“About what?” I asked with a slight hitch in my voice. Lenna never used a tone like that.

  “Your level.”

  “What?” I jerked back in surprise. “I hit 80…”

  Level 80 didn’t feel like a big deal; both Strange and I were making progress. Not as much as Dengu, but good progress all the same.

  “By the end of this dungeon, we all need to be much higher…” Her eyes glittered silver for a split second, before shifting back to her normal color. “Rushing levels is dangerous, but my dreams say we must get there.”

  “That shouldn’t be hard,” I said, leaning back and pausing to let myself think for a moment. “This dungeon gets people up to level 200. This floor should get us close to level 100. We can just do some on the second floor, then pop out.”

  Lenna bit her lip, but nodded slowly. “Just don’t focus only on Strange’s progress. You both need to be growing.”

  “I mean, the same can be said for you and Dengu.” The words slipped out before I could stop them. They felt defensive, but I didn’t want to admit how much the warning was disturbing me.

  “I’ve been focusing on my profession,” she said with a smirk. “It's almost at level 70.”

  My head tilted to one side as I double-checked my own. She had me beat by two entire levels. “You’ve passed my Crystal Singing Level.”

  “That’s what I mean. My profession is almost tied to my class level.”

  For the first time since I’d met Lenna, I felt behind, even with my class level being higher.

  Her voice cut through my thoughts. “It’s why we're still here in the rest area. It was lucky Dengu spotted Strange wandering around, delivering packages for people.”

  “Wait, Strange’s been delivering packages?” I was sure I hadn’t slept for that long.

  Lenna chuckled. “He’s been waiting near the door, since the attendant cannot hold packages. So he just waits for his quarry to arrive. With how many people are going in and out, he isn’t having a problem gaining levels.”

  “Grow bigger!” Strange interrupted our conversation with the most adorable voice.

  “I’m not sure you can get to Dengu’s size, little guy.” I teased him a little, though, with how the system worked, maybe he could actually grow bigger.

  “I try!”

  “I just needed some sleep, but now we can get back out there,” I said to the little guy. I tapped my fingers on my thighs. “I’m not sure how much more I can level my class on this planet. I only have so much crystal to experiment with, or construct more items.”

  “Maybe see if you can combine it with runes some more. Those bomb things you did were interesting.” Lenna wouldn’t meet my eyes as she said it.

  I didn’t ask. That instinct in the back of my head warned me that her dreams had given her info, but she didn’t want to push me. Or she couldn’t, maybe. I didn’t know how her prophetic abilities worked, but I did trust her.

  “I’ll keep working on things.”

  My mind raced, thinking of the recent levels I’d gained for my profession. Using the recording crystal had given me a few levels as I added everything that had happened since we arrived on this planet. So much had happened since then that I could record another recap.

  Lenna smiled and motioned back to the door. “We’re going to head out. I think only two more days, and we’ll finish the boss on our side of the dungeon.”

  I swung my legs off the bed and stood, but then sat right back down again. “I need to spend my free stats, then we can get back to the dungeon.”

  Two days. We could do that.

  I opened my stat sheet to see how many free stat points I had. Way too many.

  Intelligence and Fortitude were above Quickness and Flexibility again. Letting out a sigh, I added 50 points to Quickness and 45 to Flexibility. That brought things in line a little more.

  Noseen's advice about hunting down some creatures to focus on stats had been useful, but it felt like so little in comparison to what I earned from gaining levels. That was the problem with my profession, it gave good stats, but unbalanced me. Badly, in fact.

  Name: Alex

  Level: 80

  Race: Human

  Traits: Survivability, Adaptation, Hangry

  Class: Shadowstalker, level 80

  Profession: Crystal Singer, level 63

  Stats:

  STR: 357(363)

  QUICK: 570(673)

  FLEX: 569(666)

  TOUGH: 371(380)

  INT: 611(667)

  FORT: 622(678)

  WILL: 397(413)

  CHA: 237(248)

  FREE: 0

  Monstrosity: 6%

  Titles & Achievements:

  Jack-of-all-Trades

  Lucky Stars

  Giant Slayer

  Songweaver

  Citizen

  Ahead of the Curve

  The First

  System Enforcer

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Skill: 9/10

  Fortified Adaptation - II

  Crystal Transcendence

  Perceptive Awareness

  Unwavering Hunter

  Shadow Walking

  Blades and Polearms - I

  Venomous Chomp - II

  Tensile Claw Strike

  Whispering Trap

  Runes:

  Truth Sayer

  Clarity - Temporary

  I wanted to smack myself in the head. I’d forgotten about the clarity rune. The blue paint had faded a bit on the outside of my hand, but it still sat there, unused.

  My current obstacle was my class. I pulled up my skills.

  [Crystal Transcendence: By singing you can now not only locate and manipulate mana crystals, but also liberate those bound by external forces and cleanse them of impurities. You can shatter bindings, dispel corrupting energies, and restore crystals to their natural, harmonious state. The voices within the crystals sing clearer, and their elemental power flows more freely.]

  I kept returning to the singing portion of the descriptions, along with the mana part. Runes were just mana in a different form. Supposedly, they operated the same way on this world as crystals did on Lenna’s.

  Right now wasn’t the time to really think about it. Instead, I opened my eyes to see how the others were doing. Lenna and Dengu were gone, while Strange sat in front of me staring.

  “You ready?” I asked him.

  He nodded his head a few times. “No more quests.”

  “We might find more of them out there.” I chuckled before pausing to see if this world had a quest board. Inside my menu, the area sat greyed out, even as I tried to open it.

  [Local quests unavailable.]

  That meant our current plan was a go.

  It took little time to make it to the front entryway where the attendant stood. They waved at us as I opened the door.

  [Do you want to continue on, or take a variant path?]

  “Which is harder?” I asked, scratching the back of my neck.

  [Variant path selected.]

  We stepped out of the doorway into complete darkness. It took my eyes a few moments to even get a very little outline of the tunnel we now stood in. The ceiling didn’t tower above our heads; instead, it rested two feet up. Any Azura folk would have a hard time, bending over to travel without hitting their heads.

  I pulled my knife out, but didn’t send any energy into it. The light would be blinding in this darkness.

  Strange darted off in front of me, and a map appeared inside my head. My radar spread out as well, searching for any lifeforms besides the two of us.

  The tunnel twisted, turning in all sorts of directions.

  Something touched the edges of my expanded radar from Strange, and he paused, waiting for me.

  Impressions of something near him, but he couldn’t see it.

  I hurried forward, keeping my stealth intact, though anything that lived in this darkness probably didn’t use its sight much. Noise was my concern.

  Eventually, I caught up with Strange, who stared straight ahead. His outline was barely visible even to me. I couldn’t see whatever it was that was in the tunnel with us.

  Yet, I felt it. Ahead, blocking the tunnel.

  The crackle of snapping bones between large teeth, along with the slurp of something eating, reached my ears. My nose twitched as the smell of cooked meat lingered.

  An icy shiver went down my spine as my fingers tightened on my knife. I still couldn’t see the creature at all.

  I focused instead on my aura sight, trying to bring it into focus. A bright pulse of energy came from all around us. Weird cloud shapes lurked in the depths of the walls, while ahead, something dragon-shaped waited.

  A long tail flickered in our direction, followed by six stumpy legs and a pointed head.

  [Pyre Wyrm, Steam Breath, Level 80, Predator, Unknown.]

  More difficult path for sure. This area only went up to level 80, yet this beast already hit that. What did that mean about the boss?

  Without thinking too much, I sent my plan to Strange and leaped on the back of the Wyrm, stabbing with all of my might.

  My knife extended into a spear, slicing through the creature like butter and slamming into the stone below.

  Strange nipped and tore bites of flesh off the tail.

  The creature hissed in pain and tried to twist around, but my spear anchored it to the floor. Claws grew from my knuckles as I dug into the side of its neck, not wanting to give it a shot at using its Steam Breath on us.

  Even with all of that damage, its head twisted about, and it blasted a huge stream of super-heated steam at the ceiling.

  I left my spear behind as I dove back the way we’d come.

  The entire tunnel filled up with a wet heat as water sizzled against the stone.

  That’s when the Wyrm’s tail slammed into my side.

  Armored plating formed along my rib cage, protecting it, and my knife appeared in my hand. As I cut through the tail, making the beast scream, the steam cut off. The sound bounced back and forth along the tunnel, and my ears throbbed. But at least the steam had stopped.

  My mouth watered at the scent of blood, but I focused on the movements in the cloudy air. My next attack landed on the Wyrm’s already injured side, almost taking a chunk off. I yanked back on my knife, making sure not to use any fire power. Blood poured out of the wound, hitting the rocks below. The wyrm twitched twice, then fell and went still.

  [You have gained experience from combat.]

  [You have gained a level.]

  I leaned back against the rough wall to catch my breath. My side felt a little bruised, even with my armor to block some of that tail snap. A deep breath made pain lance through my side. My stomach growled loudly, and I knelt down to butcher the dragon-like beast.

  Strange stood off somewhere ahead, farther down the tunnel. He’d dodged that way to get away from the steam, which made sense.

  He approached slowly, then sped up as I made the first cut.

  I tossed him a hunk, which he started tearing pieces from.

  “Tasty!”

  I chuckled at the voice in my head. At least we had more tasty meat. I snagged my own piece to chew on as I worked quickly. It helped settle my demanding stomach.

  It tasted of roasted marshmallows, but wasn’t sticky.

  Thankfully.

  I’d only had marshmallows once, with my father on a camping trip. We each got one s'more and toasted our own marshmallows. That trip had been fun.

  I yanked my spear from the top of the beast, and it shrank back down into knife form. It went into my inventory, and I pulled my storm knife instead.

  As I cut the thing up, I discovered I’d barely missed the heart with my first spear attack. This would have been a one-shot fight, but I wouldn’t then be able to eat its heart. Overall, it was probably worth it, since Strange also got some hits in, so we could share the experience.

  I cut the heart into four pieces and nibbled each of them slowly. Usually, I didn’t take my time to chew, but this time all my focus stayed on control and my physical stats.

  [You have devoured a Pyrm Worm and have gained an additional understanding of Perceptive Awareness. Perceptive Awareness is now Perceptive Awareness - I.]

  I paused at the notification, wondering why this time it hadn’t given me stats. When I focused on stats, it usually did. If we came across another one of these, we’d need to figure out what to do with it.

  All of the extra meat from the carcass went into two stacks in my inventory crystal. I didn’t touch the mess that the Wyrm had been eating. My nose tickled when I got close to it, and not in a good way.

  Before we continued down the tunnel, I focused on my aura-sensing ability again.

  The strange lights deep within the rock appeared again. This time, one of them moved, slowly drifting a few feet to the right. Not close enough to us to matter, still it meant it wasn’t the aura of the rock itself. The light had to be some beast or creature inside the rock.

  I kept an eye on the lights and nudged Strange to continue scouting out.

  He raced off with glee, excited to have an important job, completely ignoring the fact he’d gained 2 levels from that fight.

  It was clear he didn’t get bonuses for killing something above his level. Excitement filled me, thinking again of how quickly I racked up bonus experience for these kinds of fights.

  Strange stopped ahead and waited for me to catch up, but he didn’t feel scared, only curious.

  I slowed down as I approached. He stared straight down at the floor.

  A hole covered the floor of the tunnel, which continued on past the hole, but we’d need to jump over it.

  Several of the glowing auras crisscrossed the inside of the hole, and the bottom was a mystery.

  “Too far…” Strange added in my head.

  I nodded and picked him up, putting him carefully in my pouch. He curled up at the bottom.

  Then I backed up the tunnel we’d come down to get enough of a running start.

  I didn’t want to climb down the hole, and continuing on felt like the best bet.

  I leaped into action, racing down the path before leaping over the hole. One of the weird, glimmering lights that I’d been watching before popped out of the rock ceiling just as I was approaching my jump.

  [Fume Wraiths, Drain, Level 82, Predator, Inedible.]

  Fuck.