“When you navigate a dungeon,” Introvice explained, Fred and Flowerbeard to each side of him. “The dungeon has three components. The first is puzzle-solving. Large chambers—like the one we are in—are puzzle rooms.

“Within the chamber, your party must discover clues. Once you discover clues, you use them to crack puzzles. Most puzzle rooms don’t have a time limit. This is such a chamber. We have as much time as we need to solve the problem this chamber provides us. In some dungeons, there are puzzles with time limits.”

“What happens if you fail a timed chamber?” Skye asked with timidity.

“That depends on the chamber,” Flowerbeard answered. “It might kill you.”

“That’s not true…” Introvice said. “I don’t think it is, anyway. Sure, there are rumors of dungeons that will punish you with death for failing a puzzle. I’ve never seen any for myself, and I’ve been through hundreds of dungeons. Upon failing a puzzle, most puzzle rooms will return you to the beginning of the dungeon or to the last puzzle room. You’ll have to find your way back to said puzzle room for a second chance at solving the puzzle.”

“It’s like an escape room.” Zoey realized.

“What’s an escape room?” Introvice asked.

“It’s a room where you solve a puzzle.” She said. “Not a big chamber like this…a small room.”

“Why would people put puzzles in small rooms?” Flowerbeard asked.

Zoey looked over to Flowerbeard. “For fun.”

“Puzzles aren’t children’s games. They aren’t for fun. That makes no sense.” Flowerbeard glowered. “Who would try to make puzzles fun. The audacity.”

Fred put his hands on his hips and nodded his agreement with Flowerbeard.

“Children do puzzles as toys all the time,” Hope said.

“I have a pile of puzzles in my room.” Skye agreed.

“What’s your point?” Flowerbeard asked.

“You said puzzles weren’t children’s games,” Hope answered.

“I’d never say that.” Flowerbeard wrinkled his forehead. “Of course, puzzles are children’s games.”

Tornado kept his eyes fixed on Flowerbeard. “You are crazy in the brain.”

“Thank you,” Flowerbeard said.

“Anyway,” Introvice continued his explanation of how dungeons work. “The second part of the dungeon is clearing monsters from chambers and passageways. As you clear them out, solving puzzles will become easier. Even so, the monsters do respawn from time to time, so you’ll never be able to clear a dungeon in full.”

“We are lucky.” Flowerbeard puffed out his chest. “No other adventuring teams have found the dungeon. Not yet. That means we have all the monster killing to ourselves. It’s a great opportunity to level up. When more teams find the dungeon, you’re lucky to ever see a monster.”

“That makes sense,” Zoey said. “So, if I understand well, the first two components of dungeon navigation are solving puzzles and fighting monsters.” When she saw Fred nodding, she continued. “And you said there are three components. What’s the third?”

“Boss fights,” Introvice said. “The first adventurers in a dungeon must face the bosses within the dungeon.”

“There’s always a main boss,” Flowerbeard interjected. “In most cases, there’re mini-bosses, too. Most we’ve faced in a dungeon are five, but I don’t know that there’s a limit.”

“What’s the lowest number of mini-bosses you’ve faced?” Zoey asked.

“One time,” Introvice explained. “We went through a dungeon without facing any mini-bosses.”

“That dungeon was the worst.” Flowerbeard spat. “Mini-bosses give some of the best loot drops. A dungeon without mini-bosses is a dungeon without good loot.”

“Speaking of loot,” Introvice added. “There will be loot chests spread throughout the dungeon. If one party member opens the chest, everyone gets one of its items. Most chests contain consumables… Those are things you consume to help you move through the dungeon…things like potions and stuff. Any that you don’t use, you can save for later dungeons or sell.”

“So if a chest has a potion in it,” Zoey clarified, “and someone in our party opens that chest, we all get a potion?”

Fred did a double thumbs up to answer in the affirmative.

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“You can sell the loot from mini-bosses, too, right?” Hope asked.

“You can.” Introvice nodded. “Though, the loot from mini-bosses doesn’t go to everyone. It will go to whoever’s job can use it. For example, if it is a sword, it will go to someone that uses a sword. If more than one person can use a sword, it will drop to one of the sword users at random. If no one can use a sword, it could drop to anybody.”

“That makes sense,” Zoey said.

“Do you have any other questions?” Introvice raised an eyebrow as he waited for an answer. When Zoey shook her head no, he relaxed his expression. “Then let’s go clear the room of some monsters. Stay close to us; be careful not to draw aggro.”

“What does draw aggro mean?” Tornado asked.

“It means you don’t go near the monsters, or they will become aggressive and attack you.” Zoey knew the term from all the MMOs she’d played. “It’s better to find isolated monsters and kill them one at a time.”

“Don’t worry,” Introvice said. “If you stay close, they won’t attack. If you do see health bars and the battle menu activate, don’t panic. Flowerbeard, Fred, and I have done this a lot. We can keep you safe.”

“We can fight, too.” Tornado offered.

“No, Tornado,” Zoey said. “He’s right. It is best to let them handle things. If something happened to one of you, your parents would never forgive me.”

Tornado hung his head in disappointment, but he didn’t say anything.

“Here comes the first monster.” Introvice pointed at a level fifteen crab. It was about twenty paces ahead, far enough from the other crabs that it wouldn’t aggro any of the others. Introvice took a few steps toward the monster as he activated an ability. For some reason, the ability dropped his health down to one hp. “Stay back, and we’ll keep you safe.” When he said this, the battle menu popped up. It displayed the hit points of the triplets, the three adventurers, and Zoey. It also showed the hit points of the crab.

“How are you going to fight with one HP?” Zoey asked. “If you get hit, you’ll die.”

“I better not get hit then.” He continued toward the monster, materializing a dagger in each hand. He held the weapons with the point down, blades tucked against each forearm. To his right, Fred materialized a rapier. To his left, Flowerbeard materialized a cutlass.

What happened next was a flurry of movement that Zoey struggled to follow. Introvice flashed toward the crab only to backflip when he reached it. He spun many times before landing. All the while, his daggers pointed out, cutting into the crab’s carapace like an angry bicycle wheel.

Flowerbeard shot left and right like a speed skater, bouncing and dancing around the monster. With each change in direction, he chopped at one of the crab’s limbs. The way he circled and changed direction appeared to disorient the crab. He was behind it, to the side, behind it, and in front. His final attack lopped off the monster’s clawed hand. It turned into light and evaporated before it hit the ground.

Fred’s rapier stabbed in a rapid procession, targeting weak points between the joints in the shell. With each piercing blow, sparks flew. It reminded Zoey of fireworks…not any fireworks, though. It reminded her of the ones that people put on the ground. Once lit, they shoot out sparks in every direction. As with the fireworks, Fred’s attack became a volcano of sparks.

While the three adventurers attacked, the crab’s HP melted away to nothing. When it hit zero, the crab’s body became small orbs of light that rose as they flickered out:

You defeated the crab. You gained 600 experience points.

Crab drops three crab shells. Fred receives one crab shell. You receive one crab shell. Hope receives one crab shell.

Crab drops four crab meat. You receive four crab meat.

The experience boost put Zoey within 200 of leveling up. She knew she’d have to go through her skill tree before they fought any dungeon bosses. From video games, she knew she’d want to ensure she had every possible advantage going into those battles.

“I got to level four.” Skye smiled.

“Me too!” Hope and Tornado said in unison.

“Good job, guys.” Zoey looked at Skye and then at Tornado. “And two of you never even had to leave my shoulder.”

“It’s called power leveling.” Skye smiled.

“They have power leveling here?” Zoey asked. On Earth, gamers used the term for two things. One is when a higher-level player helps lower-level players gain experience. Power leveling also describes when a player takes advantage of an exploit to level up faster than developers intended.

“Only in dungeons,” Introvice explained as he returned.

At his side, Flowerbeard looked angry. “Why does she get all the crab meat. It isn’t fair.”

“I bet it’s because I have a food-related subjob.” She answered him. “It made the food items auto-drop to me.”

“It’s not fair,” Flowerbeard repeated.

Zoey materialized the four pieces of meat and handed them to Flowerbeard, “here. You can have them.”

“Thank you,” he took them, allowing them to dematerialize as he added them to his inventory.

Zoey turned her attention to Introvice. “Isn’t it risky fighting with one HP?”

“I have an ability that does double damage. But it only activates when I am at one hit point.” He explained. “I supplement it with an ability that allows me to receive two physical hits before I begin to receive damage. It doesn’t work against magic, but crabs only have one magic attack.”

“What if they used the magic attack before you killed them?” Zoey asked.

“Their eyes glow blue before they cast it. It is an aura-based spell, so if they did use it, I could move away in time.”

“It seems risky,” Zoey said.

“It’s not that bad.” Introvice insisted. “You don’t get hit, you don’t die. It’s easy.”

“Okay,” Zoey said. “If you say so. Also…now that I know power leveling is a thing…it’s important the pixies and I participate in the battles with you.”

“Why’s that?” Introvice asked.

“I have a friend. His name is Pete. Pete thinks that your attribute bonuses at level up tie to what skills you raise throughout the level.” Zoey shrugged. “When it comes to stuff like this, I believe him. And if he’s correct, it wouldn’t benefit the triplets to level without skilling up at the same time. It would make them weak for their level.”

“Your friend Pete is smart,” Introvice said.

“Debatable,” Zoey smiled.

The triplets giggled at her joke.

Introvice continued. “Not many people understand how skills relate to attributes at level up.”

“You’re telling me he’s right?” Zoey’s eyes widened. She thought he might be, but she didn’t expect to confirm it with a seasoned adventurer.

“He is. In adventuring circles, some of us have noticed we get boosts that tie to skills. Though, we worry about what the moderators might think if they find out. They might patch how leveling works, using standard attribute bonuses instead.”

“I’ll tell Pete to keep his discovery under wraps,” Zoey said.

“Thank you,” Introvice stretched his arms over his head before adding. “Now, you said you want to help the pixies fight some monsters?”