Walking up to the cave I stopped right before the point that would trigger the welcome message, wiping my palms off on my trousers I turned to Jaska “So one hour in and out your time, but Sven sounded like he spent maybe a day in there, but I have plenty of supplies. If I get a chance to challenge up to a higher rank should I push for it?”

“Honestly it depends on a lot, you need to make that judgement call. Outside of a few trickster type dungeons though challenging higher tiers almost always gives better rewards, but you need to decide for yourself. A good rule is to consider if you could in that moment beat something twice as hard as the previous challenge, if you can’t then unless the reward is something you doubt you will ever be able to get a real chance at again you should leave and come back to try for it again another time. The rewards might change but the tiers are usually consistent, and if you got to challenge a higher grade then you can usually do it again after the cool down period. Now, I know you're nervous, but honestly just do it. First runs are awful for the nerves, it's best to just get into it and focus on doing your best to get a high tier reward”

Nodding to both guards watching I turned and put my arm through into the cave triggering a prompt.

Welcome to Two Rivers, dungeon of skillful visions, and whetstone for the strong. Dungeon instance offered: Phoenix's crucible Accept?

Huh, only one option wasn’t too surprising but it had found and offered an instance named after my class, focusing on the dungeon instance name I was able to get some more details.

Dungeon instance: Phoenix’s crucible Type: Staged combat with rest rounds. Reward conditions: Completion of each round will reward a related reward. Dungeon final reward will be based on total performance.

Usually these contained exit conditions or completion goals, but I didn’t have any real inspection skills that could give me more information so I would just have to assume the standard rule that you exit at will when not in active combat and that it would give me a prompt on completing the instance.

Accepting the entry prompt I found myself stepping forward then suddenly sitting on a stone bench in a small stone room. There was a wooden door to my left and a raised bench along the far wall with some fruit, meat, and what looked like jugs for water or wine. The stone looked like sandstone, but felt warm to touch, even the bench I was sitting on was the same stone and warm to the touch like it had just been brought in from the sun on a clear day.

Looking around I suddenly got a new prompt as I was checking over the food, and jugs which turned out to be two of water and one of a weak smelling wine.

Welcome young Wild Blood of the Phoenix line. The crucible is a place to forge you into the true master of life you are meant to be. Here you will fight a combatant, followed by being given a period of rest of a random period of time, then you will be given a chance for an instance reward. This is between either more rest time, or something to help you in upcoming fights. When you're ready for the first fight simply open the door from this room to enter the arena, if you take more then two hours to open the door you will be forced into the arena. May your blood boil on the sand, young one.

Huh so definitely class related, I had heard a little bit about some classes being more made of blood lines then cores in school, but almost no one really knew much about them so the general rule was meant to be to let them self guide. Maybe that is why the training I got felt like it was missing so many components I have learned since leaving, no one wanted to screw up my class development.

On the upside this meant I was technically a phoenix, and that sounded like something I could use to brag to Bren and Sven, so there were definitely upsides along with the strange dungeon.

You have been determined to have no hatchery mark. Permission requested to review bloodline to determine what additional assistance may be needed. Grant permission?

This was new, I knew bloodlines were considered deeply personal so most people didn’t really talk about them much, and the wild blood only trained those who were part of a clan or who could prove they have undergone a mutation, or were close to achieving one with a good success rate, but at the same time while sharing it would usually be considered a bad idea it was a dungeon. What was it going to do with that information? Sell it to someone, or use it against me? It seemed more likely this instance was meant to help those with the bloodline related to my class to train, so it shouldn’t hurt right?

Thank you young one. Determined fledgling bloodline with no hatchery mark. Assistance available. Offering hatchery mark of Yosh. Yosh was patriarch of Phoenix clans combat healers, and is most suitable for your path. Do you accept?

It seemed these prompts were from the dungeon instance itself, I had heard some of the established rather then created ones developed personalities over time but that it was mostly influenced by the type of person likely to gain access so hopefully if this was a place meant for people with similar classes it would be of a helpful nature, at least it seemed to be so far.

Focusing on a few parts of this prompt provided no extra information, so this was something that the system couldn’t or wouldn’t expand on. On one hand this likely marked me to the wild blood as part of a clan, which has pros and cons, but at the same time it sounded like it had to contain a bloodline upgrade, and combat healing seems to be what my class excelled at so this shouldn’t hurt my development realistically.

You always hear of heroes and legends finding some lost legacy from the Elves or a Wild Blood clan, but they never tell you how many accepted an offer and had something awful happen because of it.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

Still, I couldn’t live with myself knowing I turned something that could be critical to my growth down.

As I mentally pressed accept I had a sudden burning pain down my right arm, it felt like the air was branding itself from my shoulder down to my fingertips. As suddenly as it started it stopped again and another prompt appeared.

Branded with hatchery markings of Yosh. Following changes applied: Refinement changed from human body refinement to Phoenix flame refinement. Bloodline mutation chance now based on flame refinement. Updated mutation chance: 5.6% Physical changes due to class, refinement, and bloodline will now follow Yosh’s pattern. Children of the marking holder may be granted the same marking if they possess the bloodline requirements.

Focusing on the refinement I finally got some extra information at least.

Phoenix flame refinement is a refinement method involving refining your mana potency to increase flame mana specific skills and abilities. This also refines your body by improving your bloodline. This method prevents using other refinement paths.

Now my mind had caught up to the barrage of prompts I made myself look down at my right arm, and was more confused than anything. Both my jacket, despite being a leather jacket that was considered light armour, and my shirt had burned away from around my shoulder. All across my skin was red tinted feathers, as I moved my arm around I realised it went right to my finger tips, with the feathers getting smaller as it went down my arm. At the top they were massive, easily the length of my fingers, then by the time they reached the back of my hand and palm they looked more like an abstract pattern unless you get really close to see the detail separating them.

Realising that I was not going to keep up with these changes, and really needed to focus on passing the dungeon then I could get some help working out what all of this meant. It seemed good, but I was far from an expert and would be better off worrying about passing this dungeon first.

Looking over the table I found some grapes, I had tried some at a harvest festival when a wild blood clan visited and brought some, but they didn’t grow well in Thos’rah so they were a rare treat. I grabbed a couple of them to eat along with drinking some water. Not much, I didn’t want to throw up fighting, but also if I could prevent having to dip into my rations then it was worth taking a moment to eat and drink a little now.

Stepping up to the door I shook myself, looked around to make sure I missed nothing else, and before I could back out quickly opened the door and stepped out.

Suddenly as I stepped into a large room I noticed six rows of empty stone seats in tiers surrounding the pit I was in, all the same warm sandstone of my prior room. Jumping as I heard the door behind myself slam shut I spotted a rabbit with a small horn moving around the other side of the small pit. At most ten metres across I wondered if I was stuck here until I fought.

Defeat the combatant to finish this round and enter a rest round. Current opponent: Small horned Rabbit.

I guess this was it, not exactly the most thrilling first dungeon fight but I couldn’t complain about getting a bunch of rewards followed by an easy fight after all.

Walking forward I saw the rabbit turn and sniff the air towards me, clearly suspicious but not overly concerned yet. Once I was only two metres away I quickly dove forward trying to grab it, only to land on my stomach in what had to be the most painful belly flop of the year. What followed was an embarrassing fifteen minutes of chasing the rabbit around, falling over trying to grab it, and having it headbutt me with its horn.

The horn was actually surprisingly sharp, and it must have had a skill that allowed it to do as much damage as it did to me, but being small the injuries were quickly healed by my passive before I could even really register them in most cases.

Finally I managed to grab ahold of its front leg as it jumped back away from another headbutt, to my side this time, and quickly poured out mana to burn the rabbit.

“How was that so difficult, I gotta start working on my reflexes or something, now hopefully I get to go back into that room with the food and water so I don’t have to waste mine just yet” realising talking to myself after only a short while alone in a dungeon wasn’t the best sign I took a look at the kill notification.

Small horned rabbit killed: 5 exp gained

Not a lot but honestly fair, although the smell from it having burned was definitely making me regret my method of handling it. Looking over to the entrance the door had opened back up, wondering over as I crossed the threshold a new window popped up.

Round completed, congratulations. You have a minimum rest period of thirty minutes before the next round starts. You may decide between an additional thirty minutes or a random reward of a quality related to the difficulty of the last round.

Reward Additional Time

Selecting reward was easy, I had healed as I fought and barely used any mana. I was a little tired but thirty minutes was plenty of time to recover my energy, and I could see the food and drinks were there again. Oh it had even replaced my grapes, maybe this dungeon thing isn’t too bad at all if I can get free grapes everytime.

Reward granted: 3 x Rabbit Jerky

As I read the prompt the mentioned Jerky appeared in front of me, quickly snatching it from the air before it fell on the stone, I accepted that at least I got my wish of saving some rations.

Grabbing one of the water jugs and taking a seat I slowly ate my new jerky and had some water, being careful to not get more than half full just in case. Fairly sure if I had stuffed myself I would have ended up throwing up all over the arena floor earlier.

Focusing on the idea of the time remaining, a system window appeared displaying my remaining time, that would be really useful if I had to do a lot of rounds in order to complete this. As I ate I wondered what would be next and how many rounds it would take to finish the first part of this instance so I could leave.