As Marco’s mind was pulled towards the dungeon he found himself unexpectedly calm. Unlike his first time through the strange space that lay in between his world and the dungeon Marco didn’t encounter the image of a skeleton. Instead Marco found himself flying by various plates of italian food when he began to think about how hungry he was.

‘That’s… interesting.’ Marco commented to himself while he sped towards a gray rectangle that Marco presumed was his destination. Passing through the gray rectangle Marco felt as if he was being pushed through a waterfall of honey, drastically slowing his speed until he stepped out of the doorway lacking any of the momentum he’d just had.

He took a moment to ponder the phenomenon before walking down the stairs with slight trepidation. ‘Come on Marco. This time you know what you’re doing. You’ve got this.’ Marco told himself in an effort to psych himself up for reentering the dungeon.

Entering the shop room Marco gave his best smile towards SteelBreaker who responded by bursting out laughing, “Are ye supposed to be smilin’ at me boy?” At which point Marco’s admittedly forced smile fell apart as he said, “Just trying to be more friendly since it seems like we’ll be seeing each other a lot.”

SteelBreaker raised his eyebrows, “Ye’ve come to terms with yer fate already? Maybe yer not as stupid as I thought ye were.” Marco chuckled before saying, “I take it that means I’m right in the assumption that there’s no way out of this mess?” SteelBreaker revealed a melancholy smile as he advised, “I know this will be difficult for ye to believe, but by the end of the tutorial ye’ll be glad ye couldn’t give up.”

Marco began to ask a question before thinking better of it and instead saying, “So, what exactly does a shop sell besides health potions?” SteelBreaker rolled his eyes with a huff, “Newbies!” he exclaimed before launching into his explanation, “Right, so here at me shop I’ve got all ye could ever want! Weapons, clothing, armor, anything and everything!”

SteelBreaker finished his rehearsed line with a practiced smile in an attempt to stop any further questions about such a basic concept. Much to the Dwarf’s annoyance, however, Marco began to ask more questions, “Can I buy spells and skills here? Can I sell things I get in the dungeon? What about objects from outside the-” SteelBreaker interrupted by huffing, “No. Yes. Don’t ask. No more questions.”

Marco blinked in surprise at the response before saying, “Thanks. I was wondering if you had any information on the monsters in this dungeon?” SteelBreaker gave an exasperated sigh before saying, “Look kid, I’ll tell ye what. I’ve got a special offer for you. If you promise me that this is yer last question I’ll give ye a bit ‘o help. Whadda say?”

Marco thought about it briefly before agreeing, “Alright.” At which point SteelBreaker’s hardening expression began to relax as he said, “Good. Right then, tell me about yer first fight. And, please, spare me the details of when ye pissed yerself and anything else I’d not like to hear.” Marco winced before offering a recount of his encounter with the kobold skeleton. Once finished he waited patiently for SteelBreaker, who had closed his eyes to think, to comment.

“Well, yer certainly one lucky little prick.” SteelBreaker said, “Luckily for you skeletons take twice the damage from blunt instruments, like yer staff, and triple damage from anything that hits the inside of their skull.” Marco stopped him with furrowed eyebrows as he asked, “But my magic did 8 damage, which isn’t divisible by 3…?” SteelBreaker nodded and said, “Yer right, and that’s because no one knows how damage is calculated. It may be more accurate for me to say that hitting the inside of the skull deals approximately 3 times the damage.”

Upset by the unpredictability of the damage values Marco mumbled, “That’s a bit unfair isn’t it?” before realizing how stupid he sounded. ‘This isn’t a game.’ Marco told himself as he remembered his fight with the skeleton. ‘This isn’t supposed to be fair.’

SteelBreaker didn’t deign to address Marco’s comment before saying, “The only advice I can give you is that undead ain’t too smart. Try and use that against them.” Marco nodded before thanking SteelBreaker and walking down the stairs. After taking a few steps down he heard a voice yell from behind him, “Oh! And make sure ye check yer stats!”

Marco waved to the air in front of him as he brought up his ‘stats’.

Name: Marco Barone Level: 0 Strength: 7 Agility: 8 Intelligence: 16 Wisdom: 21 Vitality: 8 Charisma: 4

‘Well,’ Marco thought to himself as he made it to the bottom of the stairs, ‘My stats make a lot of sense. I wonder what each stat is for an ordinary person?’

10

‘Hmm. Well I can see why I’m a magic user. Wait… 4 charisma? Actually, that makes a lot of sense.’ Marco thought to himself with self deprecating humor. Having discovered he could view stats he quickly equipped his staff and robe before attempting to check their stats.

Name: Beginner's Staff Description: A common staff made as an introductory tool to help those on the path of magic Effects:

+ 2 Wisdom

+ 1 Intelligence

* Spells gain a slight increase in range

Name: Beginner's Robe Description: A common robe made for magicusers new to their chosen path Effects:

+ 1 Wisdom

+ 1 Intelligence

* Cycling magic cleans the robe

Marco took a moment to examine his stats as he stood before the gate to the dungeon. ‘Without bonuses my intelligence is 14 and my wisdom is 18…’ Marco pondered the meaning of each stat as best as he could before observing, ‘Alright. I have 18 wisdom and I’m 18 years old so maybe everyone gains +1 wisdom every year they live for? I’ve got 8 vitality and 8 health, so there’s probably a correlation there. Seems like intelligence dictates mana as both are 14… nothing else stands out so far.’

With a nod Marco closed the window. Taking a deep breath Marco told himself, ‘calm.’ as he thought back to his fight with the skeleton before drawing on his years of gaming in an attempt to come up with a plan before he entered combat. Although unsure how much his knowledge of games would help him, Marco was confident that he should make a plan to avoid a repeat of last time.

‘I’m probably still going to get my ass handed to me by one of the skeletons... so priority number one is making sure I don’t aggro more than one.’ Marco continued, ‘I’ll see how many there are before trying to hit one with a spell to aggro it to me, then I’ll back up to make sure none of the others come.’

Satisfied with the first part of his plan Marco mentally recalled the skeleton from before as he thought to himself, ‘If what SteelBreaker said is true and they’re all stupid then the skeleton will probably try and pounce me like the last one… So I’ll hit it with my staff like last time. That should buy me a few seconds to gain my bearings…’

After standing in place lost in thought for a few minutes Marco looked up before telling himself, “I’m ready.” As he took his first step back into the dungeon he felt fear creeping back into his body. His staff trembled visibly, his breaths shaking no matter how calm he tried to keep himself.

Upon entering the courtyard for the second time in his life Marco tried to keep himself as professional as he could, ‘Scan the courtyard Marco. Come on it’s easy.’ With darting eyes Marco started to search for anything important before he caught sight of a yellow-white kobald at least 20 meters away.

Marco froze as panic overtook him, ‘Calm down, come on calm the fuck down!’ Marco screamed in his mind, urging his body to loosen up again. But no matter what Marco tried he couldn’t calm himself down, not even trying to invoke the calm memory worked. So instead, as adrenaline started charging through Marco’s veins, he stopped fighting it and tried instead to work with it.

Maddened eyes like those Marco had seen in his reflection earlier in the day gazed around the courtyard, ‘One, two, three… seven. Ok, now which one is furthest from the rest?’ Marco asked himself before picking out his target, ‘Right, now…’ Marco’s thoughts trailed off as he raised his staff towards the undead creature before him.

“Shadow Shuriken!” Marco whispered as he launched the familiar blob of darkness towards the creature. Unfortunately as it flew through the air Marco realized that it wasn’t travelling straight as he expected to, but instead veering slightly off to the side. Once it had flown far enough off course that it had no hope of landing a hit on the skeleton it crashed into the ground... near the skeleton, at least.

With a snap of its neck the skeleton immediately turned to see what had just happened. After a twist of its head it seemed to have worked out what happened as it turned to face Marco. Then, with a silent cry, the skeleton charged.