Jack's POV

  I caught that look.

  For a long heartbeat, Jensen saw something on his screen that made him stop and really pay attention to something for once. But whatever it may have been. I couldn't really be bothered by it.

  For now, my aim was to get as strong as I could. Because even though I was a dungeon lord. The creatures of the dungeon could attack me freely. I think this has something to do with Benzo and the penalties he had incurred. Plus, even if I manage to stop the dungeon creatures from attacking me eventually. The same couldn't be said about the adventurers.

  I had Jensen's protection for now. But if the deal fails, and Jensen leaves on his own without taking us. Then this dungeon was all we had, and if the other adventurers came at me by seeing my title. I wanted to be as strong as I could be to protect my family and the people I care about.

  But on the other hand. If the deal goes through without a hitch. I would hand over the reins of this dungeon and lose access to the interface. I hope that I don't. But if I do. I wanted my base strength, health, and speed to be so high. That when I get inducted the right way and climb the levels again. I get the biggest boost at level twenty five.

  So this was more like a trial run where I planned to give everything I had in me. Hoping that I don't lose all my progress. But even if I do. As Jensen had pointed out. My base strength, and other parameters should be sky high when I get inducted again.

  Was I really willing to put in all the effort knowing that it would be wasted or locked away at some level twenty five cap?

  Frankly, no. But I also knew that I had no other way. Almost everything on the dungeon lords' interface was locked and was linked to my level. The more levels I had under my belt. The more help I was going to be to Jensen and the others.

  So when Jensen had me maul the goblins in that tunnel with my bare hands. I did so with no remorse. I had already killed plenty of goblins back in the trap room, and this was after all as he had said, a world of kill or be killed.

  Ping!

  Level two goblin slain!

  Exp awarded: 5xp

  P.S As you are the Lord of this Dungeon the xp awarded is reduced by half.

  Ping!

  Level two goblin slain!

  Exp awarded: 5xp

  P.S As you are the Lord of this Dungeon the xp awarded is reduced by half.

  Ping!

  Level two goblin slain!

  Exp awarded: 5xp

  P.S As you are the Lord of this Dungeon the xp awarded is reduced by half.

  "Can we do something about that damn ping?" I called out to Jensen, while catching my breath. He was standing with his back to the dungeon wall and had his eyes glazed while reading something on his screen.

  "Nope," he said, without looking away from his interface.

  I caught my breath and held my arms up as another goblin came at me, but this one had a dagger. The body of the goblin I had just killed was still on the dungeon floor. And I picked up that four feet tall goblin like I did with the flour bag and threw him at the incoming goblin.

  Before the new goblin could gather his bearings, his dead comrade came crashing down on him. I rushed in just as that goblin fell. Then I twisted its wrist while he was trapped under the dead body and made him let go of that dagger.

  A moment later, I slashed that goblin's throat and ended it.

  I stood with my heart beating in my ears and out of my chest with a crude dagger in my hand. But I held on to it nonetheless. More would be coming soon, and I needed to be on guard.

  How do I know that more would be coming?

  It was one of the system penalties on me for being an ineffective dungeon lord. I had incurred it after the system reduced the safe zones by twenty five percent to keep the dungeon functioning. That ping was buried under a dozen other pings, and we found that penalty when Jensen and I went through the pings.

  Frankly, I had just gotten the interface, and the first thing I got from it was a penalty. But this was a blessing in disguise, as I did not need to go in search of the goblins. They just spawned near me every now and then. Some in under minutes. Some in about an hour.

  Ping!

  Level two goblin slain!

  Exp awarded: 5xp

  P.S As you are the Lord of this Dungeon the xp awarded is reduced by half.

  Ping!

  You have leveled up!!!

  100xp Reached

  Level up!

  Stat points plus five!

  I fell to my knees and tried to catch my breath. I had to kill over twenty goblins. But I had finally made it.

  I had finally made it to level one.

  But more than that. With each kill granting me ten credits. I had earned about two hundred credits in total. The System didn't reduce my income as it did with my xp, and that was something I was grateful for.

  Regardless, even with the System paying me fairly. I could now understand why people would rather sell food, clothes, and other items to make money than do this. Or just move lower floors for couple of hours to make enough money and head back up to have a safe normal life. Because after being at this for the last couple of hours. I was sure I didn't want to do this for the rest of my life.

  But that being said, when I saw those two hundred credits in the top left corner of the screen. A part of me was proud of the fact that I had earned those. I couldn't wait to make more and send them to my parents. From what I had gathered so far from Jensen, the city wasn't cheap to stay in. Nor were the supplies that my dad would need to arrange for all of us to travel through the surface.

  "Congratulations!" said Jensen, finally deciding to push himself off the dungeon wall.

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  He walked towards me.

  "Thank you," I said. "Would have been a hell lot faster if you helped—"

  "I won't be around forever, you know," he said. "And I did buff you once…" Maybe it was the old man's face that he was wearing, or the way he said it. But it re-emphasized the fact in my mind that we weren't friends.

  "Now…" He clapped his gloved hands and snapped me out of my thoughts. "Rest up," he said.

  "What?" My eyebrows furrowed at him.

  "You are in no condition to fight," he said. "And with the passage closed to the lower floors. We can't move down either." He paused. "So I want you to take a little break. Gather some of your strength, and we'll go at it again."

  The dungeon had reclaimed the bodies that it had produced. And as I was the dungeon lord. I apparently didn't get any normal loot from the corpses. Just the coin and the xp.

  I looked around the tunnel. It wasn't just the safe zones that had shrunk. The tunnel somehow seemed smaller too. We were close to the floor boss's room. All we had to do was walk a few hundred feet ahead, and we would enter his chamber.

  "You are not ready for it yet," said Jensen, reading me again. "Once you reach, say, level five." He shrugged. "I will let you take a shot at the boss," he said. "I know you want to get strong, and you want to get strong fast. But let's not get you killed."

  I swallowed in empty at those last words of his, and decided to heed his advice.

  We both sat facing each other with a good eight feet distance in between us, and we had our backs to the dungeon wall. Jensen bought forth some of the wood from his inventory and with his fire ball spell. He built a smokeless bonfire.

  My hands and bare feet warmed up immediately, and I saw a notification pop up on my interface with a ping that said that my health and mana would recover ten percent faster.

  "Whoa…" I said, upon reading it. Even though I had no mana or health pool. I could feel my strength returning to me as I basked in the warmth of that bonfire.

  Jensen had that smug, amused look on his face as if he were seeing a toddler figure out something for the first time, which was a normal thing for an adult.

  "Hungry?" he asked.

  "I could eat," I said.

  He nodded and tossed me a hot bun.

  "I bought us enough food to last this trip," he said. "Mrs. Tuma was actually pretty adamant that I get enough," he smiled.

  "You can deduct the amount for the food from my share," I said.

  He waved his hand as if it were chump change for him. Moreover, Mrs. Tuma would have given it away for free. If the System would let her. But nothing made with skills can be given away. Either a quest or credits had to be tied to it. And Mrs. Tuma wasn't at that level yet where she could issue quests. From what I had gathered, you would need to be over level one hundred for that and have a guild.

  I took a bite of that hot, fluffy bun which was filled with beans on the inside, and eyed Jensen, who had his eyes glazed again even while he ate. The fact that he could store and reproduce things from his inventory in near perfect condition while even maintaining the temperature. It told me that he had an inventory which was far better than dad's. I could tell that Jensen might have had it upgraded it a couple of times.

  I eyed him, and his eyes were still on his interface.

  "What exactly are you looking at?" I asked him.

  "Benzo's exploration record," he said.

  "What about it?" I asked.

  He eyed me for a heartbeat.

  I raised my eyebrow at him in question.

  "Firstly, there are rules to this dungeon, and the System cannot break them," he said. "At least not in normal circumstances," he added.

  "I don't understand," I said to him, while munching.

  "Whatever quests or penalties it hands over," he said. "They have to be well within the bounds of the dungeon rules." His eyes glazed over and moved rapidly as if skimming information.

  "Can we really depend on Benzo's word?" I asked him. "He walked us into a trap room…"

  Jensen looked at me when I pointed that out.

  "I agree," he said. "The lower Benzo went. The more inaccurate his exploration record became," he said. "I have travelled down all the way to floor six before I decided to head back up and find someone to help me with the shortcut—"

  "You mean steal their watch and threaten to oust them to the system?" I asked.

  "Well, when you put it like that." He chuckled. "It does make me sound bad now, doesn't it?" he asked with his eyes still on the interface, and he trailed off for a long moment. "I think," he said, as if he had come to a conclusion. "I think something happened to him as he kept moving down."

  He raised an eyebrow at me as if contemplating a theory, and the next thing I knew, he had a long wooden stick pulled out from his inventory. He then hunched over to draw something on the dungeon's floor, which was made of slippery brown clay. Yes, I was sitting on it just like Jensen. But his cloak was always clean, unlike my clothes.

  Jensen drew a triangle on the floor in between us. He then went on to divide the triangle into thirteen parts horizontally. The smallest one being on the top was near my feet. And the largest piece being in the bottom was near his feet.

  "We are here," he said, while pointing at the second floor. "The lower we go, the bigger the dungeon becomes." He eyed me. "Truth be told, in all my travels. Never have I ever come across or heard of such a dungeon before. Dungeons don't grow in such a systematic manner…" he looked at the triangle on the floor, and appeared a little lost in his thoughts again.

  "So you are saying that Benzo built the dungeon this way?" I asked.

  He looked up at me. "I'm saying that there is more to this dungeon. More than what meets the eye," he said. "I think Benzo was hiding something on floor thirteen. Something so important that he was ready to risk incurring penalties from the System."

  "How are you so sure of that?" I furrowed my eyebrows at him.

  "From what I could gather from Benzo's records," he continued, with the flame silently burning. "Benzo was a merchant who travelled with other adventurers and created detailed exploration records to make money on the side." He paused and pulled out the lantern that I had broken to prove his point. "System offers you second job titles if you reach a sufficient enough level," he added. "Did you know that Merchant isn't your father's first class?" he asked me.

  "I did not know that…" I said, with my eyes widened.

  "There is lots that you still need to know," he said, and put the broken lantern away into his inventory with a thought. "That being said…" he leaned back on the dungeon wall. "I have to tell you something," he said, and the serious look on his face didn't bode well with those adamant eyes of his.

  "I'm all ears," I said, munching on the last of the bread and paying him at most attention.

  "What I'm about to tell you," he said, with flames burning right next to the drawing he had made. "Neither your parents nor Tuma's can know about this…"

  He waited for me to say something. But I didn't. Because after having been in back to back near death experiences with him in the last seventy two hours. I knew enough to know that Jensen always had his reasons.

  "Do you understand me?" he asked.

  I nodded.

  He took in a deep breath and began. "I have a working theory…" he said.

  "About?" I asked, leaning in.

  "This dungeon," he said, while eyeing the ceiling. "I think the dungeon council has known of Benzo's existence as the dungeon lord this entire time," he said.

  I blinked at that.

  "Benzo spoke of a group of people he was travelling with in his records," said Jensen, glancing at me. "And those exact names happen to take over the dungeon council at the same time, some two hundred years ago."

  My eyebrows furrowed as I started connecting dots at the back of my head.

  "I think Benzo found something on floor thirteen. Something so powerful that he sealed that floor off from the rest of the dungeon. Trapping himself in there, and the others on the floors above, including his former party members."

  "What if he was sealed in there by his party members instead?" I asked, throwing a reversal in his working theory.

  "You saw it yourself," he said. "He could move the dungeon around with just his thoughts. There is no way his party could have trapped him."

  I nodded at that. But something still felt off. Why would someone seal himself off like that for close to two hundred years? I asked myself.

  "I don't trust the dungeon council members," said Jensen, and dragged my attention back to him. "So as we move lower." He leaned in and drew a straight line through the floors of the dungeon. "I want us to be fast and nimble." He paused. "So we take our time on the upper floors here." He drew a circle from floor one to five. "We get you as strong as we can, and then we move down like lightning."

  There was this instant, a brief flicker of fear that I caught in his eyes which he masked with a smile as always.

  "What are you not telling me?" I asked him.

  He arched an eyebrow at me. Playing the aloof mage that I have known him to be.

  "I'm willing to follow you to the depths of this dungeon," I said. "But if there is something on your mind. Anything that could potentially result endangering our lives. I want to know about it…" I kept my voice calm and to the point.

  "I don't want Tuma's or your family to tag along with us," he said, without beating around the bush. "You have no idea just how big those lower floors are…" The flames from the bonfire danced in his eyes while he looked at me. "One mistake. One wrong move. And they all could die," he said.

  "Die?" I blinked at him.

  "My deal is to protect you inside this dungeon as we move down, not them," he stated. "If push comes to shove, I will break all my self imposed restrictions, and save you. But it might be too late for the others…"

  My heart clenched at that.

  "Why are you telling me this now?" I asked him.

  "Because I didn't expect this to happen so soon," he said, and looked at the tunnel from where we had come. There was just darkness there and no sound of any goblin. "It's just been what three hours since we left the safe zone?" he asked out. "And it wasn't like there was a crowd when we stepped into the tunnel. There was just this one adventurer's party among a few other folks."

  "What are you talking about?" I asked him, confused.

  "They have found us…" He turned and looked at me, and the sounds of humans followed suit.

  I got on my feet with my crude dagger in hand.

  "Say hello to the first wave of adventurers after your title…" Jensen smiled wide.

  *****