Jarod glanced at Steel, who was only uncomfortable.

"Alright, we'll go back to our rooms." Jarod said, he could barely hide his fear now, and his voice quivered when he spoke. Steel turned to him, and was about to speak up against the idea.

"Please, trust me Steel. It's for the best." Jarod stared into Steel's eyes with an intensity he wasn't aware he had. Steel stopepd his sentence before it started. He paused to think, then continued.

"Alright instructor Kalem, you know best." He maintained his manners while Jarod was sweating in place, despite the frigid cold. The two turned away and walked into the citadel halls, the thick stone ageless in appearance. Jarod turned over his shoulder every few moments until he was sure they were alone.

"I am taking a leap of faith here, why are you so scared right now?" Steel asked.

"We're still in the dungeon." Jarod said. He still was hesitant to say it, as if it would turn the place hostile against him. In response, Steel tensed up and grabbed Jarod's arm.

"What proof, other than how strange the others are acting?"

"That isn't Kalem. It's a minor shapechanger, a boss minion. Meaning, the boss has to be around somewhere."

"Damn. I knew we should have found a boss, there's no such thing as a dungeon without a boss." Steel said. Jarod didn't want to correct him that the 'dungeon' he had come from had no boss, only him. Then, Jarod realized a problem.

"We need to get to Chen, he's asleep right now! He's in danger!" At that, neither waited for a cue to run. They both sprinted up the stairs and to the dormitory. Jarod found himself less out of breath than he would be. Could it be the training? Or the endurance he absorbed from that acornite?

When they got to the room, Chen sitting up in bed.

"Hey guys, what's the hurry about?"

"Chen! We're-" Steel clapped a hand on Jarod's mouth. Jarod turned to see that Steel's eyes were glowing a soft gold that faded after a moment.

"Tell me Chen, how was your rest?" Steel said, he glanced at Jarod as if something was wrong. Jarod realized that Steel was right. How could he be sure that this was Chen?

"It was fine, I'm pretty much ready to go. Hey, I heard that Old Caraya wanted us in the kitchen. I was about to head over!"

"Let's help you up, it was a rough time in that dungeon, after all." Steel said, he dragged Jarod along. But Jarod knew what he was doing. Jarod went alongside Chen and grabbed his arm, mimicking as if he were going to pull him from bed.

Monster: Minor Shapechanger

Stats:

Strength - 8 Endurance - 3 Agility - 9 Willpower - 2

Special:

This monster can take any form, though its base stats remain the same.

This is a minion monster! Minions will continuously spawn until their boss monster is slain!

Jarod jammed his elbow into the back of this fake Chen's head, and before it could react Steel drew his shortsword and thrust it through the monster's guts. The fake Chen's skin immediately shifted to a pale grey, his head changed from a regular human head to something monstrous. It was grey and clammy, with around seven bulbous bug eyes of different sizes. Its arms were long and lanky, with three fingers at the end. It gurgled softly before it collapsed in its place in bed.

"Nice catch, but we have to find Chen." Jarod said. He was breathing heavily, despite not being the one to do the stabbing.

"I used my golden sight, and noticed some bloodstains that were cleaned up. Chen might be dead." He gulped.

"But we have to try." Jarod knew in his heart he had to try. He couldn't have another's life on his hands.

"Couldn't have said it better myself. Come on, my guess is they have a trap in the kitchen. We can take the secondary passage by the pantry, if they've accurately replicated the citadel."

"Any chance they'd have weapons around?"

"Do you really want to take that risk? You can throw fireballs. That should be enough." Jarod didn't want to admit it, but fireballs were in fact probably enough.

The two snuck through the hallways. Along the way they saw a patrol of men at arms moving through the hall. Luckily, a small alcove could fit the two. As they strayed from the path that the dungeon seemed to want them to walk, the walls became less accurate to the citadel. At points large bricks blurred together, the walls became damp and warmer, and the stone took on a darker color. By the time they had wrapped around to the pantry behind the kitchen, they had spent probably an hour sneaking about. They pushed the door open slowly to enter the pantry. A room the dungeon never intended them to go. And so it was dark, and empty. They could hear a voice on the other side of the door.

"Please! I'm really not tasty! I'm certain I'm all tough and chewey!" It was Chen.

"Quiet meat thing! The others are near! I sense them."

"I'll give you a stomach ache..." Chen quietly sobbed. Jarod conjured up a small fireball, still not the greatest size, but he could throw it somewhat accurately. He couldn't remember where he had thrown a ball this size in life outside of here, the demon took that. But he remembered that he had. Steel kicked the door open.

On the other side were a handful of shapechangers all huddled around the other entrance, ready to pounce. In the center of the room there was what looked like Old Caraya, the cook here. Chen was against the wall on the other side of the room, tied up with a shapechanger standing over him. Almost immediately, Caraya turned into one of these beasts. But it was bigger, its muscles more gnarled like they were tree roots rather than arms and legs. A few flowers haphazardly sprouted from its side. It had no set number of eyes, sometimes they would pop back into its skull and two more would come out in a different spot to replace it. Before it could shout some command, Jarod pelted the boss with a fireball in the jaw, and Steel rushed up to slash at its ankle. It dropped to one knee, allowing Steel to jab a few times in the center of its chest. Jarod saw the others springing from the door, but more pressing was the one standing over Chen, as if waiting for an order.

"We have a hostage!" The large one shrieked, immediately to see a fireball pelt the one standing over Chen. Right in its cluster of eyes, it stumbled away batting at the fire on its head. Steel stabbed his sword through the distracted monster's face, its limbs dropped limp and it fell to the side. Just in time, as the other monsters stormed him. Jarod threw fireballs as fast as he could, but he wasn't quick enough. Steel was about to be overwhelmed before Chen grabbed one from behind, locking his hands behind its head. He wasn't done, as he transitioned to grabbing its hands, then kicking it to the ground. He pulled and pulled until its arms popped straight from its body. Black blood sprayed everywhere, coating the walls and all of the combatants. Jarod wondered, these things have a strength of 8, how come Chen with a strength of 1 could pull its arms off so easily? He needed to ask about how stats really worked when they got out of here.

The three of them mopped up the leftovers soon enough, none alive in the room but the three young men.

"So, where's that artifact?" Jarod jokingly said through heated breath. He hadn't made that many fireballs before, and man was he exhausted. It felt like his head was fuzzy, and his thoughts unclear.

"Should have spawned in my hand as soon as I landed the killing blow." Steel said. He looked concerned, his brow furrowed.

"Shit. I don't trust this place to be done until we get that artifact." Jarod said.

"Thanks for getting me." Chen grunted as he tried to wipe the black blood from his arms, and the tears from his face.

"Before we get anywhere, I have to ask." Jarod said. If he didn't understand stats, then his chances were incredibly slim. And he didn't think he could cast more fireballs.

"Ask away." Steel said, panting.

"What do stats represent?"

"Easy question, they represent our ability to harness our natural attributes." Chen said.

"Yeah, but what does that mean? Don't you get stronger by increasing your stats?"

"Yes, you've got part of the right idea. A stat's number represents how well you can harness the power innately in you, so no matter how high your strength stat is, if you're a scrawny punk, then you can never be as strong as someone with a lower score, but who's naturally more built." Chen continued.

"So why not just train yourself without worrying about stats?"

"The higher your stat is, the easier it is to harness, and therefore increase your natural abilities. That 'scrawny punk' with a high strength stat will have a far easier time increasing his natural abilities than a similarly built person but with a lower strength score. Your natural uncategorized abilities work in a symbiotic relationship with your statistics. They can grow without the other, but to truly become powerful you need both. That's why we train so hard in the citadel, so that we can become more naturally strong, as well as increase our stats." Steel said. He seemed to know a decent amount about this. But everyone did, compared to Jarod.

"Last question, how do you increase your stats?"

"By pushing yourself past your limit. No matter how consistent your training is, if you don't push yourself past the limit of what you previously thought possible by yourself, then your stats wont increase." Steel said.

"Ah, so that would explain why your willpower is still zero." Jarod regretted saying that immediately. Steel grinded his teeth.

"Yes, it's because I haven't found anything that has challenged my willpower enough that I could increase my willpower stat from it. But once I do increase it, I will have a far more powerful willpower than someone like you, who cowers at everything." Well shit. Steel was still pretty condescending, even making his shortcomings something to gloat over.

"Not to be rude, but something is coming." Chen said, he struck a fighting pose by the entrance. There was an odd shuffling sound by the door.

"Shit! I gotta check something first." Jarod ran to the big dead monster, and analysed it.

Monster: Greater Shapechanger

Stats:

Strength - 13 Endurance - 4 Agility - 5 Willpower - 3

Special:

This monster can take any form, though its base stats remain the same.

This is a lieutenant! Some boss monsters will have one or more to guard them.

Shit shit shit.

"We've got the real boss incoming." Jarod grabbed a cleaver from the kitchen shelf nearby, only to discover it was blunt, and made of stone that looked almost identical to metal with a wooden handle. This magic was rude. He instead grabbed a few of the stone knives around. They weren't perfect, but would hurt if they were thrown at you. They were still sharp, after all.

Around the hall and through the door burst a massive bloblike creature. It was as if the greater shapechanger was inflated like a balloon, then melted like a chocolate bar. Massive tentacles made of roots and odd little flowers and vines sprouted from this horrid mass. Jarod tried to conjure a fireball with his ember spell, but only managed a bare spark. He must be out of this world's mana, whatever they called it. Steel took a step back in shock, as did Chen. Steel then charged, he swung his sword wildly at the beast but it batted him away, shrieking like a deflating balloon. The sword bounced along the floor. Black blood sprayed from its fresh wounds. Chen tried punching it, an attack so futile it was practically pointless. It batted him to the side as well.

Jarod threw his stone knives with a frantic, fearful energy. A few sunk in, but it wasn't particularly phased by it. It came up upon Jarod, who backed up to the wall as it approached. His foot bumped into the sword that was knocked away from Steel, who was knocked out agains the wall. Jarod picked it up. He tried to remember his training, but that was only really two or three basic strikes. The beast reared up, about to kill Jarod by simply falling on him, and crushing him with its weight.

Then, a stone chair shattered against its side. Chen had swung the thing like a massive club, and shards of stone stuck out of the beast's body. It shrieked in anger again, causing Jarod's ears to ring. It lashed out a massive armlike root to knock Jarod to the floor, then picked up Chen. It grabbed him with several more as it wrapped slowly around his right arm. Suddenly it snapped, as if there were a second elbow. Chen screamed in pain before a horrid ripping sound signalled his arm being ripped out of its socket. A knob of bone from a shattered shoulder stuck out, and bright red blood sprayed against the wall. Jarod couldn't stand this monster killing his friend. Jarod stood up, holding the sword limply. He tightened his grip and charged at the boss. He hacked into its side, it barely noticed as it squeezed Chen more. Chen screamed as there was the pop of a few of his ribs breaking. Jarod couldn't let this happen. He thought of anything he could do, and in his fury, he raised the sword for an overhead strike.

It glowed red with heat, and a thin trail of fire followed behind it as he cut straight down, the slash passing far further than the blade could reach. The arc of red energy lit up the room. A trail of sparks like an angle grinder's unleashed as his blade slid through the monster's flesh like butter.

The monster was cut in two as sparks flew into the air, the room glowed orange with light for a few moments, as the embers from the slash drifted downwards.

You used a skill from an advanced class!

You cannot learn this skill until you are the appropriate class.

You are in danger of mana starvation, and if you are not replenished within the next hour you will die!

Jarod didn't think about taking souls right now. He barely noticed the delicate silver bracelet engraved with flowers around his wrist. What he did notice, is that he and Chen will die very quickly if they don't get help.

Steel limped up to Jarod, holding his side. Likely a few cracked ribs of his own. He looked at the monster's corpse for a moment, then at Chen, then at Jarod.

"I think you should keep the artifact. I'll try to stabilize Chen, You look like you're about to faint."

Steel limped forward, he took off his long belt sash and began to use it like a tourniquet. Though, the wound was a bit too far up the body to truly tie it off, but it would stop the bleeding for now. He pulled Chen onto his back, then the three of them wordlessly stumbled as fast as they could to the dungeon entrance. The silver door was there again. They passed through it, Jarod felt that familiar clinging sensation as he was suddenly in the cave. In front of the door were three paladins, including paladin Kaya who brought him in. His friends were there, waiting. Kaya looked as if she were about to charge in, then like she was about to scold them, then like she was in shock at their condition. She immediately turned to a fully armored giant of a man.

"Paladin Ramos! Healing magic! Now!" The giant man stepped forward without a second thought and grabbed Chen from Steel, he placed his glowing hand over the incredible amount of wounds. The other paladin ran up to Jarod and grabbed him, he pulled a vial of blue liquid and tilted it back into Jarod's mouth. He was too weak to consider anything else, and his eyes were almost drifting to sleep.

Jarod began to black out, and he looked up at Kaya, who didn't know whether to be concerned, or angry.