage to kill them all, though, and move on into the next chamber.

There’s another group of five goblins in the center of the chamber, and I can see entrances to three more chambers, each through a brief tunnel. At least, I assume the one is brief, because it turns around a bend.

I fight the group in the center. Both groups so far had four Level 2 Goblins and a Level 3 Goblin, netting me a total of 16 Experience from both groups. The System rounds, it looks like.

The first Boss Chamber has the Boss – a larger Goblin – and three Level 2 Goblins and two Level 3 Goblins. This is the Level 5 Boss.

I focus on killing the Boss first while evading the weaker goblins’ attacks, then kill the weaker goblins. When the Boss died and turned to shadows, fading away, it left behind a crystal the size of my fist. The crystal is dark blue in color, and glows with a golden light in the center.

Dungeon Boss Core

An item used in enchanting

I send it into my inventory, then hurry to the next chamber. This is a race, and Tyler is a little bit better than me, so he might win if I slow down.

The second Boss Chamber has the Level 6 Boss, and one Level 2 Goblin and four Level 3 Goblins. This one’s tougher for me to fight, and it manages to hit me a few times, but I catch myself each time, and manage to kill it.

After a few moments’ rest, I pick up the Dungeon Boss Core and send it into my inventory.

The third Boss is the toughest, and gets more than a few hits in. It also casts spells at me, and they hurt. By the time I kill it, I’m bruised and battered, but I’m also victorious. It had five Level 3 Goblins.

I leave the Dungeon, and Tyler looks at me.

“We left at the same time!” He exclaims. “Dungeon Boss Core Comparison!”

He pulls out all three of his as I pull out all three of mine, and we grin at each other.

“I want to do that again,” I tell him. “But I’m all beat up.”

“Same here,” he grins at me. “Let’s rest a few minutes. I’ve heard meditating helps you recover faster – want to try it?”

I nod, and we both sit down a few feet from the Dungeon’s runes. According to Tyler, the glowing red runes in the center are the entrance, which takes up about seven feet of space in diameter. There’s an additional four feet around that in blue runes, which he says are safe zones – that is, monsters can’t enter or attack past them.

So we sit on the blue runes, and I close my eyes, focusing on my body and willing it to heal faster, visualizing it doing so as I do.

+1 VIT!

My body starts to hurt less, my healing having sped up a little bit.

+1 WIL!

+1 STR!

+1 AGI

+1 END!

The messages appear in my vision, and I dismiss them so I can focus on meditating to heal.

Skill Gained!

Healing Meditation 1

I feel my healing speed up as I continue to meditate on healing, and once I feel fine, look at Tyler. His wounds have all healed up, too. The sun’s beginning to set, though. That was hours.

“That was nice,” he grins at me. “I gained a new Skill – Healing Meditation.”

“Same here,” I say. “But it’s been hours. Four hours, sixteen minutes, by my guess.”

“Seriously?” He asks, and I nod. “How do you figure?”

Tyr somehow trained me to tell the passage of time.

“I’m not entirely sure,” I shrug. “A really fun guy helped me. Want to run again now? I’m hungry, but I also want to go again.”

“Yeah!” He stands. “Let’s race again! Did you use your sword this time?”

“Yeah,” I nod. “I’m going to use my knife this time, since I’m a little bit stronger.”

We count down to zero, then reenter the Dungeon. I go faster this time, but still struggling a little against the last Boss. Took only one hit from the second, but the last one hits me several times with its magic.

I manage to kill it, and when I return, Tyler appears at the same time as me.

“Tie again!” We say, then laugh.

“Let’s try again tomorrow!” I say.

“Yeah,” he stretches. “Let’s head back to the Tower to get some sleep tonight.”

“I thought they didn’t house you until you hit Floor 100?”

“They don’t,” he says. “But they do allow fighters to sleep there for free before then, it’s just not comfortable, and you’re around everyone else.”

“Couldn’t you sabotage someone, then?”

“They’ll ban you, if you do,” he shakes his head. “But it’s not possible, I think. No one knows who the god is who created the Towers, but his powers were absolute in their creation. It’s virtually impossible to act against someone to gain an advantage. From what I know, no one’s ever truly managed to hurt someone outside of the arenas. You can’t even use weapons in them, or aura, until you reach the appropriate Floors.”

Rules that must be followed…

Did Tyr create the Towers? Now that I think about it, it seems like something he’d do.

Back at the tower, we go to one of the waiting rooms and sit on an open bench with our backs to the wall, and in moments, I feel myself asleep.

Tyler and I register before the morning deadline, and both of us win our three mandatory fights, and so we go for the fourth.

“Incredible!” Anna, the announcer, says, and I look up at the screen, replaying my kick. “Kid-newbies Colton and Tyler have both won seven consecutive battles, moving on to Floor 2 in just two days! We’ve only ever seen matches like these with Adventurers with greater Levels than theirs! Their stats may not be the best, but they’re definitely top-notch fighters, folks! Is there someone who can take them down, or will they keep this streak going?”

I snort, then make my way to meet up with Tyler at the elevator, so we can register on the next Floor. We don’t have to fight today, just register. After we register, we make our way out to the Dungeon, laughing about Anna’s comments.

At the Dungeon Entrance, we count down to zero, then enter. When we exit, we look at each other, then laugh.

Another tie!

We meditate, then go again, then meditate, then go again. We keep tying.

“Well!” He puts his hands behind his head. “That’s all our runs for today! We keep tying! I’m so glad we’re not doing it as a party, or we’d only get half the Experience we’d normally get from that. It’s based no who killed it, too! Plus, this way, we get even more of those things.”

“The Dungeon Boss Cores?” I ask, and he nods. “It says they’re used for Enchanting.”

“Yup!” He nods. “Open up your Enchanting interface, and you can pick stuff from your inventory. Dungeon Boss Cores are one of the best Enchanting Items there is that you can get ordinarily. There’s also the Greater Dungeon Boss Core, but you can only get those in Level 2 and above Dungeons. You have to be Level 25 to enter one of those, and it goes up 15 Levels for every Dungeon Level after that.”

“Oh,” I say. “Cool. Shame we can’t get loot from the other monsters.”

“Want to work on getting the Looting Skill?” He asks me. “We can both get the Steal Skill as well.”

“Steal Skill?” I ask. “How is that different from Pilfer?”

“Pilfer works on people,” he says. “Steal works on monsters. To use Steal on a monster, you just have to touch it, and you can steal from it. The higher your Steal level, the better the loot you can steal from them, and the more likely you’ll steal from a monster with a higher Level than yours.”

“How would we get the Looting Skill?” I ask.

“Easy!” He grins at me. “Just skin up a Horned Rabbit after you kill it! Take its horn, its fur, and its meat, and do it enough times with the loot turning into actual loot, and you’ll get the Skill. Then, it’ll start dropping loot on its own!”

I’m not sure if I can handle doing that. With the fights, there’s no blood or anything (usually), and that makes it easy, but cutting something up and taking parts of it? That’s really gross.

“It’s really easy,” he grins at me, and I look at him in confusion. “Your worry was all over your face, Colt! C’mon! I’ll show ya!”