At the top of the stairs was a podium like at the entrance of the dungeon, but this one had a stone ring around it like a handrail. It was meant to be obvious that everyone put their hands on the hand rail and it would send them to the next floor. Before leaving however, Eli told everyone to take a ten minute break and rest while he looked around. They took the time to get comfortable, taking off the layers of clothes and armor that had been protecting some of them from the cold. Eli, however, was frantic in his study of the elevated platform they were on, from checking runes to studying everything with his magic sense. He wanted to add more features to his home and these runes and the magic of this platform feel familiar, like he could replicate it.

  When his set time for a break was over everyone was standing around the center handrail ready to move on, Eli just finished checking one last thing then he joined them with a big grin on his face. Everyone clearly wanted to know what he was up to but they also wanted to get somewhere warmer, the weather may have cleared but it was still cloudy and so they didn’t even have the sun to warm them. All together, from the time they arrived in the safe room, to right now when they were leaving the first floor, it had taken a little over ten hours. This felt like a good pace to him and even though the floors will get harder he was confident in his hope that they would finish the whole thing in 5 days.

  With a smile on his face, Eli joined his group in putting a hand to the handrail. As expected a system window came up.

  “You have cleared the first floor.”

  “Would you like to proceed to the next floor?”

  “Yes/No”

  There wasn’t an option to pick anything but stay here or move on, so without getting into a debate with himself, he selected yes, and in a flash they were all in another safe room. This time the safe room was stone, a very hard looking stone, similar to granite or marble but more colorful and polished. It was grey until the light hit it just right then it would shift through all the colors of the rainbow, the stone was truly beautiful and, to his senses, also magically resistant. It was so magically resistant that his magic sense could not reach outside the room they were in, which made him nervous.

  “Alright, everyone rest and make sure gear and everything is evenly distributed again. I'm sure some things got shuffled around. I’m going to take a look then pick one of you to scout with me,” Eli explained. Everyone seemed fine with the new plan, but it was clear that Beau and Lucy wanted to scout with him, and Cody and Bethany wanted to rest.

  He opened the door and put his old bone mace in the way to hold the door open. The outside was a small cave, like the first floor but even just a glance beyond the cave he knew this was something new. He walked the dozen or so steps it took to get out of the cave and stopped breathing at the sight outside. They were in a mountain range, the middle of a mountain range from the looks of it, with peaks and valleys all around. The cave he just left led out to a ledge that stuck out about four feet from the mountain's very steep walls. The ledge led to a path on both sides going around the mountain, after checking around to make sure there weren't any monsters close, he sat down to just take in the view.

  Facing away from the safe room cave, the left hand side of the view was snowy peaks and forested valleys. After focusing for details for a while he was sure he could see a cabin in the woods just below the line on a mountain where no more plants grow. It was far away but he could almost see smoke coming out of the chimney, which led Eli to two possible conclusions. One, he was in another world, very unlikely, but not impossible. Two, the view was a recording from a real location, this one he decided was far more likely. Even though he was sure that this place wasn’t real, he was sure a fall from the mountain he was on would kill him. Still, this dungeon turned out to be a wonderful distraction from the world, just a good clean adventure, no political or relationship issues to stress him out.

  After taking a few more minutes to enjoy the view, he walked back into the cave and picked Beau to come scout the place out with him. When they got outside, he gave Beau a minute to take in the view and adjust to where they were.

  “Can you shape the stone on this mountain with your earth magic?” Eli asked.

  Beau reached out and put his hand on the stone, it was the same as the stone in the safe room, only it wasn’t polished and there were cracks everywhere. The stone making up the safe room appeared to be all one large smooth piece, but outside of it, the stone was all jagged and cracked, like large pieces of obsidian. The mountain was steep, but not so steep you would have to climb it like a cliff wall, however, the jaggedness of the rocks made it dangerous without it having to be steep. The air was thin and cold and there weren’t any plants where they were or higher, there were some lower down the mountain but who knew if they could go down.

  Beau concentrated for a moment and the stone around his hand changed into stairs, they were very steep stairs, but they were stairs. “I left them rough so we are less likely to slip off, what do you think?”

  “I think with both of us working we can make stairs to the top, but we should follow this path around first, and keep an eye out for monsters. Could come out of the stone or the air, so we will go slow, falling down doesn't look fun.”

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  Beau hadn’t even looked down, focusing on his surroundings and looking up the mountain, “How sure are we that we should be going up the mountain and not down?”

  “Good question, I assume up because we aren’t on a real mountain, we are in a bubble that has a mountain in it. But, you are right, we can test that too.”

  They started walking on the path to the right of the cave entrance and Beau asked a question, well it was more like he blurted it out. “How strong are you exactly?”

  “What do you mean? Like stats? or something else?” Eli responded, not really knowing how to put what he considered his level of ability into words.

  “I’m looking for a way to compare, to see how far apart we are, so stats would be a good place to start I guess.”

  “All my stats are at or over 60,” Eli said, he was being purposefully vague. “Body and soul levels are both at three, but I'm not sure any of those things are real measures of strength.”

  “Do you mean skill?”

  Eli laughed loudly, “God no, I don’t have skill at all. I’m talking about determination, grit, perseverance. I’m talking about ‘Will’“

  Beau scratched his chin, they were walking slowly but the path was narrow in places and it was a long way down so both of them were only half paying attention to the conversation. “Like the stat?”

  “Focus on it and read the help window about it.”

  Beau paused, standing still and leaning against the rocks so they would have less chance of falling. “Ok so it's an estimate, and it's a general power boost.”

  “I’m still learning, but if I had to guess right now I would say that having a high will and knowing how to leverage it would be the key to strength. I also don’t think the system knows how to measure it since your will is how much you can bend existence to your focused mind, that includes bending the system. So the measurement is just how much you have bent it so far. If you don't have a reason to bend it, it won't know your true amount of will.” Eli explained a bit more about what he knew than he would with the others when talking to Beau. He really seemed to have his head on straight and kept to himself, but when he did speak, it wasn’t annoying. Everyone that followed Eli was like this with him, but Beau seemed to be like this with everyone and it made him feel like a bit of a kindred spirit.

  “How do you work on your will, to make it stronger I mean?” Beau asked, seeming to ask the question to himself at the same time he was asking Eli.

  “No idea,” Eli lied, he had a lot of ideas, but none of them were provable without some very unethical testing so he wasn’t going to tell anyone about them. “Any other questions before we get to work clearing this floor of the dungeon?”

  “Would you mind if I flirted with Lucy?”

  “It doesn’t matter what I think, she is her own person, so that's between you two. That being said, she is basically brainwashed since birth to think I am a prince and the only purpose she has in life is serving my every whim.” Eli paused and let out a sigh, “so maybe take it slow.”

  “Yeah, I’ve overheard enough to gather that, I’m not trying to cause her more harm, just think she could use a friend.” His eyes looked to the side as Eli gave him a flat look, “A friend that might be more someday.” he finally finished.

  Eli just shook his head and took the lead as they kept going around the path, it wasn’t taking them any higher or lower on the mountain, just around. If he had to guess it was a starting spot for them to climb, and if they had to find items again, they could use the path as a reference point while searching. Navigating a mountain climb and searching with no markers would be rough, Eli thought to himself. It only took them about two hours to walk carefully around the mountain trail, which made Eli think they were closer to the top than he thought. The problem was, when he looked toward the top of the mountain, it felt like they were at the base and not all the way up above the tree line.

  Suddenly, he was reminded of the mesmerizing effect of the platform from the last floor and out of sheer stubborn spite, he decided that he would climb down the mountain and not up. He told Beau to follow and slowly change the stone to make it easier for others, then Eli started to make his way down the jagged, sharp and cracked rocks. After about 40 feet down the slope, Eli broke a rock off and set it on top of another one using a large amount of magic to connect and shape them, making a marker of sorts so he could find his way. Beau was hoping the shape was accidental because it looked like a 7 foot tall penis. Another 50 feet or so and Eli did it again, stacking a stone and melding it so it stays up, this time it looked more like a spike with a sharp point at the top.

  They continued moving down until they got to the tree line, which stopped them with an invisible wall before they could get into the trees. They both agreed that this was the limit of the dungeon floor and that the goal is probably to go up. Eli felt like it was good to check this, but they had already wasted almost three hours and they haven’t even gone in the right direction yet. On top of that Beau looked tired, reshaping this magic resistant stone was not easy, so they decided to switch out and he went into the safe room and Lucy came out next. He quickly summarized everything he had learned so far and what they had done, ending with the plan to now climb up the mountain.

  “If I had to guess, we will need to fight flying monsters as we go up, and they will be trying to knock us off the mountain. I’ll be shaping stone as we go so the others can climb easier, I need you to keep an eye out while we go up.”

  “So you want me to watch your back?” Lucy asked. She was obviously taking this as a sign of trust, not only that she wouldn’t stab him in the back but that he trusted her ability to do so, which to her, was a big deal. The whole first floor he had not even really acknowledged her, but this gave her a huge confidence boost.

  “Yes, we are going to take our time, so let me know if you get tired or need help,” he said.