We found Sally downstairs making breakfast. She gave us something to eat and then sent us on our way to our mercenary jobs. It turns out we would be working together. As dungeon porters.

Porters, if you don't know, haul supplies into the dungeon and haul loot out of the dungeon. They aren't supposed to do any fighting. Just carrying. That's the job we were stuck with.

It made sense though. We had no real monster-fighting experience unless you count the baker. We went into a dungeon that the mercenaries controlled.

It was cleverly hidden out of sight by a wall that looked like a rock wall, but it could be opened and closed. This dungeon, like most, but not all dungeons in this world, had a respawn rate.

The respawn rate of this dungeon was daily. So the mercenaries could come here every day, gain experience by killing all the enemies, and then loot the place.

This dungeon was supposed to be an abandoned beast-infested crystal mine. So we would encounter all kinds of magical beasts until we either died or defeated the boss at the bottom of the dungeon.

The entrance to the mine was well-lit and had a lot of crystals growing from the floor.

Henry, the leader of the mercenaries, said, "Don't pick up any of these crystals. They're junk compared to the stuff we'll find further in."

We followed a path that seemed to be designed for us. Every so often there was a junction where tunnels branched off, but all of them except one were always collapsed, so we only had one way to go.

After not too long, we ran into our first enemies, giant rats. Henry, Lloyd, and Stu were all warriors. They took the rats head-on and cut them down one by one while making sure to not let any past them so they couldn't get to us.

I wanted to fight so bad, but that wasn't what we were being paid to do. But you never knew, in these kinds of situations, sometimes the porters end up having to fight, run, or die.

I was hoping it would be the first one. After all the rats had been dispatched, we all cut the cores out of their bodies. They were quite small. About the size of a large marble.

They glowed and radiated energy. "Don't pop any of those cores. Those aren't for us. Those are for paying customers, ok?" Henry said.

"Yes, sir," I said, as I stuffed another core in one of my bags. I was carrying four mostly empty bags to fill with cores and loot. That extra muscle I gained overnight was going to be useful.

As we walked one or two bats that had crystals growing on their bodies would attack us. Henry would slice them out of the air like they were annoying flies. Abigail and I used the knives that Henry had given us to remove the cores from the bats.

We talked as we walked. Henry and Abigail switched off between explaining how the cores worked to me. Cores gave the person who absorbed them stats. Monster and beast cores added one of the four stats, strength, agility, stamina, and intelligence.

It started with monster and beast cores which only gave one type of stat per core. The amount of stats per core went by size. Tiny cores, like from the bats and giant rats, gave 2 to 3 stat points. Small cores gave 4 to 5 stat points.

Medium cores gave 6 to 7 stat points. Large cores gave 8 to 10 stat points. Huge cores, like from mini-bosses and bosses gave 11 to 50 stat points. Enemies would also sometimes drop loot, depending on the enemy and the dungeon.

Stu and Lloyd who seemed to be good friends, were walking ahead of us and chatting about their families and kids. I didn't use Soul Inquiry on any of the mercenaries because I just had a feeling they weren't bad people. They might have committed a crime or three, but that didn't make them evil.

Once we got a certain way in, wolves appeared to block our way and try to take bites out of us. Henry ran up to join Lloyd and Stu who were in the lead. They took out the wolves as a team.

Lloyd would injure one and Stu would finish it off, and vice versa. Henry was in a league of his own. He must have had a higher-tier potential than Lloyd and Stu because he was taking down wolves in a single strike every time.

Once they were finished, we retrieved the cores and carried on. Henry told me that Lloyd and Stu were D-rank warriors and he was a C-rank warrior. You were ranked by your potential and not your current growth or ability, so things could get a little confusing.

An inexperienced and low-stat A-rank adventurer could lose to an experienced C-rank adventurer who had popped more cores and built up his stats. For that reason, rank wasn't as well regarded as reputation, but it still factored into what people thought you were capable of.

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There just wasn't a reliable way to rank people based on their current stats and experience. That said, the potential ranks weren't useless. People with higher potential could absorb more stats from a core than low-potential people, so after a few dungeons, most people fell into a general range around their potential ranks.

Lloyd, Stu, and Henry may have had a much lower potential than Abigail and I, but they were very experienced and had absorbed many cores. They were the real deal when it came to clearing dungeons of this danger rating.

"This is a blue-rated dungeon, which means it can be completed by a party of 4 to 6 with a mixture of C and D rankings. We're running with only three because we're very experienced and we stop before the boss. We'd need a larger and higher ranked group to take down the boss without any casualties and in this business, like in most businesses, you can't afford casualties," Henry said.

"There are green, blue, yellow, orange, red, purple, and black dungeons to anyone's knowledge, in increasing difficulty. I've heard rumors of rare different-colored dungeons, but if you ever come across one, I'd suggest you turn back. They'd likely be harder than black dungeons and black dungeons are only for S-ranks and above."

Oh, right. Sally never told them our potential ranks, which might've saved our lives. You could get killed over a high potential from jealous and angry lower-ranked adventurers. You could even get killed by higher-ranked adventurers for that. They didn't need the extra competition.

"Thanks. We'll keep that in mind," I said.

"By the way, I'm curious, what potential rank are you two?" Henry asked.

"F," I said.

"D!" Abigail said nervously right after.

Henry could tell Abigail was lying, but he couldn't tell with me because of my ability, despite my poor acting. Henry looked at Abigail and said, "You don't have to worry about me. I wouldn't gut you for having a high potential, but saying low is a good instinct. There are some pretty nasty people out there."

"Thanks," Abigail said.

Crystals on the walls and floor glowed as we made our way through the tunnels. At this level, there were multiple paths and only a few of them got you where you wanted to go. We had to turn back a few times because we had walked into dead ends.

I asked Henry why they didn't have the way memorized and he said it was because the path changed every time the dungeon respawned. We kept walking until a massive club came down, crushing Lloyd who didn't see it coming. A troll stepped out from behind a wall.

The troll lifted its club off the crushed body of Lloyd. I thought they had really high stats. What happened? Stu rushed to Lloyd's side, but the troll stepped on Lloyd and tried to smash Stu. So Stu had to retreat.

"Can I fight?" I yelled to Henry.

"No!" Henry yelled. "Just stay back!"

Stu and Henry tried to fight the troll but their attacks barely hurt it. They just weren't strong enough. The only chance we had was my automatic crit ability.

The troll slammed its foot on the ground, shaking it, and knocking Henry and Stu onto their backs. The troll pulled back its club to smash Henry and I couldn't just stand back and watch anymore.

I put my hand out and formed a bone spike in the air. I aimed it at the troll's head and fired it.

[Auto Crit on Evil activated]

The bone spike redirected slightly in midair and plunged into the troll's eye and its brain. The troll kind of just stood there dying, but its club arm came down anyway.

Just as the club was about to pulverize Henry, a large bubble came out of nowhere and attached itself around part of the club. When the club impacted against Henry, the bubble made it just bounce off and fall to the side.

The troll fell forwards finally and Henry scrambled out of the way of its body. I looked back at Abigail and she was holding her hands out. She had sent the bubble. I guess her magical power was bubbles?

Did that make her a bubble witch? Whatever she was, she had saved Henry's life. I grabbed her and went to hug her, but she went for a kiss so we kind of just smacked faces together.

Then I realized what she was trying to do and I kissed her back. Then I remembered Lloyd and broke the kiss. I looked back and ran over to where Lloyd was lying.

Stu and Henry were already standing there, looking down. I wondered why they weren't doing anything until I saw his body. Yeah, there was nothing they could do for him because he was already dead.

"What the hell, happened?" I said. "I thought this part of the dungeon was supposed to be safe?"

"Yeah, that troll wasn't supposed to be so far up in the dungeon. Trolls aren't supposed to show up until near the bottom," Henry said.

"Yeah, but I thought you guys could make it to the bottom! Just not the boss room," I said.

"That may have been a little exaggerated," Stu said glaring at Henry. "We go to the floor before the floor that's before the boss, grab all the crystals we can, and then high tail it out of here."

"How did you kill that troll? That was pinpoint precision. That's impossible for a new guy. Have you really never been in a dungeon before?" Henry said to me.

"Yes," I said.

"You going to say anything more than 'yes'?" Henry said.

"No," I said.

"Ok!" Henry said. "What about you young lady? How did you do that bubble thing?"

"Instinct," Abigail said. "It's my only spell so I used it."

"Makes sense to me," I said.

"Ok, well, apparently we have two dungeon geniuses on our hands! Let's take Lloyd's body and get out of here! The dungeon run is over!" Henry said.

"No! Shouldn't Lloyd's family get compensation for his death?" I said.

"They should, but they won't," Stu said.

"Why not?" I said.

"The company doesn't insure deaths. It's called assumed risk. The employee takes responsibility for the risk inherent in the job. Meaning, it's your fault if you die. Not the company's," Henry said.

"That's bullshit," I said. "His family should get something as compensation."

"The company won't do it," Henry said.

"What if I do it?" I said.

"What if you do what?" He said.

"What if I compensate his family? The company can't prevent that, right?" I said.

"No, but where would you get the money for that? You're a dungeon porter because you have no money," Henry said. "That's why anyone is a dungeon porter."

"You said, this dungeon run is a wash, right? If you bring Lloyd's body back, the company will accept the loss, right?" I said.

"Uh, yeah. What's your point?" Henry said.

"Well, then the company can't take any of the loot I bring back if Abigail and I complete the dungeon ourselves," I said. "As long as you tell the company the whole thing was a wash, they won't know or suspect we kept any loot to ourselves."

"You'll never get out of there alive, but if by some miracle, you do, I will not tell the company and neither will Stu. Isn't that right, Stu?" Henry said.

"That's right," Stu said.

I activated Soul Inquiry.

'Are you telling the truth?' I asked Henry's soul.

'Yes,' it said.

'Are you telling the truth?' I asked Stu's soul.

'Yes,' it said.

'Will you deliver the loot to Lloyd's family if I give it to you?' I said to Henry's soul again.

'Yes, but I'll pocket a couple of the crystals. I have a family to feed too you know?' Henry's soul said.

'That's fine,' I said.

"Ok, then leave the dungeon and wait at the entrance for however long you think it would take for us to complete it and come back. Maybe two hours?" I said.

"Sure, but when you don't show up after two hours, you're on your own, even if you're somehow still alive," he said.

"Ok," I said. I turned and started to walk away. "Abigail. Let's go."

"Wait!" Henry said.

"What?" I said.

"There should be a platform at the bottom that will send you back to the entrance after you kill the boss," Henry said. "Good luck."

"Thanks," I said and started walking farther down into the mine with Abigail trailing behind me.

It was only a few minutes before another troll showed up, but at least this one announced its presence with a roar.