Communication Protocol Alpha

  SD ███████

  ...

  Subject 35 - Deceased

  Subject 36 - Deceased

  Subject 37 - ███████

  Subject 38 - Undetermined

  Subject 39 - Alive

  ...

  Eric was in a rather unfortunate situation. He hadn't been expecting to find anything useful in his identification report, seeing as he was only level 1. But he really didn't expect to see absolutely nothing.

  Subject ██

  Class █████████

  Intrinsic

  PHY █ -█

  WILL █

  INT █ +█

  Derived

  ATK: █+[[0]] + █ gear

  DEF: █-[[4]] + █ gear

  CAST: █+[[2]] + █ gear

  RES: █-[[1]] + █ gear

  MNVR: █+[[4]] + █ gear

  AVD: █+[[4]] + █ gear

  Skills:

  - █████ ███████████ Level █

  - ██████ Level █

  Abilities:

  - █████ ████████

  - ████████

  - ██████████

  ███ Experience Point(s) available

  The image beamed into his head was entirely unprecedented. His intrinsic abilities seemed to all be in the single digits, which was basically normal, and the derived stats were all single digits as well. He knew that they were all probably at one, since that was what most derived stats were at level 1.

  The unprecedented part, however, was the fact that all the numbers were hidden from him. His class, skills, and abilities were also hidden. What was he supposed to do with this? Eric's eyes furrowed in concentration as he though through what this meant for him.

  He had two skills, which was fairly good for a level one class. He scanned through his document to see which classes started out with two skills. Spearman, Demolitionist, Natural Leader. He made a note of these, and moved on to the abilities. Unlike skills, abilities were mostly based on your life before entering the dungeon.

  Abilities functioned like passive skills, and could be used or activated outside of combat usually. Some abilities helped within combat as well: like sprinting, or acrobatics. It was unlikely that Eric had either of those. Before he entered the dungeon, Eric was a scientist. This meant that his abilities had something to do with science, or engineering.

  His physical stat was low enough to provide a debuff, so it was likely a 5 or below. On the other end, his Intelligence provided some sort of buff, meaning it was a 9 or more. His WILL score was middling, being between a 6 and an 8 for no bonus.

  "Um, hello?." An oddly feminine voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

  Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

  "Oh, you're still here." Eric turned toward the bewildered brown-haired girl sitting across from him on the mat. It was Kaila, the artificer that currently owed him two yellow coins. Who had come to find him after the lights turned back on to ask him for some more help, despite the fact that she was already in his debt.

  "Did you figure out your class?" Kaila looked at him expectantly.

  "No." Eric told the truth. He found no value in hiding the information, and Kaila felt strangely trustworthy.

  "No?" Kaila's perplexed expression returned to her face as studied Eric's expression. "Fine, whatever. You can tell me later, fucking edgelord." She sighed, clearly having decided Eric was holding back information. This was precisely the opposite of what Eric wanted.

  "If I could show you, I would, it just doesn't say my class."

  "Alright, whatever dude. Are we going out or not?" Eric looked sternly into the younger woman's eyes.

  "Can you let me get dressed first at least?"

  ...

  Eric and Kaila lined up in front of the gates to the restricted zone of Origin. Soldiers wore a roughly weaved sash around their normal adventurer's gear as they waved the displaced people through the entrance into the dungeon. Eric casually chewed on a stick of mystery meat he had been sold at the vendor's stalls outside.

  The artificial orange-yellow light of the dungeon's glowing orbs cast odd shadows across the rough-hewn floor of the dungeon. They crept forward as the adventurers were shuttled through to the entrance to the dungeon proper.

  The first floor of the dungeon consisted of a massive maze that had yet to be mapped out fully. Kaila and him wandered into the dungeon before pausing.

  "Why do you need me here again? Aren't you like level 12 or something?"

  "I told you, I'm a support class. In combat I'm basically a level 1 adventurer." It was Eric's turn to sigh as Kaila pulled out a piece of paper containing a map of the first floor. Eric had his own map in his documents, but this was Kaila's own map. It contained information on spawns, drops, loot schedules and more.

  "Either way, we can't find any good drops this close to the city, so we need to venture further out. I'm thinking we can fight some..." Kaila trailed off as she made her way further into the maze, dragging Eric behind her into the depths of the dungeon.

  "Okay, say I understand why you need to drag me into the dungeon for this." Some time had passed since they had started their delve into the dungeon. "What I don't understand is why I'm the only one fighting." Eric swung his mace through a slime creature creeping toward them on the floor. The mace penetrated the thing and slammed into the stone floor, sending the shock into his arm.

  "Oh! This one didn't evaporate." Kaila pointedly ignored the annoyed man's questioning as the dead slime started leaking its liquid onto the floor. Kaila started scooping as much of the thing's blood into a jar with her hands before it spilled onto the floor. In theory, they were headed toward the spawn point for a pack of crawlers, but they -- Eric, that is -- had fought only slimes on the journey here.

  Kaila, seemingly satisfied with her harvest, stood back up, tying the now-sealed jar to her belt. "Let's turn right up here." Eric scowled at Kaila, who offered as reassuring smile in return.

  "Fine, whatever. Fuck you." Eric turned back down the corridor, and made it a few yards before coming face-to-face with a wall. He looked back to Kaila, who turned her head back to the map she carried in her hands. "Hey, Kaila. Doesn't look like there's a right turn here."

  "Sorry. I think was looking at the wrong turn, we should turn back and follow the next left." Kaila still looked slightly puzzled.

  "You think?" Eric wasn't particularly reassured, but he turned back to the previous intersection again. Past the slime he had killed, they came back into the previous corridor. The pair continued down the correct corridor. The path continued forward for 10 yards before splitting off into a right path and a left path again.

  "Turn right here." Kaila called out from behind Eric.

  "Yeah, sure."