Finally, it is the big day. First, a nice dungeon crawl to soothe the nerves, then the big world-changing speech. I hope my preparations were sufficient.

I join a party with Chloe, Geoffrey and Marca, then we enter the dungeon, just like every Thursday these past few weeks.

The first floor greets us with about a dozen level 1 baby slimes. Seems like everything is finally back to normal, the monster level matches the floor they are on and they no longer come in hundreds.

I can one-shot a baby slime with a regular spell, I've really made some progress.

The others don't have much trouble either with the monsters.

We fight some more through the floors with nothing noteworthy happening. Once I've spent over 1000 MP, I bring first Elly out, then switch to Maria when she has exhausted her SP.

We take a few breaks in between floors to regenerate resources, Geoffrey cooks some food for the others. Progress is slow but steady.

During one of those breaks, Elly has an interesting question, "Guys, I understand that magic users are important and it is rare that people here get born with caster classes. So I must ask, why does no one take the Magic Initiate class? It should be relatively easy to acquire for most people that have a bit more magic potential in them than Geoffrey. I found it yesterday while looking for something else. Here, let me show you."

Magic Initiate Growth Rates

32 HP, 5 MP, 24 SP, 3 STR, 5 DEX, 3 VIT, 1 MAG, 1 FTH, 2 WIL, 4 CHA Magic Apprentice

Passive

Increase MAG and FTH by (3x skill level) and MP by (25x skill level). Magic Graduation

For the purpose of adding a base caster class, treat requirements as (skill level+5)% lower.

If this skill has at least level 15 and you have no other caster class:

you can add one basic caster class without using a "Class Core".

"That is a good question, Elly. The stat requirements seem to be low enough to set someone on the path to learning some magic. Any idea, Chloe?"

"No, never heard of it."

"Neither have I", says Marca, "but so what? There are supposedly thousands of classes, why care about this specific one?"

"Not sure, actually. I just found it strange that you have a notable lack of casters while a solution exists in the system."

"Elly, I hear you volunteer to take this class once I have the MP to spare and will teach it at some form of magic academy."

"I, err... do I have to?"

"Beats me. My summons reaching the relevant class level is miles away anyway. Neither do we know if you could even train someone or if we can cancel the training. Wasting a permanent resource on potentially five trainees seems not worth it to me. Hmm... Chloe do you have input on this?"

"I have never heard of a summoned spirit working as a trainer. But then I haven't seen summoners before either, they are casters after all, and, well, you know the problem. But it could be worth a try. The trainer-trainee relationship can be ended from either party at any time."

"That's kind of a relief, actually. But anyway, raising my spirits to level 25 is a pipe dream at this point in time. I need almost 1900 more CHA for that..."

"Uh, Jared, what is that about level 25?"

"Supposedly if you train under a teacher for a year that has a class at level 25 or higher, you can take that class without a Class Core."

Chloe is astonished, "What? What was that just now? W-what is level 15 then for?"

"I thought that was common knowledge? Level 15 is just passive training to lower the stat requirements, it isn't restricted to a specific class."

"That is... something new to us... what else did we miss?"

"...I guess we'll have to make even more changes once the gathering is finished."

"That we do. So anyway", Chloe continues, "The class Elly has asked about wouldn't help much. The first class you're born with has a significantly bigger influence on your stats than any follow-up classes you add. Magic Initiate may eventually enable you to learn proper magic skills but you would have neither the MP nor MAG to back it up. Magic in particular is very dependent on your stats. For weapon attacks, you can compensate low STR stats with bonuses from your weapon, but the options for MAG increases are very limited as you may have noticed."

"I'm not too sure about that, Chloe. You only need 130 MP for a damage spell with status effect spell attached, and we've seen how much stunning a boss can make a difference when the water boss broke through the gate recently."

"That may be but still need the Class Cores and candidates with sufficient base stats. And if the level 25 thing is true we can skip Magic Initiate as a middleman and go for teaching a real caster class right away."

"Well, if things continue as they are, I could reach that level with Wizard in about a year outside. Though that would be at the cost of more important levels in like everything else."

"Yeah, no rush. Focus on your lord duties first, we can have someone else test the level 25 theory in the meantime."

We continue our full clear of the dungeon floors.

On floor 8 we meet glitched monsters for the first time. Guess it is time for the newbies-clear-cellar-from-tons-of-rats quest.

Name N/A Age N/A Classes Cellar Rat 8 Race Monster 8 Extra M̸͙̽ơ̶͕n̶̺̐s̸̮̃ť̵͎ẹ̵͂r̶͙̆ 8, Swarm 8 HP 117/117 MP 0/0 [-140] SP 0/0 [-70] STR 126 DEX 126 VIT 84 MAG 84 FTH 70 WIL 70 CHA 0 Skills Generate Offspring 8, Swarm 8 Weakness Poison

"Well, you see it. They can't do anything, there's just about three hundred of them... let's get to work."

A few area spells make a big hole into their numbers, each [Blood Burst] produces ten blood bullets that can also one-shot a rat. This doesn't take long.

Despite the huge amounts of rats I've killed, I only get six more glitch items. That is still enough to get me over the twenty fragment threshold. So let me quickly craft them into the core.

Fusing the twenty MissingNo-granted fragments into the Joker Core gives me a strange feeling as if something was missing. I check my status and inventory, but everything is as it should be. Weird. Maybe that was a side effect of dealing with something mortals shouldn't play with?

Anyway, I have now a new toy.

Joker Core

Adds a randomly offered class ignoring stat requirements.

Can only be used one time per person

While a class is on offer, all of its skills are revealed.

The offered class refreshes once per chapter day.

Today's class: Dragon Mage

Interesting item, should certainly be worth gathering a few more for my party members. I definitely need to check in on it every day. Not that I'm too happy about the gambling aspect...

So, what does the godforsaken gacha offer today?

Dragon Mage Elite class Growth Rates

39 HP, 53 MP, 27 SP, 2 STR, 2 DEX, 7 VIT, 9 MAG, 3 FTH, 8 WIL, 5 CHA Slow Path

Passive

Whenever you would inflict magic damage, instead inflict 125% of that damage as corrosion status damage.

This ignores all forms of status immunities.

Every second, corrosion inflicts HP damage equal to 0.1% of the remaining status damage. Channeled Spell

Passive

When casting a spell you can choose to lengthen the standard 3 second cast time.

For every 5 seconds added, the MP cost of the spell is reduced by 10% or the previous value. Delayed Reaction

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Passive

Whenever you would take direct damage, it instead gets inflicted as 150% of that damage as corrosion status damage.

This ignores all forms of status immunities.

(What the hell has that to do with dragons?)

(Why, that is obvious, Jared. It makes everything drag on.)

groan

(Hard pass, thank you. We can wait a few days for something less stupid.)

Now, what happens if I put the Joker Core into the sixth slot... the glitch item turns to 'Boneless Water'... Useless, so the Monster Core goes back into the sixth slot. Maybe I can make some Joker Cores for other people. Not that I have a better use for the glitch items currently.

Chloe approaches me, "Uh, Jared? Is something wrong? You've been staring at your menu for a while."

"Not really. I just finally collected enough of these glitch items."

"What is a 'glitch'?"

"Huh? Oh, sorry, I thought that term was clear. So much for Jeff doing his duty. Hmm... how to explain that... simply put, an error in reality, something that should be impossible, that defies the natural rules. Glitched monsters like the rats just now tend to have a wrong color scheme compared to their regular counterparts, the stats are wrong, maybe even their skills. For example, I encountered fire elementals that were unable to live outside of water, that doesn't make sense right?"

"Ok, I think I get it."

Geoffrey is surprised at my words, "So you're talking about that trash that you can't remove from the inventory? What possible use does that have?"

"I experimented a bit with them and they appear to be linked to what is in item slot number six."

"What are you talking about, Jared? Everyone knows that the first of those always overwrites what is in your sixth item slot and then you can't move it anymore. It just piles up until the slot is full with 999 of them and then it overwrites another random slot."

"You can't move it? But why can I... Elly, is that your doing again?"

"Nope, no idea why you can that while the others can't."

"Well, anyway, I managed to create this wondrous item with their help."

I take out the Joker Core. It looks like a normal Class Core just black and white instead of blue and orange. Maybe the scribbles are different? No idea if they even mean anything.

Chloe looks at it thoroughly, "I have never seen or even heard of such a core before. How did you do that..."

"Too bad you can't move them. I'd have liked to create more of these cores. They would've been useful."

"Why didn't you use it already? Spirit Master looks like a class that would fit you."

"Spirit Master? Sounds like something I would've taken immediately. The core offered me Dragon Mage which looks quite honestly useless to me."

"Huh, so everyone gets a different class offered."

Geoffrey has a suggestion, "Maybe as lord you could put like a possession tax on them? You know, have the system confiscate a portion of those items every month."

"I don't think that would work. The tax money doesn't go to me either, so those items would just be stuck in the fortress's vault for all eternity."

"Maybe we can ask a trader for help?", adds Marca, "They assist people that want to perform a trade but want a witness. To that end, they can create a 'trade window' for the other two which is sort of just an extension of their inventory."

"So kind of a notary?"

"I, uh, I guess."

"Anyway, it is worth a try. We can try that tomorrow instead of training. Today I need to finish everything for the gathering. If it works, I need twenty glitch items per Joker Core."

"That's a lot, I have only three", adds Geoffrey.

"If it works, we can just pool them together", says Marca, "and if not... we may just let Jared have the last hit on these glitch monsters, as long as reasonably possible."

"Guys, I'm getting a bit hungry", Marca is getting in a bad mood, "it has been almost a whole day already, I need some food."

Geoffrey answers, "Yeah, me too, dear. I'll start cooking."

"You do that, I'll... read a bit until you're done with the lunch break."

I need to be a bit more conscious of regular people's needs. Seems like I've become too used to being a vampire and only needing to feed once or twice a week.

Geoffrey takes some simple cooking tools out of his inventory and starts producing food. Compared to what I remember from my previous life, they are very simple dishes. But who can really complain, there's only so much you can do with the relatively low amounts of random drops.

We continue our way through the floors.

The floor 10 boss is just a boss version of a baby slime.

Name Moldy Jello Pudding Age N/A Classes Baby Slime 10, Cobbler 10, Merchant 10, Weaver 10 Race Monster 10 Extra Monster 10, Boss 10 HP 33502/33502 MP 990/990 SP 2990/2990 STR 490 DEX 530 VIT 320 MAG 320 FTH 220 WIL 240 CHA 380 Skills Acid Skin 10 Weakness Fire

It barely moves just as the baby slimes before, we can avoid its attacks easily for the most part. It lands a few lucky hits but not enough to endanger anyone.

Over the next few floors, our progress slows down, the enemies are getting too high level for the four of us to take head-on.

At the end of the third day, we reach floor 17 but run out of drinkable water. The water produced by rank 0 magic is not suitable for consumption. So we have to end our run here.

Over the trip, both Geoffrey and Chloe earned a level increase.

After the three left, I continue on alone and return to my previous tactics. Lure groups of monsters towards the safe zone and blast them with spells while they can't strike back. Lather, rinse, repeat.

By floor 30 I've barely managed to raise my new class to level 4. Casting rain over flood monsters is certainly more exp efficient than a two-week dungeon trip, but outside we're on an unknown time limit and the flood hopefully doesn't last forever. Plus, only here in a dungeon do monsters even drop items. Not that I got anything really good this time. Well, this headband is better for me than what I had, but that doesn't mean much.

Apprentice Headband VIT+5, MAG+2, FTH+2

So my status is now this.

Name Jared Delacroix Status disguised Age 18 (frozen) Classes Wizard 15, Survivor 9, Blood Mage 9, Summoner 5, Lore Seeker 4 Race Silver Elf 10 Extra Vampire 10, Noble 2, Lord 3, Progenitor 2 Title G̷̜̉ő̵̺d̴̗̉’̶͈̅š̴̬ ̷̛͚L̵͓͒o̴̘͒s̸̗̀t̶̗̽ ̴͉͆Č̶͍ĥ̸ͅĭ̴̭l̴̲͗d̶̲̔, World Navigator, Noble, Vampire Progenitor, Daywalker, Demon Lord, Regenerator, Title Holder, Demon, Fortress Lord

Title Level 5 EXP 53 HP 2073/2073 [2592] MP 578/2666 [3333] SP 384/1668 [2085] STR 311+75 (staff) or +147 (claws) DEX 345 VIT 329+55 MAG 583+47 FTH 485+2 WIL 468+20 CHA 406 Equipment Topaz Staff, Book, Apprentice Headband, Robe, Sun Cloak, Defense Ring, Sun Guard Ring Skills - Weapon Spear Training 9, Unnatural Claws 2 Skills - Magic Blood Burst 9, Cure Magic 10 (Rank 1), Dark Magic 15 (Rank 1), Earth Magic 15 (Rank 1), Ice Magic 15 (Rank 1), Lightning Magic 15 (Rank 1), S̵̖̀ḁ̴̉ń̷̼g̴̽͜u̵͉̎i̸͈͆n̶̦͒e̷͚̍ ̵̔ͅW̸͙̍á̵̫v̸̺́e̴͔͒ 9, Summon Spirit 5 (Rank 1), Water Magic 15 (Rank 1) Skills - Status Charm Eye 2, Disguise 10, Intimidation 4, Stealth 10 Skills - Special Embrace 2, Familiar 3, Greater Vampiric Bite 3 Skills - Passive Affinity Magic 15 (Rank 1), Ageless 3, Beast Killer 2, Enhanced Regeneration 3, Extra Affinity 15, Keen Perception 4, Mana Boost 5, Mana Regeneration 15, Sleepless 10, Supernatural Toughness 2, Trap Lore 9, Undead 10, Vampire Hierarchy 10 Weakness Fire, Light, Holy

Well, at least my spirits have finally hit level 6.

In the floor 30 boss room waits for me a big, fat, red manatee.

Name Seal of Disapproval Age N/A Classes Sloth Landseal 30, Nun 30, Weaver 30, Armored Mage 30, Cleric 30 Race Monster 30 Extra Monster 30, Boss 30 HP 116969/116969 MP 9000/9000 SP 7120/7120 STR 1270 DEX 1000 VIT 1550 MAG 1420 FTH 1450 WIL 1490 CHA 1080 Skills Earthquake 30

Cure Magic 60 (Rank 3), Earth Magic 30 (Rank 3), Fire Magic 30 (Rank 2), Holy Magic 30 (Rank 3)

Mana Recharge 30

Armor Training 30, Mace Training 30, Tracking 30 Weakness Lightning

Nope. Nope. Nope.

Earthquake

3000 MP

Every creature on the ground in a 20 DU radius around the caster takes 250% MAG earth damage.

Big fricking nope. Everyone in a 60ft radius area around it would take massive damage whenever it feels like it, I would probably die instantly, so hell no.

I might risk it if infinite damage over time status effects were still a thing but not like this if it can instantly kill me with a fire spell or its earthquake special.

With no chance to make any more progress, I leave the dungeon.