“So, are you excited for the test today?” Hal asked as they heeded to the cafeteria for breakfast their breath turning to mist upon encountering the frigid morning air. It had now been several months since they had started learning at the Adventurers School and today would mark their first journey into the upper levels of the nearby Dungeon.

“Yeah,” Kyle replied grinning at his red-haired friend excitedly. “It’s cool that we were able to be in the same group huh?”

The teachers had surprised them when they made the announcement that the students would be picking their own party members that they would enter the dungeon with explaining that this was also part of the test. Making sure that you had a balanced party was also part of an Adventurers job and things had predictably turned to chaos when this was announced.

“Yeah I think we got a good team,” Hal said happily.

Another member of their team was Sasha who had picked up a new type of weapon known as a syringe dart that could be thrown at a target to deliver various poisons or potions meaning that she would be able to heal her party members while dealing extra damage at range, she had chosen this new Skill because she was also an alchemist and could make her own potions to fit the situation. Sasha and Kyle had worked together quite a lot over the past few months with her and Fi becoming close friends due to the similarities that they shared.

Amy had also been asked to join them much to the crystalline entities delight. She was different enough from everyone else that despite her friendly nature she still had difficulty making friends with the other students. While this was quite disappointing to Kyle who was rather fond of his classmate, he was glad to have her along with them because of her ability to not only manipulate the enemy with Mental Energy but detect them using her Racial Skills and her skill with both Mana and Earth magics that allowed her to act as an extremely powerful support caster for her level.

“Agreed and we have Fi and Herman to fill in any gaps in our formation,” Kyle said making his serpentine companion preen slightly.

“It’s going to be interesting to see how we measure up to Dungeon Monsters,” Hal continued grinning in excitement. “I wonder which teacher’s coming with our group.”

Although the school had decided that the students were ready to challenge the first couple of floors in the dungeon, it was still a dangerous place. Any of the monsters that resided in the Dungeon were more powerful than ones of a similar level that lived outside of a Dungeon, this was of course because Dungeons contained a huge amount of Mana that mutated the monsters inside further. This meant that each group of students had one of the teachers supervising them at all times, both to make sure that nothing went wrong and to evaluate them on their fighting abilities and tactics.

“Well it’ll be one of our teachers if that helps,” Kyle chuckled. He didn’t really care which teacher would be supervising them. That wasn’t because he resented the idea of one of the teachers watching over them but because he was equally interested in seeing how capable any of them were, after all, all of the teachers at this school had at one point been quite famous Adventurers and seeing them in action would be very interesting to the young man who was still trying to figure out where he was going with his build.

Recently he had finally managed to get enough points to unlock the main Skill for Mental Energy which was known as Psychic Prowess and two sub-skills known as Telekinesis and Sense Intent.

Telekinesis allowed him to manipulate objects at a distance but cost a considerable amount of both Mana and Stamina, depending on how heavy the object was and how far and fast he wanted to move it. However, it worked quite well for redirecting his chains if it looked like he was going to miss his target allowing him to make up for how difficult his weapons were to control at times.

Sense Intent was a much less complicated Skill to use simply allowing him to find out whether or not something was hostile or friendly to him. Nonetheless it was an extremely useful Skill that could be used in a variety of ways. It could for example be used to discover whether or not an innocent seeming object was in fact a monster in disguise, at least if Kyle remembered to use it. Of course, he shouldn’t have to use it this trip as the same Racial Skill that allowed Amy to see without eyes would also to allow her to detect these monsters with far greater ease.

He had also picked up the Dual Wielding Skill which was just a General Skill meaning that it cost far less than the Psychic Prowess Skill but had no extra Sub-skills which both a relief and a disappointment for Kyle who still hadn’t quite managed to deal with the issue of running out of Stamina too fast to put most of his Skills to best use.

The next Skill on his list to obtain was Inscriptions as he had made quite a bit of progress on obtaining new spells from the Enchanting School and now had the basic spells for several more elements and a couple of buffs that would be quite useful to Inscribe on his friend’s equipment. The boost provided would be small at first, but he would get better eventually.

Speaking of equipment Hal had made him a pair of gloves that both increased his defence and the damage that he could deal with punches and with a grin on his face he asked Fi to check their stats one final time.

Studded Long Gloves

Item Tier (Rarity): Well Made (Rare)

Armour Type: Medium Gloves

Physical Defence: 5

Magical Defence: 3

Durability: 15/15

These gloves were made to protect the hands and forearms while either working or fighting. They also have studs attached to the knuckles which increase the damage dealt by punches.

Additional Effects

· Increases the damage dealt by punches by 2-4 blunt damage.

Crafter: Hal Guthrie.

“You really like the gloves huh?” Hal chuckled happily. Kyle had been complaining about the way his chains dug into his hands when he fought and Hal who had decided that he would also pick up Leather working to increase the variety of different types of armour that he could make had decided that he would make something to help with his friends’ problem.

“Yeah, they’re great,” Kyle said wriggling his fingers. The gloves did constrict his movement but only slightly which was testament to both Hal’s skill as a crafter and his teacher’s guidance. All in all, these gloves were an extremely welcome addition to Kyle’s slowly growing collection of equipment.

“I hope you realise that I expect you to Inscribe my equipment when you unlock the Skill,” Hal replied cheerfully as they made their way inside the cafeteria.

“Of course, Fi already has a couple of Soul Stones in her Inventory and I brought the equipment the last time I was in town, so I can get started as soon as I unlock the Skill,” Kyle laughed as they made their way over to the counter where a cheerful Galdon was serving breakfast.

Upon seeing him the two young men shook their heads in exasperation. They still hadn’t quit e gotten used to the idea of such a famous person making breakfast for them, but they had to admit that their principle was an excellent cook and happily took their bowl which were filled with a type of spiced porridge to a table already occupied by several of their friends including Sasha who was currently draped across the table. The weather had gotten quite cold in the past few months which affected their cold-blooded friend quite noticeably making her seek out any and all sources of heat and her roommate Gloria often woke up next to her on particularly cold mornings much to her surprise.

“Hey, you two, you excited for today?” asked a particularly large dark-haired young man who was also sitting at the table along with Claire and a young elvish man with red hair.

“Yeah, we’ve been really looking forward to it Ulrich!” Kyle replied taking the seat opposite him.

As Claire had predicted Ulrich had been unsure of Kyle at first but Claire had convinced him to give Kyle a chance and soon the two had become firm friends and perhaps more importantly rivals. Ulrich was a member of the only other known Human Sub-race which were known as Barbarians. Barbarians were almost the exact opposite of the magic focussed Aethereals and much like Kyle had the Mana Manipulation Skill as a Racial Skill all Barbarians had one Weapon Mastery Skill as a Racial Skill as well as a slight boost to their Stamina Points making them particularly powerful warriors. Ulrich was one of Hal’s classmates in the tank class and used both a shield and short sword with a skill that surpassed the majority of his classmates, combining this with a sharp tactical mind that would make him a dangerous opponent for newbie Adventurers and monsters alike.

“Well that’s good,” the elf laughed. “I was worried we wouldn’t have any real competitors.”

“Oh, it’s like that is it Resald?” Hal asked with a chuckle of his own grinning at the cheeky elf who remined him a lot of his friend Ryan.

“Yeah it’s like that,” Resald replied with a grin revealing his viciously pointed canines. Resald was a Forest Elf a very different breed from the Moon or Sun Elves. Forest Elves had a greenish tint to their slightly mottled skin that allowed them to blend into the shadowy forests that most of them called their home. Forest Elves were especially well known for their stealth and tracking abilities and Resald was no exception to this rule combining these dangerous abilities with a talent for archery that impressed even his teachers.

Claire laughed at Resald’s posturing, the blonde girl was quite impressive herself having a magical talent that impressed Kyle to no end, he had even asked her for advice on what spells would suit him best in the class that they both took for the Mana school of magic much to her delight. She was also training to be a priestess of Asteria like Yuliah however unlike Yuliah she was more focussed on healing than on protective spells.

“Alright you lot, make sure you look after my roommate,” the final member of the other group grumbled. This was of course Gloria who had reconciled her differences with Kyle over the past few months, mostly due to the input of her roommate Sasha who looked up from the table blinking drowsily.

“Sure, we will,” Hal replied glancing at the dwarven girl. “But are you sure she’s going to be alright? She looks a bit out of it.”

“If need be I can heat her up a bit,” laughed Damian who joined them, he was the only one who wasn’t in one of their groups choosing instead to join some of his other friends, this wasn’t entirely his choice as the teachers had recommended that they try to make sure that each group had at least one companion which would store anything that they wanted to take with them.

The other four groups had one member with a companion. Incidentally five was considered to be the best number to have in a party when entering a dungeon, this was because larger groups moving together had a tendency to draw more monster their way which was why this was the party size that had been chosen for this test. Sometimes drawing monsters your way was to your advantage, but it would defeat the purpose in this case.

“That might be a good idea Damian,” Kyle said between bites of his porridge. “She’s really not in a state to do much in this weather.”

Damian nodded calling on his fire magic to warm the table that she was leaning on causing Sasha to sigh happily and drawing smirks from everyone else. Normally Sasha was a fairly shy person so seeing her like this was rather amusing especially when she tried to wrap herself around one of them in her search for heat.

Fi who wasn’t much better off than her fellow reptile also slid down onto the table. She usually just spent her time snuggled up to Kyle who provided enough body heat to make her relatively comfortable, but she preferred being warmer, so this was a special treat.

Kyle and friends continued to chat as they ate their breakfast, but they had soon finished and headed out to where the teachers and Amy were waiting for them. Unlike her classmates Amy couldn’t food and instead absorbed energy such as light and heat. This was part of the reason that her race had been named Geodes as most of them lived out their lives in areas of geothermal activity so that they could absorb the heat from the surrounding area. They could also survive for a period of time by burning their Mana much like a member of another race could burn their body fat to survive but much like burning fat reserves this wasn’t particularly healthy.

Kyle stopped briefly to admire his classmates growth, no longer the featureless manikin she had been when he had first met her she had managed to reach the point where her ‘face’ now had recognisable features that she could change- albeit slowly- to match her mood and every day her form became more and more human in appearance, something that according to Figz was an impressive feat given the Geodes age.

Seeing him Amy floated over bobbing up and down cheerfully causing Kyle to smile, even if the Geode’s face didn’t yet have the range of motion and expression that a human’s face did Amy it was still amusingly easy to work out how Amy was feeling from the rest of her body language.

“Hey Kyle!” Amy squealed telepathically making him wince as she came to a stop just in front of him. One time she had made the mistake of barrelling into him and had knocked several HP of Kyle’s total as the slender young man was sent flying by the impact much to her distress but Fi had simply cast Restoration on him to heal his minor injuries. To her surprise instead of getting angry at her Kyle had just laughed the incident off but ever since she had been much more careful around him and his friends for fear of accidentally hurting them.

“Well kiddo’s looks like you’re with me,” said Zerah as she walked up to the group. The diminutive gnome was wearing a flowing robe that had several long needles slotted in specially made pouches that immediately drew Kyle’s attention. Zerah was the teacher who took the class on Enchanting, but he had yet to see what weapon she specialised in. Seeing his interest Zerah smiled.

“Yes, I use these needles as my main weapon,” Zerah confirmed laughing as Kyle’s face reddened in embarrassment as he realised, he had been caught staring. “As you know I also take the Tailoring and Healer classes and I developed a Skill of my own that allows me to use these in a variety of ways including stitching up minor injuries and binding enemies together.”

Looking at the needles in question Kyle frowned slightly. While larger than a normal needle they didn’t seem to be very useful as either a thrown or melee weapon, but he also knew that despite Zerah’s unimpressive appearance she had been quite a well-known Adventurer in his parents’ youth and his eyes widened as he had a certain thought.

“Aunty Zerah would you happen to have a Mental Energy Skill?” he asked suddenly causing Zerah to grin at his use of her preferred nickname as well as his question.

“That’s right,” she replied as one of the long slender spikes flew out of its sheath and revolved once around her before returning to the place it had come from causing the other students to stare in surprise. “Normally we try to make sure that any groups that had a student with Mental Energy Skills but luckily you’re both in the same group this time, so we don’t have to try and drag Figz outside.”

“Yeah he really doesn’t like going outside,” Kyle sighed. It was very unusual to find his teacher outside the classroom before dusk and he rarely strayed far even at night. This was because as Palnassians aged sunlight would affect them worse and worse, back before the worlds were fused together the Palnassians lived on a world of eternal twilight and they burned incredibly quickly even in indirect sunlight.

“Indeed, now we seem to be missing someone, Hal where’s your companion?” Zerah asked looking around in confusion, she had yet to meet Herman so was surprised when Hal looked at Sasha pointedly causing the scaly girl to look away in embarrassment as he she pulled a pouch from her coat and opened it to show Zerah.

The pouch had a small inscribed stone inside that released a steady warmth to keep Herman from falling into such a deep sleep that it was impossible to wake him up but in this weather that was its limit. Thankfully although they didn’t last very long the stones were a simple item that was cheap to both produce and buy which meant that with the equipment that he made in his crafting classes he was able to buy enough to keep Herman relatively comfortable, that being said he was looking forward to both of them levelling up so that Herman could unlock an ability that would allow him to generate his own internal heat. Sasha had been taking advantage of this heat source to stave off the negative effects that the cold weather had on her.

“Alright, so we’re all here,” Zerah said nodding to Sasha who quickly slid the pouch back inside her coat. “That’s a rather rare companion you have there Hal, not as unique as Fi but still.”

“Yeah I get that a lot,” Hal replied rolling his eyes as Kyle smirked at him.

“Well that’s enough of that, let’s get this show on the road,” Zerah said eventually as she noticed some of the other groups starting to move out. “The entrance we will be using is on the far side of the ancient city.”