“Grinding away…” Darren sings, as he slashes with his sword…

“Day by day…” He continues…

***SLASH***

***SLASH***

“Na na na…”

***BANG***

***SPLATTER***

The bug's head explodes, and it's goo gets all over Darren's face.

Rose smiles, as she holds out a smoking gun.

“That's a beautiful song…” She says.

Darren frowns. “Great. Now I got bug goo all over my face.” He says, wiping it off with his hand.

Charlie let’s out a sigh. “That's the last of them… Should we head up? We've been here a while.” He says.

“It was quite fruitful, I should say…” Rose says...

As they continued to grind, Darren, Shana, and Charlie, have all grown to level four, while Rose has grown to level three.

Shana lets out a sigh. “I guess that’s our limit. Let’s go back up. But we’ll be back for another round tomorrow!” She exclaims.

“I’m also looking forward to it.” Charlie says.

Darren raises an eyebrow. “Why’s that?” He asks.

Charlie smiles. “Because tomorrow, we’ll reach level 5!” He says, excited.

“What’s so special about that?” Rose asks.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Charlie lets out a chuckle. “Just a hunch. If this was truly a game, it would be designed accordingly. If it was just more attribute points at level 5, that would be no fun.” He says, speaking from his vast gaming experience.

Darren smiles. “I’m looking forward to it…” He says with expectation.

“Such hopeful expectations. Our future really must be bright.” Shana says with a laugh, leading the way back to the surface…

“Do you guys want to grab some beer?” Darren asks.

Shana frowns. “Aren’t you like twelve?” She asks.

Darren frowns. “Never mind.” He says in defeat…

…

…

“Mom, I’m back. I got your cash!” Darren says, entering the apartment.

Darren’s mom was cooking dinner.

Darren walks over and hands the cash to her.

“Where’d you get this?” She asks, curious.

Darren sighs. “How else does one get cash in this world; of course it’s by selling my body.” He says before laughing.

Darren’s mom frowns. “Such a crude boy. Who taught you that?” She asks.

Darren smiles. “Maybe the world teaches us all the same lessons… anyways, I’m going to rest…” He says, walking to his room.

“Don’t go to sleep. Dinner will be ready in a moment.” Darren’s mom reminds him.

“Yes, yes.” Darren says.

…

…

***DING***

You have leveled up.

10 attribute points.

1 ability point.

Darren’s eyes widen. “Holy shit, I did it.” He says.

A stream of information enters his head; it was a list of starter abilities.

Depending on how one distributed their attribute points up till now, different abilities were available to them.

Darren begins to process the list, making note of one’s that caught his interest, and the one’s that he had access to.

“Alright, I’ll choose this one.” He says.

Ability unlocked: Wind slash.

Up till now, Darren has been putting points into Strength and Dexterity; but the idea of becoming smarter by spending points was intriguing to him, so his points were distributed into Intelligence as well.

Altogether, he had the basic requirements for a starter skill in the Magic Swordsman class.

Darren swings his machete; a sharp wind energy is expelled from the blade, and makes a deep mark into the stone wall.

Charlie’s eyes widen. “Holy shit.” He says.

Shana’s eyes widen. “How did you do that!?” She exclaims.

Darren smiles. “I received an ability point!” He says, satisfied.

“Wow.” Rose says.

A fire begins to burn under Charlie. “There’s no time to lose! We have to continue grinding. Wait for me ability point!” He yells, walking to the distance in search of more monsters.

…

…

Charlie spins his spear, takes a battle stance, and stabs outwards; a sharp energy was pushed out, and makes a hole in the stone wall.

“Spear-point bullet!” He exclaims.

Shana lowers her phone, which she was using to record the scene. “Nice.” She says. “Now do it again; I have to get a shot of the energy hitting the wall.” She says.

Darren frowns. This is so embarrassing. He thinks to himself.

They had all leveled up and received their ability points, and by this point, they have all received enough monster drops to arm themselves.

Charlie chose to go with Spear-point bullet; the starter skill of a master spearman. He had a genuine spear to go with it.

Shana received a bow, and she chose the Reflex shot ability. Her aim was quick, and precise; always on target.

Rose received a staff, and she went with a Mage starter skill; Flare.

Currently, Shana, was taking videos of the abilities with her phone, which she planned to edit, and post on the internet.

Alas, in the modern world, to go viral and become internet famous, was something many yearned for.

She even came up with a team name; the Sage Heroes.

Darren shakes his head. “More like trash heroes…” He mumbles…

On top of this, the group had collected various equipment that they didn’t need, in addition to the monster corpses, which they sold to the government. These kids were currently quite wealthy. It seems the path they’ve chosen, as dungeon hunters, along with the risk, would prove to be quite prosperous…