*'Jeehan'*

For some reason, it feels really awkward to go into the kitchen right now.

"Hm. That's a pure rationality you have there. However, I don't care," a familiar, monotoned male voice coldly said.

"How can you be such a cold arse!? Our parents died on duty. I'm only asking you to be slightly sympathetic to him and talk him out of doing it," a more familiar and explosive female voice replied.

"You say that like it's your actual reason, Alice. You guys don't want Han to go adventuring for a different reason. I gather from the conversation I overheard earlier... Well, if you believed such a reason was important enough to stand-by, say it first. Otherwise, it seems like you don't believe that the reason's importance. I know your real ethical dilemma isn't with your parents dead, it's the fact that someone you care about will be going head on into danger in a kill or be killed environment every day, and may change emotionally into a PKer or something," the monotoned voice stated.

Alice and Hiiro were in a room with Doki. Probably asking him to sympathize with them using out parents death as their reason. A lie that was beautifully seen through immediately by Doki. Alice's expression was now of genuine shock, whilst Hiiro's was filled with embarrassment. The truth was now very clear.

"Really? You... realize how hypocritical that is right? You're a frickin' coach for a clan, using the funds they get from such heinous acts to feed yourself and make these 'PKers of the future' a nice environment to thrive in. And you are a trader, who only lives to sell things, made or brought at a certain price, for as much extra you can get away with. As long as the person has funds, you'd take money off practically everyone. And you're claiming adventuring's bad... Ha!" Doki preached, pointing at the other two in turn, and he proceeded to embarrass them.

And with that, Alice got annoyed and replied, "suit yourself then, but it doesn't change the fact that you get physically hurt as you fight." Hiiro tried to butt in but was overwhelmed by the atmosphere.

"Yeah, and there's no risk of a loss or bankruptcy in the world of business. Business is war with money and scamming instead of emotions and violence. But is it really that much better? Also, you have to be a noob if you actually get hurt in a fight, if you're strong and smart enough, you'll never get hit, let alone get any significant wound."

"Nice ego you have there. But care to explain why I should believe you're skilled enough to make sure Han won't get hurt," Hiiro replied, trying to point out his overconfidence.

As a response, Doki just pointed my way and said, "Why don't you ask you beloved brother's opinion, I mean we've already fought together. Also, he's been listening in for a while now."

I blushed as I found myself at the center of attention.

Flustered, I asked him, "H-how did you notice me?"

"I heard the creaking floorboards as you were walking here. It was quite off putting whilst they told their little lie," he answered, pinpointing exactly when I started listening.

"..." Alice, Hiiro and I were all speechless. He had paid attention to the conversation and heard the floorboards as I walked. They never creaked that loudly. It's even stranger considering Alice and Hiiro didn't even notice themselves, even though they're way more familiar with the house. I mean it wasn't that impressive to have ears, and use them to hear two things at once. But Doki seemed more than half asleep, so I can only imagine what he's like when he's conscious and cares about what he's doing.

"I can differentiate sounds pretty well. That's just one reason I'm too awesome to die. Also, I know the parties stats and skills, and surprisingly can do maths to tell the cost-effectiveness of each one. But I'll show that party trick at another time..."He winked at Alice and stuck out his tongue in a friendly, but mocking way. He dropped it in about a second and went back to his dead-pan face... That must have been the most emotion I've seen from him since meeting him.

Hiiro sighed, half looking away at the blinding aura of the person in front of him, he said, "I'll let you guys do as you please for now, as long as you get back safely and convince Adam and Alice, you have my support. But if you're serious about getting an ID this way, I might as well tell you to not visit Skimmington for a while. The two strongest clans had a falling out, and are now fighting in and around the area."

I could see the look of intrigue in Doki's eyes, and immediately put my hand on my forehead... 'Hiiro, I love you and everything, but saying that is only going to pump this guy up.' is what I wanted to say. But instead, I left the room to wake up the others. I don't know why Doki's up and didn't wake up LOD, but I don't even know when the rest went to sleep.

So I woke Adam, LOD, Shun, Titanious and Thorborg up. Adam and Titanious started breakfast and lunch, whereas Lod, Doki and I were talking to my family, greeting one another and making plans for today. We're going to the dungeon at 8:00, and coming home at 18:00 with a break for lunch, and were only going to see the layout and mob-types found in the first level today. I knew where the dungeon was, so as the allotted time came up, we started our adventure.

-

We had spent about thirty or forty minutes walking to the dungeon. It was a while north of the town as Alice said. I think it was supposed to be a relatively big cave about a mile before the midnight forest.

Anyway, Doki was melting, LOD and Titanious were practically skipping and I was trying to keep up.

"Hey, guys. Do you think this is it?" LOD said as he pointed at a cave in a cliff, it was pretty large and had the description 'Mumble Tree's Dungeon' on a sign near the entrance. The dungeons were names with their unique boss, and Mumble Tree was the boss of this one.

"Yeah, this is the one Alice said to try. ~gulp~ Doki. Your advice?"

"... Wait..." Doki was just about visible, and even though he trained his Preaching skill, he was barely audible at this distance. So we waited for him to catch up, so we could actually hear the plan.

"Okay. Basically, we want to use the same idea as we did earlier. We just have to remember to have LOD and me forward, and you two behind us as we walk so that we don't get sniped off like last time. We also need to keep an eye out around us."

"Okay, is that it? I mean, are we using the same skills, or should I try using my 'Beacon' skill." LOD said.

As a servant, he had the ability to highlight an individual as a threat, so everyone would know when the target attacked, and who it was aimed at through audio cues. It cost a lot of AP but could be worthwhile in a battle where sight and quick reactions were key.

"Hm. As your 'master' I don't really see the point since when you see a threat, it goes straight to me, and I can just tell the person being attacked to dodge or change targets. It just seems like a waste of AP, you know?" Oh yeah. LOD set Doki as his master yesterday since we wanted to test the Servant sub-class. It was basically a way of having a conversation without being able to see or hear each other between the two.

Since we could only have 20 skills in our shortlist, this included weapon specific, class and sub-class skills, which meant the lists were surprisingly limited at our levels. By the way, I was level 13 at this point, Doki was level 9, LOD was level 6 and Titanious was level 8. I kept my level a secret and instead claimed to be level 8, but Doki saw through it immediately...

"Jeehan, I know it's hot, but pay attention."

'Oops, I got caught daydreaming,' I thought, as I started to focus.

"Sorry, I was just thinking about my skills." I was sorting out my skills as I was thinking, so it wasn't exactly a lie.

"Okay, so let's say five minutes to do final changes to our skill set, then go in?"

"Sounds good" LOD, Titanious and I said in sync.

-

We finally decided on our skills, so finally went into the dungeon. It was surprisingly bright in there, considering it's a cave with only one way for light to get in, we could see everything. We did a 'Three layered' formation, with Titanious in front, Doki and LOD in the middle and me at the back. We were focused for a moment, but in a bit of peace, we started a conversation again.

"Hm. Okay, so to recap, the goal before lunch is to explore the mob types and testing techniques to fight them. We'll take a break, in which we'll decide whether or not we should try pushing onto the second floor. If we get to the third, we'll retire early and go shopping. Does this plan seem okay with everyone?"

"And if we die?"

"Then we're in an alternate universe in which I suck. Nah. If it's a one-off case, we'll either keep it a secret or try explaining to Jeehan's family and such fully," Doki said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Um... So why can't we just lie?" LOD prompted. It was a good point, I mean, we could just say that we didn't die when we did and my family would never know.

"Because someone, namely Jeehan, may give it away. If we just don't say, then there's no real reason to feel guilty, as long as we amend the reason behind our deaths, it'll be a thing of the past. If we lie and someone else gets caught, we look like dicks, and it'll badly affect the negotiation we're attempting and will probably end with Jeehan being forced to leave us, which leaves a bad ratio of tanks to glass cannons. If we tell them the truth, and state why it was/ wasn't our fault, and tell them why they should let us continue, and only do it the once, we should be fine to try once again."

"That makes sense... Wait! Why did you specify me when you said someone may give it away!?" I asked, a bit annoyed.

"You know them, so I assumed you'd be the one to get the most guilty if you lied to them. And guilt leads to cock-ups and obvious tells in body language... But this is that we die. Since this dungeon is supposedly easier than the others, I assume there's no instant-kill traps/mobs. If we're careful and keep an eye on our surroundings, we should be fine. It's when we finally face the boss that you should worry about dying."

"..." I looked in surprise at Doki. I was expecting sarcastic mockery, not an actual reason as to why I was specified. I guess I just judge him too harshly. As I was thinking that we were approached by some... 'Mobs'. They were sort of animal, no... Creatures, that I wasn't familiar with.

-

The Dungeon, which was basically a cave, was pretty generic. It's a large opening with a high ceiling, where all the surroundings were made of seemingly natural rocks. The layout was seemingly randomized, having countless random corridors. The lighting was dim, we couldn't decide which of these countless corridors were the actual way out.

Additionally, the creatures we found were... how do I put it, weird. There was this one that looked like a boar, standing on two legs, with hands wielding a one-handed sword and a wooden shield. I think Doki described it as something like a 'Hob-Goblin'. Whatever that is.

The first one we met, was about a minute into the dungeon. I stood there completely bemused, whilst the others unsheathed their weapons. It charged on us upon seeing us, leaving us with not much time to prepare ourselves. Titanious charged at it, and I buffed him with my Defense_Up skill. The pig-like being caught him off-guard, aiming for his unprotected left arm, and about one-fifth of his health went down even with my buff in place...

This wasn't a fight we could joke about on. Doki started healing him, saying "Heal Titanious" to activate his, 'mass_leech' skill was it? Anyway, whilst he was getting healed, he and the pig started clashing swords. Nio's aggression soon changed more defensive, and as he did that LOD mumbled something, and critical hits soon left only a sliver of red. This is when the pig became more berserk, trying to annihilate whoever he could...

Aiming for LOD, the pig turned away from Nio and struck the back of LOD's neck. Removing ninety percent of his total health. He managed to escape, whilst Doki healed him. But when I turned to Doki, I saw another pig heading to him.

"Oi! Jeehan, two on me. We need to give LOD time to heal properly. Nio, keep that one busy."

There was no verbal response from the others, or me. I charged right into the other pig, and beat them to the punch, stabbing my sword through one's wrist, and kicking the other's leg, causing the pig to tumble to the ground, creating a loud thud. I then countered the attacks of the other one as it tried to get up, removing what I thought was half of its health in one swoop, and I hadn't even been hit yet.

At this point Nio had finished on his side, so came over to help, and with us two maintaining the attack, Doki finished healing LOD, so he went back into the fray, attacking the wounded one in hopes of killing it before it went berserk. His back-stab in sync with my attacks seemed to make them more powerful, quickly killing the pig-man before we should have. Doki had used bolt on the final guy, keeping him in place, and we just started attacking the guy continuously, swiftly killing them.

Every other encounter went similarly, with one leading to multiple, so we assumed they normally fought in groups. They seemed pretty common, so we soon learned how to kill them effectively.

Later we found three more creatures, the first of which was a red fairy with no wings and wielded a small, flimsy trident. We found one after fighting about ten more hobgoblins.

We assumed it was an enemy, so went up to attack it. Mumbles, sounding more like squeaks, started to come from this creature. A few minutes later, when LOD, the fastest of us, had gotten within a meter of it, a light suddenly emitted from it, flying from its self to LOD who was sent back quite far. He lost about ten or fifteen percent of his total hp with that one attack, so Doki ended up using his magic, using a bolt to bind the red fairy in place.

Once bound, all of us charged towards it, slicing and slashing at the poor guy until he turned to ashes and gold. We saw one or two more along our exploration and learned to kill them swiftly too with a similar, but more orchestrated method than before.

There was a large chest we found at the end of one of the many branching paths about fifty minutes in. Curious LOD tried to open it...

Wait... What?

The chest randomly grew teeth and is now chewing on his arm. And what's up with those massive, comedic looking eyes which sprouted on top of it? Doki and Nio's response to this was just laughter. Loud, obnoxious laughter. I ended up questioning whether Doki had been possessed, and just stood there tilting my head.

"Sorry..." A concerned, flushed Doki said amidst his laughter, "that was just too funny..."

He coughed, trying to stop his laughter and his natural poker face returned. He hit the chest thing with Nio, killing it in two hits... Weird to think something this weak was here. I looked at LOD's health and saw it fell to about eighty percent. I guess it wasn't what weak after all then.

The final creature type we found were some black things that came from the ceiling to attack us. We hadn't noticed them at first, but whilst going back, Nio tripped causing a loud thud.

The next thing we knew these black things swarmed us out of nowhere. They came to attack but darted away quickly before we could hit them. We tried to time our attacks with them but got overwhelmed by their sheer numbers.

When it was clear to Doki that we just couldn't hit them, he tried to bind them, using his bolt attack to cause them to stop flying and plummet to the floor. He did this to half of them, whilst Nio and I focused on the ones still flying, eventually getting the timing down to strike them as they came in to attack us.

We continued with this, losing quite a lot of health whilst doing so, whilst I assume Doki and LOD were attacking those he had bound. After a while of hitting and missing, some of the creatures I were fighting also started falling to the floor. LOD rushed over and we continued to use skills and such to kill them almost instantly.

-

After they were all finished, we helped Nio with his side. I ended the fight with just over half my health, whereas Nio was in the red, with only ten percent of his total health remaining...

"Sorry, I was late there. I just wanted to let your two have the XP since I thought you could take it... Heal Titanious. Heal Jeehan. Good try, maybe next time there won't be that many..." He put his hand on mine and Nio's heads and started patting them. It was quite funny to see him have to go on tip-toes to actually reach us, but his appreciation didn't go unheard.

After that we decided to leave the dungeon, we're all fatigued from having spent about two hours in it so far, so it was time for a break.

-

It was now when we finished familiarizing ourselves with the formations and strategies to easily navigate the mobs, so left the dungeon to rest and ate. We ended up finding the entrance to floor two and going to and fro' about 8 times in the allotted 3.5 hours we had left after traveling.

"So guys, how are we doing for levels now."

"I'm level 15," I said.

We killed a lot of creatures, and so got a lot of XP. Since I was the highest level, it was my job to weaken the creatures for the others, especially LOD, to kill. Killing the enemy gave you 50% of the XP of the kill, no matter how many others helped. The rest would have their fair share of the rest.

"I'm level 12," LOD said.

Well, considering how many creatures he killed and how much he gained levels by using his servant sub-class, the rate of his growth wasn't surprising.

"I'm level 11," Nio said. He did have his flank to himself, but not as many enemies went that way, so he only grew three levels.

"Hm. I'm level 14 somehow," Doki nonchalantly stated.

"EH!?" We all said in sync, clearly confused.

"Oh, wait... You didn't get that many kills outright, but you did heal us quite a lot and got experience from your preacher sub-class and LOD's servant subclass. So maybe that's why," Nio said, adding some closure on why Doki gained the most levels.

"Oh, that explains that then. Sorry, I'll try to stop to let you two catch up." Doki replied. It seemed like he was feeling down, but I think he's just in deep thought since this was now a bonus challenge to even out all of the levels.

"So guys, it seems like we should be good to go on to level two after lunch, our levels have grown significantly, and we have found most of the attack patterns and mob-types found there. I doubt level two is significantly harder than level one anyway. For now let's see our new skills and perks, rethink our shortlists if necessary, finish our lunch then go for it."

"Sounds good," "Sure!" "Let's do this," we replied, going Nio, me then LOD.

So started sorting out our new skills.