Austin made his way back to his apartment in the southern district of the island, he tried to organize his thoughts.

Before yesterday, I wasn’t even qualified to be a Crawler, just a low ranked conduit. But now, it feels like I have limitless potential.

Just to confirm he wasn’t still dreaming, he muttered to himself, “Open Stat Window.”

Sure enough, his view filled with a soft blue glow that only he could see.

All Conduits possessed the ability to open their own stat windows that only the owner could see, even the weakest of them like Austin. In his window, there was a piece of information that he had never seen before.

Unique Passive: Quick Learner

This passive ability handed down from one Savior to the next multiplies all EXPERIENCE gained tenfold.

Austin whistled under his breath.

Ten times the experience, huh? As far as I know stats can't be manipulated, so it must be the real deal...

According to his Window, his stats (Strength, Intelligence, and Agility) had already increased by 10 points each, signifying that he had gone up 10 levels since yesterday, and he also had 5 free points to spend.

So this is what leveling up feels like… He thought to himself.

Let’s be smart about this, I’ll put 3 points into Strength, one into Agility, and one into Intelligence.

As he confirmed it in his head, the changes he specified took place inside of the window. As the points took their place among his stats, he felt his muscles tightening as the warmpth of mana spread through his body.

His Stat Window now read:

Austin McKenna

Title: None

Class: None

HP: 150

Stamina: 200

Strength: 28

Intelligence: 21

Agility: 26

These were his stats, and while a bit higher than they were previously, he was still only marginally stronger than a normal person, let alone a top class Crawler.

The ability to control the flow of Mana that poured into the world the day the doors appeared. That is what makes someone a conduit. On that day, about 1 in every 100,000 people woke up to find themselves in possession of superhuman abilities. Some could manipulate the mana like the sorcerers from old fairy tales, creating fire, ice, wind, or lightning. Some could cloak themselves to be invisible to the naked eye and move like the breeze. And some couldn’t control the mana directly, but instead harnessed it into their physical forms, becoming able to achieve feats that should not be possible by humans. The strongest of them able to level entire buildings with a single strike.

Suddenly, the dungeon and the material gain it offered was not the biggest problem, but the fact that a door to another realm could open anywhere, at any time, and pour out creatures normal humans had no chance of standing against into the world.

The UN and its member nations quickly ratified a series of amendments that would be known as the “Crawler Accords.”

This set of laws passed almost unanimously in the UN set out regulations on the use of these new “Powers” and how resources from the dungeon would be used.

Firstly, any conduit was forbidden by law to use their powers outside of fighting monsters inside or outside the dungeon. They were free to continue living as a normal person, but if they wanted to use their newfound power, they would need to use it in service of humanity.

Next, entrance to the dungeon was tightly controlled. Those who were judged to be too weak to survive against the denizens waiting for them inside were denied entry, mostly for their own safety. For this reason, the ranking system championed by the association came about.

Finally, this ranking system was established to give Crawlers of proper rank authority befitting their power, such as establishing and leading guilds to profit off of their delves into the darkness.

A One-Star conduit was only marginally stronger than your average human, but a Seven-Star would be strong enough to single-handedly wipe out an entire nation.

If a person’s Mana exceeded that of a One-Star, they would be allowed to apply for a Crawler’s License, which involved a series of rigorous tests to weed out those not strong enough to survive the trials of delving into the dungeon.

Austin finally arrived at the building he had called home for the two years since he’d been left alone.

Austin wandered over to his bed, and collapsed heavily onto its meager frame.

What a day…

I need to figure out what I’m going to do, but first I need to organize my thoughts on what exactly happened to me yesterday.

With that thought, the events of the last couple of days started to replay in his head.

*****************************************************************************************************************

Today is finally the day! Austin thought to himself.

Since he was too weak to apply for a Crawler’s license, he, like many other people, was caught in an unwinnable situation. He was too weak to fight even the lowest level monsters, so he had no way of gaining EXP to get stronger. No matter how hard he tried, the stats shown in his stat window just wouldn’t budge.

Conduits had been trying to find a way around this mysterious system since the day it appeared, but no luck. People tried “Power Leveling” tactics not seen outside video games, but the system would grant the EXP to whichever person dealt the most damage to an opponent, not whoever killed it. People tried physical exercise to raise their stats, but to no avail, it seemed that once someone awakened as a conduit, training their body no longer did any good. The only way to get stronger was to kill monsters.

If every 1 in 100,000 people awakened as a Conduit, then 10,000 of those new Conduits Were completely incapable of combat with monsters due to low starting stats.

Austin McKenna was one of those unlucky lucky.

However, today he had finally gotten clearance from one of the local guilds to act as a porter for one of their lower level Crawler teams. He would carry their extra equipment through the dungeon while they cleared the floor in exchange for a bit of pay.

It wasn’t the best job, but here he’d still make more than he would in an honest day’s work, and it was a step closer to his dream of being a Crawler

“Heyo kiddo!” a large, round faced man called out to him as he approached the Door Site.

“Hello, Sir.” Austin said back, trying to be as polite as possible. Don’t mess this up or you’ll never get another shot, he thought to himself.

As he walked up he eyed the two men in dark suits who must’ve been Association employees. Even though this was a low ranked Door, they still needed to guard the entrance to ensure no monsters exited before the clear team could go in.

The big man lumbered over to him and clapped him on the shoulder, “This here is a simple 2-Star Door, nothing to fret over. My name is Anderson James, 4-Star Crawler, and I’m in charge here. As long as you stick with me, you’ll be A-OK!”

His cheerful disposition seemed to be infectious, and the other Crawlers of the group perked up and introduced themselves in turn.

There were 6 of them in all, not including Austin, and they were all 3-Star Crawlers with the exception of their leader.

Anderson is right, a 2-Star should be a cakewalk for a group like this.

“Mr. James, your team is cleared for entry. This Door has been open for a total of 12 hours, so please take care of it soon.” One of the black suited men called from the entrance.

“You got it! Let’s roll out, team!”

Austin hoisted the heavy bags onto his shoulders and followed the group inside.

My first time inside the dungeon. This is definitely one of the lower floors, a perfect place to start out.

As the party made their way down the musty, craggy corridor covered in a strange luminous stones that lighted their way, a chill shot down Austin’s spine.

The rest of the party seemed nonplussed, it was clear that only he had this unnerving feeling.

Something was definitely wrong here.