We made our way to the AG, by the time we reached it was around 7:30., but we were in luck. Their party was standing around inside the AG. We greeted them. Jared introduced us and in turn they told us their names, took their items and thanked us. The blacksmith’s salesman was called Little Mo (Ling Mo), the party leader’s name was John (Johnson), the one with the dark hair was Peter (Peterson) and the red haired one was Tim (Timothy).

The whole day was both a waste, yet strangely fulfilling. We didn’t do anything in particular. After exploring Andreas, we were treated to barbecue for dinner and then went back to 'The Sleepy Comfort'. We splurged quite a bit on food. But I guess it’s perfectly okay once in a while. We decided to meet up at 9:30 the next morning. After bidding goodbye and good night, I went back to my room, for some rest.

After a breakfast of fried bacon, sausages and a sunny side up egg, we headed to the AG. We were directed to a room inside the AG. It looked like a small fighting arena. There was a ring, like a sumo ring in the center and surrounding it was a circular area where seats were arranged. We sat down, but we weren’t the only ones here. In the distance We also saw John, Peter and Tim but the others were strangers. I think there were a little under two dozen of us, looking at the way we were sitting, there were 6 parties. Three clumps of threes and fours making it 21 adventurers.

I guess we were the last to arrive, but we were actually perfectly on time. Just as I thought that, two more people came and sat a little away from us. Then a guild receptionist came by and walked towards the center of the ring. We were asked to come closer together so that she could address all of us together.

She started speaking with a loud and pleasant voice, "Hello. I am Petunia, the receptionist at the AG branch in Andreas. All of you know a few things by now. But you are still barely above a newbie. Let me tell you a few things that you are dying to know. The situation that you have been placed in is weird, but nonetheless, it is one you have to adapt to. Everyone in this world were previously residents of another world. Unfortunately, that world faced the apocalypse and after you died you were sent here."

She took a breath, "But it is not the end. This is neither heaven nor hell. It is a second chance for you to live. But… If you die in this world, you will face hell. Should you however survive and beat this game-like world, for one thing you will not face hell, for another, you will become permanent players of this world. Permanent players of this world are players who will be born into this same world when they die, in other words, ‘reincarnation’. In case you didn’t know, everyone in the beginner’s villages are permanent players, other than newbies of course."

Petunia scanned the crowd, satisfied that everyone was paying attention she continued, “As for beating the game, the permanent players cannot help you. Our memories are hazy and we only know the basic gist of your future game. All we know is that every 20 levels you are allowed inside the challenger’s room. The challenging room is basically a test. Clearing the test with a good evaluation gives you extra stats. The goal of this world is to beat the ultimate dungeon, known as the ‘Great Labyrinth’ or the ‘Final Dungeon’. But, you can only enter that if you clear a number of other dungeons. Dungeons are basically the levels that the dark ones talk about in the tutorial. Clearing each dungeon gives you a dungeon level up, which is displayed in your rank C AG card. Apart from all this, it gives you a lot of perks like equipment, level ups or titles.”

She continued, “Moreover, if you do not strive to clear the dungeons, only death awaits. According to our information, those who are lazy have penance coming. We don’t know the dark one’s evaluation criteria, but whoever slack off, get their stats reduced. So if you don’t constantly raise your levels, ultimately death and hell awaits you. That is all. Any questions?”

A stranger asked, “What do you mean by hell?” Petunia replied, “A lifetime of torture. But that is just what the dark ones call it. Of course no one has come back from hell so we’re not sure. But, the dark ones cannot lie, so… You can decide to believe it or not.” Another asked, “So permanent players don’t need to keep leveling up?” Petunia again replied, “That is both true yet false. To survive in this world, they need to level up, but it isn’t as if their life depends on it, so they can take it easy and do so more safely.”

A person interjected, “So it is dangerous to level up?” Petunia looked at that person like she was looking at an idiot, “Haa?! Of course it’s dangerous. This whole world is dangerous. But you have no choice so deal with it.” Jared suddenly asked, “So do permanent players have memories of their past life?” Petunia looked at him with interest, “Yes, in a way. But you can have memories only of one regression. That is I don’t have memories of my original world, as this is my 1st regression. As such in my next regression, I won’t have memories of being a new player and the regression after that I’ll have no memories of this life of mine.”

There was silence after that, until I asked, “So, can you please elaborate on dungeons?” Petunia blinked, “Well after you pass your first challenger’s room, when you are level 20 and you are rank C, you are allowed to go into a dungeon. As for dungeons itself, it varies from dungeon to dungeon. What is common are the monsters, traps, maze-like structure, different geography and climate. That being said the monsters are different for different dungeons, so is the structure, and other things. What I mean is each dungeon has its own unique ecosystem. For example the dungeon closest to Andreas is around half a day away. It is known as the ‘Beginner’s Dungeon’ and is infested with goblin related monsters like hobgoblins, goblins and orcs. The climate is like summer and the geography is cave-like. Another advanced dungeon with a similar climate and larger caves is called the ‘Giant Goblin’s Dungeon’ which has Orcs, Onis, Ogres and Trolls.”

John asked, “Is a party always necessary?” Petunia replied, “In 99% of the cases yes. Except the challenger’s room, which is a single person battle, dungeons and such are supposed to be completed with a party. Soloing it is a death-wish. The 1% that I mentioned are for people who are suicidal.” A murmur broke out. The rest of the questions were trivial and the answers were what I had inferred. Wow I had gotten a hold of quite a few things. Other than the mystery behind the dark ones, everything else was more or less answered.

Before we left one thing struck my mind, “Oh, one last question. We are all between 16-25. What about the other age groups?” Petunia looked at me with a raised eyebrow, “Oh, yes that. The dark ones hinted that they are in a different world, probably similar to ours. But traveling or communicating with them was impossible, so you can forget about that. Moreover, you can’t really divulge information about your original world, so there is no way of finding out your acquaintances. Even faces and names become a blur, as you have already noticed. Well, that brings us to the end of this question and answer session. It’s already 2, so please be on your way.”

All of us went back to the inn for lunch, but we were all lost in thought that I didn’t even realize what I had had for lunch. Either way the plan didn’t change for the time being. We would level up and save money. The only difference was that we were not bothered by all of us not having the same level. Still, Ken and I had to grind more than the others. According to our levels, Jackie and Jared would use the challenger's room earlier than us, then wait until we were done with it. After that, we would all rank up to C and attempt the beginner’s dungeon together.

We vaguely ascertained that we would need a mage in our party. So I guess we’ll have to look for one. But for now, since we don’t need one desperately, we’ve put it off for a later date. After lunch, we headed back to the AG and split up to hunt horned wolves. This was to make sure we had proper party synergy with just the two of us. From tomorrow onwards the real level grinding would commence.

All four of us went to the west gate, and after that split into our groups. The horned wolves resided in the south west, so Ken and I walked into their territory, while Jared and Jackie went further in. After hunting around twenty horned wolves with ease we decided to end our day. I was the team leader so when we headed back to the AG, I went to the counter while Ken retrieved five more quest requests and then I lined up again. Apparently in rank B and C, the limit is increased to a maximum of 8 quests.

My quest card had finally turned deep blue at the end of the day. After black, the colors are VIBGYOR, and then white. Now, Ken and I just had a dozen or so rank D quests left and all of us had 10 rank C left. ‘I’m not sure how many rank D quests the other two have left.’ After discussing over dinner, we found out that Jared had 7 and Jackie had 9 quests left. This was probably because Jackie was an archer, otherwise she would have had more rank D quests done. After all, she was here a week more than Jared.

After getting to bed I was wondering what new creature Ken and I would be hunting. Well although it would still be rank D, it would be stronger than the horned wolf. Moreover, it would be a new challenge. I fell asleep in anticipation of tomorrow. The next day I woke up exactly at 8:30 and had breakfast with the lot. Today’s menu was stuffed omelets and bread with a choice between a glass of milk or orange juice. As I hadn’t had juice in a long time, I chose juice. And then we headed to the AG together.