“So, Tamee, why are there suddenly all of these beasts running around?” Alan asked without much hope for an answer. In the few miles he had left to return to his house, he and Two Socks had found another group of little monsters running around. Running was the wrong word, since they were some kind of frog.

  There had only been three and they were level two. The wolf had quickly dispatched two of them and Alan had sliced another apart. The spewn lost something from having a shorter blade, but it made up for it with a greater reach and sharper edge. It had almost cut the amphibian in half with one casual stroke. It was clear that creatures of such a low level were like chaff to a thresher for it.

  “Don’t be mad…” Tamee’s began. He was surprised because it sounded like she was actually going to give him an answer, but also alarmed because who starts a positive sentence that way. When was the last time someone said ‘don’t be mad’ followed by something like ‘I made a cheesecake’.

  “...remember that dungeon obelisk I told you not to worry about?”

  “Yeah, you said it could spawn creatures, but not if the boss had been defeated. I did that before I went into the dungeon.” Alan had a bad feeling.

  “You did, yes. But a new boss has appeared, and the obelisk is releasing creatures.”

  “What?! I should have plenty of time before the timer hits zero.” He knew something was wrong with his time calculations because it shouldn’t be dark out, but he didn’t think he was that far off.

  “I didn’t want to bring this up before, because you really needed all that time to take care of things. We’ve talked about how dungeons have a time dilation, what I didn’t mention is that the Network has a means of preventing time abuse.”

  His bad feelings continued, “what is time abuse?”

  “Well, if you found a large dungeon that had a high time dilation, why not train and improve in the dungeon for a long time before coming out. From everyone else’s perspective you would have gained a ton of strength very quickly. To prevent people from exploiting this, the time dilation decreases the longer you are in a dungeon.

  “Each dungeon has a certain amount of time that it should take. If you remain in the dungeon too much beyond that, the relative time approaches absolute time. Your last few days in the dungeon were operating without any dilation, so the timer for the obelisk boss reset a while ago.”

  That was bad, but he also should have expected it. Otherwise, as she said, there were probably tons of ways to exploit the system. She was right, though, he had needed that time in the dungeon. It not only got him to a point where he would be able to brew the potion of regrowth, but it was also important for him mentally.

  His medical training had allowed him to identify the signs of shock he had exhibited when he first woke up. He had been handling the loss of his hand too well, even before he knew he could get it back. It wasn’t until the second night that it finally hit him. It wasn’t just the loss of his hand, it was everything from the fight against the space octopus, the destruction of Earth, the tutorial, letting his friend Bernie down, whatever was going on with Cassidy, and everything else to boot.

  He spent half of the night quietly sobbing, not wanting Thadrick to wake up and see him. There wasn’t a convenient therapist around to help him, and he felt uncomfortable discussing it with Tamee, the only person he could really talk to.

  It was with a sense of dread that he approached his house. The boss and whatever minions it spawned had had several days to trash the place, so it was with a great deal of surprise that he found his little farm thriving. There was no sign of damage to the house and almost all of the plants were covered in fruit. Even the apple and peach seeds he had planted looked like actual trees now. They didn’t have any fruit, but it probably wouldn’t be much longer.

  A warm muzzle pushed at his hand, and he realized what had happened. He had hoped that the wolf would keep his place safe from rabbits and other rodents, but Two Socks had gone above and beyond and was keeping the dungeon spawn from destroying the place. That was why he was out there killing those lizards. It was also probably why he was so excited to see Alan.

  The last boss had scared the much smaller version of Two Socks. He probably was hoping that Alan would once again save him from the boss, whatever it was this time. He wasn’t sure how quickly the obelisk would spawn minions, but it was probably a good idea for him to take care of it before trying to get anything done here.

  “Two Socks, I’m going to go deal with the boss now. Do you wanna come?” He felt a little silly talking to the wolf like a person, but it whined a little when he asked. Maybe it did understand.

  “It’s ok, you can stay here. You did a great job keeping this place safe.” Alan bent down and picked a few strawberries. He infused some mana into them before letting the wolf slurp them up off of his hand.

  The trip to the obelisk didn’t take long, but when he got there, the boss was missing. It kind of made sense that it wouldn’t just sit around the stone tower twiddling its thumbs, but how was he supposed to find it now.

  “Any ideas Tamee?”

  “For someone who’s supposed to be so smart, you really are kinda dumb.”

  Alan was getting really tired of people, especially her, calling him stupid. “Ok, why are you always…”

  “Just remembered you can track things did ya?”

  He wasn’t going to give her more ammunition by answering that, but she was right. Following the boss could have been a challenge, theoretically this thing had been spawning a variety of creatures for a few days, so how could he pick out the correct tracks. However, it ended up not being a problem.

  There were indeed signs of various beasts, but there was also one set of tracks that must have come from the boss. A set of deep prints with each one being almost forty centimeters across and pushed several centimeters into the dirt had to belong to something huge. It appeared to be from a four legged animal that took relatively short steps, but was almost ten meters across. It was with a great deal of caution that he followed them, all the way to what he had thought was a small rise.

  Beast: Tortoise (Boss) level 9, threat: Medium

  The thing was enormous. Each of its stumpy legs was as thick as a tree and ended in large, heavy claws. The shell was fairly smooth but looked impenetrable. The head was a rounded, blocky thing with a mouth that looked capable of crushing a boulder. Over ten meters wide, it was at least half again as long. This thing was an absolute tank. After watching it though, he understood why it was only rated a medium threat.

  While it looked impossible to hurt, it would also have a hard time doing anything to Alan. It was moving at about the same pace as a jogging human, a normal human. That was a blistering pace for an Earth tortoise, but not fast enough to engage with him if he didn’t want it to. Also, while its claws were huge and its bite was most likely lethal, it would be easy to avoid them. The question was, would Alan be able to hurt this thing.

  He assumed that, like a turtle, it could withdraw inside its shell. Alan didn’t know if anything he had would be able to hurt it then. His spewn had been crushing things so far, but this was both a higher level and a boss. He decided to give it a try, nothing to lose if it ended up being too tough. Running away was definitely a possibility.

  Holding his spewn as a mace, he made a dash toward the giant reptile and hit the shell. He wanted to stay away from any of the boss’s sharp areas for now. Swinging as hard as he could, he brought the rounded end down on the center of one of the scutes, the plates that make up the shell. He was not disappointed in the force he delivered, but the result was not what he was hoping for.

  The shell showed no signs of damage, not even a dent, but his arm felt like he had hit his funny bone. The tingling pain almost made him drop his weapon, but he managed to keep his fingers closed around it. He quickly backed away to reevaluate.

  The blow had not been a total waste, the tortoise had reacted when it was hit, so maybe while the shell wasn’t damaged, perhaps the underlying tissue absorbed some of the blow. He didn’t have any way to tell how effective it was, but it had definitely gotten the boss’s attention. It was lumbering its way around to face him.

  If the full force of his spewn couldn’t crack the shell, nothing else he had would make a dent. Perhaps magic would help. Holding his right arm out toward the turtle he began to gather the mana for a large firebolt. This would be aimed at its softer fleshy bits, not the hard keratin shell.

  Alan was momentarily disoriented because the mana he was sending out toward the tortoise was being dragged toward the spewn’s handle in his hand instead. Instinctively he guided it back into creating the spell form at the end of his fist before sending it flying at the boss. It didn’t catch on fire like some of the creatures he had fought, but it caused the beast to rear back, as much as a tortoise could, and left a blackened scorch mark on its head.

  Landing back on all fours, it started to charge. Turns out that its traveling speed was not the same as its top speed. It was now rumbling towards him at an impressive pace. His mind was still trying to process what had almost happened when he cast his spell, and he was slow to respond to the boss’ increased speed. Fortunately, it became distracted and broke off its attack.

  Two Socks had apparently decided to follow Alan after all, and chose now as the moment to intervene. The wolf came streaking in from behind the boss and jumped up to bite it on its small tail. It was so surprising, that it caused the boss to instinctively withdraw into its shell. It was a little amusing because it didn’t stop first, and its momentum caused it to slide halfway to Alan before it came to a stop. It almost looked like a curling stone as it spun and slid.

  Two Socks had jumped off as the tail retracted, and now padded his way over to Alan, as if to say, ‘your turn’. He decided to try a firebolt again, and positioned himself so that he could fire it down the head hole of the shell. He could see the boss’ eyes inside, it was already realizing it wasn’t in real danger from the tail bite.

  This time Alan pointed his spewn toward the tortoise instead of his arm. When he started to gather the mana, it was once more sucked toward his weapon, and this time he fought his own instincts, and let it go. The mana entered at the handle and then swirled through the shaft of the weapon before gathering at the head.

  He had sent enough mana for his biggest firebolt, but instead of getting something about a meter across, it was easily double the size. It shot off toward the hole in the shell and exploded inside. There was a loud groan or moan and the boss started to come out of its shell. Alan wasn’t really paying attention, he was instead staring at his spewn. It worked as a wand as well!

  He didn’t know yet if it would work for non-fire based spells, but it had taken the fire mana and amplified its effects. Dracon had told him, back in the tower, to get a wand. They could enhance the effects of spells, but even a good wand improved it by only around fifty percent. That firebolt had been more than twice as effective.

  Two Socks’ barking alerted him to the reemergence of the tortoise from its shell. The head was burned all over and one of its eyes seemed to have partially melted in its skull. It was also no longer charging Alan, instead it was turning to run. He couldn’t allow it to get away. If he didn’t kill it, monsters would continue spawning at the obelisk.

  If he was whole, he could have tried climbing up the shell and doing something from above, but he didn’t feel confident in getting up there with only one hand. Instead he decided to take a risk. While the boss’ feet had large claws, they didn’t seem to be too effective as weapons unless you got run over by them.

  Running up behind it, and being careful to stay close to the shell, he struck out with his spewn and cut a deep gash into its leg. The beefy appendage was so thick that it wasn’t in danger of being severed, but it sliced through a good chunk of muscle. The boss kept running, or maybe fast-crawling, away.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  A follow up attack hit the same spot and cut all the way to the bone. It must have also hit one of the major nerves because the leg stopped functioning. With one support no longer doing its job the tortoise crashed to the ground. It once again withdrew itself into the shell, with the exception of the paralyzed limb.

  Rather than trying to saw the useless leg off, Alan instead shoved his spewn straight into its leg, pointing toward the beast’s core. It ended up inside the shell and he had his own arm up to the elbow encased in its flesh. He used most of his remaining mana to send another giant fireball through his spewn.

  This was perhaps not Alan’s brightest idea, but it was certainly effective. He would put it on the list of last-ditch desperation moves for the future. Alan found himself blasted back five meters from the boss. Part of its disabled leg was lying nearby, the rest of the limb had been turned into pink mist. The magical ball of fire had exploded as soon as it formed, inside of the boss.

  In addition to blasting Alan and its leg away, it had managed to crack the shell around its leg hole. That ended up being the least of the damage. The shell had contained the explosion and bounced the force around inside the barrier. Its effect on the soft tissue of the tortoise could not be exaggerated. It was an instant kill. Alan was only able to register this briefly before he passed out.

  He was awakened a few minutes later by the repeated application of wet tongue to the face. Sitting up he checked the boss again to make sure it was dead. The body was gone. Checking himself over he was happy to see he hadn’t lost any body parts, but his right arm was bloody and charred. It was yellow on his display, it must have started healing while he was unconscious. That was becoming a bad habit of his. His mana had recovered enough while he slept to fuel a healing spell. The arm still looked blackened after he cast it, but when he rubbed it with his stump the ash brushed away, exposing healthy unbroken skin underneath.

  Climbing to his feet with a groan, he made his way over to where he had last seen the boss. It must have turned into a lootnado while he was blacked out, because he found a bag of gold and an item.

  Tortoise-shell Buckler (Rare): A shield made from the hardened shell of a giant tortoise. It is extremely durable and will also absorb some of the force of the blow.

  This would be difficult to use at the moment since he would have to strap it to his handless arm, but eventually it would be a nice addition to his arsenal. It was a vast improvement over the poorly made buckler he had looted from a kobold.

  “Come on Socks, let’s get back.”

  The wolf gave a little howl and Alan rubbed his head. “Yes, you did a great job. Thank you for the help!”

  Tamee gave him a breakdown of everything he did wrong during the boss fight, but she was very impressed with his spewn. It was not a common weapon in her universe, and she wondered if the wand effect was by design, or an accidental feature from the way this one had been created.

  Back at the house, the first thing he did was get a fire going in the grill. They had both earned a reward. While the burning wood was busy being converted from flames to coals, Alan made his way around the garden. Everything was going well there. He gathered various fruits to replenish his snack stockpile. The plants in the magical circles were also growing well, but they had yet to produce. That was a little surprising.

  Tamee had nothing to add there, not because she was unwilling, but because she had never paid much attention to farming. She did have words for him regarding Two Socks. Animal companions were definitely a thing in the Network. A lot of people used them for transport, it made sense, since cars weren’t a thing. Tamee encouraged him to spend more time with him, and to feed him more mana infused food.

  In addition to maturing, animals could become stronger by eating lots of mana. There was also something about absorbing potential from things they killed, but consuming mana would do wonders. That was most likely how he had gained the stalker prefix. Looking over at him, Alan noticed that the grill was ready.

  He pulled out a couple of boar steaks and placed them over the coals. While they cooked he focused on two things. Multitasking was becoming easier with his improved stats. The first was sending a small amount of mana into one of the steaks. The second was sharpening his spewn. Helge had told him that it wouldn’t really need it, the special materials used in its creation would hold an edge much better. But she had also shared that as an epic item it would have a limited self repair ability.

  The weapon would be able to take in ambient mana to slowly replace lost material. Not only would it eventually fill in any nicks or dings, but he could also sharpen it as much as he wanted without worrying about eventually removing the edge. Since it wasn’t doing any harm to the weapon, he would sharpen it regularly to help explore its aura. It hadn’t let him sense the energy inside his knives, but Alan was convinced that all of that time he spent exploring the blades had helped him level the skill so fast in Dracon’s tower.

  He wasn’t sure how the wolf liked his meat cooked, but he assumed the less the better. After searing it a little on both sides he took one of the steaks off and laid it in front of Two Socks. He had infused a decent amount of mana in it, and the wolf tore into it, literally.

  It was a good thing that Alan was plenty hungry, or it might have put him off of his meal. His boar cooked for another ten minutes before he pulled it off. He was getting better at judging this, and the meat was the perfect temperature.

  After their nighttime snack, Two Socks trotted off. He supposed the canine was going to patrol. Alan had his own things to take care of. He tried to use the shovel with one hand, but it was harder than he had imagined. In the end he resorted to using a flat rock from the stream to dig several holes in the ground. He then carefully planted the various ingredients he had carried in his necklace.

  The plan was to wait for them to flower, and then go to seed, before harvesting them. The seeds would then be used to grow more. He had already decided to keep growing them even after he had enough potion, who knew if he might lose another body part. With that in mind, he went and sat on the furs in his house. It was time to go shopping.

  His experience in the dungeon had taught him many things, but one of them was the importance of proper gear. While the prisoners hadn’t been in peak condition after being rescued, the difference in the fighting capabilities of them, and the dwarves who reinforced them, was huge. Their ill treatment was a part of it, but the armor and weapons that the proper warriors had brought were much more important.

  Alan had a new weapon, but he was sorely lacking in the armor department. He had a decent pair of boots and leather bracers, but the only other piece he had was a small metal helmet. He now had thousands of dungeon points and an exchange that was full of great stuff.

  He perused the list, which took a while, because many things had been added since he had last been able to check. He filled in Tamee about anything that looked interesting. They agreed that his spell list was pretty good for his level, so they focused on gear and stones. After a long discussion, the list had been narrowed down to these choices.

  Random Talent Stones (300)

  Class Specific Talent Stones (500)

  Leather Chest Armor (Uncommon) (300)

  Full Helm (200)

  Bone Chain Mail Shirt (500)

  Leather Greaves (300)

  Self-Repairing and Cleaning Padded Shirt (400)

  Treated Hide Pants (200)

  There was a lot more impressive armor on the list, but Tamee had actually been helpful for a change. Just as metal was harder to sense the aura of, it also disrupted your ability to project your mana outwards. This meant that if he wanted to cast his spells he couldn’t wear plate mail. It could also affect his sensing ability, which is something most warriors didn’t have to worry about anyway. Alan, on the other hand, was coming to rely on it.

  Even hardened leather armor had an effect, which is why he was reluctant to take those as well. Really, any worked items interfered with his mana control, even his pants, but it scaled somehow with the rigidity of the item. That meant that the bone chain mail, while possessing no metal, would have more of an effect on him than the padded shirt.

  Alan was decisive when it came to combat, but was given to overthinking when it came to shopping. Bernie had once left him at a fast food joint after it took him more than ten minutes to decide what he wanted. Tamee was also hard to shop with, because she was very into pro-con lists. The sun was rising by the time they came to a decision.

  Alan decided that while a self-cleaning shirt would be nice, he would prefer the durability of the chain mail. It would affect his spell casting somewhat, but not much more than the shirt with its enchantments. He also went with the hide pants. The treatment was similar to what was used on the target dummies he had been practicing on, so they would resist cuts and slices better than you might imagine.

  The last purchase was much easier to decide on. He wanted to pick up some more talents. While some, he still had no idea the extent of their purpose, others had led to instant upgrades. Quick Hands, Taunt, and Soul Mending came to mind. He didn’t really know what talents were available for each class, and Tamee still wouldn’t tell him, so he figured there was no point paying more for the class specific ones. He bought two of the random stones and used them immediately.

  The first ending up going for his rogue class, and it was self-explanatory, Dodge. The second one was for his scholar class, and it was called Critical Hit. This could mean that his critical hits were more effective, like he got from that gladiator achievement. However, it was for a scholar class, so maybe it had to do with identifying critical targets. He didn’t know which was better, it was like in those tower defense games. Do you want more damage when a crit happens, or do you want them to happen more often.

  He put on the hide pants and the bone chain mail. The pants had been dyed a dark green, or maybe that was just the color of the animal. They didn’t flow like cloth pants would, but they weren’t too stiff either. He was pleased.

  The bone armor was nice as well. Somehow the bones had been formed into small rings that were perhaps two centimeters across. The bones were only a few millimeters thick, but when he tried to break one with just his fingers, he found them surprisingly durable. It also extended down past his waist so he got a little more protection than he had expected. The only negative was that it was blindingly white.

  Alan wasn’t big on stealth, but he did have an opal rogue stone that required him to level his sneak some more. Also, just because he didn’t do it much, didn’t mean it wasn’t a worthwhile option to have. He came up with a fix, but it hurt his soul, metaphorically, when he rubbed his nice clean armor in the dirt. He brushed it off after, but the gleaming white rings were now a much less obvious brownish-grey color. He had spent almost half his dungeon points, but he felt much better about his gear as he slid his new armor over his head.

  Now that it was morning, he went out to properly harvest his plants. He also had a few more holes to dig. His ring soon held a bounty of various fruits. He didn’t pick any bushes clean, but every plant with fruit lost at least half of its bounty. He also made sure to infuse a little energy into each plant as he harvested.

  It was a constant drain on his mana pool, and by the end he had a slight headache, but he didn’t need the mana for anything else at the moment. Hopefully it would keep the plants healthy and let them grow even bigger.

  The new holes were for a few things he had brought from the dwarven camp. While watching his friend cook, he had noticed some ingredients he recognized. He planted some potatoes and carrot tops in his garden. He was now branching out from fruits. It made him feel a little unclean, but it would probably be good for his diet.

  To clean his mental palette, he sat down and had some blueberries. It was about this time that Two Socks returned and sat down next to him. He infused a small pile of berries and placed them on the ground for the wolf. He was happy to lick them up.

  So what to do now. Hopefully the medicinal plants would give seeds in the next day or so. Then he could harvest and replant. What he harvested should give him enough for two days of treatment. If things went well, the new plants would already be mostly grown by then and he would be able to make another batch. Cassidy had figured that he would be able to regrow his arm with another five or six treatments.

  This still left him with some time. He didn’t really need any rest, Thadrick had made a good mother-figure and was a stickler about Alan getting enough sleep. He had already lost a lot of time while recuperating. Tamee wouldn’t tell him how much, but he had spent at least three days, and probably closer to a week of real time in the dungeon. He was most likely approaching the two week mark, halfway through zone two.

  He didn’t want to actually enter a dungeon until he fixed his hand. Several of the dungeons had been relatively easy for him, but others had led to some very close calls. Alan didn’t want to risk it. He had already been saved by the Network twice, and he didn’t think he would get another redo.

  That didn’t mean he couldn’t go exploring, however. Most of his time had been spent in the eastern and southern sections of the zone. He and Two Socks set out toward the northwest. Alan set the pace at a light jog, for the new him, which was probably around thirty kilometers per hour. The most eventful part of the early trip was when a small flock of birds, possibly sparrows, landed nearby.

  Two Socks took off after them, but they had already spotted the wolf before he made his move. When he started out in their direction they quickly took wing. He jumped and snapped at a few, but they were far too nimble in the air for him to catch. It wasn’t long after that when the wolf started rubbing against Alan as he ran.

  Slowing, he looked down at his new friend. He wasn’t sure how he knew, but he got the sense that Two Socks didn’t want to go any farther from the house. Kneeling, he gave his head a quick rub and told him it was fine. He also gave him some mana-infused raspberries to thank him for the company.

  Alan was sorry to see him go, but his companion seemed happy as he trotted off. Setting off once again, Alan made a circuit through the northwest section of the valley. He was getting better at spotting likely dungeon entrances and managed to find twenty-two before finishing back at his house as the sun was setting.

  It was hard to tell exactly what a dungeon would involve, or how difficult it was, simply by looking at it. The message he got from getting near the entrance was more helpful. He had found four that were one-way dungeons and they had danger ratings ranging from low to high. Those were tempting, especially the high one. He didn’t want to die, but Alan also knew that the greater the danger the bigger the reward. He needed all the advantages he could get moving forward. An itch just below his helmet reminded him that he was already behind some tutorial members.

  Most of the dungeons had a time dilation between 1:1 and 2:1. There was one that had a small house for an entrance that was 10:1. That was the dungeon he thought he would start with when he got his hand back. He now had lots of options after his recovery, but the number he found suggested there were probably others in the areas that he had already traveled that he had missed. It made sense that an area designed for thousands would have a lot of dungeons, more than Alan could ever go through on his own.