It was the Green Hours by the time the esteemed Dungeon Diver—her clothing in tatters—returned to her home territory, carrying with her several makeshift bags. Exhausted, the girl thanked the heavens that the rain had stopped, then tossed the one deerskin and three beaver-skin bags onto the ground before launching a barrage of Crude Mana Bolts at the weak animals feasting on her spoils of wars from days past. After completely obliterating their meridians and irreversibly damaging their souls, she located the lean-to her bed resided beneath, and crashed onto it face-first.

She was tired.

[You have accomplished a lot this past day.]

Very tired.

[You have gained a particularly rare reward which you require insight on.]

So incredibly tired.

[In addition to needing to learn about the things you have many questions about.]

She grumbled into her pillow.

[Making that higher-level spear and pills, for example.]

“But why can’t I rest, first?!”

Kaltyr whined into her pillow for a few seconds before propping herself up on her elbows, facing the fire puppet that hovered just outside of her lean-to in front of her.

[Because.]

She briefly wondered if the fire puppet would be put out by the rain, if it hadn’t stopped pouring just last night.

[I will not be around to assist you forever.]

The atmosphere immediately darkened—maybe because a particularly thick cloud blocked the sun, or maybe because Kaltyr’s chest tightened at the sudden gloom that surfaced within her.

“Really?” She asked, brows furrowed.

[Really. I was not intended to make contact with you for so long in the first place. I was to drop in, bestow knowledge upon you, and drop out. This adventure of yours was to be more difficult than it already has been. Plans changed, fortunately.]

The girl raised an eyebrow. “Fortunately?”

[Indeed. Because this was fun.] Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth’s puppet lowered itself onto the ground, no longer floating, until it sat in a way reminiscent of a child with its back slumped forward, stubby legs spread apart, and arms resting on the grass between them. [You are the first human I have personally met. Humans are interesting.]

Kaltyr rose from her bed so that she sat on her legs, overcome with the impulse to give Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth a hug…but its puppet was literally made of fire. After a moment of contemplation, she realized that the grass it sat atop wasn’t burning, so she tentatively reached forward with her hand. When she felt no change in temperature despite her digits being mere centimeters away, she rested her palm on the puppet’s head.

She expected Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth to pull away or ask what she was doing, but the puppet stayed both silent and motionless as she patted it.

……

Eventually, it was Kaltyr who pulled away while asking, “So, what’s the first thing I should hear about?”

She wasn’t particularly excited to learn more about the world she lived in after hearing what…her friend said about leaving, but she figured that they needed to get the ball rolling sooner rather than later.

[You can either bring up your questions and concerns, or you can have me choose what you need to be taught first.]

The girl stretched her arms and legs as much as possible from beneath the lean-to before asking, “Well… Is it fine to tell me about the intricacies of magic and Life Levels and skill levels and stuff? How much can you say? The System Wishes You Good Fucking Luck said I’d have to learn a lot on my own.”

The puppet remained seated as it explained, [Given how much you have achieved I can elaborate on a lot of it, but not on too many specific details. I might even have to inquire about that…]

It paused, gathering its thoughts.

“How about the thing with beasts being equally good external and internal mana manipulators?”

Kaltyr was unfazed by its last sentence, which made it undeniably clear that it was following orders.

[On that, I can explain everything. You already inferred that beasts naturally gain access to skills upon reaching Life Level 3. In addition to that, beasts differ from you in how they do not need to distribute stat points because they automatically gain five in each stat. They are equally powerful with internal and external skills because of that, but that does not mean they are equally capable in both fields. One beaver might have solely gained spell skills while another might have solely gained internal skills, all the while a third beaver gained three different skills from both branches, on top of the fact that all three beavers ignored the need to train their use of the skills. What skills they possess is somewhat random for them, how well they use the skills depends on the beasts, and that is why the Boss of the Dungeon you raided did not display many skills at all when some of its underlings expertly utilized the several skills they had. You were lucky that the beaver Boss both lacked many skills and was lazy with its combat training.]

The girl nodded along as her teacher lectured, glad that the information she asked for wasn’t anything too complicated. It was all pretty simple stuff, in truth.

“Okay, then, what about how my skills are affected by my level and stat points? I’ve noticed that Crude Mana Bolt seems almost directly tied to External Mana Manipulation, and the same thing for Body Mana Reinforcement, but to Internal. Yet, skills like Fire Skin and Bubble Pain Splash linearly increased in power with my level-ups.”

[That…] The puppet tilted its head in contemplation. [That gets into deeper fundamentals of Manic, but not too deep. Essentially, your findings regarding Crude Mana Bolt and Body Mana Reinforcement are on point. Most of their power comes from your stat points rather than your Life Level because they are the lifeblood of the two stat paths. They are special. Everything else, however, does come from the Life Level and the skill levels. Those who specialize in Internal Mana Manipulation like you—called Internalizers—gain most of their direct combat potential from strengthening their physical forms with Body Mana Reinforcement. Exactly as you have been accomplishing since you attained the ability to refine magical essence into mana, Internalizers kill through physically destroying their opponents. On the other hand, those who specialize in External Mana Manipulation—called Externalizers—find most of their combat potential from Crude Mana Bolt, which destabilizes mana and damages meridians. They kill spiritually by striking directly at what drives life—the soul and its constituent parts. However, that is only regarding the two primary skills. There are countless skills for both paths that offer the ability to accomplish what the other path does. You might learn a spear skill that solely attacks the spirit, for example.]

Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth gave Kaltyr a minute to digest the paragraph it had dropped on her.

[That is why, although your other skills deal damage or effects proportional to your mana’s density—which increases with each Life Level—your Crude Mana Bolt is pathetically weak. By choosing the Internal path, you forsook the potential that Externalizers possess. Similarly, any Externalizer at your level could not even dream of blocking your spear using solely their Body Mana Reinforcement because it is just as pathetically weak.]

Kaltyr pouted slightly as she shot a Crude Mana Bolt from one of her fingers into her other hand’s reinforced palm. The bolt did almost nothing, merely consuming a fraction of her mana upon contact.

“Yeah I get it now, and I assume that I didn’t fall too far behind the Boss in physical strength despite having fewer stat points in Internal Mana Manipulation because of my Body Mana Reinforcements level being higher.”

[Correct.]

Kaltyr nodded.

“It all makes sense now…”

Her eyes suddenly squinted in suspicion directed at her guardian spirit.

“Except for the fact that the beasts I’ve fought until now haven’t ever used Crude Mana Bolt. Why did they know how to reinforce their bodies, but never tried to cast a single Crude Mana Bolt?”

If she were just a character in a story, wouldn’t what she brought up be a major plot hole? Because surely the beasts would have been able to figure out how to produce such a simple spel—

“Ow ow ow ow!”

Kaltyr grasped her head with both hands as it suddenly began to ache in the same way it did whenever she remembered something too integral to her past life.

Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth, however, ignored her pain.

[You are very correct. Yes, normally, beasts would be capable of such. The reasons as to why those you fought were incapable of it has to do with a few causes, most of which I may not tell you.]

Her headache ending, Kaltyr gave the fire puppet a look.

“And the part you can tell me?”

It didn’t miss a beat.

[Had the beasts used Crude Mana Bolt from the beginning, you would have had a total of a zero percent chance at surviving this long. Do not think about it further past the fact that you will face beasts capable of using that skill later.]

The girl gulped, then nervously chuckled. Zero percent? Well, she had come incredibly close to dying many times even without them using Crude Mana Bolt…

“Okay, yeah, I’ll forget about this. So, about skills and stat points…” Kaltyr squirmed in place, having trouble forgetting about what she was told to forget about. “… Um, you already said that, besides the big two, a skill’s power is determined by my Life Level, but what part do stat points play in skills if not how strong they are?”

[That is simple. Could you successfully perform Bubble Pain Splash before you distributed points into External Mana Manipulation?]

Kaltyr’s mouth formed an “o” as the realization dawned on her.

“Oooooh. Yeah, you’re right.”

[Of course I am.]

“Different skills require a certain about of stat points to learn, huh?”

[Indeed. Otherwise, anyone could learn and use any skill regardless of how they distributed their points.]

She nodded her head, thinking about how nobody would become an Externalizer if they could dump all their stat points into Internal Mana Manipulation and still learn powerful spells.

“I got it, I got it. Then, um…what’s next? Hmmm… Oh, yeah…” Kaltyr’s stomach churned uncomfortably as she remembered the question she wasn’t sure she wanted the answer to. “Um, killing the beavers wasn’t…wrong, right? I mean, they seemed just like any other beast except for that they were doing some pretty smart stuff, like raising fish, gathering herbs, and farming phantasmal goo.”

She pointed toward the beaver-skin bags full of goo and spirit herbs sitting not too far from her lean-to.

[Indeed, they were doing smart stuff, but they were no more intelligent than any other beasts you might have slaughtered around here. It is simply the case that beasts gain access to such options upon becoming Bosses. Do not worry about harming beasts. It is the cycle of life here in Manic, and even at their wisest and strongest forms, they are just simple animals. You are committing no sins by harvesting their lives for XP and growth, in the same way that they are doing no wrong by hunting you.]

Kaltyr was in the middle of sighing in relief when Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth added, [Well, that is not entirely true. They all have the potential to become people, and a tiny minority are more peaceful than the rest, but not only are those so incredibly rare…the beast, or someone else, will let you know when they are not an enemy. Simply do not worry about it.]

The girl choked on her sigh after hearing that.

[Seriously, do not worry about it.]

“I… Okay. I’ll take your word for it.”

Kaltyr cleared her throat.

“Okay, so, question four: why can’t I distribute my 11th level’s stat points?”

It was true; not only did Kaltyr reach Life Level 11, but 5 stat points of the 15 she gained past level 8 remained undistributable.

“Do I have to do something else before I qualify to use them, or something?”

[Yes. You need to unlock a Class before you can use any stat points beyond Life Level 10. However, do not worry about those for now, as it is something that will come naturally when you reach civilization. We will talk about that after everything else.]

The girl pursed her lips, feeling an excited energy building up in her belly. It said, “when”.

“Gotcha. Well, I guess the next topic on my list… I really liked Fish Scales and Alligator Eyes, and all those enchantments that give me buffs during a portion of the day and in the rain are very useful…” She pressed her pointer fingers against each other in front of herself with a downcast expression, having already guessed the answer but still wanting to confirm it. “Is it possible to extract enchantments from equipment?”

The puppet slowly shook its fiery head from side to side.

[Negative. It is not possible for you. It is only an option for those much stronger. If you continue on this path of carnage, you may even die before you see how extracting enchantments is achieved. It is by no means common, and doing so for the enchantments Fish Scales or Alligator Eyes would be seen as such a waste that countless people would take it upon themselves to kill you in their anger, if they found out.]

Again, the girl couldn’t help but to gulp at the image her teacher put into her mind. All she thought she’d hear was, “Nah, can’t be done.” She did not expect to be told that doing what she was hoping to do would cause her to become Public Enemy #1.

“Y-yeah…okay… Next… Umm…”

Kaltyr scratched her head and looked up at the puppet with embarrassment.

“I can’t remember anything after hearing that, so, could you, uh, explain what it is you wanted me to know from the start?”

[Of course. First, I want you to pull up all the notifications that appeared after you killed the beaver Boss.]

“Okay.”

The girl mentally sifted through all the messages she’d received from The System, opening the latest relevant ones.

Congratulations on clearing the Level 6 Beaver Lodge (Small Dungeon)!

In addition to the normal experience reward for completing a Dungeon, you were given bonuses for the following achievements:

--Clearing the Dungeon in its entirety, leaving no survivors.

--Clearing the Dungeon solo within 24 hours.

--Clearing the Dungeon without armor.

--Clearing the Dungeon using solely elixirs you concocted.

--Clearing the Dungeon using solely weapons you crafted (not including the starter equipment 😉).

--Clearing the Dungeon before obtaining a Class.

--Clearing the Dungeon immediately after discovering it.

Congratulations!

Due to your astounding achievement of solo clearing the Level 6 Beaver Lodge (Small Dungeon) within 24 hours at its level, you were rewarded with the 1st Degree Dungeon Diver I: Beaver Lodge (Small Dungeon) Title!

The 1st Degree Dungeon Diver I: Beaver Lodge (Small Dungeon) Title’s properties include:

--Permanent +10% mobility in water

--Permanent +20% vision range underwater

--This Title’s properties double when within a Dungeon

The Title will appear in its shortened form within your Status Profile unless you open the List: Dungeon Diver I

[Firstly, allow me to personally congratulate you on your amazing success, Kaltyr, for clearing the Level 6 Beav—]

“So you really can see my screens, stats, and profile stuff?”

[Yes. Now, if I may contin—]

“Is it because you’re of a much higher level?”

[No, Kaltyr. I simply have access to your information. Nobody else can see your information lest you allow them to. I am a special case.]

The girl considered pestering Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth further but had a hunch that it was related to the beings controlling everything, so she shut up.

[As I was saying, congratulations. Your achievements are spectacular and showing off your Title will cause many to envy you wherever you go. Granted, the beasts had a handicap, but given the fact that you are only eleven days old in Manic, it is understandable. Additionally, do not tell anyone about the beasts being unable to use Crude Mana Bolt.]

“Yeah, I got it. I’m a special case. People don’t normally get dropped into Manic from other worlds without their memories.”

[Correct. Yet.]

“Wait, wh—”

[I said nothing. Now, I will jump straight into explaining the different parts of the Title you received, because I presume that you understand everything about the part regarding why you earned extra XP?]

Miffed at not having what Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth meant by “Yet” explained to her, Kaltyr pouted as she nodded. It sounded really important.

“Yeah. I beat the Dungeon with so many handicaps when other people in the world probably work together and use a lot of other stuff to increase their odds of survival.”

[Correct. So, you received the Title in the first place, as the notification explains, because you cleared the Dungeon by yourself, within 24 hours of first raiding it, and within 3 Life Levels of its level. Those are the three qualifiers to obtaining a Title from the Dungeon Diver series. Understand?]

Still pouting, Kaltyr nodded again. It was pretty simple.

[The first segment of your Title is “1st Degree”, which describes what Life Level you had when you first raided it. Yours is of the 1st Degree because you were the closest you could be to the Dungeon’s level—it having been 6. You would not have been able to enter it if you were Life Level 5. If you were Life Level 7 when you attacked you would have earned the 2nd Degree, which gives lesser rewards. It can only go down to the 3rd Degree. You would not have earned a Title at all had you been Life Level 9 when you first raided it. Understand?]

“Yeah. It was lucky that I reached Life Level 6 just a few hours before, as well as that I didn’t only find it after reaching level 7.”

[Indeed. Now, the second segment of your Title is “Dungeon Diver I”. In Manic, there are several series of Titles. Dungeon Diver is one of them. The “I” at the end of Dungeon Diver—the tier—signifies that you earned the Dungeon Diver series Title before reaching Life Level 11. Had you only earned a Dungeon Diver Title for the first time after reaching Life Level 11, you would have not been able to earn another one and progress the Title series. That is because the Dungeon Diver Title series is only unlocked if the first one you obtain is among the levels 1 through 10. With me so far?]

“Uuh, yeah, I think so. What you’re saying is my Dungeon Diver Title can basically be upgraded only because I first got it before I was level 11. That probably means that I can upgrade it by completing another Dungeon, with the same three qualifiers you mentioned before, between levels 10 and 21?”

[Not entirely correct. You will keep the 1st Degree Dungeon Diver I: Beaver Lodge (Small Dungeon) Title and its properties forever. It will not change. However, the only reason you are capable of acquiring a Dungeon Diver II Title is because you obtained the first of the series before level 11. You are correct about how to earn the next one. If sometime before you reach Life Level 21, you solo clear a level 11 through 20 Dungeon within 24 hours of first raiding it while being within three Life Levels of its level, you will obtain the Dungeon Diver II Title, with properties specific to the Dungeon you cleared. Understood?]

“Mhm. I got it, now. Basically, I’m super lucky to have earned this Title when I did, and if I want another one, I have to do the same thing again with a stronger Dungeon before Life Level 21.”

[Yes. Now, the third segment of your Title is “Beaver Lodge (Small Dungeon)”. This is the simplest part. Obviously, you completed the Beaver Lodge Dungeon, and it was small.]

Kaltyr rolled her eyes.

“Didn’t look small to me.”

Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth attempted to copy Kaltyr’s gesture, but because its fire puppet lacked eyes, it settled for rolling its head instead.

[When you venture out into the world, you will find that you were preposterously lucky to have found a small Dungeon. Although medium and large Dungeons allow for more time to clear, the amount of space they take up grows exponentially with each size increase. The Beaver Lodge Dungeon was indeed quite small, even for a small one.]

A chill clawed its way up Kaltyr’s spine as she tried picturing what her teacher described. Exponentially bigger with each size? The Beaver Dungeon was small even for a small one?

[But do not worry. If you wish to obtain the next tier of the Dungeon Diver Title series, you are not required to challenge Dungeons of a specific size… Except for one of them, but that will not matter for a long time.]

“Only one, huh? Bet it has to be large.”

[Indeed. Now, stop worrying about it.]

“Yeah, yeah…”

[Now, I will go on to comment on your raiding performance.]

“Are you always watching me? I get it, since you’ve been helping me adapt to Manic, so you have to know what challenges I’m facing, but I just wanna be sure…”

[Of course. Do not worry about it. Now, regarding your performance: As I am sure you are aware, you performed poorly several times. Your lack of life experiences led you to care too little for your safety. You foolishly challenged all the beavers outside the lodge without first making use of Fire Skin. You foolishly allowed the lightning general to charge up its overwhelmingly powerful spell. You foolishly allowed the Boss to enter the river. Those were your three mistakes. It all worked out in the end, however, due to your tenacity and ability to act on the spot. You have a remarkable battle sense.]

Having already thought of all those details on her trek back to her territory, Kaltyr only felt a little irked. The compliment at the end meant nothing to her, because she didn’t know why she had that sense for battle.

“Thanks.”

[In praise of your battle sense, I must compliment you for coming up with the optimal way to take out all the soldier beavers in the beginning, and for figuring out Fire Skin still has its uses underwater. Had some soldiers fled and not been killed, you would not have gained some of the bonus XP. Had you not used Fire Skin underwater, you might have suffered even more grievously against the lightning general. Good job.]

This time, Kaltyr’s mood was improved slightly by the praise. Maybe she actually was easy to flatter?

“Thank you.”

[And lastly, setting the Boss and Boss Room ablaze with the lighter fluid when you did was good. Too early and some of the beavers might have gotten past you to safety. Too late and you would have died.]

Kaltyr recalled her medicine concocting session with Sir Quiggly-Do the Fifth and how she used that opportunity to bring up the mysterious “potion” she had in her starter kit.

“Well, if you hadn’t told me it wasn’t a potion and to smell its contents, I wouldn’t have figured out what it was until it was too late as I tried to drink it to heal my injuries.”

[True.]

The fire puppet chuckled, and Kaltyr followed. They laughed together for a while.