The wonders of the modern world were many and varied. The rise of the dungeons changed life irrevocably, and the people now dealt with a reality that was far and away different than anything past generations faced.

In the mountains of North Carolina, young people from the South Eastern region of America struggled hard against their own base humanity. In the first few days the number of IDEA applicants dropped severely. Nearly one third of the entire potential class had already thrown in the towel, more than a few of them barely managed to survive their initial encounter with a monster and were left traumatized.

Scott and one of the other rare male applicants, a young man named Jerry, had managed to continue their training, though the latter youth was forced to take two days off due to severe cranial and brain trauma. His skull had nearly been crushed before he could be logged off from the ID-Drive. Brain injuries required far more delicacy in their treatment that other types of bodily trauma. A slight misstep could lead to irreversible damage and memory loss.

Students who chose to continue the selection and training process were required to train in the virtual dungeons for most of the day. After every four dives they were required to wait one hour so that their brain waves and body chemistry would properly normalize once more.

In that manner, roughly one week passed since training began. Scott stood before the desk of the training center shop clerk, ready to make the magic happen. The shop clerk, a balding middle-aged man with a grumpy disposition and less patience than hair upon his head, grunted at the youth. "So, this is what you have to sell today?"

Scott grunted back at the man. He had grown used to his sour expressions and occasional condescension. "Yeah. There a problem?"

Shoppy, as the shop clerk liked to be called, pointed at the random collection of cheap looking rings and rusted daggers. "I'll give you eight for the lot."

"Eight? The rings alone should be worth twice that!" exclaimed Scott.

"They are. That's the only reason I can pay you eight," Shoppy eyed Scott carefully. "You'd be better off consuming those shitty daggers, kid."

"Dammit... How am I supposed to make a living like this, man?" asked Scott in a heated tone.

"You don't. Those low-end dungeon simulations are just for training, and you know it. The real money's in actual dungeon exploration," said Shoppy.

"Fine, how about these?" asked Scott, before he pulled out a few small sharp teeth, and the eye of a crow monster.

Shoppy glanced at the teeth then looked at the crow eye. Common drop items from the weaker monsters an explorer might face in the lowest level dungeons, the teeth and the eye were easy to come by. "Six for the eye, four for the teeth."

"Four each?" asked Scott hopefully.

A loud obnoxious laugh was the only reply from Shoppy told Scott what he needed to know. He was not getting much for any of his loot. "Man, three days of training and all I earn is a lousy eighteen coins."

Shoppy leaned his haggard chin against his calloused palm then yawned expansively. "Yeah, yeah. Life is hard. You want your Ideons in cash or credit?"

"Credit," said Scott through gritted teeth.

"Pleasure doing business with ya, kid," said Shoppy before he made the transaction. He looked back to Scott afterward then asked. "Anything else I can do for you."

"Yeah. You still got those gloves?" asked Scott in an off-handed tone, though a slightly hopeful expression betrayed his desire.

The smirk on Shoppy's lips was all the answer that Scott needed. Scott grunted at the man then said, "I want 'em."

"Basic equipment not enough for ya, kid?" asked Shoppy, the smirk growing into a sarcastic smile.

"Hell no. It barely adds anything, and doesn't protect for shit," groused Scott. He picked at his thin cotton shirt, and equally thin cotton pants. The government provided equipment was extremely basic, but it had been better than nothing.

"Right," Shoppy tapped his desktop counter briefly then fiddled with a semi-transparent screen that popped up. "Twenty-four Ideons."

"Twenty-four? The other day is was twenty-two," said Scott, his voice rising in volume and pitch near the end.

"Yeah. Today it's twenty-four," said Shoppy without a single bit of concern.

Scott took out his government issued debit card and presented it to the man. "Fine. Whatever."

Shoppy laughed in a low, gravelly, way while he scanned the card. "Alright, you're good. Here's your new gloves."

The Scott took the bright blue gloves in hand then nodded. "Thanks, Shoppy."

"No problem kid. Near the end of next week there's going to be a surplus of boots. Might want to consider saving up another twenty or thirty Ideons," suggested the shop clerk.

Scott glanced at him then nodded. "I'll see what I can do. Thanks."

After he collected his unsold daggers, Scott returned to his dorm room. Once inside, he immediately walked over to his small night stand. He placed his hand out, palm first, and focused his attention. His desired action took a moment to come to fruition. Even after practicing it for two days straight as a rule, it was difficult to manage.

Slowly, the spectral image of a bright red treasure box began to appear on the table before him. His eyebrows narrowed. The irises of his eyes began to shine slightly even as his pupils drew to tiny pinpoints.

Sweat began to trickle down the sides of his face, showing the strain he was under. However, his actions provided the necessary result. His storage box was now manifested on the table.

Scott sighed softly then opened the lid and began to select slots on his storage menu window. Once a slot was selected, he tossed an item inside the box. The daggers each took up one small slot, smaller items of a similar type might be stacked inside of a single slot, but it would vary with the item based on its overall size.

"Six daggers." Scott frowned at the box. "Another seven will earn me a development point."

The trash items that he acquired during his training missions were practically worthless. The occasional monster part was worth a little, but few of the found items had been worth his effort to bring them into reality.

He placed the gloves, and his government issued items, into his box and then checked on the status of his cape. Upon seeing that it was still safely ensconced within the confines of his sole medium item slot, Scott sent the box back to the recesses of his mind. It was still largely unknown how such things actually worked. Much like the way the average person flips a light switch or drives a car, they did not necessarily know how the tools of their world worked, only how to use it.

"Alright, free period. Time to test out my new fists of justice," said Scott with a grin. He headed down to the training room. After nodding to Maxine, he went to find an available VR-Cradle.

Scott entered his new home for the next hour, and began the dive. His tiara flashed brightly for a moment, and then he felt the world fall away. Once he awoke, he found himself in his neutral point, the place where he could ready his equipment and select a dungeon mission.

Quickly, he donned his cape and clothes. Before he put his gloves on, he decided to check their stats once more.

[Lesser Blue Bomber Gloves]

A blast to wear and use, strike your opponents with explosive fury!

Restriction: [Physical Prowess - 110]

Level: 1/3

Development Points: 0/4

[-Special Options-]

Offensive Aura: 1 – 3

Defense Aura: 2

[-Developmental Skills-]

Burst Punch [0/100]

[--]

"Nice." While his new gloves had a maximum upgrade level of three, they were still better than anything else that he wore save for his cape. The government issued items were incapable of being upgraded at all.

He checked his item link status, the ability to wear special equipment, and noted that his gloves counted as both a piece of armor, and a weapon. Both hand slots were taken up in the process. Only nine pieces of special equipment could be equipped, that included everything from weapons to simple accessories. His gloves technically counted as four pieces of equipment in that regard due to the fact that they were both a weapon and an armor item.

His underwear and socks were considered common equipment and did not count toward his link status. "So, I have one more equipment slot. Maybe I'll find something nice, today."

Ready for exploration, Scott moved to the dungeon entrance door and selected a place to train. The door opened on an alien vista. Rocks speared heavenward from the dry cracked ground. In the distance he could see whirling dust clouds. Much closer to his position, he could see the skittering movements of what would hopefully be his prey.

Scott moved into the alien desert then immediately placed a hand over his eyes to block out the glare of the twin suns. It was hot, almost unbearably so. However, he'd had the best luck during his training when he trained in this place.

Before anything else, he made a quick check of his skills. Everything seemed to be in order, so he leapt toward the sky and kept going. His flight ability would be short lived, but he'd already learned once before that staying on or near the large rocks was his best recourse.

The cape fluttered magnificently behind him as he flew quickly toward his goal. With only two seconds to spare, he managed to land on a large flat rock. There was a bit of debris on the surface of the ancient virtual stone, so he chose to test out what would have happened had he not been cautious.

Scott threw a heavy rock from the top of his perch and watched it plummet to the ground below. The moment it touched the surface, the ground nearby began to shift and ripple.

Tentacles shot out from beneath the sand and wrapped around the unfortunate bit of inanimate rock. Scott nodded thoughtfully as he watched a sand squid do its work. The ground erupted upward a brief few seconds later, as the rock was rejected.

"Still don't know how to beat those guys." Scott left the squid monster behind and ran off toward his next destination. He hopped from rock to rock until he was forced to fly once more. Flight did not take a lot out of him, but he could only do it for ten seconds at the time for now. A good half minute needed to go by after each flight before he could fly once more.

The color of the sand shifted up ahead. The squids liked to stay in the white sandy area, so he should be able to avoid them once he made it to the darker sand. Spying a potential opponent, Scott made a fist and waited for the cool down period on his skill to end.

Ready to fly once more, he shot down from the sky like a bird of prey. The creature on the ground, an overly large tortoise with a spiked shell, barely noticed when his attacker slammed his fist into its armored back.

The tortoise, a beast the size of a small automobile, continued to wander along unconcerned. Few creatures posed a threat to it in this desert. Scott wanted to change its mind.

With a loud cry, Scott prepared to strike the beast once more. This time he unleashed his newly acquired skill, Burst Punch. All low-end skills were activated through simple mental focus. It was easy to unleash explosive hell on the slow moving armored desert dweller.

Scott's fist glowed with a brilliant orange light as the power built. He struck out with all his strength, and slammed his fist against the creature's armored side with all the force that he could muster. Burst Punch activated with devastating results. The tortoise was forced to take an entire step to the side due to the incredible power of the blow. A slight crack appeared in its armored side, but a much louder crack was heard from Scott's hand.

He screamed in agony as the pain of his failed attack reached his nervous system. The tortoise merely righted itself and continued on its way. What was one little crack, anyway?

"Damn it," muttered Scott as he clutched his enfeebled limb. The ability worked, and did well despite the results. None of his punches or kicks had done anything to slow wandering behemoth before.

"Need a bit more offense," groused Scott just before he logged out of the VR-Cradle, and went to get his hand treated.

Maxine smiled warmly at him while she fixed his hand out. "Now, weren't you supposed to be careful out there young man?"

"Was that something I was supposed to do?" asked Scott with a smile of his own. He had brought this on himself, so why not at least be cheerful while he was being patched up?

The broken hand was fixed quite easily with Maxine's skills. Scott sighed in relief as his fingers were once again able to fing. He wiggled them experimentally then nodded. "I appreciate it."

"Any time, just be more careful." Maxine leaned forward, her smile becoming mischievous. "Those desert tortoises have hard shells, you know."

Scott wiggled his fingers at her. "Yeah, I figured that out."

She laughed warmly then shooed him away. "Go train some more."

He waved to her, a smile on his lips, and then went back to do exactly as instructed. He had a little time left during free period, and wanted to at least beat something. Despite the result, the tortoise was a good test. If he could damage it at all, then his offensive power had greatly increased.

Back in the VR-Cradle, he chose a new dungeon setting. This one was a sci-fi dungeon found in Nicaragua. The first floor had only animalistic monsters of low power, but the deeper floors were supposed to house humanoid beings. Scott was not able to access those floors, sadly.

Scott walked out of the door and into a blasted city-scape. The wind whistled a mournful song as a bit of newspaper tumbled by. He snatched it out of the air, curious as to what it had to say. "Aliens attack...?"

Well, whatever this dungeon represented, Scott was determined to earn some development points. He flew up to the top of a shattered office building and looked out over the destroyed city. Rubble and the tumble-down decay of a former city stretched as far as the eye could see.

It took a few minutes, but movement in the distance caught his attention. Scott swooped down from the sky, loving every second of his flight-time, and landed near the source of the disturbance.

His eyes widened in surprise when he realized what was going on down below. He climbed carefully climbed down along the debris. Despite his cape and cool flying ability, he was just a normal teenager. Injuries came quite easily to him.

A scream of panic erupted from the source of his earlier surprise. Several large mosquito-like creatures were chasing after a girl. There should not have been any humanoids on this floor, especially since it was not even a real dungeon!

Scott gave chase, but he could not catch up to the fast moving group until his flight ability returned. A power dive-kick took out one of the mosquitoes with little effort. The other was alerted to Scott's presence after the sudden attack, and turned to try its luck with a different prey.

The blond girl kept running, but tripped over a bit of poorly hidden debris after only a scant few steps. Scott dodged the attack of his annoying insect opponent then launched a quick series of punches that mostly missed the target. However, it only took one to damage the mosquito's wing enough that it fell to the ground. Scott stomped the fallen irritant repeatedly until it joined its friend in bug hell.

Seeing the girl had stopped moving, Scott ran over to see who, or what, she was. She wore only a flimsy see-through gown that left little to the imagination. Her eyes fluttered open and after a moment she looked up at him. Blue blood trickled down from a bad gash on her forehead.

The movement caused her hair to move a bit, revealing tiny horns protruding from her skull. Her eyes were a vivid amber color much like her golden hair. It worked well with the color of her skin, the light bronze one might get after a proper suntan.

"Abloo? Disawari keta?" she asked curiously. Her strange cow-like ears perked upwards then flicked down.

"I... don't know what you're saying," said Scott slowly. Maybe she thought that she was speaking English, but the head wound had caused her to speak strangely? The horns caused him to doubt it, though.

She blinked at him twice then smiled softly at him. The simple gesture revealed a slight hint of fangs. "Shadou ne neowo?" She giggled softly then reached up to stroke Scott's hair.

Her eyes seemed to shine a little. "Minotyran-ruko iri litan la labyrinthos..." She gently patted him on the cheek, then smiled warmly at him.

"Uh, nice to meet you too, I guess?" asked Scott slowly, and with great uncertainty. What was even going on right now? He had no idea what he was supposed to do in this situation. Weren't all of the creatures in this place simple digital renderings of known entities?

She drew her fist back to her lips then giggled softly. Scott started to ask something else, but he was suddenly assaulted by her beautiful alien lips. He tried to struggle against her, but the horned girl would not release him. She held him close like a lover and kissed him with great passion. Scott tried to bite her lip, but she only giggled once more. The wound on her head belied her strength. Scott could not injure her in the slightest, and he was practically helpless against her absurd strength.

The girl drew back from him then sucked on her lower lip while granting him an expression that was probably universal. It was his move, now. But please, be gentle.

Scott blinked at her then slowly asked, "What the hell?"

Just as strangely, her body dissipated not long after and became motes of light that drifted away. Her laughter warm and bright.

In the space where she had once sat, Scott saw a small box. Curious, he opened it up. Inside was a single item roughly the size and shape of a dinner plate. The moment he touched it, he discovered its purpose. A series of lights rose up, and then converged to create a holographic image. It was the green haired girl, though this time she wore a different outfit and even seemed to have grown a tail. Her new outfit was a pure white skin-tight body suit with irregular black spots. Around her neck she wore a collar with a large cow bell. A set of headgear with a gold colored visor completed her bizarre outfit.

The image of the girl began to dance back and forth and then started to sing in the strange language that she had spoken in previously. Scott listened for a moment then shook his head. "Seriously... What the hell?"

Suddenly, a sense of intense pressure arose within his skull. He clutched his head while the perky girl continued to sing. The pressure soon died down, but not before Scott realized something bizarre. The words that the girl sang were now becoming clear to him.

The holographic image canted her curvaceous hips to the left and then waggled her finger in his direction. " ... But don't think I'm easy. Even if it's you dar-ling."

"Wha...?" he asked the empty air. All he had wanted to do was train, this... He did not even know what this was supposed to be.

The girl began to dance once more, the background music that had been subdued before intensified in volume. "So... Come... and see... my heart-shake!" she sang while twisting her torso from side to side. The motions certainly caused profound shaking, but Scott was not sure it was her heart.

"Come... And hear... My clang, clang!" She moved her rear end from side to side swiftly in time with her song. The bell on her collar clanged in time with her words and motion.

Scott's eyebrow started to twitch as the perky alien girl sang her happy little heart out. The words were ridiculous and mostly involved milkshakes and clanging bells. Rather, heart-shakes and clanging bells. The song seemed so innocent and innocuous at times, but the innuendo was strong. "L-lewd," he said, after she slapped her rear end and swished her tail. Though mostly it was because she had shamelessly sung out, "It only hurts the first time... or so they say. Aha, baby!"

The song ended a short time later. She took on a sexy pose while pointing at him with one finger, her left eye closed. She offered a bright and cheerful smile before she said. "I'll see you soon, husband! Please eat right and exercise in anticipation of our wedding night!"

"H-husband?" Scott shook his head slowly. None of this made sense. None of it made sense at all! He tilted his head back and did the one thing a man could do in this situation. He cried out, "What's going on here!"

Seriously, was someone screwing with his system? Was he going mad? He needed answers, but only had questions. He was thoroughly interested in the opposite sex, but he was not even remotely ready for marriage. Especially when that marriage was to a singing alien girl with a cowbell fetish. Was she just messing with him, or was she serious? Did she even exist for real, or was his brain deteriorating due to lack of air?

Scott snatched up his holographic prize, and a wing left behind by one of the mosquitos. He left the dungeon and put his items into his storage box before logging out. He needed advice or someone to treat his brain. Either way, nothing would be learned by training at the moment.