Huay raised the blade overhead and gave it a swing. Beale kept a poker face while Salein cringed at the attempt.

“Okay… So there’s a lot to work on,” Beale sighed. “But I guess that isn’t a surprise. I’ll teach you the absolute minimum about form and we’ll move straight into sparring after that. It’s a shame we’re on such a tight schedule... Trainee soldiers normally aren’t allowed to spar until at least a few months into basic training.”

“Alright,” said Huay, feeling embarrassed, “So what’s wrong with my form?”

Beale explained the basics. It was simple stuff like the spacing of her feet and properly gripping the handle, but Huay found that she was learning surprisingly fast. Every successive swing was better than the one before it and, after ten minutes of drills mixed with lecture, the voice spoke:

“Certification earned. Swordsmanship [Novice].”

She performed another swing, suddenly feeling slightly more comfortable with the form.

“You seem to be getting the hang of it,” said Beale.

“Yeah. The voice just spoke. I got a “Certification” just now.”

Beale’s eyes widened. “Already? We just started.”

“That’s what the voice said. ‘Swordsmanship Novice’, apparently.”

“Amazing. I expected that you’d get it by the time we left for the second layer, but not after just fifteen minutes or so. We still have a lot of work to do regarding form, but we’re pressed for time. Salein? Do you mind lending us a hand here?”

Salein looked up from Jorlaan. His breathing was more steady now, and it seemed like he could be left alone for a few minutes.

“Is there really a point?” asked Salein. “She’s gotten better, sure, but I can’t imagine her being combat ready anytime soon.”

“We might as well try. She’ll have to take a real fight tomorrow regardless.”

Salein frowned. “Very well then. Since you requested it. Keep an eye on Jorlaan.”

“Right.” Beale switched places with Salein.

“Alright, Huay. Come at me.”

“With a sword? This thing is pretty sharp, you know.”

“You can’t hit me.”

“But…”

“Salein is right,” said Beale from her spot by Jorlaan’s side. “She’s miles ahead of you in every metric. You have no chance of hurting her.”

“If you say so…” Huay gingerly approached her opponent, holding Sandiver out in front of her with the stance Beale had taught her.

Salein looked to Beale. “Am I allowed to retaliate?”

“If you can avoid injuring her,” said Beale. “Punishing mistakes might speed up her learning.”

Salein nodded and turned her attention to Huay. “Give it everything you’ve got.”

Huay charged in and went for a thrust, as rehearsed. Salein effortlessly sidestepped the attack and shoved her opponent away.

Salein frowned. “Pay attention to where you’ll end up after an attack, the fight doesn’t stop after one failed thrust.”

Huay regained her footing, already breathing heavily, and tried to take the advice. She went for a series of quick thrusts, all of which were either dodged or simply swatted away by Salein. The effort quickly drained her stamina and Huay was barely able to get the blade above her shoulder by the time her barrage ended with a push from Salein—which sent her to the ground this time.

“Conserving energy is just as, if not more important, than landing a hit. Monsters especially can often keep fighting for a while after taking a serious blow. You’ll die if you can't keep up.”

The training continued for another hour, ending only after Huay was too tired to continue. Salein, on the other hand, was still unphased. She wasn’t even sweating. “We’ll start again in fifteen minutes. Get some rest.”

Fuck… And this is after leveling up too. Am I really that out of shape? Huay groaned. It was nice to do something other than standing around, but exercising had never been her forte.

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This cycle of training and then rest continued for several hours. The hope had been that the voice would speak again and grant her the next tier of the Swordsmanship Certification, but that quickly proved unfeasible.

Beale seemed satisfied with Huay’s progress. “We’ll have these training sessions every time we camp out. Hopefully you can earn the next Tier by the time we make it to Sosiri. Another levelup will be necessary too. Level 10 is a major milestone since you’ll get both your first Title and your first Ability. Now get some sleep.”

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Huay awoke no more energized than she had been the night before. The guilt for her mistakes and dread for what was to come made falling asleep a herculean task.

The group got up. Beale and Jorlaan supported each other while Salein kept guard from behind. Huay had been selected to lead at the front—the logic being that she would be the first victim to any trap.

They all marched, excruciatingly slow, toward the red door at the center of the arena. That, apparently, was a portal to the second layer. Huay’s heart pounded as they got closer to the door. She hated being at the front but, after everything she’d done, Huay was not in a position to complain.

She turned the handle and opened the gate. Pitch-blackness from inside ate at the small amount of light shining in from the sky. Jorlaan, whose lungs were too burned to speak, lit a torch with his finger and passed it to Beale. His blue beard and eyebrows had been scorched away during the accident, leaving his face almost unrecognizable. Feeble movements and weak mannerisms further exacerbated the jarring contrast between Jorlaan’s appearance before and after the fight.

“Pass her the sledgehammer,” said Salein. She took it out of her knapsack and handed it off to Beale who in turn handed it to Huay. Floor 2 was a maze with its exit at the center, and the plan, as recommended by the guidebook, was to break through the walls and force their way to the middle instead of risking the traps and monsters along the more obvious path.

Huay looked at the tool now in her hands. Level 14. It was heavy. Not as heavy as Jorlaan’s backpack, which she had been made to carry in his stead, but the tool was weighty enough to feel unwieldy in her hands.

“So I just start swinging?”

“Yes. Straight ahead. This layer is always formatted so that the stairway to the third floor is directly in front of the starting area. The walls are also especially thin here. All we have to do is break through a few. That’ll take us right to the end.”

The others backed up, leaving the rest to Huay. She started swinging at the wall with all the force she could muster, but progress was scant beyond a few chips or cracks here and there.

“Hey, you can see levels on parts of things too, right? Maybe the wall has weaker spots to target. Like lower-leveled bricks, or something,” said Beale.

“I’ll try it.”

The average for the wall was 16, but near the left edge there was a brick at level 9. Huay heaved the sledgehammer over her left shoulder and brought it down on the weaker brick, cracking a small chunk off in spite of the awkward angle. Another hit did even more damage. A third swing finally breached to the other side.

“So it works,” noted Salein. “Use it on monsters too.”

She continued piecing off chunks of the wall and brushing off the rubble, expanding the hole, until finally the group could squeeze through.

“Certification earned. Demolition [Novice].”

Huay stepped through the hole and into the next tunnel, and immediately her shoes were stuck in a sludge on the floor.

“Stop!” she called out to the group. “There’s something on the ground here, I can’t move.”

“A higher-level crawler’s residue. At least level 10. That’s the result of a Title,” said Salein.

“How do I get out?!”

“Slide off your shoes and pay more attention from now on. The guidebook made it clear that crawlers are the main threat on the lower floors. It’s fortunate that it isn’t here right now.”

“Can you go back and get me some new shoes from the arena?”

“Are you stupid? What if that crawler comes back and kills you? Who would defend Beale and Jorlaan?”

“Could we… all go back?”

“No.”

Huay groaned and took off her Yeezys, taking care not to touch her fingers to the sludge. Going barefoot was not something she looked forward to. She found a safe place to stand, then resumed work with the sledgehammer and got through the next wall after some time, her methodology more refined.

The third wall was a different beast. She spent a long time staring at each brick, hoping that she had missed the weak point initially but, after a while, Huay realized that the weakest brick was an intimidating level 15.

“We might be here for a while. This one is tough.”

“Then get to it.”

Huay made chips, but no notable progress. The sound of the sledgehammer crashing down time after time onto the wall reverberated throughout the maze and Salein, wise from experience, knew to have her bow already ready for whenever the denizens of the floor decided to come for the source of the noise. An ethereal arrow already glowed in her hand.

Huay, focused on the wall, did not initially notice the sound of a creature approaching from behind. Salein without hesitation drew and shot her arrow into the dark with a single motion, piercing the monster’s skull and leaving its body motionless on the ground.

“Must have been the crawler from earlier,” she said.

Beale brought over the torch, and Huay looked at the corpse. Indeed, it looked similar to the crawler from the first floor—maybe larger. She wondered how such a bulbous mass of flesh could squeeze through the narrow hallways of the dungeon without getting stuck. In any case, there was a sense of relief in seeing that Salein had her back.

“That one didn’t smell, and it looks a little different too. Is it a different species?” Huay asked.

“That was a Titleholder,” said Beale. “Some Titles can change an individual to the point of unrecognizability. This was a minor example. Most of the monsters we face from here on will have Titles.”

“I… see. Back to work, I guess.” Huay continued with the sledgehammer and, after the better part of an hour had gone by, there was a hole large enough for the party.

“Certification upgraded. Demolition [Novice] improved to [Basic].”

The group ventured through. The process with the walls repeated twice more before Huay broke through to a long staircase.

“We’ll prepare for an hour in the safe zone before moving to floor three,” said Salein.

The group began up the stairs.