I gave an exasperated sigh and leaned my head back as my eyes closed. Shaking my head at the absurdity of all that was happening, I read over the text the box showed again. Three things stood out to me.

First, this was the third ‘person’ to talk to me through these boxes. Sleazy Car Salesman, the one that had told me I was dead. Second was the All Professional. That one had done what the first was supposed to have done, I was guessing. They gave me a class and then dropped me here in the cave. And now this one, Quest Giver. Who was giving me a quest…

To escape a dungeon. While I was curious about the escape part, it had some ominous tones to it. It was the dungeon part that took more of my attention.

This didn't look like the medieval dungeons in the stories or the jails that they were supposed to be. Which would leave the more… fantastical dungeon. The one where you went in, defeated some monsters and got loot, rescued someone, or defeated some big, bad evil thing.

I'm not in a jail cell, I thought, looking around. Water deep enough I could bathe in, enough space around the pool I could sleep and have enough distance that I wouldn't accidentally fall in if I rolled over just wrong.

The passage on the side away from the pool led… somewhere. Somewhere that apparently would have monsters. Monsters I would have to ‘defeat’ to survive, maybe to get some clothes.

I thought of the status sheet, and it formed in front of me. I had two spells, one that said it could heal, and one that would do damage. I had health points, mana points… I wasn't too sure what action was for, but I could probably guess.

Thinking directly about Action, brought up another window with a description. “Yeah, I guess it does work like stamina then.”

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I dismissed that window, though it did take a bit to figure out that I could and how to do it, and quickly went through other parts of the sheet.

“Strength, exactly what I'd expect. Carry and lift, increase in damage for weapon attacks, little bit for taking damage. Perception, that's an odd one. Bonuses to accuracy, critical hits, and detecting things out of place? If this was a tabletop, I'd call that one two or three different things…”

I furrowed my brow, thinking. This did seem strangely enough, like a couple of the tabletop games I'd played when I was younger.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Fortitude gives health and resistances. Seems an all-around stat to mitigate the amount of damage I'll take… which even saying that out loud sounds weird.

I sighed and shrugged, continuing on. I had said I would accept this as my new life. I guess accepting all the weird was going to be part of it.

“Let's see, Reflex. Damage avoidance, reaction time, speed, and benefits to action. Okay, I can see how that might work.”

The last was Willpower. “Increases mana, gives bonuses to spells and generally a lot to do with the mind. Yeah, that's more than one thing in all those games.”

I checked my mana, which showed as 10, which was my Willpower doubled and would increase by Willpower added to level each time I leveled. Health and Action had their corresponding numbers.

“Either my class isn't physically oriented, or I've just got low numbers… which, what are the normal numbers? Is this average, low… is a 5 high?”

I set that aside for now, looking at the spells and trying to find anything that said how much mana they cost. “Oh, well, that's good. Only 1 mana each cast. Now, how fast do I get mana back? Or health? Getting that back is going to be important.”

As I searched for those answers, I did my best to ignore the part where it was going to be necessary for me to regain health points. Or the fact that losing them meant I could end up dead. People did this for fun in the stories all the time. There's nothing to worry about, right?

I snorted, shaking my head. Right. I'm going to get bitten by a rabid wolf and just shrug it off. That's what they do in the stories and the games. Right, like that's going to happen. I'm going to scream my head off and cry like a baby.

Finally, I found what looked to be something that explained the rates to regain Health, Action, and Mana.

“One point per 3 of the corresponding ability stat… Health per hour, Action per ten minutes and mana per ten minutes.”

I looked, that would be one point for each pool: eight hours to regain all my health, an hour to regain all my Action and little over an hour and a half to regain all my Mana. That didn't sound too bad. The length to regain health was a little concerning, though I suppose with a larger health pool, it would be too bad. Or you know, as long as I could use Word of Healing, it wouldn't be bad at all.

That thought made me laugh, again thinking of what was going to be happening anytime I got bit or clawed or generally gnawed on. “That's assuming the monsters in here are just animals… What the hell am I going to do if there's something like an orc or goblin in here? Monster or not, fake or not, can I kill something that looks human-ish?”

I looked into the dark of the passage, frowning, and I thought about that. If this world was anything like the books I'd read or the worlds I'd played games in… there were going to be situations where it would be my life or there's. Would I hesitate? “Or, God forbid, come to enjoy it in ways that are definitely not healthy…”

I looked at my sheet and saw something, then added to my last statement. “Goddess forbid, I suppose I should say. Pray?”

That was still something I would have to come to grips about. There was a goddess, and maybe god. Or goddesses and gods, and one of them had given me a blessing. Right now, that blessing only meant she had been the ‘power’ behind me coming to Ytregasa, but there was a portion of that achievement that was locked until I completed this tutorial.

With a grunt and a sigh, I pushed myself up and away from the wall. Taking a deep breath and facing the passage, I started forward.

“Not time like the present, Ian old boy.”