Dalton read through each of the new skills he gained, awed. The biggest stand outs for him were Stoneform and Waveform; both of these skills gave him Vitality, providing him with an alternate way to boost his resistances without stat allocation.

But, he thought, it seems like I only get 1 skill point per level. Do I want to spend them prioritizing Stone and Waveform, when they’re primarily defensive skills? I’m a Glass Cannon… I’m built to deal damage.

He decided to cross that bridge when he got there. For now, he read over the passive skills, and nodded appreciatively. These were good. It looks like Form Combo incentivized him switching Forms rather than constantly staying in one. Glaive Mastery was definitely interesting and he would have to level that up for sure. Form Mastery was also really good…

Damn. Too many good skills, not enoughskill points. Story of my life.

He decided to quickly open up his Bio and allocate his stat points: 2 in Strength, and 1 in Dexterity.

*Ding* You have increased Strength from 5 → 9

*Ding* You have increased Dexterity from 5 → 7

Immediately, he felt a noticeable difference in his body. Not only did he feel lighter on his feet, but there was a coiled tension in his muscles that wasn’t there before. He stared at his hand, and though it looked the same, it appeared to him to be unrecognizable. He clenched it into a fist.

Good. I’ll need more power if I’m going to survive in this Dungeon, this new world.

Before Dalton had a chance to try out his new skills, the door at the end of the cave abruptly swung open with a resounding crack. He shared a look with Jackson, who nodded then immediately made a beeline for the opening.

“Hold up!” Dalton interjected, but the big guy just plowed on forward stubbornly.

Cursing under his breath, Dalton ran after him, scooping up his glaive and phone on the way. Tucking the phone in his pocket, he chased awkwardly after Jackson, the long glaive making running difficult.

I’ll need to level up Glaive Mastery as soon as possible, he thought after he bumped the bottom of the haft on the ground multiple times. Maybe that’ll make me less awkward with this thing.

They exited the cave and entered directly into a circular chamber with three splitting paths. Here the generic rock walls of the earlier cave gave way to a chalkier, spongier substance from which lines of crystals protruded like varicose veins. A clear glowing liquid constantly flowed in-and-out of these crystals, reminding Dalton of blood. In fact, the walls of the chamber seemed to shudder and move ever so slightly, just enough for him to question if it was really happening.

“Please don’t run off like that again,” Dalton said, stepping up to where Jackson stared angrily at the three paths. “This place is dangerous. We need to stick together.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Jackson muttered. “My bad. Just… the thought of my boys facing those statues…” He grimaced, then turned around to face Dalton. “I won’t do that aga—Hey!” He cut himself off and stalked past Dalton to where they had just come from.

Sighing, Dalton turned around as well.

The entrance was gone. It was just more of the strange, spongy wall.

“Well,” he said drily, “looks like there’s no going back now.”

“Oh shit!” Jackson shouted, patting his pockets. “I left my phone back there!”

“Shhh,” Dalton hissed. “Don’t speak so loudly. There’s always monsters in Dungeons; that’s what makes them Dungeons. We don’t want to attract their attention.”

Jackson muttered something about “nerds” and “my damn phone” before walking back and glumly standing beside Dalton.

“Well, what’s the play now?” he asked, looking at each of the three paths. “You’re the Dungeons and Dragons kid. You should know what to do.”

“What? I’ve never played D&D in my life.”

Jackson looked surprised. “Really? I thought you were in that board game club at school… Well, speaking of Dungeons and Dragons…” He held out his fist. “Give me a bump.”

Confused at the sudden change, Dalton did so.

Their fists connected. Jackson closed his eyes, and a moment later, a strange, golden-red light enveloped him and transferred over to Dalton through their fistbump. Dalton’s eyes widened as suddenly a second set of heartbeats resounded in his ears, giving a single, powerful ba-bump, before fading.

The light faded. Jackson dropped his fist and grinned.

“Okay,” he said, a little sheepishly. “That was pretty cool.”

Dalton looked at the back of his hand, the one that he used to bump Jackson’s fist. There, he saw a mark, an infinity symbol.

Jackson raised his fist, displaying the same symbol on his hand. “That was one of my skills. It’s called Sacrificial Bond. Basically, any damage you take gets split with me. At this level I’ll take 10% of all the hits you get, leaving you with only 90%. Not bad, eh?”

“What?” Dalton exclaimed, eyes nearly bulging out of their sockets. “Why… why the hell would you do that?!”

Jackson shrugged. “I dunno. Felt right to me to go down this path when I was reading the Skill Tree. You’re the QB, right?” He thumped his chest proudly. “I never let my QB get sacked.”

Dalton didn’t know what to say. He always had this image of Jackson as a stereotypical jock: he was tall and jacked, popular with all the girls, always the loudest voice in the room; before all this, Dalton had secretly thought he was kind of a douche.

And yet, he was willing to endanger his life for Dalton’s sake, even when he had no idea that the Glass Cannon class meant Dalton was extremely vulnerable to all attacks.

“You’re a good guy, Jackson,” he said honestly. “Thank you, seriously. You didn’t have to do this, but I appreciate it more than you know. My Class has my Vitality stat locked at 1 as a trade-off to deal more damage. So you doing this… I think it’s going to keep me alive.”

Jackson looked away, seemingly embarrassed. “Well, I did it because you’re the one who knows about all this game stuff. Keeping you safe is the smart play.”

“Stop being a tsundere,” Dalton teased.

“I don’t even know what that means, man.”

“It means stop acting like—”

Dalton was cut off by the sound of clinking, like a spoon tapping against the side of a teacup. Him and Jackson both pivoted towards the location of the sound at once, eyes narrowing. The sound came from the middle path.

Jackson hefted his shield while Dalton swung his glaive out in front of him.

He took a deep breath and entered Waveform.

The blade of the glaive suddenly became enveloped with a spiraling loop of water. Dalton’s posture shifted without thinking; instead of holding the glaive with two hands, which felt surprisingly light due to his higher Strength stat, he switched it to his right and brought it behind his back, keeping his left hand outwards. He braced his legs for whatever would come down the path, ready to react at an instant. His higher Dexterity stat made him feel so much lighter on his feet.

“Whoa!” Jackson exclaimed, staring at the sudden transformation Dalton made. “You look like a new man! Is that water…?”

Dalton nodded. And when he spoke, his voice sounded different to him. Calm, prepared. “Eyes forward, Jackson. We got company.”

From the middle path came a being made out of crystal. Made of geometric shapes cobbled together in the vague shape of a human, the creature walked over on crystal legs with the ends pointed like a pencil; with each step, the sharp tips clinked against the stone floor, making the sound they had heard earlier.

Over its triangle-shaped head floated a name colored in yellow.

Crystal Elemental

It was time for Dalton to test out his new skills.