The day was ending. Nero, Altia, and the three researchers were in the laboratory after a failed attack on the dorms where lots of students loyal to the Kingdom died in combat. Tired, Nero was still forcing his mind to understand what happened. So he voiced his questions one by one, in the hope one of the scholars could help.

"The bloodlust totem. I felt weird getting close to it but I didn't descend into madness. Why was that?"

"That is easy to explain," Glom took the lead. "I know you two very well. You are too young and, forgive me, naive. The totem draws out the bloodlust in its targets. You just didn't have enough to overcome your Willpower."

"Could any of you attach more card pouches to my bandolier?"

"Yes, of course," Tinkwezilsky deadpanned. "Any [Gadgeteer] can with [Essence Manipulation]."

"Oh. Could you... Wait, I can do it too!?"

"Yeah, turn on [Essence Analysis] so you can see what I'm doing."

The gnome took a fresh card pouch, a tool that looked like a crochet needle, and then pressed the pouch to the bandolier and pierced it from the inside with the needle, going through the leather and into the bandolier. Nero saw a strand of red energy come back with the needle and tie the pouch to the bandolier.

"Now the crystals sewn in the back of the pouch are attuned to the bandolier, keeping it in place and making it so only the owner can open it. I guess I should also attach a portable toolkit."

"Yes, please."

After a few minutes and some mana spent, Nero had five new card pouches and a portable gadgeteering toolkit on his bandolier. Some pouches went on the back but he could rotate the accessory and access them.

"What should I do with this bag of cards?" He tapped the bag at his side. "They belonged to the students that attacked."

"We should take them to the administration, like the other time," Glom recited the rules.

"Nah. That would paint a big target on our junior here," Bezzias said. "Nero, give me a list of cards and separate any that meets these criteria." He then drew a triangle. Rank I if it is purple or higher, rank II if it is yellow or higher, ranks III and IV if blue or higher. "These I'll have to send to the administration anonymously because they are so rare they can be traced back to the buyer. The others, I'll just write off as research material. You can keep them. Your actions saved dozens of lives."

"And the fool used Skills in combat. I hope nobody identifies us," Altia said.

"I can't hide forever," Nero replied. "At least I didn't shout the names. There's another thing you should know. I got Accolades from the deaths. Of people."

What he said soured the mood in the room. The three researchers looked at each other and then Bezzias nodded to the gnome.

"We suspected it would happen, Nero," Tinkwezilsky said slowly, measuring the words. "In fact, our scant data shows that people to people Anima affinity is one in sixty-four, four times the monster to people affinity."

"There's more you should know. The Kingdom, they execute criminals to empower the Royal family members. It is frequent when someone comes of age."

"Not only here in Bast. Coriander and the others do that too," Tinkwezilsky added.

"And rumors say that when a knight is too old to serve, he too is killed to grant that Accolade," Glom said.

"That's too twisted," Altia gasped.

If there was one quality any subject on the Kingdom of Bast could pin on the Royal Family, was that they were honorable. To see that veneer fall was a shock. But one truth remained. Power was everything, and power justified anything. Friends of decades would murder each other in a Dungeon because of an orange card or even less. The fact the accolades gave more points the bigger the level gap also explained why the kingdom demanded everyone with a cap over two hundred to remain close and loyal to them.

Nero was sure that if he could cross information between the activation of the Arbitrium of a member of the Royal family and the deaths of knights, he'd find they happened close to one another. After decades of service, an old knight would gladly kill themselves so a young prince or princess could become stronger. To then kidnap a royal from another country and send thousands to their graves in a pointless war.

Bezzias continued, disregarding the youngsters' visible disgust, "Some other students with lower levels might have earned such Accolades today but I doubt they would come clean on it. And there's another thing, the thresholds. You are too low level. Students usually enroll with levels in the thirties or more. The energy required to trigger an Accolade on them is much higher by orders of magnitude."

Nero held Altia. The thought of killing people to absorb their Anima was too much for them but he was better at hiding his feelings.

"I'll get some tea for you, maybe chamomille? Please wait, Mrs. Altia," Glom jumped into his house-briefcase and started to brew tea.

The squiig gadgeteer was a good-spirited person, the young ape-kin man thought. Nero would be down in the dregs of despair if it weren't for him.

While Altia drank her relaxing tea, Nero took a sheet of paper and started to separate the cards Bezzias told him he couldn't keep and also tally the ones he could. Even he was not beyond the grasp of the adage of power. They saved lives but also looted the dead. It was only natural if it weren't them it would be someone else. To his surprise, the pile of cards Bezzias would keep to probably use as a bargaining chip because they surely were worth millions of Essence, that pile had over twenty cards. Nero wrote the titles and rarities, then handed the pile to the bat-kin professor without a word.

One thing Nero found curious was that Glom had teacups sized for medium creatures in his house. "Just these two," He replied when Nero asked.

What they needed was a break from all this madness. Bezzias agreed that they should make themselves scarce and take a day or two off. Nero and Altia went with Lamuril to the market to purchase several items for their delve. Several sets of cheap clothes, blankets, bedrolls, sundries like soap, a tent, hundreds of empty potion vials, and a portable Essence-powered alchemy set. Nero also bought a few stacks of food and drink cards, enough for three months. He also bought all the gray cards he could, thirteen stacks of them.

They ran really low in funds for their trip but that didn't matter. Their honeymoon trip would also get them swimming in Essence.

The Next day, Lamuril drove them to their honeymoon destination. The Dungeon gate was located a bit out of the city, a one hour drive to the north, in an area still dotted by small farms and satellite villages that supplied food for the capital.

A beautiful place filled with flowers and a calm breeze, where the days were soft and the nights warm. A meadow of serene wilderness, a refuge only the two lovers would share. Their Arbitrium lit up with a message when they reached such a place with four large trunks filled with the things they bought the previous day.

Entering "Rafflesia's Meadow" - Rank I Dungeon. Disarming safety protocols... error. Safety protocols were not engaged.

Nero lowered the two massive trunks he was carrying and spread his arms. He looked around and it was exactly as the century-old artist's rendition showed them. They were in a forest clearing, under the blue sky. Thin clouds played around in the sky, forming shapes that challenged the imagination to find a meaning for them. Flowers of all possible colors spread in a carpet of life and beauty all around them. At the edge of the clearing, tall trees that were spaced enough to provide light so a carpet of grass could grow between them.

Then he looked at his wife, equally marveled at the sights and asked the inevitable question.

"Why did we have to get stuck with rats, damp caverns, and goblins? I can't believe this is a Dungeon."

But it was. Rafflesia's Meadow was a true Dungeon. Lamuril dropped them at the gates of the reinforced stone wall circling the portal to the Dungeon. A detachment of four guards came to meet them but entry to this Dungeon could not be denied to a member of the Adventurer's guild. It was an open Dungeon. While some Dungeons were reserved for farming through the use of criminals, this was not one of them. In fact, nobody went to this Dungeon.

As all rank I Dungeons, the Adventurers would soon grow strong enough to challenge the rank II ones, with better loot well before they killed the boss. This allowed the boss to grow in power until a point it was unkillable. While the goblin near Hom reached the yellow grade after decades of neglect, Rafflesia's Meadow was unchallenged for at least a century. It grew to purple or orange, nobody bothered to find out.

With the increased power of the boss, it also enhanced the power of the monsters inside. The levels of the monsters ranged from one all the way to twelve. If Rafflesia was indeed a purple-twelve boss, it was suicide to face it. Maybe the noble scions with all their disgusting sentient sacrifice and overuse of Anima crystals could try, but why would them? They couldn't bring their awfully high-leveled retainers and they would soon level up on the Anima anyway. That was the reason rank I crystals were cheaper than the rest. The common wisdom was that you used ten of each rank.

The guards were annoyed that their vacation was interrupted by two stupid country bumpkins, that much was visible when they asked their purpose. Two of them even laughed when they showed their guild badges and stated their interest in delving. Nero was sure they even had a bet going if they would leave the Dungeon or not.

But now they were there, and they intended to spend a long amount of time enjoying the sights.

"So, should we set up our campsite?" Nero asked.

"No. We should hunt in the flower field for the first two days, just to make sure nobody will delve after us. Once we are certain we are alone in here, we can set up camp in the landing area."

"What about the briefcases?"

"We find a depression and leave them there. The monsters won't bother inanimate objects, in fact, most monster plants in the first zone are sessile."

"Okay. let me ready something to kill them from afar."

Using the big trunk as a makeshift table, Nero sat on the grass and took his white Class combos. At this point, with all the cards they gained in the Lyceum he probably could just buy what was left to make them Green but the whites were cheap enough. He prepared one throwaway [Mage] setup.

[Mage] - white - bound to Nero.

Agility +1 (+0)

Dexterity +1 (+0)

Reason +4 (+2)

Willpower +4 (+2)

- [Mana Bolt] - Spend 1 point of mana to throw a ball of energy at a target. Range is Reason x5 yards. Damage based on Reason and Willpower.

- [Thief's Magic] - Add your Agility to Willpower to determine the mana regeneration tick timer.

- [Draconic Magic] - Add your Vigor to Willpower to determine the mana regeneration tick timer.

- [Muscle Magic] - Add your Strength to Willpower to determine the mana regeneration tick timer.

- [Wizard's Magic] - Add your Reason to Willpower to determine the mana regeneration tick timer.

- [Card Trick] - Expend a card to recover mana as if you rested for [ (Dexterity / 4) + - (card grades above/below white) ] hours.

It was a kind of a one-trick pony build but with Nero's Attributes all over the place, it was more than worth the white cards he used. They cost nothing, the Adventurers at the Guild donated them. It was one of the combos the Adventurers suggested to him. In this configuration, he had a mana pool of ten, his Willpower. However, he added five Attributes to determine how much mana he recovered every eight hours. The total was fifty-two mana every eight hours or six and a half, rounded down, every hour.

The last Skill allowed him to burn a gray card for six mana, or a white card for thirteen mana, or green for nineteen and nobody would be stupid to burn a blue. Now he had a use for all the gray [Club] cards nobody wanted. It was the cheapest gray there was. He also counted with the drops from the Dungeon to become fuel to speed up their delve. It would only increase once he improved his Attributes. That added to the one-in-three chance of not using mana on a spell would make Nero a mana bolt engine. He chose this particular spell because it had no elemental effect and wouldn't cause a forest fire in the meadow.

"I'm ready," Nero said an focused on shooting a [Mana Bolt] from his left hand. The ball of translucent energy struck the ground forty yards away and dug a furrow three yards long.

"Showoff!" Altia teased him.

Nero blew a raspberry and picked up the trunks. "Let's go hunting."

Another advantage of Rafflesia's Meadow was that the flower field, the first zone, was wide open. There was no way of getting lost. Nero moved ahead looking for a place to stash their luggage or monsters through his goggles. The first monster of the Dungeon was the Thorn Tripper, a vine with thorns and flowers that hid between the normal flowers of the glade. On Nero's goggles, the monsters emanated a faint red haze, barely visible under sunlight. He found the first monster and rested a trunk on the ground to get his left hand free.

"[Mana Bolt]!"

The ball struck the Tripper and blasted a hole in the loopy vine. Sparkles shone and Nero picked up the Essence crystal worth five points.

For half an hour they walked through the misleadingly large glade, killing trippers and finally found a suitable depression to hide the luggage. There was a small risk of not being able to find it again. While the glade was wide open and relatively leveled, there were mounds and depressions. Nero summoned a dozen gray [Sword] and stuck them on the ground from the depression to a nearby mound, marking where their luggage was. It kinda defeated the purpose of hiding it but they were at a good distance from the landing spot.

While Nero slaughtered the plant monsters, Altia was not idle. She was gathering flowers, plants, and herbs as alchemical ingredients. The place was a treasure trove and after processed, the materials would not disappear. Her plan was to fill all the vials they bought with good quality potions. If a batch was not good enough, she'd just discard or fill the summoned canteens with potion for their own use.

Time went by as the couple enjoyed their delve in the flower glade. The sun, however, was not idle. It was casting shades of orange and red on the clouds, preparing to disappear beyond the treeline. They turned around and walked back to the spot where they left the luggage. It was as untouched as they hoped. The loot was negligible. The gray cards nero used to fuel his mana, the whites were set aside for when he ran out of grays. The trippers ranged from levels one through six, increasing as they approached the treeline. The Essence they gathered would be enough to power Altia's alchemy kit tomorrow.

"Should we make camp here?" Nero suggested.

"Yes. On the mound with the swords seems good enough."

"I'll assemble the tent."

Altia sat on the ground, crushing a few flowers and started to sort her herbs. Nero cleared a patch of ground and started to set the camp.

"Hey, Altia, I'm going to pitch the tent!" He shouted.

"Shut up!" She giggled then promised. "Later!"