Elara, Dia and Janik sat near the door, beside the computer and were working on her language learning. Using Sam’s phone he was helping her with pronunciation, and guidance and looked to treat her almost like he did with Sam; he was super helpful and seemingly took enjoyment in aiding. Janik was a strange man in one way, almost overly beneficial to the point that people might mistake it for him having an agenda, but at the same time, he never hid the reasons he did things. Like his training Sam, he never pretended that this was not for his gain, though helping Sam, and Dia, also helped him so it became a win/win situation.

“Ah, no. Stomach.” Janik patted his belly and emphasised the kch-like sound at the end of the word.

“Sto..ma... kkh?” Dia tried her best, struggling with pronouncing certain sounds. The app on Sam’s phone registered it as wrong three times before she gave it a fourth attempt which it accepted.

She looked at Janik with a victorious smile, he returned only positive and affirming words, keeping them short.

This was them passing their time as Sam tried again, and again, and again to do this. He had been at it for what felt like hours, but he chose to not check how long it had taken. Trying different angles, different timings, different ranges. Any variable he could consider.

But after doing that for a while, Janilk seemed to notice and told him to pick what felt the most likely to work and stay the course, he would fail a lot... a... lot... of times. But the more variables he added the harder it would be. Janik spent days to get this working, but he was alone without anyone with experience, at least Sam could use some of his friend's experience.

Listening to him he had opted for a simple chest-stab, mainly because of a large surface that was relatively flat, as far as a body went, which should make it at least a little bit easier to time it. He had several times considered just giving up for now and doing more of this later, or training on something they found on the second Floor, but... Janik shot that idea down instantly. Assuming a target with a Defence rating of 5, assuming everything hit and no crits or triggering of effects, this would lower Sam’s theoretical damage of 202, or rather: 197, down to 77, which was a dangerously dramatic decrease when considering that the targets would be stronger there. Though he had alternatives like his Boost or Force Pulses, it was not a good idea to go in half-baked.

Originally they planned to go to the second Floor and explore a bit, but after some talking during their long trek they agreed that it was much smarter to have this in the box first, it was annoying and would postpone their advancement, but Janik had become surprisingly hard on this.

Sam let out a frustrated grunt, Dia looked at him with a worried expression but was stopped by Janik from both getting up and talking to him. Janik’s smile calmed her down as he got her attention back to the language lesson.

This continued for quite some time, needing both toilet and food breaks, taking a considerable time of the day.

“YES!” Sam shouted out, as the others turned towards him they found him with both fists in the air victoriously.

The display listed the data the same, except the damage dealt was 23.

“I did it!” He turned towards the others looking incredibly happy.

“Don’t get cocky.” Janik shut him down a bit, which was surprisingly uncharacteristic for him. “I got too caught up in it as well at first... made it much harder the next few times. Analyse what you did and use it!”

Sam’s expression soured considerably, but he couldn’t fault Janik’s point. He wanted to celebrate a little longer but he turned back to investigate what he did, trying to think back at how he moved the daggers, and how he positioned them, there were a surprising amount of factors in that working attack, he couldn’t explain them all... which sounded like part of the problem.

Almost as if the universe wanted to emphasise Janik’s point, the next few attacks failed to produce the same result, causing Sam’s expression to sour even more. Janik’s point hit harder now... This caused Sam to take extra care in how he positioned, moved and attacked with his daggers each subsequent attack.

It took many more attacks before he managed to do it again. This time he didn’t react like he did before but rather he heavily analyzed what he did. He had thoughts on what he did before, during and after the attack, considering it all he needed to find out what the main issue was... it was incredibly simple, or rather the reason why he struggled and how to compensate, making it kind of dumb.

To test his theory he did the attack three more times, this time all three landed the attack as planned, the numbers stacking before the Defence rating was calculated.

“Well done!” Janik exclaimed, having been paying attention for a while, it seemed. “What was your trick?”

“I struggle with timing and distance... since I attack from over here. I can... feel... Things with my hands but while attacking this is a problem, so... I placed a hand on the target...” Sam replied sounding almost embarrassed.

“So... you kind of just... felt the distance better?”

“Yes, rather than relying on my eyes to time, I felt the target’s distance which let me time it better.” Sam smiled back, finally feeling confident about his idea.

“That’s a great idea!” Janik pumped his fist in the air.

Dia looked at them confused and slowly mimicked the movement as if it was going to unlock something in her. It didn’t, which made her more confused.

“Now-” Janik continued as his glee turned to a challenging expression. “-Try again from other angles!”

Sam chuckled, this challenge felt both impossible and easy at the same time... As he turned to do just that, placing a Psyhand on the target before landing a hit, he found that it was indeed not as easy as he hoped. The attack failed to sum before the Defense kicked in, after a few tries from ‘this angle’, he managed to make it land a few times, but he was then challenged to do it from another angle, then another, and so it went for a while. Janik almost sounded like he was running it for Sam, but rather he realised that this was more realistic, you don’t always get the chance to do it as you want. And from Janik’s earlier explanation, he needed to make it several times before he unlocked it, so this felt like a more realistic training to get it to unlock faster.

It took a few hours of this, every time he got used to an angle, Janik forced him to change it, and after a while of this Sam started doing that on his own, which let Janik sit back down with Dia and work on her English. It seemed like Janik also picked up a few words at the same time, which was somewhat amusing to Sam but as it messed with his focus, he had to stop paying attention to them and focus on the task at hand.

[ Passive Utility Skill Unlocked: Clustered Strike ]

“YES!” Sam again flung both his fists into the air, breaking the concentration of Dia, forcing her to fail her word attempt.

They turned to Sam who met their looks with a happy expression. “It finally unlocked!”

This time Janik joined in celebration with a happy whoop, instead of bringing him down. “Congratulations!”

Sam felt amazing, for several reasons.

[ Passive Utility Skill: Clustered Strike

All attacks that land on a single target at the same time, will count as one attack before considering Defence. ]

“I think mine is named different than yours, but it works the same.” Sam explained through his glee.

“That’s great! Now, give it a go, see how it works.” Janik commented, seeming to have a strange expression behind his genuine happiness.

Turning back around, Sam did as requested, he attacked with all four daggers on the target and... it felt a bit strange. Almost as if someone held your wrists and either helped to drag them faster, or slow them down by resisting before letting go it felt like an external force helped him time things. Unless he delayed one or more of the daggers over a certain point, they were auto-timed to hit at the same time and stack their damage. It took some time getting used to as it felt so unnatural, which made Sam believe this was the reason behind Janik’s expression.

“Weird, isn’t it.” Janik added with an almost ‘told you so’ tone. “It took me a while to get used to it as well, so I recommend you get used to it before we go out.... And since it’s late... why don’t we have a late dinner and call it for today?”

Sam agreed to his suggestion, checking the time it was already nearing evening, and though using the Psyhands didn’t wear him out, he was still hungry from just being here.

Janik looked at Dia and nudged her towards Sam with a wide smile, nodding almost as if giving her permission to do something.

She stepped closer and looked back and forth hesitantly. “Sa...mm... Sam... Good... job?” It ended in a very uncertain and questioning tone, but given the situation, it was clear this was something Janik had managed to teach her when Sam was focused on his own thing.

“Yes!” Janik confirmed happily to her as she looked at him for confirmation if she had done it right. Which sent her into a wide smile towards Sam. “Sa! Sa shirin!” She shouted as she lowered her ears to make room.

Sam hadn’t expected that she had taken to getting the simple head pat that much, but she seemed to want that as a reward, and he couldn’t exactly say no. Manifesting a Psyhand he gave her the head pat she wanted, she leant heavily into the invisible force as he gave her a prolonged pat.

Janik gave them a moment to do their thing, letting Dia get her energy out as she had been sitting around for hours, staring at a phone, learning English. So this was probably a good thing for her.

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They left the training room, and TAC, for a local food place. The first two refused their entry due to Dia, they were fine with Elara but Dia made this somewhat problematic. Although Sam was a bit annoyed at this he also understood it, she was a Beastfolk, something that most looked at like a monster, so trying to relax and eat with one in the room might not always work... But in the end, a mainstream burger place allowed her entry as long as they stood responsible for it, which was fine.

Like before, she ate like the animal she halfway was, requiring her face to be cleaned afterwards. Although she seemed to hate the use of napkins, wanting to lick her hand and rub it away instead, it ended up being a compromise which let her end up relatively clean for now. Sam expected her to handle that before they got back, and he could always just clean her properly then.

The rest of the evening disappeared in a blur, Janik, like the proud parent he was had plenty of things to brag about, though it seemed he kept most of it to the kids that Sam knew at least a little about, so most were surrounding Ethan and Grace, the Player and Elara’s friend. But they also spent some time planning the next day, which was simple enough; go to the second Floor and try out the first Dungeon there.

Later that night, they again split up for the next day. Elara requested to go with Janik to visit Grace, something Sam was more than happy to have happen. The fact that she had wants and wishes was still something he preferred. And the rest of the evening was much like the last one, Dia learning more language on his phone as she sat as against him as she could, though as he was preparing the app for her to continue she was again adamant of grooming him. It wasn’t that he disliked the attention, it just still felt weird having his face, hair and limbs cleaned through licking. He tried to explain that he could just wash himself but she became very insistent. He understood that it was important to her, letting her have her way with at least some of it. She also seemed to still have a weird relationship with clothing, at least weird in Sam’s eyes with his Earthern view on things. Again she commented ‘Kara’ after having taken her armour and clothing off, something he was still unsure what meant.

The evening mostly went for her to learn words, as soon as she learned something that could be found in the apartment like a cup, glass or something like that, she became very interested in the object, wanting to bet several of them and use the words as soon as she got confirmation that she said it well enough. Sam didn’t have a problem with this, it was oddly adorable in a way while it solidified the words in her mind.

Since she seemed to be picking up words and simple things very fast, he was looking forward to when she learned enough to have a conversation. That said, she didn’t ignore the opportunity to teach Sam her own words for things, when she learned enough words to point and explain things in English, with the app’s aid, she also used that to explain what certain words meant. Since she was also now somewhat used to seeing images and things on the phone, searching on the internet for images of things allowed Sam to do the multiple-of-same-thing comparison he had used before.

Spending their time together they eventually went to sleep, and like before, waking up well after normal time, still enjoying the option to largely ‘set the time’ in his own life was something he tried to not take for granted. It was also very nice just waking up with Dia wrapped around him, though a bit warm with all her fur and body heat.

He couldn’t get out of bed without waking her and trying to remain still also seemed to wake her up. Might be due to her earlier life but she didn’t seem like a heavy sleeper. That said, it didn’t seem too negative as she looked happy, smiled widely with her half-sleeping expression and hugged him tighter before he managed to get loose.

The morning procedure went as normal, having read and sent messages to Janik they agreed to meet up in the mess hall for breakfast before setting off. Sam decided to get some potions before they left but that could wait until after getting some food.

“You hungry?” Sam asked Dia in plain English, these were words he knew she had been using in the app to learn, so it was both a question and a natural test.

She pondered for a few long seconds, seemingly analysing the words before replying with a Yip. A second later she seemed to realize what was going on and decided to answer in English as well. “Y... Yes... I... Hungry!”

Though she didn’t have a proper full-sentence structure, it was entirely understandable and not bad for someone who had been learning the language passively for a few days. She looked happy at being able to understand even this simple question.

“Good, then let’s go eat.” Sam smiled back at her. She used a few more seconds to process this longer sentence before it seemed to click in her mind, with a wide smile she got dressed and met Sam at the door.

Sam couldn’t help himself from feeling proud of his companion, she was learning the language surprisingly fast and though her replies were simple, they were understandable. With some more nurturing she should become pretty good.

This time she didn’t seem too sceptical about the elevator either, and as Sam considered it, she was getting used to light switches, the fridge and other modern luxuries as well. Based on her reaction when they came back to Earth yesterday, she still wasn’t happy about walking outside, massive concrete buildings and weird hard ground still seemed weird to her. But she was coming around.

“Jaik!” Dia exclaimed as she saw Janik sitting at a table, already eating.

“Almost. JaNik, Janik.” Sam put pressure on the letter she missed before pronouncing it correctly.

“Ja... N.. Nik... Ja-nik... Janik?” She looked at Sam with a questioning expression, seemingly confirming if she did it right or not.

“Yes, that’s correct!” Sam smiled back, it wasn’t perfect and a bit off in certain vowels, but it was plenty good enough.

Dia’s face lit up as she ran over to Janik, saying his name as she got in conversation range. Janik nodded sagely as she seemed to get it right before greeting her in turn. This just lit her face up even more.

As they got in range, Elara slithered across the table, reaching up for Sam. As he gave her a hand to climb onto she slithered up to her place draped across his shoulders.

Janik was about done eating, and by the time Dia and Sam returned with their own, he had completed his.

“I think it’s about time we hit the second Floor.” Janik started the discussion as the others were eating.

Sam nodded as he ate, he had opted to get Dia some finger food as she wasn’t used to utensils just yet, might as well make it easier for her to eat until she does.

“According to the guide, there is an entry-level Dungeon not far from the landing area, there’s a village near it like on the first Floor, so we can get some pointers there if we need them.”

Nodding again, Sam opted to not reply with his mouth full of food.

“They are around level 20, so the same as the last Dungeon on the first Floor, but the difference here is their damage output and that some of them have a Defence rating, which is why I wanted you to learn the thing before we went there. And these fuckers have a ton of health, especially the boss.” Janik was showing some images on his phone which was lying flat on the table as he explained.

The images were mainly of what looked like bat-beastfolk, so more flyers, which made a lot of sense in the mountain region, but also a few simple-looking golem creatures. The golems were made up of large rocks stacked on each other to vaguely resemble a humanoid shape. When referring to massive health he was pointing at a Golem.

“But, the boon is that the XP values jump dramatically, as we touched on. One of these fuckers will give us around 40k.”

This caused Sam to almost choke on his food, coughing twice before he managed to get control over himself. “40k? That’s, what... a hundred times more than the ravens?”

“That’s nothing, the boss gives you 100k.” Janik added with a smile to Sam’s bewilderment.

However, the more Sam thought about it, the more it made sense. There was already a cap in place to stop lower levels from going there, or at least from benefitting compared to the danger, this was some kind of balancing act to make things scale ‘similarly’. If that were true then everything should just scale out of control, but you would struggle near the end, but once you got through it you’ll get easier mode for a while.

All of this was surprisingly close to many games Sam had played when he was younger.

It didn’t take long after this for Dia and Sam to finish their food, after which they set off. They passed by the computers connected to the shop and got themselves some potions, Sam ended up with six of the 50% healing ones, and Janik got himself a few as well before they headed for the Tower.

“So, when you get in the influence it’ll ask you if you want to enter. From what I read, now that you’re qualified you should get an option for the second Floor.” Janik explained as he looked at his phone, currently reading about this very topic.

This made sense, the System was a part of their mind, after all, and its rules and internal... things seemed to just know what it needed to know.

Dia kept close as soon as they left TAC, looking at the tall concrete buildings with a certain uncertainty, her ears flat against her head and her tails close to her legs. Elara didn’t seem to care and just rested around his neck.

Getting within the influence the familiar window popped up, but now with an extra option.

[ Please select a destination.

Floor 1

Floor 2 ]

He chose the second floor, accepted the group option, and as the white light enveloped him he saw a window briefly open.

[ Transporting to #%&””#/!}§ ]