"Bringing a Class-related Skill up to Level 10 grants Experience for the Class?" I ask Adam as we step through the doors and into the next Stage.

We're in a hilly area now, with some cliffs here and there. Grass makes up most of the plants around, but I can see trees dotting the landscapes as well as the occasional bush. A few boulders and rocks are scattered about on top of that, but it feels so… vast.

Especially after the more enclosed space we were in for the first Stage and the safe zone.

The Temple of the Rat God stands behind us on the hill we've come out on, and I can see a forest far, far in the distance. Adam said that we won't be able to return inside of the temple, even though it will remain behind us upon our exit.

When we left the safe zone, we reappeared in the temple's main hall, right where the boss had stood when we first arrived there. All traces of the boss are gone now, which Adam says is normal. It's a bit weird to me, all traces of a battle simply vanishing within a few hours.

"It awards 10% Experience per Tier," Adam says as he steps out behind me. "And also for every tenth Level of it you reached. So if you reach Level 20 of [Magic Bolt], you'll get 20% Experience. [Flame Bolt] is Tier II, so you'd get 20% Experience for bringing it to Level 10 and 40% Experience for bringing it to Level 20."

The reason Adam brought it up as we were leaving was because I'd asked if there was another way to gain Experience for a Class beyond killing things. We apparently can, it's just difficult for normal people. Due to my potential and ability to gain Skill Levels quickly, I can probably go from Level 0 to Level 25 in a matter of months just by Leveling my spells, something that most mages could only dream of doing. With monster kills and Dungeon clears, it could become much, much faster.

"That seems pretty insane," I say.

"Yeah," Adam says. "It's why I'm intentionally stopping training my spells once they reach about Level 8 or 9. Once I do my Third Tier Advancement Trial to turn [Knight] into [Elite Knight], I'm going to take on [Apprentice Fire Wizard]. Being able to immediately bring it up a couple of Levels would be useful."

"You want to be a mix between mage and knight?" I ask. "I mean, that doesn't surprise me considering your fighting style, but-"

"No," he interrupts. "I mean, I am, but it's for an Advanced Class."

"An Advanced Class?" I ask.

"Yeah," he nods. "After performing a Rank-Up, you gain access to Advanced Classes, which are dependent on several factors. Performing a Rank-Up for [Grandmaster Knight] and [Fire Archwizard] will grant me access to [Apprentice Flame Knight]. I'm planning on taking that on for my fourth Class."

The reason for it not being his third would be because he'd be able to take on a third once he reaches [Grand Fire Wizard] if he's already done a Rank-Up for [Grandmaster Knight].

"Okay," I say then look out across the hills before us. "I take it we have to go to that forest?"

"That's one option," he says. "This Dungeon has several options for Stage Three, and that forest is one of them. We have to cross a river and fight the Second Avatar of the Rat God once there before entering it. Another route takes us to some caves, and we'd fight it before entering them."

So Dungeons can have different final areas? Them being able to have different final areas in addition to different paths methods to reach the same area can create a fair bit of variety in delving into Dungeons.

"Which way are we going?" I ask.

"The forest," he answers. "The three segments of it are the hills, the river crossing, and then the Second Avatar of the Rat God."

"Any particular reason?" I ask.

"No," he answers as I spot a large rat moving about.

"What's the plan for our trip?" I ask.

"We walk straight through the hills," he tells me. "You use [Magic Bolt] on any rat that gets in your range, which should be about two feet now, right?"

I gained 2 Magic and 2 Affinity during our rest period, and managed to bring [Mana Manipulation] and [Magic Bolt] both up to Level 2. Both of those gave me a small reduction in Mana cost for the spell, allowing me to cast it more efficiently. Now, it costs me about 1.8 Mana to cast.

"Yeah," I answer.

"Okay," he says. "And you can cast about eleven of them from full. With some regeneration due to how long it will likely take us to cross the valley unless I just pick you up and jump, you'll probably be able to hit a fair few monsters before we reach the end. Depending on how it goes, you'll either reach Level 1 or Level 2, though if it's with the bonus Experience or not is up for grabs."

"Which won't increase my my powers," I say. "But will still be good."

"Yeah," he says. "It's unlikely I'd get any Experience from the monsters here other than the boss, so we can just skip over to it if we want."

"You said picking me up and jumping?" I ask.

"Yeah," he points at the sky. "We are, after all, in an open space. With my greater Strength, and if I use [Enhance Strength], I could easily cross the distance there with a series of leaps. I'm sure higher-Tier people who are doing this just for the bonus Experience because they won't gain anything from the monsters do the same, or other things if available."

I suppose that makes sense, though I hadn't expected that would actually be allowed. Are there Dungeons that would prevent stuff like that from happening?

"Which would you prefer?" I ask.

"Fighting our way through," he answers. "It will give you opportunities to work on your aim."

And for him to see how much effort I'm putting into this. I'm going to assume he's actually going to let me fight this time rather than simply killing everything before I can fire off an attack.

"Alright," I say. "Mages in the back, so lead the way."

Adam nods, then begins walking down the hill. As we do, I examine his back. I didn't pay attention when he pulled his tunic off in Stage One, and he never put one on after we cleaned up, so I've checked out his back a few times.

He has scales on his back, too. There's a strip of them from his tail to his sides, about an inch and a half thick, and another strip up by his pits, which curves around his shoulder blades before coming back around and connecting to the strips on his shoulders.

"Just curious," I say. "But how far down do your scales go?" I ask. "The strips on your sides, I mean. The rest all have clearly-visible edges."

Adam and I washed up separately in the rest area, so I didn't get to see him naked yet. It wasn't out of modesty or anything, I was just really hungry and dug into the food before realizing he had gone off to wash. By the time I did notice, I didn't really care enough to stop eating just to go check him out.

"They fade onto my legs," he answers. "Just a couple of inches below the waistline. I don't have any other scales lower down. I can show you in the next rest area if you want. I'm perfectly smooth down there, if that matters to you."

I have to snort as his comment. It seems that so far, he's still interested. We still have this Stage and the next to go, though.

"It's not that important," I tell him. "I was just curious about the scales. Smooth is a turn-on for me. So what are the different routes we could do to get to the forest?"

"The different routes," he says. "Are based on which location we're going to, rather than how we get there. We're taking the straightforward route of going to the obvious location, the forest. It's not recommended for anyone who isn't strong enough to handle the gauntlet."

"Back in Stage One?"

"Crossing the river," he clarifies. "It's a bridge we have to pass, and it's full of monsters. They'll try to dump you into the river, which is fast-moving. Well, while they're trying to kill you. The run includes archers and more mages this time."

"Ah."

We reach the nearest rat soldier, a better-equipped version of the rat guards, and it charges at us. Adam steps aside to allow me to attack, my aim slightly-off. I still manage to hit the rat guard with my spell before Adam yanks me out of the rat's path.

Maybe I should have tried to avoid the monster, too…

"Thanks," I say as the rat soldier stumbles from the force of my attack, its armor barely dented. "Damn, that didn't do much."

"It would do more against one without armor," Adam kills it with a [Fire Bolt].

[Apprentice Wizard] Experience Acquired: +2%

That's not that much, and from what Adam's told me, it'll probably be less than a fifth of a percent once I reach Level 1. The scaling for acquiring Experience is pretty steep. Does he really expect me to hit that many of the rat monsters here? The hilly region didn't seem that large, but maybe I misjudged it?

We continue on our trip with Adam leading the way. The monster encounters are every four or five minutes, which is longer than it takes for me to recover enough Mana for one [Magic Bolt], so I start shooting off two per fight, which earns me a little bit more Experience. Not much, but enough that Level 1 comes a few fights sooner than if I'd only shot off one spell per monster.

My aim starts improving as we continue traveling, and I have enough time recovering my Mana that I start training my Magic again. Not by much, as I only have enough spare Mana to do this once between fights and still recover back to full.

To train my Magic, I have to cast [Magic Bolt] and strengthen it as much as I can with Mana without letting it come undone. This is similar to a way of raising the spell's Skill Level, as strengthening the spell structure to be able to hold more power is one method of doing that. I don't reach the spell's current limit, though, so that's not something I'm worrying about yet.

Rather than shooting off aimlessly with my training casts, I try to hit Adam's tail. He's tough enough he can take them, and he doesn't complain when I do hit them. In my defense, it's good target practice because his tail is constantly moving as we walk, even if only in small ways at times.

"You're going to have to stop soon," Adam says after we've been walking for about two hours.

"Getting too annoying?" I ask.

"No," he answers. "I've been taking us a more roundabout way so that you could get more Experience, avoiding monsters when possible. Their density has slowly been getting higher, though, and that we'll soon reach a point where you won't have the Mana to spare. The closer we get to the bridge, the more we'll encounter and you'll have to stop shooting them twice if you want to have enough to hit as many different ones as you can."

"Oh," I say. "In that case, do you mind if we take a few minutes to rest? My legs have been burning for awhile, going up and down so many hills."

"Sure," he says. "Let's get to the top of this hill first, it will give us a better vantage point to see if anything is coming our way. Try training your Magic a bit more. And your Affinity if you can, to bolster your regen."

I nod, then summon a [Magic Bolt] and get to work on it. Raising my Affinity again will probably come a little bit easier, so I work on my Mana efficiency for the spell. Affinity is one's magical dexterity, so performing fine-tuning of a spell or more complicated spells will raise it faster than simply pushing the power limits of a spell.

Once I've raised both of them again, which costs me nearly all of my Mana, Adam hands me a plate of sandwiches before sitting next to me.

"We'll wait long enough for you to recover some Mana," he says. "Then get moving. If we wait too long, we'll be prompted to continue forward."

"Prompted how?"

"Monsters."

"You won't handle them?"

"I could," he shrugs. "But most of them will be ranged, and that will get annoying since I'd either have to burn up all my Mana to kill them, only stop their attacks, or leave you undefended while killing them."

"Ah."

I start eating the sandwiches as I think about our advance. Adam has a plate of sandwiches for himself, though it has twice as many on it. From what he told me, the Inventory isn't that large, and I know he's keeping clothes in his. It also doesn't preserve food and we couldn't take any from the safe zone. Did he stuff his full of food before I woke up this morning?

"Adam?"

"Yeah?" He responds.

"You're going for the more direct, but more difficult, routes, right?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers. "It's the easiest route. A group that goes the safest way would take a week or more."

"So you're only caring about the bonus Experience from completing the Stages?"

"Yes," he answers. "Due to my greater Attributes than someone of my Level and Tier, I don't get as much Experience from kills in a Dungeon this low. The next Stage could earn me a Level or two, if I really tried hard in the second segment of it, but I'd rather not do that."

"This isn't your first time, is it?" I ask. "Doing a Tier I Dungeon just for the bonus Experience, I mean."

"It's my third," he confirms.

So he's rushing through the Dungeons before moving on to the next one. Why is Adam focused on getting stronger, and is it related to why he had to leave his clan?

"Alright," I say. "How much more difficult is the forest than this area?"

"We'll face a lot more archers and mages," he answers. "And the rats will have an easier time ambushing us. The arrows they use also have a chance of being poisoned or afflicting us with some other status ailment, and some of their mages can use ailment-type magics."

Which would make it more dangerous for me even with his protection.

"What are the Level ranges for each Stage?" I ask. "I'm assuming there's an expected one? Or at least, recommended 'be at this Level at the minimum or you'll die for sure' range?"

"Stage One," he answers. "Is Level 0, though it's recommended grinding until you reach Level 5 in the first two segments, to make the boss more manageable."

"With how little I'm getting here," I say. "Is it actually possible?"

"Yeah," he answers. "It just takes longer, and don't forget that you have reduced Experience."

"I also receive double."

"Yeah," he says. "But imagine you're in the thick of a battle, half a dozen giant rats all around. You knock back each of them, and the warriors on your team take them out. But the battle's a little more difficult than that because the warriors are all weaker than me, and you might hit the rats a few times to help them. The bigger struggle for the kill earns more Experience. And a bigger group attacking you would earn even more because it's more difficult. Most groups of fifteen members who start at Level 0 and no Experience reach Level 1 going the safe route of the first segment of Stage One and not trying."

So if they went the more difficult route but not the gauntlet, they might reach Level 2. If they fought the rats directly in the next stage, they could earn more.

"Okay," I say. "So, uh… do you think it would be possible for us to grind until I reach Level 5 here? Partially so that I can train my Magic and Affinity a bit more, partially so that I can improve [Magic Bolt] and my aim with it, and partially so that I'm a bit more able to defend myself in the more difficult next Stage? You won't be able to completely protect me there, Adam. Not from what I'm hearing."

"Hm," he muses. "I could protect you there on my own, I've been holding back a smidge and the rats would be as hindered as I am. Their only real benefit would be their agility. We'd only have an issue if they swarmed us in a massive ambush."

"Adam," I say. "I know you want to rush through here, but it's probably best if I had the time to get stronger. From what I've experienced so far, it shouldn't take more than a couple of more rests for me to be strong enough. It will also make it so that you have to do a little less protecting me."

"Okay," he stands. "We should get going. The first incentive to continue is here."

"Huh?" I ask and he snatches an arrow out of the air. "Ah. Are we going to hunt so that I can get better?"

"Yeah."