“Tell me of your homeworld Tamee,” Alan requested as he did yoga this morning. It finally felt like it was time to test her.

  “What makes you think I have a homeworld?”

  “Little things here and there, but mostly it is your fascination with learning about my world. The kind of questions you ask could only come from someone who has experiences of their own who wants to compare.” It was again possible she was a super advanced AI, but he would like to think he wouldn’t feel the same connection with a machine.

  “I can probably talk about this since you seem to know already.” Sometimes confidence can be a superpower. “Yes, I am from another world. By participating in a tutorial I can gain rewards for both me and my planet.”

  “What kind of rewards?”

  “Is it not rude on Earth to ask someone how much they make? Also, my actions can affect my reward. I can be penalized for breaking rules and rewarded for outstanding achievements. That is why I cannot break the rules, no matter how I might feel about it. Telling you about what rewards I could earn would be exposing you to possibilities you are not to learn about yet.”

  That seemed fair, and she was playing for more than her own interests so it would be selfish of him to get her in trouble. On the other hand, Alan too was playing for the possible continuing existence of his whole race, so he was going to push it. Plus, they brought him here, he hadn’t forced her into her role.

  “You told me I should wait till the sixth night to ask more, but I have been sensing…I call them energy flows, in myself and some other things. Can you tell me anything about it?” This was something there was no knowledge of on Earth, as far as he knew, so he was hoping for anything to help him better understand it.

  “I really cannot say more about it until then. I am truly sorry.”

  Alan asked about a few more topics but got the same kind of response. This was more frustrating than he thought it would be. He finished the rest of his yoga thinking in silence. He now knew what Tamee’s stake in this was, but other than that he hadn’t learned anything significant.

  Today was day four. The monsters would be harder, but Alan honestly wasn’t too worried. So far the first fight was the only one where he was truly injured. You could count that weird fight with an imp, but even that wasn’t too hard. It just seemed that the beasts in the forest weren’t a real challenge. He might be getting cocky, but there had been nothing here even close to the octospatium. Another night on the cold, hard, and wet cave floor made him want to try and spruce it up. However, if he was going to leave this valley in a few days, was it really worth it?

  There were also two more classes to pick up. If he was going to go for one dungeon he might as well do both while he was down there. Based on the location of the other dungeons they would be located at the far end of the valley. He didn’t want to travel all the way down there and come back just to do it again tomorrow. If he did go and knock out those today, though, then the last two days could be spent however he wanted.

  That decided it for him. He collected blueberries from the bush before heading out. Alan had purposefully not picked the whole bush yesterday, but he had still taken about a third of the fruit. You couldn’t tell that today, however. It seemed like things were growing faster here than they did on Earth. On a whim he dug a hole near the current bush and planted a couple of blueberries in it. He might only be here a few more days, but if he saw signs of growth by then it would give him a sense of the difference compared to pre-Network. He made sure to add in some of that rich soil that was stored in his bag. He also used the empty health potion tube to carry water from the lake and dampen the new soil. Survival school had taught him to keep everything, you never knew what you could use it for. Feeling like his trainers would be proud, he made his way south.

  All of the dungeons on the western side had been explored so he knew that the next two would be on the eastern edge of the valley, so he headed almost due east and then ran along the emptier terrain that bordered the mountains. While running outside, but next to the forest, he noticed that the trees continued to differentiate themselves. Instead of almost exact copies of each other like when he first arrived, they now had different shades of bark and that bark was textured differently from tree to tree. He could even see that some of the leaves had changed.

  His higher perception was also coming in handy, allowing him to spot small differences at a glance. It would be interesting to see how it would affect him when it got even higher. So far it was mostly like his senses were getting stronger, his eyesight clearer, his nose more sensitive, excetera. However, he had also noticed that his peripheral vision had improved as well. Not just in the sense that he could see things clearer, but also that he could see a wider angle.

  The first encounter of the morning happened before the sun had even crested the eastern mountains. At first he thought it was just a big fox, but learned he was mistaken after using identify.

  Beast: Coyote (common) level 2, threat: low.

  A level 2 beast! The threat level was still not impressive so it was with confidence he advanced on it. As a canine it probably was reliant on its jaws, like the fox, so the claws on its feet shouldn’t come into it. He drew both daggers so that he could block it from biting him and still be able to attack. As he approached, the coyote stayed in the same place but he could see it laying its ears back and snarling at him. It also lowered its stance, possibly preparing to lunge.

  When Alan got close he lifted his index finger off of his pugio and pointed it at the coyote. Two light bolts went flashing for its face. While it was distracted from the light and pain he jumped forward and sliced at its neck. His blade bounced off of its spine without inflicting much damage. There was a small trickle of blood and a flap of skin, but he had achieved no real penetration. Following up quickly with a stab using his offhand while it was distracted, he hit it right where the skull meets the neck. The blade sank in and with his now signature twist as he pulled it out blood poured from the wound.

  Just like that the fight was over. Low threat indeed. Eager to finish his tasks for today he stuffed the body in the storage space without skinning it and continued on. He encountered another coyote on his way and killed it as easily as the first. Both fights had been over quickly, but he was still starting to run low on his stamina as he ran down the valley. It was important to remember that while he was becoming superhuman he wasn’t Superman. He took the last bit of the journey at an easier pace to preserve his stamina pool and at last he reached the first of the dungeons for today. Carved above it was an open book with a feathered pen across it.

  New Quest: The Cave of Scholars

  [Before you lie two paths. The first is the Path of Knowledge and the second is the Path of Learning. Choose a path or exit now.]

  Alan considered himself an intelligent man, he had gotten through an accelerated undergrad program and med school with top scores after all. However, the path of knowledge made him hesitate. Was this knowledge of the previous reality or knowledge about the Network? He felt the safer path was learning as that was a process he was good at, as opposed to specific knowledge he may or may not have. Also, these dungeons had mostly been learning experiences already, so why not lean into it?

  Quest Update: The Path of Learning

  [The exit from the cavern is sealed by a gate. On this gate you will find several crystals. Light up all of the crystals to open the gate.]

  There was indeed a gate on the far side of the room. It was the thick wooden reinforced kind that you envision when thinking of a castle door. There were five crystals in a vertical line running down the middle of it. The rest of the cavern was rather uninteresting. It was the same old rock walls with a dirty rock floor that he had seen in most of the dungeons. There wasn’t any furniture or striking features and there weren’t even any large rocks. With nothing else to do he walked over to the exit and checked for any clues.

  It was definitely made of wood and it looked very solid. Each of the five crystals appeared to be quartz and was about the size of his palm. He started to reach out and touch one, but then realized he could check them with his new senses first. It took a moment to attune himself but when he did he noticed that each blazed with energy. Studying them closer he could tell that each type of energy was slightly different.

  Still without a hint of what to do he reached out and touched the middle crystal. There was a popping sound of displaced air coming from behind him. A section of the wall had disappeared and a small room was revealed. He made his way over and checked it out.

  There was a bench with five circular stones on it. Each stone was about two centimeters thick but their diameter varied from about six centimeters to more than thirty. He opened his senses but felt no special energy in any of the stones. He stared at them for about a minute before deciding to just try something, he figured he would unravel the secret as he went. Placing the largest one on the bottom he stacked the stones in a pyramid. When Alan placed the smallest stone on top nothing happened, it was kind of a let down. But then he looked around and noticed that the center crystal on the door was now lit up.

  So it seemed like he had completed the task for this room and it caused one of the crystals to activate. It was an easy assumption to make that each of the crystals would have to be lit up to open the door. By touching a dark crystal he could open a new room with a new task. When he figured out how to finish the challenge he would light up the crystal he had touched.

  Now that the dungeon’s secrets were revealed the rest of the quest progressed smoothly. Each crystal touched opened up another room and closed the previous one. The only difficult part was determining what the specific task was. There was a lot of guess and check which was the learning named in the quest most likely. The final task involved placing a set of stone pegs into holes on the top of a pedestal. There were more holes than pegs so it took a while to get the correct configuration. As far as he could tell there was no meaning or pattern in the placement of the stones, but maybe it was based on something he had never seen.

  When the final peg was placed the last crystal on the gate began to glow. Alan walked back over to the gate but it was still closed. He reached out and pulled on it and the door swung open smoothly. It suddenly occurred to him that he hadn’t tried to open it before, he had just assumed it was locked. He really hoped it had been, otherwise he would feel like an idiot.

  On the other side was another shadow filled exit. Passing through he found himself in what he was now calling the completion room, similar to what was located at the end of several other dungeons.

  Quest Completed: the Path of Learning

  [You have shown your ability to learn. Reward: One epic Scholar class stone.]

  This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author's work.

  Item: Scholar Class Stone, rarity Epic. This stone can be used to gain the class Scholar, a focus based class that specializes in understanding the world, people, and creatures around them. Because of this stone’s rarity it can be used as long as you have no classes above quartz level. Can be used at any time.

  Absorbing this class gave him the talent Understanding. The irony that he didn’t understand what it would do was not lost on him. Returning to the surface he was confronted by a small hairy mammal coming out of a tunnel in the ground nearby.

  Beast: Badger (uncommon) level 2, threat: mild.

  At approximately 70 centimeters in length and low to the ground it didn’t seem like much of a threat, but it was the highest threat level since the imp. He drew his seax and closed in. The badger was snarling as it scurried forward. The metal blade slashed down and scored a hit against its back. There was no penetration, though, instead it felt like hitting a rock. Meanwhile the badger bit down on his left leg. That one was Alan’s fault this time, he had led with that leg to get a better angle for his attack.

  After latching on with its teeth it dug in with its claws and started to climb him. Alan tried to slash it again but its hide and muscles were too tough, his blades bouncing off without leaving even a scratch. It was like a fur covered tank as it tore through Alan’s much more vulnerable flesh and muscle on its way up. Slightly panicked, he drew his pugio and stabbed it in the side. The angle and type of attack allowed him to get more force behind it and that was in turn transferred through the incredibly sharp point allowing it to punch in several centimeters. It was by no means a fatal blow but at least it showed this thing could bleed.

  By now the badger had reached his chest and it started clawing at his gut while its front paws held on. It was slicing through his hard earned six pack like a frat boy through a case of beer. Alan’s torso was going from yellow to red quickly in his display. He cast minor healing and stabbed again at the same spot as his only successful attack so far. Since the skin had already been pierced the blade slid in easily and penetrated all the way to the hilt. He must have hit something critical because it stopped digging for his colon and instead tried to throw itself off, pushing away with all of its paws. It wasn’t going to get away so easily, however. Using the leverage from the pugio to hold it in place he punched into it with his seax as well. That was too much for its system and it expired there on his chest.

  Dropping the corpse to the ground he looked over his injuries. Minor healing had helped but he had to cast it again to top his health off. He watched as his belly stitched itself together through the torn and mangled piece of fabric he called his tunic. The left pant leg of his trousers was now completely torn off at the knee while the right leg was mostly intact but covered in gore. It would almost be better if healing worked on his clothes instead of himself. He knew first aid so he could have patched himself up, somewhat, but he had no real sewing skills so his clothes were a mess. At least no one else was around to see his pathetic state. Well, almost no one.

  “Tamee, tell me the truth, how do I look?”

  There was a long pause before a snorted “Great!”

  Let’s just power through it. His outfit may look like he went through a wood chipper, but thanks to his healer class he felt fully restored and he only had one more class to gain. The scholar dungeon had only taken a couple of hours so he was ahead of schedule. Using his improved speed the trip to the next one took almost no time, but now that he was standing before the last class dungeon the anticipation dropped away and he felt a strange sense of enervation.

  Alan’s life had been turned upside down in a moment and now the fate of the world was at least partially in his hands. He had been pushing himself through the upheaval by having a goal, but now that goal was almost done. What would he do next? Panic tried to claw at his mind.

  “After I complete this last dungeon and gain an eighth class, is there anything else for me to do?” he asked Tamee.

  “Like I told you earlier, you are way ahead of where most people usually are. Not only do you already have seven classes, but you have killed almost twenty beasts and you finished all your dungeons on the first try. Many people take multiple tries to finish even one.” That made him think of something.

  “What does happen if you fail a dungeon?”

  Tamee’s answer was more helpful than usual. “Well, it depends on the dungeon. Some, like that mage dungeon cannot be failed. You simply get a reward based on your level of accomplishment. Several others just mean returning to the beginning and starting again. Some, though, like the obstacle course in the fighter dungeon, can lead to your death.”

  “I never did get a straight answer from you, what happens if I die…again?” Alan waited, hoping he would finally find out.

  “Yes, you can die. There are specific circumstances where the system may revive you, but if you get yourself killed, there is usually no coming back. As a matter of fact, only somewhere between half to two thirds of the initial recruits usually pass the first tier. Between the beasts and the dungeons some people just cannot cut it. There are also those who are killed by their peers.”

  “I shouldn’t be surprised that people would target each other, but you would think there would be a sense of shared purpose when your whole race is at stake,” he lamented.

  “Assuming you continue to survive the next couple of days, you will not be the first tier one zone to end up with only one recruit passing it. There have been a few times where zones turned into bloodbaths with maniacs eliminating all of their competition. Some civilizations out there do not handle stress and rivalry well” With that cheery thought he stepped into a class dungeon for what he hoped was the last time.

  New Quest: The Cave of Guardians

  [Before you lie two paths. The first is the Path of the Rock and the second is the Path of the Hard Place. Choose a path or exit now.]

  Quest Update: The Path of the Rock

  [Being a guardian can mean protecting someone from harm, but it can also mean dealing with the harm that comes to hurt them. Deal with it.]

  Not really seeing a difference between the two choices Alan had gone with the one that sounded more fun. The update was a little ominous. As he looked around he saw a cavern that was about ten meters across. Several stones and boulders littered the floor. They varied in size from pebbles to one boulder that was as big as himself. The cavern wall was mostly the same rock that was in all the other dungeons, but the wall to his left had a four by three meter section of some translucent material.

  On the other side of it was the slightly distorted figure of a person, looking through the wall was like looking through an antique window full of imperfections. It looked like a human girl and she seemed to be in a small hollowed out space, almost like a cell. She was just standing there, but then he saw what looked like a stream of water pouring in from the ceiling. It was quickly pooling around her feet and rising. She started banging her fists on the wall and he could hear what sounded like screams coming through.

  Quest or not, he wasn’t going to sit by and let someone drown like this. He hurried over and ran his hands along the wall. It wasn’t glass or plastic, it seemed to be some kind of clear stone. Maybe it was even quartz, that would be consistent with other challenges.

  Alan tried pounding on it but his fists cracked against a surface that certainly felt as hard as rock. A quick glance around didn’t reveal any obvious way of stopping the water or opening the cell. After calming his mind some, he even tried sensing any energy flows. At first there was nothing but in his desperation he felt like he pushed his mind into the rock, like pressing your face against a window, and suddenly he could see a subtle framework of energy. It was like a grid adding strength to the substance. It was the clearest picture he had gotten from something outside himself. Scanning it for any obvious flaws or disruptions he finally found a hint of what to do. About halfway up on the right side there was a flaw in the stone and it caused a disruption in the energy.

  The water by now was up to her waist. Looking around for a rock to use, he found one about the size of his head. He grabbed it and slammed it into the flaw. The small boulder shattered and he was left with a handful of rock chunks and powder in his hands. Desperately he looked around for another. This one lasted two blows until it also shattered.

  The water would have been at her shoulder height but she was now swimming in her cell, keeping her head above the water. Alan somehow needed the rock to be stronger, whatever the wall was made of was tougher than the boulders lying around. The next one he found was slightly bigger than the first two, but he didn’t have any faith that the size would make a difference.

  Extending himself he once again pushed his mind, this time into the rock in his hands and could sense a framework of energy running through it. It was weaker than the one in the wall. With nothing else to try, he pushed energy from his body into the rock. It was working! He could feel his mana pool draining and energy pouring into the rock. Using his will, Alan tried to force it to flow into the existing framework to reinforce the lines of energy. He found it was easier to sense the energy flows in the rock now that his own mana was inside of it. Imagining the two forces merging together his mana quickly drained into the natural energy lines of his rock.

  He took the small boulder, hopefully reinforced, and smashed it against the flaw in the wall. His chosen rock held this time and he saw a small crack form in the crystal wall. The girl on the other side was out of time though. The water had reached the top of the cell and she had no air pockets left. He drew back and smashed the wall again. The crack grew but at this rate she would be long dead before breaking through, she was already frantically pounding on the wall form the other side.. Another blow and Alan knew that it was hopeless. How could he help save his people if he couldn’t even save this one poor trapped girl. With a roar of desperation, frustration, and a refusal to fail he hammered the rock down again with everything he had.

  With incredible force the rock smashed the wall and the crack turned into a hole and water started spraying out. Two more mighty blows later and the whole wall was crumbling as the water drained. The girl's body was sucked out with the torrent of water as well, skimming across the floor till she came up against a large rock. Rushing over he bent to pull her out of the water and he realized it wasn’t a girl.

  She was short, which is probably why he thought she was a girl, but probably twenty-five years old and one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. She had long red hair that was wet and lying tangled over her face. As Alan brushed it off he saw high cheekbones and full red lips, but he couldn’t tell the color of her eyes because they were closed. He looked down at her chest, she wasn’t breathing. With no time to think he started CPR.

  Opening her mouth he found there was no obstruction so he started with chest compressions and followed it up by pinching her nose closed and locking their mouths together so he could force breaths into her. He had repeated the cycle three times before there was a response. Even though he was a doctor, working at a military hospital in Japan meant he didn’t have to perform CPR that often, and when he did it was for a patient whose heart had stopped, not for someone who had drowned. This was just like on TV shows about lifeguards, she started to gag and then spit up a bunch of water as he rolled her over onto her side. He slapped her back as she coughed out more.

  Finally getting to the point where she could breathe again she sat up and just looked at him. Her eyes were a lovely deep green.

  “I’m sorry” and “Thank you” were spoken at the same time. She blushed and Alan apologized again.

  “Why are you apologizing, you saved my life?” she asked.

  “If I had acted faster you wouldn’t have been that close to drowning,” he protested.

  “It looked like you bashed the cave wall in with a big rock, that’s an impressive feat. I truly thank you for saving my life.” She coughed and lowered her head. Then she brought it back up and asked “is there a reason you didn’t just pull the lever?”

  He looked at her in confusion until she pointed to the side of the now shattered wall and sure enough there was a small wooden handle. He turned a bright red and felt like the biggest idiot in the world. She had almost died because he had panicked and overlooked this now obvious means of helping her.

  It took her a minute to regain her breath after that long statement so soon after drowning. Alan had never believed in love at first sight or soul mates, but this new world was changing his views in all kinds of ways. He felt as if something inside of him was reaching out toward this woman and something from her was trying to connect with him as well. He offered her some blueberries and she accepted. After she had eaten a few she introduced herself.

  “My name is Cassidy. If I can ever do anything for you, just let me know.”

  “I am being rude, I’m sorry. I’m Dr. Alan Taylor.”

  Her nose scrunched up in a cute manner. “Doctor, that’s kind of a strange name.”

  “Oh, doctor is a title, you can call me Alan.”

  “Title, does that mean you are some kind of noble?” She asked.

  Alan was confused. Cassidy appeared human and spoke English, but she didn’t know what a doctor was. Also, he didn’t think anyone he knew would think noble when they heard the word title. Maybe she was an englishwoman?

  “Cassidy, where are you from originally?”

  “A small town, you never would have heard of it. Thank you again for rescuing me. If it's not too much trouble, could you help me out of here?” He offered her his arm to help steady her as they walked. When she clasped his bicep, those tendrils he felt from the two of them finally connected. They curled around each other as if trying to form a tight bond between them. With an unsteady walk they started toward the entrance. He soon received a notification but Alan didn’t want to look at it until he got Cassidy safely out of here.

  As they approached the door he saw her look up at him with a sad expression and then clutch his arm just as they stepped through. There was a terrible pulling sensation from his soul and a sudden terror gripped him. Appearing back in the valley Alan found himself alone. Where had she gone?