Sam looked at Janik with confused eyes, he didn’t have any mana of his own but there was a simple way around it.

Janik just smiled. “Soak it in a mana potion. It’ll absorb the mana and voila!” He made a flourish with his hands at the end of his sentence.

“That’s... surprisingly dumb and easy...” Sam almost felt stupid for not considering it. He had been drinking potions lately, and though not any mana potions he knew that the potions had stuff in them. The health potions probably had some mana too given that it was a magical healing effect. But since mana potions refill mana... it made sense they held some mana... thing... in them.

“Yep, not everyone considers it, but most experienced Players know about that trick. It’s one of those things that make perfect sense once you think about it. Like how if you pump iron and get physically stronger, your STR stat will increase with it.” He flexed at the end, showing his well-defined bicep almost to make a point.

“That... yeah... that also makes sense... I didn’t consider that...” Sam sat back in the chair properly, feeling a bit dumb. Though he had only been a Player for a few days, it’s one of those things that just make too much sense.

“Yep. However, it doesn’t work for all attributes. We don’t know how to increase the Spirit stat, for example. Dexterity and Vitality are a bit harder than Strength, but still doable.” Janik nodded sagely almost like he was sharing secrets of the universe.

“But, if you plan to take today easy, and if you have the money to spare, why not get a mana potion or two and see if you can hatch it?” He smiled surprisingly excitedly on Sam’s behalf.

“How... do I know how much mana it needs?” Sam asked. Now that his hunger was satiated, the snacks and soda just working as bonuses for the pleasure of eating snacks. He was getting somewhat eager to get the egg hatched.

“That’s hard to say, mana potions don’t work the same in this case. Normally they increase a percentage of your mana, like health potions do. But the way it works on eggs is a bit odd. I have a weak mana potion here, I’ll sell it to you for a slight discount, you can test with it and based on how many percent it goes up with, you can find out from there.” Janik smiled widely as he fumbled in his coat to pick out a small vial of blue liquid. “These normally sell to TAC for about $100, but I’ll sell it to you for 50, so a good 50% discount.”

Sam wondered for a moment, but there was nothing bad about this deal. He got the first potion at a 50% discount, and if he was going to do this anyway, there was no reason not to.

Taking out his phone he used a simple money-transferring app to send the $50 to Janik, which only took a few seconds.

As Janik’s phone pinged, he confirmed the message before placing the potion on the table. “I recommend a bowl.” He smiled.

Almost jumping to his feet, Sam went to the kitchen and fumbled through the cupboards, finding a plastic mixing bowl, and bringing it back to the table. He put the egg in the bowl and almost opened the bottle before he looked back at Janik. “Soo... I just pour it over and see what happens?”

“Yep, it might take a few minutes to absorb it all, but it’s as simple as it sounds.” Sitting up to better look into the bowl, Janik got ready to observe.

Sam got excited and uncorked the vial, he poured it straight onto the egg, letting it pool underneath it, leaving it to seep into a tiny pool of mana. Though as Janik stated it took a while but it didn’t take several minutes. The little pool was absorbed into the egg and as it did so the fractal design on the egg started slowly filling up. Checking the information window about the egg had the percentage slowly increase as well, 1... 3...5... And in the end, once all the pooled up mana had been absorbed, it stopped at 10%.

“Oh, 10% exactly.” Sam exclaimed.

“That’s convenient, not always it matches like that.” Janik added. “In that case you just need more mana potions, hitting 90% more.” He looked amused by the situation and Sam’s reaction, and he almost had the expression of an uncle being passively entertained by his nephew.

“How much will those potions be?” Sam didn’t feel entirely confident in his money to handle this.

“They usually go for about $100 per ten percent. So a 50% bottle will be around 500. Not always but that’s somewhat the norm. Though if you’re short on cash, taking a few rounds in the starter dungeon could make that happen for free... sort of, and you can test that new dagger of yours.” Janik smiled, almost like he was making a deal out of ruining Sam’s day of calm.

Sam pondered this for a moment, the only potions he got down there were the 10% ones. After several hours of repeating it, he got a total of 5 mana potions, so 50%. He would need almost double that. He didn’t know the odds for the mana potions to come out of the Random Box at that level, but expecting that one comes every three runs, needing 9 potions, that’s 27 runs. Rounding to 30, taking 30 minutes each run that’s a full day of about 8 hours. Though, running it 30 times and killing everything also nets more XP than he needs to level... Compared to about $900 it felt surprisingly... acceptable.

This also made him realise that there was a surprising amount of math to consider when being a Player, simple math but still more than he expected.

“I’m drawn to a day of simple Dungeons, to be honest... I know that higher-level ones have higher rewards but...” Sam looked unsure and a bit confused in how to word it.

“This was your calm day, after all.” Janik finished his sentence in his own words.

“Well, yes, kind of. I want to keep climbing and get better, but I feel that after last night... I want to just calm down a bit.” His smile was forced, not pained just tired and worn.

Janik lifted an eyebrow as he looked back at Sam. “Yeah, I can see that, absolutely. Though that said, as there isn’t much for me in there, I assume you can handle those alone this round?” His expression was almost adding to the question.

“Yeah, I think that after a few runs with you yesterday I was ready to do that specific dungeon alone... And after the Solo Dungeon, not to mention with the new and fancy dagger. I think I’ll be fine. Worst case scenario, I can always leave it.” He smiled, feeling surprisingly good that leaving like that was an option.

“That’s good, I got something to take care of, shouldn’t take more than a few hours at most but I might as well go visit some friends while I’m at it.” He smiled, looking happy that this could be a calm day for him at least. “But, you better call me before you hatch the egg.” He looked serious at the last statement.

“Yeah, I’ll do that. But first I need to gather 90% worth of mana potions...” Though he was excited about it yesterday, after the Solo Dungeon he was surprisingly more interested in relaxing today, just sleeping and eating. Though, that said, he really did like the idea with the egg, and having an extra friend, of sorts, felt worth a day of training. Besides, if his math checked out, he should at least level after all of that as well, so it would be a win/win.

He still knew that he could just go and buy the potions, but if they cost $100 each it would eat into his fundings quite considerably.

“Keep the rest of the snacks. I don’t want to carry it around.” Janik commented, though there was a tone in his voice slightly hinting that he planned this all along. “This round’s on me, you can take the next one.” He continued smiling as he got up from the chair, heading for the door.

They agreed that Sam should contact him before the egg hatches, this meant that Sam had to wait after getting the potions until he was there to complete the hatching process. Though this sounded like an annoyance, Sam was just happy that Janik was willingly sharing all this good info.

“But, you better get gud soon. I want to do some higher dungeons with you very soon. Yaboi’s got bills to pay!” Was the last thing he said through a wide smile as he left down the hallway with a wave.

Sam felt lucky when it came to Janik. He was still a strange man but he was incredibly supportive. Yes, he was kind of doing this for his longer-term gain, he never hid that fact, he wanted to run dungeons safer so training Sam was for that goal. But he was giving him a lot of good free info, as well as dedicating a whole day to just helping him in the dungeons without even taking a share of anything. Though, he probably got the same quest as Sam did, so he most likely got the random boxes as well... Just realised that now, he never paid much attention to Janik during the reward phase of the starter dungeons... he didn’t know if he even got anything or not...

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Well, none of that mattered now. He was going to repay Janik’s kindness. Though he had a goal for himself today, he was feeling more than ready for the next step of Dungeons, but today it was going to be safe and simple, training with his new dagger and aiming for 9x mana potions. He could probably speed up the process by selling Health potions and buying Mana potions... but it felt smarter to just keep them...

Having eaten, feeling good though slightly worn mentally, he geared up and set off for the starter dungeon he ran so many times yesterday.

The process was the same. Go there, get in line, enter, do the whole thing and repeat. The new dagger was the first attack he did on every target he could. As only one dagger it could only hit one target at once, but it did very well. The damage it did was easily enough to one-shot anything in the starting newb-Dungeon, so he could split up the daggers and get more hits in. Though when it missed it felt oddly devastating as when wielding four daggers, the Vampiric dagger accounted for over half of the damage done. Almost felt a bit weird and was a huge luxury problem.

The first run was over in record time, the Vampiric Lifesteal effect triggered twice. Though he hadn’t taken any damage it felt strangely nice. When it triggered there was a pulse of energy near it, or rather than a pulse of energy it seemed like the energy pulsed out of the target. This was followed by a pleasant flow of warmth into Sam’s body with a System message explaining that [ Life Steal 1 ] triggered, healing him for 1 Health. It was practical and nice, though the most immediate change was the massive damage increase from his other daggers and the new one. Not to mention since he had gotten more used to his style of combat made it almost trivial at times.

However, though all that was fine and dandy, the problem was that mana potions were surprisingly problematic to obtain. Or rather, not problematic but just a low percentile chance. Considering giving up and just buying the potions several times through the next 20 runs, which took a solid 8 hours with a few short breaks, he ended up with mostly what he needed. The total list after 20 runs was 12x Aether Crystals, 7x weapons, 5x sets of Armour, 4x Health potions and 6x Mana potions. On top of this, he got a total of 1100 XP which bumped him into Level 9 and landed him on 522 / 2560 towards Level 10.

He was tired, he didn’t want to continue. It was easier and easier, he got more and more used to things and, after a solid workday of just slaughtering Goblins and Kobolds, he was almost feeling sorry for them. Even after the level-up and putting both points into SPT, he couldn’t lift a dagger with just one Psyhand, but it allowed him to put more force behind the movements when he used two, meaning they moved faster and more snappy in the air, having more strength to combat momentum. This increased his accuracy a surprising amount which in turn cut down on his misses. Once he got used to this change he didn’t even bother stopping when walking in the Dungeon, just rounding the corner, flinging his blades at the targets and moving into the next room. He didn’t tire from using his abilities but he was getting mentally worn out just doing this again and again.

Deciding to end his runs here, he went to sell the stuff he got, except the potions. He’d just use whatever he got from the other items to pay for the remaining potions, he was done. Though he got a level from it, it took too many runs, and too much repetition, it completely lost its fun.

“What can I help you with today?” The middle-aged man asked behind the selling counter.

“Yes, I’d like to sell this, and buy three mana potions.” Though he was tired, Sam was also happy, he knew this would handle the remaining potions without much problem.

“Right, give me a moment and we’ll tally this up for you.” The man sounded genuinely happy as he took out a tablet, and scanned everything before turning the tablet to Sam for confirmation.

Sam had kept one of the daggers from his loot, he should get to a point soon where he can use another, so it wasn’t a dumb idea just having one lying around for that time. Not that they were expensive or hard to get, but due to how often people got these things, the market was flooded, cutting the sale and buy price down dramatically.

Taking a look at the tablet, it listed $25 per Aether crystal, 50 per weapon and 40 per armour. Totalling at $800, since he wanted three mana potions, this cut the price down by 300, so he was left with $500. It was all fine. Considering the $100 price for potions, he was keeping 10 potions, so in total his daily payout was 1800 if he didn’t want the potions. Not a bad day's work for just strolling through a beginner dungeon and accidentally levelling while doing so.

His money was transferred to his account, and he was given the three potions, netting him a total of 9. Before leaving for his room he sent a text to Janik and passed by the Reception to extend his stay. He reserved the room longer, having it deduct the cost per night unless he said anything else. Which was a surprisingly common way of doing things.

Getting to his room he slumped down in a chair, placing the potions on the table next to the bowl with the egg inside it. It still registered as 10%, which was good as he’d flip his shit if it had somehow gone down during his long day of Dungeon running.

Dozing off a little as he waited, he woke up to the sound of hammering on his door. Stretching lightly he walked over and opened the door. Like before Janik squeezed in almost like he was afraid of being shut out, walking straight to the table.

“Ok, I’m ready!” he commented, not even greeting Sam, as he took out his smartphone and started filming the fancy egg in the cheap plastic bowl.

Sam chuckled, it almost seemed like Janik was more eager about this than he was, but it was good having eager friends. Joining him at the table he continued the process of pouring one vial of mana after another. He waited for one vial to be absorbed before he went for the next. Just in case something happens.

The process took a while, but there was still cold pizza and snacks left from before, so they had ways to kill time. Asking about what Janik was doing, only got a reply in the form of ‘this and that’ before visiting some friends. They ended up talking about Dungeons in the end, how fucking bored Sam was of the starter Dungeon now, wanting to go to the next one.

As one vial of man was absorbed completely, it was listed as 20% filled, just as expected. This held for the next, and next. Hitting 30, 40, 50... Each vial poured on top of the egg and completely absorbed increased the hatching percentage with the regenerative percentage. According to a re-confirmation from Janik, not always the case so he was kind of lucky with this one. He had heard of cases where the eggs used just one cheap potion, and others where it took a king's ransom in potions to finally hatch. The kicker was that even the amount of mana it needed wasn’t a good indicator of what came out of it. A powerful beast could come out of a 2-potion hatch, and a 20-potion hatch could produce a city pigeon. It seemed the Tower System was being a dick with the logic behind these eggs, making sure it was entirely random and up to chance. To make people either power through or leave them.

Janik had stopped the recording a while ago, as it used some time to absorb the Mana each time, but as the egg reached 90% and the final potion was poured over it, he started filming again, getting up from his chair to get a good angle.

Sam was eager and interested, having no idea what was going to come out. He hoped for something powerful and amazing, a brief inner panic kicked in as it neared 100% since... what if something massive came out of it, wouldn’t it squash them against the walls of the room as it exploded? Since Janik didn’t seem reluctant or even hesitant, Sam threw those cautions to the wind and regained his eagerness.

As the final drop was consumed the egg reached 100% charged, the fractal design had, like an almost magical loading bar, been glowing more and more through the whole process and was now completely glowing. A ping sounded in Sam’s head, coming from nowhere, as a System window popped up.

[ Companion egg charged; Hatching. ]

“Take it out of the bowl, it’ll look better.” Janik stated as he moved his phone around, trying to get a good angle.

Sam took the egg out of the bowl and placed it on the table, Janik moved around the table for some reason only the man with the camera could explain, as the egg started to crack. Another crack formed and in a few seconds most of it had light cracking with a few that went much deeper, the creature inside lifted a fragment of the shell, not enough to look inside but it moved, bringing a strange joy to the two.

Then it started glowing, much like the Random Boxes when opening a bright pulse of light flashed before fading. Sam instinctively closed his eyes as the bright light flashed, only to open them a few seconds later.

[ Congratulations on Hatching the Companion Egg. ]