It didn’t take very long for the mana to reinvigorate Garth, in the meantime they spoke of the guild and mana in general. Steven learned that the guild was basically harvesting mana by charging for unnecessary amenities like food, water, and lodging. Markets are usually erected when people gather, and the guild has taken advantage of that behavior.

However, the guild didn’t have a monopoly. Enchanting services and blacksmiths, even florists and entertainers, were started by people who had chosen such classes. Even Garth, who was a tutor, had previously worked in a school for the dungeon-born. His class was supportive, and aimed at helping others achieve their full potential.

Which explained why Garth was at such a low level. As much as the guild touted that they were full of willing helpers, groups and parties were relatively rare. Garth had, over the course of years, managed to get past only a handful of floors by himself before finding a place for himself at a school.

Mana had kept people alive. The dead and the dungeon-born alike were maintained by the life sustaining properties that mana gave them. They had no need for food or water. Sleep was still needed, but the higher level a person achieved, the less sleep was necessary.

By the time Garth was ready to leave, Steven was reeling with the information dump. It wasn’t a lot, but he had some preconceived notions that had to be changed. He wasn’t even able to ask about the dungeon-born. Garth was surprisingly talkative, but still prone to fits of sullen silence.

The nuns and monks of the Church of Margaret had thrown Garth a bit of a going-away party. It turned out that it was surprisingly unusual for someone that was withering to accept mana and return to the dungeon. Garth stayed quiet for the short ceremony, which involved both him and Steven receiving a mana bead. The head monk had told him that it contained the Blessing of the First, and he needed to absorb it inside the church for the full effect.

Both Steven and Garth absorbed the mana, and Steven immediately opened his status screen to see if anything had changed. Other than an extra 100 mana, he could see no difference.

On their way to the Red Eye in front of the church, Steven broke the silence and asked, “What’s the deal with the church? The first what?”

Garth watched his feet for a few moments, as if he were surprised they even worked, before answering.

“I really don’t know. The dungeon has been around forever, I’ve been told. There are rumors that cavemen still actively run floors.” He looked over at Steven and shrugged. “There are bound to still be secrets that remain undiscovered.”

They returned to the transportation platform by way of the Red Eye, and were halfway to the lesser guildhall when Garth stopped and spoke again.

“I probably no longer have access to my room,” he said, voice breaking slightly. He cleared his throat before continuing, “I’ve a small amount of mana from the beads. I’m going to go buy some provisions and I’ll meet you at the Red Eye in twenty minutes.” He walked off, head hanging low, and returned to the platform. Steven watched him teleport away.

Steven didn’t have anything he needed to do, so he simply went to the lesser guildhall and walked around. He was excited. Soon he would be fighting again, progressing and getting stronger. It would also be the first time he would see another person fight, with the exception when he was very lightly attacked by Nora. Though she didn’t showcase anything about her class, other than being able to seemingly disappear and teleport.

When a quarter of an hour had passed, Steven began to saunter back to the transportation platform. Upon leaving, he looked toward the sun. It seemed a bit brighter than normal today. Today? He thought back a bit, not remembering if he had ever been in Serenity Springs at night. It’s possible that he’d always been inside the dungeon floors or his own room when the sun set, although it never really moved from its location.

He could also look directly at it. The sun gave off a bright amber light, but it wasn’t completely blinding like the one back on Earth. It also seemed much closer, even larger, surrounded by the grey sky. And why does everything seem so grey all the time?

Lost in thought, he had taken the long way to the Red Eye, passing the guard shack instead of going directly to the platform. He noticed Garth, sitting by himself in a gazebo with his head in his hands. When he got closer, he heard the sounds of quiet sobs and mumbles coming from the gazebo.

Steven wasn’t sure what to do, and he hardly even knew the guy. He decided to give him space, and skirted around him quietly heading towards the platform. A few minutes later Garth approached, looking a bit pale and red eyed. Steven noted that Garth had changed clothes as well. He was now wearing a completely black hooded robe with wide arms. The robe was cinched around his waist by a wide grey belt and was long enough to completely hide his feet. He had round wire framed glasses and a satchel slung across his shoulders. Steven thought he kind of looked like a delivery Jedi, if such a Jedi existed.

“What class are you?” Garth asked, not meeting eyes.

Steven had not thought this through, or even expected the question in the first place. He had decided to keep his mimic class secret. Surely people would assume it was a special class and would be even more disinclined to help due to the difficulty and differences between floors. Of course, he had no idea what differences there would be, but the note from the guild seemed to place a bit of emphasis on it.

Regardless, Steven had to think quickly. “Conjurer. Level 3,” he replied. He hoped that it was enough to suffice. It was a wild guess what level would be on Floor 1.

“Another caster class? You struck me as more of a scout, or ranger type, with what you were wearing. Might be a bit difficult at first. Unless..” Garth said, trailing off. He tapped on his implant for the little hologram screen to appear above his left hand and made several waving and taping motions with his other. “I thought there might be. Conjurer, rare quality, no?” He asked after a moment, looking over his glasses at Steven.

“Right on the money. How did you know?” Steven lucked out. He had been grasping at straws and figured he could just pass off his mimic growths as conjurations.

“Tutor class page, Tutor’s Compendium. I’m a supporter who supposedly specializes in bringing out other classes' potential…” Garth trailed off again, face scrunched up and he turned away. Steven could see the robe had a huge black hood hanging down his back.

After a moment, Garth turned back, “anyway, the class page tells me how to best assist each class. The more classes I’ve come across, the more I have to read. It will upgrade to add epic and legendary classes as I upgrade my tutor class.”

“Oh.” Steven really did luck out. Evidently Garth’s page can’t see epic or legendary classes. Maybe that included special classes. And there was already a rare Conjurer in there. He chuckled. If there was a luck attribute, maybe it would be his highest.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing, just thinking about rats.”

“You’re an idiot. Tap your gem against mine.” Garth held out his left hand.

Steven stood, tapping his implant against Garth’s caused it to flash a bright blue color. He didn’t expect it to flash, let alone a blue color when the implant itself was red. Garth’s implant didn’t flash at all.

“I’ve been calling it an implant,” Steven said, opening his status screen to see what had changed.

“It doesn’t really matter, gem or implant. It’s really your core. You should have a social screen now,” Garth said, pulling up his own holographic interface.

Steven was a bit dumbstruck for a moment. Core? Core of what? His ignorance was showing more and more while talking to the low leveled tutor. He flipped his status screen away and continued flipping to get to the new screen. It didn’t say social, but was instead simply titled Contacts.

Contacts

Garth Trager. Tutor 13. Floor 9. Add to party [Y/N]

“Hey, that’s pretty cool. I wished it showed everyone around me though,” said Steven, thinking about that guy that went by a pseudonym he had wanted to meet. While he watched, another little box appeared on top of his screen.

Accept party invite from Garth Trager [Y/N]

Steven tapped the Y with his free hand, and saw a little box appear on the right side of his contacts list containing both their names. He glanced over at Garth, who showed no reaction to seeing the box appear on his own screen.

“Ok, now we share mana from defeated monsters. Listen, this is important. If one of us dies, we will not respawn until the other dies on the same floor.” Garth said. His eyes were downcast, staring at the floor. He cleared his throat, “Let’s go practice on my Floor 5. I had been farming mana there, as there’s lots of monsters.”

Steven followed Garth up to the Red Eye, and let him initiate the teleportation. A dungeon window appeared to notify him that a party member had started transfer and a counter began counting down from ten. Steven held his breath, excited about finally being able to get back into the dungeon, and the world went black.