The Blue box told them a lot.

  "Okay, so you need to try using your Claim skill on stuff," Julia said after reading through it.

  "True and we should try and put together a larger backpack if we end up with a lot of stuff, and our pouches are full. We should also make sure to use Raw Materials Space in the pouches." Theo said. Then, a thought occurred to him, "We might also be able to claim a monster to carry things for us."

  Julia nodded, then reopened the notification, "It seems like it's updating the time in the message to sync with the timer we can see. I wonder if it will update with any creatures you claim. Will it do its case-by-case evaluation right then and there, or will it wait till the end?"

  Theo was about to respond when a shriek drew their attention. They looked up to where the sound had come from, and in the air was a small winged leech-like creature. As they looked, three more appeared. And then they started towards where Theo and Julia stood in front of the portal.

  Without hesitation, Julia used Ward and created a double layer of protective runes around herself, Theo, and the portal.

  Theo withdrew the Master Tool and had it take on the form of a massive butterfly net. Julia pulled out her Glimmer Branch and began using the simple attack that it offered to strike from afar. She hit one of the leeches, and it reared back and hissed loudly before continuing on. Finally, they crossed some distance barrier, and text appeared above their heads.

  {Mana Leech, Level 03, A+}

  {Mana Leech, Level 02, A+}

  {Mana Leech, Level 04, S-}

  {Mana Leech, Level 03, A+}

  "Okay, well, I should have guessed with the dungeon telling us that the combat system was always on that we should have been quiet," Theo grumbled as he stepped out of the ring of runes.

  The leeches screeched at him and then dove to attack.

  Theo swung his net and managed to snag the Level four and one of the level three leeches. However, that opened him up to attack from the other level three and the level two.

  Theo grunted as he felt them bite into his back. The flurry of magic that rushed through him from Julia told him that Retaliate was hard at work.

  Julia saw the level two leech drop to the ground, dead. The level three screeched at the sudden bout of pain and took flight once more. Theo ignored it, drew his dagger, and used it to strike at the two he was struggling to hold under the net. The level four caught the dagger through its back between its wings and sagged, all movement ceasing.

  The level three in the net began to thrash violently, and Julia was doing her best with the Glimmer Branch to hold off the still flying level three. Theo dropped his dagger and instead closed his fist and slammed it into the toothed maw of the leech.

  Julia felt Retaliate trigger as the leech bit down. But that, in combination with Theo's hit, killed the leech. Theo stood up and caught one final hit from the remaining level three, and it fell to the ground dead.

  "Well," Theo said as Julia used her Stanch skill on him, halting his bleeding. "All things considered, that wasn't that bad. They are a nusciance. They were weak."

  "True," Julia said, looking at the creatures. She reached down to identify one.

  "It's a Mana leech," Julia said, and Theo identified another one. It even says they are weak and easy to kill."

  "Yeah, but swarms of a hundred? What would we even do about that?" Theo asked.

  "No clue, so let's pray we don't encounter a swarm that large."

  "Amen." Theo said and was about to pull a knife to harvest what he thought was valuable when he realized something, "these didn't just drop their loot."

  Julia looked at the strange creatures. "Do dungeons work differently? Or are these things useful in a different way that the System doesn't just dissolve them like it does outside?"

  "I have no idea. Do you think that the corpses stack in our pouches?" Theo thought out loud. After some quick experimentation, they found that the level four Mana Leech Corpse would not stack, but the other three would. So they were placed into Theo's pouch.

  "It's probably the mana density," Julia said thoughtfully as Theo finished stowing the corpses.

  "Maybe," Theo said with a shrug. "Now let's try to be sneaky and figure out what is ahead of us. Deal?"

  "Deal," Julia said as they began to work forward silently.

  As they left the ambient light of the portal that had brought them here, a silent weight settled on them.

  "It's spooky," Julia whispered.

  "I mean, it is a crypt," Theo said and was about to say more as they came upon an intersection, but the sounds they heard made them freeze. From their right came two distinct sets of snarling roars. From their left came a screeching bellow that sent shivers down their spines. Theo looked around and saw an alcove. Theo pointed to it, and they rushed in.

  From where they were, they could see the leftmost passage first. Floating down it was a ghostly dragon. As it neared, text appeared above its head.

  {Dragon Wraith, Level 10, S-}

  Theo and Julia both tensed up. Julia grabbed Theo's hand and squeezed it. Just as they were about to bolt for the portal. A snarling roar came from just out of sight, and the Dragon Wraith focused on whatever had released the roar.

  From the right side of the intersection a small dragon, still living appeared, and text floated over its head.

  {Igvari Karzun, Level 06, A+}

  The small dragon grappled the spirit down for a moment and then was thrown off. It got up and lunged again. Doing minimal damage to the Dragon Wraith. They fought for a few moments, and just when it looked like the small dragon would lose. It whimpered quite pitifully, and suddenly, a massive clawed hand the size of the small dragon shot forth, clasping the Dragon Wraith and squeezing it to death in mere moments.

  The dragon that stepped into view was gargantuan. It kept its head on its long neck bent as it would not be able to stand up despite the one hundred foot arched ceilings. The text that floated over its head made Theo and Julia's blood run cold.

  {Patriarch Aftary Karzun, Level ???, ???}

  Theo and Julia stood there for a moment, not moving, barely daring to breathe as the Patriarch growled and hissed at the level-six dragon. Gestures were made, and Julia could not stop herself.

  "It's teaching it." She mumbled barely audibly. And Theo clamped a hand over her mouth as the massive eye of the Patriarch locked onto them. It did not stop teaching the young dragon. But the whole time, its eye stayed on them. Finally when the smaller dragon began to shuffle on down the tunnel they had come from. The Patriarch fully looked at them. Then turned and looked down the hall, seeing the portal.

  The Patriarch nodded and waved its massive clawed hand sending a wave of power down the tunnel to the portal. It turned and left. After the sounds of the two dragons conversing faded to silence, Theo finally let go of Julia. "I'm sorry but..."

  "No, I fucked up. What did it do to the portal?" Julia said, looking back towards the portal.

  "Let's go check before we go any further," Theo said. Julia agreed, and they slid out from their hidden alcove and walked back to the portal. When they got there, they found a floating ball of golden power in front of the portal. "I will try and Identify it."

  Julia nodded, watching as Theo reached out. As soon as he touched it, they both received a notification.

  "What the actual fuck." Julia asked.

  "How does he know we are new to the System?" Theo asked out loud.

  "How does he know we call our homeworld Earth?" Julia demanded. "He knows too much!"

  "Do you want to raise your complaints to him?" Theo asked, and Julia shook her head. Theo chuckled, "Me neither. So, let's do this task for him and kill a bunch of Mana Leeches. At the very least, we can maybe level up and then see what reward he offers."

  "Fair," Julia said thoughtfully.

  "What?" Theo asked, wondering at her tone.

  "I mean other than being scary as fuck, this seems rather nice." Julia said, "and it stands to reason that with how everyone is going on about how nice we have been, that nice people should be rare."

  Theo nodded. "But also, maybe, just maybe, we are lucky as well as nice."

  Julia shoved his shoulder playfully, keeping an eye down the tunnel towards the intersection. "I mean true, but for real."

  Theo shrugged, "I have no idea, maybe Oreburn and Argo only deal with assholes? Maybe when you're as powerful as that Patriarch felt you don't have to be an asshole cause you can just kill anyone you want? Who knows?"

  "That actually makes a fair amount of sense," Julia said.

  "So shall we?" Theo asked, gesturing down the tunnel.

  "We shall," Julia responded as she turned and began walking with Theo back to the intersection.