For Official Purposes Only
Document: "Unofficial Communication between ████████ (Station ███) And ██████████ (Station ███)"
ISS: 2021-02-██ █████
███████, I'm sorry for asking this favor of you. I know how busy you have been due to the second wave. Do you have any information about an █████████ passing through your station? This is a personal issue, not official.
I attached a photograph and approximate description. He is not particularly athletic, but ████████ was a great asset to his country as a ████████. Any information would help set my mind at ease.
Document: "Response from ██████████ to ████████"
ISS: 2021-02-██ █████
Passed through 5 days ago. Joined group of 5, class was █████████.
The monster had stopped mindlessly slamming itself against the walls. It was a rule in this dungeon that any monster left alone long enough would begin to heal itself. While still mindless, the runic harness keeping the undead creature tethered to the mortal realm slowly knitted it back together. That was, at least before an aluminum spork and knife set found its way into its eye holes, completely blinding the creature once more.
The young boy that hadn't spoken to Eric since they had met approximately 10 minutes ago took Eric's travel utensils and drove them into the creature's eye sockets. It blindly clawed at the boy as he dodged back out of the creature's range. It rushed forward again, but Eric dove for its legs, encompassing its slick rotting flesh with a bear hug. The creature tumbled forward, putting no effort into self preservation as it mindlessly attacked the unseen attacker.
It landed face first, managing to drag a claw across Eric's back, tearing his thin dress shirt and blooming a shallow gash across his skin. The embedded silverware sparked as they hit the floor. The young boy rushed forward and slammed his heel against the back of the creature's skull.
The spork and knife bent out of shape (more than they had already) as the creature's orbital wall fractured. The young boykep the pressure up as the monster continued to struggle for a moment before coming to a stop. The impromptu lobotomy-by-fork had finally shuffled the monster off the mortal coil.
The creature lay still on the floor for a moment before it began to bubble and evaporate before the two people. The skin curled and singed before floating off the corpse as a black smoke. The bones crackled and fell to dust. Where the creature had stood before, Eric and the high-schooler saw what was left, before an unknown voice rang through their heads.
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Eric knew that the voice was coming, but the young boy recoiled visibly as an unpleasant sensation rang through his skull. He looked around himself, trying to find a source for the voice that wasn't there.
The experience from killing the undead was seemingly enough to advance 7 people, including Eric, to level 1. And seemingly more, if there had been more participants. Eric was a little pissed that he was assigned the lowest priority by the system, but he hadn't really done all that much in the end.
Names were considered important in the dungeon, and the system censored the names of all of its 'subjects' except for the one it was referring to. Most people chose new monikers for themselves to introduce themselves to others. The system would relay all the information provided about a specific kill to all the people that participated. Other events were only broadcast to the relevant user.
Eric was prepared for the next communication, but instead he heard the same artificial voice say Designation accepted, Subject Eric is now know by the moniker ██. Eric felt the same alien mental snow that occurred whenever the system censored information. It was uncomfortable.
He wasn't sure why he hadn't been given the choice of his own moniker. Moreover, he wasn't sure why he wasn't allowed to see what his own moniker was. From all the interviews in the files he had reviewed, every person chose their own moniker upon hitting level 1. So what happened with his?
The seemingly mute boy looked around quizzically. He didn't understand what was happening in that moment, and it definitely seemed like Eric knew more about this place than he did. Seeing the evident confusion on his companion's face, Eric broke it down for him.
This dungeon that they had been deposited into was governed by the 'system.' The system governed over classes, levels, and experience granted to the 'subjects' of the system. Experience was granted for killing monsters and clearing scenarios, which granted levels.
At level 1, each subject in the dungeon would receive a class, which was based on unknown criteria. The majority of classes that Eric knew of were combat focused, and for an important reason, they were more likely to survive the dungeon. With a few exceptions, experience was not shared in the dungeon. The person who contributed the 'most' to the kill was awarded all of the experience.
This situation was one of those exceptions. 'Overflow' experience was granted when the experience granted goes over the threshold for leveling up, and is then awarded to the person who contributed the most who hadn't received any experience yet. This time, it seemed the experience had overflowed until there was no one left, and the rest of the experience went wasted.
Eric explained this to the young boy, who nodded silently. "We don't know what our classes are, but their should be an appraiser at the first station that can help us with that." Eric continued.
But where was the next station? Now that they had reached level 1, the exit to the level should appear if they just continue forward. The first level of the dungeon was meant to last only until the person reached level 1, after which they were quickly shunted out into the dungeon proper.
They bot picked up the young girl that had fainted, and headed down the corridor, where they quickly came across a dead end with a shining white portal embedded into it.
