(James)

"So you two are completely new to the idea of a dungeon?"

James and Dana looked at each other, and James raised an eyebrow. He looked back at Dom.

"Do you mean the kind where kinky fun times are had?"

He could almost feel the heat radiating from Dana's face as he said this, and felt her elbow him in the ribs.

Dom looked almost embarrassed but soldiered on.

"No. This is the: if you don't pay attention, you die kind."

James nodded, swearing off jokes for the time being.

"Fair enough. What's the plan though."

Dom indicated the diagram on his page. Dana lifted her flame closer so It could be seen easier. It showed the first floor of the mansion, with a big "You are here." Arrow at the bottom.

"We are here. And as you can see, there is a lot of area to cover. We think Mays family is in here somewhere, hiding. We have no idea though. Unfortunately for us, it looks like all the glass in the house is darker. So we're going to need lights everywhere we go."

James raised his hand, years of schooling hammering in the routine of questioning. He immediately corrected his arms position, but Dom had noticed it and smiled as he asked.

"You have a question, James?"

James was flustered as he answered, embarrassed at his childish reflex.

"Um, are we going to be splitting up to cover more ground faster?"

Dom shook his head instantly.

"Nope. Despite that commonly happening in films, it is also very common for those separated from the group to die much faster."

James nodded. It made sense that smaller teams would go down faster he guessed they would just have to be here a while. Though it was relatively still early in the afternoon, since he guessed they had a plan about where they would all sleep, it didn't matter if it got dark outside.

"This is for you two just in case we do get split up. The plan is, that if anyone gets separated at all, everyone comes back here."

He tore out the sheet and handed it to James.

"You two cannot be separated or this plan will go to shit. Can you do that?"

James almost unconsciously moved for Dana's hand, only to realise the one closest to him was currently on fire.

His moment of confusion was rescued by Dana answering.

"Absolutely."

She extinguished her hand of fire and took out her spell book. She opened it, held it flat on an outstretched hand and a ball of fire burst into life across the open pages. She grabbed James' left hand with her now free one.

"I'll use spells that don't need my hand free, and James is right handed anyway."

He tightened his grip on her hand, glad she was taking the lead a little here. The more they talked about it, the more nervous he got about the entire situation. His last situation involving a large, dark building had ended very badly.

Dom broke into a plan of room order and how they would sweep them, including something about how dungeons usually make monsters. James began to lose focus when Dom talked about drop rarity and how the dungeons he knew in the past affected this.

He saw May and Callum whispering heatedly about something on the other side of the room, and watched a pair of glowing blue eyes roll at a pair of glowing green ones.

"James."

Dana squeezed his hand, and he turned back towards Dom.

"Are you ready to go?"

James took a deep breath and activated mana sight, already dreading the headache he would get from the potential hours of using it.

"Yeah."

May and Callum walked over, having come to some conclusion. May walked past the group, however, aiming for a large wardrobe instead. From inside, she pulled out a bundle of head torches.

"Here, everyone grabs one. I know how shitty the mana sight headache can get."

James was the first to walk over, the most eager to not have to use his skill for any longer than necessary.

"Why do you even have so many torches Here?"

May looked at him like the answer was painfully obvious.

"James, this part of the house was built a little under two hundred years ago. What little electricity they managed to wire in here was unreliable at best. There are torches all over the house."

James secured the torch on his head and made an expression suggesting it was an obvious answer after all. Inside though, he was honestly surprised. He evidently didn't know enough about living in a mansion. But he wouldn't hold anything against her. They merely had different lifestyles.

May started throwing out the torches to everyone. Callum put one on despite his night vision. Callum guessed that even that skill caused some discomfort.

Before Dana put hers on, she deemed it necessary to change into he magical girl costume. But the transition was a little different this time. Instead of a ball of light coating her than being absorbed into her, and forming clothes, a pillar of twisting fire erupted from the floor and surrounded her for a second. James panicked in that second, but it was short-lived as the fire tornado burst outwards. Anything less than a meter away would have been decimated. And there stood Dana in her dress again, delicate and sexy.

"Well, that was different."

Dana seemed surprised at her own transformation.

James had a suspicion her class had given her more than just a few basic spells.

"Is that a skill that allows an alternate transformation?"

Before Dana could answer, James took a gamble and decided to show off his knowledge.

"Wait, let me guess. It's faster and has a small area of damage, but at a steep stamina cost?"

Dana nodded.

"More or less yeah. Also, it uses some mana as well."

Regardless, James was satisfied.

""That's so cool.""

Callum and May spoke almost in unison, admiring Dana's transformation and subsequent attire. They hadn't seen it before and were apparently fans of it.

Callum was satisfied with just looking at the details of the dress, but May asked questions.

"Do you have a small staff or stick or something?"

"No. Just the book."

"Does it feel weird when you change clothes?"

Yes. Especially since my hair is clean when I'm like this, and dirty again when I deactivate it."

"What about when it repositions your body?"

"Um, yeah. It feels just like something else is moving stuff into place."

"Wow... I wish I could change my clothes like that."

Dana tilted her head and idly swatted Callum who was taking particular interest in her short skirt.

"Can the witch not change like this?"

"God, no. I don't think many of the classes can. This is... this is from anime. How did it become a class in this world-altering system?"

She was asking herself more than anyone else, so Dana left her to figure that out.

"It doesn't matter right now. Let's just find your family."

May got immediately serious at the mention of her family.

"Yeah, you're right. Dom, you ready?"

Dom turned on his torch, and everyone else did the same. The combined effort of the torches made the room almost bearable to stay in.

He turned to the door closest to him.

"First stop, the dining hall."