“Now that you know the basics of combat, we can talk about dungeons, if you’d like?” Amy offered as she started over to me. I nodded my head, glancing around for something that I could use to clean my blade of the blood on it before sheathing it. “We should get you a cleaning kit for that,” Amy suggested. “For now, just keep it out. Let’s get you another room of goblins to attack. Feeling like trying some Scouts again?”

  “Depends; is there going to be more of that weird fog stuff I hadn’t realized was there until I took two arrows to the metaphorical face?”

  Amy was silent for a moment before asking, “So is that a no?”

  I sighed and shook my head. “Just give me a head count of however many are in the room before I walk into it at least,” I said in defeat.

  “Won’t that feel like cheating?”

  “I don’t care what it feels like, as long as it’s not me feeling two more arrows slam into me.”

  “Fine, fine, though you should really let your instincts take over again. For now just follow me,” she said, taking point again and leading me down another hallway. It was similar to the last hallway we’d been in, so I decided to ask about it.

  “Hey, what’s the deal with these narrow hallways?”

  “Hm? Oh, I guess you wouldn’t know about dungeon layouts, would you?” Amy mused to herself before falling silent for a second before answering. “All beginner level dungeons, and most low level dungeons are often set up like this to allow breaks between rooms for your Hit Points and Stamina to recharge. Unfortunately that won’t happen for you, given your collar, but your Stamina pool should be high enough that it doesn’t really matter. Plus, you should level up at least once in here, and that’ll restore your Hit Points, Stamina, and Mana all back to full, regardless of anything limiting your natural restoration abilities being suppressed.”

  I consulted my remaining Stamina to confirm, and saw that I was down an additional 16 points, now at 1,302 out of my total 1,322. I quickly consulted my Combat Log and frowned. “I lose 1 Stamina for attacking or dodging?”

  “In dungeons, yes,” Amy replied non-helpfully.

  After a couple of seconds in silence, I pushed for clarification. “So… Does that mean outside of dungeons I lose more?”

  “Yes,” she replied, again, not very helpfully.

  I sighed and decided to table that for the time being, dismissing the notification about a new note without even bothering to read it this time. “Alright… What else do I need to know about dungeons besides the difference in Stamina drain and the fact that these monsters aren’t real like you and me?”

  “Oh, they’re real,” Amy said, causing me to pause midstep. Amy on the other hand, kept walking, “They’re just not sentient. If they weren’t real, they wouldn’t be able to deal damage to you.”

  I suppose that made sense, but I didn’t want to admit that. Not that it mattered though, given that Amy could read my thoughts. “Alright,” I said, nodding as I resumed walking again. “So what else?” I paused, before deciding to just take full control over the conversation. “What’s the deal with that weird fog stuff that we saw in the first room?”

  “Dungeon rooms are designed to give advantage to the monsters, even in beginner level dungeons like this.”

  “So they have the home field advantage?”

  “There are a few exceptions, but generally speaking, yes, that is correct. The fog you encountered was specifically designed to limit your visibility, though normally that wouldn’t matter to someone like you.”

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  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Well, if you didn’t have that collar on, your Beastfolk senses would be in full effect, meaning that you’d likely have been able to hear those arrows before you’d even seen them. Hell, with a 74 perception, you’d likely have been able to hear all them breathing in the room.”

  “That sounds… Overwhelming,” I said, unable to imagine what it would be like to have such sensitive hearing. “Does that mean I need to watch out for dog whistles?” I asked, suddenly very concerned about the possibility of some high-pitched sound causing me to have a massive headache.

  “Not likely,” Amy replied as we turned down another path in the hallway, this time without stopping. “;Algion doesn’t have anywhere near as good of an understanding on anatomy compared to Earth, and that’s doubly so for the Beastfolk. I suspect they’re at least an era or two off from figuring that out, if not longer.”

  “An era is longer or shorter than an epoch?” I asked, remembering a bit of the conversation from our trip to Rosevale.

  “An era is 128 epochs,” Amy explained, before resuming. “Anyway, like I keep saying, for most beginners these dungeons are a significant challenge, but based on your level you’d realistically be tackling medium level dungeons. I wouldn’t recommend that right now with your collar on, but once it’s off or you’re a bit more experienced with fighting in The System, we can try one, if you’d like?”

  As we rounded another corner, I saw the opening to the next room and my stomach sank a little. The fog was leaking into the hallway and I couldn’t see anything inside the room. Amy slowed her walk a bit so that she was next to me, and nudged me with her shoulder. “Relax, there are only three in this room. All of them are level 2 Scouts, so they will have 4 Hit Points total. They’re all unarmored, and all using bronze arrows. Just focus on your instincts and you’ll be fine.”

  I looked down at my little feline aid and scowled. “I suspect that if you were the one these guys were shooting arrows at, you wouldn’t be this calm about it.”

  “Oh, no, I’d have stopped them before they even had an arrow out to fire,” she replied matter of fact, causing me to scowl more. “But…” she started, as if to consider my perspective, if only just a little. “Given my current form, yes, I suppose one of those arrows would hurt a lot.”

  I rolled my eyes and tightened my grip on my sword’s hilt. “Shut up! You and I both know you’d just turn transparent or something,” I grumbled. “Anything else I need to know before I go become a pin cushion again?”

  Amy was silent for a moment before replying, “Oh, it looks like there’s loot in the next room.”

  “Oh?” I asked, feeling my tail start to wag in excitement at that. I frowned, glancing back at my tail, but it continued to wag. That was another thing I’d struggled to get used to during my trip to Rosevale. My tail was really horrible at hiding my emotional state, especially when I was excited about something. “What kind of loot?”

  “Dunno, The System doesn’t roll for loot until the monsters are defeated. Though, that is odd; normally loot is only awarded by a boss or mini-boss, and beginner dungeons shouldn’t have a mini-boss.”

  “That doesn’t sound reassuring,” I said, pausing as with my foot in the air, inches from crossing the threshold to the next room.

  “Ah, there it is,” Amy said, her voice not the least bit concerned by my hesitation.

  “There what is?”

  “There is a mini-boss here. I just missed it initially because it’s not a goblin.”

  “There’s a non-goblin here? But the dungeon interface–” I began, only for Amy to interrupt.

  “Does not indicate all the monsters you will find in a dungeon, though it is unusual for a beginner dungeon to throw something like this at you.”

  Taking a step back, as my foot was still looming over the threshold to the room, I turned back to look at Amy. “So what, we turn back?”

  “I’m crunching some numbers, hold on,” Amy replied. A minute later she responded, “I… Think you’ll be fine, assuming you can take out the three goblins without issue.”

  “And if I can’t?”

  “Then it’ll hurt a lot, but you should still be fine.”

  I sighed and pulled up my Personal Space menu, quickly selecting the Bronze Plate Armor Set and equipping it, instantly feeling the heavy armor as it appeared on my head, chest, and legs; I even had a shield in my hand. My Beastfolk self felt absolutely beyond miserable, but the me part of myself felt at least a little bit better now that I was wearing some actual armor. “How about now?”

  “Significantly less hurt, though more so from the giant spider, not so much the goblins.”

  “Now hold on a second, you didn’t say anything about a spider,” I said, suddenly terrified of the room that was behind me.

  “Oh, and they agro outside the room,” Amy added as I felt something attach itself to my armor and yank me into the darkness behind me.

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