"So once I take on a Class," I say. "I'll only be able to take on a second one once I perform my Tier Advancement to Tier III?"

According to Adam, the maximum Level of a Class is Level 25. Once there, it can be advanced to a superior version of it through the Class Advancement Trial. They're apparently extremely difficult tests that differ based on the Class being advanced, and each one is more difficult than the previous.

Very, very few people actually perform them as a result. Part of that also comes from how difficult it is to reach Level 25 in the first place. Adam is a Level 7 [Apprentice Knight], and he said that if it weren't for the fact that he was inherently stronger than Humans, he'd probably be a significantly lower Level compared to how long he's had the Class.

Despite his strike to Class Experience, he has an advantage in that he can kill monsters stronger than most people of his Level should be able to. According to him, that's common for his type of Demihuman due to their dragon side.

"Yeah," Adam answers. "And each Class you have increases that difficulty. If you take on a second Class, then your Third Tier Advancement Trial for your first one immediately becomes more difficult. Most people never go past Level 25."

"How many Tiers are there?" I ask.

"Four," he answers. "And at Level 25 of the Fourth Tier, you can perform a Rank-Up. It's a significantly more difficult version of a Tier Advancement Trial, but the benefits are pretty good."

"Five times as much as for a Tier Advancement," I remember that from the Special Trait for [Human].

"Not just that," he says. "There are other benefits as well. You receive a Title based on your Class, which grants Attributes focused on that Class. You can also take on a third Class if your second one is at Tier III or higher, too."

"That's cool," I say. "So are all Classes adventurer-based? Or are there ones for stuff like alchemy and woodworking?"

"Those are Jobs," he informs me. "The difference being they can only go up to Level 25 and don't have a Tier Advancement Trial. They do have a Rank Advancement Trial, though. You can only have one at first, and after Ranking Up the Job, you can take on a second. The bonuses they grant are smaller and most people don't include them when counting Levels."

"Do you have any?" I ask.

"No, but I do have some available," he says. "I've chosen not to take them on, though. They're more useful to someone who is actually going to focus on those and not be an adventurer, if they can meet the requirements."

"Ah."

"We're almost there," he tells me.

"To the town?" I look around, still seeing nothing but forest.

The forest is rather dense, though, so it could just be a lack of visibility making me not realize we're almost to the town.

"Yeah," he answers. "I can smell it, and the forest's density is decreasing. There are less monsters around, too."

"I haven't noticed any monsters."

"Anything this close to the town is going to avoid something that smells like a dragon," he says. "It's when we're near stronger things or smarter things that they'll realize I'm not actually a dragon and approach or ignore us."

"Oh," I think for a few moments. "So are there any other differences between beastkin and Demihumans, beyond the Class Experience penalty and ability to have non-mammalian mixes?"

"Yes," he answers. "We also retain some of our bestial nature. For example, my temper is akin to a dragon's and I have the same fascination with treasure and coins as dragons."

"So if someone angers you-"

"I may just rip off their head."

"Do you… eat people?"

"No," he answers. "Which is a common misconception about my people even for the natives of this world. We can eat raw meat, but we don't like the taste of human. At least, not when in this form."

"Uh…"

"Some of our more powerful members can turn into dragons," he clarifies. "Different species, different appetites. I'm far from being able to accomplish that."

That's a bit of a relief.

"How rare are dragons in this world?" I ask.

"Depends on where you go," he answers. "The region I'm from has plenty of them. They don't mind my people living there since we're all part-dragon. Most other people are chased off, eaten, or killed. A few do come to hunt dragons, but those are usually the ones who are already powerful, like Rankers."

"Would it be insensitive to ask why you left home?" I ask. "You seemed a little happier talking about your clan and your region, and I get the feeling you don't have the best experiences out here."

There was also a sadness present, which makes me suspect he may not have had a choice in leaving his home. Was he exiled for some reason?

"I don't," he tells me. "I decided to go looking for an adventure, and maybe make some friends along the way, as I doubted I'd be completely unable to find people who didn't mind me being a Demihuman."

"What about boyfriends?" I ask. "Or is that limited to just other Demihumans of the dragon variety?"

"Boyfriends are fine, too," he says. "I do like you enough based on the last couple of hours to be okay with that, if you are."

"I'm still undecided," I tell him. "I think I'd have to experience working with you a bit more to know for sure. You do seem nice, but we've really only walked and talked so far."

He did lend me some comfortable clothes, though. I'm wearing black pants, black boots, and a dark green tunic with a black leather belt. Adam put on a dark red tunic a little bit ago, and now I'm wondering if it was because we were getting close to the town. While it's still obvious he's a Demihuman due to his tail and the scales on his neck, it still covers up the scales on his shoulders and sides. Covering those probably makes dealing with other people a little easier.

"That's fine," he says. "Don't feel pressured to join me just because I helped you out and took you to town."

"I won't," I tell him. "I've finally gotten away from the control of my family and my lack of freedom there. Unless someone actually forces me to do something here, I'm not going to let myself get pressured into it."

"That's good," he nods. "You mentioned the situation with your family. That is messed up in ways I cannot find words for. You needed your parents' permission to get a job there?"

"Legally," I nod. "Until I turned eighteen."

"And if you got a job now," he says. "They'd kick you out, leaving you without a home or any place to stay."

"As I didn't have friends due to my familial obligations," I say. "I wouldn't have had anywhere to go, either. It wasn't the most pleasant of things. There was a plan in place, but it would have taken probably a few more years to get me my freedom, and only if I played my cards right could I manage it."

"That's terrible," he says. "So you won't look for a way to return?"

"Nope," I answer. "I feel absolutely no guilt over it, either. If this world turns out to be amazing and full of excitement, then I'm all for it."

"Good," he says. "Can you tell me more about this 'television' you mentioned earlier? I am still confused by it."

The rest of the walk to town is spent with me trying to explain some of Earth's concepts to Adam. A car is easier than a television, since carriages do exist here. Carriages that work without magic or beasts isn't easy, but he can at least accept it's possible. Contacting someone in another part of a world through a device that most people carry on them fascinates him.

When we exit the forest, I can see the town in the distance. It's about a mile from the forest, with farm fields on one side of it, though none between it and the forest. Bordering the farms are wooden fences, no doubt to keep predators out. I'm not sure how effective they are in a world with monsters and magic, though the fencing could be magical as well.

The town has stone walls around twenty feet in height, which Adam mentions isn't very common.

"Most towns and villages don't have walls," he informs me. "Or cities, really. They're expensive to build and maintain, so it's usually only the wealthier cities that have them. With their proximity to this forest, though, they built them. The World Dungeon is the main reason they can."

"I take it the World Dungeon is that?" I point at a structure in the fields to the other side of the town from the farms. "Which way are we walking?"

"East," he answers.

Okay, that's better for my orientation. So the farms are to the south of the town, the forest to the west, and the structure to the north.

The structure is probably a mile or two north of the town, and looks like some sort of giant, floating stone cube or cube-like item. I can make out smaller structures on the ground around it, though I can't easily tell what they are.

"And yes," Adam says. "That's the World Dungeon. A normal Dungeon, you'll only be with your party inside. It creates different instances for each party. The first time they're explored per version, they can only make one instance, meaning only one party can enter at a time until it's actually cleared. They consist of three Stages to complete, each with three segments you have to progress through.

"A World Dungeon," he continues. "Is different in that there's only one instance and no limit to the number of parties or people that can go inside. They're useful for harvesting materials or training. It can be a little hard to see from here, but there's actually a hole in the ground that you enter it through. They're also how you access the Tier Advancement and Rank Up Trials."

Trials are a three-stage Dungeon, sort of like normal Dungeons. I'd thought that they were simply available as soon as we reached the threshold, but I guess we have to go to a World Dungeon to do it.

"How come the town isn't built around it?" I ask. "Since they're probably using it to harvest stuff, wouldn't it be easier to just build the town around it so they don't have to lug everything so far?"

"They're not allowed to," he tells me. "This town will only allow a Demihuman inside for a week. Depending on how you do, that's plenty of time to complete the Dungeon inside. Some towns will ban Demihumans altogether, or anyone who isn't a certain species. I've encountered one that forbade anyone who wasn't an Elf from entering, and another which forbade anyone who wasn't a Dwarf from accessing their Dungeon. Known criminals, such as members of dark guilds and assassins, are often banned from a town as well."

"I thought you said that's not allowed?" I ask.

"Blocking access to a World Dungeon isn't," he corrects. "Part of this is to prevent a monopoly on the World Dungeon's resources, part of it is to allow anyone at the threshold to access the relevant Trial."

"So is this some form of agreement?" I ask.

"No," he snorts. "Most places would block access to World Dungeons to anyone they didn't like if they could. The gods themselves forbid it and disobeying this order can result in a variety of punishments, including a curse of drought and famine upon your land, the loss of all your wealth, losing access to the System, and more. This includes even just sending a party out and preventing someone from ever reaching the World Dungeon in the first place, even by killing them."

Someone could lose access to the System entirely for preventing access to a World Dungeon? The gods are serious about allowing anyone to access them. I'm sure the gods have a reason for it if they're going to that kind of extreme.

Or they're just doing it to have some rules us mortals have to obey.

"Which one are you planning on?" I ask.

"The town's Dungeon first," he tells me. "It shouldn't take more than a few days. After that, I'm going to go do the World Dungeon and once I'm satisfied with my progress there, I'll leave and move on to the next town."

"Okay," I say. "I would consider joining you for the Dungeon run in the town, at the least, but I think I'd be useless there considering my current abilities. Running a Dungeon does sound fun, though."

"With your [Unlimited Potential]," he says. "You could probably learn a basic spell tonight. If you did, you'd be able to take on [Apprentice Wizard], and that's all you'd really need."

"Would finding someone to teach me be that easy?" I ask. "Even if it's just learning how to use magic in the first place? Actually, I hadn't thought about it, but I'd probably need to find a way to make money, too, so that-"

"You can stay with me tonight," he says. "And I can teach you how to use magic. I do know some basic magics. No sex required."

"You'd really do that for me?" I ask. "Just escorting me here is probably a lot."

"Yeah," he shrugs. "But you're a potential ally. I'd rather stay with you a bit longer to see if we decide to team up or not than lose a potential ally for not trying."

"I see."

"And because you're attractive enough that if we're potential allies, then we're potential boyfriends, too."

I snort. Adam's bluntness is actually a massive relief for me as it means knowing his plans and intentions doesn't take guesswork. The only thing he's not been blunt about so far has been the real reason why he left his home, but I'm not going to pry into his secrets, especially not with us potentially being friends and allies.

Well, and boyfriends.

We reach the town after a few more minutes, a pair of guards standing at the heavy wooden doors to it, which are currently open. They're both dressed in gambeson and holding spears, and both Human in appearance (Adam said that if they look Human and you can see their ears, they probably are Human, but I'm not sure how true that is). Set into part of the wall is a sort of booth with a glass cover, a door evident on the side.

Probably to avoid having an attacker be able to infiltrate by going through the booth.

Before we can enter, Adam and I both have to place our hands on a crystal orb at the booth. The guards are curt with me, and curt to the point of being rude with Adam. The Demihuman assures me that the orbs are okay to touch, that it simply registers me in the town's network and lets them know if I'm on any lists. They don't show my Status information at all, though they can see my name and species regardless.

They're also not something just any magic crafter can make, apparently. Only specific followers of a specific god can make them, and no one outside of those select few know the secret.

Adam has to put on a band around his wrist that acts as his visa for the town. The guards here can scan it to see if he still has time left in the town, though Adam tells me as we enter that he has no plan on letting it run out.

"Would it be possible to clear the Dungeon twice before then?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers. "If I went tomorrow, took only three days, then went back in the same day or the next. Could do a night's rest between if I only took two days. I'm only planning on running it once before leaving."

"Not going to go for extra Experience?" I ask.

"No," he answers. "You get a bonus amount of Experience each time you complete a segment, and extra for completing a Stage. While I could do another route in a second run, I'd rather move on and not risk going over the time."

"Okay," I say. "Would you be able to come back at a later date?"

"Sure," he shrugs. "But not anytime soon."

As we look for an inn to stay at, I realize something that he'd said.

"You said all I needed was to obtain a Class," I say. "Were you meaning that you'd basically carry me through the Dungeon if I wanted to go with you, so that I could get the bonus Experience right away?"

"Yeah."

That… is actually really nice of him. I take it he wants to see how I'd act in that sort of situation, to see if we'd actually work well together.

Well, I'm not going to complain about that, and I do intend on becoming strong enough a wizard to be reckoned with here. Mostly because that sounds like it would be fun.

"Oh," I say. "Well, then once we've got a place for the night, feel free to teach me how to use magic."