(James)

James woke somewhat painfully, remembering nothing about whether he had dreamt or not he had a mild headache and a wicked crick in his neck. Someone was talking loudly nearby, but to his sleep-addled mind, It was no more than an annoying static.

He checked his notification log and saw all the dismissed alerts he had received about his meditation.

Meditation has levelled up: Meditation is now level 5.

Health regen rate increased by 5%

Meditation has levelled up: Meditation is now level 6.

Meditation has levelled up: Meditation is now level 7.

Meditation has levelled up: Meditation is now level 8.

Meditation has levelled up: Meditation is now level 9.

Meditation has levelled up: Meditation is now level 10.

Mana regen rate increased by 5%

Stamina regen rate increased by 5%

Meditation has levelled up: Meditation is now level 11.

Meditation has levelled up: Meditation is now level 12.

The boosts were minimal now as his regen was relatively low. But as his health and regeneration increased, these boosts would likely become invaluable.

It was still relatively dark in the entrance hall where they had slept, and the constant fluctuation between light and dark was messing with his eyes. Maybe this was what he needed to get the night vision skill though, so it might not be all bad.

"Alright! Everyone up! We have a long day of dungeon crawling so everyone needs to be ready to go in ten. Breakfast is fruit."

James sat up and looked dubiously at the bowl of fruit that sat next to Doms kneeling figure. His eyes were well adjusted to the dark, so even in the low light of the almost dead torch by the door, he could make out the fresh fruit.

James could feel Dana moving next to him. There was a lot of grunts and groans involved, so she probably had a worse night than him. He idly wondered what she had done while she was on watch. Probably magic training.

He shrugged mentally. If it was something important, she would have told him.

"Where did you even get fruit from?"

Callum was instantly at the food, eager to eat something that wasn't an unhealthy snack. He was already too used to the possibility of the hot food he could cook. But it might be less than safe to do that in the dungeon.

Dom pointed towards the door that had led to the dining hall.

"Checked the hall again after the sun came up this morning. There was some fruit on the table. Oh yeah. The table and chairs were all back in place and fixed and stuff."

James rubbed his eyes and crawled over to the fruit. He put a heavy hand down on Mays' stomach by accident, falling on her and earning a sharp fist in his ear.

"Ugh. You asshole, what the hell?"

James giggled as he disentangled himself from her and stood properly.

"Sorry, couldn't see you there."

Dom looked entertained as well and cut a slice from an apple using his knife. He was just about to bite down on the skewered wedge before he realised what he had done, and what his knife could do. He threw the rest of the apple to the corner of the room.

May looked less than happy about that. And also about the pain she was in.

"Hey. Don't get the house all shitty. You can clean that up when it's mouldy."

Dom grinned back.

"Gladly."

"How did you even know the sun had risen?"

Dom pointed at the door.

"This thing called the outside. I just opened the door a crack. The bushes instantly jumped into action, so I just shut the door again. No biggie."

James left the two to any squabble they might have and joined Callum in eating. He still felt tired but hoped some food and water would wake him up. He went for a bunch of grapes and was pleasantly surprised to find they tasted good. Like they were fresh off the vine.

James swallowed a mouthful before remembering where exactly they were, and the impossibility of what he was doing.

He analysed the bunch on his hand but saw nothing unusual.

Bunch of grapes (food)

Ther was no poison in the name, and they appeared to be exactly the same as the food from before the system. A quick look at them through mana sight revealed the truth. They appeared to be made almost entirely of Mana. But he didn't think they would provide him with any if he ate it. It was just food made by the dungeon.

If there were any adverse effects, he would find out soon enough and could only hope he lived through them.

After they had eaten, and Dom had thrown the surprisingly decayed pieces of apple out of the door, they got ready for the day. For most of them, it involved strapping on the armour, and James charging his gun completely.

He was worried by the lack of levelling of his unique skill. He had assumed it would give him some decent stat bonuses, but he didn't even know if his proficiency was increasing. It was stuck at level 1. Maybe he had to try remotely charging something by more than 5 mana. It seemed like a ridiculously small value when he thought about it.

"Come on James. We're going to the main hall today."

Dom called him over, and James slipped his pistol into his belt before walking over. The others were all ready and waiting by the door to the dining room.

They entered as a tight unit, one close after the other. James took the lead as he had the highest ranged damage, and Dana took the rear in case of an ambush. May had one of her test tubes in each hand. They were both filled with blue and white liquids that constantly swirled around each other, but refused to mix. James suspected this was something she had made using her arcane alchemist skill. He couldn't remember what it was called, but he understood she could make chemicals as long as she understood them well enough. But this was like something she had never seen before. Perhaps something to do with her witch class?

"James. Forward focus please."

Dom had noticed his wavering attention, and James snapped back into focus. He wanted to talk to her about her abilities, but he understood this wasn't the time.

But as soon as he was certain he could keep his focus away from May and her chemical hijinks, she forcibly pulled it back to her.

"Guys stop!"

They all halted and immediately prepared for a fight. The mini-boss was dead, but that didn't mean this room was safe.

"Is that the stuff left over from the fire sprite?"

She had rushed to the fireplace and was indicating the piles of scattered black dust.

James knew it was the burned up, shattered remains of the magical wood that fuelled the sprite, but he didn't understand why it was special to her.

"Um yeah. It's the destroyed remains of the wood it was burning. I mostly shot it to pieces."

May was hurriedly gathering it up and pushing it into a small glass bottle.

"This stuff is such a high level! I can make some awesome stuff from this!"

James didn't see the appeal, but he understood her reason. It had been sustaining a high levelled monster, so it had to have some value to it.

And as quickly as she had left the group, she was back with a grin on her face.

"I have an old chemistry set in my room somewhere, I'm sure. It a kids thing, but I can use it."

Callum gave her a reluctant smile.

"That's... great. But let's keep going."

She nodded, serious again.

"Yeah. The main hall is just a few rooms over. That's where we're aiming for."

She pointed at the door at the far end of the hall, the same one Dom had almost led them through the previous day.

"Mmmh. Yeah."

He mumbled, but followed her point and in one fluid motion, flung open the door.

There was a squeak of warning from someone behind him, but it was too late.

James braced himself, but nothing jumped out of the dark, nothing moved beyond the doorway. He shone his light into what was just a connecting hallway. The wood floor was scratched, and the wallpaper was faded. But there were no threats to him here.

He looked back in annoyance, hoping to identify who had thrown a half-baked warning at him. No-one looked particularly guilty, and he didn't want to make this a big thing, so he dropped it.

He walked through the hallway, only stopping as he felt a plank under his food depress more than any other had. He heard a barely audible click and realised this wasn't just an old board. He spun, aiming to run out the door, but it had shut behind Dana, and he was trying her best to open it again. He noticed that under the wallpaper on either side of them, there was something moving. The resulting embossed circles meant nothing to him, but Dom immediately yelled out.

"DUCK!"

everyone immediately dropped, and then shifted out of the way of each other as they tried to get as low as possible. In the seconds after they all ducked, there was a low but rapid clicking that got progressively louder.

It was silent for a second, then a storm of darts passed over their heads. The intensity increased, and James tilted his head to look up, shining his light at what was an almost impenetrable barrier of sharp metal. The hallway was one giant dart trap, but for whatever reason, the bottom couple feet of the walls were safe.

Thankfully, the darts all passed through the opposite wall, so there weren't any raining down on the prone group.

Unfortunately, the barrage didn't seem to be stopping. Or even slowing. James had started counting how long they had been waiting for the spikes to stop and had reached at least a hundred.

Dom helpfully offered a solution in his odd form of comedy. He almost had to shout to be heard properly of the constant sound of gas decompression.

"I think it's time we address the elephant in the room! This is far from the best situation to be in! Is everyone able to shuffle to the far door!?"

Through a variety of methods, everyone managed to convey confirmation, and everyone began shuffling down the hall.

James saw that they wouldn't be able to open the door due to the darts, so he offered a silent apology to May, and pulled out his pistol. The door was either very thick or magically reinforced, as he had to shoot at least a dozen times before he had made a hole he could crawl through. He made sure to be wary of any traps on the floor of the room he was crawling into, and thankfully, it was clear.

He stood on the other side and helped everyone up when they had crawled through. As soon as he had pulled Dana through and helped her to her feet, he heard the sound of firing darts had stopped. He didn't dare open the door to see.

He looked around the room they were in now. It was... an odd one to be sure. It was huge, and he saw the ceiling was high enough for this room to cover two storeys.

But there was nothing above his head aside from a rather plain wooden ceiling and 6 rather plain walls. The room was an irregularly shaped hexagon filled with all manner of entertainment. This must have been the drawing room in the past as there were ancient looking sofas, tables and bookcases. The books looked like the generic old and worn tomes you might find in a castle. There were three doors in the room, placed equidistant from each other. They had entered through one and could leave through either. Or at least James had thought they could.

May was standing by one of the doors instantly and was hurriedly checking the other side for monsters. Upon finding none, she rotated triumphantly.

"Anyone need the toilet?"

Everyone perked up. It was difficult to keep ignoring it, but they had all been eating and drinking so it was inevitable.

Callum and Dana struggled to be the first to go, Dana, winning by using some air based spell. James hadn't seen what exactly happened, but she opened up a space between them instantly. She had been holding the door to steady herself. Callum... hadn't.

He was pushed over a sofa, and lay half on and half off It, defeated.

Dom and May laughed at Callum's loss, but James looked more around the room. The books against the walls offered an interesting prospect. They gained levels as they gained experience, and they gained experience as they learnt. So surely learning from books would be an easy way to gain knowledge.

He walked up to the section that looked the most recent and read the book titles. Or at least he tried to. Most were in what he assumed was Latin. Many just had a Roman numeral on the spine. Regardless, it appeared his first impression of the books was that they were mostly ancient history and such were probably useless. He hoped the actual library would have more to offer.

May saw he was wandering and left the short queue for the toilet. She tapped him on the shoulder and he almost reacted to a threat before he remembered where he was. A relatively safe room.

"Whatcha looking for?"

James looked at her briefly with as stern a face as he could muster then resume browsing the books.

"I don't know. I just know we should be looking for books related to our occupations and skills. The xp is based on our knowledge right?"

May half smiled at him.

"More or less. But this stuff in here is all gibberish, really. Most of it is in Latin, and I think some are in Gaelic. A lot of old languages at least."

James picked a book at random and opened it on the middle page. It did look like Latin, but he couldn't understand any of it. He didn't even know what it was about. Some of the words seemed to jump out at him, somehow looking exciting and interesting. He tried to memorize all of the words on the page. They meant nothing until he had read the last one.

Skill Learnt: Latin Reading (D)

James was glad he had learnt a skill, but it hadn't helped him with anything in the book. He still had no idea what anything said. The words he memorized must have been the system helping him learn the skill.

"I got a skill for reading it. Not that's it's helping much. I guess it would be the equivalent of a young kid learning it for the first time. Gotta level it before its useful."

May wasn't listening to him. She was looking carefully at a book on one of the lowest shelves.

After a moment of silence, he opened his mouth.

"Um, wha-"

He was cut off by May swinging a hand up to his face to silence him.

"Does this look fake to You?"

"Huh?"

"Does this look like a real book?"

James took a closer look at the book she was talking about. It was one in a series of black, leatherbound books with no information on the spine. They were obviously old as the leather was cracked, but they all looked real to him.

"I guess?"

"What? No."

May pulled him down to her perspective. He knelt on the ground and put his face close to the book she was indicating. It looked exactly the same as all the ones to the left and right of it. He activated mana sight, but the only interesting thing was the blatant lack of Mana in all the books. They were dry and dead

He tried auroras lense, then jewellers eye. Nothing seemed to be odd about it. He was about to ask May if she was kidding after all when he tried Metal Eye. It was the only sight skill he hadn't tried yet. Instead of changing the colour scheme of what he saw, he was dropped into darkness. He immediately panicked, assuming something had attacked them and taken the light, by as soon as he deactivated It, he was returned to the room and the puzzled face of May.

"You ok? You kinda freaked out a bit there."

James nodded shakily.

"Yeah. Just, skill didn't work how I thought it would."

He tried it again and looked around this time. He could see golden wires in the walls, pipes and wires. He could identify the others in the room by the metal on them. A ring, a necklace. The metallic elements in the torches were visible to him.

Looking at the wall, he saw a thin silver line extending away. He flickered the skill on and off so he could see where it was connected. There was no doubt in his mind. The book was a lever.

"Yeah. It's a fake book alright. There's a wire connected to the back of it."

"Any idea what's on the other end?"

James took another look with the active skill. It looked like he had an effective range with the skill. Only a few meters in each direction. Unfortunately, the wire he was looking for extended past that limit.

"Can't see. I don't think it's a trap though. I can't see any darts or spikes or... blades?"

"Good."

May pulled the book from the case. It was connected to the wood at the base of the spine and rotated out partially as she pulled it. There was a faint but distinct click at the apex of the draw, then it was snapped back into place causing May to stumble back.

There was a faint clicking noise that got faster and louder, then the entire wall behind the bookcase fell backwards, taking the shelves with it. Most of the books were left behind as the shelves fell, and the rest were launched a few inches in the air as it landed.

Another dark corridor was revealed behind it it was wide but plain. There was no wallpaper, just old and cracked concrete.

James looked back at the others, staring open-mouthed at the secret passage.

He turned to May, surprise evident on her face.

"Did you know about this?"

She shook her head slowly and tried to shine her torch as far down the passage as she could.

"No. This is... maybe new? I don't know. I never really tried to read those books."

"Do you want to see what's at the other end?"

She shrugged but looked surprisingly confident.

"This looks to lead to the main hall. It would be easier if that's true. There were more rooms we would have to pass otherwise."

James took a few steps over the downed bookcase.

"Let's go then. I don't think this place is even trapped."

Then he hesitated as he was urgently reminded of nature's calling.

"In a second though. I... still need to use the toilet."