Philip waved at Leka as he moved towards his trident, sticking up from the corpse of the boss like the sword in the stone and tugged it quickly from the body. Anika hadn’t realized how big the trident was before, but now that it was sticking up like that, Anika could see the trident was about a foot and a half taller than Philip and stifled a giggle that he was using a weapon larger than he was like some anime hero or Final Fantasy character.
“Exciting is a word for it, sure,” Anika was pleased that she sounded relatively calm after the chaotic battle. Thinking back on it, it hadn’t actually taken very long to defeat the boss… maybe a minute and a half? Two minutes max? That felt like an eternity when Philip had killed packs of the squirrels in ten seconds or less. But it was more than long enough for her first boss encounter.
“You defeated the Scurry Captain quite well!” Leka said as she walked over to the corpse of the boss.
“He wasn’t very scary,” Philip said, as he wiped blood off his trident.
“Not scary! Scurry! A group of squirrels is called a scurry, so that mini-boss is referred to as a Scurry Captain. You’ll find more of them around this dungeon as well. I thought you might have trouble with the Captain’s Call, but you handled the additional squirrels in quite a unique way each time.” Leka moved from the boss and started inspecting the other squirrel corpses.
Anika started to move to join Leka, but noticed a blinking box in the corner of her vision. Not sure what it meant, she assumed it was some kind of character or party alert, so she pulled up her character sheet. Her character sheet appeared, but it faded into the background and a smaller box appeared like a pop up.
Level 6 Achieved
Potency: 11
Anima: 16
Vitality: 12
You have [1] stat point to assign
“Oh! I leveled up! I didn’t notice that flashing box during the battle!” Anika said excitedly. In the background, she could see that her experience was listed as 9915 / 16807. She must have leveled early in the fight when they killed some of the boss’s minions, but she had been too focused on the battle to notice the blinking box. That probably wasn’t a good thing, and she would have to be more aware of messages and notifications during battles – what if there was some kind of status notification she missed during a fight? She mentally berated herself for being so sloppy – if this had been a raid in a game and she had missed a notification, it could have led to a wipe; but here it would lead to death. She should find out more about what kinds of notifications appeared so she knew if there was anything important for battles.
“Yay Anika! I leveled too!” Lily cheered and hopped up and down adorably.
Anika continued, “Congrats Lily! That boss must have been worth a lot of experience! Wait, Leka, you said it was only a mini-boss? That means there are bigger bosses? How many types of bosses are there?”
“There are many types of special creatures in dungeons, and mini-bosses are one of them. You may run into rare creatures or elite creatures – those are more difficult than a regular monster and give more experience, but not as much as a mini-boss.” Leka ticked off her fingers as she said each type and continued speaking. “Each dungeon also has area bosses, which are significantly harder than a mini-boss, and I would not recommend fighting them at your current level. Some dungeons also have dungeon bosses – there are usually only one of those in a dungeon, though not all dungeons have that type of boss. This dungeon, for example, does not have a dungeon boss. How many special creatures and bosses a dungeon has and how frequently they spawn depends on factors such as the magic levels of the dungeon and how frequently the dungeon is cleared. Special creatures are more likely to spawn if the area is particularly saturated with magic and the normal monsters are not being killed.”
“Good to know… is there any way to identify these bosses so we don’t accidentally stumble into them? We only guessed that this squirrel was some kind of boss.” Anika wasn’t interested in accidentally wandering into a more difficult boss any time soon. They got lucky that they were able to handle the Scurry Captain as well as they had, and she didn’t want to count on lucky getting them through future encounters.
“There are guides written that assist in identifying monsters. Most of the time, local temples or guilds will have these available for the dungeons in their region. There are also some magic items that can assist in identification.”
“Shouldn’t we have had something like that with us then today? We could have accidentally attacked an area boss!” Anika didn’t quite yell the last bit, but she also was not as calm and collected as she was moments ago. She did not like going into a situation without having all available information!
“I would have intervened had you tried to attack, or accidentally stumbled into something you were not able to handle. This dungeon rarely spawns area bosses because it is well maintained.” Leka replied calmly. “Either way, I was nearby the entire time, and have been the entire time you have been here. Trainers use magical items to monitor their trainees’ safety while being able to intervene at a moment’s notice.”
“I’m glad you were here to protect us!” Lily chirped, which helped remind Anika to be nice and not get worked up over their now apparent lack of preparation. Admittedly, she wasn’t prepared for any of this, so having a guide was doubtful to have made a large impact on today’s exploration and fighting.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Anika took a deep breath. “Yes, I’m glad to know you were nearby… but I would really like to read whatever guide is available to ensure I have the most information possible.”
“We have a library at the temple and you are welcome to read any guides. For lower level dungeons, these will be very accurate. However, there may be gaps in information in higher level areas. Dungeons change all the time, as is the nature of their magic, and they have been changing and growing more rapidly lately – that is why we summoned you, after all.”
As she finished speaking, Leka pulled a small knife out of her pouch and began cutting off the tails of the squirrels around them.
“What are you cutting the tails off for?” Philip asked. While Anika conversed with Leka, he had been cleaning off his trident near Epona and looked like he had stopped paying attention to Leka until now. While it was possible Epona was giving him advice or information similar to Leka was giving, Anika wasn’t sure. Philip didn’t look overly interested in the details of monster types and how to identify them. Knowing the details and keeping track of the monsters would have to be Anika’s responsibility.
“The scurry’s tails have a few uses – the fur is long and soft, so it is often used for fiber crafts or as filling for pillows. We have artisans in the village that support the temple, so we always collect items for them when we enter the dungeons. I already collected the tails from the other ones you killed – it was quite a haul.”
“Wow, we didn’t even see you collecting them! You are stealthy, Leka!” Lily sounded in awe of Leka’s ability, but Anika figured she had just waited until they had moved out of each clearing before she started collecting animal parts.
“I can help and collect them myself next time, too!” Philip jumped up and pulled his knife from his belt before bending down near a squirrel to slice its tail off.
Anika realized she was still staring at the pop up on her character sheet, having been distracted by asking about monster types, so returned her attention to the box in front of her.
“It says I need to assign a stat point. What should I put it in? I think Vok said I should put it in Potency?” Anika asked Leka while examining her current stats and reminding herself what each area was responsible for.
Potency: Strength, physical agility, reflexes and power.
Anima: Mana, mana regeneration, mental agility, strength of mind and soul
Vitality: health, endurance, health regeneration, and resistance to status effects and conditions
“What are your stats currently?” Leka asked.
“Potency 11, Anima 16, Vitality 12. Why is my Anima so much higher than my other stats?” She had noticed it the first time she saw her character sheet, but she had been overwhelmed the first day here with all the information bombarding her after being isekai’d into the world. Now, with Leka here as their trainer, it seemed like the appropriate time to ask.
“That means that you have trained your Anima stat in some way prior to coming to the world. When we are born, we start with five stat points in each of the three stat categories. As we grow, we naturally accrue our first five levels, and each level gives us three stat points, one per stat. When we reach maturity and achieve level five, we have 10 guaranteed stat points in each area. However, you can train these stats and earn points in them through the activities you engage in. Anima controls your mana but it also includes areas of mental agility and strength of mind. I would guess that you were quite studious as a child and enjoyed games of logic and mental skill, yes?”
Anika nodded. A lifetime of doing well in school, joining math clubs, and playing strategy video games sounded like exactly what would train the Anima stat. “I assume Potency and Vitality would be trained through physical activity?”
“That’s correct,” Leka nodded while speaking, “Training your strength or agility increases the Potency stat, while training endurance and stamina impacts the Vitality stat.
“I, uh, didn’t do much of that back home. I took a dance class once but had two left feet, so I gave up. I was never good at sports and spent a lot of time trying to avoid gym class. They did make us do some running in school before I started taking electives instead of gym, so I guess that’s where I got a Vitality point from.”
“Luckily, you can still earn those points at any time in your life. They just max out at five each. Most people haven’t earned five points in all three stats by the time they reach maturity unless they have been specifically training for that. Our acolytes frequently take up to level 10 or 15 before maxing out their training points.”
“I guess I’m not completely behind, then,” Anika muttered. It figured that skipping gym class by taking extra electives and academic subjects would come back to bite her, though she certainly would never have considered ‘Boy, Was I a Fool for Cutting Gym: How I Learned the Importance of Gym Class After Being Isekai’d Onto a Fantasy Planet” to be the title of her memoir. It was, at least, a slightly more compelling reason to exercise than ‘it’s good for you’. She’d gotten her gym credits over summer when half the time they went to the bowling alley where it was nice and air conditioned and did not involve running, jumping, or catching balls.
“So… what stat is more important? Where should I put my points early to min-max my stats?” Anika tried to return to the question she had originally had.
“Despite what Vok said, you would likely be best putting stats into Vitality. Vitality will make leveling easier as you will be more resistant to damage and status effects. It also will make it easier to train your Potency, as the endurance boost will assist you across the board and allow you to train for longer, which will allow you to level faster.” Leka stated matter-of-factly.
“That’s what I was thinking… I’d love to have more powerful magic, but since I don’t have many spells yet, it doesn’t seem like it would be as beneficial right now.” Anika mentally selected Vitality from the options window, and a confirmation window popped up.
Your Vitality has increased by 1 point.
Potency: 11
Anima: 16
Vitality: 13
Anika mentally closed the window and her character sheet, after noting that she had no new spells as a result of her new level and looked over to where Leka was standing in a sea of tail-less squirrels. There were a lot of squirrels in front of them, and they had killed many more earlier in the day. Leka said she had collected all their tails but… where were they?
“Where did you put all the tails? Did you already take a bag somewhere?” Anika asked, confused.
“Of course not,” Leka replied. “They are all in my satchel.” Leka patted her satchel. Her relatively small, messenger bag style satchel that looked like it was big enough for an IPad, a water bottle, and some snacks, not over 100 squirrel tails.
“Wait, do you have bags of holding here!?”
The Forgotten One
To be remembered, he must never use his gift.
To save the world, he must vanish from it.
?? What to Expect
- Kingdom building with wars, politics, and strategy.
- Deep bonds, quiet slice-of-life moments, and devastating tragedy.
- Schemes of gods, demons, and powers beyond mortal reach.
- True growth through sacrifice and hard choices.
- A carefully crafted progression where every detail matters.
?? Daily updates — new chapter every day!