With Lauri following along Rebecca arrived at the guild stables. "Do you have a horse?"

"I'm from a middle income family, so, no."

"Then just as you wanted, your first dungeon will be Horses Trot," she mounts her horse. "Get on the back of mine for now."

"That a safe and friendly dungeon?"

"It's a low level one. Never think that any dungeon is safe. As for friendly, doesn't that imply intelligence?"

He got on the back, a little awkwardly, "I didn't know that friendly plants were intelligent. Dungeons aren't intelligent then?"

"Not usually, I don't think, who knows. The Dungeon of Great Woes is certainly intelligent. That or an invisible person was tormenting me."

"Are we going to Horses Trot so I can get a horse?"

"Naturally. Try and get multiple and then sell a few. With less adventurers and more demand for horses, you can ask for as much as 150sp each."

After checking the currency rates in the System he mentioned, "Right now 150 System Points are worth 279 gold and 81 silver. Can I really ask that much?"

"You can ask whatever you want. For months now I've had a large buy order for horses at 50sp and been selling them at 150. My Shed of Holding has never gotten even half full at any point."

"Why adventure if you can make that much money sitting around?"

"For revenge! Also it's only our guild where most people sit around all day. If you want to remain a member of any guild then you need to meet your quotas."

"I don't have a quota. Nor do I have a shed. Could you hold the horses for me until I sell them?"

"Get real. I'll buy them from you for 50sp each."

As they rode Lauri held on tight and they haggled a price of 85sp each by the time they reached the dungeon. As a managed dungeon, a man sat out front to collect entry fees. Wearing plain clothes and having no equipment, Lauri felt like this defied his expectations. Getting down from the horse he asked "are you a Priest?"

"No. Why would I be a Priest?"

"The lack of gear. Though I suppose even a Warrior doesn't need to carry their weapon everywhere."

"I haven't done the ceremony, so no Class."

"But you're in your thirties, or more importantly, isn't an adventurer or two on duty to rescue people and kill any big threats that pop up?"

"Nope. Entry costs 500 gold."

"WHAT!? I thought I was well off for having 3 gold coins."

"For your age, maybe."

"If I had that much I'd just buy a horse." He looked over to Rebecca.

"I'm not paying for you."

Lauri thought about this for a moment. "I'll need to enter one of the unmanaged dungeons first to earn some money."

Rebecca comments laughingly, "good luck getting there without a horse. They're far away, you know. Kind of why they're still unmanaged."

"You'll help me out right? We're friends now."

"Why would I?"

"Because good luck reaching Great Woes before the hours up."

"I could just drink an Amnesia Potion."

"Hang on, I'll look up what that is." Opening the System Market he searches for Amnesia Potion and finds it. 3 for sale, cheapest at 1498sp. He goes into the description, which explains that it can be used to reset to post-ceremony stats, including a class change. "It can change classes?"

"Don't get excited. If you've changed classes then it can only change your class back to what you received from your ceremony."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Well I'm thinking that the real expense isn't in the potion itself. Levelling up has many costs and if you used skill books then those would be lost as well. Is there a better alternative than traveling weeks into the middle of nowhere?"

"Wow, I thought you were lining up to pressure me into taking you? There's always alternatives."

"Pressure you? Nah, you're the one who asked why you would. But my parents are expecting me home soon."

"Kid, if we were going to travel that far we'd take a few days preparing and we certainly wouldn't share a horse that far."

"So, those alternatives?"

"Training Dungeon entry costs 1 gold. I'd recommend buying a weapon but you can't afford it. Not a reliable one, at least."

"Oh. I'll buy a weapon that's about to break then."

"Hah. If that's your idea then you can have this for free." A sword appears in her hands and she passes it over to Lauri. He draws it from its scabbard and sees that it is chipped and cracked, durability status 4/2000. Sheathing it he activated Renew Item and checked the status again. Durability now at 204/2000. He'd expected it to be fully repaired and applied his skill to it again to test his skill. Durability now at 404/2000. Lauri nodded, "thanks, I'll make sure I earn enough for a new weapon before it breaks."

"Easier said then done. When it breaks on you, you might die. I'll give you a ride to Training Dungeon but then you recast your skill and I'll be off."

"Alone?"

"That's the way I prefer it."

Lauri didn't want to admit the stupidity that he'd been asking if he was expected to go on alone. He stayed silent until he was dropped off at the entrance, activated Drain Level on her, thanked her and wished her good luck. As she rode off he joined the line for the dungeon. Some faces were familiar. "Does anyone want to party up with me?"

The boy right in front of him turned around, "This dungeon has a max party size of 1, that means you go it alone."

While he hadn't known that, Lauri preferred not to admit his ignorance when possible. "There's nobody else, less than level 10, in my guild. I need to find a party."

"Which guild?"

"Survivors Guild." After saying that a lot of people turned around to glance at him. Some of them started whispering and he overheard that he must be a loser or something. Getting a head count, there's 42 people waiting to enter. "How's there so many low levels? Didn't many leave the ceremony?"

"You heard about that? You must have gone before them but one guy was taking forever. Couldn't make his mind up I suppose. Well, the priest of ceremonies told us that if we came back within 2 hours then we'd still have plenty of time to have our turn."

"Why wouldn't he just leave, if he couldn't make up his mind?" Lauri knew they were talking about himself but was genuinely interested to know. Slipping from the priests interrogations as soon as he could, he had intended to ask his dad about that barrier on the door.

"Huh. I guess he was just stupid." The line started moving. "Ah, it's opened."

Each person paid 2 gold as they entered, when it reached his turn he asked "isn't the entry 1 gold?"

"It went up."

Lauri headed in, passing over the 2 coins.