"Gaining 2 Affinity in such a short time is pretty good," Adam says as we approach the large stone structure he says has the town's Dungeon. "And you gained 1 Magic, too. Since those affect your regen and pool respectively, that's decent. You'll probably reach the point where training doesn't increase them very much soon, but it does mean you can do more sooner."

I obtained the Class [Apprentice Wizard] last night before bed, and discovered that most Classes only give fractional amounts of Attributes. The fractional amount doesn't do anything until they add up to a whole amount, which is then added to the total.

Which makes Adam right, since training Magic and Affinity are apparently difficult. Having [Unlimited Potential] really helped there.

My [Magic Bolt] spell, the only spell I know at the moment, costs me 2 Mana at Level 1, so I can cast it 10 times. It can only travel about a foot in distance, though, which is a negative. Until I've gained a few more Magic, I'll be largely useless in combat. Adam said that I could hit something and then let him kill it so that I do gain some Experience, but that it won't be very effective for gaining Levels in the earlier parts of the Dungeon.

"I'm hoping to gain a bit more while we're in the Dungeon," I tell him. "I'd like to actually be able to kill its monsters on my own."

"It's possible," he shrugs, then opens the door to the Dungeon Hall.

The building is a single room, and the other end of it contains the Dungeon's entrance, an archway of green stone with nothingness contained inside of it. There are a few shops set up along the side walls in here, and only a few people actually in the building at the moment.

According to Adam, he won't be stopped from entering the Dungeon. That didn't stop him from insisting on me making the party so that if they wanted to know whose party it was, we could truthfully say that I'm the Party Leader.

Just as he told me, no one makes to stop us from entering the Dungeon. The passage between here and the Dungeon feels strange, a moment of coolness that isn't frigid, a feeling as if space isn't quite right. Then I'm in the Dungeon, a stone tunnel dimly lit by torches burning along the sides of the tunnel.

Not a tunnel, a hall. Its walls are stone bricks, while its floor and ceiling are stone tiles. The torches are set into metal holders, angled out a little and spaced every ten feet. While the light isn't the greatest, it's still enough to see by.

"I forgot," I say as Adam steps out of the wall behind me, no passage back out from here. "But do we know anything about the Dungeon? Or are we coming in blind?"

"I picked up a guide after you went to sleep," he tells me. "Most of the monsters in this section are going to be giant rats, some of which have weapons and magic, others which will just bite at you. This segment is a series of tunnels. You can complete it in one of three ways."

"Three?" I ask.

"Yeah," he nods. "Like I mentioned yesterday, it's possible to complete most segments of most Dungeons in different ways to get a new set of bonus Experience for completing it that way for the first time."

"Oh," I say. "What are the three ways?"

"This segment," he says. "Is a series of stone halls. You can take a more labyrinthine path full of tricks and traps, but fewer monsters if you want the route with the least fights. This nets the least Experience. There's a less-complicated path with fewer tricks and traps, but more monsters. Both of these take a lot longer than the third option, though."

"Which is more difficult?"

"Yes," he answers. "It's called a gauntlet. You battle your way through a swarm of monsters to the end of the passage, with a boss fight at the end. It's the most difficult of the three, but it's also the quickest by hours and nets the most Experience. It's also not recommended without a sizable party and the ability to protect the front and back."

"So which are we doing?" I ask. "The labyrinth or the other route?"

"The gauntlet."

"But I won't be able to-"

"I can protect us both," he states as he pulls off his tunic and sends it into his Inventory. "The rats are weak enough they won't hurt me even if I don't use any Skills."

"They can hurt me, too," I say. "And how can you protect both sides?"

"You'll see," Adam begins walking down the hall.

We walk for about a hundred yards before coming to a split, where a path branches off to either side in addition to the hall continuing forward. Adam doesn't break his stride as he continues forward, so I continue forward with him. The moment we're both past the split, a wall slides into place behind us, cutting off our retreat.

"That's not disturbing."

"The only way out is forward," Adam states as he continues walking. "Either you complete a Dungeon or you die once within."

As we walk, the hall begins to open up more and more, and once it's about thirty feet wide, sections of it slide down, forming doorways through which the rat monsters pour through.

They're all about three feet in height, and some have swords or clubs. A few of them have staffs with crystals set into their tops, and all of them charge toward us, attacking. Adam draws his sword and returns the favor.

He moves quickly enough that I can barely track him, blood and body parts of the rats spraying everywhere. The Demihuman moves quickly enough to protect both my front and my back, so I just continue walking down the passage. No wonder he felt this path was alright to choose.

Did he just crush that rat's skull with his grip? It was fast enough I couldn't make it out clearly, but I'm pretty sure he did.

The hall turns out to be around three hundred yards, and by the time we reach the end, Adam is covered in blood and I have a fair bit that sprayed onto me during the battle. A rat as tall as I am appears in front of us as we approach the exit, wielding a sword. Adam rips the sword out of its hand and runs the rat through with it.

"I felt useless," I say as we pass into the next area, a message appearing in my vision.

[Temple of the Rat God: The Rat Gauntlet] Completed First Time Completion Bonus: 10% Experience

"We gained 10% Experience just for that?" I ask.

"Yeah," he answers. "It's 10% Experience per Tier of the Dungeon per Stage you're in each time you complete a segment. So a segment of Stage 1 of a Tier I Dungeon grants 10% Experience, but 20% if it were a Stage 2 segment or in a Tier II Dungeon."

"And it would be 40% if both of those," I say.

"Correct," he nods. "And it doesn't matter what your Level or Tier is, the Experience bonus is static."

No wonder people will go into Dungeons even if it risks their life. The Experience just from completing an area for the first time is hugely beneficial. Someone nearing the end of a Class Tier might do them because the Experience is static, too.

"Where would we have ended up if we went one of the other routes?" I ask as I examine the solid stone wall taking up the place of the entrance we came here through.

"In a different part of the dungeons," he answers. "The two better options for us here would be either sneak through the Dungeons, or just kill every guard we come across. I'm in favor of the latter, it's simpler even if it will attract more fights. If we do the former, we'll need to clean up first."

"Can we clean up?" I ask.

"Yeah, but I'd rather do the latter option because it's easier."

"This is your run," I say. "I'm not going to contest that."

Adam begins walking with a surety to his step that suggests he looked at a map of this place. Every time we come across any of the rat guards, which are armored rats with spears or swords, he kills them easily, either before they can attack us or before they can flee.

This really does feel like he's doing all the work, especially since I don't even get a chance to do anything. Nothing is close enough for me to hit, and I'd probably not manage to kill them anyway. The Dungeons aren't massive, but they do take us about twenty minutes to travel through. If we were sneaking our way through, we'd probably take even longer.

The exit to the dungeons is a set of stairs guarded by a pair of rat guards as tall as I am. Their armor looks to be of a better quality than the other rat guards' armor, and the same goes for their weapons. One holds a spear, the other a sword.

Upon seeing us, the one with the spear brandishes its weapon, snarling at us. In return, Adam points at him.

An orb of fire forms in front of his hand, then shoots towards the pair of rat guards. Both of them dodge out of the way, but it's not enough. Adam flicks his finger down and the [Fireball] slams into the ground between where they had stood, erupting into a torrent of fire ten feet across. The inferno incinerates both of the rat guards as they didn't make it out of the way fast enough. We're twenty feet away from the blaze and I'm feeling the heat pretty strong.

It's even dried most of the blood us on, which is honestly kind of disturbing.

"There we go," Adam states as he walks forward after the inferno ends, the ground, walls, ceiling, and steps blackened by the flames. "No more rat guards."

"I know you said you knew magic," I say. "I didn't expect you to be like that."

"I have 32 Magic and 31 Affinity," he informs me, stopping at the stairs. "And a bonus to fire magic Experience. That [Fireball] was rather cheap for me. Just because I'm a warrior, it doesn't mean I'm incapable of magic."

"Right," I say. "This is because of your dragon side, right?"

"Yeah," he confirms. "My raw Attributes put me at the level of a fighter around the middle of Tier II and a magician around the middle of Tier III. This Dungeon is a Tier I Dungeon, which means a filled-out party of Level 0 adventurers could handle this Stage One."

I knew he had decent Attributes, but I didn't realize just how powerful he was considered as a result. And people consider him a monster, too… Adam's mentioned that he's been turned away before, but what would happen if he pushed back and insisted on it?

As people who have gone up a Tier or two is considered rare, it might not be easy for them to retaliate against him if he wanted to ignore them or force a matter. Maybe he doesn't because he'd rather not deal with getting hunted for it? A bounty being placed on the head of a Demihuman who tries to ignore the hate might be an actual thing, too.

"How big can a party be?" I ask.

"Fifteen members," he answers. "Though Special Dungeons, which are extremely rare, have a limit of twenty-five. You get an Experience Bonus at the end of each Stage for having smaller parties. Fifty percent extra with ten or less, and one hundred percent extra for five or less."

"So we'll get 20% Experience upon completing the next zone?" I ask.

"We'll get 10% for completing the next segment," he tells me. "We'll get 20% extra for completing the Stage. There's a difference."

"Right."

Adam steps onto the stairs, and I follow him up.

[Temple of the Rat God: Battle the Rat Guards] Completed First Time Completion Bonus: 10% Experience

"These stairs are the only way forward," he tells me. "We simply had multiple options for getting to them. Next up is an actual boss fight that acts as both the final segment of this Stage and the boss of the Stage. It should be relatively easy for me."

We finish ascending the steps and find ourselves in a stone temple, each of the pillars supporting the roof shaped like a rat twenty feet in height and holding a staff that's up to their shoulders in height. At the other side of the temple from us is a large set of doors, and something tells me we won't be able to pass through them until we defeat the giant rat standing in the middle of the temple.

It's easily ten feet in height, and it holds a staff in one hand along with brown robes with silver runes sewn into them. As soon as we're both in the room, the massive rat turns its attention to us, then points at us and shoots a spike of stone at us.

Adam takes a step forward and slaps the stone out of the air while pointing at the rat mage and sending a [Fire Bolt] its way. Then a second and a third. Gesturing, the rat mage summons a barrier to protect itself, only for Adam's spells to prove stronger than it. The first one destroys it, the second kills it, and the third was probably for good measure.

[Temple of the Rat God: The First Avatar of the Rat God] Completed First Time Completion Bonus: 10% Experience [Temple of the Rat God] Completed First Time Completion Bonus: 10% Experience Small Party Completion Bonus: 10% Experience

A Tier III mage is definitely too powerful for this Stage of the Dungeon. Once I'm there, I'll probably be able to do stuff like this as well. Heck, with my higher rate of growth in things, I might actually be there before reaching Tier III.

The name of the zone suggests that there are more avatars of the rat god we'll have to battle. I'm going to take a guess and say they're the bosses for the other two stages.

"What's next?" I ask. "I'm assuming we're going all the way through?"

"I am," he answers. "At the end of every Stage, you get a choice between leaving the Dungeon, immediately entering the next stage, or going to a safe zone that gives you ten hours' rest. You can also choose to leave the zone early, but only if all members of the party do. You can leave if you want."

"Wouldn't the Party Leader leaving make you leave?" I ask.

"No," he answers. "The complete party doesn't have to go into the Dungeon, they just have to go in together if they're going in."

"I see," I say. "So you're taking the ten-hour rest even though this was that easy?"

"No," he answers. "Just a short one, mostly to eat the food provided and get washed up. If you come with me, I'd recommend training your Magic another point or two. It shouldn't be that hard with how low you are and that bonus you have thanks to [Unlimited Potential]. All you need to do is try to push the limits of the magical power of [Magic Bolt] without letting the spell fall apart. Might take three or four hours, possibly less."

"So the next Stage is where I can try to get some Experience from kills?"

"Where you can get Experience from my kills, yeah."

I roll my eyes at his response, then walk toward the doors.

"Let's go," I tell him. "And I plan on being useful in this Dungeon by the time we finish Stage Three."