"So Adam…" I trail off there with the intent of getting him to respond.

We're nearly to the Dungeon entrance now, and Adam has been lost in thought the entire walk, his tail flicking from side to side slightly. I've mostly watched his back, the slight shifts in his muscles as his arms move.

"Yes?" Adam glances at me without pausing in his steps.

"So I get that we didn't bring anything for lunch," I say. "As you like to eat food you obtain in the Dungeons, and I decided I'd give it a try since you offered to go in with me and you know fire magics, which means it should be safe to cook."

Adam suggested it just so he could give me some pointers on running a Dungeon while in one.

"Yeah," he nods.

"How come we don't have something to carry loot in?" I ask. "I tried to search for some sort of inventory that we can access through the System, but there doesn't appear to be one. Not unless I'm missing it somehow."

"There isn't," he answers. "The loot here isn't worth all that much because it's an extremely low-ranked Dungeon. I'm actually stronger than anything inside of it by a little bit, and they won't give me any Experience. So I figured that you would do the killing and I would carry the loot of any value. Some of it can be tucked into our belts, while others can simply be carried in our hands. It really is rather cheap."

"Even if we only get a copper per item," I say. "Wouldn't it make sense to have something to carry them in so we could build it up?"

Adam thinks about it for a few moments, then shrugs.

"Most loot takes several items or a decent volume to be worth one copper," he says. "It's not worth it."

"Adam?"

"Yes?"

"I was planning on using loot sales to pay you back what you spent on me," I say.

"You'd be better off fighting monsters outside of this Dungeon for that," he says. "There are a few beasts you can hunt that could earn you some decent change. This Dungeon is really for people who want something a bit more safe. You only need around 10 Strength for the entirety of the first zone, and you can earn a few copper in a day from that, if you loot everything.

"However," he says. "You don't need to do that. I'm not expecting to get repaid, the luck I'll get from helping you out will suffice. If I hadn't run into you, I would've left after getting up yesterday, not stayed another two days. Money… isn't really a concern for me. I might want to hoard my funds rather than spend them, but I do have plenty and can spend as needed. I'll earn more from the next Dungeon I run."

Here I was thinking that the reason he wanted luck was to earn more money for his hoard. Apparently, that's not the case.

"What do you need the luck for?" I ask.

"Nothing for you to worry about," he tells me. "Just a personal quest my grandfather sent me on."

"Ah."

"How the fuck I'm supposed to find a dragon no one's heard of, I don't know," Adam mutters. "I really need luck for that."

I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that.

"We're here," Adam says as we get within a few yards of the Dungeon entrance.

The cave tunnel itself is only about seven feet in height and four in width, and it stretches about twenty feet back before opening up into a cave that's a little more than twenty feet in diameter. At the very center of the cave is the Dungeon Gate. An archway constructed of green stones with a darkness swirling within, the Dungeon Gate is three feet in width and seven in height.

"The cave was carved around the gate," Adam informs me. "You come out of the back of a Dungeon Gate when you exit a Dungeon. Without a clear space behind it, you end up stuck. Not all Dungeons form with an access on both sides of their game. Some actually form without any access and are found through hard work."

I'm assuming by 'access', he's referring to the front or back of the Dungeon Gate actually being clear of obstacles, such as a mountain or a cliff.

"And this one?" I ask.

"Dunno," he shrugs. "Didn't look into it that much. Only enough to know what's inside to help you out."

When did he do that?

"Since we're here for you to fight," Adam says. "I'll let you be the Party Leader. Go ahead and make the Party, then focus on me with the Party Menu open with the intent to invite me in."

"Alright," I access the Party Menu and make a Party. "Oh, cool, I can choose the name."

It defaults to [Jamie's Party], but I edit the name a little, then focus on Adam and send him an invite.

You have invited Adam to the [Flaming Tail Party].

"My tail is on fire?" Adam looks at his tail. "It's not?"

I roll my eyes. He flicks his tail a few times, his brow furrowed in confusion. Thankfully, he gives up after just a few moments and accepts the Party invite, a notice informing me that he has appearing in my vision.

"Let's go in the Dungeon now," I step through the Dungeon Gate.

There were multiple things I expected for the transition from the main world to the Dungeon. A warping of space, dizziness, nausea, becoming unbalanced… those are just a few of them. What happened instead was I just stepped through the Dungeon Gate and found myself in a Dungeon.

"That's neat," I comment as Adam walks straight into my back. "Whoops. Sorry, Adam."

"It's fine," he says. "First time in a Dungeon you're bound to take it in."

"Actually, I was marveling at how smooth the transition was," I inform him. "Let me take it in now."

Adam snorts as I examine the Dungeon. I have no actual awareness of what's in here except what I guessed at due to the way he was training me yesterday.

We're in another cave tunnel. This one is about five feet wide and ten feet high. That explains why he was focusing on more tight attacks than wide slashes and swings from above. I won't necessarily have the room to perform those.

Torches are fixed into metal brackets spaced every twenty feet along the walls on the right-hand side, the light from them not too much. The areas towards the center of the space between the torches is a fair bit dimmer than around the torches themselves.

"Something to say before we go further into the Dungeon and you start fighting monsters," Adam says. "Is that [Unlimited Potential] isn't necessarily limited to gaining or improving Skills."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"The very essence of it," he explains. "Is that it is a human's unlimited potential to grow and adapt, turned into a Skill that benefits the wielder. In other words, as long as you're actually putting in the effort with the intent of getting stronger, it will work towards improving your stats and even your Experience."

"Wait," I say. "So if I worked out for the sake of getting stronger, I'd improve my Strength a lot faster than someone else?"

"Yes," he nods. "And if you fight monsters with the intent and goal of getting stronger, then you'll gain a little bit more Experience from killing them than an equivalent person without said Skill would, too. Against the rats in here, it likely won't be a large difference, but it's something to keep in mind after we part ways."

"So the monsters here are rats?"

"Yes," he answers. "Are you ready to delve deeper into the Dungeon?"

"Yup," I confirm.

"Lead the way."

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

I begin walking down the tunnel, Adam following me from about five feet back. He probably wants to make sure I have a bit of space in case I need it for a fight.

About five minutes into the Dungeon, I come across my first monster. It's a rat that's almost up to my knees in height but not quite, it's grey-brown fur looking coarse, its eyes blood-red. Upon seeing me, the rat hisses and charges forward.

Letting my body flow into the motions I want, I sidestep the rat at the last moment and stab downward with my sword, piercing into its neck. Well, the goal was to stab it in the neck, but I hit a little behind the neck instead.

I pull my sword out as the rat cries out, its charge finished. Its life ends when I slash into its neck. There wasn't enough force to behead the beast, but there was enough for my sword to fully enter the monster's body.

+0.42% [Swordsman] Experience.

"That was surprisingly easy," I say.

"It gets more difficult when there are several of them," Adam says. "Though the ones this early only have about 8 Strength and 8 Constitution. They'll hurt if they manage to bite you, but they won't do more than leave some minor scratches. Not since you have a few points more. They just don't have the force and Strength necessary."

"I'll still try to avoid getting bitten," I say. "So we don't loot it?"

"We could," Adam says. "But a pelt from a rat like this isn't worth much, nor is its meat or tail."

He looks thoughtful.

"Maybe we could get a few copper selling the beast?" He muses. "Well, it doesn't matter. We can't take it back with us."

I roll my eyes as I continue down the Dungeon's tunnel. Every rat I face walking down it is just as easy as the first one, with me finishing them in only one or two hits. Since nothing in this first Zone is going to prove much of a challenge to me, I decide to just head straight for the Boss Room rather than taking any of the side branches.

When I come across two rats rather than one, I shift to the side to avoid the charge of one while kicking the other back a bit. The first rat dies without issue, and after I kill the second one, I find myself surprised.

+0.38% [Swordsman] Experience. +0.13% [Martial Artist] Experience.

"Just kicking the rat counted as martial arts?" I ask.

"It was the way you did it," Adam says. "And the reason behind it. But yes, it counts as martial arts. Don't it expect it to every time, it really does depend on the reason behind it and the effect it had on the fight."

"Got it," I say. "Let's keep going."

The walk down the straight hall to reach the Boss Room takes roughly an hour. That's not because of the fights, either as those were only every few minutes and lasted only a few seconds each. The Dungeon itself is apparently huge.

"I expected more," I comment when we reach the Boss Room.

"There would've been more monsters if you'd gone down the other tunnels," Adam says.

"No," I point into the Boss Room. "I was expecting more than a single giant rat for the Zone Boss."

The Boss Room is about fifty feet in width with a slightly-domed ceiling, being ten feet in height towards the edges and twelve at the center. Torches are once again only set into the walls. Even with their light being brighter in here, the center of the room is fairly dark. At the opposite end of the chamber from here is an archway of green stones identical to the one we used to enter the Dungeon.

Standing in the center of the Boss Chamber is a single rat that's the same size as the others I've kicked, stabbed, and slashed today. Considering it's the Zone Boss, it's probably only a little bit tougher than the others I've faced so far.

"Oh," he says. "No, it's just that. This is an extremely weak Dungeon. It typically takes three or four days of running the first Zone just to gain a single Level. Then two or three weeks to gain a second one. Some Dungeons have more than one monster in the first Zone's Boss Room, but not this one. It's just too weak."

"Alright," I say. "Well, here goes the fight."

The moment I set foot into the Boss Room, the giant rat in the center begins charging at me. There's enough distance between us that I have plenty of time to react to the beast, even with it being a rat. Though normal rats are rather fast, the ones here in this Dungeon aren't. Since magic is involved, I know their size isn't an issue – it's to make fighting them actually feasible for beginners.

I side-step the rat and stab with my sword. To my surprise, there's a decent amount of resistance from this beast, only the tip of my blade cutting into it. The beast hisses at me as it turns around and I slash at its side as it charges past me.

When the monster charges at me again, I make sure to put in more force behind my stab, my sword cutting deeper into the beast's neck. That temporarily stops the beast's charge as blood flows down its neck. I did enough damage that it has to take a few seconds to recover, and I take advantage of that.

"Hyaaa!" I exclaim as I slash downward with as much force as I can.

My blade cuts into the back of the rat's neck and it lets out a pained squeal for a moment, then collapses.

+0.63% Experience!

You have cleared the Zone! You may now exit the Dungeon or advance to the next Zone.

"Whew!" I exclaim, then work my sword out of the beast's body. "That was… jeez. And the monsters in the next Zone are even tougher? I'm sure people try to grind out a couple of Levels before heading in there."

"Probably," Adam says. "They also likely have various potions and salves on hand as the monsters are more dangerous. Some can inflict the [Bleed] affliction, which makes it more difficult for healing magics to apply, while others can inflict the [Poison] affliction. Through their bites and scratches, I mean."

"Er… and we don't have any of those."

"They're not fast enough to touch me."

The more I talk with Adam, the more I'm amazed he's still alive and hasn't been hunted down for trying to kill people – without realizing he's doing that, of course.

"Adam," I sigh. "You do realize that they can pierce my skin, right? Without something that can help me deal with that, I'd probably end up dead in there."

Adam's expression makes it clear that hadn't occurred to him. He was factoring in how things were for him as his basis for how things will be for me.

"Sorry," he says. "I didn't think about that."

"So," I look to the right-hand side of the cave. "That Dungeon Gate appeared after I beat the boss, while the one ahead activated at the same time. What's the difference?"

"The one straight ahead leads into the next Zone," Adam approaches the remains of the Zone Boss and kneels beside it, touching it with his right hand. "The one to the side is a gate that leads directly out of the Dungeon. If we wanted, we could also backtrack – the Dungeon Gate we entered through is also active again. If we enter the next Zone, we won't be able to leave until after we clear that Zone."

"I'm not going further into the Dungeon without what would be useful there," I tell him.

"Understandable," he says. "For that, you'll need loot. The pelts and meat are probably worth more than I expected, so you can get a few copper from this. Do you want to kill a few more beasts today, or would you rather leave, rest, and relax or train some more?"

"Leave and relax," I answer. "An hour of fighting is enough for me right now. I can come back tomorrow and push myself up to Level 2 [Swordsman] for that extra bit of Strength."

Considering that he said "you" instead of "we", I'm assuming that means he's not planning on staying tomorrow.

"I might come back after lunch," I say. "If you don't mind being a pack mule, you can carry the pelts after we collect them, then we can sell the loot. As you said, we probably could get some money out of these. Even if rat leather would no doubt be quite cheap, it should have some uses for people who can't afford much."

"Yeah," Adam nods. "Maybe we'll come back later. First, though, I want to teach you something."

"Teach me something?"

"A basic spell," he nods. "It doesn't have an actual Skill or anything, and is more like raw manipulation of your Mana. Can you sense your Mana?"

I close my eyes and focus on feeling a magical energy within me, succeeding in mere seconds.

[Mana Sense] learned!

The feeling of my Mana within me is faint and weak, no doubt because I don't have very much of it. However, I can feel it so long as I'm focusing on doing so.

"Yes," I answer.

"Alright," Adam holds up his right hand with his index finger pointing up. "Focus on manipulating it, on channeling it into the tip of your index finger and then out of it."

A pale, bluish-white glow forms at the tip of Adam's finger. I try to do the same, and once I succeed, Adam starts drawing something in the air, the light lingering behind a little.

"This is a trick called magelight," Adam tells me. "It lets you draw in the air. The more Mana you put into it, the longer it lasts. There are spells that work better for it, but this is something anyone can do regardless of their skill with magic."

"So long as they can sense and manipulate their Mana," I say.

"So long as they can sense and manipulate their Mana," he nods, then waves his left hand through the pattern before drawing a new one. "Now. Memorize this, then draw it in the air."

Adam draws a new pattern in the air and I imitate it with my own magelight.

"Good," he nods. "You learned that fast. Probably because you have an unfair Skill," that part was muttered. "Visualize that rune setup within your Mana as you push your Mana through your hands while touching the rat."

"Er… okay?"

I place my hands against the rat and do as Adam instructs. It takes me about half a minute, but his goal quickly becomes evident when the rat itself dissolves into ash at the successful pulse of Mana I send into the corpse.

As the ash fades away, the pelt of a large rat is left behind – with no marks or damage to it. It's roughly rectangular, without legs, tail, or head, but it still contains the fur. Considering there's no blood or gunk on the underside, it's already treated, too. I examine it through the System.

[Rat Pelt] Quality: 1 This rat pelt is of a low quality with coarse and unappealing fur, but can be used in making cheap leather goods.

"That's not a Skill," Adam informs me. "Or a proper spell. It also only works on things in Dungeons. You can use it to 'loot' things, but not just monsters. If you come across moss, mushrooms, plants, ore stones, and so on, you can use it on those as well. Better things give better loot, but you'll usually only get one things."

"And I can't use it on beasts outside?"

"Correct," Adam picks up the pelt. "It's the difference in the nature of the items within a Dungeon and the items outside of it. Nobody knows for sure what it is, just that the trick only works in here."

"Alright," I say. "Let's get out of here. I might come back in this afternoon to get a few more things to sell, and maybe reach Level 2."

It all depends on how I feel after resting up a little.

"Okay," Adam's tail is flicking from side to side. "I'm hungry. Let's go back to town and get something to eat."