"Ladies first," I remarked with a smirk while gesturing towards the dungeon's entrance as Briar and I stood in front of it. "Fair enough," Briar replied with a chuckle, rolling her eyes at me as she walked into the entrance.

I watched her enter the dungeon and followed suit after a second, still smirking as I began scanning the surroundings. The dungeon entrance looked like a dark tunnel with colorful moss and strange, glowing mushrooms hanging about the walls.

"The townspeople already told us what to expect, but isn't this just an average cave?" Briar said with a raised eyebrow while looking at the surroundings. "This is only the entrance," I replied with a shrug.

"It should turn more interesting once we're deeper inside," I added as I started walking forwards while keeping a constant state of vigilance with Bloodsport at the ready in my hand.

Briar merely shrugged her shoulder as she followed suit, reaching my side with a quick jog as we both maintained the same pace. "Movement ahead," I remarked with a frown as I noticed a flickering light ahead of us.

Briar nodded, brandishing her arm to the side as it turned into a sharp metallic blade.

We both stuck to the edges, trying to keep ourselves covered in the cavern's shadows as we slowly approached the light source. "Goblins," I whispered while gazing at three Goblins sitting around a small bone fire and roasting what appeared to be a rat.

"Leave it to me," I added as I materialized three aura knives in between my fingers, promptly throwing them towards the unsuspecting goblins.

The aura knives flew incredibly quickly and buried themselves inside the goblin's heads, causing the green creatures to immediately fall to the ground, dead without making so much as a sound.

I frowned at the lack of any notification about the creatures as I approached the three dead bodies to inspect their vitals in search of any sign of life.

My frown became more pronounced after checking the goblins' vitals two times already, finding no sign of life, although I didn't receive any notification or EXP.

'What's happening, system? Why am I not getting any EXP?' I questioned with a frown as I made myself look busy by checking the goblin's improvised campsite to avoid making Briar suspicious.

[The system can only extract EXP for creatures that have life force.] The system's robotic voice quickly replied, and I tried to ask again, but there was no answer.

'Is this a glitch on the system's part, or...?' I shook my head as I got up, gesturing for Briar to come over. "All clear," I remarked with a neutral expression as I began walking deeper into the dungeon.

We kept moving deeper and deeper into the dungeon for the next thirty seconds while encountering several more Goblin and Kobold groups, and I took care of them all by myself, still getting no EXP.

We then reached a crossroads, with two paths going to the left and right, respectively. "There isn't supposed to be a crossroads here," I remarked with a frown as we stopped in front of the two paths.

"Yeah, the guard said that it should be a one-way tunnel towards a clearing underground," Briar said with a raised while eyeing the way forward.

"What do you want to do?" Briar asked as she turned to look at me. "Left or right?" she asked again, gesturing towards the two tunnels.

"Hmm, the left path looks somewhat newer with fewer tracks and no moss," I reasoned while shaking my head after taking a closer look. "The right path should be the original way forward, and the left one is new," I added with a thoughtful expression.

"So the dungeon's growth isn't limited to just new levels, but the old ones are changing as well," Briar remarked with a smirk. "Yup, and the left path is most likely a dead-end or a trap of sorts," I added with a shrug.

"Let's go left!" Briar exclaimed with a smirk. "I want to see where this thing goes too, so why not," I replied with a shrug.

"But we need to be careful," I concluded as I began walking towards the left tunnel while keeping my eyes and ears open, prepared to react at a moment's notice.

...

"Dead end, or...?" I remarked with a frown, suspiciously eyeing the surroundings as we reached the end of the tunnel, finding ourselves within a circular enclosure of jagged rock walls.

Specks of light began condensing all around us as soon as I finished my sentence, slowly taking small humanoid shapes and turning into two dozens of goblins and kobolds that immediately charged towards us with shrill shrieks.

"Does that answer your question?" Briar asked in an amused tone, turning both of her arms into sharp metallic blades as she too charged towards the monsters with a smirk on her face.

I did not reply, merely shrugging as I followed suit, brandishing Bloodsport as I faced the incoming Goblins and Kobolds, swinging my baseball bat and crushing the first goblin to reach me into with the force of the impact alone.

I kept fighting the monsters charging towards me in that manner while monitoring Briar to get a better idea about her fighting style as she dived into the monster horde, slicing them left and right while moving at incredible speed.

'An assassin type.' I reasoned as I dodged to the side, avoiding a Kobold that lunged at me, brandishing a set of sharp claws.

'She can transform her arms into blades, and she could sprout wings in the same manner.'

I turned around quickly, stomping the Kobold that fell to the ground after its failed attempt to lung at me, causing it to shriek in pain as I turned into a mess of blood and flesh on the floor.

'I already knew as much from reading her status screen, but I wonder if her shape-shifting is limited to manifesting weapons, or is she capable of changing her appearance as well?'

Several goblins and kobolds closed the distance and threw themselves towards me, leaving no room to dodge. But it did not phase me as I merely shrugged with a bored expression, exploding some of my aura and killing all the surrounding monsters in the process.

"Oh, you're done already?" Briar asked with a smirk as she sliced the last goblin near her in half. "Not quite," I replied with a sigh while gesturing towards a spot in the enclosure where light particles began condensing again.

The light particles quickly took the shape of a humanoid creature, slightly taller and bulkier than your average human, with green skin, jagged fangs that protruded out of its mouth, and pointy ears.

"An orc," I murmured as I turned to look at Briar, who was looking at the creature with an eager expression. "He's all yours," I added with a shrug, earning a smirk from the crazy blonde as she immediately charged towards it.

The creature took a moment to scan its surroundings, its eyes immediately locking on Briar, who was charging towards him. The orc roared savagely, brandishing the club in its hands that looked more like the log of a small tree than anything else as it charged towards Briar.

The two of them quickly closed the distance between each other and immediately attacked, with Briar's metallic blade arm, meeting the orc's club halfway.

Briar's arm blade made short work of orc's club, immediately cutting through it, but the green humanoid did not let that phase him as he let go of the weapon, taking a step back to dodge Briar's attack.

The orc then took a step forward, sending a punch heading straight for Briar's face, and she reacted by raising one of her blade arms to protect herself.

The orc watched this and savagely smirked as he stopped its punch halfway through, lowering his fist and punching again, forcing Briar to dodge by tilting her torso to the side without moving.

Briar then corrected her posture, using the centrifugal force from her movement to propel herself forward as she took a step forward, swinging her arm blade horizontally at the orc's head.

The orc blocked the attack by swatting Briar's arm blade with the back of his hand, hitting it on its dull side, and sending it to the side, all while already punching with his other hand.

Briar smirked, and just as the orc's fist was about to hit her face, her body literally shrank, becoming shorter and causing the orc's fist to fly right above her head as she lunged forward, slicing the orc's neck and decapitating him.

"Oh, that was close," Briar said with a smirk. "I thought I was going to die for a minute," she added while wiping imaginary sweat from her forehead as she sighed in mock relief.

'If you're going to lie, then at least to make it believable.' I kept a natural expression as I watched the orc's body disappear, dissolving into light particles that reformed into a purple potion.

"It looks you got a drop of some sort," I remarked while gesturing towards the bottle on the ground, causing Briar to pick it up with a smirk on her face.

"I wonder what type of potion this is?" Briar wondered with a curious expression, raising the potion in front of her face and shaking it, causing the purple liquid to splash around.

"I'm sure Meave can answer that question," I replied with a shrug. "Or you could just take a sip right here and now...," I added with a smirk, trailing at the end of my sentence.

"You know, for the sake of science and all that," I jokingly said, causing Briar to roll her eyes as she put the potion away in her backpack.