Watching Kevin lose his mind was strangely amusing. After a few seconds of stunned silence, the implications of what I had said fully kicked in and he went briefly pale before starting to stutter and try running of in order to warn people. He didn’t get far, after literally tripping over his own feet in his haste, and continued to flail and panic on the ground, like some sort of frantic insect.

“There’s a reason why I advised Mrs Wu to bring the people at the gym out of town as quickly as possible,” I reminded Kevin, my voice somehow managing to get through to his panicked mind.

“If the town turns into a dungeon, or even if the dead ‘only’ rise again, likely just as aggressive as the Shattered, there is nothing we can do about it. We simply don’t have the people to bury the dead, let alone cremate them or something like that. Change what you can, accept what you cannot and learn how to tell the difference. This is something that cannot be changed, so it needs to be accepted and dealt with,” I quietly lectured, shamelessly stealing from a famous prayer. It seemed to work, or at the very least, Kevin stopped flopping around like a landed fish.

“Now, why don’t you tell me what you’ve been doing here? What new things have you discovered about your magic?” I prodded and it seemed that Kevin was quite grateful for the changed topic. As we walked, he began telling me what he had been up to, mainly using his magic to provide water but also working with groups to head out and hunt. It seemed that the locals had started to make long-term plans, trying to optimise who gained EXP and push those who had the talent and interest up in level whenever possible. It sounded like a good idea, trying to keep the magicians who could provide for the community safe while at the same time trying to help them grow as much as possible, so they could do more for the group. In some ways, it was the beginning of a barter society, where different people exchanged services that they couldn’t provide for themselves.

By the time we reached the butchering shed, Kevin’s tale had largely wound down, until he suddenly paused, looking at me with a frown on his face.

“Wait, earlier,” he began, his voice a little hesitant, “You said something about a dungeon, right?” I nodded, not sure where he was going with this, “Can you tell me more?”

“Sure, what do you want to know?” I asked in return, only to regret it a moment later. To Kevin, a dungeon was still mentally connected to video games, so a dungeon was automatically fun. Not life-threateningly dangerous, filled with creatures and traps that wanted nothing but tear you to pieces. So, my innocuous question unleashed a flood of questions that nobody could have expected, not even the Spanish inquisition. But then, nobody expected the Spanish inquisition, so it might just be fair.

Either way, as we walked back towards the primary farm buildings, no longer burdened by the meat Lia, Silva and I had acquired, I did my best to dispel the idea that dungeons were fun. Sure, they were useful, but if Kevin didn’t take them seriously, he would die.

As I thought about his chances in the dungeon, I realised I had failed to ask an important question, or rather find out an important fact, namely Kevin’s level. Curious, I decided to experiment a little and focused my mind on the concealment-rune, using it to filter my intent to Observe. It was a little crude, but it had worked before, both on Mundus and here. Moments later, a blue box appeared before me and Kevin hadn’t even stuttered in the question he was asking. Level fourteen, he had made progress. I hadn’t really tracked their level but maybe I should have paid more attention.

“So, did you get your class by now?” I asked, interrupting his question about the dungeon walls and their make-up.

“Well, yeah, I thought I told you about it? I’m an Aquamancer,” he replied, looking at me with a frown on his face.

“Not that I remember. What does your class do? Skills, abilities? It sounds rather specialised in Water Magic, you might want to consider branching out before you reach the first Divide at level fifty,” I advised him, simply because I couldn’t imagine only having access to a single magical element.

“Well, it passively increases the effect of my Water Magic by thirty percent and the water I conjure remains for fifty percent longer. I’ve been testing a little and now, the water I conjure lasts for two days, even if I don’t try to keep it around,” he began, before going into a few spells he had put together. It sounded as if he could craft spells similarly to what my Sorcerer-Class could do, only he was limited to water magic, but in turn, he gained increased power for that water magic. As always, it was a trade-off, but I wasn’t sure it was worth it in this case. The increased versatility of multiple magical elements was simply too big an advantage to pass it up, though it wasn’t as if he had truly chosen things this way.

Nodding along, I thought about the water I could conjure, water that disappeared after about twenty hours, making me wonder where the rest of the difference came from. Affinity, most likely, which meant this might be a way to begin measuring magical affinity. With access to such objective ways to measure affinity, it might be possible to create tools for it, because the system only gave a simple, binary trait or no-trait to differentiate a person’s magical affinities. But as I had demonstrated, you could learn the respective skills even without the affinity, so it might be worthwhile to provide training to everyone above a certain level of affinity, a level that might be below what was needed to gain the trait. Or maybe it would be more prudent to focus on other things and simply use the trait to differentiate.

Soon, we reached the primary buildings and it didn’t take long for Kira, Chantalle’s mother, to catch up with us. With her guidance, I managed to get into contact with a few of the higher levelled locals, as I wanted to tell them about the dungeon, warn them just how dangerous it was and give them some of the loot.

Lia and I had previously discussed the idea, it was a little circumspect but hopefully, it would work out. I didn’t want people to blame me if somebody went into the dungeon and died but I also wanted people to go into the dungeon so I could get some reports that I could compare our own experiences with.

So, after the dungeon locked us out for the rest of the month, Lia suggested that I give grave warnings of the danger, provide them with as much information as possible about the interior and hand over a few of the items neither of us wanted to us, in order to strengthen the locals. All wonderful acts of kindness that no reasonable person could fault us for. But we were talking about humans. And at least some humans would be greedy, would see two little girls, at least in their eyes, alongside a dog, who had the capacity to venture into the dungeon and they would ignore levels, magic and everything. They’d be convinced of their own superiority and venture forth, into their own demise.

Hopefully, a few of them would survive to report back so I could get the information I wanted, it would be such a waste if they all died inside.

“Miss Jacobs, are you okay?” Kira asked me, once she could see me in the light of the torches. Letting out a soft sigh, I tried to explain the hue of my skin away, but I could see that she was looking at me with quite a bit of worry.

“You won’t transform into one of those monsters right? My baby is safe, isn’t she?” Kira prodded, her hands starting to fidget.

“I will not shatter. You could say that this is merely a side-effect of my magical focus. In becoming the way I am now, I gained greater mastery over it, a trade I was willing to make, one I doubt I will regret,” I tried to assuage her concerns, though I wasn’t sure whether she actually believed me or not. Either way, she simply nodded, before guiding me towards a group of their strongest fighters, so I could inform them about the Undead and the Dungeon. Hopefully, their questions wouldn’t be as annoying. Maybe I should simply tell them about the change of my race and damn the consequences but I wasn’t certain. There could be people considering my emergence as a different race as some sort of betrayal of humanity, or thinking that non-humans somehow had caused the change, with me being an embedded agent of some sort.

People could be so incredibly illogical at times, it was a nuisance.