Andrew looked around curiously as he stepped through the portal into his first dungeon. It was… dark. Quinn quickly pulled out a small orb which lit up and began floating behind them. "Sorry, I forgot this dungeon was all tunnels." She apologized, flushing slightly.

Andrew stared at the floating orb, specifically the dot in the middle. "Is that how you record your delves?"

Quinn nodded. "Yeah. It isn't as good as a dedicated cameraman, but it's a lot more trustworthy." She commented, her tone taking on a slightly bitter edge towards the end. "It tracks motion, so it'll follow and pick up whatever we do, but it also picks up random nonsense, so it requires a lot more editing. Not that I'd be posting any of this, obviously. It just also acts as a decent light source in the darker dungeons."

Andrew shrugged. "Fair. I can't imagine many people would be interested in a level five dungeon."

"It isn't about the level of the dungeon." Quinn retorted, shaking her head. "Every dungeon instance is unique, so even a low level dungeon like this can provide an interesting viewing experience. There's always new nooks and crannies to explore." She paused. "Actually, let me go over how dungeons work for you real quick."

"While they may look similar, dungeons aren't portals. Instead, they're a pocket of twisted space formed around a core of energy, or the Dungeon Core. Whenever a party enters this space, it gets 'frozen' in that instance until the party leaves, and a dungeon can't maintain more instances than its level at a time. Since each instance is actually just a pause in the twisting of space, each instance is completely unique. The dungeon will always have the same monsters, but that's it. Now, since everything within a dungeon is an 'instance', it's also all fake. An illusion created through a mix of the core's energy and the twisting of space. That means that if you try to take anything out, like the body of a beast, or some material you found, it will just disappear. However, there are two major exceptions. First, if you destroy the core, your instance becomes real and every other instance is destroyed. The space also begins to collapse, but anything you can bring out with you remains intact. The other way you can make something real is by spending experience. If you bring something dungeon made to the core, you can spend experience to make it real. You can also bind it to you, for more experience, or just bind it to you, but if you do that it will only exist in dungeons, not in reality. Some people gain beast companions this way, or even…" Quinn hesitated. "Let's just say high-level dungeons can be a lot more complex than a couple rats in a tunnel."

"But back to the instances." Quinn continued. "Since everything is 'fake', anything can appear in a dungeon, even one as low level as this, though it's rarer because of its size. The bigger the dungeon, the more it can twist itself in new and interesting ways. Things that could never exist in nature given birth by the unbound nature of the dungeon space, like waterfalls that flow up or in loops, floating islands, or even just a type of flower or gem that's never been seen before. If something is small enough, dungeon divers can spend the experience to bring it out and show it around, but otherwise, the only way to see these marvels is by happening upon them yourself or by watching a Dungeon Streamer who seeks them out professionally." Quinn added with a little pride. "We have skills we can use to make unique formations more likely, increasing our chances of encountering them."

"Wait, hold on." Andrew held up a hand. "Are you saying that Dungeon Streamer is a Class?!?" He asked incredulously.

Quinn gave him a weird look. "Yeah? Why wouldn't it be?"

Andrew blinked. That… he'd thought she was just talking about her job, not her Class! What kind of Class even was Dungeon Streamer?!? He paused. Well, obviously it was one that focused on influencing dungeons to be more unique… probably had something to do with taking videos as well. Maybe a bit of acting? Maybe he shouldn't have zoned out during the system explanations in class… he was beginning to think he'd missed some key points. "Did you get the job first or the Class first?"

Quinn frowned. "The job is the Class… How did you not learn this in school?!? What were they even teaching you!?!" She muttered in frustration. "Classes are your job, Drew. Right now you're an Essence Master, whatever that means. That means you do Essence Master things, or at least you will once you get your skills. Teachers to Teacher things, Programmers do Programmer things, and Firefighters do Firefighter things. That's how it works! Why would you let someone who didn't have the Class do the job or not do the job if you have the Class?"

Andrew hesitated. "Maybe you suck at it?"

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Then you reset and pursue a different Class, duh. Though if you really sucked at it, you wouldn't have gotten the Class in the first place."

"So no one does anything they don't have a Class for?" Andrew asked, still trying to wrap his head around the idea.

"Maybe as a hobby, but not professionally." Quinn shook her head. "I mean, I can cook, but I'm not a Cook. I can sew, but I'm not a Seamstress. I know enough to do some minor tasks, but I don't have the skills or traits to even try to compete professionally."

Andrew frowned. "Okay, so what if your Class isn't marketable?"

Quinn blinked. "What?"

"What if no one needs what your Class offers?" Andrew elaborated. "Like… say your Class is Fart Peddler. You sell farts. No one wants to buy farts, so you don't make any money. What do you do?"

"You could always reset and choose a new Class, but a scenario like that would never happen." Quinn replied. "The system only offers Classes that are in need. That's why you would never see a Programmer before computers were invented. There was no need for them, so the system didn't offer the Class. If no one needs a…" Her expression twisted. "Fart Peddler, then the Class won't be offered. If it is offered, then it can be used. The system never offers a useless Class."

"Okay…" Andrew nodded slowly. "Then what if you really want a Class the system doesn't offer? Are you just screwed?"

"I guess?" Quinn frowned. "But if you really want a Class that badly, then obviously there's some sort of demand for it, so it should still be offered…"

"Huh… What about Classes like Thief or Murderer or something?" Andrew asked next. "They're detrimental to society, so why would the system offer them?"

"The system isn't some sort of moral guide, Drew." Quinn rolled her eyes. "If people want others to die, then there will be Classes available to kill. If people want to steal others belongings, then there will be Classes available to do just that. That's a societal problem, not a system problem."

Andrew scratched his head. "I guess that makes sense…" He muttered. "Still feels weird though."

Quinn shook her head. "It's just the way things are. But we have gotten way off topic. For now, all you need to know is that dungeons can be weird and you need to be prepared for things that don't normally make sense, because dungeons aren't based on reality."

Andrew sighed, nodding. "Got it." He paused. "But we're still just fighting rats, right?"

"Right." Quinn nodded. "You should be able to get three or four levels under your belt by the time we clear the dungeon, depending on how many beasts spawn. There's usually about fifty to a hundred."

"Got it." Andrew nodded again.

"Also, I'm only going to step in if you're in danger." Quinn warned. "Doing all this yourself will be good experience for your skills, so I'm only going to act as a safety net."

Andrew continued to nod, taking the lead as they began to move deeper into the dungeon. He quickly shifted partially into his leaping terror form, mostly focusing on his legs, but keeping his body smaller due to the tunnels, before covering himself in carapace.

"Wait!" Quinn called out, stepping forward to examine him. "What is this?!?" She asked, tapping on his shiny new outer layer.

"My carapace? It's good for defense." Andrew explained.

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"I know what it is!" Quinn snapped. "I'm wondering how you have it!"

"Oh, I got it from an ant." Andrew shrugged.

"When?!?" Quinn asked incredulously. "You've been in the city since you were uplifted! You shouldn't have even seen a beast, let alone killed one!"

"Beast?" Andrew asked, raising an eyebrow at her. "No, I got it from an ant ant. A small, tiny one. They're everywhere." Andrew held his hand up, holding his fingers close together. He'd made sure the little things actually existed. Even if this was a different world, insects were ubiquitous.

Quinn blinked. "You- you got a form from an insect?!? How!?! They don't even have the system!"

Andrew shrugged. "It's an Essence thing. Even insects have Essence, and if something has Essence, I can gain its form."

"And you can incorporate it into your other forms just like that?" Quinn asked, calming down as her tone shifted from shocked to impressed. "That's rare. Most changelings need to work to mix their forms. It took me years to adjust mine into what it is today." Quinn explained, waving vaguely at herself.

"How do your forms work anyway?" Andrew asked absently as they continued deeper into the dungeon. "Obviously you gain them differently than I do."

"I'm a Mimic Changeling." Quinn explained. "I gain my forms by spending an extended period of time in close proximity with another being or studying them intently, though it's fastest when I do both. I need to truly understand the creature I'm attempting to change into."

"And you can't do that with insects?" Andrew asked skeptically.

Quinn shook her head. "Creatures without the system are ironically too simple to understand. I could know everything about an ant, and it wouldn't get me any closer to identifying with it."

"Identify?" Andrew asked curiously.

"You know, the sense that you are what you change into." Quinn elaborated. "I know that I'm not an ant and I can't imagine ever being an ant, so I can't change into an ant."

Andrew was about to ask what was so hard about seeing yourself as an ant, when he picked up a few auras entering his aura sense and motioned for Quinn to stay quiet. Slowly he crept forward, until he saw a full count of ten creatures hidden beyond a bend in the tunnel. He adjusted his form a bit further to make sure he was in the best state to fight, before rushing forward, leaping off a tunnel wall, straight towards the small swarm of rats! The tunnel was dark, but his aura sense gave him a clear enough picture as his legs lashed out, the spikes on his heels digging into the rats. Suddenly, as the first rat died, Andrew's vision brightened, showing the rats swarming towards him in shades of gray. However, he was too focused on stomping through the rest of the rats to truly register the change.

The rat's claws couldn't manage to break through his carapace, but one did manage to crack it with its teeth before Andrew managed to shake it off, which forced him to create some distance. He could do more damage if he remained in the middle of the group, but he couldn't keep all the rats from biting him. He activated Double Speed and circled around the rats as he wore them down, taking them out one by one until there were only two left, which he quickly ended with two precise kicks to the head. He sent some aura towards his leg, healing the cracked carapace as he turned to see Quinn rounding the bend.

"I question the logic of facing creatures that can see in the dark without a light source, but you clearly managed well enough." Quinn commented, gesturing to the fallen rats. "You must have gotten a decent scouting trait using your navigation skill. Anyway, take a moment to allocate your stat points, then we'll move on."

Andrew nodded, opening his status, before pausing. "Huh… I didn't level up." He frowned, looking around to count the rats. How could ten level five rats not level him up?!?

"You didn't?" Quinn frowned, before narrowing her eyes at him. "Wait, what rank is your race?"

Andrew blinked. "Four?"

Quinn sighed. "Well, shit. That makes things a bit more difficult. This dungeon may not even get you to level two."

"What? Why?!?" Andrew exclaimed, before suddenly remembering what the Shaman had told him about ranks. "Wait… what rank are these rats?"

"Drew, they're rats. What rank do you think they are?" Quinn asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

Andrew cursed internally. If these rats were rank one… "I need to kill over sixty of these things just to level up?!?" Andrew exclaimed incredulously.

Quinn nodded. "And since this dungeon only spawns fifty to a hundred beasts…"

Andrew groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. "This is going to take forever, isn't it?"

*

It did, in fact, take forever. Even at level five, dungeons weren't small. It took them hours to navigate the entire thing, compared to the few intense minutes it took Andrew to kill all forty-four of the spawned beasts. "Didn't you say there were supposed to be at least fifty?" Andrew grumbled as they arrived at the dungeon core, signaling the end of their journey.

"The dungeon generally spawns fifty to a hundred beasts. Sometimes it's a little lower, sometimes it's a little higher. This one was a little low." Quinn shrugged.

Andrew grunted, still pissed that even after killing almost four dozen rats, his level remained unchanged. This rank crap was bullshit! "I don't think five extra points per level is worth this crap." He grumbled.

Quinn shot him a look. "Okay, you just didn't pay attention at all in class, did you? I know they would have gone over the benefits of higher ranks."

Andrew coughed awkwardly. "I did… mostly."

Quinn rolled her eyes. "Increasing your rank isn't about stat points, though they definitely help. The biggest thing a higher rank gives you is time. At rank one, your life span is twenty-five years, but it doubles every time you increase your rank. So at rank two, you have fifty years to live, at rank three you have a hundred, and so on. Now, you can increase your rank by increasing your Class rank over your race rank, but that only doubles your remaining life span, so the earlier you do it the better." Andrew nodded along, remembering most of this from class. He just hadn't cared because he was pretty sure he didn't have a life span. "Rank also determines how many Classes you can have." Andrew paused. He did not remember that part. "You can only have as many Classes as your rank, which means the higher your rank, the more versatile you can be. Also, while you can't use multiple Classes at once, you still benefit from the skills you develop in each Class, so the higher your rank, the more skilled you are, in general, something which is only exacerbated by the additional lifespan."

"So, longer lifespan, more Classes, more attributes…" Andrew nodded along. "But it still takes you forever to level up."

"As far as disadvantages go, there have been worse." Quinn rolled her eyes. "Race levels only give you attribute points. At level hundred, you'll have about five hundred more attribute points than a rank three race, which is the equivalent of twenty-five of their levels. However, you only need to kill beasts three or four levels higher than them to match their leveling speed, which you can manage by level fifteen or so. So it isn't that much of a disadvantage, now is it?"

"I guess not." Andrew sighed, before shooting a scowl at the dungeon core. "I just wish this stupid thing had spawned a few more rats." He muttered, kicking a rock at it.

"That would have been- No!" Quinn exclaimed as the rock hit the crystalline object and it cracked. "Shit, shit, fuck, nonono!" Quinn cursed, rushing towards the core to examine it as the cracks slowly spread and Andrew's eyes widened. "Damn it!" Quinn groaned as the core shattered.

"What- I just- why-" Andrew stammered, staring at where the core used to be, feeling like he just broke his mom's three hundred year old china set.

Quinn sighed. "It's fine, just- ugh, you can't attack dungeon cores. Like, at all. Any violent intentions and they just…" She gestured futilely towards where the core once stood. "Damn it, I'd rented this slot for an entire week!"

"What- how- how do I-" Andrew gulped nervously. He'd just broken a dungeon! Would they send him to jail? Would he be in debt for the rest of his life? Fuck, he was so screwed!

Quinn waved him away. "Don't worry, this shit happens. Some newbie breaks a dungeon every month or so. Honestly, it keeps things fresh. We'll have to report it, but otherwise it's no big deal. Level five dungeons are easy to replace." She paused. "Don't do it again though." She warned. "Repeat offenders have to pay an increasing amount of fines per offense."

Andrew blinked. "That's it? It's just okay?" He asked incredulously.

Quinn rolled her eyes. "It's not okay. You just killed our free ride out of here! Now we have to drag our asses all the way back to the entrance! We could have been on our way home by now!" The woman continued to complain as she started making her way back towards the entrance of the dungeon. "Come on, if we don't get out of here before the space collapses… Well, it won't kill us, but it isn't a fun experience."