ã€ŠTransmigrating With a 4D Chaperoneã€‹


 Meeting the 4D Being

    "Hey! Helloooooo¡­ Wake up you absolute failure of a human being!" A mysterious but surprisingly wise voice rang out, seemingly in every direction.

    "Uhh, hello?" A sleepy voice called out in return, the voice of a lady who was completely ticked off that someone was bothering her in her sleep. She should have been in her own bed, living alone in an apartment that she just moved into today. No one else really should be there.

    "Oh. My. Cheese. Get up you lazy, lazy woman," The mysterious voice seemed to be getting louder and louder with an ever-increasing attitude problem.

    "What? Who are you? Leave me alone, if you''re an intruder, just leave, I want to go to bed. Or kill me, I don''t really have that much going for me anyway. Goodnight." The female voice said waving the booming voice away like swatting a fly.

    "Wow, I have never seen anyone so, so¡­ Oh, she''s asleep again. Sigh. Seems her feelings towards sleeping are a lot more important to her than death. That is certainly...new... I wonder what I have that I can use to wake her up for good¡­ Oh, I got it."

    Just a moment later, a shotgun round being fired was heard from just a little ways away. This immediately woke up JJ and kicked her adrenaline into overdrive. Only now did she see that she was no longer at her place, but rather, in a strange space that she could only describe as pure, unfiltered white light. Somehow, the bed that she was sleeping in was also there, unfortunately now was certainly not the time to go back to bed. Well, not after she realized that she had no idea where she was, like at all.

    "OK, glad that woke you up. Cause if not, I would have had to grab my tank and that takes quite a bit of work." The mysterious voice said to JJ in a slightly less agitated manner.

    "What? I know the United States is known for our crazy number of civilian arms, but who has that just laying around, and who are you? I can''t see you. And why is everything such an annoying shade of white?" JJ asked in the direction of the voice that she heard, but it felt as if it was directly going into her mind.

    "Well, my name is uh¡­ hold on. Let me think of something cool¡­ Uh, let''s just go with Magellan. Just call me M for short. As for the white thing, just deal with it," M replied bluntly.

    "Ok, well my name is JJ Dion Blaze. Where are you exactly?" JJ asked once more.

    "Blaze¡­ Yes¡­¡± M suddenly stopped as if there was something that was plaguing his mind, but resumed almost immediately ridiculing her, ¡°Anyway, I have read your file, and I must say, your life is hilarious."

    "Wait, what exactly do you mean?"

    "Sleep for 12 hours a day, playing fantasy games, reading fantasy books, and just being an all-around lazy pig for the last 20 or so years of your life. Your parents just recently kicked you out of their house and so you had to move out on your own. I mean, seriously. I don''t think I''ve ever met someone as unmotivated as you are. It''s almost impressive in a very weird way. And it just boggles me how even manage to sleep 12 hours a day?"

    ¡°...¡± For a moment, JJ was at a complete loss for words. This lasted for a moment before she could find a suitable retort, "I just do, shut up.¡±

    ¡°You are living in the 37th century AD, your life should be a breeze. Has something happened since the last time I came here in the 25th century?¡±

    ¡°Ooh, boy where do I even begin? A few centuries ago there was an alien invasion that we are still rebuilding from.¡±

    ¡°Wow, how did you manage to fend off an alien invasion that could travel such long distances. That seems rather unlikely.¡±

    ¡°In the history books, there was an individual that led the resistance just before the invasion hit. The human population on Mars did not get off easily either. Even though the female hero managed to drive them away for good, she remained unnamed even after her disappearance.¡±

    ¡°Oh, interesting. That is the stuff of legends.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t matter, how dare you insult me! I had to get settled in today so that made me more tired than usual."

    "You do realize that you unpacked 3 boxes today, out of dozens, just so you could spend half of your waking hours online? How exactly is that tiring?"

    "It''s tiring... mentally.¡± Was all that JJ could rebuke in the face of the sass that M hounded her for.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

    ¡°Let¡¯s talk more about your life, from what I see in my brief visit to your world, your technology doesn¡¯t seem to be that much different from what it was the last time I visited, does this have something to do with that invasion you talked about earlier?¡±

    ¡°Yes, the war left our planet ravaged about a hundred times more than the three world wars. The survivors of that time went to go seek the mysterious stranger for help, but no one knew where she went. So, we had to do what we could with the technology that wasn¡¯t destroyed and start anew. Over 500 years later, we are finally getting it back together.¡±

    ¡°While that may be the case, it seems like it is still vastly more advanced than anything in the 21st century.¡±

    ¡°Of course, you were there at that time?¡±

    ¡°No, I had a really great friend that shared a lot of his experiences with me, and vice versa,¡± M said sounding a bit sentimental.

    ¡°...Ok,¡± there was no other response, JJ felt.

    ¡°Just a question, even at this age, it seems as if you and a lot of others still hate your lives. Why is that?¡±

    ¡°To those that came before us, they may see us as very lucky, but once you live in it, it''s still the same monotonous routine. We get sick of that, quite fast, so we immerse ourselves in the unrealistic and downright impossible to escape that trapped feeling we have.¡±

    ¡°Looks like I picked a pretty great mind this time around, even if you are a bit lacking in motivations. However, you are absolutely correct. When I came here to take away someone in the 3200¡¯s they were sick of their life as well. At that time, you humans could have been said to be in a mega golden age of pretty much everything.¡±

    ¡°From what little I know, I believe later generations dubbed it the third renaissance.¡±

    ¡°Yes, even with all that discovery, a lot of people still wanted to be somewhere else. This is a lesson for you to learn, no matter the time period or place, everyone innately wishes they were somewhere else. As for the ones who are content with their place, well, those are far and few in between. Even someone like me, I wish I did not have the life that I am leading either. The closest we can get to that point is exactly what you have been doing, immersing yourself in the downright unrealistic all for the sake of an escape.¡±

    ¡°...Look, can we just get to the main point here? I don''t really feel like talking with someone that I can''t see. Can''t you come out now?"

    "Sorry little lady, I''m already here."

    "How? I can''t see you."

    "You 3-dimensional beings see but don''t feel. Wait. You humans gave up on that a long time ago. Right. Sorry about that. Anyway, I am a 4-dimensional being."

    "What? Where am I first of all?"

    "JJ, you are dead, basically. I am here to be your guide to the next realm of your existence and accompany you there for as long as I feel like it."

    "How exactly did I die?"

    "You died in your sleep, well, that or you died from loneliness. You never know." M said in a cackling and playfully mocking tone.

    "Well, that''s, hmmm. A new low."

    "Oh, that is definitely one way to go about it. Look, you had very little in your previous life, may I interest you in a fantasy world? I''m sure you know the one, with dragons, dungeons, different classes, demons, mounts, all the good stuff. So, what do you say?"

    "Eh¡­ Nah. Just kill me. It seems like too much work."

    "Yeah. Yeah. Wait.. hold on, no, what? How about I let you choose what character you reincarnate as? I''m sure you''d be more thrilled to do that, right?"

    "Oh, that¡¯s an interesting proposition. Are you saying that I will be able to make myself in the likeness of anyone that I can imagine?"

    "Yea, I''m surprised you aren''t pudgier looking with the diet and lifestyle that you chose. Must be good genes."

    "Ah shut it, just bring it on. I can''t wait!"

    "Actually, I think I''ll keep this as an incentive for you to do better in the world that I will be transporting you to."

    "Aw, come on."

    "For now, just brace yourself. This journey might be a little too much for your fragile mind, and close your eyes if you want to keep your sanity. Or don''t, I''m not your babysitter."

    As soon as JJ closed her eyes, she felt herself being fully grasped by something like a soft breeze and in just a few moments, she felt herself losing sense of all direction. A few moments pass and she felt curious as to what it was that M advised her not to look at. Once she opened her eyes, she saw that she was travelling among the stars with an invisible force enveloped around her. In a mere moment, she passed by a hundred billion stars. Countless stars later, she felt her travelling speed slow down dramatically. Over the course of the next hour, she witnessed her descent into a very, very purple world, also filled with water.

    "Looks like you saw quite a lot of that journey. What do you think?" M asked as the force that pulled JJ all this way slowly set her to the ground.

    "I feel so very insignificant. So empty, so unmotivated but on a cosmic level this time."

    "Hah, figures. Well, at least you aren''t as dumb as some of my other projects."

    "Projects? Am I just a game to you?"

    "Well, yeah, kinda. You are part of something that brings me much joy and entertainment. Anyway, go pick up that dagger that I have left for you. It''s time for you to get your first kill."

    "Uh, alright," JJ said as she picked up a dagger that looked like it was used about a century ago.

    "Alright. Now, let''s get you to a dungeon. Just keep walking forward, and I''ll tell you when to stop."

    JJ followed M¡¯s directions as she felt giddy from having her deepest desires realized. It was something she had dreamed of for years. Even if she felt that M was a bit on the childish side, she didn¡¯t want to argue with him at every turn. And so began, her life in a new world. With a higher being right by her side.

 An Interesting Guide

    "Hey, M, you said that you''re a 4 dimensional being right? How is that like?" JJ said as she followed M''s directions.

    "It''s pretty cool. I can see a lot more of your 3d world than you can. For example, if there is a locked chest, I can see exactly what''s inside while you can''t. Basically, the inside of the box is something I am able to see. Much like you are able to see what is inside a square drawn on a piece of paper. It gets really complicated after that so I''ll stop it there.¡±

    ¡°So does that mean like you can see my insides?¡± JJ was now extremely curious.

    ¡°Yea, I guess you can say that.¡±

    ¡°To what degree? Through my clothes? Through my skin? Like where does it stop?¡± She said in a very defensive tone.

    ¡°The short answer is all of the above...all at the same time. Ok, now turn left and go straight ahead for 25 meters."

    ¡°Wait- I have so many more questions to ask you-¡± She continued down the path that M instructed her to go. By the time she got to the location, she was beading with sweat from just the walk alone. It was not that she was unathletic, it was just how hard the sun was beating its warmth onto her lightly protected skin.

    All this time M was silent as if thinking of a suitable answer. When she finally arrived, he spoke.

    ¡°Look, if I answered all of your questions then we wouldn¡¯t have any time for any adventures. Alright?¡±

    M was trying to get out of answering her questions, JJ knew that, but the prospect of finally playing in a fantasy world won over her curiosity.

    "Alright. So what now?" JJ asked while twirling the basic dagger in her hand around and accidentally dropped it. She went to go pick it up off the ground when she spotted something shiny buried into the ground. It had a grey hue and was mostly buried, just a little of it was sticking out of the ground, if she had not dropped her dagger at that spot, she would not have even given the stone looking thing a second glance.

    "Yea, go dig that out. That will be your way into the dungeons in this place."

    "With what? My hands?" She said with scorn.

    "Yes, your hands. Don''t give me that look, just try it out first and I''m sure it isn''t as bad as you think it is."

    "Fine, fine. Give me some gloves or something why don''t you? I may not be a typical girl, but I sure do still care about personal hygiene. I won''t start until you give me one."

    "Fine, fine. Be that way." M said as a pair of leather gloves appeared right next to JJ.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    "Leather? Isn''t this like one of the cheapest types of gloves in the games?"

    "What do you think should be the alternative? I give you metal gloves? Do you even realize how sweaty you are from just walking here? The answer, if you weren''t aware already, is very. If you haven¡¯t already figured it out, your fingers would be a bunch of steamed sausages by the end of your little exercise."

    "You can see me sweat? I don¡¯t think that is really appropriate since I assume you are a guy."

    "Little princess, I am a 4th-dimensional being, I exist in a plane that you cannot even fathom. Me looking at you like that is nothing special. I can read you like you read a children''s book. Now get to digging!"

    "Humph, fine," She said as she put on the gloves and started digging. Surprisingly, she found that the task at hand was something that wasn''t actually as difficult as she had imagined. Perhaps it was her class that allowed her to have such strength? What was her class?

    "Your class at the moment is unspecialized. This class is pretty much balanced across all available classes at the beginning, but once you reach level A10 you will be able to pick your class. Now try not to think about your situation too much and just trust me when I say that you will get all the answers in due time. Also, no, I cannot read your mind, but I did say I could read you like a book didn''t I?"

    "That is really impressive, but how do I know that you aren¡¯t lying?¡±

    ¡°If I ever lie to you, it will either be because it is a personal matter, or I just want to get a good laugh out of you. Plus, I really need you to become something great in this world, so uh, no pressure.¡±

    ¡°I wonder what could you possibly be gaining from this, fine. Will you answer one question first?"

    "Just one? Go for it."

    "A10? That seems like a weird way of making a level system. Could you explain that a bit more?"

    "I suppose I do owe you for grinding your gears all this time. The levelling system here is very unique from many of the other worlds that I have been in. It works like this, you are now A1, the lowest level. It goes all the way to A100, then you will reach a bottleneck which will be a bit harder to level onto the next level. Once you break the bottleneck, you will be slightly weaker for a few levels. This trend goes all the way to level Z100, and there are more levels beyond, but I believe that is enough for now, no?"

    "Yes, I suppose it is. Plus, I have almost finished whatever it is I have to dig." She said as she unearthed the grey thing out of the ground. It was a 60 centimeter stone key of sorts.

    "Good, head to your right for a hundred meters and there will be a lot of large stone statues."

    "Ok," JJ said as she walked to where M told her to go.

    ¡°What do you think of all this? The world I mean, is it everything you imagined it to be?¡±

    ¡°Hmm? I thought you could read me like a book, was that nothing more than something to impress me?¡±

    ¡°Uhhh,¡± M coughed a bit but when he saw that JJ was having none of it, he confessed, ¡°alright, yes. I can read your general mood and basic human cues, but not much more. You guys are unnecessarily overcomplex. Ah, there it is.¡± M said quickly as the quarry of stone statues came into view.

    ¡°Wow, that is a lot of statues,¡± JJ said as she walked over the small hill that was obstructing her view before. Now she could see that there was a cluster of statues some human, some beastmen, some regular animals, but the majority was of demonkind.

    "Ok, how confident are you in killing living things?"

    "...Killing? Shoot. Maybe I didn''t think this all the way through."

    "Huh. Well, I guess it would be best if you started off on the easiest dungeon this place has to offer. This is a training ground for new people new to this world so you won''t die, but if you do, it will still hurt so keep that in mind when you don''t feel like killing anything."

    "Alright, I can do this. Where do I put this key?"

    "There is a statue of a little child a bit to your left so go put the key on his hands," M said as he witnessed JJ do as he asked of her.

    "Ok, so now what..." She said as a blue wisp of light enveloped around her and her vision went blank for a split second and in that instant, she was transported to a dungeon. "M? Where are you?" She said as she looked around only to see a straight cobblestone path in front of her and all around her was darkness. There was a light at the end of the cobblestone path, but she was unsure of what to do at the moment.

    "Ah, there you are," M''s voice bounced inside JJ''s head. "Just go straight and you will be able to embark on your journey here. Sorry, it took me a while to find you, this dungeon is a little more complex than I figured and finding you took a while."

    "Ok. Let''s get this adventure started."

 Giant Spiders

    Once JJ headed into the next room, she could see a room that appeared to be in the shape of an oblate spheroid. A few objects lay on the floor; some bones, coins, a few furnishings among other things. There were a few giant spiders inside. All along the way and in this room there were torches to light everything up. JJ looked at M until she remembered she couldn''t really see him and asked a question instead.

    "Hey, M, daggers are more for humanoid targets, isn''t it? Can''t you give me something that is more effective on insects? Like a maul for example?" JJ asked in her mind hoping that M would be able to hear her.

    "Alright, alright, alright," M said to her as a stone maul appeared right next to her on the floor. "Wait, in your file contains a slight blurb about you being scared of spiders, you going to be alright?"

    "Huff, huff, huff. I think so. I just have to pump myself up enough to do it. Hoo, haa, hoo, haa." She said as she took a few deep breaths.

    "What is that? A mantra?"

    "No, shut up. It''s just something I do whenever I have to pretend I have the courage to do something. Like when I have to talk to my parents about... Ah dammit. I totally forgot about my parents. How did I forget something like that?"

    "The file that I have read through did say something about you being completely encapsulated in your fantasy games and whatever else that you''d forget a lot of important things. Even school, and proper eating habits apparently. You were terrible in school but you being street smart while being inside all day really surprised me."

    "Wait, what will my parents do once they find out that I''m dead?"

    "Don''t worry, I can make it so that your parents will be able to live a fairly moderate life after you''re gone. I''ll just have a bunch of money transferred to their account, it''s all fine don''t worry about it."

    "No!"

    "What? I don''t understand."

    "No!"

    "What do you suggest then?"

    " I don''t know, just anything but that. That would be too easy for them to get into a lot of trouble."

    "Fine, fine. I''ll just rewrite your death insurance to an amount that is about 10 times what it currently is. Any complaints about that?"

    "That is slightly better. And you are sure that there will not be any legal repercussions from doing this?¡±

    ¡°...Like 90% sure. Don¡¯t fret too much. I¡¯m sure you remember how your parents are both extremely capable people, yeah? They¡¯ll be fine no matter what happens.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re right, now that I can rest easy about my family, let''s go kill some spiders," JJ said as she rushed into the room full of spiders with a stone maul.

    "YEAH! Finally, some action... Uh," M started but saw that JJ was running back even faster than she ran in.

    "Huff, huff, huff. I can''t do it. I really can''t do it. Spiders are too much for me. Oh God, I feel like puking." She said as she kept panting for air. Adrenaline was rushing in her veins and she ran to just outside the room so that the spiders would not be able to approach her and rested while looking into the room.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

    "Wow. That is unfortunate. These spiders are among the weakest monsters. How are you supposed to level up if you can''t even kill some brainless spiders?"

    "I know, I know, I''m sorry. Is there a way to kill them without having to be so close? I can handle everything else just fine, just not spiders, bugs, or anything disgusting like slime."

    "Uhhm."

    "What."

    "Well, good news, I can give you some ranged or magic weapons."

    "What''s the bad news?"

    "The majority of the monsters in this dungeon are the ones you just listed.¡±

    "Oh, well then. Give me a bow and arrows or something then." She said then instantly felt the maul in her hands disappear and out appeared a repeating crossbow and lots of ammunition.

    "There, happy? It won''t do much damage to these spiders, but hey, you''ll be able to shoot a lot. But you do have to be in the room to kill those monsters, none of that staying out of range nonsense that you and your friends seem to be fond of. Now, get inside and kill me some spiders."

    "Hoo, haa, hoo, haa. AHHHH!" JJ screamed as she ran inside once again even more determined than the last time.

    She had loaded the ammunition inside the repeating crossbow while she was doing her mantra and started to shoot the moment she got inside the room full of giant spiders. Bolt after bolt was shot, but her aim wasn''t great as she was still trembling from her fear of spiders. After she ran out of bolts from her first round, she immediately ran in the direction of the door so that she could reload. Even if she only managed to kill 2 spiders and injure a couple more, she believed that this could be considered a step in her getting over her fears.

    "Nope, nope, nope, no, no, hell no," M said as the doors were shut off by a stone slab that descended from the top of the doorframe.

    JJ didn''t manage to get there in time and could only pound the doors in frustration. "Did you do this?" She asked in confusion.

    "Heh, I sure did. Your enemies are getting closer now, don''t you think you should start doing something about that?"

    "I hate you so much, you mean piece of black jelly bean!" She screamed as she started running away from the mob. Now that she couldn''t'' really reload in safety, she had to run around the room and do it while she was being chased by her worst fears. M had given her an abundance of ammunition, but it was a bit difficult to do while in motion. Eventually and after a few more curses, she managed to get it done and started shooting again.

    "Good, good. It seems that you are able to focus more on the shooting part instead of being scared all the time."

    "Shut it!" She yelled out into the room and as she whittled down her enemy she felt herself gaining confidence at a degree she never felt before. From 13 giant spiders down to 10, to 8, to 6, to 3, to 1. JJ had only one enemy left, but she had run out of ammunition for her crossbow. "Hey M! I think I''m finally ready for that maul again."

    "Hoh. Alright."

    A stone maul appeared in JJ''s hands while the repeating crossbow disappeared into nothingness. She began to head towards her last enemy and felt that the death of this last spider would be something of a little achievement that she could be happy about. The giant hairy spider lunged at her at full force aiming at her torso and in one swift moment, was in mid-air ready to launch its attack. JJ brought the maul behind her almost the floor behind her heels and used all her might to bring the maul at full ferocity against the body of the spider. The maul smashed onto the body of the spider with pinpoint accuracy and the spider was crushed under the weight, killing it instantly.

    (Gasp) "Oh, I''m so proud of you. If only you took a bit less time..."

    "Hey, this is a special occasion for me no matter what you say."

    "Oh, I don''t doubt that, but you took about 26 minutes to complete this one room alone. The average time to complete this dungeon is only about 34 minutes for the first time level A1 noobs."

    "Why must you do this to me." JJ wasn¡¯t particularly fond of M dampening her mood all the time.

    "Heh, it''s fun. Anyway, let''s move on to the next room. I believe there are only a few more rooms with spiders so if you wish, I can guide you to avoid those rooms."

    "Umm, yea, please do that."

    "Alright, pick up all this sweet loot and let''s go."

    "Hang on a moment, where am I supposed to put all of this? Even if I may not be as scared of a spider as I was before, I''m still not going to allow any of that to get that close to me."

    "Oh right. I sometimes forget you are a 3-dimensional being." M said as everything, even the carcasses of the spiders, slowly disappeared from the room just like the crossbow earlier.

    "How are you doing that?"

    "Not to worry, I''m just going to bring it into the 4th dimension so that you won''t have to carry it, ya big scaredy-cat. To you 3D lifeforms, 4D space is a great storage device. Just like for 2D lifeforms, the 3D is a great storage device that is usually out of their depth of comprehension."

    JJ opened her mouth to say something but decided against it.

    "Ok, now there is only one door in this room that leads to another room full of monsters. Follow that and you will see some...hold on let me check." A few seconds passed before he said anything, "Some giant ants. You don''t have any fears of ants do you?"

    "Well, not as much as I fear spiders. Let''s go. I wonder just how much this world is going to be like the games I play."

    "There is another depth that you have yet to really experience in the games that you play. That is the life and death aspect of this world."

 Giant Ants, Bats, and Goblins

    "Nice JJ. Looks like clearing the only thing stopping you from killing monsters before was your fear of spiders. It took you only a few minutes to take care of the giant ants that were in your way," M, the almost all-knowing 4D being, said as he sucked all of the ant corpses into the 4th-dimension.

    "Yea, I guess so," JJ said as she took a breath from just finishing off a dozen giant ants.

    "To be honest, you are one of the few that are in my collection to actually be so easy to take a life. That is sort of impressive in a way. Kinda scary too."

    "Must be desensitized from all of this killing as I would grind nonstop for days on end. Well, that''s what the working theory is."

    "How do you feel about the stone maul in your hands? I could sense from your motions that the first time you held it you were thinking about it being a bit heavier than you can handle."

    "Oh, I haven''t even given it a second thought until now. It''s still on the heavier side, but I can handle it just fine now."

    "Hmm, I did say I would keep the character customization away from you for motivation, but I think you deserve a little present. I can allow you to change one thing about yourself. Which hairstyle would you like?"

    "Now that I am going to have to be active, I suppose it would be a bit too much of a hassle to have my hair down to my waist. How about just a bob cut down to the bottom of my neck. I imagine having shorter hair would be better for fighting in as well."

    "Did you just think about it off the top of your head? That is a bit, how do you say, oddly specific."

    "Well excuse me, I had been thinking about it for a while now. And since you can do it for me now, why shouldn''t I take advantage of it?"

    "Ok, ok, no need to get so defensive about it.¡± A brief ding could be heard and JJ¡¯s hairstyle changed instantly. ¡°There, it is done. What do you think? Here is a mirror. What do you think, pretty nice right?"

    A mirror floated in front of JJ''s face that was big enough to allow her to see just how the new do would suit her. From what JJ could see, it was exactly as she had wanted.

    "Eh, not too bad. Maybe I shouldn''t have let my insecurities prevent me from waiting so long to get it. Thanks, M. I dig it."

    "Did you want to change it to another colour? I personally think that silver would look marvellous on you."

    "Nah, I think I''ll just let it stay black. Anyway, onto the next room. Oh! There are three paths that goes on from this one. Which one should I head into M?"

    "Hmm, did you want to get the most loot or did you just want to get this done as soon as possible?"

    "Get it done as soon as possible. You said this was one of the most basic dungeons right? That means it is unlikely to have that great of a loot."

    "I appreciate that logic of yours. Go through the middle door and then you should only be 8 more rooms until you find your way out of this dungeon."A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    "Ok, what''s in the next room?" She said as she started walking into the middle passageway and whipping her new hairstyle back and forth to see how it moved through the air.

    "Uh, it is going to be bats. About 100 of them."

    "I don''t think I''ll be able to get them all if I''m using a maul, let me use that crossbow thing again."

    "Sure. I think if you tried to go at them with that heavy maul you''d be dead pretty quick if they were smart enough to gang up on you."

    The maul slowly disappeared from JJ''s hands and the crossbow appeared once more. She reloaded as fast as she could and got to the edge of the safety zone just before dashing in and shooting into the rather dark room. Many bat shrieks and noises immediately filled the room.

    "Oh right, here is a little gift from me." He said as a bright light shone from the middle of the room.

    Now that the bats could no longer hide and their cover was blown, JJ was able to get more accurate shots at them. She was able to get a few dozen bats down with the first volley, now that she was reloading, the offensive from the bats intensified. After a few minutes of trying to dodge and simultaneously reloading, she was able to shoot all of them down. Though she was covered in bruises and bites, she only felt a sense of pride in herself. Just a little while ago, she was willing to let an intruder kill her, now she was offing one monster after another.

    "It is rather good that you have a bit more confidence in yourself. Now, in front of you are 4 doors, you can either choose to take the left path and fight some goblins, or you can go to the path second to the right and fight some imps. Your choice, they both can be considered the shortest path out of here."

    "Hold on, will I be able to make the monsters my familiars?"

    "That is something your A1 level so keep that in mind. Speaking of, you will be able to level up to A2 after this next room."

    "Wow, let''s go then." She said as she took the path to the goblins. In her mind, she thought of which weapon would best be used to kill some goblins. Once she thought of something, an object floated and seemingly followed her as she walked forward.

    "Ahem! That is not something you should have figured out on your own. I was going to show you once you finished this dungeon. Way to ruin the surprise."

    "This is a short sword?"

    "Duh."

    "That I made?"

    "Uh, no. This is actually something that you created thanks to me. In layman''s terms, you think of something and my 4th-dimensional powers will it into your 3D existence."

    ¡°Hang on, how come I couldn¡¯t will a maul out of existence before?¡±

    ¡°I activated it literally 5 seconds ago! I have a lot more skills for you to try out. There are a few in mind that you might find rather enjoyable. Aren¡¯t you glad you came with a complete stranger that you can¡¯t even see millions of light-years away from where you were living?¡±

    "Well, maybe just a little bit." She said as she grabbed the short sword and rushed inside the room full of goblins.

    JJ had the element of surprise and with a little distraction, was able to slay 3 of the goblins that were sleeping before they made a dying shriek that chilled the bone. There were only 5 left, not too hard. 3 goblins charged right at her with another two going to either side of her. She slashed at the first one to charge her and inflicted a modest amount of damage then kicked the second one right on its head. Two down for now, but there were still 3 that were charging at her full speed all in different directions.

    "Will you be alright?"

    "No need to worry about me," JJ said as she pictured another short sword appearing into her left hand. And appear it did.

    Now that she had two swords, she threw the one on her right hand as hard as she could onto the goblins approaching from her right then which just so happened to hit it square right in its bald green head. An instant kill. She imagined another short sword in her right hand, then once that appeared, impaled the goblin coming from her left straight through the stomach. Finally, she let go of the sword in her left hand and held both hands on the weapon on her right and slashed as fast as she could against the opponent right in front of her.

    All of this happened in a mere 5 seconds, but it was near-perfectly executed by JJ. However, this was certainly not the time to stop as 4 of them were still alive, so she went up to each of the heavily injured goblins and plunged her sword right into their tiny little hearts and ending their lives.

    A whistle could be heard indicating approval. This came from M who felt surprised at the efficiency of JJ when she did battle up close.

    "Hey, that was pretty quick thinking back there. Although I have to warn you, don''t conjure up any weapons in front of other people unless you want them to kidnap you and try to figure out your secrets, ok?"

    "I got it, don''t worry. Would I be able to conjure up weapons infinitely?"

    "Not forever, but it would take quite a lot to exhaust it. In my experience, it is best to stick with a few weapons that you are able to train with exclusively so that you may master them to a higher degree. Being able to utilize this power that you discovered just moments ago deserves some reward, what would you like? Nothing too unreasonable now."

    "Mmm, I suppose... I would like... to have infrared vision? Is that possible?"

    "Kid, look who you''re talking to. Wait, right, you can''t. Yes, I can do that, this is a fantasy world after all. Just think about a light switch turning off and on and you should be able to see in normal and infrared. Now! Time for more killing!"

 First Dungeon Cleared

    JJ had just finished the second to last room of the dungeon, now only the boss room remained. She had gotten quite proficient with the conjuring of different weapons. It wasn''t easy to master as she had panicked in the previous room and conjured up a bowl of macaroni and cheese instead of a weapon as this was her comfort food and she had felt a small pang of hunger. Of course, she immediately rectified her mistake but had been poisoned with a goblin archers arrows.

    "That was quite an amusing battle that you just had. It''s not every day you bring macaroni and cheese into a battle," M playfully joked at JJ¡¯s expense.

    "Hey, shut the full cup. Ouch, this poison hurts a bit. I won''t die will I?" JJ asked.

    "Don''t worry about that. You would have to be quite talented to die in this beginner dungeon. However, you should probably take this as you will be facing the boss in the next room."

    A small potion of green liquid appeared in front of her which she grabbed immediately and drank.

    "Ack, that is disgusting. I do feel a bit better but I hope the taste doesn''t linger in my mouth. So, what''s in the next room? Is it some sort of boss?"

    "Let me check it out... Ohhh. Well, this next fight should be interesting."

    "Why do you say that?"

    "You will be fighting a jackalope. It is basically a bunny with deer horns or antlers. It looks to be about a meter tall and is pretty cute."

    "I used to have a pet bunny, I don''t know if I can bring myself to do this."

    "Oh, don''t worry. Once it starts to attack you, I''m sure you''ll be too distracted to care about it¡¯s long, streamlined and extremely soft fur. But again, I have no doubt that you will kill it in the end.¡±

    "Wha-Am I really that cold and bloodthirsty already?"

    "I don''t know, a few chapters can really change a person''s entire perspective on life."

    "Answer the question!"

    "I actually don''t know, JJ. I''m not actually all-knowing, this is for you to figure out and me to bear witness to your journey."

    "You¡¯re really going to be like that? Fine. One more question before I go fight that Jackalope. I have been trying to imagine a few more modern weapons like guns, nuclear-powered tanks, etc, why don''t they appear."

    "Oh, I do know the answer to that one. It is because I locked your power so that you will only be able to conjure up basic weapons and short-range ballistic weapons. It wouldn''t really be a challenge for you if you were able to make guns. Where is the fun in that?"

    "Will I ever be able to?"

    "Maybe, if you are in like a super-deep pile of black jellybean situation. Plus, I''ve made it possible for you to have an unlimited supply of some of the more important survival must-haves like matches, raincoats, toilet paper, and the like. Also, a little booze now and then isn''t too bad right? Haha."Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

    "Alright, I hope you remember your words, M."

    "I will. Now go kill that adorable bunny. Oh! Speaking of, I think I read somewhere that the Jackalope is fond of alcohol as well, I don''t really know if it''s true or not."

    "Ok, ok. I''m going. I''m glad that I have infrared vision, now I am able to see all of my targets."

    "I''m glad you like it, I was getting tired of having to light up the room for you every time you entered into another dimly lit room."

    "Heh."

    JJ began walking down the corridor to the last room of the dungeon while thinking of what weapon was best to be used in this situation. She decided on going with the repeating crossbow and loaded as many bolts as she could in and conjured up a bottle of booze. Then, turning on her infrared vision so that the position of the big bunny could be determined.

    "What exactly do you plan on doing with that bottle of alcohol, JJ?"

    "Watch me."

    JJ threw the bottle right in between the door and the position of the bunny and it shattered, spilling its contents all over the floor. The Jackalope heard the shattered glass immediately and went to go check it out. Once it sniffed what was on the floor, it stayed there and started licking it.

    "Goodness me! Looks like that tidbit was right after all. Who would have thought."

    "I''m just glad that it took the bait." She said as she conjured up a few more bottles and chucked it around the beast.

    Once all of the bottles shattered, effectively creating a semi-circle of alcohol, JJ conjured up a match and lit the bolt that she was shooting on fire and aimed at the base of the beast. The shot was made and once the fiery bolt made contact with the alcohol, a small flame began to appear. In mere moments, the flame grew to a large size and managed to hurt the Jackalope. JJ had snuck into the room before all of this and now decided to move in for the kill. She fired the rest of her ammo onto the Jackalope then conjured up a spear so that she had longer reach.

    The next thing she did was to charge in and see just how durable this bunny was. JJ tried all sorts of things, but even though the beast was badly burned it put up quite a bit of fight. It was obvious that the beast was on its last legs, but she was not able to get in any closer than she already had. A brilliant plan surfaced in her mind and she threw spear after spear at the bunny. Finally, the bunny had had enough and it charged at her full-force. Conjuring up a giant shield to protect herself, she braced for impact.

    Nothing could prepare her for the world of pain she was about to be in as the impact from the full-frontal assault sent her flying quite a ways away. All she could muster was a weak groan and got up so that she wouldn''t be easy prey to the beast. However, by this point, she could tell that it was just one hit away from dying. So, she conjured up a sword and with one good swing ended the abomination of a bunny.

    "Looks like that was a rather painful experience for you. That one hit from the Jackalope took out nearly half of your health bar. Here, drink this," M said as he made a red potion appear in front of JJ''s hands.

    "Thanks."

    After drinking the entire potion, she felt completely invigorated, refreshed, and ready for another round of dungeons. The carcass of the Jackalope began to disappear into the nothingness from her perspective. This was done by M so that she didn''t have to carry all of the loot so that she would be able to fight better.

    "Seems like you didn''t really feel anything for the bunny then?"

    "Well, I might''ve if I was able to see it in normal light, but since I was in infrared mode, I could only see its heat signature. That is what comes to mind anyway."

    "Heh, whatever excuse you have to tell yourself. You sure are full of surprises. I guess that''s when your amazing street knowledge comes in handy. Now, do you think that you''d like to go for another dungeon, preferably something a bit more challenging?"

    "Umm."

    "Or would you like to go to town, sell your loot, get something to eat, and have a well-deserved rest?"

    "Erm."

    "I can tell from your posture and facial expressions that you want to keep going, but your innate desires compel you to take a break from all of this strenuous activity. So, which option would you prefer?"

    "I honestly don''t know."

    "Oh yes, by the way, you are now level A3. There are multiple more stats for you to look through, but I won''t do it because I have my episodes of laziness as well."

    "Mmm, goodie. How do I open up my stats...oh," JJ said as a window popped up out of nowhere.

    "There you go. The list goes on and on, but the first dozen or so stats are the most important. I''m going to give you control of what you want others to see your stats as, this is a precious gift that no one else has so make sure to not let anyone in on the secret, mmkay?"

    JJ nodded as she walked out of her first dungeon while being distracted by her stats. Once she was out, the stat window closed and out popped a reward window showing that she received 23XP and 23 A coins. She dismissed this pop-up and opened up the stat window once more to look at it all. At the top left was her name, age, level, class, and money. On the top right was the progress bar to the next level. Below both of those were stats for strength, endurance, defence, and all of those other ones often seen in games.

    "Seems like this world was built for me."

 Dungeon Proficiency

    "Ehhh, why not. Let me get a few more levels higher then I''ll call it a day. M, which one should I go to now?" JJ asked as she finally finished studying her stat window.

    "As this is a training ground, there are a lot of things that you can get away with, like having unlimited resources. So, if you''d like to get to know how the magic in this world works, you can go to a dungeon that trains mages. There are some for warriors, rogues, knights, archers, and whatever else you can think of. But remember, you will get bored of them quite quickly if you only do the same one over and over again," M replied to JJ''s question.

    "Is that so? Are you suggesting that I go for a few dungeons in which I would be able to try out which classes interest me?"

    "That would be the logical way to go about it. Unless of course, you are dead set on becoming a warrior class as you have for all of the games that you have played."

    "The amount of information you know about me is kinda creepy. Could you keep those kinds of things to yourselves?"

    "Now that I know you find this annoying, that is a solid maybe."

    "You are starting to sound like a younger annoying brother that I never had."

    "Haha, yeah, I''m here to help you, but I''m also here for some fun. So take it all or leave it all, your choice."

    "Humph, whatever. I''ll just go for another warrior dungeon then try out a few of the other ones."

    "Ok, just go dig out that key again and find the statue with a big warrior with a giant 2-handed sword. This one should be a bit more challenging for you. It''ll certainly be something that I look forward to seeing you achieve victory. Go, go. I''m rooting for you."

    "Ok, ok, I''m going," JJ said as she went to where she dug out the key last time and dug it out once more. Once it was in her hands, she made her way back to the many rows and columns of statues to find the one that M had told her about. It didn''t take long and soon enough, she was in another dungeon. "M?"

    "Don''t worry I''m here. I''m a bit faster than last time. So, do you really need me to guide you anymore or do you want to independent and try to go at this by yourself?"

    "I think I''ll try it out for myself and only come to you if I get lost or some jazz."

    "Fair enough, you can''t and shouldn''t really rely on me for everything, after all."

    "I suppose that''s true."

    JJ walked calmly to the first room where she was met with about 8 goblins, all of them bigger and presumably stronger than the ones that she fought in the first dungeon. With a small shield and short sword in each hand, she rushed in to fight the little demons. Individually, these posed almost no threat to her, but being in a mob allowed them to negate this weakness of theirs. However, as soon as their numbers dipped, so too did their protection.

    The monsters rushed JJ all at once, but she made sure that she had her back to the wall at all times so that she would not be surrounded and ganged up on all directions. There were a few torches placed sporadically around the room, if she could take them out, then she would have the advantage with her infrared vision. First, there was one torch just beside her so she extinguished that one first, then decided to take the initiative to go get the others. She rushed into the mob backhanding a goblin with her shield which sent him flying, then slashed at another one''s belly. Its contents leaked out and the shriek of pain that ensued was certainly not pleasant.This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

    However, now she had a clear path to one of the 6 remaining torches. She managed to get to two before she was surrounded again. After a few rounds of this, all of the torches were extinguished and there was only darkness inside the room. Even if the goblin''s eyes were specialized in low light situations, they weren''t able to see in complete darkness all that well. With this advantage, JJ was able to clear the room fairly quickly.

    "You know, if you asked, I would''ve done all that for you and you could''ve just focused on the killing part."

    JJ was certainly not pleased with the way that M told her about this matter and shouted "you couldn''t have said anything sooner? Whatever, say, are you able to come into the third dimension?" JJ said as she witnessed the body of the goblins disappear and headed to the next room.

    "I definitely could, but it would take too much energy so I just connect to people using what we are doing right now."

    "What would happen if I went to the fourth dimension?"

    "...Ooooh, you really don''t want that."

    "Why not?"

    "..."

    "Come on, tell me why not."

    "...Uhmmm..."

    "Tell me!"

    "The last 3 people I did this to, well..."

    "Well, what!"

    "Well, they died."

    "Oh! Uh, how?"

    "Two of them committed suicide once they saw how...let''s just say...how complex the fourth dimension was. The other one''s mind just stopped functioning, so I''m not even sure how that happened."

    "...Yikes..."

    "Yea, big yikes. You happy now that you got it out of me?"

    "Well, I really wish I hadn''t pressed you."

    "Heh, bit too late for that now."

    "Can you tell me what the 4th-dimension looks like?"

    It is a futile endeavour trying to explain something that is completely out of your depth sense. Let me explain it to you using 2D and the 3D universe."

    "Ok. Hold on, help me extinguish the light in this next room before you explain it."

    "Sure, I''ll do that once you go inside."

    "Here goes." She said as she rushed into the room full of giant rats. The instant she stepped in, the lights all went out and this caused the rats to be in a state of confusion for a little bit. It didn''t take long before JJ finished them all off and proceeded to the next room.

    "As I was saying, if you brought the 2D being into your 3D world, then it doesn''t really have the ability to sense all of the amazingness of your world. Think of it like this, if you brought a 2D being to a beautiful lake with yellow sand, and a cottage nearby, it will still only be able to see in 2-dimensions and see this in extremely small strips of 2D. You may be able to see the entire picture, but the 2D being sure as heck won''t."

    "You''re saying that if you brought me to your dimension I would also only be able to see only a fraction of what you see, right?"

    "Shhh, bingo. You catch on quick."

    "Tell me, what can you see in your dimension that I will never be able to see?"

    "So many things. For instance, remember when I told you that I could see inside locked chests?"

    "Yea, what about it?"

    "I can see every cell, atom, and nucleus in your body. I can also see your heart beating."

    "I really thought we were having a sentimental moment. Humph, I guess not."

    "You do realize that I am a 4D being using you as a form of entertainment and you are a 3D being with a quasi-identity crisis?"

    "La la la, I can''t hear you," JJ said as she covered her ears and ran into the next room. This time, it was a horde of the undead. Since it didn''t really matter if the lights were on or off, she just rushed in to decapitate them all and it was over in an instant. A few rooms later, she got a pop-up telling her that she had reached level A4 along with a few increases in stats that she was able to manually increase. She decided to increase strength and intellect. Another few rooms down, one of the monsters that JJ had slain dropped a treasure chest.

    "Hoh. Looks like you finally managed to get a chest. Let''s see, inside this is a thing that you put on your neck. It seems like it is quite a good find for a beginner."

    "? Do you mean a necklace?"

    "Oh, yea lol. That is what you guys call it isn''t it, haha. Forgot what it was called for a split second."

    "How do I open it?"

    "You will have to go to town and buy a key. I cannot do anything for you about this. It is just how it goes."

    "Whatever, let''s just finish this dungeon and move on to the next." She said as she breezed through the rest of the map and killing the boss of this dungeon, a drake, and completing the dungeon in a respectable time.

    "Looks like you are already quite proficient in dungeons."

    "I''m a quick learner. Let¡¯s move on to a mage dungeon."

 Just a few More Dungeons

    "Dungeon for mages, eh? I believe in this world, mages are the second most popular class for beginners to choose from. It isn''t too bad of an idea to get you a bit familiar with it as you might have to face off a few mages in your journey," M informed JJ.

    "I see, how does this work? Do I get a book full of wizard chants, or is there some wands I have to get ahold of to cast magic, or¡­ I really can''t think of anything else," JJ said as she tried to think of anything she might have missed.

    "You have been spending way too much time playing these kinds of games so I don''t blame you for guessing, but no, that is not how the magic here works. Go get the key again then find a bear with a long wooden staff. I''ll meet you inside."

    "Alright," she said as she went to go dig out the key once more. After following all of M''s directions, she made it into the dungeon. This dungeon was a bit creepier than the other ones that she had been through. It was almost as if there was someone constantly watching her, well, someone other than M.

    "Ah, there you are. Say, you are getting pretty fast at digging, do you know why?"

    "My stats for strength?"

    "Yup, that should be pretty self-explanatory. Now, go straight to the first room and here, take this magic wand with you."

    "Can''t I get something cool like that long staff that the bear statue had?"

    "Oh calm down girl. You need to get to a certain proficiency to be able to wield a staff like that. Be happy with just this. Most people come in here with no clue as to how to do magic and here you are complaining about your aesthetics."

    "Aesthetics are important! At least to me. As long as I look cool, I don''t really care. Alright, I see some bats again, what should I do?"

    "Go into the room and chant whirlwind, whirlwind, whirlwind. Also, make sure to aim your wand at your enemies, duh."

    "Alright." She said as she stepped into the room and activated her infrared vision. It was dark enough in the room that she could only see her enemies properly with her infrared vision. "Whirlwind, whirlwind, worruween," JJ chanted but couldn''t say it as saying it three times was a bit of a tongue twister.

    "Haha, try again. The bats haven''t noticed you so try it with more force in your voice." He said as he kept a giggle from coming out.

    "Whirlwind, whirlwind, whorlweend. Agh. This is hopeless."

    "Patience, patience. Try once more."

    "Whirlwind, whirlwind, whirlwind. It''s not working."

    "Use more force behind your words."

    "Whirlwind, whirlwind, whirlwind, whirlwind, whirlwind." By this point she was practically shouting whirlwind at the bats, but still, nothing resembling magic came out.

    However, her shouting did alert the bats to her presence and in a moment, dozens of bats were speeding right at her from the ceiling.

    "Hehehehehehe. You should see your face when you were shouting whirlwind all those times. I''ll confess, I knew you had a speech impediment for this. I just wanted to see you suffer.."

    "WHAT!" JJ shouted angrily as M was still giggling to himself at what he had made her do. Now she was running from the bats with a vengeance.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    "Calm down, calm down. Let me show you what magic actually looks like in this world." As soon as he finished his sentence, a purple barrier was erected around JJ and a blast of bright light filled the room. Even with her eyes squinted to an extreme degree, she could still see white as she had never before.

    Once she opened her eyes, she was in shock, every single one of the bats were laying down on the floor dead. It was certainly a surprise to JJ.

    "Woah, that was incredible. The area damage that it caused must be enormous, not to mention the range of this thing."

    "Uhhm. Good news and bad news¡­er...again. Good news, I showed you what magic was like, bad news, I basically levelled this entire dungeon so you''ll have to get out and go dig for a key again."

    "Hold on. You managed to kill every monster here? How?"

    "On 99% of magical worlds in your universe, I may as well be considered a god. That means that I have the power to destroy well, everything basically. This dungeon was only a beginner one so it was pretty easy to finish it in one go. I just never thought that my weakest attack was enough to do this much damage."

    "Are you getting all the loot?"

    "Yea, yea, don''t worry. Now, go straight, left, straight, second to your right, third to your left, straight, right, second to the left, straight twice, and you should be out of this dungeon."

    "Alright, so are you going to explain to me how you did that? And what level would that kind of spell require?" JJ asked as she went to go dig for another key.

    "To answer your first question, you basically just imagine it, then it happens. Obviously, the damage will be limited by the amount of your mana, therefore, be mindful of how much you have at all times. You can check your stats, or, once you reach a high enough level, you will be able to sense it passively."

    "I see, so if I imagine a fireball, then a fireball will come out?"

    "Yes, that is the basics of it."

    "I got it, meet you inside the last dungeon. Race you there." She said as she ran to the bear statue once again.

    "Fool, I am a 4D being, I can do everything better than you."

    "Glad to see you aren''t boastful."

    "Was that sarcasm?"

    "Yes, your greatness."

    "No more sarcasm, I don''t understand it. It''s like saying one thing but meaning another, truly confusing. And none of that greatness thing either. I''ve grown out of that phase a long time ago."

    "Fine. I''m in. Are you here?"

    "Of course I''m here. Now, go in and show me some magic. I''m dying to see just how this turns out."

    "Oh, it''s the bats again," JJ whispered as she crept into the room without being noticed. She pictured a big fireball being formed in the space in front of her chest. It was a relief to her when the fireball actually appeared. She was afraid that M had tricked her again.

    "Wait, hang on-"

    "And here you go bats," She said as a massive fireball appeared in front of her. Within a moment of its existence, it propelled itself towards the big brood of bats stationed together on the ceiling. A magnificent explosion came from the area of the bats and dozens of bat corpses fell from the sky. Immediately after seeing this sight, JJ collapsed to the ground, devoid of any energy or mana.

    "You fool. You used all of your mana points in one go! How do you expect to complete the rest of this dungeon now?"

    "Uhh, hold on, I''m a little light-headed."

    "Good, you deserve it!"

    JJ was taken aback at what M had just said to her, she had never been in this situation before. "Well, that''s a bit rude, isn''t it?"

    "Maybe, but you should really think about the consequences of your actions before you act upon them, don''t you think?"

    "Whatever!"

    "You absolute child! I know what will teach you this lesson," M said as another purple shield-like thing enveloped JJ. Once again, the bright white light flashed in the room where JJ was.

    "What did you do that for? I could''ve finished the dungeon on my own after I rest for a bit."

    "I have no such patience. Go out of this dungeon and go dig for that key again!."

    "You can''t be serious!" You''re really going to make me go dig that stupid thing out again?"

    "Yea, this should teach you to limit yourself."

    "Hold on, couldn''t you have just given me a potion to restore my mana."

    "..Oh, yea, I guess so. Oops. Too late now I guess."

    "Oh, you cheap piece of black licorice."

    "Whatever! Just go dig that out again. Or, would you prefer we do this another day? You have been going at it for a few hours already. I do believe that the only other productive day you''ve had in your entire life was when you came out of your mother."

    "Please don''t make me think of that, and how dare you. I''ll have you know I''ve had plenty of-"

    "Oh, plenty of what? Productive days? Name one. Go on, I''ll check for you."

    "..." JJ was going to refute the absolutely annoying M and prove him wrong, but there was nothing that came to mind that she could use in her defence.

    "Yea, that''s what I thought."

    "Oh shut your trap. I''m going to rest. Did you pick up all the loot?"

    "Yes! Geez. Go find your way in this world, I''ll be back tomorrow to see if you survive the night."

    "You''re not coming with me?"

    "Again, I''m not your babysitter."

    "Humph, fine, be that way."

    With that, both of them went their separate ways. Unfortunately, JJ was stuck in the dungeon for another half an hour trying to find a way out as she had forgotten to ask M for directions. M just watched his new project as she stumbled out of the training grounds and into an inn in the immediate vicinity.

 The Weapon Shop

    JJ realized something that she completely forgot about up until this point. She didn''t have any money, nor even any knowledge of how the monetary system worked in this fantasy world. This came a bit too late as she was talking to an innkeeper about renting a room.

    "Miss? Miss? Hello?" The innkeeper said as she waved her hands at JJ who was apparently staring into oblivion.

    "Uh, yes mom... I mean, what?" JJ said as she snapped out of her thinking state.

    "As I was saying, miss, you will need 1 A coin in order to rent a room from us."

    "... Is there any way I would be able to sell you this sword in my hand in exchange for a room tonight?"

    "Oh heavens no. Go down to the weapon shop and sell it to the owner. If I knew anything about swords, I would do an exchange with you."

    "Oh, so that''s it. Where is this weapon shop, innkeeper?"

    "Head out our front door and take a left, you will see his shop eventually."

    "Thank you," JJ said as she took off running in the directions that the innkeeper had told her to go. Even though this was more strenuous than any past day that she could remember, her body did not really feel all that fatigued. Now that she had time to think without that annoying M by her side, she had come to miss his presence, just a little bit.

    As soon as she entered the tiny shop, she was met with a gaze that penetrated deep into her soul from the man behind the counter. This gaze continued as JJ made her way to the counter, each step felt like an eternity of punishments with the terrible gaze that constantly studied her.

    "What do you want, little girl? Are you here for my daughter? One of her classmates I presume?" The man said without ever looking away from her. "ASH! One of your friends is here."

    "Wait, wait, no, no. I''m just here to sell you this weapon for some money."

    "Oh, well, forgive me for my stare, I''ve been told of how nerve-racking it is, but if you''re a customer, then you are always welcome here. ASH! Don''t come down, it isn''t one of your friends." The old man said as he stopped looking at her as if he was a wolf. "Show me your sword."

    "Here it is," JJ said as she handed the sword over.

    "Let''s see, the craftsmanship of this sword ain''t half bad. Let me check it out on the information orb and see how much it is worth." He took the blade and walked down the counter a little way so that he was standing right behind an orb that was glowing a dim shade of pink. The shopkeeper set it down right next to the orb, chanted a short verse under his breath, and for a brief moment, the orb turned blue and a pop-up sprang open.

    "So what do you think?" JJ asked as she was starting to get annoyed at how slow this entire process was going.

    "It is definitely one of the finer blades I have seen. If you had a hundred of these, I could make quite a selling to a group of mercenaries or to the count or some other local force. I''m willing to pay you 5 A coins for this, do you accept?"Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.

    "Screw it, I''m done with all this nonsense for today, I accept."

    "Great, here you go, 5 A coins. If you are in store for another weapon or just have something to sell, please don''t hesitate to come back. Where did you manage to get by this sword anyhow?"

    "My... guide, uh, handed this to me."

    "Must not be a very good guide if he let you do this by yourself. Heh, well, stay safe out there kiddo, make sure you find a good place to sleep tonight."

    "Don''t worry, I''ll be fine." She said as she took half a step out the door.

    "And don''t forget to come back if you get another one of these swords."

    "Sure, I''ll come back once I get more from my...dealer... Ok, goodbye."

    JJ ran back to the inn that she had been at earlier, talked to the lady once more, paid her rent forward, and got into bed early. She had done her nightly routine of washing herself as she was pretty much covered in guts and mud from fighting and digging all those times. Finally, she lay on the bed that was in her room to think about all of the crazy things that had happened on this one day. For all she knew, it could have all been a dream and she would wake up any minute now.

    As the candles flickered on the nightstand beside her bed, all she could think about now was the life she left behind. Several friends, parents that, mostly, loved her, but was certainly disappointed by all of the wrong paths they believe she chose. The fantasy part of her day was now filled with a different kind of fantasy altogether so she didn''t feel too bad for her current situation.

    JJ just sat on her bed looking off into the distance, but instead of daydreaming about fantasy as she did on Earth, she was daydreaming about Earth in a fantasy world. Something she never thought possible. The life she left behind was full of regrets, not necessarily because she missed the people who had been there throughout her life, but that she wasn''t able to accomplish more. In her mind, she vowed to really rise to the occasion on this planet and become the strongest.

    That goal all starts with one thing, getting a good night¡¯s sleep. So she shut off all thoughts of anything else and focused on just relaxing and letting the quiet night and gentle breeze rock her into sleep. As fate would have it, that night was a sleepless one as nothing she did to try to sleep worked. Tossing and turning and turning and tossing all night long.

    By the morning, she had as much energy as she did before she went to bed. Which was not supposed to be how a human body was supposed to work, very far from it in fact. It was already sunrise so there wasn¡¯t much use in trying to sleep anymore. She got up to wash her face.

    ¡°Heyo.¡±

    A voice that somehow brought both loathing and a strange sense of wonder entered into her mind, it was the voice of M.

    ¡°Oh, is there some weird magic on this planet that allows me to feel refreshed while I¡¯m in a town or something?¡±

    ¡°Didn¡¯t get much sleep, did you? I can see you have some pretty lifeless eyes.¡±

    ¡°No, not at all.¡±

    ¡°That reminds me, I kinda forgot to tell you yesterday that one of my default passive skills that transfer into my projects is boundless energy.¡±

    ¡°? Meaning?¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to sleep, or rest as you will have infinite energy.¡±

    ¡°Motherf-¡±

    ¡°Though you still do need sustenance.¡±

    ¡°You know what, I¡¯m not even going to argue with you over this. It is more trouble than it¡¯s worth.¡±

    ¡°Aw, too bad. I was really hoping to go one round with you before we went to go monster hunting. Too bad you¡¯re so cranky right from the get-go, you must not be a morning person.¡±

    ¡°Yea, no kidding, I used to sleep from midnight to noon so I would avoid mornings altogether.¡±

    ¡°Hoh, impressive for a human.¡±

    ¡°Yea, I guess,¡± JJ said as she finished washing up her face and proceeded to change into another outfit until she realized that she didn¡¯t have anything else to wear, and even if she did, she surely wouldn¡¯t do it in front of M.

    ¡°By the way, how did you get the money to pay for this room?¡±

    ¡°I sold one of your swords to a weapon shop down the road for 5 A coins.¡±

    ¡°What? 5?¡±

    ¡°Is that bad?¡±

    ¡°I... actually have no idea. Those weapons are pretty basic weapons even for beginners so it doesn¡¯t really matter. Plus, if you are ever in need of some money, just conjure up a few weapons and sell them.¡±

    ¡°I think I will. But first, I will need to go shopping for another outfit. This one that I have already smells pretty funky already.¡±

    ¡°I think it is a good idea for you to buy a few weapons and maybe armour as well. If you grind enough today, you might be able to leave the training area and go onto an actual dungeon that will be good for experience.¡±

    ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll do it your way, but should I even bother with a weapon? In every game that I have played, the beginner weapons always become useless a few levels down.¡±

    ¡°See, this is why you don¡¯t think with that brain you were given. You have a source of almost unlimited wealth, what exactly do you have to lose by buying a few weapons and selling them later? A few minutes of your time?¡±

    ¡°Alright, no need to get so snappy with me. We¡¯ll go after I get some ¡°sustenance¡± as you call it.¡±

 Shiny Silver Suit of Armour

    JJ left her room and proceeded downstairs to enjoy a nice, if bland, meal. She stretched as she took a little break from eating. This peaceful setting was interrupted by M.

    ¡°Ok, you¡¯ve had your food, how about we go and get you some good armour or whatever now? Isn¡¯t that what you want?¡± M telepathically said to JJ.

    "Soon, they have all this food here and I''ll be sad if I don''t get my fill," JJ thought in her mind, as she was in the presence of other people and didn''t want to draw any attention to herself by talking to somebody that nobody could see.

    "You do realize that the average human can go without food for well over a month? This is your twenty-second roll of bread. For a shorter than average girl, you sure eat a fair amount."

    "Hey! Don''t judge me. This is pretty much muscle memory by this point," She said as she stuffed another roll of bread into her mouth and chomping down on it angrily. It had been a long time since someone criticized her for her eating habits and this only brought her back to her memories of her parents doing the same thing which caused her to stress eat. It was a vicious cycle, one that she was finding out about just now.

    "23, 24, 25, 27, 30."

    "Oh stop it you, the more you count, the more I unconsciously want to eat."

    "Fine... 32."

    JJ rolled her eyes as far back into her head as possible. After that whole ordeal ended, she went to the weapon shop that she had gone to the night before. A sword that was conjured up was exchanged for 5 A coins. Last night, she was thinking about other matters and completely forgot to ask how the monetary system worked in this world. So, that was the plan today. She walked into the empty store and went up to the shopkeep.

    "Hello again, I was just wondering how the coins worked on this planet here, also my name is JJ," JJ asked the man.

    "Ah, young lady, the one from last night. I don''t know what kind of guide you had if that person didn''t even give you an explanation of something so basic."

    "Trust me when I say, he isn''t the best guide, not by a long shot."

    "Uh, wow. That was unnecessary," M said inside JJ''s mind.

    "Heh, most of the ones on this level are like that I''m afraid. Anyway, 100 A coins equal 1 B coin. 100 B coins equal 1 C coin, and so on. I believe even the richest people on this planet only have a few M coins to their name. If you want to get higher than that, you would have to go onto bigger worlds. However, that isn''t possible until you''ve reached at least level J1... You do know about how the level system works here?"

    "Oh yea, of course. My guide isn''t that useless."

    "Wow, geez, thanks for the compliment... That was obvious sarcasm if you couldn''t already tell."

    "I can tell, I love sarcasm, now shut up I''m trying to speak with the man and he is getting suspicious of why I haven''t said anything for the past little bit."

    "Fine, fine."

    "So, uh, shopkeep, what is your name?"

    "My name is Glen, and that child over there is my daughter, Ash." He said as he pointed to a young lady that was dusting a plate of armour at the other side of the room.

    "Ah, Glen. I came today to sell you a few more swords and other weapons. Additionally, I''d like to get a nice plate of armour."

    "Of course, as I said to you last night, customers are always welcome! Now, show me some weapons."

    "Just a moment, I need to get them from my dealer. Be back in a few minutes," She said as she left the store in a hurry and conjured up 3 more swords, a spear, a basic wand, and a stone maul. Then she went back inside and handed them all to Glen the shopkeeper.

    "Ah, I had doubted your sanity when you spoke of your dealer last night, but now I see you are serious." There was something bothering him though. He did indeed scam her last night, but not by a lot. Under normal circumstances, he would not have done so, but a little girl coming in to sell a sword was something he thought he could get away with. However, if JJ''s dealer had any idea as to how valuable the sword was and how much it could sell for, then he might be in a bit of trouble.

    "Is something the matter, old man? You look a bit conflicted."

    "Ah, nothing, here is 5 more A coins. This is from the sword that you sold me yesterday. I have a... policy... that I would... uh... oh, give my repeat customers a bit more incentive to spend in my shop. It''s a one-time thing only so don''t expect anything from me next time... Yea, that¡¯s reasonable."

    "Umm, ok."

    A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    "Great, let''s get down to business," He said as he took out the orb and examined all of the weapons that were in front of him. This time, he would give JJ a fair price for everything that she brought to him. It took him a few minutes to do, but he was glad that he took the time to go through them all.

    "So, what do you think?"

    "Pretty good quality, same as last night. However, they are still basically beginner weapons so I can''t give you much for them. The most valuable thing in this pile is the maul, so in total, I''ll give you 104 A coins."

    "Ok."

    "Would you like that in all A coins or would you like to have 1 B coin and 4 A coins?"

    "I was hoping to get armour, would it be possible for me to purchase one then get the change?"

    "Of course, go take a look and see what you would like. My daughter Ash will assist you if you need help."

    "Thank you," JJ said as she walked over to Rash who was still dusting the armour. The two of them lock eyes.

    "I''ve overheard your conversation last night with my father, I never thought someone of your short stature to be an adventurer, uh, no offence," Ash said sweetly. She was a 21-year-old girl that towered over JJ, but that was only because she was on a ladder. Once she got down, the two were nearly the same height.

    "Well, you certainly aren''t the first to underestimate me due to my height. I''m already used to it so don''t apologize. Which armour do you recommend for someone like me?"

    "Uhm, none of them. We don''t have any in your... petite size."

    "Don''t worry, just buy one suitable for your level, and I will take care of the rest," M said inside JJ''s head reassuring her about everything."

    "Just tell me which one is suitable for a level A4 or A5. As long as I can get one, I''ll be fine."

    "Oh, were you going to go to the blacksmith to get them fixed up to your size? Then you will want this one," She pointed to a set of armour that was very similar to many of the ones that she had made her own characters play in, a bikini style armour that revealed quite a bit.

    "Haha wow, I wonder what it would be like if you actually wore that. Have you ever even worn a bikini before?"

    "Shut up, and you better not be imagining me in that outfit. I''ll kill you if you do."

    "Oh don''t worry about that, the beings here in the 4th-Dimension are a billion times better looking than you. Not going to lie, ya kinda ugly. Even if your looks are above average on the human scale."

    "Wow... First of all, that was extremely rude. Second, that¡¯ll be a hit to my self-confidence."

    "Haha, just poking some fun at you. You should probably say something to the poor girl though, she looks quite puzzled."

    "Uhhm, I don''t know if I''m comfortable with that one," JJ said as she turned a slight shade of red.

    "Really? This is all the rage right now."

    "Yeah, definitely not, anything else that I might be able to equip?"

    "Well, the only other one is this one where it is for male adventurers, the most basic armour set."

    "Oh yes, go get that one. That should do just fine."

    "What? That one is for guys, and come to think of it? Can''t I just conjure a set of armour up for myself?"

    "Boy, you are so slow, and besides, I''m only giving you the power to conjure up weapons, nothing else. So get that one and I will adjust it to your needs."

    "Ok, I''ll get that one then. The male one that is about twice as large as I am. That... should do... I hope."

    "Sure thing, let me go get my father to help you.." Rash said as she waved for her father to come over.

    "So, little lady, you want this one? But why? I''m just curious? I don''t think there is any blacksmith in the beginner town that is able to do such modifications, maybe in one of the other higher-level towns, but certainly not in this small little town. Are you sure?"

    "...well no, but why not. How much is it?"

    "It''ll be 30 A coins."

    "Done."

    "...Ok, here is your 74 A coins." Glen got out some change from his money bag and handed it over to JJ.

    "How exactly do you plan on taking it to your place? Even if it is a beginner armour, it should be quite heavy, can you handle it?" A sweet voice behind Glen said, it was Rash.

    "Do you have a changing room?"

    "Of course, since you have already paid for it, you may use it, it does connect to an exit so you may leave whenever you wish. Thank you for your purchase. Here, let me get this suit over to the changing rooms for you."

    "Many thanks," JJ said as she followed Glen to the back of the store and got inside while Glen left to tend to the store.

    "Ok, what do you think about the design of this armour?" M said inside her mind.

    "It''s certainly not bad. How exactly are you going to make this fit me?"

    "Don''t worry, I''ll bring it into my dimension, work on it, and send it back to you."

    "Oh, do you need my measurements or something?"

    "I already have it," M said as the suit of armour began disappearing just like how the weapons she conjured appeared.

    "W-what? When did you get that?"

    "Ok done," M said completely disregarding JJ¡¯s previous question.

    "Wow that was fast, are you sure?"

    "Yeah, this is one of my hobbies."

    "What is? Taking measurements of unsuspecting girls?"

    "No...maybe. I can just tell alright?"

    "Riiiiight."

    "Just try the damn suit on."

    "Hold on," she said as she turned to look at the place where the armour appeared and was surprised when she saw that it had shrunk down to her specific measurements. Trying it on was a bit tricky as she had to figure out everything by herself since M wasn''t really helping her out.

    "No wait, just, that''s the leg plate...I think. Ever since you assembled it, I can''t even tell which part goes where anymore. It looks like there are even more pieces than before for some reason."

    "Oh shut it, and how come you are watching me? That is inappropriate."

    "I know I haven''t explained everything to you, but you should know... I see a lot more of you than you can. So I am essentially seeing every inch of you with clothes and without clothes at the same time and everything within you as well. That goes for everybody naturally, you''re not an exception to the rule."

    "Can you not?"

    "No, I cannot not. I can''t turn it off, it''s just something that happens. Just like you like to touch naked animals without their permission sometimes. By the way, weird practice."

    "Oh whatever, it''s on, what do you think?"

    "Meh, good enough for your first suit of armour, ok let''s-"

    "Hold on, can you add something to this set of armour?"

    "What are you thinking of?"

    "I''d like a symbol, something that makes me push myself to my limits, so."

    "So you''d like a pizza? I know you love those, maybe a bit too much."

    "No!"

    "Chips?"

    "No, I''d like to have an engraving of a fluffy llama on my left shoulder."

    "That is really random, may I ask why?"

    "No you may not, now do it."

    "Heh, fine, done."

    "Woah, that was fast, and you didn''t even have to take it to your dimension?"

    "I could''ve if I wanted to, I could''ve even transported right onto your body once I had finished with it."

    "Huh, why didn''t you?"

    "Because I like to see you suffer from time to time. Plus, I am an excellent troll."

    "Oh F you."

    "I''ll take it, now, let''s go complete your mage dungeon unless you want to do something else?"

    "No objections from me, let''s go," JJ said as she left the store with a shining silver plated armour that fit her very nicely, suspiciously nicely.

 A History Lesson

    "M, one thing still perplexes me, how did humans on Earth encounter these fantasy creatures if there were none on Earth?" JJ asked while she was making her way to the mage dungeon that she had been at yesterday.

    "It is different for every planet, but there once were these types of beings in your world. I believe the height of their activity would have peaked around 900-1400 AD. The portal between worlds was the weakest then and quite a few monsters found their way to Earth. Conversely, a few humans had found their way other planets. Ha, just imagine their shock when it happened," said M with a slight tone of musing.

    "Is there anything else? Did we fend them off? Or what happened?"

    "Actually, there was one event that occurred before the 500 years that I told you about that was mainly isolated in Egpyt and Hittite land. This occurred in the 13th century BC and the Treaty of Kadesh between Ramesses II and Hatti. These two powerful leaders joined forces to take down the threat and it continued on for another few decades after their death. When it ended, most of the monsters had been killed and the rest were left to die on their own as they had been driven to almost the point of extinction on Earth."

    "Really? That''s amazing. What happened the second time around?"

    "Good question, I do believe that I was also part of the fun the second time around."

    "What? How old are you?" said JJ in amazement.

    "I am quite old by your standards, but relative to everyone in my dimension, I am slightly younger than you, a late teen. Anyhow, do you know the folklore of Robin Hood?"

    "Oh, no way, that is one of my favourites."

    "Is it now? Well, there once was a band of merry men who made their way to another world through one of the rifts accidentally. By mere coincidence, one of my other projects...uh... I forgot his name, I do believe he was a human. Anyway, my project and Robin Hood hit it off quite nicely, but once the men were aware of my presence, they requested my aid. Now, normally I wouldn''t do anything like that but my project was adamant about this and so I indulged them."

    "Did you give them the power to conjure up weapons as well?"

    "No, I possessed this Robin Hood character and led their men on an adventure to steal from the rich and give to the poor. To make a long story short, one thing led to another and I helped him defeat the Sheriff of Nottingham and then my project and I left to go back to our world. After a few goodbyes and a large celebration of course."

    "You are pretty dang cool. So you are about a thousand years old?"

    "You have to know, time is a very tricky thing. For you, you go at a rate of one second per second. It''s a bit of a weird definition but that''s what your scientists on Earth define it as. In the 4th dimension, I don''t know exactly how to explain it as I never attended the institutions that I was supposed to go to."

    "So are you like a no-lifer just like I was?"

    "Heh, in a way, I suppose that is one way to go about it. Perhaps that was why I chose to deviate from my regular choice in projects and choose you."If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

    "I don''t know, none of my other projects ever talk back to me like you did back in the shop. Only time will tell I suppose. As I was saying, I am able to see a few seconds into your future, that is just one of my many abilities."

    "Yea yea, stop bragging," JJ said as she brought up her stats window again. She was studying it a bit yesterday, but the walk to the dungeon would take another few minutes. Hopefully, she would be able to ask M about a few of the things that had plagued her since yesterday. The stats window seemed to follow the level system and the monetary system of the world. Namely, it started at A1 and went up.

    "What''s wrong, JJ."

    "It''s just that while I understand how this A1 to Z100 business works, I don''t understand who designed it to be like this."

    "That is a question that even I do not know the answer to. This system that I have brought you to is a relatively old one. It has existed for billions of years and it can only be considered one that is in the middle of the pack when it comes to adoption for new planets to pick their own levelling system. There are only a few thousand planets who have this type of system while there are hundreds of thousands more in any one of the more popular systems."

    "What does this mean?"

    "This system could be considered to have a hard difficulty, however, the more popular a system is, the more difficult it is to master. I have been trying for thousands of years to have my projects become prominent in the more popular systems and most of them did not live long enough to make it. You are the first that I have brought to this system so I am learning just as much as you."

    "Hang on, Glen said that I would need to be at least level J1 to be able to travel to other planets, does that also include Earth?"

    "Unfortunately, I don''t think so. You would only be able to travel to other planets that have the same levelling system. Generally speaking, one galaxy has a few levelling systems vying for power within it. It comes with great rewards if you are successful, but the risk is quite high. If you die outside of the training grounds, then you are done for. I mean it for real this time, I can''t save you from death twice."

    "Yea, I got it. Can you see what my stats are without looking at this window?"

    "I can, would you like to see?"

    "Sure."

    "Attack: A3

    Strength: A4

    Defence: A2

    Ranged: A3

    Magic: A1

    HP: A3

    Dungeoneering: A2

    Agility: A2

    Slayer: A3

    Hunter: A2

    Summoning: A1

    You get the point, there are about a thousand more skills where I''m not going to list them as they are all A1. There are a few specializations like construction, architecture, and design for if you don''t want to fight anymore and would rather do those kinds of things. However, there are a few specializations like weapon mastery for swords, spears, and all that. As is the case for ranged and magic attacks."

    "There are so many that I didn''t even manage to scroll through all of them yet. If I specialize will it affect how I use other weapons?"

    "No, I don''t think so, if you wanted to specialize in all weapons, it will just take more time, that''s all."

    "Oh, that''s good. I''ve been wondering, what exactly do you look like? Based on the way that you speak, I''d imagine you to be an American, but obviously, you aren''t human are you?"

    "No, no I am not. I belong to a race called the Nostradellions. Part of our clan lives in the 3D world as well. The lesser part. Then, as far as I know, there is a Nostradellion clan in the 5th-Dimension as well. Only the most successful go there, that is why I have all of you like my projects. To realize this dream of mine. Legends say that if I manage to do this, then I will become immo-""

    "Hold the flippin'' dippin'' phone. There are more dimensions above yours?"

    "Umm, above isn''t really the term you use for dimensions like ours. Above is the difference between 2D and 3D. As for 3D to 4D, I can''t really explain it in terms that you understand so just imagine you, everything you were, everything you will be, and everything you will become after you die, is visible as one being. By the way, I comprehend 4D to 5D even less so don''t ask me for anything about that."

    "Is there another one beyond the fifth?"

    "I think so, of the knowledge I do have, it goes up to around 11 dimensions."

    "How smart are you? I would imagine the physics to be a bit different than the one in my world."

    "Very good, at least you can halfway keep a conversation unlike most of my other projects who only likes to fight. You''re different, I like that. To answer your question though, I''m not even going to attempt to explain it to you. Just like 2D physics is simple compared to 3D physics, 3D physics is relatively simple in 4D physics. Every dimension you ascend, it''s complexities multiply a million fold."

    "Oh, we''re here, let me go get the key and I''ll meet you inside the bear dungeon again. See you there," JJ said as she ran to dig up the key as she had done yesterday.

    "Alright," M said as he slowly checked out the different paths and monsters within the dungeon, it was not the same as yesterday, there was a much more difficult boss than the one he vaporized yesterday. Twice, actually. What luck.

 The Salamander

    JJ ran to get the key as quickly as she could and headed directly into the mage dungeon. Once inside, she walked to the first room full of monsters before conjuring up a wand and called out to see if M was there, which he was.

    "M, let me try this again. I think I can do it by myself now," JJ said as she began to prep herself into casting some magic.

    "Alright, whatever you say. Remember to limit the amount of mana that you have so that you won''t overdo it like you did last time," M lectured JJ.

    "Ok, ok, I get it, let me try it out first."

    JJ stepped inside the room after taking a long deep breath and came face to face with a couple of giant spiders. She pictured a small flame inside her mind and aimed her wand at one of the big creepy crawlies. A bright flash of light later, one of the spiders had fallen over burnt to a crisp like a french fry. There were 2 more who witnessed the death of their roommate and rushed at JJ together.

    However, now that JJ knew what to do to cast magic, she killed the other two with no sweat, just like the first. One of them got whirled around and crashed into the ceiling with a wind spell while the other one was done in by a lightning strike.

    "Hoh, well done. I didn''t think you would be able to get it down so fast. I mean you only shot one fireball yesterday, you are starting to become one of my favourite projects."

    "I am, am I? Do you have a mental ranking or something in your mind?"

    "As a matter of fact, I absolutely do. Right now, you are about 500th place. Hmm, wait, that might be a bit too high. But you are definitely in the top 1000. Out of like 15,000."

    "Dang dude, only 500?"

    "Well, you were the one that asked."

    "I was just joking, M, I didn''t really think you really had a ranking in your mind."

    "Don''t be jealous, most of these guys at the very top of my list are all dead. So if you keep on living and doing great things, then you''ll surpass them eventually."

    "I''m not jealous you twat. Anyway, I''m going to head to the next room."

    "Do you want my help in getting to the exit as fast as you can?"

    "Nah, I think I''m good, I want to complete the entire dungeon by myself."

    "Ah, as a big girl should!¡± M said as if he were encouraging a child to tell the truth.

    ¡°...Don¡¯t patronize me.¡±

    ¡°Be that way, just a heads up, there is a fantastic beast as the boss of this floor, but I''m sure you will be able to finish it no problem."

    "What is the monster?"

    "Find out yourself."If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

    "What? You aren''t going to help me?"

    "Nah, what''s the point of me telling you if you are going to find out anyway? Just keep going at whatever pace you feel like and enjoy the journey."

    "When did you become so wise?"

    "I''m always wise, I just don''t feel like acting it sometimes. It gets tiring just as you get tired of socializing with anyone."

    "That... is a valid argument," She said as she continued to kill one monster after another. After another little while, she asked, "how come you understand English? Do you have some universal translator?"

    "No-"

    "A super-advanced dictionary downloaded into your brain?"

    "No, I-"

    "Did you just learn English?"

    "No! Would you let me fin- Oh wait, yes to that last one. I did learn English, and just about every other important language on your planet and a few hundred others."

    "Wow, is it difficult for you?"

    "It isn''t too difficult as the language of my people is also infinitely more complex and I have managed to become a master of my language. It is one of the highest awards given to linguists of my people and of course anyone who is willing to learn it."

    "Alright, you don''t gotta brag about it all day. How many languages do you know?"

    "I thought you didn''t want me to brag? But to answer your question, in excess of 500."

    "I... SEE," JJ said as she cast one last spell to end the last monster before the boss room. She was now breathing a bit heavily and went to go check her stats windows to see where her mana was.

    "Looks like you only got 15 out of 120 mana points left, I don''t think you will be able to finish off whatever is in that boss room if you only have that much mana in you. Here, a little gift from me," M said as a vial of blue liquid appeared in front of JJ.

    "A mana potion?"

    "Yea, yesterday you unleashed all of your mana in one go and asked for a mana potion, I denied it. Today, you proved your skill and I think you deserve one. Don''t worry, I''ve got a lot more so drink up."

    "Ok," JJ said as she drank the bottle in one gulp. She looked at the stats window again and it showed 115 mana points out of 120. Not only that, it seemed as if her mind was refreshed since she felt like she was at a mental capacity of 100% again.

    "Be careful when you fight this monster, it will be quite difficult unless you can find a way past its defence."

    "Yea-yea, I think I can handle it." She said as she stepped into the room only to see a giant salamander with deep crimson scales like that of a really, really red rose. JJ was not unfamiliar with salamanders, in all the games that she had played, they portrayed them as fire breathing lizards. For now, she had to scope out and see if that was the case. If it was, then it might be immune to fire magic and she had to think of some other way to defeat it.

    As soon as she stepped in, she had her answer. A fireball came hurtling right at her from the mouth of the overgrown lizard. The armour that she had on was just basic armour and not very useful for this fight so she ran away while simultaneously making her armour disappear. This move was so that she would be able to move out of the way quicker if another fireball came at her. Even if she did have a bit less protection now, she thought that the tradeoff was worth it.

    Just to test out her theory, she sent out a small shot of fire at the beast which didn''t even flinch. That meant to defeat it, she needed something else to kill it. While dodging the seemingly endless fireballs coming towards her, she tried a few times to cast a few different spells. The water attack seemed to be quite effective, the wind as well, the lightning was not too bad, and obviously, the fire was not effective at all. With this knowledge, she shot off a few water missiles at the lizard in hopes of killing it quickly.

    Unfortunately, once the beast saw the water missiles, he ran right towards JJ preparing to chomp her up. The beast was fast and managed to outrun 2 of the 3 water missiles, but the one that did hit slowed it down considerably. However, the hurt lizard continued rushing JJ as fast as it could manage in its damaged state. JJ was fairly fast, but there was no way to outrun the salamander. She could only meet it head-on.

    "I should probably tell you that you can make shields out of your magic too, it will just be a bit difficult while you are under pressure."

    "Thanks for the tip," She said as she instantly cast a shield just as the salamander was about to take her head off. Thankfully, it was strong enough to stop the beast dead in its tracks. JJ used this chance to fire a few more water missiles onto the hulking figure in front of her and it worked wonders.

    "Looks like the salamander is on its last breath. You still have quite a bit of mana left, just end it quickly so you can do some more dungeons.

    "Ok, don''t rush me. I know how this works," She said as a small hurricane picked up from right in front of her and followed a path straight to the salamander. The beast knew that it would not be able to take it head-on and instead decided to try and outrun the small hurricane. Which it managed to do, but it would not have the strength to do it for much longer.

    "Looks like it will end soon."

    "Not soon enough," She said as she summoned 3 more small hurricanes and willed it to chase the salamander as well. Now that there were 4 chasing the beast, it only took a couple of seconds to trap it into a corner and that was the end. A very windy breeze flowed throughout the room stopped within seconds. The only thing left was a carcass once the dust had settled.

    "That was kind of alarming how sadistic you sounded, JJ. Are you sure you aren''t, you know, a little cuckoo?"

    "...Shut up."

    "Not gonna lie, that was kinda hot."

    "...Shut up," JJ smiled as she saw the carcass disappearing from her sight. "Let''s try another one."

 First Summon

    ¡°Another?¡± M questioned JJ just as the last of the salamander carcass disappeared into the 4th-dimension.

    ¡°Of course, now that I know I don¡¯t really need to sleep or anything I think I¡¯ll grind the dungeons until I mentally can¡¯t anymore,¡± said JJ as she headed for the exit. As soon as she stepped out, M was there to continue their conversation.

    ¡°Would you like to go on another mage dungeon or were you thinking of something else? Ranged? Summoning?¡±

    ¡°You know what, I think I¡¯ll go give the summoning dungeon a try. What is the point of being able to stay up all day if I can¡¯t have a companion with me.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m right here, well not right there per se but I can still hear that. That¡­ kinda hurts.¡±

    ¡°Oh, well, I meant it.¡±

    ¡°I liked you better when you were sassy, now you¡¯re just being mean. I mean, not that I care. Anyway, go get the key and find a statue with a wolf with a pendant around its neck and I¡¯ll meet you there.¡±

    ¡°Yeah sure,¡± JJ said as she went to go dig up the one more time. To her, this had become a bit of a routine at this point, but no matter how many she dug it up, it always seemed to respawn at the same place after she got out of the dungeon that she was in.

    Could it be that this was the type of thing she would see in this fantasy world? So far, the only things that she had seen were dictated by M¡¯s decisions.

    Nevertheless, she got the key and spent a good few minutes trying to find the wolf with the pendant. The moment she put the key next to the statue, she was transported to the summoning dungeon. As soon as she got her bearings, she could make out M trying to talk to her.

    ¡°You alright? That took you a bit longer than it should have.¡±

    ¡°Stop, you showing your concern for me is somehow more annoying than you being a giant pain in the behind.¡±

    ¡°...You are a very strange lady, the one time I show concern for you and you chew me out like a dog chews out a treat¡­ I don¡¯t know if that made sense and I don¡¯t care. Let me tell you about how to summon a beast. Just imagine it like you would with your spells. That¡¯s it.¡±

    ¡°That doesn¡¯t sound right, in all the games I have played that has never been the case. Don¡¯t I need some summoning stone or summoning stone tablet or anything?¡±

    ¡°You must be a damn child if you think that everything you play is how it is in the land of actual magic. But I mean, you¡¯re not wrong. If you were anyone else, then sure, you¡¯d need to do all that, but who do you think is your guardian? Me. I can make a lot of things reality. Just deal with it, accept it, and move on with your life. Do you think you can handle that, little girl?¡±

    ¡°Hey! No more patronizing ok?¡± JJ said as she imagined the salamander that she had just killed and wouldn¡¯t you know it, one really did appear.

    ¡°Now do you believe me?¡±

    ¡°I guess so, but you did also make me chant whirlwind which didn¡¯t activate any magic just yesterday. You made me look like an absolute fool, I¡¯m just glad there was no one around to see such an embarrassing act.¡±

    ¡°Hah, don¡¯t worry, you¡¯re a fool either way,¡± said M in a playful way.

    This did not go down well with JJ and she just stopped in her tracks and tried to look offended. However, it wasn¡¯t very effective as she had no idea where to point herself in M¡¯s direction.

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

    ¡°Oh, that¡¯s adorable. Also, summon a wolf, let me show you one of my abilities.¡±

    Though JJ was not particularly happy with M at the moment, she did as M instructed. Just a split second later, an adult wolf with ash grey fur appeared right next to JJ. Both of the summoned pets looked at each other and then to JJ, completely harmless to her. They were bound to her through some contract.

    ¡°First of all, ouch. And second, why do you need a wolf?¡±

    ¡°Here, just give me...a second,¡± M said as his voice sounded a little strained for a split second there. Without any warning, the wolf ran right up to JJ and lightly headbutted her knees.

    ¡°What¡¯s happening?¡± She asked in confusion.

    ¡°I am now in control of the wolf and since this body of mine doesn¡¯t have vocal cords that can speak English, I will have to speak into your mind when I take over a body. Hang on, I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m headbutting your knees, the controls are a bit wonky and I need to figure it out¡­ Ok, I think I got it.¡±

    As soon as M finished his sentence, the wolf under M¡¯s control ran right past JJ and into the first room. JJ had no choice but to follow and willed the salamander to tag along as well.

    ¡°Hold on a minute, M. Don¡¯t run so fast, I can barely keep up with you. Why do you do this-¡± She said as she stopped dead in her tracks guffawing at the sight in front of her, what she saw was hundreds of bunnies. The really cute, really fluffy, really cuddly ones.

    M in wolf form was chowing down on them like a fricken $400 lawn mower cutting through grass, something that terrified JJ to no end. It did not help that the salamander that she summoned ran in to join in on the slaughter.

    ¡°I can tell from your expressions that you are experiencing something that you humans call emotional trauma. Haha, this is relatively tame compared to what the real world you will soon enter be about. So you better get used to it, cupcake.¡±

    ¡°Ok, don¡¯t call me cupcake, that is really condescending, and also, it¡¯s not emotional trauma. It¡¯s common sense for any one of my species to react like that when they see such a horrific sight. I mean seriously, do you not feel anything from all the death and destruc- CAN YOU STOP MASSACRING THEM WHILE I¡¯M TALKING TO YOU?¡±

    The salamander stopped immediately once JJ screamed at M. However, M did not die down his actions quite as fast.

    ¡°Ok, ok, I¡¯ll stop,¡± M said as he eyed the nearest rabbit, killed it, and looked at JJ with the puppy dog eyes, ¡°Ok, now I¡¯ll stop.¡±

    ¡°Jeez, it took you what? A few minutes to kill off dozens of these guys.¡±

    ¡°What? Do you not realize that you have to kill them in order to advance to the next room?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not a fool, I know that is definitely not the case.¡±

    ¡°Oh well, worth a try,¡± M said in a nonchalant voice.

    ¡°...You can tick me off so much sometimes that...that I don¡¯t even know what to say. Why do you do that?¡±

    ¡° Cause it¡¯s fun, that¡¯s all. Besides, I haven¡¯t been on your plane of existence in quite a while and I felt like exercising for a bit. Anyway, the next few rooms from here on out will be a bit trickier to do so you best train your salamander right now instead of getting in an avoidable situation. You get me?¡±

    ¡°Yea I get you, but I won¡¯t like doing it.¡±

    ¡°You don¡¯t have to, as long as you can control it, then it¡¯s fine. You seem to have no problem getting it to follow you.¡±

    ¡°Do I just imagine it taking down monsters or something?¡±

    ¡°Of course not! This is a living breathing being that you are controlling, not some mindless fire spell. You two must come to an understanding of your own accord. Since you likely don¡¯t speak whatever the heck that monster speaks and vice versa, I¡¯ll make a psychic link between you two so that you can command it.¡±

    ¡°You can do that?¡±

    ¡°Yep, but most of the other Summoners won¡¯t be able to and will have to spend at least a few days training it. Although this will grant you almost instant communication which would normally require lots of bonding, you must remember to never lose the respect of your pets. If that is the case, then they will likely not obey your orders anymore.¡±

    ¡°That seems a bit too simple, but I¡¯ll try it out.¡±

    ¡°Hold on, let me set it up first. Alright, that should be good, try it now.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± JJ said not knowing exactly what to do. Suddenly, a voice reached out to her inside her head that somehow felt like it belonged to the lizard that she had summoned. Perhaps it was the way that it looked into her soul with its cold-hearted eyes.

    ¡°I am the lizard that you summoned, just give me a name and you may begin giving me commands. You should know that through your summoning, I have been born so you are technically my mother.¡±

    ¡°Woah, I had no idea that you could speak so eloquently, and also I¡¯m not going to be your mother so don¡¯t ever call me that, please. I¡¯ll name you...firetank.¡±

    ¡°Ok, even though I couldn¡¯t understand what you were saying before with that wolf, I get the feeling that you weren¡¯t very happy about his actions,¡± firetank spoke directly into JJ¡¯s mind.

    ¡°Yea, it¡¯s a bit complicated.¡±

    ¡°Just so you know, I love killing. Will you have a problem with that?¡±

    ¡°Oh great, another one. Hmm, it shouldn¡¯t be a problem.¡± JJ said as she seemed to try and get away from the subject.

    ¡°Yeah! Just don¡¯t climax on this channel alright, firetank?¡± M said poking fun of the lizard.

    ¡°I, you, are the wolf?¡±

    ¡°I sure am, and I¡¯m the boss of JJ over here so you better listen to me too.¡±

    ¡°You funny, you¡¯re just a wolf, I could eat you in a moment.¡±

    ¡°Oh, yea? Come at me bro, I¡¯ll backhand you to the second dimension. What are you waiting for? I¡¯m right here, come and get some of this fur.¡±

    ¡°Stop it, boys! I can barely keep it together when it''s just you, M, but I don¡¯t know how long I¡¯d stay sane if both of you are yelling inside my brain and hurling terrible insults at each other. Let¡¯s go to the next room before I have to yell,¡± JJ said mentally as she made her way to the next room. Leaving behind the two children puffing up their chests.

    M and firetank gave each other a look of determination to prove their superiority and ran off to assist JJ and show off their skills.

 Ms Supremacy

    Even though JJ ran as fast as she could to the next room, she was beaten to it by M the wolf and later the lizard firetank. By the time she had made it, the two were already fighting what appeared to be golems made of clay. Unfortunately, she could hear them arguing with each other in her mind.

    ¡°Come on you stupid lizard, help me out here. I can¡¯t really do anything unless you use your fire abilities to make them a bit harder so I can actually land a hit and not get watery clay all over this body.¡± M shouted at firetank.

    ¡°What¡¯s wrong? Just a moment ago you were being all high and mighty, now you want my help?¡± Firetank scoffed.

    ¡°Oh for goodness¡¯ sake,¡± M said just as JJ locked eyes with both of them. A moment later, a bright flash of light came out of nowhere so that JJ had to shield her sight from the burning light.

    ¡°What happened?¡± JJ said as she put her arms down from her eyes. However, there was silence in her mind as she saw firetank unleashing a deadly cone of flames all around the room. After the fire died down, the wolf launched at the now hardened clay golems and shattered them all one hit each.

    ¡°I¡¯ll tell you what happened. I took over firetank¡¯s body as well as the wolf. Now I am in control of both.¡± M¡¯s familiar voice rang inside her head.

    ¡°How did you manage that? And why.¡±

    ¡°The consciousness of the lizard was pushed aside and that is how I entered into the body. This is also what happened to the wolf.¡±

    ¡°Oh...are you able to do that to me?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯d rather not, the more brilliant someone is, the harder it is for me to accomplish. But to answer your question, yes, yes I can.¡±

    ¡°You haven¡¯t done it to me have you?¡±

    ¡°No, if I do do this, then whoever was in the body before should be able to witness everything that is going on as I do them, I think¡±

    ¡°Anyway, doing this to dumb beasts isn¡¯t really all that difficult. That¡¯s sort of what I like about you humans, you are so unnecessarily complex. It¡¯s pretty fun, that¡¯s all I¡¯ll say about that. Let¡¯s head on to the next room.¡±

    ¡°...Ok....¡± JJ said as she followed the two beasts who were now both under M¡¯s control.

    ¡°By the way¡­¡±

    ¡°Hmmm?¡±

    ¡°You should know that with all of the benefits that I have given you, you better not throw all that away.¡±

    ¡°Why do you think I would ever do that?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know, some are very irrational, this wouldn¡¯t be the first nor last time that this will happen. Besides, you wanted me to kill you when we first met. If that isn¡¯t an extremely irrational choice, I don¡¯t know what is.¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°...¡±

    ¡°...Well, say something.¡±

    ¡°Can you tell me a bit more about this world?¡±

    ¡°I would have to go do a bit of recon for that but sure, once I get the info, I¡¯ll tell you. If I do that then I would have to do that full-heartedly and you would be by yourself.¡±Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    ¡°Alright, that shouldn¡¯t be too big of a problem. Once we get out of here, I¡¯ll go into a few more dungeons while you go do your research. I think I¡¯ve been too accustomed to you helping me out that I won¡¯t be able to do anything on my own. Plus, it¡¯s not like you will be by my side forever, right?¡±

    ¡°Actually, I could literally be by your side until you die. However, I know people in your country on your world value freedom so that makes sense. I will try to respect it, but no guarantees.¡±

    ¡°That gives me some closure that you will stay by my side, but what exactly is your reason for doing so? What incentives do you have to stay by my side?¡±

    ¡°Hold on,¡± M said as the wolf and lizard under his command rushed forward to take out a few dozen wood druids that had very branchy faces which were terrifying. Then, once that task was accomplished, all 3 of them continued down the path in silence until M finally said, ¡°this is a really private matter that concerns you very little, so I would appreciate it if you never asked me this again.¡±

    ¡°Are you serious? You have been invading my privacy all day today as well as yesterday too!¡±

    ¡°Just know that your continued survival and increased strength will benefit me in ways you will not understand.¡±

    ¡°Fine,¡± she sighed, ¡°maybe I¡¯ll ask again later. We have had quite a few adventures already, you seem to be really touchy about this subject, defensive even. I¡¯d really like it if we could keep our adventures light-hearted.¡±

    ¡°Me too, I¡¯m glad you think of it that way. Now, onto the next room. There are a few icy sprites in here.¡±

    ¡°What do they look like? Every time I see it mentioned in my books and games, it has a different look.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯ll see,¡± M said as both of the monsters picked up the pace. As the next room came into view, a blue hue could be seen in the rocks of the walls that preceded the room. Once inside, there was very clearly a lake that shone a very mesmerizing shade of blue.

    ¡°I¡¯ve never seen anything like this, all I can say is wow.¡±

    ¡°Yup, there are very few patches of water or any other distinctive feature of most dungeons. This is a pleasant surprise.¡±

    ¡°You weren¡¯t able to see this in your dimension down onto mine?¡±

    ¡°I could have if I had paid much attention to it, but as you can tell by my tone, I have not. Plus, I can see a lot of things in the world you stand on, but not everything.¡±

    ¡°Makes sense, you might as well be a god in this dimension, huh?¡±

    ¡°Heh, I¡¯ve played God a few times, and let me tell you, it gets very boring after a while. Never on Earth, but a few other planets. Fun for a little bit, but soon everyone takes everything way too seriously and wars start because of your name and whoever is swindled into it.¡±

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s really depressing.¡±

    ¡°Religions get started by a few higher beings and after a while, they leave as there is really nothing in your dimension that makes it worth staying for. After their departure, the presence of their followers slowly starts to decline and eventually it dwindles down to the last few. Then finally, poof, no more followers.¡±

    ¡°Is that really true for Earth as well?¡±

    ¡°You tell me, you¡¯ve lived there all your life.¡±

    ¡°If what you say is true, then that is something that is very mindblowing to me. I have grown up reading all those myths and legends of gods, monsters and whatever of the Greeks and Romans and various other places. Are any of them real?¡±

    ¡°There are some truths, and some exaggerations no doubt. I haven¡¯t really read up on the history, but I do believe that there were two mass exoduses¡¯ of fantasy creatures from other worlds around the time that the Greeks and Romans were around the height of their power. In addition to the other two I told you about last time. The first one with the Greeks was the biggest one ever on your planet, and a comparatively smaller one occurred during Roman times.¡±

    ¡°I am learning so much from you, more than I ever did in school.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not surprised, the truth of this universe and everyone that precedes and succeeds it is beyond even my understanding. You humans are no doubt above average in intellect, but there are many traits you lack that would make conquering the cosmos a lot easier.¡±

    ¡°And what would that be?¡±

    ¡°Ethics.¡±

    ¡°What do you mean by ethics?¡±

    ¡°You have a bit too high of a standard set upon yourselves that frankly, is one of the highest in my experience.¡±

    ¡°Isn¡¯t having high ethics a good thing?¡±

    ¡°Many species foreign to you will seriously debate that statement to their dying breath. In all honesty, it is impressive that you have managed to come so far, but going forward, that will be a mystery.¡±

    ¡°I still don¡¯t understand. You aren¡¯t the best at explaining things so you resort to steering the conversation to other directions.¡±

    ¡°What I mean is advancement. I won¡¯t say too much, but advancement will not be as high as other species vying for control of your universe.¡±

    ¡°What? People of this planet?¡±

    ¡°No, I don¡¯t mean people of this planet. There are very few unique species like yours, that are able to reject the default fantasy setting that most planets have and evolve a species that is so much more technologically advanced that they develop methods capable of traversing the universe, something that only the beings of higher dimensions should be capable of doing.¡±

    ¡°Wow, this is some heavy stuff, I think I need to sit down.¡±

    ¡°Then go sit on that rock over there.¡±

    ¡°I will.¡± She said as she sat down trying to process everything that she was hearing, there was a bit of healthy skepticism in her mind, but that was being thrown out the window every time M told her new information.¡±

    ¡°There is one exception, the galaxy of beginnings. I saved you from going there, but if you die again, then you will surely go there. I don¡¯t really know what quality is best suited for you, but let¡¯s hope it''s not anything particularly violent, otherwise, you will wish you were even deader than you will be. In fact, a million deaths would be preferable than some of the...bloodier...planets. Hold on, are you even comprehending half of what I am saying?¡±

    ¡°Content wise? Yes. Do I get it? I wish I really didn¡¯t.¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s enough info dump on you for now, time to go complete this dungeon.¡±

    The following half-hour, the wolf and lizard controlled by M, along with a few more JJ managed to summon, took out monster after monster. Eventually finishing the dungeon with JJ not really doing anything much, but still benefitting from the shared experience all the same.

 M Lite;Helot

    A wolf, a giant fire breathing lizard, and a little girl appeared from the ruins of a dungeon. Blood was apparent on the two beasts¡¯ pelt and scales, but the girl was virtually unharmed. These were JJ and her two ¡°familiars¡±, or they were supposed to be but in reality, both of the beasts were controlled by one who may as well be a god in this realm, M.

    ¡°So, you have decided then?¡± M asked JJ as the pair of beasts looked at the girl.

    ¡°Yea, I suppose so. I don¡¯t really think it will be all that good to always rely on you, even if you are all-powerful, all-mighty, and even always by my side. I need to learn all of this myself. From what I gather, most people go through this process alone and that is how they are able to survive in this world,¡± JJ sighed as she spoke her mind.

    ¡°Well, if that¡¯s what you really want, then sure. I¡¯ll go and see what this world is all about. 2 months sound alright to you?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, 2 months should be plenty.¡±

    ¡°Ah, hold on, by that time you would almost certainly have passed level A20 and would have to leave this town.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t worry, with how much you have been flexing your incredible powers, I think you¡¯ll be able to find me in no time.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m not worried about finding you. I¡¯m worried about missing out on all the hilarious screwups that you¡¯ll be in while I¡¯m away.¡±

    ¡°What? When have I ever done something like that?¡±

    ¡°Well, in our day and a bit of knowing each other, you shouted whirlwind at some monsters who were killing you. Even a noob wouldn¡¯t make such a dumb move.¡±

    ¡°...You were the one that tricked me into doing that though. Heh, whatever. See you in however long it takes you to get info.¡±

    ¡°Hmm, I might check in on some of my other projects and see how they¡¯re doing. In all likelihood though, most of them probably bit the bucket.¡±

    ¡°Are you trying to get a rise out of me? Get out of here.¡±

    ¡°Ok,¡± M said as JJ felt a presence leaving the area that she was in. However, that feeling came back as M gave one last closing remark before his departure, ¡°hold on, one more thing. Make sure you don¡¯t go too overboard, I may have given you great advantages that others would be jealous of, but that doesn¡¯t mean you are invincible.¡±

    ¡°I get it, and I have to say, this genuine worry for me is nice to hear, in a way.¡±

    ¡°Oh no, I¡¯m not doing this out of concern, but rather, it would be pretty bad if you croaked while I was away. I have spent a considerable amount of resources on you so don¡¯t you dare squander all of that.¡±

    ¡°I certainly won¡¯t croak so easily.¡±

    ¡°...yeah¡­ well bye then.¡±

    ¡°Mmmm,¡± JJ said as she showed a smile on her face for the first time since she had come to this world. After a while of just lazing about, she tried to sense if there was a presence of anything like M around. It was difficult to tell, so she called out, ¡°M! Are you still here?¡±

    No response.

    This was a comforting situation. She had never been the one to show emotions in front of anyone, and she sure as heck wouldn¡¯t start now. Although she was almost certain that the feelings of emptiness inside her were due to her missing her family, she could not let out her emotions at all. Perhaps it was the years that she spent bottling it up that she was not able to do so now, or maybe it was the surreal feeling of being in a world that she would dream of. She still could not do it.

    No matter how hard she tried, she could not release her pent up feelings. JJ was aware that letting emotions show was helpful, and even healthy to do at times, but no go. For the past few minutes, she had closed her eyes trying to force at least one tear out, but when she opened them again, she realized that the lizard and wolf were still there staring back at her like good boys.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    ¡°Uhh, boss, do you need a minute? Or a room?¡± Firetank the giant lizard telepathically asked JJ.

    ¡°...no, I think I¡¯ll be good. Let¡¯s try to do a few dungeons by ourselves without the help of that dastardly M always poking fun at us,¡± said JJ as she forged a link with the wolf that was by her side. Once she had followed M¡¯s instructions on how to form a contract, the wolf was linked and immediately a familiar voice spoke in JJ¡¯s mind, it was M.

    ¡°Hey! You really didn¡¯t think I¡¯d leave you all alone, would you? Don¡¯t worry, what is inside this wolf¡¯s mind is just a fragment of my power and a very specific characteristic of mine. That is making poems apparently¡­ Yeah, he should be the lowest maintenance personality that I have. This way, at least I¡¯ll know if you die.¡±

    ¡°Why?¡± JJ said as she felt embarrassed as she had realized that M probably saw her pathetic attempt at letting forth her emotions.

    ¡°Do you really want me to repeat what I just said? Alright well, you really didn¡¯t think I¡¯d leave you all alone, would you? Don¡¯t worry, what is inside this wolf¡¯s mind is just a fragment-¡±

    ¡°-You know what? Forget it.¡± She said as she stormed off to get the key to the dungeon once more. Her two summons followed a short distance behind.

    ¡°I think freedom is good, but it shouldn¡¯t compromise your safety. Here, look, this wolf has not had its consciousness taken over by me. I am simply using it as a way to speak with you. Anyway, I¡¯ll try to get info for you, but I can¡¯t keep this connection on all the time so you are stuck with a version of me that loves spewing out terrible poems, English ones if you can believe it. Not the thought-provoking ones either, the ones that are very basic and are more comedic than anything.¡±

    ¡°Ok,¡± JJ said as she knelt down to dig for the key not really paying attention anything anymore.

    ¡°Hey! Looks like I¡¯m finally out in the free world again. Wow, who are you?¡± Someone who very clearly had M¡¯s voice, but somehow even more annoying, echoed inside JJ¡¯s head.

    ¡°You like poems yeah?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, so what?¡±

    ¡°Make a poem for me.¡±

    ¡°Hmm,¡± the wolf looked around as he tried to see if there was any material for him to use until he finally saw the frankly unsightly lizard that was staring daggers at him.

    ¡°Roses are red,

    Violets are blue,

    That thing over there is so ugly I can¡¯t even finish the damn poem.¡±

    ¡°Watch it you small little wolf! I¡¯ll end you just the same as I end my meals.¡±

    ¡°Knock it off, you both act like children. And I think I¡¯ll need a name for you. How about Helot?¡± JJ suggested.

    ¡°My name is still M! Why don¡¯t you just call me that?¡±

    ¡°I believe that you¡¯re different from M and you deserve a different name.¡±

    ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll go along with Helot. So, you should know that I do not possess any powers other than observation, bad poems, strategizing, and contact with the actual M.¡±

    ¡°What about your power of poems?¡±

    ¡°That is something that is meant to lighten the mood. I just stay at the sidelines while you and Mr. Ugly over there go and fight, well, I suppose this wolf as well.¡±

    ¡°Keep insulting me, let¡¯s just see how long you last!¡± Firetank screamed in the telepathic channel inside JJ¡¯s head.

    ¡°Really? You won¡¯t fight?¡± JJ said ignoring Firetank¡¯s heated response.

    ¡°Nah, I¡¯m basically the comedic relief for the audience. Well, I might get involved sometimes, but that is only if you truly need my help.¡±

    ¡°...What do you mean by...audience?¡±

    ¡°...Uhhh¡­

    ...Row row row your boat,

    Gently down the stream,

    Merrily merrily merrily merrily,

    I heard you like Neapolitan ice cream.¡±

    ¡°...What¡­?¡± JJ was now extremely confused.

    ¡°Ice cream, do you like it or not?¡±

    ¡°...Yeah, but what does that have to do with anything? Do they even have anything that could produce ice cream here?¡±

    ¡°While I may not know the specifics, probably not.¡±

    ¡°Right...Let¡¯s go, I have the key now.¡± JJ said as she turned around to conceal her face of an absolute sense of irritation. She did not find people who spoke nonsense to be particularly good companions. However, it was unlikely that she would be able to ditch it somewhere. So she might as well try to get along with Helot as best as she could. At least for now.

    ¡°Hold on,¡± Helot said while making the wolf look at Firetank, ¡°Hey, big boy!¡±

    ¡°What do you want?¡±

    ¡°Stay here and keep digging for the keys. There should be some kind of reset mechanism that makes the key reappear after a certain amount of time.¡±

    ¡°Why do I have to go and dig for the keys?¡±

    ¡°You think this wolf is capable of digging as fast and as effectively as you? From my calculations, JJ takes about 15 minutes to dig for the key. This wolf bod will be able to do so in about half the time, but you should be able to do it in only about 3 minutes with your big strong shoulders and your suavity, and, and.¡±

    ¡°Stop! I liked you more when you insulted me, just go.¡±

    ¡°Hehe, be attentive, scaly bro.¡±

    ¡°Just get out of here.¡±

    ¡°Let¡¯s go, JJ.¡± Helot the wolf said while leading JJ back to the dungeon entrances.

    ¡°Helot, is there really a reset mechanism to this? Isn¡¯t it possible that it resets every time we complete a dungeon?¡±

    ¡°Yeah maybe. I am not all-knowing like M is so we have to test all this out.¡±

    ¡°I can¡¯t believe you tricked Firetank into doing this.¡±

    ¡°Heh, dumb beasts are dumb.¡±

    ¡°I CAN STILL HEAR YOU GUYS!¡±

    ¡°Oh floop. I forgot the psychic link wouldn¡¯t be broken until we are a hundred kilometers apart.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re funny.¡±

    ¡°You think so?¡±

    ¡°That has yet to be seen, but at least you are a better companion than that M who constantly picks fun at me.¡±

    ¡°You should know, M is a bit on the loopy side ever since his...nevermind. What dungeon do you want to go to now?¡±

    ¡°How about a ranged one?¡± JJ said while conjuring up the repeating crossbow and a bunch of ammo.¡±

    ¡°Hah, right on!¡± Helot said as the two of them both entered into one of the ranged dungeons.

 The Cyclops

    ¡°Helot,¡± JJ called out as she walked towards the first room.

    ¡°Yea, what¡¯s up?¡± Helot responded.

    ¡°Do you have the same powers as M?¡±

    ¡°Unfortunately no, I won¡¯t be able to see the entire map of the dungeon if that was what you were asking.¡±

    ¡°Ah, well, what a shame. As much as I don¡¯t want to admit it, that is a really useful skill. Oh well, let¡¯s see what is in the first room, it seems like it is bats, again.¡±

    ¡°You were aided by M last time right? This is a chance for you to see if you are able to beat them by yourself. Don¡¯t waste it,¡±

    ¡°I thought you liked to speak in rhyme, why aren¡¯t you doing it now?¡±

    ¡°English isn¡¯t my first language so it is still a bit of a work in progress. Give me some time alright? Jeez,¡±

    ¡°Alright, alright, no need to get so defensive,¡± JJ said while also turning on her infrared vision. The room was just as dimly lit as the one from before, this way, she would be able to detect heat signatures in even this low amount of light. She snuck in and began shooting as many as she could, however, it was certainly not going to be easy.

    As soon as the first bats were impaled by the bolts used by JJ, the others reacted quickly and charged at the intruder. The noise was deafening, but the fight must go on. JJ continued to fight, and in just a few moments she was surrounded just as she was the first time. However, the wolf charged at the aggressive bats and tried its best to protect the summoner. Even just this was enough for JJ to reload her crossbow and it took a bit more trial and error, but she managed to deal with all of the bats. Her aim was not as great as she had liked, but against such tiny foes, there really wasn¡¯t much she could do about it.

    ¡°Let¡¯s head to the next room, JJ, maybe you will find something better suited for your...skill of aiming.¡±

    ¡°I almost kind of like it more when M ridiculed me openly,¡±

    ¡°Though you may be an enchanting person, it looks like your attitude problem seemed to worsen.¡±

    ¡°Oh, now you decide to bring out the poems, hey?¡± JJ spoke as she neared the entrance to the next room.

    She took a peek inside and to her surprise, there was only one figure inside. One bigger than the average figure. From the back, it seemed as if it was just an unusually tall human, but that was far from reality. It had coarse skin, a bald head, and it was feasting on something raw.

    ¡°Judging from its horrible posture it is a cyclops, another hint comes from its loincloths¡±

    ¡°...That...needs a bit of work.¡±

    ¡°Oh just kill it already. Remember that you should go for vital points like the eyes. In this scenario, I think the eyes are the only thing that your crossbow will be able to penetrate. So you best change to a bow and metal arrows instead of what M gave you the first time.¡±

    ¡°Good idea. Will I be able to penetrate its skin with this?¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t know!¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

    ¡°What?¡±

    ¡°Here, you should really depend on your own intuition for these types of situations. Look at the cyclops and get his stats, then, look at your own, and finally, your weapon. You haven¡¯t had to do this as M did it all for you, but now you don¡¯t have that luxury.¡±

    ¡°Yes, right, I have to be able to do this myself,¡± JJ said while opening her stats window, then the one for the cyclops, then the bow and arrows that she had just conjured up. Her stats indicated that she was level A8 with her highlighted skills like strength, agility, and defence all being level A7. ¡°What do highlighted skills mean?¡±

    ¡°They just mean what skills your strong points are, that way, you will know what skills will take you far.¡±

    ¡°That was a pitiful attempt at a rhyme, Helot. Are you sure you want to keep doing that to yourself?¡±

    ¡°...Why are you so negative? I had pegged you for someone who would adore company given your, uh, history.¡±

    ¡°Yea, well, I¡¯m just trying to look out for you. Speaking normally isn¡¯t too bad you know.¡±

    ¡°Cut the jizz. Let me tell you about how hitpoints work. Your metal arrows and all other weapons will have a quality rating. The higher it is, the more damage it can do to an opponent. The higher the opponent''s defence, the less damage it will take. It should be pretty basic stuff. What is special about this levelling system is that the hit points counter is a bit different. You can see that there are 15 health bars on this guy right?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, I see that. Does that mean I will have to kill it a bunch of times or what?¡±

    ¡°Close! You will have to make sure that you drain all the hit points in every health bar, but you don¡¯t have to kill it 15 times. This just indicates what level of health your foe has. In this case, level A15.¡±

    ¡°Hold on, my health level is A6, does that mean that rule applies to me too?¡±

    ¡°Yes. Generally, most monsters will have more health than humans, and above even them is demons.¡±

    ¡°And above that?¡±

    ¡°No! You stay out of that junk. Ok, go kill the cyclops, I think you should be fine. Ok, order the wolf to go tank the hits then we can get started.¡±

    ¡°Whuf, alright,¡± JJ said as she sent the wolf in first.

    The wolf lunged in followed by JJ who immediately shot the metal arrow at any weak points she could. Though the wolf could hold it off, for now, she knew that it was a fairly weak monster and that she could not rely on it for a very long period of time. Before the wolf even reached the cyclops, she had already shot 5 arrows.

    However, all of them were noticed by the cyclops just before they made contact and he moved his arm so that the arrows hit him square in his giant biceps. He moved his arm away after being hit to see who was fighting him only to see a wolf jumping towards him.

    There was no way the cyclops would have been able to dodge in time and ended up taking a bite to the forearm. While all this was happening, JJ was getting her next few prepared. Though she had experience using bows, from killing all those bats, she wasn¡¯t exactly the best shot. She nocked the arrows and shot 3 more, all blocked or dodged by the cyclops.

    ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if you get a critical or not, just make sure you land the damn shot, also make sure to breathe, I¡¯m sure that will help a lot.¡± Helot¡¯s voice echoed in her ears.

    JJ had wanted to prove more than anything that she was able to kill the cyclops by herself, but that did not seem to be so doable anymore. Nonetheless, she continued to nock and release arrows as fast and as accurately as she could. The accuracy of her shots was quite high with being able to hit the beast 9 out of 10 times.

    However, the problem lay with her precision. She had wanted to aim for the heart, lungs, eyes, or anything that would deal massive amounts of pain to the monster, but the movements of the cyclops were too random and erratic. By the time her arrows reached him, they were not anywhere near her intended target. As she shot more and more, she was getting the gist of it and occasionally managed to land a hit where she wanted to. It took quite a while, but eventually, the two of them managed to kill off the cyclops.

    ¡°Huff, huff, huff.¡± JJ huffed and puffed and sighed when it was finally over. She was getting a little out of breath.

    ¡°???What are you huffing for? You stood and shot arrows for the past 10 minutes. We¡¯ve got tonnes more to explore. Come on, are you so light-headed that you need me to show you the door?¡±

    ¡°Huff, huff. Are all the monsters in this dungeon going to be like this?¡±

    ¡°Yeah, pretty much.¡±

    ¡°It took me so long to do these two rooms, how long will it take for me to do the rest of this dungeon without M¡¯s vision that will lead me to the exit in the least amount of possible rooms?¡±

    ¡°Shortcuts seem to be the only thing you care about, I¡¯d like to see you do one without.¡±

    ¡°Well, I suppose without him here, I don¡¯t really have a shortcut at my disposal is there?¡±

    ¡°I thought you liked to grind or is that no longer a thing in your mind?

    ¡°What¡¯s with the sudden increase in rhymes? I thought you were still learning it.¡±

    ¡°I can learn at speeds which you cannot comprehend, I am, after all, a higher existence than you in the end.¡±

    ¡°Oh, you cheeky bastard. It seems like being rude is also a trait that you ¡°higher existence¡± people have.¡±

    ¡°On to the next room we go, what lies there? Nobody knows.¡±

    ¡°Humph, let¡¯s go,¡± JJ said as she pet the wolf who just looked up at her. Then, the two of them followed the path to the next room.

    JJ and Helot had their fair share of troubles, toils, griefs, moments, and everything in between. It certainly took them a long while to get out of the dungeon, but it was a fairly enjoyable adventure. The loot was collected byJJ into the fourth dimension. Once they had finished the dungeon and JJ checked her rewards, the two of them headed to Firetank to see what his progress was with digging out the key.

 JJs Issues

    JJ and Helot really hadn¡¯t been paying attention to how long they were inside the dungeon and were rather surprised when they saw just how many stone keys Firetank had dug up. So much so that upon seeing the mound of stone keys that was before them, they were both in awe and expressed surprise in the telepathic channel inside JJ¡¯s mind.

    ¡°Ah,¡± Firetank said while in the middle of digging up another key, ¡°It took you guys quite a while to finish the stupid dungeon! I have been digging for days!¡±

    ¡°Have we been gone that long?¡± JJ said as she wasn¡¯t really sure of anything anymore.

    ¡°Oh don¡¯t mind him, I¡¯m pretty sure he¡¯s saying that on a whim,¡± Helot said downplaying the woes of the great fire lizard.

    ¡°While I still despise your guts you stupid wolf, you may be right. My sense of time is probably not the same as yours,¡±

    ¡°Hmm, it seems like you managed to dig up in excess of over 20 keys, this is enough according to my expertise.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, yeah, can I go fight now? I¡¯m itching for some action¡±

    ¡°Why not, this should be enough keys for now. Do you need a rest or anything Firetank?¡± JJ said as she made all of the stone keys, save for one, to disappear into the 4th dimension. This was her personal storage space and she could not be happier to have peace of mind for all the things she would not have to lug around.

    ¡°Finally! Let¡¯s go. Helot, I bet I can beat more monsters than you can.¡± Firetank said almost jauntily as the three of them headed to another such dungeon.

    ¡°Oh never mind you witless lizard you, JJ, which dungeon do you want to go through?¡±

    ¡°I remember M told me that I would be able to pick a class of my own choosing once I reached level A10. Now that I have gone through all 3 basic classes, I think I¡¯ll stick to warrior class as I have made all my game characters go through.¡±

    ¡°Well, there are a few more classes than just those three. Nonetheless, the rest of the classes are certainly not as straightforward as the three basic classes.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, nothing beats beating your opponents up close, I can guarantee you that.¡± Firetank interjected into the mental channel.

    ¡°I know, let¡¯s go. Helot, which one should we go to now?¡±

    ¡°Hold on, let me check something real quick.¡±

    ¡°Wow, that¡¯s the first thing you¡¯ve said that wasn¡¯t a rhyme in a while.¡±

    ¡°Don¡¯t get used to it, also, the life force of this wolf is dang near empty. Why don¡¯t you end the contract and summon something else for me to possess?¡±

    ¡°What do you want?¡±

    ¡°Anything.¡±

    ¡°Ok,¡± said JJ while she spoke to the wolf mentally and ended the contract, it was a bit of trial and error, but she managed to get it done after fumbling around for a bit. Then, she gave a good few seconds to ponder what would be a good choice in partners. She already had someone who could tank, Firetank, so what was best was someone who could support the frontline. Given that Firetank had an aoe attack, a mage wasn¡¯t really necessary. Alas, she finally decided on something that she could conjure up, a small goblin archer.

    ¡°AHAHAHAHA, so you¡¯re telling me that Helot will be donning this weak and pathetic creature? Master, you are a bit too funny.¡±

    ¡°I can only really conjure up beasts that I have seen before, plus, I¡¯m still recovering my magic points from summoning you.¡±

    ¡°This matter is of no consequence, I have the utmost confidence.¡±

    ¡°Oof, that didn¡¯t really rhyme.¡±

    ¡°...What¡¯s a rhyme?¡± Firetank asked all confused.

    ¡°Something out of your realm of knowledge, as I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll come to acknowledge.¡±

    ¡°Pshhh. So. Dungeon. Now?¡±

    ¡°Yea, JJ just go pick any statue with a melee weapon, I¡¯ll leave it to your discretion.¡±

    ¡°Uhmm,¡± JJ said while making her way towards a few statues with swords, spears, tridents, and even some animal ones. Finally, she picked one that embodied a half demonic statue with horns and the other half was a normal human looking teenager.

    ¡°Ah yes, one part human one part demon. This will be a challenge for sure.¡± Firetank opined.

    ¡°As I¡¯m sure you recollect, demons are the main race in this world, and they are far more superior in almost every way to humans, no disrespect.¡±This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°None taken, I think this will be a good trial for me to test my limits and for the class I want to dedicate the rest of my journey with,¡± JJ said as the key that was in her hands transferred to the statue and disappeared. Just a moment later, Firetank, the goblin archer, and herself were transported inside the dungeon.

    ¡°Remember to be careful as this dungeon is beyond dreadful,¡± Helot said as the goblin archer that he had taken over pined around. For a dungeon that harboured demons, it was a lot brighter than he had thought.

    ¡°Let¡¯s go,¡± JJ said as all three of them made their way through the deep long path to the first room. There, she saw almost twenty imps, from what she could tell, they were red and had the ability of short flight. This might be a problem if they were able to gang up on her, but she had a backup.

    However, she felt like she had something to prove and had the others stay put for the time being while she took on the room by herself. She conjured up metal knuckles which immediately appeared on top of her gauntlets and she waltzed into the room with a real determined look in her eyes.

    She was spotted as soon as she walked in and 2 imps flew over to attack while the others watched with their sinister little grins. Before the two made contact with JJ, she all of a sudden had the thoughts of her parents inside her mind. Why was she thinking of this subject now of all times? For the time being, she pushed her thoughts of her family aside and focused on the fight at hand.

    There was one imp that had dropped out of the sky while the other one remained in the air. Presumably, this was meant as a way for the imps to divide her attention and thus have a higher chance of taking her down. Or at least wounding her. This was just the first room, but for once, JJ felt more of a thrill in fighting enemies than she had before.

    They came closer and closer until JJ decided to run full speed at them. From what she saw, the one on the ground was lagging behind as the short legs that it had could not keep up with the speed of the one in flight.

    First, she gave the airborne imp a good punch which sent it flying backwards, then, a mere second later, she gave the other one a very satisfying kick right to the head. The sound of a skull being broken could be heard and before either of them fell to the ground, JJ rushed towards the imp that she had sent flying back. By the time that she had gotten to it, it had hit the ground and was still dazed. This was when JJ kept punching and kicking an enemy that was already down.

    Her head was covered by the helmet that was part of her armour, but both Firetank and Helot knew that JJ was sorting out a few problems right now. This was not something that they wanted to deal with. In the room, the fight continued. Once the other imps saw what had become of their allies, 6 more of them rushed forward once they received orders who seemed to be from one of the fatter and taller imps.

    JJ welcomed this challenge and did an admirable job fending them off for now. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see that the imp that seemed to be the leader out of the bunch was seemingly chanting a spell. She did not really mind fighting these imps since they weighed about as much as a third-grader, but that spell could be dangerous. Thus, she did all she could to beat her opponents into submission and made a break for the spellcaster. There were only a few imps in her way, but she didn¡¯t really bother with them.

    She could tell at a glance that at the leader imp was leagues ahead of his subordinates and that if she wanted to end this, she would need to take him out first. As she was running towards the imp that was now going as fast as he could, she conjured up a spear and threw it. Luckily, she managed to hit him in a way that it was able to mess up the rhythm of the chant. After bypassing the last of the guard imps just a few moments later, she conjured up another spear and jumped as high as she could just a few paces from the imp that was sprawled on the ground and brought forth the spear right on top of the big bald red head.

    All throughout this battle, she had been distracted by her recurring thoughts of her parents. She kept pushing them out but they kept penetrating her mind. She pushed them out once again and got down on her knees then proceeded to beat the ever-living daylights out of the now-dead spell caster. She did not stop.

    She kept going on and on and on not stopping until a small hand rested on her shoulder. Her first thought was that it was another imp and she turned around to beat whoever¡¯s hand it was that were on her. It took her a few rounds and Firetank¡¯s very shocked o face to realize that she was beating up the goblin archer that she had summoned.

    ¡°Oh shoot, sorry, Helot. Why didn¡¯t you say anything to me?¡± JJ said as she got up only to see the goblin archer fading away into the dust.

    ¡°Uhmm, damn, master. Are you alright?¡±

    ¡°Huh? Yeah¡­ yeah, I¡¯m fine. Where are the rest of the imps? Did you kill the rest of them? I was beginning to wonder why they weren¡¯t attacking me.¡±

    ¡°The rest of them were merely summons from the one you just beat up, and I didn¡¯t saying anything since I didn¡¯t want to disrupt.¡±

    ¡°Disrupt what?¡±

    ¡°Even I can tell that you have issues, master.¡±

    ¡°You guys are not making any sense right now. Can we just go to the next room?¡±

    ¡°I¡¯ll say this without rhymes or poems or tricks, but you need to know that you are going through some anger release issues right now and that is completely normal.¡±

    ¡°Hah, what anger could I possibly have? I¡¯m in the world I always wanted to be in, what more could I want?¡±

    ¡°I may not be as cunning as M, but I am infinitely better at understanding emotions. You have no regrets leaving your family behind, I¡¯m sure you realize that by now you¡¯re angry at yourself that you are this way.¡±

    ¡°How? How could you possibly know this?¡±

    ¡°Just call it a hunch. You are not the first that I had to comfort in this situation. M is notoriously bad at these types of things so he left me in his place to essentially help guide you and your mindset to where you are right now, not where you¡¯ve been.¡±

    ¡°Do you really think that is what is really plaguing my mind?¡±

    ¡°I do, that is why you were so relentless in bashing in the head of the imp just now.¡±

    ¡°...Maybe you¡¯re right. I pushed almost everyone away so that I didn¡¯t have to deal with drama or anything like that in my past life. Perhaps that was why it was so easy to pretend that I didn¡¯t really care that I would never be able to see my parents ever again. It took a day or so, but now that my reality has sunk in, I guess my outer shell of I don¡¯t care attitude has finally betrayed me. Tell me, is there something wrong with me?¡±

    ¡°Dear child, there is nothing wrong with you. You are the way you are because you chose to be, mostly. But you should know that the you of the future has an arguably larger bearing on your life than the past. I can¡¯t give you all the answers you seek, but I¡¯m sure given time, you will.¡±

    ¡°You have been so silly and wacky the little while I¡¯ve known you, why are you so wise all of a sudden?¡± JJ said while she felt a tear roll down her face and gave a slight chuckle.

    ¡°I find humour to be quite endearing and a bit of a challenge. I won¡¯t say I understand your feelings, but you need to know that you have been given a second chance, and we need you in your tip-top shape. Will you be able to do that on your own now? Or do you think you need to speak with me a bit more?¡±

    ¡°I honestly don¡¯t know.¡±

    ¡°Well, if you ever need to talk, just know that¡­¡±

    ¡°...Know what?¡±

    ¡°...Know that you¡¯ll have to get M to release me into this world. I am but a facet of his and honestly, I''m even more of a tool for him than you are.¡±

    ¡°Heh, I think what you have said made a lot of sense, but I will need a bit of time to digest everything and get my bearings in order.¡±

    ¡°Ok good. Now, can you conjure up another body for me? Cause...you know...you killed me last time.¡±

    ¡°Hah, oh yeah just give me a sec,¡± JJ said as she summoned another goblin archer. After doing the formalities all over again, JJ looked at Firetank who was just laying there waiting for them.

    Upon seeing that they were done, he excitedly said, ¡°so we can go kill stuff now, master?¡±

    ¡°Hold on, lizard, she still needs to pick her class.¡±

    ¡°Ah! Does that mean I am level A10 now?¡±

    ¡°Indeed it does. Go on, choose.¡±

    ¡°I think I¡¯ll go for the warrior class, as I had previously planned. How do I not get a notification for all this stuff?¡±

    ¡°Ah, that¡¯s because, for the most part, M and I deal with all of that. You just need to kill monsters.¡±

    ¡°What about skill points and all that?¡±

    ¡°I can take care of all of that for you too if you¡¯d like. I can do a pretty great job given I know a lot about the warrior class.¡±

    ¡°Ok, please do. Just make sure not to overstack any one skill and vice versa.¡±

    ¡°Stop nagging, I get it. Let¡¯s go Firetank.¡±

    ¡°Finally,¡±

 Asura Slave

    As Helot, Firetank, and JJ walked towards the next room, the general mood of all three of them was not too cheery. This was due to JJ still trying to digest the information that Helot had bestowed upon her. Though it was a response that JJ deemed a bit too generic, she still felt herself lingering on those words for the entire walk.

    Once the next room came up, they saw yet another room full of demons. This time, it was a group of dark grey people looking figures that were buff beyond anything JJ had seen previously. Also, there were bits and pieces of chains all over these creatures and on the floor.

    ¡°Ah, Asura slaves, I haven¡¯t seen these in a while. A real tough bunch that are extremely hostile.¡± Helot spoke in rhyme once more, getting up to his usual antics as he became so characteristically accustomed to.

    ¡°Slaves? Does that mean they are a bunch of good-for-nothings?¡± Firetank said while making fun of them.

    ¡°Are they that powerful?¡± JJ asked curiously.

    ¡°These Asuras are the lowest rung of the ladder, they used to be lords, now they are slaves, could they be any sadder? Or madder for that matter?¡±

    ¡°That¡¯s even more hilarious, what a pitiful bunch. We should put them out of their misery.¡± Firetank snorted once more.

    ¡°Firetank! Don¡¯t be so insensitive to these poor creatures.¡± JJ said in a tone more stern that she usually talked in.

    ¡°Don¡¯t mind him, JJ, he is nothing more than a dumb beast at the end of the day.¡±

    ¡°Hey!¡±

    ¡°Still arguing? I swear, every time one of you open your mouth, the other has to say something to bully the other.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fun, plus, what¡¯s this nobody with the body of a weakling going to do to me? Nothing!¡±

    ¡°Conversely, I feel like this is a choice that both of us participate in consciously and unconsciously.¡±

    ¡°Fine, screw it. Will we be able to take them down?¡± JJ asked annoyed and grimly

    ¡°No problem, there really is no need to be so solemn.¡±

    ¡°So what do you suggest we do?¡±

    ¡°Firetank! We surely have you to thank.¡±

    ¡°What? Why?¡±

    ¡°You will be the first to test out how strong they are, out of our little group here, your skill is the best by far.¡±

    ¡°Humph! You know it.¡±

    ¡°We¡¯ll be out here seeing how you do, take care not to die. I really don¡¯t want to have to summon something like you again.¡±

    ¡°Wow, master, thanks for the words of encouragement.¡±

    ¡°A beast that can understand sarcasm is not ordinary, there must be something special you carry.¡±

    ¡°My previous master loved sarcasm so much that I decided to partake in it too. It¡¯s not anything too special.¡±This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

    ¡°Let¡¯s get to the task at hand, I will guide both of you with my commands¡±

    ¡°What? Are you too chicken to fight on the front lines?¡±

    ¡°Nooooo.¡± Helot added a lot of extra sass in those last few ooo¡¯s. ¡°I¡¯m doing this since there is room for your teamwork skills to grow.¡±

    ¡°Alright then, Helot, what do you suggest we do?¡±

    ¡°First off, Firetank, you must heed my instructions and not scoff.¡±

    ¡°Humph, fine I¡¯ll listen.¡±

    ¡°Something else we need to be wary of is his love of battle, his body is hardened from centuries of battle and toil so he is anything but fragile.¡±

    ¡°What kind of weapon should I use against him?¡±

    ¡°I suggest you use a sword and shield, in terms of defence, this should even the playing field.¡±

    ¡°What about me? Should I go up and attack him with my claws and teeth or should I stay at the back to spit fire at the guy?¡±

    ¡°You should go up with JJ, she is powerful but she needs protection too, ok?¡±

    ¡°Yea, yea. Even if it isn¡¯t in my personality, the contract still exists for me to protect her.¡±

    ¡°Good, JJ you must absolutely be careful when you face this guy, his strength is way too high.¡±

    ¡°He¡¯s using a 2 handed sword right? So I should parry or block all of his hits?¡±

    ¡°Correct, if you are unlucky enough you might just end up dead if any of his hits connect.¡±

    ¡°Firetank, you lead the frontal assault and JJ will go flank.¡±

    ¡°Anything else that we should know before we go in?¡±

    ¡°Try not to die, and make sure to communicate alright?¡±

    ¡°Yea,¡± JJ said as she conjured up a sword and shield. This time she chose to go for a lighter set so that she would have a much easier time to move around as opposed to trying to outcompete the Asura in strength. That was just how much Helot¡¯s talk had made her all the more cautious.

    ¡°Charge!¡± Firetank said as he rushed in to confront the Asura head-on. Just a few moments later, JJ charged in as well trying to get behind the 9-foot tall grey-skinned shackled man.

    The Asura was quite quick and rushed towards the intruders as soon as he sensed them walking in. Firetank was normally all haughty, but this time, even he was a bit more attentive to detail given what Helot had told them.

    ¡°Firetank! Fireball then a melee attack,¡± Helot suddenly screamed in the channel.

    The giant fire lizard did as he was told and immediately he had seen the benefits of having Helot in charge. The fire attack that he had thrown at the Asura had embroiled it in flames long enough for Firetank to reach him and get a few good bites in. This led to the Asura falling over. Now, he knew it was best to keep it restrained for his master to get some hits in as well.

    It was a good thing that JJ was not one to let a good opportunity go to waste. All those team raids and clan matches, and group vs. group games she had become so accustomed to was finally put to the test. She rushed forward and jumped over Firetank while also changing her weapon to something she knew would do a lot of damage in this situation, a halberd and brought down all of her force upon the Asura¡¯s neck and tried to behead him. She was close, but at the last moment, the Asura raised one arm that Firetank hadn¡¯t managed to get ahold of and blocked JJ¡¯s strike.

    ¡°Oh, screw poems. Lizard, another fireball and get JJ out of there.¡±

    Firetank was just a tad too slow, he did get the fireball out of his mouth, but not before the Asura flung his arms with JJ and the halberd still caught in his flesh and sent them both flying. It was a good and bad thing, the good part of this was that this allowed JJ to not get hurt by the flames, but also bad because she hit the caves of the dungeon with quite a bit of force.

    A few more rounds of fireballs later, the Asura was completely enraged and punted the 4-foot tall lizard like a soccer ball right next to JJ who was trying to get herself up and back into the fighting. The Asura was still almost completely engulfed in flames by this point but had learned to slightly mask the pain that he felt.

    For JJ, everything hurt. Good thing she had bought the armour she was now in, or else, things might have turned out even worse. She took a quick peek at her stats and was wholly shocked to see that she was already down to half-health. She was level A8 in hit points, but that one strike had made 4 out of her 8 health bars go black. Then, she took a look at the Asura and found out that it was level A20 in hit points, but was already down to a quarter of his health bars left.

    ¡°Well, that was a bit of a set back. JJ! Don¡¯t look at the stats until the end of the battle, your mind will have other thoughts if you compare yourself to the enemy. That is not something we want. Don¡¯t worry about it for now, Firetank¡¯s blasts will be enough for his health bars to go down to 12 if we don¡¯t do anything.¡±

    ¡°So we just wait here while he burns in my flames?¡±

    ¡°No, you dumb lizard. We will need to continue to pour in the attacks. Hold on, let me try something.¡± The little goblin came forward and nocked his bow and let loose an arrow that would hit the Asura dead in the eyes.

    ¡°Wow, you couldn¡¯t have done that before we got our asses kicked? Ya dumb goblin.¡±

    ¡°The only reason that I was able to land the shot was because the Asura was too busy writhing in pain and closed his eyes to avoid having them be burned off. I don¡¯t think I would¡¯ve been able to do it if he was in full health and full strength.¡±

    ¡°Oh...can you get the other one?¡±

    ¡°...I could try.¡± the goblin raised the bow one more time to shoot it at the Asura who was now writhing in even more pain. Through a lot of sheer luck, JJ managed to get the other eye too!

    ¡°Excellent shot. What should we do now?¡±

    ¡°Oh just go kill it. Firetank, go and subdue it one more time. With its sight practically gone, his battle strength has just decreased by half.¡±

    ¡°Hehe, let me pay you back for all the damage you gave to me, stupid Asura.¡± He said as he smiled wickedly the way only lizards could.

    It was a bit of trial and error, but with the eyes of the Asura done for, JJ and Firetank was able to take down the Asura. Even with this advantage though, it would take them another half an hour to kill it. After transporting the body to the 4th-dimension, they took a break from doing anything and just chilled for a bit.

    JJ was feeling especially proud of herself for the fact that she was able to achieve what she had. With the death of the Asura past her, she felt like the guilt that had been weighing her mind down became less and less. She hoped that eventually it would disappear altogether.

 Events of the Past

    Helot, Firetannk, and JJ proceeded out of the room while the body of the Asura slave slowly disappeared into the 4th dimension. JJ was a naturally curious girl and she had many questions she wanted to ask Helot about M. However, as brash and hot-headed as she was, she was not too keen on prying into the privacy of someone who may or may not have her best interests at heart.

    Then she remembered that to M, she may as well not have any privacy. Not to mention all that he had made her go through. After remembering those two points, she decided to go for it anyway.

    ¡°Hey Helot, just who is M?¡± JJ asked the short and stout goblin walking in front of her.

    The goblin turned around, looked at JJ, and hesitantly replied, ¡°that is a loaded question there, my friend. I¡¯m not too sure you want to know the answer.¡±

    ¡°If I¡¯m to be M¡¯s companion, shouldn¡¯t I at least get to know the guy? At least a little bit? He knows everything about me, but I literally know nothing about him.¡±

    By now the three figures had halted. Firetank, who couldn¡¯t care less about this topic interjected before anyone else could say anything. ¡°As much as I like to learn about others....not. I do love killing a lot more. If you two are going to stay here and chat, how about I go on ahead?¡±

    ¡°Go on ahead, Firetank. We shouldn¡¯t be long.¡±

    A happy fire-lizard waltzed along down the path and entered into the next room. Followed by a few shots of fireballs. JJ turned again to Helot with an expression of anticipation. Helot once again hesitated then sighed before saying anything.

    ¡°Let me start with something you are a little bit more familiar with. Do you know how vast this universe is?¡±

    ¡°Really, really big?¡±

    ¡°That is a massive understatement. You should know that when M transported you here, he was traveling faster than the speed of light. However, even if he could live for half a billion more years, he would not be able to explore it all. Much less the infinite number of universes out there.¡±

    ¡°You¡¯re blowing my mind right now, how powerful are 4-dimensional beings?¡±

    ¡°Heh, to 4D beings, even reversing time is as easy as blinking is for you! However, a much more average person like M is plenty strong enough that 3D beings would consider him a god in this plane of existence.¡±

    ¡°The most impressive thing I¡¯ve seen M do on this planet is wiping out that entire dungeon in one hit. Although I suppose that isn¡¯t much considering they were all beginner-level monsters.¡±

    ¡°It is more nuanced than that. Allow me to enlighten you on a race that once called themselves the Maieeds. They loved only 3 things in life; fucking, fighting, and feasting. In that order too. Well, they weren¡¯t exactly bright but compared to you Earth people, they were slightly more advanced.¡±

    ¡°What happened to them?¡±

    ¡°Well, let¡¯s just say one day a 4-Dimensional being descended upon their world. That visitor was appalled at the treatment that she had received and¡­¡±

    ¡°...and what?¡±

    ¡°She...castrated...the...entire planet,¡± Helot said as he looked away from JJ¡¯s gaze.

    ¡°You mean¡­¡± JJ could not even get the words out of her mouth.

    ¡°Yeah, one moment they had their gonads, the next, they had no nads. That is not a common behavior of all 4D beings, that particular individual was quite sadistic. Unfortunately for you, M will sometimes go to even more extremes to get what he wants. It¡¯s an on-off thing for him.¡±

    ¡°Is that the end of the story? They all died out?¡±

    ¡°Indeed that is the case. I¡¯ve only heard stories, but in the few centuries following that incident, there was an insane number of cults, live sacrifices, murders, and all that bad stuff. I assume that with the fate of the Maieeds¡¯ sealed, they had no longer any reason to hold back on their desires and fears. Also, they couldn¡¯t really ¡°do it¡± anymore so that may have been a part of the reason as well.¡±

    ¡°Surely that isn¡¯t the case. If that is true, then doesn¡¯t that mean that one 4D being is capable of causing the extinction of an entire species?¡±

    This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    ¡°Correct, sort of. She did cause the extinction of the Maieeds race, but she didn¡¯t stop there. She also ¡°castrated¡± or whatever the biological version of that to all forms of life on that planet. Flora, fauna, even the microorganisms invisible to your naked eye. That is just how powerful M can be. Imagine that. An entire planet, plenty powerful already, completely and utterly dead within a couple of centuries.¡±

    ¡°...This is all a lot to take in.¡±

    ¡°Well, I did warn you did I not?¡±

    ¡°You warned me against hearing about M¡¯s past. Not¡­ not whatever the hell that was.¡± JJ said while still trying to comprehend the absurdity that she had just been told.¡±

    ¡°Oh yeah. I suppose you are right. If you can¡¯t even stomach that story, then you really don¡¯t want to hear about M.¡±

    ¡°Just give me a sec,¡± JJ held her hand to cover her mouth. Her stomach was churning, mind racing, and a million thoughts clouding her brain. After a moment, she decided to press on with this conversation. After all, she doubted M would ever tell her anything about his past personally. Plus, who knew if M even needed 2 months to explore this vast world. He could¡¯ve done it in a few seconds and just taken the rest of the time off. She nodded to indicate that she wanted to know more.

    ¡°Are you sure? There are even heavier and darker elements to what I am about to tell you. I¡¯m not sure if you should be hearing stuff like this.¡±

    ¡°It¡¯s fine, I¡¯m fine,¡± Though that was what she said, she could not even wholeheartedly bring herself to believe it. There was no doubt that Helot knew, but he did not stop.

    ¡°Look, M is a very complex person. By your standards, his past actions would be considered one that borders psychopathic. I suppose you deserve to know a little bit.¡± Helot beckoned JJ to have a seat on a few nearby stones. If they were to talk about M, then it was best to take it slow.

    After the two of them were seated, JJ took a small breath in and prepared to listen to whatever horrible thing that was going to be revealed about M.

    ¡°First off, do you remember where the name M comes from?¡±

    ¡°When the two of us first met, he mentioned that the M stood for Magellan?¡±

    ¡°Correct, Magellan is the name of perhaps the greatest conquerer that your Earth has ever produced. Baron Magellan to be more precise.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t really remember him, what makes him so impressive?¡±

    ¡°The reason for that is simple, he hasn¡¯t been on Earth in well over a millennia and a half. This Baron Magellan fellow died on November 31st, 2020. Fought his way through Planet 4 to return back to Earth. M was with Baron for a little while when he returned in 2150. It took no less than 10 years for Baron to almost single-handedly take over the planet.¡±

    ¡°Hang on, I remember part of this from my learning institution. Wasn¡¯t Baron the one who caused the greatest genocide event in recorded history?¡±

    ¡°Yes, do you remember who took him down?¡±

    ¡°It was someone by the name of Roxi, right? The records aren¡¯t too clear on what happened, but it seems like they were quite close. That was how she was able to assassinate him.¡±

    ¡°...Well, yes and no. Yes, they were close. No, she did not assassinate him. Allow me to shatter your world once again. That Roxi girl, that fake assassination, that was nothing more than a plot to force humanity onto the path of survival.¡±

    ¡°Survival? From...ourselves?¡±

    ¡°No, from the alien invasion in which humanity was nearly wiped out. Even with 1,000 years of preparation, you Earthlings still almost didn¡¯t make it.¡±

    ¡°Are you saying that we would have been wiped out if had not been for those two?¡±

    ¡°If those two had not helped you out, then it would have only taken half a dozen spaceships of their estimated 20 million fleet to subdue Earth. Likely less if they wanted an extinction of the human race. So yeah, the survival of the human race is thanks to those two.¡±

    ¡°...That¡¯s incredible¡­ But what exactly was the point of the genocide?¡± JJ had nothing else to say.

    ¡°There is no right answer to that question. I have my opinions on that matter and I¡¯m sure that you have yours. One more thing, that Roxi lady is your ancestor. Her blood runs through your veins.¡±

    ¡°...What? Are you saying that my family has had a hand in all of this? That¡¯s impossible! My parents have never said anything about this matter!¡± JJ was in absolute disbelief.

    ¡°Oh, but that is the truth. Now that you know this part, we can move onto the most important part of this. Baron and M have made a pact together. The two of them wish to grow stronger, but to accomplish that, Baron needs soldiers, good soldiers, strong soldiers, obedient soldiers, etc.¡±

    ¡°...Then is that where I come in? Is that what this is all for? All this just so I can become a soldier for Baron?¡±

    ¡°...Sort of. You¡¯re smart, one of only a handful to figure it out. However, you¡¯re a member of the almighty Blaze clan. A clan that has not only managed to create a miracle once but twice. Baron and M have high hopes for you.¡±

    ¡°Is that why M has chosen me to come live this life? This life I have yearned for?¡±

    ¡°You must not mistake their intentions. They are in an arms race at the moment. One that encompasses half of your local supercluster of galaxies. Not only are they limited in their choices on how to further their ambitions, but their options are also quickly dwindling. Baron is one of the best the human race has to offer in order to cement humanity¡¯s place on the intergalactic map.¡±

    ¡°I don¡¯t even know what that means!¡±

    ¡°You will understand soon enough when you go to meet up with Baron.¡±

    ¡°...What if this is not what I want?¡±

    ¡°It does not matter. There is no way for you to resist the power and influence of M. That is the only reason I am allowed to give all of this information to you.¡±

    ¡°Well, it¡¯s a good thing that I kind of want to meet Baron now. I suppose this journey has just gotten that much more interesting.¡±

    ¡°I¡¯m glad you feel that way because M can change your mind in a million different ways.¡±

    ¡°Well, that¡¯s good to know. One last question then. Do my parents know about all of this craziness that is happening in this universe?¡±

    ¡°No, your great grandfather made the decision to abandon that lifestyle and live a normal life instead.¡±

    ¡°I see. This has been informative, let¡¯s get back to the dungeon. This has been a rather a heavy topic and I¡¯d like to drown out these thoughts with senseless violence now.¡±

    ¡°If you say so,¡± Helot said and got up from the boulder. Both of them walked through the rooms where there was the most destruction and in a few minutes caught up to Firetank who was having the time of his life.

    After noticing the pair, he looked up and asked, ¡°you two done with whatever it is you were talking about?¡±

    ¡°Yes, JJ now understands what she is here for.¡±

    ¡°Yeah, let¡¯s go kill a few monsters and see if I can clear my mind.¡±

    ¡°You got it, boss. I think we are almost at the final room.¡±

    ¡°Alright, let¡¯s go kill that monster like we did that Asura slave.¡±

    The three of them charged in and finished off the manticore that was in the room swiftly. Perhaps it was the pent up stress of hearing what Helot had told her, or perhaps she was more motivated than before. Either way, she now knew what her current objective was. It was to meet with Baron.