Time was a strange sort of item. Either there was too much of it, or never enough. Rarely was there just the right amount. The way that someone experienced it could be quite distinct as well. Time seemed to pass slowly at some points, while at others it would pass by at a blisteringly fast pace.

Scott Hennessy needed to gain a proper understanding of time before he could legitimately enroll in IDEA. Within the confines of an actual dungeon, staying too long could lead to serious illness or death. Resonance would only protect the human body for so long before the environment of the dungeon began to corrode it. Greater resonance allowed for a lengthier stay within a dungeon, but it was not a complete guarantee against corrosion.

"Can you hear my voice?" asked Alice through the neural interface. Her voice seemed elongated, out of touch with time and reality.

"Yeah, but it's really distorted," said Scott.

Alice was quiet for what seemed to be a short time from Scott's perspective. When she spoke again, it was with much greater clarity. "How about now?"

"Almost perfect, I think." Scott currently reclined on a dive chair, a comfortable if old school device that was used by ID-Drive users until the advent of the VR-Cradle. A full-immersion device that cut off all outside sensory information so that the ID-Drive could be fully utilized.

Another brief silence ensued. After Alice's voice returned, Scott heard her with perfect clarity.

"Excellent. Time-sensory dilation can be set to almost two. Let's see if we can push it the rest of the way before you leave here," said Alice in a cheerful tone.

"Time-sensory dilation... So, I can almost experience twice the time in the ID-Drive dungeons that I experience in the real world?" asked Scott. He had heard of the process before, but all of his training had been in real-time.

"Correct. You'll only be able to actually stay in the ID dungeons for as long as your resonance would allow you to safely exist in a real one of that class," she said. Scott heard her take a breath before she continued, "However, if you develop your TSD capacity, you'll be able to dive more often in the same amount of time during your training."

Scott did like the sound of that. More dive time meant greater advancement. "Will I fail if I don't get to TSD level two?"

"Not at all. The minimum requirement is one-point-five. I've never heard of a student failing to reach that when they have a resonance score over three hundred," said Alice.

"So, level two is good then?" asked Scott. Before Alice could answer, a wild variety of shapes and colors appeared before the youth's eyes. His visual centers were being stimulated. Synchronizing with the ID-Drive was a delicate process. It would happen on its own over the course of a few weeks, but it was better to develop synchronization in a quick, but careful, manner.

A cloudy image of Alice appeared in the darkness before his virtual-reality eyes. "It's average, but average for IDEA is excellent for most other people."

Scott watched the strange colors and shapes move about seemingly of their own volition. He felt a strong sense of pressure behind his eyes, but it did not ever become painful. It was merely uncomfortable and strange.

The pressure died away after a few minutes and the images became more coherent. Over the course of another few minutes they became highly focused and hyper-realistic representations. "What do you see?" asked Alice.

"I see black space, a brown wood table, a virtual Alice, and a small box on the table."

"Describe the box." said Alice. "I already know what I'm supposed to look like to you."

"It's a simple wooden box, light brown with darker brown sections." The image rotated in his mind and he saw it from the back. "It has hinges that look like they are made out of gold or brass. Something like that."

"Good. Good... One moment," said Alice. Not long after she said that, several things began to change in the endless expanse of darkness.

Scott watched curiously as the box shifted slightly in appearance. That slight shift abruptly became a dynamic shift. Its entire appearance of little chest changed to that of a bright red box with golden trim. It had a large built-in lock on the front, and looked to be at least four times its precious size. Overall, it looked like something out of a roleplaying game.

Alice asked Scott to describe the changes then said, "Good," after he answered. After another brief moment of silence she said, "Alright, now is the moment of truth."

"Moment of truth?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, all of your latent development points have been consumed and focused into the development of both that box and the sole item within it," she said candidly.

"Why? Couldn't I have used those for my stats or something?" asked Scott, more than a little annoyed at the outcome.

"No, you don't have that sort of training and it would be a waste anyway," said the virtual Alice.

She gestured toward the box and said, "What you need now is equipment. Whatever lies within that box is something unique, an item of power derived from the core of your very soul. It will be the best item you are likely to find for quite some time outside of an actual dungeon."

"Well, I suppose that's fine then..." said Scott. If it was a free unique item born from his own heartfelt desires then that was no doubt better than adding a few stat points.

"Open the box and have a look," instructed Alice.

Scott did as he was bid and took a look inside the ornate box. The moment that he opened it, a light blue inventory screen popped up. There was only one item listed, but he had room for one medium item, and eight small items. He also noted that he needed to expend twenty-five hundred development points to increase its size and content allotment once more.

"My storage box is level nine..." said Scott.

"Really? Not bad at all!" said Alice with a tone of genuine excitement.

"So, level nine is good?" This was all new to Scott. Little was known about the actual training methods at the academy, outside of the academy anyway.

"Yes, it isn't surprising since you are a boy. This is one of the few parts of the process where the male side of the equation usually does better." she admitted.

"Really? Why is that?" asked Scott. He was surprised to hear that any part of the process favored men.

"Development points come from life experiences, such as traumatic events and hard training. Girls do not need to train as heavily to reach the same point as the boys do, so they usually don't," she said before stopping to take a breath and consider her words. After a moment, she continued. "There are plenty of girls who have storage levels higher than you from the start, but most barely rate over level four while almost all male students rate at least a six or higher."

"Is there a record for the highest storage level?" Scott was curious about where he actually stood.

"Yes, level twelve. That record was achieved by a male student. In order to have matched it, you would have needed another thirteen thousand five hundred development points," she said.

"How much more than what I had was that?" Scott had not even seen his development points, so he had no real idea of their actual number.

"Basically, you would have needed at least another six or seven times the amount of points you had developed throughout your life," said Alice.

Scott did not know what to think about that. He had trained like it was a new religion, but there were other guys who had much more potential right from the start than he'd shown.

Instead of dwelling on how much development he needed, he chose to focus on what was inside his box. Scott looked at the single item shown in his inventory then blinked.

[Superior Cape of the Lone Guardian]

From the depths of the heart arises a power like none other. Rise above the common beat, and reach for the skies true believer.

Level: 1/00

Development Points: 0/10

Special Options

All Attributes: + 10

Improved Regeneration: [Type IV][4% Reduction in Healing Time]

Developmental Skills

Defensive Aura: 10 [0/7000]

Aura of Flight: 10 seconds [0/25000]

[--]

He related the information about his unique item then waited for Alice to respond. Nearly a full minute would go by before the frozen image of her avatar began to move once more. She managed to cough a little then asked, "Can you repeat that, please? I must have heard wrong."

Scott slowly repeated what he had said, earlier. Virtual Alice wasted no time in speaking up this time. "Are you sure about the level? There is a double-zero at the end?"

"Yeah, is that important?" he asked. He had never trained with items, only developed his focus.

"Important? It means it can be upgraded indefinitely! It's not unheard of, but that cape is definitely a good thing to have from the beginning. You can even learn skills from it."

"Learn skills...? You mean I can learn those last two skills? Really learn them?" he asked slowly. He could scarcely believe what he had just heard.

"Yep. You'll only have the basic ability when you're not wearing your cape. The ability should upgrade if you increase its power, so wear the cape when you need to use upgraded abilities," she said.

Scott discussed his new item with Alice for a moment then followed her next set of directions. He focused on the cape's icon then envisioned a finger pressing it. The cape immediately appeared before him in all its red glory. It was bright red, but had a bright gold fringe, and was clasped with a golden buckle.

He followed Alice's instructions and soon he could properly feel that he had a body to work with in this strange digital space. He donned his cape then made an experimental swishing movement. "Neat."

It did not take long for memories of his childhood to surface. The time that he had spent as the park guardian came to mind. At that time he wore a towel for a cape. Now he had something far more badass.

"Alright. Now that you have sight and sound. We'll work on the other senses for a few minutes. Once they are ready, we'll go do a test run in a small dungeon program," said Alice.

Scott liked where this was going! Finally, he could start the real training. His entire life had led to this moment. Ever since he was a child, he wanted to be a real superhero. Over time his ambitions had turned to those of a dungeon explorer, but the desire was still there.

Time passed while his other senses were attuned. Soon he could touch, taste, smell, and use his awareness of his body to interact with greater ease in the virtual reality generated by the ID-Drive.

"Let's get started with the real dive. You should see something new pop up in front of you soon," said Alice. Her avatar smiled warmly at Scott. It was always good to see a new student take their first real step into the world of dungeon exploration.

A door suddenly manifested in the darkness. Rather, it was a door shaped hole in the void. Scott moved to inspect it and was greeted by another floating menu. There was only one option at the moment. "I can only go to Freemount Dungeon. What is that?"

"Your next destination. That dungeon program is an exact duplicate of the real Freemount Dungeon found in Tanzania. It's a simple F-Class dungeon with only weak opponents. For the sake of this first test, there will only be one monster to fight," said Alice. She took a thoughtful sounding breath then clarified the situation, "You have to navigate the dungeon to reach it at the end, though."

"What kind of monster is it?" asked Scott.

"A wild dog," she said simply. Before Scott could speak again, she asked, "Ready? If so, select the dungeon and the door will open."

"Yeah, let's do this," said Scott. He selected the dungeon then watched in fascination as the darkness of the door gave way to a bright light. Once that light faded, he saw a grassy plain on the other side of the doorway.

He walked into the grass lands and looked around carefully. Alice's avatar appeared behind him then floated over to where he stood. "This dungeon is small, and you're only authorized to be on the first floor, so the stairs will not appear this time."

"What do I need to do?" he asked.

"Walk until you reach the edge of the floor then walk the entire outer perimeter. After you do that, the monster will auto-generate," she said. Alice seemed to think something over for a moment then continued. "Oh, and for this test we have disallowed skill usage. So, your skills won't activate for now."

"You can do that?" asked Scott, a frown forming.

"Absolutely. As long as you are hooked into a neural network, we can set different parameters in your dungeon experience. If you want to use your skills without restraint, it will have to wait until you can train on your own," said Alice. "Some real dungeons disallow certain skills, so it's a training tool we use in the virtual dungeons as well."

Scott saw nothing difficult about those requirements so he set out to complete his task. It did not take long to reach the edge. An invisible wall stopped his forward movements. He put out a hand to trace the curve of the invisible barrier then began to walk in a new direction.

The young adventurer in training counted his steps as he moved. Soon he heavily exaggerated the length of his steps just to kill time while he walked. By the time he was close to making it back to his original location he had reached over five thousand exaggerated steps. "So, what around three miles?"

"Yes, that is about the distance. The monster will spawn soon. Be prepared," warned Alice.

The so-called dog appeared the moment that Scott crossed his original path. A massive beast, it had to be at least twice the size of a Great Dane. Beginning at the back of its skull, a fin like that of a fish ran down along its back. Where a normal tail should be, the beast had something akin to a scorpion's barb.

"This is a dog?" asked Scott, more than a little disturbed by what he was seeing. He had seen monsters on the news and the Internet, but had only seen one monster in person.

"It's classified as a canine variant if that's what you mean," said Alice.

The oversized dog howled at him then ran toward Scott like it was terrified that it would miss out on a free lunch. The absolute speed and ferocity of the thing set off a sense of warning inside the new dungeon explorer in training.

Instinctively, Scott turned to run from the thing. His stats, even with the cape, were only those of a normal person. That so-called dog would tear him a new asshole, among other new holes.

Fido was much faster than Scott. The beast easily overtook him and leapt toward the fleeing youth with deadly intent. The creature knocked him to the ground then began tearing into his flesh with wild abandon.

Scott screamed in agony as he felt like he was being ripped apart. However, the entire world froze in place after only a few seconds. Bleeding and shredded to the bone, Scott gasped for air. Tears streaked down his eyes as blood erupted from his torn throat.

The world faded away not long after that. Scott suddenly awoke in the VR-Cradle. He could smell blood and tasted the coppery salty taste of his own life fluids in his mouth. The lid of the cradle rose up and a blond woman he vaguely recognized as the on-hand medical expert began to fuss over him.

"Did you really have to do that, Alice?" asked the blond in a huff. She placed her hands over Scott's badly injured chest. A soft blue light shined down upon his wounds, and the bleeding began to slow down. Soon, it stopped altogether.

"Maxine, you know that I did. The first battle has to be hopeless so they know what they are getting into in the future," said Alice without even a hint of concern.

"Right..." muttered Maxine. She continued to argue with Alice while she repeated the process for Scott's tattered shoulder, left arm, and the large gash in his throat. The bit of his cheek that had been torn away felt her touch next, and then finally she healed his damaged left eye.

Another few minutes passed while she fussed with Alice, and continued to mend Scott's injuries. The worst of them had been healed, now it was time to fix the cosmetic damage.

"You're lucky. You almost needed to have your left arm removed and regenerated," said the blond woman.

"What if that thing had crushed my head?" asked Scott angrily.

Alice merely gave him a look. Scott refused to look away, and a moment later Alice said, "Like I told you earlier, some students simply do not survive."

A cold chill ran down Scott's spine as Alice's icy gaze continued to penetrate deeply into him. It was obvious at that moment that she would not coddle him, or any student. Live or die by their own strength; that was the way of things. "Damn... no wonder so many people wash out."

"You calling it quits already?" asked Alice curiously.

"Hell no," said Scott. "I'm just getting started..."

"True. You are not ready for that creature. It's the strongest monster type in that dungeon. You'll have to go there for real at some point in your first semester. Do you still want to go to IDEA?"

Scott was hesitant for a moment. Did he really have what it took to fight something like that? It had absolutely dominated him in every way. Hell, he had not even had the chance to try to fight back. The power of that thing had been beyond anything he could have dealt with at the time. Running from it was his only option, and even then it was no option at all.

Briefly, he had to wonder if he had made a mistake. The image of that beast rose up within his mind. It had been an impossible situation from the beginning. He could have died and no one outside of his family would have cared. He almost told Alice to go to hell when he realized that, but then something changed.

Despite the fear and pain he had experienced, two images came to mind. One was his family. The other was the smile on the face of the woman who saved him as a child.

No one was born strong. Even she had to train to reach that point. If he wanted to reach his dream, he could not let something that he had actually survived frighten him away. The fires of his resolve reignited, he took a deep breath then slowly nodded. "Yes. I do want to go to IDEA."

Alice looked into his eyes then slowly nodded. "Good. You'll have to train hard, but my assessment is complete. You survived an impossible and brutal battle. Despite that, you still wanted to continue. Everything else that you need to do from now on just involves upgrading attributes and acquiring development points."

"So, I'm not going to get a lower score or something because I ran from that thing?" he asked.

Alice blinked at him then threw her head back and laughed. "No, of course not. Fight or flee, you had no chance. If anything, bravely running away was the best option to choose."

Scott nodded slowly. He had experienced a quick and brutal defeat. However, he was now ready to train for real. If he did his best, he would be heading to the academy soon.