Miko held my arm tight as we made our way through the town on floor 1, I looked around for that blood gang horn or whatever name they called themselves, but, no luck, I couldn’t find a trace of them, not only that, but we seemed to get a handful of curious glances, well, more like glares, had something happened while I was out? They seemed to be glaring at Miko mainly though, she looked petrified, she did mention that humans tried to hunt her, but the trauma was extreme, the shaking was physically visible and she held her head down trying to avoid eye contact with anyone.

“I wonder why you weren’t this scared with me? I do have some evil looking eyes and I don’t give off the good guy vibe”

I spoke out loud trying to distract Miko, or at least get her to talk to me.

“Uhh Master Udon, I don’t believe they’re looking at me though.”

Huh? They weren’t looking at her? Were they glaring at me then?

“What do you mean? I’ve been in this town before and didn’t get these types of glances.”

“Your Gem Master Udon, since it's quite visible and shiny, I believe people know it's clear and consider you a criminal.”

Seriously!? I only put it in a poorly made bracelet because it was annoying grabbing it out of my pocket every time I needed help.

“You think this makes me a criminal!”

I stopped in the middle off the path and lifted my bracelet up in the air for everyone to see.

“If you have something to say, then say it to my face!”

I shouted out across the town glaring back at all the on lookers, it seemed to work as they scurried off in a hurry, Miko on the other hand, didn’t like the attention and hid behind me holding onto my waist.

“There! No more blabbermouths around, if we go through the gate here, the stairs are just beyond that?”

I pointed forward with a smug smile across my face.

“Uhh, yes Master Udon”

Miko replied coming out from behind me and looking around sheepishly.

“You know Miko, you are apart of my party now, which means if someone is trying to hurt you, they are getting in my way.”

I glared down at Miko, her sheepish behaviour was going to attract more attention than I’d like. Groups like that Blood Horn Gang would see us as easy pray, I didn’t need another outnumbered beating.

“S-sorry Master Udon”

“Just stick by me and I’ll protect you.”

Miko looked up at me, her cheeks flushed again, damn it! She’s still scared.

We made our way over the grass plains and came to the edge of the floor, it was just a rocky wall that seemed to go higher and higher with no end on sight, the stairs on the other hand, weren’t anything special, just massive, stone stairs that led into the rocky wall. We walked up the stairs and made our way onto the second floor, when we came to the top, another grassy plain came into sight with a town in the distance. The town looked smaller than the one on the first floor, but the landscape was much more varied, I could see a massive forest of dark oak trees and 2 lakes in the distant, the town must have been built in the centre of the floor.

*Floor 1 stairs registered

“Huh?”

A message came into my view. Floor 1 stairs registered, what does that mean?

“Whats wrong Master Udon?”

“I just got a message saying Floor 1 Stairs Registered, did you?”

“No, I didn't, but do you not know about the teleportation skill the gem has?”

“The Gem has a teleportation skill?”

Was she serious? Teleportation…why didn’t that squirrel lady explain that! It seems like quite a useful skill!

“Yes, the Gem can teleport to any floor that is with in 5 floors of you as long, as its been registered, if you attempt to teleport beyond that, you will most likely die due to the pressure your body takes in, but the Gem can also register a base and you can teleport there no matter how far away your are.”

Hmm, that does seem quite useful.

“So if we are ever in a fight we are going to lose, I can teleport us and we’ll be safe?”

That would be an ideal skill but I feel like it's not as simple as that.

“Unfortunately the gem’s teleportation skill doesn’t work when the user is in danger, there’s also a cool down period as well”

Knew it, that would be to easy, damn it!

We continued to walk through the grass plain towards the town, it was quite an awkward walk, but Miko seemed to have calmed down a little, her smile was large and it looked like she was skipping and humming. Being hauled up in that cave for over 300 years must have been hard, especially if she was by herself.

“Hey, Miko, you said you used magic to heal my headache, is that the only magic you know?”

I needed to learn what the magic was in this world and if I could use it.

“I can use any spells that I know, as long as they have the Light or Wind attribute, if they don’t then I can’t use them no matter how much I train.”

So there are attributes, I guess thats just elements.

“Do you know if I can use magic?”

If she knew what attribute she was, maybe she had a skill to see what I had.

“You don’t know? Sure, I can use my Appraisal skill, just a sec”

Miko turned to me and focused her sight onto my chest, mainly my heart. She had the appraisal skill as well, I wonder if it was the same weak appraisal I had or if she had an upgraded version.

“It says you have an affinity with Shadow and specialise in Defence Magic.”

Shadow and defence? They aren’t elements.

“I thought, attributes meant elements.”

I asked Miko, just when I thought I had come to terms with some sort of information about this dungeon, it turns out to be completely wrong.

“I don’t know what an element is, but there are seven attributes, Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Light, Dark and Shadow. There are specialised magic that a person can have, I don’t have any but you are specialised in defence spells, so any defence rated spell as long as it’s a shadow attribute for you, will be quite powerful.”

So I could only use Shadow spells then…Damn it! Another bullshit handicap!

“Are there any powerful spells I can learn?”

If I could only use shadow magic then I should at least learn the most powerful spells.

“Its hard to say, a player can increase their magic capacity or mana with their skill points, the higher ones capacity, the more spells one can learn, levelling up can also unlock spells but they always require materials to use the spell until they’ve mastered it. Learning spells from spell books is the best way to learn, but it's rare for a person to do that now, I think all the players made that way of learning redundant when the invention of a spell orb came.”

“A spell orb?”

So it seems like the power of a spell depends on ones magic capacity, the more magic you put into the spell, the more power is behind it.

“A spell orb was created by an ancient member of the creator Guild, his long gone now, it forcibly unlocks spells for players, they are quite expensive but they do cut out the time and effort it takes to normally learn a spell from a book, although, the spell the orb grants is random, it seems to be only one of 10 or 20 spells the orb can grant, no one knows why or how to achieve more spells from a spell orb, so majority of people will have the same spells or the same effect of a spell.”

Humans being lazy like always I see.

“There is another way to learn a spell, but it hasn’t been heard of in centuries.”

Another way? Wouldn’t hurt to hear it.

“What is it?”

“Its said that a person can teach another a spell they currently know, but the teacher needs to have mastered the spell and it takes quite a long time to teach it.”

That doesn’t seem too bad, maybe there are some high level mages I could force to teach me some spells.

“Master Udon, what are you thinking?”

Huh? What the hell! Does Miko have some sort of mind reading skill? She’s looking at me with suspicious eyes.

“Oh, uhh nothing… You said some sort of chant before your spell didn’t you?”

I needed to change the subject, if she started getting suspicious of me already, then her plan to backstab me was most likely going to speed up its process, and I’m not strong enough to defend her off yet.

“I don’t know what this chant is, but in order to activate a spell you need to do the Incantation, here let me show you.”

Incantation, chant, same thing Miko.

“Hear my words dungeon, I ask to be surrounded, filled and illuminated with the dungeons flowing energy, hear my plea ‘The Power of Wind’ Wind Cutter”

A visibly high pressure of wind flew out of Miko’s hands at pressed forward at an extreme force, it looked like it was cutting the air as it made its way forward and then disappeared.

“I’m not the best at magic, but thats how you cast it.”

If I can learn shadow spells, it will be easier to remove the obstacles in my way.

“There are rankings for spells, the most common spells learnt are called Spirit spells, then it goes Atone spells, Elite spells, Heroic or Wrath spells and lastly Divinity Magic Spells, no one has ever been said to use a spell in that category so its only a myth. The rankings are only based on the rarity of the spell, even a Sprite ranked spell can be as strong or stronger than an Elite spell if it's mastered enough.”

Ok, I was right, the more mana you have the more powerful a spell is and to get more mana you need to level up, which by the easiest way, is to use one spell over and over again.

“For ones who don’t have that much mana they can buy a magic stone that amplifies their own magic, but they break after a single use.”

Magic stones huh? That sounds like that could be of use, even if it's only a one time usage, I can level up with magic stones and keep my own mana.

“Can I ask what spells you have?”

If I knew what spells Miko had it would help coordinate our attacks.

“Huh? You can just look at them yourself you know, if you focus on my name, all my skills and magic and stats will come up.”

Really? That does make sense though, maybe I should still ask her? Is it creepy if I look at her stats without even asking her? Better ask just in case.

“You don’t mind if I look?”

“Oh, uhh no, no I don’t”

Great, right call, Miko looked down and her cheeks flushed red again, if I hadn’t asked she might have got mad.

“Lets see, Miko.”

I focused on Miko’s name in my vision and her stats popped up.

Miko Evaluation Menu:

Level: 10

Species: Mythical Bee

Guild:

Faction:

Guild Rank:

Quests Completed: 0

Skill Points: 33

Hero Weapon:

Guild Points: 0

Bestowed Gifts: Mythical Bee Light

Weapon Mastery >

Attribute Menu >

Skill Menu >

Spell Menu >

“Can I look at your attributes?”

I wonder what that Mythical Bee Light Bestowed Gift is?

“Y-yeah, you don’t need to keep asking Master Udon, I trust you. If you’re also wondering, that Bestowed Gift I have, increases my light magic power.”

Better to ask then not though, at least I’ve got her full permission to look whenever now, and I can’t use light magic so that’ll be no use for me…damn it! Why couldn’t she have something useful for me.

Attributes Menu:

Attack: 70

Defence: 60

Stamina: 90

Speed: 80

Focus: 130

MP: 70/70

Gem Attributes

Attack: 0

Defence: 0

Stamina: 0

Speed: 0

Focus: 0

MP: 0

Lets look at her skills next.

Skill Menu:

Night Vision-Common Skill-Unlocked-10/10

Enhanced Senses-Common Skill-Unlocked-10/10

Magic Sense-Common Skill-Unlocked-10/10

Advanced Appraisal-Upgraded Uncommon Skill-Unlocked-7/10

Quick Chant-Uncommon Skill-Unlocked-3/10

Extra Sense-Rare Skill-Unlocked-1/10

Gradual Healing-Upgraded Rare Skill-Unlocked-2/10

Polyglot-Superior Skill-Unlocked-2/10

She has a skill called Quick Chant and didn’t know what a chant was…Common sense lacks in this world. Polyglot meant someone that had an understanding of numerous languages back in my world, must be more then one language in this world…wait? What language am I even speaking? It sounds like Japanese and I hear Japanese but is it? All the characters are different for signs so the language must be different. No, this is the stuff that doesn’t matter, and if I keep thinking about it, it’ll make my head spin and I’ll get no where.

“Lucky my skills stayed with me while I levelled down”

Miko told me, she watched me stand there looking at all her skills and magic, she seemed a little embarrassed though. Her attributes were quite impressive, but she only had 8 skills, how long had she been alive? I had unlocked 10 already, although most of them were forced unlocks which I still didn’t quite understand how that happened.

“Miko, what is your extra sense skill?”

“I can sense if someone is truly bad or good”

An intuition skill maybe then? It only has one mastery point, ha! Just what I thought, there isn’t anyone good in this dungeon.

Spell Menu:

Sweet Aroma-Light Magic-Spirit Spell-Learnt-2/10

Healing Headache-Light Magic-Spirit Spell-Learnt-1/10

Flash-Light Magic-Spirit Spell-Learnt-1/10

Whirl Wind-Wind Magic-Spirit Spell-Learnt-0/10

Wind Cutter-Wind Magic-Spirit Spell-Learnt-3/10

Gust-Wind Magic-Spirit Spell-Learnt-2/10

“My Magic isn’t very impressive, I never really had a use for it, so I didn’t practice or try and find new spells.”

Could she tell what I was looking at?

“Can you sense what I’m looking at?”

“In a way, I get a warm feeling around my body when you looked at my skills, I felt like they were warm, and when you looked at my magic I could feel my mana easier.”

Interesting, so even if I didn’t ask she could tell if I looked.

“Can you see my stats?”

If I could see hers then maybe she could see mine.

“I can, I’ve actually already looked at all your stats…”

Huh!? So she could, and she didn’t ask!?

“I’m sorry Master Udon, when you asked, I realised it was sensitive to you so I didn’t want to make you upset.”

Isn’t that just as bad? Doing something that is wrong and then hiding it, to not ‘upset’ the person.

“I don’t mind you looking, I just thought it was something someone should ask first thats all.”

“I’m sorry Master Udon”

Miko bowed her head again, man, she was really playing to innocent, lovely girl quite well…but, its an act.

“I haven’t checked mine since I levelled up, maybe my attributes increased?”

Udon Evaluation Menu:

Level: 2

Species: Human

Guild:

Faction:

Guild Rank:

Quests Completed: 0

Skill Points: 14

Hero Weapon:

Guild Points: 0

Bestowed Gifts:

Weapon Mastery >

Attribute Menu >

Skill Menu >

Spell Menu >

I knew all that, 14 SP isn’t bad but not good.

Attributes Menu

*Attack: 24-27

*Defence: 50-65

*Stamina: 30-37

*Speed: 15-20

*Focus: 75-80

*MP: 30/30-30/33

All my attributes have gone up around 5 except for defence, thats gone up by 15, it must have been that betrayed skill I unlocked, it made my base defence increase by +5. That settles all that, we better get into town before night falls, there are monsters on this floor.

We kept walking towards the town, we could see it clearly now. It was smaller then the town on floor 1 but it had more buildings, we should go and acquire a map from the Armour and Weapon shop, I need some money though, damn it! I could sell my medicinal herbs.

“Miko, what are all these shining rocks? They seem to be everywhere, can we sell them?”

As I walked towards the town, there were normal looking rocks with a shining light blue core and seemed to be scattered all over the place, it was weird seeing boulders on a grass plain.

“They’re called Dungeon Ore, they are quite common and found almost anywhere, so it’d be rare to find a buyer.”

Dungeon Ore? What are they used for then?

“Do they power something or make armour?”

“Not really, legend says they power the magic in the dungeon, but thats just a legend. No one uses them for materials to create any weapons and armour because they seem to be poor quality and weak.”

Considering Miko said that not many players share their skills with regular people, if you could find the right blacksmith, you could probably make quite the quality weapon. She also said it was legend that the Dungeon Ore powers the Dungeons magic, with all the information getting lost or turned to myths and legends over the last couple of hundred years, they are most likely valuable, but no one knows how to use them.

“Hmmm, we’ll grab some later, it’s getting dark so I want to be in town before the sun or whatever light the dungeon has sets.”

Miko looked at me with a confused expression when I told her we’d gather some up later, so she was one of the ones who didn’t know how to use them, guess it’ll be trial and error then.