Come morning I make my way again to the training room. Two of the others are already present and practicing on the training dummies.

I’m actually not sure if disabling the navigator feature would also remove the 100% discount so I’d rather not risk 30% of my MP just to [appraise] them. As buggy as the system is the if-condition it triggers might not just be around the Elly feature but around the whole presence of the title...

I try to greet the two but they pay me no attention, so I start my own training. A few minutes later two more come in, bickering about something. Not my business.

Then Chloe arrives. She looks around and shakes her head. Seems like our seventh person being late is a normal occurrence. No one else stops doing their thing so I also continue running laps.

Right before the first hour of practice is over our missing one graces us with his presence, yawning. Chloe wastes no time to chew him out.

After the fifth hour is up and my SP is again insufficient to continue I head over to Chloe who has been doing her own practices.

"I'm done with my training. Can I blow up some monsters now or do you need to accompany me?"

"I think you can go on your own. Just be back here within two hours."

"Alright."

I make my way over to the gate and climb the tower again. At the top I see three soldiers throwing garbage at the monsters. Seems like my suggestion didn't go to... waste. Well, technically it did.

One of them notices me, "ah, there's the guilty party. Here to show us some more underhanded tricks?"

"What? You'd rather be down there and get your face clawed in?"

"Maybe. At least it sounds better than digging through smelly trash."

"I can see your point. I actually expected they'd just recruit some of the slum dwellers, give them something productive to do", not completely false but...

"Hmph, who wants those around..."

And yet another thing that needs investigating. This is a life or death scenario and people are picky about who they want around, great.

I look down at the monster flood, seems like there are still the same types as yesterday. At least I don't see anything new.

I wanted to try the big 'rain' aoe spell variant with status effect today. I feel 'ice' today, maybe it gets an HP draining cold effect? But I don't really know how big the affected area will be. So I aim as far away as I can see.

ERROR: target out of range

Ok, how about a bit closer?

ERROR: target out of range

I repeat it a few more times and then finally see my MP dropping to 114/1144. And then... nothing happens. Great. Wasted a boatload of MP. Well, can't change it now...

I have enough MP left for a single spell, so I shoot another rock and aim for a crawler - and miss...

You’ve inflicted 555 damage to Baby Slime.

Should've just stayed in bed today...

I take a deep breath and then turn around. As I'm about to enter the stairs downwards again I get another damage popup.

You’ve inflicted 5 damage to Baby Slime. Failed to inflict a status effect.

You’ve inflicted 5 damage to Dire Wolf. Failed to inflict a status effect.

I head back down the wall and see it starts to hail. Seems like my 'ice rain' spell took some while to take effect. The damage report grows longer and longer...

You’ve inflicted 5 damage to Baby Slime. Failed to inflict a status effect.

You’ve inflicted 5 damage to Dire Wolf. Failed to inflict a status effect.

You’ve failed to inflict damage to Earth Golem.

You’ve inflicted 3 damage to Crawler. Failed to inflict a status effect.

You’ve inflicted 5 damage to Ragelope. Failed to inflict a status effect.

You’ve inflicted 5 damage to Slime. Failed to inflict a status effect.

...

Hundreds if not thousands of entries. I need to set this to hidden somehow...

I check my menu. One of the tabs is labeled UI, maybe there... jackpot! I can change the readout for aoe attacks to a summary!

Your 'Ice Rain' spell has inflicted a total of 473885 damage and 0 status effects.

That is a lot of damage. And what did I expect, status effects are only good versus players and never when used by them...

Wait, what is this? Below the summary option is another setting: 'stat precision'? What is that supposed to be? Options are: 'normalized' which is currently selected, 'shorthand' and 'absolute'. Ok, what does 'shorthand' do...

HP 100% MP 10% SP 10% STR pitiful DEX pitiful VIT pitiful MAG low FTH low WIL low CHA pitiful

Yeah, that is useless. And 'absolute'?

HP 9,189,580,356/9,189,580,356 [11,498,073,972] MP 1,265,232,078/12,696,714,888 [15,881,992,137] SP 621,517,512/6,170,781,012 [7,724,574,792] STR 1,409,512,929+776,896,890 DEX 1,642,581,996+55,492,635 VIT 1,409,512,929+665,911,620 MAG 2,807,927,331+388,448,445 FTH 2,097,621,603+221,970,540 WIL 2,097,621,603 CHA 1.653.680.523

Why do I feel like I'm in the wrong movie? These numbers are some Disgaea level of stat inflation. Back to normal with this setting.

I take this opportunity to check how much exp I've gained from the rain spell ...314, holy shit. Not even a single monster kill but a massive amount of exp.

With all my MP burned away I've nothing else to do here and return to the training room, leaving the garbage disposal workers to their dirty deeds, maybe not dirt cheap.

When I get back the others are finishing their training and Chloe tells everyone to get together.

She uses some water magic to clean everybody up a bit and then we head out.

I still have no clue who is who.

Chloe then leads us outside the facility towards what is supposedly a dungeon. On the way there she explains - mostly to me - how dungeons work:

When you enter a dungeon our MP and SP are refilled which explains why Chloe wanted us to burn our MP and SP beforehand with training. HP is explicitly not part of that package. While inside a dungeon sleep provides no benefit. Good thing I can't sleep anyway. While you're inside a dungeon time outside is stopped. You can enter only one dungeon per week. If you had access to two or more dungeons you can still only visit one of them. This sadly rules out instant restoration exploits. The inside of a dungeon is unique for each individual or party that enters; no running across other groups to get out of a sticky situation here. Between each floor is a safe zone that regular monsters can't enter. A marking on the walls of said zone indicates the floor number. Bosses however can leave their floor once provoked. Furthest reported deviation is 5 floors. It is not clear if that is the limit or if the reporting group just left someone behind as bait. Every tenth floor is either a boss or a puzzle or something else special. This dungeon is supposedly 120 floors deep but no one has gone past 70 just rushing through and for regular monster drop farming it is rare to fully clear past the first ten floors. Most groups can only handle 3-5 full floors.

We arrive at a small hill. It has an entrance made of a marble frame around a silvery semiliquid that covers the entrance itself. Kinda reminds me of an off-color stargate missing the dialing symbols.

Another group is just entering it and a moment later they return from the other side of the hill.

Chloe makes her final preparations, "ok, next up it's our turn, everyone join up. And remember to not leave through the portal behind us until I tell you to, Allen. You know we can only visit once per week. Don't waste it."

You received a party invitation from Chloe.

Accept?

Still too MMORPG like...

You've entered a party with Chloe, Kay, Marca, Geofrey, Allen and Gabella.

Party size: 7/7

No more invitations can be sent at this time.

Huh, seven is a strange limit for party size. Why is there even one?

"Ok, that is everyone, now move into the dungeon", Chloe commands then everyone steps through the dungeon gate. I stop in front of it and try to touch the silvery horizon of it. It feels like it is not even there. A tear in reality and you can't even feel it... I gather my courage and step through.

I wonder how long they've waited for me now? For me, it was a moment but supposedly time is stopped outside - how does that even work? ...I'll just say it's magic and move on...

"Ok, the usual formation", Chloe says, "Marca and Kay in the front", she points to the two soldiers carrying a sword and shield, "Allen and Gabella right behind", that goes to the two with spears, "and Geofrey, Jared and me take the rear", that left only the giant with the axe.

"Jared, keep your spells on ready but only use them when I tell you to. This is a routine job but we still need to be prepared in case something goes south. Best case you don't cast a single spell and can then decimate the flood a bit further."

Free exp? Yes, please.

The first floor is a wide area, a slightly overgrown cave. It only contains the slimes I know from outside, about 20 total. They are dispatched without any issues by my companions.

The second floor is a smaller cave with a few rocks and stalactites as obstacles. This cave is populated by 'Math Rabbits'. I reflexively [appraise] one.

Name Age N/A Classes Math Rabbit 2 Race Generic Monster 2 Extra Monster 2 HP 836/836 MP 330/330 SP 1804/1804 STR 132 DEX 616 VIT 66 MAG 132 FTH 110 WIL 88 CHA 176 Skills Generate Offspring 2 Weakness Poison

Wait, Elly is still disabled. Did this cost me MP? Good, it didn't. Should've tested this earlier. And as for the skill...

Generate Offspring (Math Rabbit)

20 SP, only usable while in a dungeon, 2 minutes cooldown

Create a wild Math Rabbit of a level equal to this skill's level.

Ah great, they are champions at 'multiplying' ...and running away. The floor started with only 4 of them but as soon as they spotted us they make like trees. It seems their 'survival' strategy is to just run away until they can spawn another rabbit and then use one of them as bait, repeat until we're exhausted. If all monsters have such a suicidal survival instinct an eventual full clear will be nasty.

What little is left of our formation breaks in the chaos of trying to corner Math Rabbits and slaying them. I try to shoot a rabbit down but Chloe stops me while I'm preparing the spell. Well, as it is they can spawn new rabbits faster than we can take them down so this will be the last floor already.

Once everyone's SP is depleted there are at least a dozen rabbits still alive. We return to the first floor and the other soldiers hand over their spoils to Chloe. I ... got nothing because I wasn't allowed to do anything. Then Chloe signals everyone to leave through the gate we came in.

I go last again. Or rather I stop before going through the portal and start thinking.

If time is stopped outside and I regain HP, MP and SP passively can't I just ditch them and farm a bit by myself? No one would know if I got some lucky drops. Well, not today because I have absolutely nothing to occupy my time while waiting for the resources to build back up but food for thought next time.

Outside Chloe dismisses the rest of the group for the day and then takes me to the side, "so that's roughly how dungeons will go with you for the near future. Until you've built some levels and can help with melee combat you'll just be on standby and can then like today put the remaining MP into thinning the flood outside. And train a few more hours with the SP you haven't used. The training room is empty after 1800 if you want."

"Isn't that a bit too advantageous for me? I'm not really doing anything but still leeching exp", not that it was much. Even the strongest of the five needed two hits to take down one rabbit and was missing almost half his swings. Well, with his SP pool he still took down about twenty. Which is one more than I got in exp total for this visit.

"No, don't worry about it. Everyone will be helped a lot if you can deal some big blows to the flood with your spells. No one wants to be imprisoned here longer than needed."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Got a few minutes for some questions?"

"Yes, sure. But we can talk on the way. I've to introduce you to one more facility."

"Fine by me."

We start walking, Chloe leads the way. I start with my questions, "so first off, I'd like to get my hands on some books or other learning material. Nights are kind of wasted right now", not entirely true, I've still got Jeff's useless notes... something more useful would be welcome.

"You could borrow some from the library once you're allowed to go there. I guess today I'll prioritize getting you access there - expect news on that tomorrow or the day after."

"Works for me. And the other thing I'm curious about - what is with the slums? We kinda need all the manpower we can get but when I brought them up earlier some soldiers seemed quite offended that I'd even consider them."

"In the slums are mostly people with production jobs for which there are no more openings. Like accountants, nurses or ammunition producers - the latter because the factory can't be operated at all while the fortress is dormant. There are also a handful of people with combat classes that require said ammo - archers and gunners. No ammo means no purpose for them either. So people consider them 'useless' and want nothing to do with them."

"Can't they at least learn a different job? I mean I know that you don't have class cores lying around to retrain them into something like sword fighters but why not for example smiths?"

"Stigma? Most people just don't want to be associated with 'them' even if they managed to get out of the slum. And the few that might care enough to give them a chance got better things to do."

"That's... stupid."

"No, that's life."

"Don't talk to me about something I don't have. But seriously, why don't they even value nurses or doctors? I don't see the majority of soldiers getting away from the gate without harm."

"Again, limited job capacity. Until some noble is found that can finally wake this stupid 'Lord's Mansion' up we can't expand them."

Mansion this. Mansion that. Can't you 'mansion' something besides this dumb manor thing...

"So unless you've got a miracle up your sleeves we're stuck with just ten nurses or healers total."

"Ten for... hundreds if not thousands of wounded soldiers?", that... hit different.

"Tell me about it. Between the ten of them, they can barely keep them from dying and then it's still weeks they are out of commission. Not that the low budget for medical supplies helps any. So if the flood is as bad as we suspect this can only end... well."

"The only 'well' I'm seeing is the one I'll throw the idiot in who designed this."

We arrive at our destination, "this is the vault", Chloe introduces it, "all the loot from a dungeon trip goes here." She waves one of the workers over and tells him, "Ephran, this is... you know who. Got all the paperwork sorted out?"

"Totally. Got any good haul today?"

"No. Just the usual stuff", she hands him the materials.

"Good, let me sort it out quickly and then you get your stuff", he winks at me and then goes to the back of the office.

"What was that about?", I ask Chloe.

"Ah, nothing important. *whispers* we'll talk about that later"

We wait a few minutes then Ephran comes back and hands me a small bag, "here you go, anything else I can do for you?"

"No, that's all today", Chloe tells him off. Ephran looks dejected. Maybe he enjoys talking with her especially. "Let's go."

After a few steps outside she explains, "there are some blood phials inside for you. Drink them when you're alone. 'We' may know about you but the people in charge would like to keep it on a need-to-know basis." I put the three vials away, "understood. Thanks."

"So that's it for today. You should've still all your MP so do us a favor and blow up some flood monsters."

"Yeah, that's what I planned. The spell I tried today was way more fruitful exp-wise, though not so much in the kill count. At least the slimes have probably healed all the damage I've dealt to them."

"Eh, it's fine. Consider it a long-term investment. Now go and work some magic. Literally."

"Sure, but what's the plan for tomorrow?"

"Unless someone of sufficient rank tells you otherwise just go to the training room around 800 each morning, do some training and then waste some monsters with your spells.

Except for Thursdays, those are our dungeon time and will go like today. Any other questions?"

"You remember about my library access?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll see what I can do. Now go, I have stuff to do."

It is still weird to me how strict everyone was in the beginning but now on the third day, I'm already left to my own devices without even a hint of what to do. Main quest where are you!?

I make my way back to the gate. Maybe I still need to learn about the area better because I come by the slums. There waits a slightly familiar figure for me:

the vampire Erwin.