It was a surreal experience to sit and have dinner with these people. There was a giant star devouring Network, and inside of that was a huge dungeon which contained a disc where millions of people were battling for possibly the existence of their race. On that disc were many smaller dungeons and there he was inside of one of those having a meal with a bunch of elves who were here as volunteers to earn resources for their community.

  Alan didn’t know what to expect when they arrived at the sibling’s home, but was still amazed by what he found. It was a dwelling located above the largest platforms at the bottom, but below what turned out to be the smaller, poorer, houses at the top. The family house took up an entire platform and extended at least two stories up. The wooden boards looked bright and new but were also covered with a clear lacquer. None of the buildings he had seen in the town had windows, and this was no exception. A large dark green banner hung next to the main entrance. It was a rich looking fabric that was further embellished with a picture of a tree with an axe across it in the center of the banner.

  He waited a little ways from the door while Anna and her brothers were greeted by her parents. A family servant had seen them approaching so they were already at the door when the hunters arrived. There was a definite warmth in the family’s words to each other, but no hugs or other physical greetings were offered. This could have been a cultural thing, or possibly it was due to the blood and gore on Anna and Kess. Devan had managed to stay out of any direct conflict and therefore kept himself relatively clean.

  Soon it was Alan’s turn to be introduced and the parents had polite words of greeting for him. They were all invited inside and a servant showed him to a room where he could use a shower to wash up. To his surprise there was running water in what otherwise had seemed like a primitive setting.

  Alan hurriedly stripped off his clothes and stepped into the stall. It was a luxurious feeling washing off not just the remains of the battle, but the filth he had been acquiring in his adventures. He had taken several baths in the lake, and one more recently in his new stream, but he had never felt truly cleansed. Here there was even a flower scented soap that was used to scrub himself clean twice. For the first time since he had gone to the space station he felt truly restored, refreshed, and pristine. Soap was another item to try and pick up if he found another store to shop at.

  Partway through scrubbing himself off there was a knock at the door. Alan turned the water off and called out “yes, do you need something?”

  It was Annalee’s voice he heard through the door. “I was wondering if you needed some assistance in figuring out how the shower worked. I could come in and show you if you wanted.”

  Her offer seemed simple but Alan could hear much more in her question than her words might have suggested. For a moment he was sorely tempted to take her up on it. There hadn’t been a woman in his life since he broke up with Jessica, not even for a short time. The idea of scrubbing each other in the shower, and maybe a whole lot more, was a fantasy he would keep for the many lonely nights to come in this trial. However, ultimately he couldn’t go through with it. He was still unclear on how much these dungeon dwellers controlled their decisions and it would feel too much like taking advantage of her while she was under the sway of the dungeon core.

  “I appreciate the offer but I was able to figure it out. Do you know how much longer ‘til dinner?” Rational thoughts aside, it was still an effort to turn her down.

  “That is good. It will still be about another half an hour. My brother Kess is known for his long showers.” It was hard to miss the disappointment in her voice. Eighteen year old Alan would have had some choice words for the adult version.

  The water went back on and he finished getting clean without any more interruptions. He spent a few more minutes enjoying the cold water running down his body before he stepped out and toweled off. The material was a little scratchy but soaked up the water with ease. Alan suddenly felt less pristine as he stared at his filthy and tattered garments before making another trip into the shower to wash them the best he could. The sooner he procured those new pants from the Dungeon Exchange the better.

  While washing his clothes he remembered to check in with Tamee and to ask about some of the concerns he had. While it was possible for Tamee to initiate conversations, she generally waited for him to talk. He was getting used to having her evaluate his performance after completing the various quests. After hearing about what he did well and the surprisingly few criticisms it was time to learn more about how these dungeons worked.

  “How much control of their actions do dungeon dwellers have?” That seemed to be the term to designate those who volunteered to be part of the dungeons.

  “More and less than you think. The dungeon does not overtly control their actions and responses, but it does have some low level ways of affecting them. The first is that it is capable of causing the dwellers to forget that they are in a dungeon. The people you interact with usually think they are really living in the wider universe. Second, it is capable of giving them initial feelings or directives. This gets the storyline moving and gives them a basis for how they should act. The core can also affect their aura slightly, this would be perceived by them as instincts or gut feelings. This allows the dungeon core to sometimes have dwellers respond to situations in ways they might not otherwise.”

  “So if I find one person to be friendly and another person to be a jerk, it’s probably their original personalities and not something the dungeon is forcing on them?”

  “Most likely. Also, larger dungeons will often make things easier for themselves and use entire communities to help populate their story. This town is probably made up of an Elven community on some world somewhere. The bonus rewards for an entire community willing to join up are much more significant than for an individual.”

  “So when Annalee offered to help me with the shower that was just her being attracted to me and not the dungeon forcing an encounter?” Eighteen year old Alan was back to kick his butt.

  “I couldn’t believe you passed that up. I would have been tempted and I don’t normally have those proclivities. But to answer your question, that is again hard to say. It could have been a natural attraction, or the dungeon could have been giving her nudges in that direction and she took that as her own feelings.”

  The conversation left him more conflicted now than before. After climbing out of the shower for the third time, Alan wrung out his clothes the best he could, but despite his efforts they were still damp when it was time to head down for dinner. His wardrobe was limited, so he figured it was better to be wet than be naked. He passed Anna in the hall and she gave his outfit an appraising look, her eyes lingering in a few places perhaps a moment longer than at others. Perhaps one person might regret his refusal to go naked.

  The dining room was truly a grand ordeal. It wasn’t the kind of huge room that could hold a giant feast and a dance floor, but it was big enough to seat twenty people at once if they squeezed together. Currently Anna’s father and mother were sitting at the far end of the highly ornamented table. They both wore thin and long flowing garments in shades of green. Anna was wearing a similar outfit. Alan felt it was an interesting choice as the clothes made the already thin people look like they would blow away in a stiff breeze. But they did look like they were very comfortable.

  Her father gave Alan’s outfit a measuring look and a frown crossed the older man’s face. He soon covered it up but it wasn’t hard to tell that he didn’t approve. When the parents first saw him they must have assumed that his clothes were damaged in the fight. The homeless chic look didn’t faze her mother at all, though, and she had a wide grin on her face.

  “Thank you so much for bringing my children home to me. Devan told us what a near thing it was.”

  Devan was seated across from his mother and had a sheepish look on his face. “Sorry, you guys took forever and I had to tell them something.” It didn’t escape Alan’s notice that the formal way of speaking they had used previously was relaxed now that they were in a more familial setting.

  “I’m sure that they would have been fine without me. They just would have come up with a different plan if I wasn’t there. Anna truly has a fine head on her shoulders” As terrible as Alan usually was with women, he had found that parents always loved him. Anna blushed slightly and demurred at the praise.

  As this exchange finished the group was finally joined by Kess. He really had taken the longest in the shower, even with Alan going back to wash his clothes. Dinner was a pleasant enough affair. There was a salad course made up of mushrooms. He mostly pushed those around on his plate, pretending to eat so as not to offend. The main course was a collection of birds. Apparently the townsfolk spread large nets around the forest like spiders to catch birds in. These were in high demand and were a treat for the success of their mission.

  Their mother ran most of the conversation and her concern for her children was obvious. Anna and Kess both minimized the danger they had been in with the bogerrel. He also got to hear about some of the gossip around the town and some stories of the siblings misadventures. Their father rarely contributed, but when he did it was usually in an attempt to get information from Alan about his past or what he was doing here.

  It probably wouldn’t have mattered if he told the truth, but he was still not sure if telling them they were in a dungeon would have consequences. Instead he stuck to a vague background that implied he was just a traveler passing through. It was during a more entertaining portion of the conversation that he found the explanation for how they had running water.

  “So you installed these large collectors at the top of the trees?” he asked.

  Devan was the one explaining. “Yes, they fill up from all the rain water and then there is a special type of vine that when dried we can use as a pipe to bring the water down to us. Not everyone can afford to have it sent directly to their house, but there are communal facilities as well.”

  Another interesting topic of conversation came during dessert. They had just passed out some kind of rich custard dish with a caramelized sauce and their mother was explaining the expensive dish.

  “We knew this was a favorite of Kess’ and a good way to celebrate his first independent adventure. We could certainly afford it after the most recent harvest.”

  While their family seemed well off, he realized he didn’t know how they got their money. “Do you help with the mushroom patch I saw down below?”

  It was their father who responded “We are not farmers, grubbing about. We deal in wood. Most of the buildings you see in Elhnor were built with lumber that our family harvested and cut.” Alan by now was convinced that he was a gruff man by nature and that his demeanor at dinner was normal and not because of any negative feelings he had toward Alan. He was also obviously proud of their accomplishments and if his statement was true he very well should be. This entire town was made of wood, and he didn’t mean the tree trunks. It was then he recalled his original purpose for entering dungeons today and saw his chance.

  Alan inquired about the possibility of buying some lumber himself. The father seemed to come alive when talking about wood and he asked for more information. His storage space would limit the size of things he could bring with him. He had been hoping for boards that were at least three meters long to build his small shack with. He figured he would be able to lay them sideways inside the stone foundation, but he didn't think a board that large could fit. Instead they settled on boards that were just under two meters long that had some special cuts at the ends so that he could easily nail them together.

  They also sold him a bag of nails which would be incredibly useful. He only purchased a few of the boards with the special ends and would use them as horizontal supports. The rest of the boards would be installed vertically to form the walls, so they had square ends. The price ended up being four gold for the wood and another gold for the bag of nails.

  At last it was time for him to leave and Alan thanked the parents for their hospitality and their help with the purchase. He also thanked Devan for all his guidance with his growing tracking skill. Kess thanked him again for saving his life. Alan tried to minimize what he had done and build up the growing warrior’s confidence.

  Anna would be the last to say goodbye. The family didn’t have the wood here at their house so she would escort him to their warehouse and make sure he got the goods he had purchased. It was a thankfully short trip as most of it was spent in awkward silence. Alan could tell that there were things she wanted to say, words to express the feelings she thought she had. He would be just as glad to avoid the whole thing. It was probably not an admirable response, but he knew how bad he was with women.

  Finally after he had gathered his items from the warehouse they turned to say goodbye. She started by thanking him for his assistance and he thanked her for playing guide. Then he could see her hesitate before leaning in and giving him a hug. He was uncomfortably aware of the thin fabric of her dress and the threadbare nature of his tunic.

  “I am sorry to see you go. I shall always remember you.” She whispered in his ear.

  He knew he had to give her something more than trite words, but what he managed was “I will always remember you as well, believe me. Thank you for allowing me to join your party.” He was about to pull away when he came to another decision. “Your brother was too generous with his reward money, please find a way to give this back to him for me.”

  Now Alan did break away, but as he did so he passed her the pouch containing the remaining gold that Kess had given him. Even knowing that the money wasn’t really being taken from Kess he still felt uncomfortable keeping it. The wood and nails were reward enough, and that didn’t even count the still mysterious fruits he had been given. In Tamee’s debriefing earlier he had forgotten to ask about them.

  Anna pocketed the money and gave him a sad smile. In another act of stunningly unimpressive rizz he quickly made his escape. In his previous life Alan had been with several women, but not an impressive number of them. He was a rather fit and well educated man who was good with his money, so most women wouldn’t say no to a free drink from him. It was once he started talking to them that most found an excuse to leave. Now that he was in the tutorial he felt like the same buffon as before, but all of the ladies around him suddenly found him charming. Perhaps there was some kind of hidden charisma stat?

  Alan soon found himself back on the footpath that led out of the dungeon. He had spent more time on this adventure than he had needed to, but he felt it was worth it. For the rewards, the shower, and the social experience. Leaving aside the awkward tension with Anna, just being able to sit and eat and share a conversation with others was welcome.

  Exiting the dungeon he once again found himself in the open plain with the lone tree towering above him. The forty dungeon points earned was sadly not quite enough to buy the much needed pants, but he now had quite a few things to help with his soon to be dwelling. The sun was already well on its way down from its zenith so Alan didn’t want to waste any time.

  He made it back to the location of his new house very quickly. He had always had a pretty good sense of directions, but whether it was a reaction to the pressure of his new situation or a result of one of his new stats he found it incredibly easy to navigate. Not only was his memory of his surroundings better, allowing him to easily retrace his steps, but he also had an almost instinctual ability to triangulate his position.

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  Upon returning to his depressing foundation he found a surprise. As he neared the short stone wall he had previously managed to build he noticed a small furry form in the far corner. Somehow sensing his scrutiny the creature suddenly raised its head and looked right at Alan. It looked like a small white dog.

  Beast: Wolf Pup (uncommon) level 1, threat: none

  So it wasn’t a dog, it was a wolf. However, unlike the ones from tier one this was clearly not full grown and the threat indicator confirmed that he had nothing to fear. The feeling was apparently not mutual. After looking at him for a moment it scampered over to a low section in the wall and managed to climb its way over before running away. He found himself rather bemused by the encounter, but it confirmed that he should get some walls built up to keep him safe at night.

  The special boards he had gotten had a cutout on one end that went in about fifteen centimeters. These were designed to overlap with another board so that they formed one long section. It was actually longer than the width of the stone walls so they would stick out some. He needed another support structure to be able to fasten a few rows of these boards in place.

  Now that he could unload all of the wood in his storage space he set out for one of the small collections of trees near his house. He didn’t go to the nearest as he wanted to keep the immediate surroundings more scenic. It was the work of only about thirty minutes to cut down several trees and then turn them into logs that were about two and a half meters long. Each log was also at least twenty centimeters in diameter.

  There was definitely something going on with how time and work interacted under the Network. Cutting down even one of these trees and cutting it into logs with his small axe would have been the work of at least half an hour normally. Whatever the cause, it made his job much easier and he was soon on his way back with his storage once again full of wood. On the way he spotted a furry head poking out of the tall grass, spying on him from across the stream.

  After returning to his construction site he dumped out the logs and then had a session of eyeballing measurements. These logs would need to be put in the ground at least sixty centimeters to make sure they were solid. They probably should have gone in even deeper, but they wouldn’t be supporting too much weight, nor would they be tasked with withstanding an attack. And as he had discovered previously, digging sucked.

  He had enough logs to put one at each corner and then one more on each side. Because the logs were of different diameters he wasn’t even going to try and find exact placements. He just used his shovel to dig eight large holes against the inside of the stone walls. He could worry about trying to fit the posts correctly when it was time to fill around them.

  This digging was making him hungry so he took a break to set up his fire pit. This was more than a simple ring of stones. As a teenager he had helped one of his neighbors around the farm for a summer job. This guy was into all things DIY and one of the projects had been making an oven for firing clay figures his wife made. It was there he learned about how to make mortar that was more resistant to heat than normal.

  The mortar he had used to build the foundation of his house could withstand heat up to two hundred and sixty degrees celsius without much issue. A campfire can easily reach temperatures over five hundred degrees. By adding some clay to the composition it would improve its heat resistance, allowing it to endure heat up to a thousand degrees. He had located a patch of exposed clay by the stream while looking for stones earlier in the day and soon had made a couple of batches of the fire resistant mortar.

  The setup for his new cooking station was more of a rectangle with a chimney in the back. This would allow for a nice flow of air into the fire and reduce the amount of smoke and ash that would rise into the cooking meat. He also made a rim around the inside of the pit that he could put the grill on. He stepped back to admire his work. It wouldn’t be dry for a while, exactly how long was anyone’s guess in this place, but he would not be lighting a fire in it any time soon.

  He sat in the grass with his back to the foundation of his house as he admired his work and snacked on blueberries. He had saved a cooked boar steak from the other night in his storage, but he was saving that for when he was done. Since his pouch kept things in stasis the steak would come out as hot as when he placed it in there. It seemed like cheating, but it was too useful to complain.

  All of this work had been finished in two hours. He had tried to feel the passage of time as he worked and there was just no way to tell how he was doing things so fast. He had asked Tamee but she had just told him to enjoy how much more productive he could be. Apparently it was a feature of the Network. For much of the time he had been taking his break he had also been watching the small wolf pup.

  He wasn’t sure where it had come from, whether it was separated from a pack or if it had spawned into existence like this. However it got here, it was somehow fixated on his house. It seemed to know that it posed no threat to Alan, but it was making sure to watch his every action. If the thing continued to grow he might have to do something about it, but as long as it stayed small it was nice having an audience.

  “Time to get back to work,” he called out to the pup. That was apparently against the rules because it ran off and hid by some nearby trees.

  Now for the hard part. It was time to place the posts. After setting them in their holes they would be just over two meters high and he needed them to be as vertical as possible. That was going to be difficult since he had to both hold them, and fill in around them, while also checking if they were straight. That was too much for one person and he kinda wished the little wolf could help him with the alignment. In the end it was a dirty and sweaty affair that came down to a lot of guess and check.

  Once each post was in place he poured in about six centimeters worth of regular mortar near the top to provide a little more strength. He wouldn’t be able to fill in the rest of the hole until it had dried, but it should make the supports at least a little more stable. He could have used more, but it was time consuming to make and he wasn’t sure how well it would work as filler compared to actual concrete.

  He was working on the second to last post when he noticed his audience was back. Instead of watching him, though, he found it licking the grill. He hadn’t been able to properly clean it last time and it must have had some yummy drippings coating the bars. He didn’t begrudge the little thing its treat and finished with the last post.

  Now it was time for the much easier task of putting up the boards. First up were the long horizontal supports that were made of two special boards each. For most of the walls the join was placed right against the support post in the middle and the nail was hammered through the join and into the post. He also hammered two nails into the board at each log on the corners. He had thought his stone axe was especially crude, but trying to pound in iron nails with his quartz hammer stone was especially challenging.

  The last wall faced the stream and it is the one that would contain the door. Rather than putting in a second post on this side for the doorway he instead just put the support post off center. The good news was that because of the size of everything he was able to simply use one board to cross this space without any overhang. He now had three horizontal boards one each side of the house. One near the bottom, one near the top, and one near the center. Now was the rewarding part where he simply hammered the rest of the planks vertically to the supports.

  Because of the thickness of his materials in the end he was left with a wooden wall that stuck out from the logs and over half of the width of the stone foundation. The door was a little more difficult but luckily he had told Anna what his project was on their way to the warehouse. She had managed to get him two iron hinges to include with his order. They alone would have probably gone for several silver, but she had pressed them into his hand and told him it was for saving her brother’s life, and her own.

  As he finished hanging the door he peeked out through the opening and saw the little wolf sitting next to the fire pit watching with what Alan hoped was approval. The door swung closed and with another board he secured the door using special braces he had nailed to the back of it. It looked like a miniature version of the bar on a castle gate. When closing it from the outside he would use a string he had appropriated from one of his normal pouches and a nail to keep it closed.

  From the inside it looked much better than the outside. He had used the few leftover boards to make some wooden shelves on the short wall. This would be a nice bit of storage for him in the future. Opening the door again he came face to face with the wolf pup. The little thing must have been sniffing at the doorway trying to figure out what it was. It immediately turned and ran, passing across the stream, it was a dog paddle champion, and then disappearing into the grass on the far side. He felt a little bad for startling it, but what could you do?

  He set about gathering the tall grass near the cooking pit and layed it in the corner of his house. He then placed several of the wolf furs on top of the grass to make snuggly bed mark two. The coyote fur had made for a great mattress, but the wolf fur should be even better. This was starting to feel downright luxurious.

  The entire time he had been working today, Tamee was chatting in his head. She had become a real talker now that she considered Alan a friend and not just an assignment. For his part he mostly grunted yes and no answers to her comments. He had found that he was really enjoying building with his hands. It was something he had been occasionally called on to do as an adult, but it brought back memories of working with his father when he was just a kid. It was nice to occasionally think back on simpler times..

  It was now decision time again. Checking the sun, it had almost been a day since he had come out of the dwarven dungeon. The sun was just about to set. He could make his way back there and start it tonight, or he could enjoy today’s efforts and go back after a solid night of rest. No one who knew him would describe him as a lazy person, but he chose to meet the new challenge well rested and ready to go.

  That meant he still had more time to improve his home before his nightly rituals. He had been collecting lots of fruit in his travels in the hopes that he could grow some of his own. Blueberries were nice, but a little variety would be good. He still had a small mound of the rich soil he had previously collected, but this land also seemed very fertile. Alan took a break to eat his previously roasted boar meat and plan out his future garden.

  If he had all the necessary tools and he was going to do this properly he would plow the whole area to remove the grass and bring up freshly turned soil. But he didn’t have the tools and he wasn’t that dedicated to the endeavor. This would be his home for a month but then he would be moving on. It was more proof of concept than a true dedication to the craft. So instead of plowing the whole field he dug a line about thirty meters long. He took off the top layer of grass and soil and then turned over the first ten to thirteen centimeters of dirt with his shovel. Then it was time to plant.

  He started with a couple of peach pits and then planted a few clumps of blueberries, followed by another couple of peach pits. He seemed to remember something about fruit trees needing others of the same kind to actually produce fruit. He wasn’t sure if that was for all trees, or even if it was still true with the Network, but it didn’t hurt to be safe. Next were some of the blackberries followed by some apple seeds from the rotten ones he had picked up. To finish it up he planted a few clumps of the new keil berries and then some more apple seeds. He had no idea if the spacing was appropriate, but again this was more a proof of concept.

  The trees were probably a waste of time, but if a blueberry planted in the ground could become a bush with ripe blueberries four days later it was worth a try. Having a variety of fruits on hand would make a nice addition to his meat heavy diet. Maybe at some point he should get some veggies to go with all the fruit. Thinking of the fruits made him remember his last reward.

  Item: Fruit of Strength (rare), this fruit can be consumed to improve your strength stat by one.

  Ok, that sounded awesome, and it reminded Alan of the fruits he had gotten from the tree in the mage dungeon.

  Item: Fruit of Knowledge (rare), this fruit can be consumed to improve your intelligence stat by one.

  “Tamee, are you seeing these fruits?”

  “Yes, Alan, I am watching as always.”

  “You could do less of that while I’m bathing, you know. I haven’t forgotten you were watching while I took that shower. Are these things as awesome as they seem?” he asked.

  “I don’t have a lot to do here. Leave me to my guilty pleasures. About the fruit, not really. For most anyone else they would be great, but not for you. They are useful but they do have some side effects. The good news is you don’t have to worry about that. The bad news is that you shouldn’t use them at all. Because you have a strength class these fruits would interfere with the natural development of your strength pathways. The same for the intelligence fruits and your mage class. While they could provide you with more strength now, they would lead to a loss of attributes later.”

  She had used a term he was unfamiliar with, “What are strength pathways, are they different from the regular pathways I have been cultivating?”

  “Pathways for strength you say? Never heard of them, no idea.” Alan thought they had moved past this, but she did have some of her old boundaries restored and she had to respect them when it came to giving out information. “Anyway, you should still hang on to them, they are quite valuable. And before you ask, no you cannot plant these and grow more. These are fruits that have evolved from absorbing certain types of mana. That process renders them sterile for purposes of replanting.”

  She had indeed anticipated his question. Gone was the vision of a grove of trees producing hundreds of these things. They probably wouldn’t be that valuable if that was possible. “I’m going to clean up again so feel free to do something else.”

  He just managed to catch her blowing him a raspberry as their chat cut off. True to his word Alan took a bath in the stream to wash off. His clothes weren’t that dirty for a change, but he still rinsed them and hung them off a few extra nails he had hammered into the outside of the house for that purpose. A clothesline would have been more effective, but he didn’t have anything he could use. Before taking care of his daggers he ate some blackberries and blueberries as he thought of the attribute fruits.

  He supposed it would make sense that if his classes naturally improved his attributes that using these special fruits might not be a good idea. They were kinda like steroids. He could also see the value in them for someone else. If you didn’t have a strength class then you would find your combat effectiveness handicapped when you could no longer hit hard enough to affect higher leveled foes. These fruits would provide a way for those people to increase their strength without the class.

  His blades hadn’t actually seen much work today, mostly just carving up his dinner. He only had to make a few cursory passes with his whetstone before he felt comfortable putting them away. He had grown a decent amount in the tree dungeon so he had some smoothing out to do with his aura. He actually finished working on his daggers before he finished his cultivation so he remained seated while working on the pathways.

  Alan could smooth the flow rather quickly if he wanted, just like he had in the beginning. However, taking more time and perfecting the new pathways led to a more efficient flow which he assumed was going to pay dividends in ways he didn’t yet understand. With that task finally completed he checked his status before bed. It had been a while since he really gave it his full attention.

  Alan Taylor

  Race: Human [W]

  Class:

  Fighter (56%) Quartz

  Guardian (50%) Quartz

  Healer (58%) Quartz

  Hunter (47%) Quartz

  Mage (45%) Quartz

  Rogue (60%) Quartz

  Scholar (54%) Quartz

  Seeker (43%) Quartz

  Health: 182 (18/hour)

  Stamina: 164 (33/minute)

  Mana: 136 (14/minute)

  Dungeon Points: 180

  Stats:

  Strength: 14

  Dexterity: 15

  Perception: 12

  Focus: 12

  Intelligence: 12

  Wisdom: 15

  Constitution: 13

  Spirit: 8

  Skills:

  Aura Reading: 18, Blunt Weapons: 25, Cooking: 6, Daggers: 33, Dodging: 13, First Aid: 11, Harvesting: 10, Herbology: 10, Identify: 15, Mana Drawing: 3, Mana Enhancement: 4, Mining: 3, Running: 13, Sneak: 9, Tracking: 20, Two Weapon Fighting: 23, Unarmed Combat: 13

  Titles: [Top Recruit]

  Talents:

  Fighter: Parry

  Guardian: Hammer Blow, Taunt

  Healer: Mend

  Hunter: Charm Animal

  Mage: Light Spinner

  Rogue: Quick Hands, Stealth

  Scholar: Understanding

  Seeker: Sensitivity

  Spells: Minor Healing (common), Light Bolt (common), Light (common)

  There were gains in all classes and in many of his skills. The biggest increases had been in blunt weapons, tracking, and his scholar and guardian classes. That made sense after the fight with the bogerrel. Alan was pleased with the progress he was making. His aura reading was especially nice to see growing since he had learned it was a potential advantage no one else in the tutorial should have.

  Not only were his skills improving, but he had accomplished a lot in the building of his house. It was still missing a roof though. He could have bought more wood, but he didn’t really have the room in his storage for it. He figured it should be ok for now, even if something could get over the walls it would hopefully make enough noise to wake him. Unless it was something crawly like a snake or a spider. That happy thought kept him awake for quite a while before the incredibly soft furs lulled him into oblivion.