While picking up coins Lauri asks the others, "anyone not level 5 yet?" With no responses he asks "anyone over level 5?"

Ken nodded, "I'm level 6."

"Same," Hero reported.

"Say, Hero, how's shield and mace treating you?"

"So much better. Stupid starter weapons are useless."

"Not all starter weapons serve the same purpose, I think you just needed something more durable."

"If more durable starter weapons exist then why'd I get kicked out for destroying too many?"

"Who were you with?"

"Same guild as everyone. Guild of Adventurers."

Ken piped in, "not everyone."

Among the loot Lauri found three skill-books. One was for him, Rituals of the Unseen. The others were Flame Projectiles for Mages and Bypass Armour specific to the Polearm profession. He passed the associated skill-books to Sophie and Ted. Ted immediately consumed his without a word but Sophie couldn't help but ask "wasn't the deal that you keep all the parties loot drops?"

"Loot isn't entirely random and I'm assuming neither of you had a skill-book drop before?"

Sophie shook her head, "I had Flame Projectiles drop for me in Tutorial Dungeon but had to give it to my guild, like we're supposed to."

"Then thank the goddess for her kindness, and maybe luck as well, that this dropped for you again. From what I hear the first skill-book drop isn't by chance. How about you Hero?"

"Yeah I got Brutal Smash but I was in Tutorial Dungeon so immediately consumed it and glad I did. Screw that guild."

Lauri nodded. "I won't judge the policies of any guild but nor am I going to deny someone their first skill-book. Not worth having people feel cheated, getting angry and then slitting my throat in my sleep."

Sophie consumed her skill-book, "thanks sweetie."

"You needed an offensive option anyway. How did you clear Tutorial without an attack spell?"

"I turned tail and ran when it got too hard. That's why I was still level 1 when we met."

"I suspect you were supposed to use Flame Projectiles as part of finishing the Tutorial. Still, it's good to have someone so honest in the party."

"Think again, I was way past done being 'honest and innocent' soon after handing that skill-book over to my guild and then being told to pay my own entrance next time."

"That makes sense."

"How was I supposed to be able to afford that when I handed everything over to them?"

"By trading the SP you pocketed on the side for gold. Did nobody tell you about the currency exchange?"

"Son of a... I swear I will never be that naïve ever again."

"If you retreated so soon, you'd have farmed little SP? So the guild might have suspected you'd pocketed more SP than most do. And maybe that, by lucky, a duplicate skill-book dropped that you didn't care about."

She looked at Ken, "you handed your skill-book over to your guild too, right?"

Ken shook his head, "never in a million years."

Lauri shrugged, "I'm mostly assuming. Don't worry Sophie, I'm sure lots of people handed their first skill-book over."

They headed to floor 3 as they continued guessing at the choices others may have made and how the guilds may think. Ken scouted ahead when they drew near. The cavernous walls of the dungeon had a glow to them but Lauri couldn't read his book with that light alone, so lit his lamp. He'd only gotten as far as learning that Rituals of the Unseen seemed to be an invisibility spell when Ken returned. "There's lots of long but skinny tunnels with lance wielding goblins on wargs, all level 3. I couldn't scout the end but it's probably more of the same."

Lauri nodded. "Hero, stop any which reach us with your shield. Sophie, be ready to shield Hero again if he needs it and, otherwise, have a play with your new Flame Projectiles spell."

Sophie explains "Flame Projectiles is the skill. It came with two spells, Flaming Hands and Flame Bolt."

"Play with Flame Bolts then. Everyone else attack at range but Ted you should have your spear ready in hand when one gets close. Aim for the warg first if it's alive. By your spears name it should be suited to boars perfectly."

Ted nods, "it is."

"Then let's go."

Lauri stood back and observed the fighting. At first the riders routinely made it to Hero and Hero tried to stop them with his shield but kept failing, being knocked over. Thankfully Ted's Boar Spear had two wings behind the blade which limited how deep it penetrated. Ted combined that with having the other end of the spear well planted and one of his feet behind it, halting each warg without fail. The only variable being how far each rider was sent flying before Hero finished them off with a vengence. Lauri ordered "when attacking from range aim for the riders." With that the riders were soon being sniped down and less were reaching Hero. The ones which did, Hero gave up trying to stop them with his shield, instead only using the shield to knock their lance aside so that he could bring his mace to their heads. Lauri warned him "so long as you can trust Ted to stop the wargs that works but I'd like you to gain more experience charging into enemies with your shield to counter their momentum."

"AH! Why didn't you say so?" Hero started using just the edge of his shield to tap the lance out of his way before ramming his shield into the riders, knocking both warg and goblin into the ground. "HA HA HAR! That's more like it! Bring me more!" Almost like he had jinxed himself, they reached the end of the floor and there were none left.

Trailing behind and picking up coins, Lauri spotted a Warrior Class restricted battle-axe too big for his bag, so he added it to his belt. "Lets take a moment to rest, shall we?"

"Gaaahh! Let's keep going," Hero complained. "It's not like you've done anything."

Nobody seemed to want a rest so Lauri sent Ken to scout. "We can continue once Ken is back."

"Let's just all charge in," Hero suggested. "Besides, if we keep sending Ken ahead he'll eventually get spotted, be all by himself and die. Then we'll just be waiting for nothing."

"Does that happen?"

"All the time."

"Huh. How are Rogues supposed to be deployed properly?"

"Properly? Um. Send them against traps, locks and have them sneak around to flank. That way when they die you know about it immediately."

"You make it sound like Rogue are disposable."

"We're all disposable, stupid. Especially us barbarians. Rogues die to traps and I'll die in glorious combat. How about Sealers?"

"I think they die of old age. Standing vigil over the old evils, so that their terror is subdued, until their watch is relieved by the next generation. Or some such."

"Boring. Just free them, so I can fight them."

"Hero... we're that next generation."

"YEAH! Bring it on!"

Finding quite, Lauri then read his book until Ken returned to report. "There's quite the mix on floor 4. Hobgoblins, goblins, wargs and rider. Even a few leaders with extra levels. It's a big floor with monsters at level 4 and for leaders level 7."

"Too easy, right Hero?"

"I'm ready!"

"Wait up, I'm almost finished reading."

"You can catch up with us then. Not like you do anything."

"I'll keep an eye on the party health bars. Retreat if you get into trouble, okay?"

"Whatever you say, boss."

Once Lauri finished reading the book he consumed it and confirmed that the translation uploaded into his head was more-or-less correct. Along with the 'Rituals of the Unseen' skill he got the power-spells Aura of Invisibility and See Invisible. 'Power-spells' being a term for spells which use Power resources rather than Mana. It was normal for mages to get single target Invisibility long before group versions and while he wasn't a mage Lauri was feeling chuffed, whatever the reason he got a group version. As Lauri moved to catch up with the others, he reflected that the ritual had a 30 second casting time and would end as soon as anyone attacked or... other conditions. Also even though it had the usual 1 hour duration it could only be cast on himself and then everyone needed to stick close to him. In many ways the single target version was superior. Especially since, then, people could go as far as they wanted and nobody would screw it up for others.

Catching up to the others, Hero was taking repetitive swings from the club of a level 7 hobgoblin and Sophie was in the middle of casting a new shield spell. Ted threw his spear at it, the plushie's attacks seemed ineffective and Billy clipped it as he fired and started reloading. Lauri watched a few more rounds of this with Hero's shield, in hand, taking the brunt of the club and twice almost losing grip on it. Meanwhile the few attacks Hero got in simply glanced off of the hobgoblins leather armour. Finally noticing that Lauri had caught up Hero asked "aren't you going to help?"

"Huh? Am I needed?"

"What does it stinking look like?"

"Well, okay. Ted, when you throw your speer keep the end of the shaft in hand and give it a good push as it hits. You can still outrange that club like that without losing the penetrating power you need. Hero, take a step closer, there's weight and momentum at the end of its club but no so much in its mid point. Also you want a solid hit with your own mace and you're just not close enough for that."

"Can't you see its attacks are pushing me back?"

"Have you tried drawing forth your inner power?" Lauri asked so overdramatically that it should be clear he was teasing Hero.

"How do I do that?"

"Try entering a zen like meditative state where you reach peace of mind and you're able to move instinctively without even needing to think."

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Hero pushed forth and started getting some good blows in against the hobgoblins side. "It worked!"

"Not how I pictured it but can't argue with results."

Ted had been afraid of hitting Hero with a throw but now with more control he not only hit the hobgoblin squarely but had the continued momentum to stack damage modifiers, exceeding the monsters remaining HP as he pushed his spear end through it's leather armour and finished it off.

"What would you guys do without me?"

"Piss off."

Picking up a club it dropped as loot, Lauri noted he'd collected quite a haul of coins on his way here and asked "you at least got a good few item drops, right?"

Hero shook his head, "what are you talking about?"

"Just coins? Eh, you probably should have grabbed a few more than you did, while I wasn't around."

"More? We didn't take a single one of your coins."

Sophie's eyes watered a little, "I'm still naïve, aren't I?"

"Hey, don't be sad about it, there's nothing wrong with being a good and honest person."

"Please teach me the ways of the dishonest, boss."

"Don't worry, if you keep hanging around me you'll learn all about... actually I'm the most honest person you'll ever meet so I can't help you."

"Yes boss." Sophie got out a notebook and took note that a dishonest person claims to be honest, even when it's obviously not true.

"Are you calling me 'boss' sarcastically?"

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Yes boss, only Hero says it non-ironically."

Hero gave her a look, "but he IS the boss."

A towering, green skinned, monstrosity with tusk-like teeth jutting from each edge of its mouth came walking up behind them as they chatted. Ken noticed her first and shouted a warning, "everyone, behind us."

"Settle down," the monstrosity spoke in a deep but feminine voice. "I'm an adventurer like you," she claimed as she hefted a badly chipped and cracked battle-axe against her shoulder.

Lauri found this suspicious, not that early level monsters could usually talk. "The city of VillageTown is human only. Even if you were a visitor you wouldn't be allowed into the main dungeon."

"Oh goddess, don't use that name, it's just too cringe. It happens that I AM human. Half-human but that's still human."

"Oh, that explains it. Sorry for not recognising right away. What's your other half?"

"Half-orc."

"Oh yeah, I can see it now. I'm Lauri, this is Ken, Sophie, Hero, Billy and Ted."

"You're a strange one."

"I am?"

"Not in a bad way, I don't suppose. I'm Jarani the Axe Cleaving Champion of Critical Overkills, Saviour of Eldarni from the Foul Demons. My name is long and powerful like I am."

"You wouldn't happen to be carrying thousands of gold on you?"

"Yeah."

Lauri got out the battle-axe, "this look to be of any good to you?"

"What's its name?"

"Not identified."

"Dropped from low level monsters?"

"Yeah."

"Pah! Thousands you ask. I'll give you 600 gold for it."

"It's worth 3,000 and if I'm wrong we can swap back."

"I have spare axes in my bag, don't think I'm desperate. Nobody is desperate so shallow in the dungeon."

"And this doesn't fit in my bag. You'd save me some trouble."

"Then I'll offer you 2,000 gold and if it's not worth the 3,000 you said then we swap back."

"Deal."

She headed off ahead of them and, while Hero drooled over the 2,000 gold being stashed away, Ken set to go scouting. "Oh, Ken, we could all go together."

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? Just wait at the bottom," he suggested as he headed down the stairs.

The group started walking down, taking their time, and Sophie asked "what did he mean?"

Lauri shrugged, "I've heard that Rogues sometimes find chests and sometimes pocket some of the contents while others are none the wiser."

"I see," she took notes. "And what do mages do to pocket items?"

"I've only heard rumours, so can't help you sorry."

"What are the rumours?"

"That they're promiscuous about getting what they want."

"In other words, I should have joined a guild with a man for a guild master?"

"No. Nobody should have to sell their bodies to be an adventurer. Throwing our bodies against waves of enemies is already enough if you ask me."

Hero snarked "I haven't seen you throw yourself at danger."

"Just being here is danger. We'll wait here like Ken said," having reached the bottom of the stairs to floor 5.

Ken soon returned. "Axe Cleaver what's-her-name cleared the floor of monsters."

"Huh. Well, nothing to it than to follow in her wake. Probably until the floors become more maze-like."

Ken looked worried, "won't we be under leveled then?"

"I'm always under leveled, it's not a problem."

Hero seemed to have a bone to pick or something, "not a problem for you maybe but the rest of us actually fight."

Lauri shrugged at this. "We can always retreat if we need to."

"Will you be holding up the rear?"

"Sure. I'm always in the rear. Why would that change?"

"Because you're a coward."

"If I'm a coward then I'll shout at everyone to retreat faster as I hold up the rear. Okay?"

"Fine by me, then."

Jarani hadn't bothered picking up most of the coins and as Lauri started collecting them he looked to the others and said "this isn't our parties loot drops, you all know?"

Sophie was confused, "then shouldn't you leave it?"

"It's abandoned loot. Leave it and it just despawns. The System wouldn't let us claim it had it not been left intentionally."

"Okay but why mention it?"

"Never mind then." He continued picking coins up as they went. Soon they reached the 15th floor. There were 8 tunnels to pick from, marking the start of a maze like floor layout. "Okay, the coins follow into the 4th tunnel so lets take the 7th tunnel."

"You don't want to keep collecting them?"

"First of all, they've severely thinned, meaning monsters started dropping gold coins and she's deemed those worth picking up. Second, we need EXP so we should go somewhere there's still monsters."

Hero fist pumped. "About time!"

As they went down the 7th tunnel it kept forking and each time Lauri picked whichever started with the greater up-slope. As they headed up one of those tunnels a side passage could be seen with a chest in it. Lauri stopped the group. "Ken, you'd better scout ahead."

Sophie complained "can't we all see at the same time?"

"You know you don't get any, right?"

"But the reveal is exciting."

"Hmmm. What chest? I don't see any chest. Ken, you're up."

Ken nodded knowingly, as if he got what Lauri was hinting at. "I'll go have a scout." He headed over to the chest and started inspecting it. After a minute he slowly opened it and, *click*, fire suddenly spread everywhere with a *WHOOF*.

Lauri honestly wasn't expecting this and until now had been having fun playing around. Responding quickly he ran over, trying to sound calm as he told the others, "we're up, let's go."

Ken had survived with 4% of his HP to spare. "You okay?"

"It was trapped."

"Would have killed Sophie by my estimate," Lauri gave a nod.

Sophie pouted "I have as much HP as him."

Coughing a few times, Ken then set her straight, "that was me evading successfully. You'd have taken twice the brunt of it."

Sophie failed to hold back tears and Lauri sort of understood why. She must be feeling overwhelmed and dungeons could feel very foreboding at times.

Lauri opened the chest to find a set of lockpicks, trap disarming tools, 10 scrolls of Tiny Explosion, a rapier which looked identical to his flaming one, a wand with flame art drawn on it and a skill-book on Item Identification. Taking out the lockpicks and trap disarming tools he passed them to Ken, saying "here. These are the items that should have vanished before the rest of us got here."

Ken nods, "like they'd do you any good." They both laughed and Sophie took notes.

"Okay, let's keep moving."

Hero looked concerned, "Ken's in no shape to keep going."

"Huh? Sophie, how long were the cooldowns on your shield spells?"

"5 minutes. They're both ready but Hero hasn't taken much shield damage."

"Swap to the group shield, please."

Casting the spell everyone found themselves with a shield of 2,000. "Wow," Sophie stuck her tongue out and winked, "this Sexy Leather really scales."

"Hmm. Yeah. Double 1,000 sure feels like a lot more than double 200."

"Can I keep it?"

"Like I said, people can buy the gear from me. Except the shield, but Hero's going to grow out of that shield. Aren't you Hero?"

"Why would I?"

"To use two handed weapons."

"Why?"

"Huh. Maybe I'm wrong. We'll get you a different shield then. That ones special to me."

Continuing onwards they came across an ankheg. Lauri smiled, he'd come to love these things and wondered if he should take it down just by himself. As Hero charged it Lauri shrugged and put away his shield and rapier in exchange for his war-hammer. Not failing to notice his max mana drop from 18 to 12. "Huh."

Ken panicked a little, "it's level freaking 15! We need to run."

"Ken, you can use your plushie to attack without moving into harms way."

"Oh yeah." Everyone else started hurling ranged attacks at the ankheg while Lauri considered how to swing his big hammer without hitting Hero.

Hero must have been meditating, as he was heard screaming "HHHHAAAAAAARR!!!!" Lauri moved up to the side of the ankheg and waited for a change to swing. Hero needed only move a little and he was going to have to if he didn't want to be grappled. Lauri had thought that at least but Hero was not the brightest and got himself grappled instead. "It's got me! Help! Help!"

Lauri sighed, this actually made it way harder for him to swing. "Hit it's neck. Never stop swinging. Your arms free so swing."

The mandibles slammed shut on Hero's neck and one-shot the shield. Lauri looked over to Sophie, "single shield." She started casting but the mandibles slammed shut a second time before it was cast, taking out a third of Hero's HP. The shield went up with a value of 4,000 SP. "Huh. Is the single target shield double the value of a single person who has the group shield?"

"Yeah. I know it's not that much more, sorry."

"Not at all. With 5 minute cooldowns, it's certainly a lot more than if you only had the one spell."

Hero screamed "HELP!" as the mandibles slammed shut on his neck again for 2,000 more damage.

"Don't stop swinging Hero, it's a hair from dead." The ankheg died a moment later, taken down mostly by Hero's mace swings.

The group took 10 minutes in recovery before Hero turned on Lauri and snapped, "you were useless!"

"I saved your life."

"You didn't do anything, let alone save me!"

"I felt like my leadership was on point."

"We'd be better off without you here. You're just the money-bag burden."

"To me everyone seemed to have hesitated. But maybe you'd have kept swinging without me saying anything. And maybe Sophie would have put her shield up in time even if I hadn't spoken. We'll never know because I was here and we can't exactly replay it."

"You seriously want to take credit for the win when you did nothing?"

"If you didn't see, I was lining up a shot before you went and got in the way."

"The frickin thing grabbed me. That supposed to me MY fault?"

"Hmm. Oh, it dropped an Agility Potion. Nice. I'll let you have this one, since I'm a nice guy and it might help you step out the way a little faster next time."

"Oh my goddess, you actually think you're a nice guy?"

"Look, you may only be a temp member but our teamwork will improve. Don't beat yourself up so much about it."

"Excuse me?"

"Is being so angry all the time typical to your profession?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Most people who pick Barbarian are looking to channel their anger." He swallowed the Agility Potion in one gulp.

"Ah, excellent. Keep channelling that anger for those monsters then."

Moving his arm back and forth Hero smiles, "this is really something, I think I could even swing a bit faster. You have more of these?"

"Yeah."

"How much are they?"

"On the Market they sell for around the 8k mark, each."

Hero frowned at the price. "Well I'm not wasting my attribute points on agility."

"What's everyone's Levels?"

Sophie wondered "why aren't we party-sharing level info?"

"So that we could lie. No, I mean, because people are really secretive about stats like that."

"Let's just share it."

"Fine but only for now."

"Say," Sophie had been trying not to ask but couldn't help it, "do adventurers really slit peoples throats in their sleep?"

Lauri laughed. "The PvP stats are public and can't be hidden. So no, it would be too obvious."

{

Lauri: Level 4, 100% HP

Sophie: Level 7, 100% HP

Hero: Level 8, 69% HP, 2,000/4,000 SP

Billy: Level 8, 100% HP

Ted: Level 7, 100% HP

Ken: level 8, 4% HP

}

"Say Hero, do you have about 6,000 HP?"

Hero nodded, "6,400 max, how did you guess?"

"Shield values are public so I knew you were getting hit for 2,000 and your bar is percentile based. Still, doesn't that put you at 64 Toughness?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Shouldn't you be at max due to Minotaur Shield?"

"I am."

"So, your max Toughness Potential per level is 8?"

"Wow, I might as well just share all my stats with you, smarty-pants."

"Huh. You're Strength is really high though?"

"You'd better believe it."