Joan looked worriedly over the contents of her magic bag. Their family had recently moved to the town of Millstone after hearing about the new dungeon. Well, her husband was still ironing out the details and would have to join them later on, but their son, Adam, and she had already moved into a temporary residence.

While Joan was only a C-rank summoner, her husband was an A-rank healer. He had accepted a job with the adventurer's guild, that was going to be built in this town soon, as the branch's dedicated healer. As a hiring bonus, they had agreed to cover 50% of the expenses for them to build their own home and the entire cost associated with their temporary lodgings until their new home could be built.

This was a rather exciting proposition for their family. Joan had been wanting to try for another child and her husband was excited by the idea of building a much larger and more luxurious home. If they put the entire amount gained from selling their old home, the 50% from the employment contract, and took a small loan, they could even have a large manor with custom-built magic technology installed. That would put their new home on par with those of the richest merchants and some of the poorer aristocrats.

Healing classes weren't necessarily rare, but they were still fairly uncommon. Even then, it was difficult for healers to gain as much experience as some of the other classes since they didn't tend to spend a lot of time killing [Monsters]. Their class quests also tended to be a bit more difficult to complete since they centered around healing a certain number of people or curing certain ailments. In comparison, defeating a certain number of [Monsters] or a certain rank of [Monster] was much easier to do.

It was only because her husband had spent much of his youth healing others in the slums of the large city he grew up in as well as learning to dual wield a sword and shield that he was able to get to where he was now. He had managed to unlock the special class skills more quickly than others and he was also able to defend himself or farm experience in the weaker dungeons in his free time. By the time Joan had met him, he was already a C-rank healer while she was a D-rank summoner.

As a summoner, she had to learn magic control as well as purchase a lot of expensive magic equipment to help her succeed. However, those who weren't born to rich families who could fund such endeavors tended to struggle to level up. They couldn't afford higher-quality magic crystal accessories to help with the summoning of stronger summons. So, it was difficult to continue to take on the more dangerous dungeon floors and so it would become too difficult to level up after a point. Meanwhile, her class quests tended to be based on completing contracts with more powerful summons, which, again, was difficult.

Luckily, their son, Adam, had been lucky enough to earn a cleric class. Well, he hadn't unlocked his system menu yet, but they had been fortunate enough to save up enough money to have him appraised by a priest during his last birthday. Both Joan and her husband had been grateful that their son had gotten a class that would be a bit easier to level up. So, when the opportunity to move close to a new dungeon with suitable [Monsters] for beginners came up, they immediately jumped on the chance. It was like a dream come true.

Now, today, Joan was taking Adam to the dungeon to fight the slimes and practice exploring dungeons safely. While they couldn't afford anything fancy, they had bought Adam some basic leather armor and a cheap iron sword. So long as they collected the dungeon resources, they'd likely be able to buy him something better within the next year. It would likely even be a good learning opportunity for Adam to collect the resources to save up for his own equipment and adventurer school costs.

If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

Finally making it to the dungeon entrance, Joan smiled nervously as she held her son's hand and stepped through the threshold. It was dark, so she clicked on the magic light attached to her son's gear before pulling out her own magic light from the magic bag at her side. Her son also had a leather satchel for collecting herbs and such, but magic bags were too expensive to buy him one outright. Even the magic light he had on now was borrowed from his father.

Soon they came across the first room and their senses were overwhelmed by the change from nearly pitch darkness to being surrounded by artificial light. Joan put her magic light away before using the magic staff she held in one hand to summon a large bear. It would serve as extra protection in case anything went awry. Finally, she turned to her son and said

"Alright, you see that slime there? It has a core, which you have to break to defeat it. From what I can tell, it looks to be a normal slime, so the worst that should happen is it might knock you over. If that happens, just stand back up and keep going, eventually, you'll defeat it."

Adam nodded, looking very serious as he replied

"I'll try my best, Mom!"

Joan smiled adoringly at her son as he ran off to fight the slime. While he did so, she took a potion of lesser healing and some holy basil out of her bag. She brought it over to the only tree in the room and sat them at the foot of the tree. There didn't seem to be any other rooms connected to the hallway they had entered, so it was likely a room for tribute wasn't set up yet. This would have to do, for now.

As this was the first time her son had been in a dungeon, Joan decided to keep things simple. They let the slime in the room respawn a few times, her son defeating it each time, and then they went home. When Adam became more comfortable with fighting the slime and, hopefully, reached level one, unlocking the system menu, they could see about venturing a little deeper into the dungeon.

Joan could likely handle anything on the first floor with the beasts she could summon. However, she didn't want to overwhelm her son. Of course, she was lucky that there were plenty of things to collect in the first room as well. It was a great opportunity to teach Adam about the various resources available in dungeons.

Adam was still fairly young at eleven years old, but he had a good attitude. So, he happily collected the acorns, dandelions, chicory flowers, plantain leaves, white clover flowers, wild violets, and oyster mushrooms. By the time they left, his bag was quite full and he was excited to see what they would be doing with it all. After returning home, his mother explained

"Now, a lot of the things we collected are useful for making other things. The acorns can be soaked in cold water for several weeks before being ground into flour. Meanwhile, the dandelions and their roots can be used in tea. The plantain leaves are usually used to make poultices for wounds in the dungeon. Most flowers can be sold to alchemists or flower shops since they can be used in bouquets, potpourri, or other applications. Lastly, the oyster mushrooms have to be washed first, but then you can cook and eat them.

Not all mushrooms you find in dungeons are safe for consumption, though. It's important to learn how to accurately identify which ones are safe to consume and which ones are poisonous. While the poison mushrooms might be useful for dark elementalists or assassins who use them to make poisonous concoctions, we don't want them. Some of them are even dangerous to touch with your bare hands, so never harvest something you aren't sure of."

Adam looked wide-eyed at the plants, feeling both nervous and excited. There were so many things to learn! Some of it was scary, but he wasn't afraid because he knew his mom and dad would protect him. His dad was good at saving people and he never had to worry about getting hurt from falling. Adam looked up to his dad and he hoped he could be just as heroic when he grew up.