By the time we got back to the dungeon, there was a long line waiting for us. I impatiently tapped my foot while I waited for the Adventurers to hurry it up and tell the General where they needed to be sent before he slowly cast his Dimensional Step spell for them, as if he had all the time in the world to do so. And as Yua suggested yesterday, there were a few people that didn’t have the Adventurer class waiting to get in, but they were taking even longer to decide where to go than the rest.

Why the hell didn’t they decide before they got here? If you’re here to risk your life, you ought to at least know what you’re doing!

“Master, maybe you should calm down,” Yua pleaded, tugging on my sleeve.

“What are you talking about? Just a few minutes ago, you looked like you wanted to kill him.”

Yua, somehow, managed to forget some or maybe most of her anger as soon as we got to the dungeon. More and more of it seemed to dissipate the closer we got to this place. Like her anger was based entirely on her proximity to Alphonse.

But not me. Not after what I heard. Yua pressed her lips into a thin line, looking as though she wanted to seek permission for whatever she was about to say before saying it anyways.

“Master, you can’t go into the dungeon so… mad. It’s not safe. If you let your emotions get the better of you while you’re in there…”

“How can you stay so calm?” I interrupted. “He made all that shit up about his wife just to mess with us. He still thinks he has us beat. We have to prove him wrong.”

The ring’s sale was still our best and only bet at doing so, but we still needed to make up enough gold to cover our costs should it sell for the bare minimum. I knew Yua was right in saying that my emotions could get the better of me in a fight, but I wasn’t her. I wasn’t some battle junkie that could just forget such things the second the thought of doing something fun popped into my head.

I don’t know what sort off training she went through to be able to do so herself, but where she stood now, she looked as though the only significant emotions she’s worn all day was that warm smile she woke me up with. That, except, for the fact that she now gazed at me with confusion strongly mussing her beautiful features.

“Um, Master, he wasn’t making up that stuff about his wife.”

“… What do you mean?”

“He said it himself, right? It’s not exactly a secret. Besides, I heard how calm his heart was when he told us. He wasn’t lying.”

Hearing those same word come from her peachy lips instead of his jogged my memory enough to make me want to slap myself. He did say exactly that. Once again, I let myself think I got the better of him, got distracted and didn’t notice the obvious, only for him to pull the wool over my eyes. Why does this keep happening?

“I don’t know much about it myself since I’m not from Amoranth myself,” Yua continued. “But the other slaves told me stories of the things he’s done since opening the slave house. From what they said, he went around using his knowledge and influence to ruin each and every business that was related to those that stole his wife in any way. In any way, no matter how remote the connection. He even went after the businesses of their loved ones and the like. He broke them financially and enslaved them all. And, from what I’ve heard, there were several more involved than what he told us just now.”

When she finished, I felt a chill strangle my spine at the thought of the man we were up against. I thought that he was just a greedy merchant with a heart so black that it might as well have been a black hole from the moment he was born, but now everything made sense. Forget the power and money he must have needed to do so, if he had the brains to financially topple who knows how many businesses, then the man must be a genius. And after all my blundering these last few days, it was obvious why he’d taken advantage of me. He saw from the, probably from the moment we met, that I was an easy mark.

If what she says is true, then it makes sense that such a past wouldn’t be a secret. If local businesses were involved in the incident he described, then of course several people would know about it. But if everyone knows, why the hell do they continue doing business with him? You would think that his actions had so thoroughly tarnished his reputation that he’d never even be able to set foot in the city again, let alone keep such a distasteful business that brought in who knows how many thousands of gold coins each and every year. Then again, maybe that’s why he and that Lord Barrily are working together. Can’t kick a man out of the city if he’s on good terms with the nobility.

And more importantly, why did I convince myself that he was lying?

No. I suppose I know. I made that connection between us and him and what I might have become had I taken advantage of Yua instead of taking the time to get to know her. I still feel like I know very little of her true self, but that much was enough to convince me that ending up like him, ready and willing to forsake my love for a bit of coin, was a future I absolutely couldn’t allow.

Yua and I were going to get the coin we needed, together. Always together.

This beautiful girl, this chestnut-haired paragon of clear-headedness and I weren’t going to end up like Alphonse and his wife. No wonder why none of my blundering in the dungeon yesterday didn’t make her want to hurt me. She knew such thoughts were not only dangerous because of the slave spell, but because of our location.

“It’s still morning,” she said calmly. “We have plenty of time to…”

“I don’t know about that,” I said, feigning calmness myself. If I couldn’t be calm, I might as well act the part for her sake. “Based on what we got for selling what we looted yesterday, we may not be able to get enough to make up that ten percent difference. So, we need to get in there as soon as possible and push as far as our bodies will take us. If we’re fast enough, we might even be able to get to the third and fourth floors.”

There was absolutely no more time to waste. Had she not noticed that our best bet to making a substantial amount of gold is to sell off whatever the boss of each floor drops? That large pelt that the boss of the first floor dropped yesterday sold for more than everything else we got combined. The ring obviously excluded. While it was likely that the monsters on the next floors would drop something more worthwhile, but bosses are definitely where the money is at. So, we needed to make our way to them as soon as possible.

I wanted to just teleport into the dungeon and quickly clear the first floor again, but since the layout of the dungeons change every day, I had no idea if it would be safe. Plus, we might end up teleporting straight in front of a monster if we weren’t careful. With Yua’s guidance and our higher levels, I thought that we should be able to clear the first floor fairly quickly regardless.

The line moved forwards and after watching multiple Adventurers enter the lower floors, decked out in all their expensive-looking armor and weapons, I considered asking one or more of them to borrow the coin we needed. If they could afford all that fancy equipment and if the loot dropped by monsters really did scale with the floor level you were on, I wouldn’t have to go out too far on a limb to assume that they likely had gold to spare. Not to mention that they would probably give us more time to pay them back. Trade one debt for another with a more lenient time table. It made sense on paper, but borrowing that sort of money would always have its own troubles.

I ultimately decided against asking them. Not because the anxiety of trying to broch the subject with them made me a little sweaty, but because none of these people know who I am. They would have to be awfully stupid to trust that I would pay them back without setting up some sort of binding magic contract to keep me from running away. Then, that would just be another contract we’d have to deal with. And, since Yua was seen by the world as my “property,” that meant she might actually need to be put up as collateral, meaning that failing would still end with me losing her.

“Next.”

We stepped up once our turn arrived and the General did a double take before squinting, looking me over noticeably more than he did the day before. This was probably a natural reaction. I don’t know how good his memory is, but he clearly saw us enter the dungeon yesterday and, because we teleported straight to the inn after we finished, he never saw us leave. He must have assumed we died down there.

I felt my brow grow damp with sweat at this oversight and started to fret that he might question how we got out, but it might not be too hard to explain. Yua never told me how people learn teleportation magic, but when I showed it off to her, she was amazed rather than skeptical, like she was with everything else I said. By that logic, people other than the general here should be able to learn it as well. I’d just have to come up with an excuse for how I did it.

But, in the end, he shrugged his shoulders and crinkled his brow as though deciding that he probably just failed to remember this low-level nobody.

“Which floor?”

After a moment’s thought, I went with my original plan.

“First floor, please.”

The General nodded and cast his teleportation spell for us without further question. Yua looked confused by my decision, but followed me in anyway when the spell finished charging.

We stepped onto what looked like the exact same staircase we appeared on yesterday. However, I was able to see an immediate difference in the overall layout. Yesterday, the first hallway divided into paths leading both to the left and right, but this one only went left.

“Hmm. But the entrance is the same? Oh, right!”

The entrance to each level must be the only part of the dungeon floors that are static objects. Meaning they must never change. This had to be the case. The Dimensional Step spell required the caster to think clearly about where they wanted to go while the spell was prepared. Obviously, the General wouldn’t be able to teleport anyone inside if he wasn’t sure what the specific floor’s entrance looked like. And he surely didn’t spend the first few hours of each morning plowing through all the known floors just to access the starting areas of each one and memorize them all.

Shit. We could have just teleported to this point ourselves and wouldn’t have had to waste time waiting in line if I was smart enough to figure that out earlier.

Uggh. No use in crying about it now. I’ll just have to make a mental note that we can teleport straight into the dungeons from the inn from now on.

“Master, why are we on the first floor again?” Yua asked after stepping through the portal behind me to start her stretching. I thought it was weird she didn’t just question me before hand, but figured it had something to do with her being taught not to question her master’s intentions in public. “I thought Master wanted to fight on the next level.”

“I do, but I think it’s best we clear out the first floor again. Now that we know what to expect and are stronger, it should be a lot faster. Then we can just enter the second floor from the boss room.”

The idea wasn’t only to pick up as much loot as fast as we could, I thought the easy, boosted experience from these low-level monsters would help us in the long run. That was how I typically played these types of games anyway. Continue leveling up to the point where the current mobs are no longer a threat to you before moving on to stronger foes. The monsters here still gave pretty good experience, anyways.

Yua did not seem to share in this line of thought, though. She just tilted her head in confusion like she didn’t understand my reasoning, but she gave up complaining either way and set off with the same battle plan as the day before. Even if she looked calm on the outside, I was sure she still wanted to vent some of her frustration on the wolves here.

She lifted her chin to the ceiling and listened to the dungeon. After I waited a short two or three seconds, her ears perked up and she waved for me to follow her. Thankfully, our early start today meant there should theoretically be more enemies for us to battle and that Yua should have an easier time finding them, since fewer people have had the chance to come to this floor. At least, I hoped so. The other Adventurers ahead of us in line all seemed to take to the lower floors, so most of the first floor should be free for us to take.

We went straight to work.

We rounded the only corner available to us at the start and found the first of what was likely going to be several wolves waiting for us.

“Alright, Yua. Let’s stick with the same plan as yesterday. You take the wolves. I’ll take the slimes.”

“Understood.”

She launched herself at the wolf while I stood behind as back up with my hand raised to throw a Fire Ball if needed. After what happened with the boss yesterday, I wasn’t about to let myself think that we couldn’t slip up and fall victim to these mobs. Not that it was likely to happen, anyways. After all those levels she got, Yua should be able to handle these wolves no problem.

Or so I would like to say…

While she was as skilled as ever, dodging and countering the wolf’s every attack with her fists, as I watched her pummel the wolf into the ground before it burst into light and vanished, I noticed that it took her the same number of punches to beat the wolf as it had yesterday.

Strange, her level more than doubled yesterday. Shouldn’t the wolf require fewer hits from her to die now?

Out of curiosity, and to have something to do while Yua retrieved the pelt she just earned, I checked our stats pages and found the reason. I slapped my hand on my forehead in resignation for my continued stupidty.

Apparently, our actual stats did not improve automatically upon leveling up. All of mine were exactly the same as when I first arrived in this world, but off to the side of the window in front of me was an indicator that I had an extra 30 points to distribute amongst them as I liked.

I stared at this indicator for a long time, right up until Yua came back to me.

If this is how the leveling system in this world worked, then we would have had a much easier time fighting the boss if I’d noticed. I was just too focused on our health, stamina and my mana bars to have noticed the change.

Since I leveled up six times, that means we must gain 5 points per level. However, it did not seem to account for the levels gained for our side classes. Otherwise, I should be sitting on a lot more points thanks to all my levels. So, the points gained must only be linked to our birth class, or in my case, the Adventurer class.

Deciding that must be how it worked, I was about to start distributing the points I gained into my Strength and Magic stats to make me a more formidable fighter, but as I watched Yua’s cute ears twitch as she searched for the next enemy, I decided against it.

I already used up all my luck until now on just getting Yua to stand by my side without openly hating me. I’ll just need a lot more to keep her there and even more so to keep hoping that she wasn’t waiting to stab me in the back.

It was going to be a risk, possibly an incredibly stupid risk, but I dumped all of my points into my Luck stat, raising it from 20 straight to 50. I had no idea if there was a limit, but that sounded pretty good. Usually, in games, your Luck stat only affects the drop rates of items and maybe a few dialogue options. So, I had to hope my luck would transfer itself into someone buying the ring and to our fighting in the dungeon today going smoothly. If we were lucky, no pun intended, it would also help us to get the rarer drops from the monsters as well.

After I finished my own stats, I check on Yua’s and found that she too had points to spare. I wondered if that was because it was my duty as her master to decide how to use them, but that shouldn’t be the case. If nobody else can see the stats window, how would they ever use the points they gained? Doesn’t that mean the regular people’s stats stay the same no matter their level?

No, that doesn’t make any sense. Yua must just be different because she’s with me, an outsider to this world. Instead of her stats going up according to the needs of her classes, it must be up to me since I have the menu. It’s probably just the same as being able to choose how to level and progress your NPC followers in a video game.

“Master, there is another wolf this way.”

Yua started off towards the next fight and I decided that now was not the time to be letting the menu obscure my vision. So, I divided Yua’s levels equally. Her 15 points went straight into Vigor, Strength and Endurance.

The extra Vigor was only for the boost it’d give to her pool of health, which seemed important since we only had one last potion. The Strength was to make up for my own weaknesses going forward until I even out my own stats. Plus, her nimble movements and skills at fighting made her less likely to actually need a boost to her Speed just yet to avoid attacks. Finally, the endurance was more of a hunch, but I assumed it meant she would have more stamina and be able to fight for a longer time before getting tired and needing to retire for the day.

It'll be tough for now, Yua, but you’ll have to be both our team’s vanguard and tank until I can level up some more to support you properly.

I watched her square up against the next wolf and waited to see how much her new stats would affect her ability to fight.

The wolf jumped straight towards her chest just as brainlessly as all those before it had. She used its airborne state to dodge to the side like I had back in the forest and thrust her fist into the side of its head. The punch propelled the wolf like a rocket, throwing it crashing into the wall. It turned into light and vanished the second it hit the floor.

“Eh?”

Yua was so surprised by the abrupt victory that she left her fist dangling in the air to stare at the light particles floating up into nothingness. I was surprised too, but to a lesser extent. Before I boosted her stats and without the aid of her Iron Fist ability, it’d taken her about four hits to kill the wolves down here. Now it only took one. That was a pretty big and helpful difference. But what surprised me more was that she had not noticed the difference in her own strength before the fight. Shouldn’t she have felt lighter on her feet or something?

“Master, did you see that? It died in one hit. Maybe another Adventurer wounded it first. Strange that I couldn’t smell any blood on it, though.”

“Of course, it died faster,” I said, shaking my head to dismiss her assumptions. “We leveled up a few times yesterday. It’s only natural that you’re this much stronger.”

“Eh? A few times?”

She threw my words back at me as if she didn’t understand what they meant. So, I explained.

“Yes. Since you worked so hard yesterday, you leveled up three times. You’re now level 6 and I’m level 7.”

Once more, her face took on a look of condescending doubt that I was reluctantly familiar with before she shoved her hands on her hips. Considering how lethal those hands were now, I was suddenly glad she had mellowed out some since yesterday.

“Master, that’s just not possible.”

“What do you mean?”

“Master, it takes months, sometimes years to level up that much. It’s just not possible for me to level up three times in one day.”

Years?! What the hell?! How powerful is my Experience Boosting trait?!

“I’m serious,” I said. “Isn’t there a way I can show you to prove it?”

“Yes, there is. But are you sure you want to, Master? Usually, slave owners don’t let their slaves see their own stats.”

They don’t? Maybe that’s because a lot of people that buy slaves probably buy ones that are strong enough to fight in the dungeons. They probably don’t want their slaves to realize that they are stronger than them. Even if the slave is unable to cause their master harm without facing death in return, knowing they are stronger may take away their respect for their master and open up the possibility of them getting cocky enough to try and demean them in other ways. Sort of like how Yua acted around me yesterday, though she had the addition of her being a girl and I a man and all that meant to deal with as well.

Still. I know slaves aren’t allowed to own anything, but why does that include their own status windows?

“Sure, I don’t mind. How do I do it?”

“Just hold out your hand.”

I did as she said and she placed her palm onto mine gently. While her hand was soft, I got the feeling she was trying to be careful she didn’t somehow hurt me.

“Now, Master just has to imagine letting me see my level. It’s the same way as trying to see your own, but you have to want me to see it.”

So that’s how people know their levels. It really is the same as how my menu system works, just with a lot less benefits. I wonder how much of their own info they could see. Since I could see all her health information, probably too much of it, I had to wonder if the people of this world were ever surprised to find that they had one disease or another, if it showed up as text whenever they thought to look.

I did as she said and a small window appeared between us just like it did when originally accepting her slave contract. However, this time she wasn’t looking at her feet. She was actively reading what was written there. I watched as her eyes grew wider and her mouth fell open.

“But… But that’s not possible,” she said, looking to me as if asking me to tell her I was somehow making up what she saw.

“It is. It appears that one of my traits significantly boosts the amount of experience we both accumulate while fighting. I actually went from level 1 all the way to level 7 yesterday.”

“EH?! Six levels in one day?!”

This time she screamed her surprise. If it was that hard for her to accept her growth of three levels, then me attaining twice that must be a real shock.

“That’s right,” I said, feeling just a tad smug in the face of her shock. “Want to see?”

Her face turned red and she almost took her hand away from mine. Suddenly, she wasn’t able to look me in the eye.

“Um… Master… Are you sure that’s okay? D-Do you really want me to see?”

“Hmm? Why not. I don’t mind.”

“B-B-But, your level is supposed to be really, really private!”

Private? I mean, I can see others’ level just by looking at them. Although, I guess I can only do that because of an ability that was all my own, given to me and only me by the Goddess’ good grace. Still, with her stammering around all embarrassed like that, the people of this world must see their status windows as something about as private as what they have in their pants.

“Is it a problem? I mean, you showed me your level like it was nothing.”

“B-But that is because Master is Master. My everything belongs to you. So, showing you that much is only natural. B-but for Master to show me…”

This time I blushed a bit. That implication was a little too powerful for me. I had no qualms with showing her, but that’s probably because I hadn’t grown up in this world the way she had. I cleared my throat.

“I don’t mind. If you want to look, I’ll let you.”

Yua gulped, then nodded.

I showed her my own status page and watched as she skimmed it. Because she didn’t know that I was truly level 1 when we met like how she knew her own level, her expression didn’t change much when she saw what it was now. She must have still thought I was bluffing.

But when her eyes ran along my classes page, she looked genuinely shocked. Still, with her looking so close at all of my personal information, I kind of understood what she meant about it being something private. I wasn’t exactly blushing, but having her stare so intently at all that information did feel a little uncomfortable.

“Amazing... Master really does have more than two classes.”

Well damn. If I’d known I could just show her like this, I wouldn’t have felt the need to prove it yesterday. Would have saved us some time.

“I told you I did. Now how about you check my abilities to prove I’m not lying there too.”

Yua nodded, apprehensively at first, but pulled on a serious expression before she navigated the menu to start browsing my abilities. Just like before, she was surprised to the point of staring at me like I were a freak of nature.

“Master, how do you have so many abilities and traits? You have more of those than you do classes… And I don’t even recognize most of them.”

Of course, you don’t recognize them. I only got them because of the help of the goddess that brought me here. But I guess I can’t exactly tell her that. Actually, why am I telling her all of this anyway? Didn’t I decide yesterday and again this morning to keep it a secret from her, at least until I knew I could trust her completely?

Why am I so wishy-washy with her?

Thinking on my feet, I came up with an excuse for my extra abilities.

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“I’m not from this country. So, that’s probably why you never heard of these abilities.”

“Then… Doesn’t that mean the people from your homeland are all really strong?”

Her eyes beamed at me, now thoroughly excited. Her ears were pointed, standing on end as she awaited my answer. Her tail wagged all over the place behind her, practically kicking up a cloud of dust as she displayed her enthusiasm.

Again, aren’t dogs the ones that wag their tails?

“Well, no. I guess I’m a bit different, is all.”

I couldn’t exactly tell her that I am the only person in this entire world that used to live in the place she was thinking about. But at least, what I said wasn’t a lie.

“Amazing. Master truly is amazing! Like this, we’ll be able to get much stronger!”

“That’s the plan. But, hey, Yua, why are you so obsessed with strength?”

Ever since she first set foot in the dungeon with me, she has been raring to test herself in battle. To the point of almost ignoring that fact that she had just been bought as a slave not even an hour before that first step. She even took on the floor boss by herself in the past. I couldn’t imagine doing something like that unless I had absolutely no other choice. She’s also shown herself to be overly proud of the strength she already had and now that she has more, she’s smiling as brightly as she might if I were to have found a way to break her slave contract once and for all.

“Hmm? Well, I guess Master isn’t from here, so you wouldn’t know, but for cat-kin, strength is what’s most important. Gold and fancy titles don’t mean anything unless you have the power to back them up. For us, your strength is what determines your position in life. Everything from the tribe’s leader to who we choose as our mates is based only on strength. Well, mostly, anyways.”

Wait, doesn’t that mean that all I have to do to win her over is to get stronger?

Ahem. Well, I guess I better not tell her that she is technically stronger than I am right now.

“So then, how did you get so strong, Yua?”

Not asking for advice. Not at all. I just want a reference to how my party member got strong enough to take on a mob of armed thugs all by herself, all while unarmed.

“Through intense training that tests our abilities and by challenging the dungeons on our own. Cat-kin are taught from the moment we are born to be as strong as we can be by our mothers who birthed us without uttering so much as a cry of pain and our fathers who watched on without flinching.”

I… Giving birth without even crying? Even with medicines to dull the pain in my world that is still impossible!

“I-I see. If that’s the case, I’ll make sure we both get a lot stronger.”

“Yes, Master! I’m looking forward to it!”

We continued on through the dungeon. Thankfully, as I thought, even though we ended up started later than I wanted, most of the floor monsters were still alive. Apparently, the total number of monsters we fought yesterday were only about half of what there normally was. Yesterday, there were times where we could walk for a several long minutes before finding something. But now there was another enemy around every corner.

By the time we finished off all of the enemies Yua could find, we had killed 15 wolves and 10 slimes. This brought my levels up to 12 for Adventurer and 6 for Mage. Since I dumped a lot of points into Luck, I decided to only add a few more here and there to increase our chances at the auction. The rest were divided evenly into Vigor and Magic, since magic was basically all I was going to need for the foreseeable future and since Yua was our physical attacker, I thought it best to continue leveling my stats for the betterment of the party.

I did manage to figure out that each point I put into the Magic stat boosted my total pool of mana, so in theory, I should be able to cast more spells before needing to recharge. But it’s hard to tell when the slimes still die with just one cast of Fire Ball.

As for Yua, I continued to put the three extra levels she gained into her Vigor, Strength and Endurance stats. By the time I told her this after we finished fighting the last wolf, she was jumping for joy at how strong she was getting. I wanted to stand by and watch as she enjoyed her ever increasing strength—and the fact that her bra-less chest bounced just as happily as she did— but we had to keep moving. The threat of what lay in our failure couldn’t be out the thought that I was actually doing exactly what I set out to do in this world by leveling like this was and watching my stats go up.

As for the points I put into Luck, they were already paying themselves off as about a third of the monsters we killed dropped two items, all of which I put into storage so Yua didn’t have to carry them this time. We were still far off from our goal, but given how it only took us around twenty minutes to clear the mobs, I’d say things were progressing much smoother than they did yesterday. As a bonus, thanks to the ease in which we dispatched the monsters, we were hardly breaking a sweat.

“Yua, are you sure there are no more monsters down here?”

“Yes, Master, I am positive,” she said, still with that absurdly cute smile of hers plastered on her face as she pat her bicep to play with the symbol of her own strength.

Thankfully, or should I say oddly enough, the boost to her Strength stat didn’t make her musculature change even slightly. As confusing as this was, watching her perform more and more feats of strength her slender figure shouldn’t have been able to, it easily explained how she was so strong in the first place. Meaning that this world just didn’t make sense to begin with.

“Good. Let’s hurry up and beat the boss again and continue onto the next floor. Can you lead the way?”

“Of course. Leave it to me.”

She slammed her fist into her palm and the cute smile instantly warped into a serious desire to fight a strong opponent. I had no doubt that most of her eagerness came from her wanting to test her strength against the boss that nearly killed her just yesterday, rather than actually completing the floor. But I couldn’t complain. In fact, if we weren’t so hard pressed for time, I’d let her solo the boss to take some revenge. I bet that would make her happy.

While the floor layout was different now, I still felt an eerie presence mixed in with the stone creeping up on us as Yua guided us down the passages making up the hardly linear route to the boss. Regardless of how strong we’ve become; the boss was still going to be a threat. We may have leveled, but our health points didn’t raise all that much and our armor, or lack thereof, hasn’t changed.

Yua continued with her serious expression as she walked by my side, but I did catch her breaking into a smile every once in a while, as if she’d forgotten the need to keep her emotions in check she lauded over me just a short while ago. I let her have her fun and kept my attention on our front the best I could, just in case something showed up while she wasn’t paying attention.

Before the final stretch to the boss room, I got a notification. I was half expecting it to tell me I got some other job without telling me why or what I did to get it, but that wasn’t the case.

[Trap Ahead.]

“Yua, stop.”

I put my hand out in front of her and started looking around once I was sure she was going to stay put.

“What’s wrong, Master?”

“… I think there’s a trap nearby, but I’m not sure how I know that.”

Her not seeing the notification aside, I didn’t understand how I knew there was something there when I got no such notification last time when we fell into the pit.

“Hmm? Oh, it’s probably because you have the Detect Trap ability.”

“What? I do?”

“Yes, Master. I saw it when you let me look at your abilities. Did you not know?”

She tilted her head while I checked my skill page and, sure enough, Detect Trap was there under the Adventurer class section.

“That’s… Oh. I think I understand.”

It seems that triggering the ability to gain classes and skills was rather fickle. While I got the Dimensional Step spell from seeing it, I must have gotten Detect Trap because we triggered a trap ourselves yesterday. I must have just missed the notification that popped up for it because we were trapped in the darkness, unable to see the menu once the trap resolved itself. Though, I had no explanation for not noticing it when I scrambled through my list of abilities right before the ceiling dropped on us.

After actively trying out the Detect Trap skill, I noticed that one of the tiles in the floor had a faint red glow to it and that it was raised slightly higher than the others. A pressure plate. Just like yesterday. And just like yesterday, once I noticed the source of the trap, another notification popped up warning me that it was the same type of trap, a pit-fall and ceiling-crush combo.

I warned Yua not to step there while I pondered the possibility of if this meant traps always spawn in the same place or if we just got lucky that it happened to appear right before the boss again.

Regardless, that gives me an idea.

“Yua, do you think you could step on the pressure plate and make it to the other side before the ceiling falls?”

I pointed it out to her, since she hadn’t actually seen it herself.

“Eh? Why does Master want to trigger the trap when we could just go around?”

“Think about it. Falling down there last time was scary, but we ended up finding the ring. What if there is something else down there now?”

“Oh, good idea. Shall I then?”

I would have done it myself, but according to our stats, she was the fastest. So, she would have a higher chance of succeeding.

I took a few steps back and readied my Material Destruction ability just in case it didn’t look like she was going to make it. Doing this would be a risk, as much of a risk as anything we’d done down here, but I wasn’t about to let her do it without backup.

Readying herself for the dash a few paces behind the pressure plate, Yua lowered herself to the floor. Hands on the tiles, she lifted her shapely behind (and tail) slightly into the air and set one foot in front of the other. She looked like a professional sprinter getting ready to take on Olympic race.

Naturally, that pose in those tight leather pants was a dangerous affront to my sanity, but somehow, they did not tear. The lightly fluffy tail poking out of a tailored hole just above her bottom was slowly waving back and forth as she concentrated.

“Go whenever you are ready. I got your back.”

After a brief moment of preparation, Yua took off running like a bolt of lightning. I watched and waited and the second she took off, I only just realized that I could have used Material Destruction to remove the stone ceiling before the trap was even triggered, but by then it was too late.

Yua reached the pressure plate before I could even finalize the thought of my mistake and she kept running. Much faster than it had before, perhaps because I was watching from the outside instead of being in the trap itself, when the adrenaline coursing through my veins sped up my senses, the floor fell away and became a deep pit. At the price of nearly causing me a heart attack, Yua gracefully slid to a stop on the opposite side just before the floor could completely disappear beneath her and just as the stone ceiling began to fall.

The stone hit the floor with a tremendous bang and I hoped that Yua was able to cover her sensitive ears this time. I hoped because I could no longer see her. Apparently, the section of stone ceiling that fell was tall enough to reach back up to the ceiling itself. It might even still have a part of it inside the hole it fell from, which clearly had the effect of completely blocking this particular path to the boss.

Unable to see her in the sudden silence that took me, I started to worry that she might not have made it, but that worry triggered my right as her master to force the outline of her body to appear on the face of the stone separating us. With what looked like nothing more than a drawing of her etched into the stone, it alone proved she was still alive and kicking. This drawing of her acted out her attempt to stagger back to her feet and I sighed to myself.

While she was holding down her ears like they were hurting, she seemed fine. I guessed I should have reminded her about the noise the trap made. She was nearly unconscious last time it happened, after all. I took a quick look at her health bar to see if she’d need a potion and was relieved to see that the pain she was feeling didn’t actually harm her health at all. Again, no idea how these health bars actually worked.

Now all I needed to do was check and see if there is a hidden passage like last time.

I used Material Destruction to make a path through the chunk of stone that was wide enough for only one person to step through, so that I could make sure Yua’s ears weren’t hurt too bad.

“You go ahead and take a break here,” I said, once I was sure she could hear me. “I’ll just be a minute. If I find anything, I’ll come get you.”

“Okay…” she said, her voice sounding pained.

After she managed to give me a thumbs up and a forced smile, I started removing more blocks of stone leading down. This time, I removed the stone in such a way that it created a make-shift staircase leading downwards so I wouldn’t have to wonder how I’d get back out.

Because the stone removal was nearly instantaneous, I found my way to the bottom pretty quickly, but the alcove we hid in yesterday wasn’t there. I removed more stone and checked all the way around the bottom of the pit, hoping all the while that removing the stone wouldn’t cause the rest to collapse on me. Thought, I did leave several pillar-like sections untouched just in case.

“Master, did you find anything?”

“Nope. Unfortunately, I didn’t. I guess it was too much to hope we would get that lucky twice in a row.”

“Hmm. Master, when you use that Material Destruction spell, where do the blocks go? They look like they just disappear since you didn’t move them somewhere else.”

“… That’s a good question.”

As grateful as I was for figuring out I could use Material Destruction to save our lives, I never once considered what happened to the blocks I removed with the spell.

After taking into consideration how the game this ability came from worked, I opened up my item box. There I found a single stack of bricks labeled “Dungeon Stone.” It even had a number next to it to indicate how many there were.

“Looks like they automatically went into my item box. That’s pretty useful… How about if I try…”

I selected the stone from my item box and like usual, the purple miasma appeared above my outstretched palm and the cube slipped out from my item box. It dropped into my hands and…

“Woah, that’s heavy!”

The second the blocks full weight touched my fingertips, I instinctually grabbed it with both hands to prevent it from falling. But the thing was so heavy that just holding it nearly made me fall to my knees. Yua moved to help me hold it, but I quickly returned it to my item box. It’s a good thing my starting strength stat was as high as it was, or the weight of that thing might have broken a bone when I caught it.

“Phew! I guess it’s a good thing I can still use them. But placing them is going to be a real pain in the… Wait, hold on. Material Creation.”

I pointed my hand at the floor between Yua and I and the same stone block popped into place. Its appearance was so abrupt, that it was as if the block itself randomly decided it needed to exist right then and there. Apparently, I just went about it the wrong way. Satisfied with this little test, I put the block back into storage.

Yua clapped her hands together in awe of what I had done, like it was some party trick.

“That’s amazing, Master!”

Man… I could really get used to her praising me with that beautiful face of hers every time I do something this easy. With here, the unearned praise somehow didn’t feel even remotely depressing. But when all this business with Alphonse is over, I really need to take a few days off to test out the limits of all my abilities.

For now, I had to think of a better way to use my abilities.

“Yua, do you know how durable these stones are?”

“How durable?”

“Yes. As in, if you were to hit it as hard as you could, would it break?”

“Hmm…” she slid her hand across its surface. “I don’t know. But I can try, if Master wishes.”

“No. No. Let’s not do that. We still have more fighting to do, so I don’t want to risk you breaking your hands. I’ll test it myself some other time. For now, let’s just collect some more of this stuff so I have a steady supply of it.”

Assuming that the dungeon reforming itself every morning meant that anything I took would be replaced, I didn’t see a problem with taking as much as I wanted.

So, I set about removing the fallen slab of ceiling completely until there was nothing left but the floor and the staircase I made leading down into the pit. Though, I quickly used Material Creation to cover it back up just in case another Adventurer happened to make it this far into the dungeon once we’re gone. Can’t speak for this hypothetical Adventurer, but I would have found it exceedingly odd if I happened across a random staircase leading down to nothing but a brick wall.

The stones I made appear over the hole sealed it up so tight that I couldn’t even see a seem to indicate that there could’ve been something more there. It looked like the stone had never been removed or altered in anyway. It was just one continuous stretch of stone without a seem to indicate that it didn’t belong. Very interesting, but like my other abilities, I’d have to play around with it another time.

“Alright. Break’s over. Can you take us to the boss?”

“Yes, Master!”

Unburdened by further monsters and traps, the trek to the boss was actually easier than a walk through the woods. At least there, I had to deal with the uneven terrain and ever-present possibility of being attacked by a wild animal. But here, on this flat stone surface, we could walk as briskly as we pleased. It actually made me a little embarrassed by the anxiety I felt by this point in yesterday’s trip.

Yua’s tail swished back and forth as we walked, right up until we reached the boss door where it then stopped and stood straight up, much like how a house cat’s might when getting ready to pounce on a mouse that foolishly chose to scurry in front of it.

This area, unlike the rest of the dungeon, looked exactly the same. Same large stone doors. Same magical runes embedded in their faces. And from what I could tell, the same amount of empty floorspace in front of it, which looked abundant now that I had the chance to observe the area calmly. While it’s creation seemed randomly different compared to the rest of the dungeon, it looked the perfect place for Adventuring parties to stop and take a quick break before challenging the boss.

Yua, though, didn’t need to pause. All the fighting she’d done up to this point was just a warm up. She cracked her knuckles and grinned fiercely as she stared down the door as though it were the boss itself.

Yea… I’m definitely going to have to step in and help. She had a bit of a cocky look to her due to her new found strength and I didn’t want her to make the same mistake again. But maybe it really would be best to let her take her revenge. In this one instance, I wanted to trust her new personality as the truth and say she wouldn’t end up punching me if I stole this chance at redemption from her, but better safe than sorry. As long as the boss died and we could continue past it, I had no issue with letting her finish it off or stepping in myself if the need arose. We’d do this together regardless.

Yua pushed the door open at my request and we stepped inside. I was sure I wouldn’t need to this time, but I readied myself to jump in front of her, just in case.

The Proud Great Wolf was laying down in the corner of the room right where we found it last time and, thanks to my prior experience, this time I wasn’t scared. It was laying down, practically lazing about with its chin resting on its forepaws as it snoozed. But that doesn’t mean I was going to let us get cocky and assume it left itself open. I drew my sword, the metallic disturbance of metal sliding against metal making the boss’ ear twitch. Its great nose let out a breath of hot air, as if it had only taken to breathing after being brought a new challenge.

Taking heed of our presence, the great wolf quickly stood up, growled and bared its fangs to snap at us. Like last time, it seemed to be taking our entrance with an oddly misplaced sense of sportsmanship, as it looked to be waiting for us to make the first move.

“Alright, Yua, here’s the plan. You distract it by going for its leg again. Just focus on evading its attacks, strike only if you can. While you do this, I will set its fur on fire with my magic. Last time I did that, its senses were dulled, so we should be able to beat it down without much issue. Just be careful of the flames.”

“Got it. Then I’m going in.”

We had plenty of time to discuss this beforehand, and probably should have, but the plan was short and sweet, so I didn’t mind waiting until the last second to make sure it was fresh in our minds. Yua’s original tactic worked just fine last time, we just messed it up, so I was sure she’d be fine trying it again. This was more to let her know I’d be using my magic earlier on in the fight, than anything else.

With a battle cry as fierce as the wolf’s, Yua lunged at the boss while I readied myself to cast my spell at the right moment. The boss was large enough and my spell small enough for Yua to have no need to worry about the splash damage of my Fire Ball itself, but the flames that resulted from it and spread would be a constant danger to her as a melee fighter. After that, the danger of friendly fire would only result if she, for whatever reason, attacked a part of the boss that was on fire.

The great wolf lunged to bite Yua, but she jumped just before its maw could clamp down on her. It bit down on the air where she’d been, missing her completely, just as she slammed her foot against its snout. She used its mass as a springboard as it instinctually recoiled from the afront to its nose. This sent her flying right over its back, where she landed perfectly behind it and within striking range. I had a hard time believing that she did that on purpose, but it worked.

“Iron Fist!”

She shouted and, before I could even take in the silvery glow of her fist, I heard a heavy, uncomfortable crack on the other side of the room as she slammed her fist straight into the beast’s, massive shin.

Unlike with our last bout with the boss, that single blow shattered the bone within the leg with a loud, quick snap. The Great Wolf let out a very dog-like yelp of pain and tried to lift the now useless limb, but found it too painful. It dropped the broken limb back to the ground, only to momentarily collapse on itself before springing right back up onto its still working legs. Where any other dog would have tried to run the moment it was injured like this, this one snarled at us, its howl a thousand times more menacing than before. Yua, though, stood there grinning and looking at her fist.

“We aren’t done yet, Yua. Don’t lose focus… Fire Ball!”

Even though I didn’t need to actually chant the spell’s name to use it, I yelled it so that Yua could perform a proper follow up.

Thanks to her heavy-handed blow, the wolf snout was turned towards me when it tried to catch itself, so I had a perfect shot.

Thanks to the effort of two days worth of blasting slimes with this spell, my aim was entirely on point as the fire ball hit the great wolf right between the eyes. It howled in agony and tried to wipe the spreading fire away with its paw, but that only caused the fire to spread to the fur there too. With just those two blows, the Proud Great Wolf’s health bar dropped down by a quarter and with the fire dealing constant damage while blinding it, we essentially had the fight in the bag.

Like before, the blinded great wolf ran about the room in a mad frenzy, trying to rub itself against the walls and floor to quench the flames to no avail. It no longer seemed like it was even aware of us. Using that, Yua and I launched simultaneous attacks.

She struck its other hind leg, breaking it in two and forcing it into a painful-looking sitting position. I used my sword to attack the front paw that wasn’t already on fire as it lashed out blindly. My strikes delt it much less damage per hit than Yua’s, but I sliced through its flesh without holding back.

It tried to swipe at me after I took a couple of chunks of flesh out of it, but the paw it swung at me was the one on fire. Even if I couldn’t see the paw move, I easily saw the massive fire ball surrounding it flying at me. So, I ducked as low as I could to avoid both it and the flames. I wasn’t positive if a product of my own magic could hurt me, but since I could feel the heat emanating from its paw as it flew over my head, I thought it was best not to test it right now.

In a last ditched effort, the great wolf lifted the paw I slashed to ribbons to slam it down on me. I put some strength into my legs, ready to jump out of its path, but there was no need. Yua came to the rescue and struck another Iron Fist-powered punch onto the center pad of the falling paw.

The great wolf was launched to the side and collapsed to the floor. It showed no more interest in trying to fight back against its attackers and tried to roll around again to snuff out the flames. It was already losing what little remained of its health to the fire and bleed damage I had caused, so the fight was as good as done.

Yua smiled fiercely, happily, but fiercely, as she readied herself for the final blow. I said a silent prayer for the wolf and stood aside to let her have at it.

She dashed below the hulking beast as it raised itself up one last time and with one final Iron Fist aimed directly into the center of the Proud Great Wolf’s ribcage, ended the fight with a third sickening crunch. It let out one last howl of pain and unceremoniously burst into a ball of light before dissipating. Yua raised her arms for a cheer while I let out the breath I had been holding and lowered my hand. While I trusted she could finish it off, I’d prepared my magic just in case it tried to strike at her.

“Phew. Great job, Yua. You really did get stronger.”

“I know! It didn’t even stand a chance against us!”

Yua bent down, sweating more from the heat of the flames than the physical exertion and picked up the second Proud Great Wolf pelt we earned.

“Master, should I carry this?”

“No. There’s no need for that. I’ll just put everything we get today into my item box, so it doesn’t weigh you down.”

“Thank you.”

She held out the large roll of fur with a smile and I put it away. While it would be suspicious if we came out with nothing, there was no point in walking around with dozens of pounds of loot when you didn’t need to. It would be infinitely easier to just teleport straight back into our room than it would be to actually carry all of that around town, anyways. There we could easily just use the same tactic of pretending to reach into her bag to pull it all out once we decide to sell. Plus, after thinking back on how Adventurers typically had to wait for the General outside to teleport them back into the city, I felt that handling the teleportation myself was going to be faster.

After putting away our prize, I checked our levels one more time before heading to the next floor.

The boss had managed to level up my classes again, but not by the same amount as last time. Strangely enough, though, unlike last time when I thought that the experience gained from the boss’s defeat only went to the person that got the last hit, I still got some experience. However, unlike how I usually received the full, boosted amount of experience even without getting the final blow, I only received half as much as I did last time, meaning 500 instead of 1000, while Yua gained the same amount she did last time.

As far as I could tell based on this battle, it may be safe to assume that I’m limited by how much experience I can get per boss fight, with it being halved each time I kill the same boss. Otherwise, since they respawn every hour, I would’ve been able to sit next to the boss room for a day and use this easy fight to power level. And each successive fight would only be easier and easier thanks to the levels I would have earned. Makes sense, but it was a little disappointing to learn this when considering how this lost experience would have strengthened us up more for the lower floors.

Not that I wanted to make this life an easy one, but easy was definitely warranted here.

What still perplexed me, though, was that Yua’s Monk class did not raise at all, even after getting the final hit using its ability. She most definitely did the most damage in the fight, while I more or less just blinded it and gave it a few papercuts while she literally shattered its bones, so this seemed completely unfair to me.

I motioned with my finger to tap my menu to check if her class had some sort of other condition needed to level it up, but nothing appeared. However, when I pressed it, the box containing the label “Monk” lit up and shifted, like it was being picked up.

What the…

Curious, I worked my menu like a touch-screen and slid the box up above the one containing her Beast Warrior class and let go. It snapped into place right where I held it, as if it belonged there the whole time. This new feature fueling my curiosity further, I decided to check her info box outside of the menu again by focusing on her and found that it now read that her main class was Monk instead of Beast-Warrior.

Hmm… I guess I can change her class or have her swap between them whenever we want.

Unlike my classes, that all level up all at the same time as long as I use them at least once in a fight, hers might just need to be leveled separately. That might be a good thing. Or it might slow us down. Not only would this require constant monitoring on my end, her Monk class is now eight levels lower than her Beast-Warrior class. But if she preferred to fight as a Monk, it was immensely more important that we focus on it now and just put the numbers aside.

I checked her stats page to see if they had been reset after the change, but they were just as I left them.

“Hey, Yua, do you feel any weaker right now?”

“Not at all,” she said with a hearty grin and a pump of her fist. “I can keep fighting for as long as you like.”

It seems like switching to the lower-level class didn’t actually affect her physical strength at all. That must mean a person’s strength is based mainly on their actual Strength stat, not the level of their class or how muscular their bodies were. Or in her case, how muscular they weren’t. The same probably goes for the other stats as well. Furthermore, she has already shown that she can use the Monk skill Iron Fist even without having the class equipped. But then, what’s the point of leveling up the class if she could still use its techniques?

“Yua, you have the Monk class, right? Can you learn other abilities if you level it high enough?”

Even though the world was only partially based on a video game leveling system, it felt awkwardly strange to actually conflate learning techniques to leveling up, instead of practicing or studying to earn then. Yua, though, nodded respectfully, which was still an oddity for her, given how my question was probably about to be answered with basic world knowledge.

“Yes, but I don’t know how long it will take. It’s supposed to take most Monks years to learn and master new abilities. But with Master’s ability to level us up faster, I have no idea what to expect.”

“So, you don’t know when you’ll get a new ability? Can you at least tell me some of them?”

"Yes. One of the main abilities is Healing Punch.”

“Healing Punch? Interesting…”

If that did what its name suggested and she managed to learned, we could save more on potions by just having her heal us. Though, it would still be best for us to maintain a steady stock of them.

“Wait… You heal someone by punching them?”

She laughed a bit at my apparently stupid question and waved her hands dismissively. I felt as though I should have been offended and embarrassed by her reaction to my blunder, but there was something about the way she looked at me that made those feelings vanish as they appeared.

“No, no, Master. You don’t actually hit the injured person. That would just cause more pain. What you do is channel a bit of your strength into your palms and place them over the wound. Then you transfer your energy into the injured person.”

Ah, so the name is just misleading. Seems like the Monk class in this world is just more meat-head oriented than what I was used to. The abilities were probably just named accordingly.

“Then it’s a type of healing magic?”

“Not at all,” she said, shutting me down with a smile. “Healing magic uses mana to heal wounds. The way Monks heal is by transferring some of their own energy and life force into the wounded to heal them. Oh, and the Monk can’t use it on themself.”

Right. Using it on themselves wouldn’t make sense since they would be using their life force to heal their own life force. But still, does that mean they shorten their life span or just lose a little HP and sleep it off? Actually, can you even sleep off a little HP loss the way you’d sleep off any other injury?

While I didn’t like the idea of her using up her own life to heal my injuries, there was no doubting how useful it would be to have a healer in times of need. I’ll just have to carefully monitor her if and when she uses it. With the advent of my menu, unlike others in this world as far as I can tell, I’ll be able to see her literal life force as she uses it. Then I’ll be able to gauge how much of a danger that skill is and level her Vigor accordingly.

“Alright, it may take a while for you to learn that ability, but I want you to do your best to get it. I believe I may have just done something that might help you to do just that.”

“Eh? What did Master do?”

“Just something involving your stats. Don’t worry about it. I can explain later if it works. For now, just focus on fighting.”

“Yes, Master! I feel like I can beat up anybody you put in front of me now!”

“Good. I’m happy to see you so motivated.”

But was this motivation purely for the sake of the fight? Or was I just making her a more dangerous threat to my own safety?

“… Let’s head to the next floor.”

“Okay!”

Yua spun on her heel and jogged over to the large stone doors hidden between the burning braziers that the boss had been guarding in order to keep up with how she’s been going out of her way to open doors for me.

As she ran, though, I suddenly remembered that pretty jogging neighbor of mine from back on Earth. Their bodies seemed to overlap as they moved, though their bodies were different enough in several places to leave Yua’s presence still clear enough to not confuse me.

She was just one of many aspects of that world that I left behind and yet, as I watched her back, I felt nothing. That sense of urgency I felt to talk to her the day I died was gone.

The jogging girl, whose name even my now advanced memory couldn't give me, continued past Yua and into the darkness beyond the boss doors as Yua pushed them open for me. Unlike the jogger who never so much as looked my way, Yua turned back to me with a smile so wide she looked practically giddy as her tail whipped through the air.

“Yua…”

“Yes?”

“… Nothing. Just… You’re doing great.”

She tilted her head, ears twitching as if they were searching for some hidden meaning in what I said, but her smile quickly returned and she nodded.

“You too, Master. Blinding the boss with your magic was a good idea.”

With that, she waited for me to join her before we headed downstairs, together.