About two months later:

June 13th, in the Culture section of the GAIA website:

The producer Icicle, who made his debut with Chinese pop idol Zhang Li, has released his third track, ‘Glass,’ two months after his introduction to the mainstream music industry. This latest work does not disappoint. It is a hopeful song that pinpoints the bittersweetness of love, laden with emotion. It combines elements of electronic and country music to create a new sound.

Icicle’s ability to create different varieties of music is highlighted - his song ‘For Nothing’ with Zhang Li was a snappy pop tune, while his second release ‘Sun Rays’ was an electronic dance hit that filled the room with energy.

‘Glass’ also has the first vocals from Icicle himself, as they were handled by Zhang Li on ‘For Nothing’ and ‘Sun Rays’ was a lyricless track. He does not plan to perform any of the songs, as he said on his social media:

“I’m just a producer. Singing in the studio is one thing, because you can record it however many times until you’re happy. But performing? Completely different animal.”

These vocals have caused a slight tremor across the internet, as Icicle, a 17 year old, has a voice that is much deeper than one would expect. However, the vocals themselves fit into the song perfectly. It conveys

Icicle has just started his career, and he only has a few songs to his name. Thousands of fans, myself included, are clamoring for more. I can’t wait to hear what this talented and aspiring musician will do next.

• Paul Anderson

=======

“Oh, for f-”

James stopped himself before he said the forbidden word and got himself sent to the dungeon. He waved his phone around.

“What does this man want? I get it, I’m kind of a celebrity now, I’m gonna get interviews and paparazzi and shit, but why does this man cover everything to do with me?” 

“The weak follow the strong,” said Ajartum, who was sitting on James’ head as usual. “I see nothing wrong.”

James replied telepathically, lest he be spotted talking to  himself. “That’s not how it works here. The problem is that he himself shouldn’t be following me. He has to take orders from his higher ups about which stories to cover. And his higher ups are the ones who control massive amounts of information. Everybody sees them, so they have the power.”

“Shouldn’t information networks be secretive? I don’t think a kingdom would survive if they didn’t have their own intelligence operations.”

“No, not that type of information network.” James rubbed the bridge of his nose. “The ones about confidential political information and similar things are secret. They’re handled by the government. But these information networks are called news networks. Basically, they make it so that the general population can know current events around the world.”

“Everybody has access to that information? Fascinating! And all instantaneous. I do see why Viann...ah I’m not supposed to talk about that. But you will probably find out soon anyways.”

Ajartum was not exactly the best at keeping things hidden, although he did try. James got up to get some water, and walked into where he thought the kitchen was. He was instead greeted by a large living room.

“Wait. New house.”

They had only moved into this house on the richer side of the city recently. It was different from the one James had spent nearly all of his life in, and he had yet to adjust it. It was quite a large house, and very nice. James’ sister was happy because they had a pool, and she could invite her friends over. James’ mother was happy because they had a garden. And his father was happy because he had more room to do his calisthenics.

James did not know why Papa Lu wanted to do calisthenics.

The money for the house was a mixture of the money James had earned in the dungeon and the money he had earned making music. Within the last 2 months, he had only released 3 songs, but  James had somehow solidified his status as a producer. It was probably enough to make a living, even without the dungeon.

Summer break had begun. Because he didn’t study (he was distracted by the dungeon and the songwriting), he didn’t do as well on his finals as he had hoped he would. But because of the massive amounts of money he made, his parents weren’t mad. 

Actually, they were very happy that James was deepening his pockets. At this point, they considered James’ high school education and college as a backup plan, and music to be his main career.

Anyways, if James was spending his time in the dungeon, what was he doing? 

Following the 7 step guide to self improvement, of course!

Step 1: Work out. Gain muscle. Become physically unstoppable.

Step 2: Learn to eradicate enemies with your newfound strength by honing your combat techniques.

Step 3: Study magic. Increase mana control. Increase mana capacity via meditation. 

Step 4: Learn to annihilate enemies with your newfound arcane knowledge by honing your chant precision and casting speed.

Step 5: Run amok in the dungeon. Kill, loot, and have a good time in general.

Step 6: Raise a vicious bear as a pet. Set it loose. Watch as it kills, loots, and has a good time in general.

Step 7: Swallow colorful balls that you find in the dungeon. These are basically doping drugs, except they’re not illegal in the dungeon. Your strength will increase exponentially as a result.

Following these 7 steps to a tee, James was able to climb from the 6th floor to the 9th floor in two months, including collecting all of the orbs necessary to boost his stats to unfair levels.

“I’m gonna go to bed.” James said telepathically. It was already past 12 o’clock. James had stayed up to work on a track with a person in a different time zone, and the rest of his family was already asleep.

“Alright.”

James took the beanie off and put it back into his bag. Then, he turned off the lights and made himself comfortable on the bed.

Explorers were able to summon their items from the dungeon into the real world, but it cost mana to do so. Additionally. However, there was nothing wrong with bringing Ajartum out to see Earth, which was obviously very different compared to…

“What was his home country again? Kalos Ursa?”

James simply went to the dungeon and checked his Bracelet of Elucidation, which linked to the grimoire and allowed him to search for information. It was like having an encyclopedia in your mind.

“Ah, it was called Kalo Ursted. Interesting.”

“You forgot the name?” Ajartum’s voice boomed out of nowhere.

“Shit! Where did you come from?!”

James jumped a bit, which attracted a few strange looks from the other in the dungeon shop. Thankfully, he had managed to keep his cursing within his telepathy and hadn’t shouted out loud.

=======

Normally, James would go run through the dungeon first before he started his training. He wanted to be in peak condition, since there was always danger in the dungeon. So the other types of training that tired him out came second.

But today, James immediately headed towards the training room in the dungeon.

Why?

Because he had nothing to gain from grinding in the dungeon even more. He had a surplus of magic stones, since each tier 2 magic stone was worth ten times as much as a tier 1. He had also hit the cap on the amount of orbs he could take. But, he wasn’t confident in tackling the 3rd tier yet.

After locking the door, James brought out the bean bag he had stored and sat on it.

Aside from dramatically increasing his ability to condense magical energy (bigger fireballs) and his control over it (the fireballs actually fly and hit targets) , James also learned some other usages of magical power.

One of these was telepathy, which he was using to speak to Ajartum. This was what allowed him to speak with Ajartum outside of the dungeon.

The idea behind telepathy was simple. It was like a different version of Dragontongue, except the users didn’t have to use intent. But, it only worked on the same language.

Normally, this would be hard to learn. But James had an easier time, because his mana core was more fluid than the average person.

Plus, telepathy was a connection between two people. The better one person was at interpreting, the less skilled the other speaker could be. And who was the person James was linked with? Ajartum, who had extreme magic precision and experience in translating languages as a hero.

Or so Ajartum said.

James did believe him. He himself had just begun to understand intent a little bit. He could tell that Ajartum’s sentences had something in them that made them different. But he couldn’t place his finger on it yet. So, he couldn’t even imagine how hard interpreting intent would be.

However, Ajartum was able to understand everything he said. He must have been comprehending the subconscious intent in James’ sentences, as well as delivering intent so clear that a person who had no experience interpreting it could understand.

Maybe Viann was even better, because he was able to do the same thing through a book.

“Hmm?” said Ajartum. “I must have misheard you. Who is better than who?”

Intent was cool and all, since it allowed James to talk to Ajartum. The one thing he was worried about was mind-reading.

“Slander. I wouldn’t do such a thing.”

“Liar!”

James made up his mind - Viann was definitely better. He had been able to recreate a sizable portion of English just from the way James’ intent was structured.

And he had a better disposition.

==============

James sat perfectly still, eyes closed. If a spectator were able to sense mana, they would see the mana in his surroundings gravitate in towards James’ body. The mana converged on his chest, where James formed his pseudo mana core. He held all the mana on his core for 30 seconds or so. A fluctuation occurred in the dense concentration of mana, but apart from that, nothing seemed to happen.

James relaxed and all the mana - except a tiny amount. That miniscule portion of magical energy had assimilated itself into his core.

This was his “meditation.” It wasn’t really meditation, but since it required James to sit still and concentrate, he decided to call it that. It was through this slow method that James increased his total mana capacity.

James exhaled and took a small break. The entire process was painstaking, and mistakes would have consequences.

Leo could eat a rock and achieve the same outcome. Unfair.

-Knock knock-

Before James could start another round, a soft but firm knock resounded throughout the room. The training rooms were not something explorers could interfere with, so there was only one possibility.

The administrators of the dungeon had something to say to him.