Ravenous scoffed and shook her head at them. In a few more swipes, she deemed his face clean and stopped with the grooming. "You look like you might get a few scars. If Irene was here, it wouldn't be an issue. I can give you a potion, but everything might not heal up perfectly. I don't think you’ll have any limitations, and the cut on your face looks like it might be okay. Normally I would say wait until tonight and let her take care of you, but you have lost a lot of blood."

Brett just nodded. He didn't really care too much about a few scars. Ravenous huffed and pulled a glass bottle out of nowhere, and started putting a few drops on each of his cuts. While she was doing that, she gave him a curious look. "So what happened in there?" 

He started telling the story. Of the odd layout and the upgrading nature, to start. He left out his thoughts about the possibility of respawning. Judging by their reactions there was very real danger and respawn wasn't a thing. He explained going back to the beginning, figuring out the mechanic, taking on the last level, and the last fight that got him most of the wounds. Alan winced at that. "It's a hard lesson to learn when to pull back, one you got cheaply." 

Ravenous nodded in agreement. Alan paused for a second. "So you get any class offerings that you liked? And what was the final report?"

"After adjustments I got an A. Not too bad for someone with no class, huh?"

"Well… seeing that level two dungeons are normally run by preteens, you did all right," Alan said, but Brett saw the small smirk on his face. The gentle ribbing felt good. Like they were actually becoming friends. 

Ravenous wasn't content, though, and seemed to think that Brett needed defending. "Yeah, but there’s normally a dozen of them, so I think it evens out."

"So yer saying you think I can take a dozen twelve year olds?" Brett asked, remembering a debate he had with some of his deputies during a slow day. Alan snorted and Ravenous relaxed enough to laugh too.

"I would say it would be an even fight." Ravenous hedged. "So what about the rewards?"

"15 coins and an Elixir," Brett said. When he heard their gasps, he cocked his head at them. "What?" 

"The Elixir, where is it?" Ravenous asked. When Brett shifted slightly to show it sitting slightly behind them, she scooped it up, and in a flash, Alan was holding it. He frowned so quickly that he almost missed it. In another split second, the bottle was uncorked and pressed against Brett’s lips. 

"Drink." Alan commanded. Brett didn't have much choice. A tasteless liquid that did nothing to quench his thirst flowed over his tongue and down his throat.

"Did we get it in time?" Ravenous asked Alan anxiously, and he nodded.

 "Barely, had about ten seconds." Alan confirmed. 

Turning to Brett, Ravenous explained. "Elixirs are like consumable titles. They give a percentage boost to attributes. Only issue is, they’re rare and don't last long. Even gods have trouble getting them.”

Brett followed, sort of. "So I got a boost to my stats?"

As he spoke, he pulled up his attribute screen.

"My strength went up by one. And I have a new column." Brett answered his own question while looking at his screen. "There’s a five in the new column in the strength row."

"Yeah so the base stats will be the same, but you get a percentage-based increase rounded up. It's not huge, but it can add up. If you get more increases from titles, or even flat stats, that would be huge once you’re higher level. Looks like you got a five percent boost to strength. That's pretty good." Ravenous confirmed.

Brett tried flexing a little but didn't really feel much different. That might have been the exhaustion. 

“Also,” Ravenous piped up, “the higher level you are the bigger the effective boost. So getting them when you are at a higher level is really dangerous. Like your body can’t handle it and you tend to explode."

"What about the coins? How much are they worth?" 

Alan made a rocking motion with his hand. "You might be able to get a decent weapon or some starting armor with them."

Still taking care of his cuts, Ravenous elaborated. "About 10 coins is a day's wage for a common laborer. For a level two dungeon reward…. It's not bad, per se."

Brett just leaned back. He figured that most of this payday would be going towards clothes shopping. Once they got back. Before he could fall asleep though, Alan spoke again. "So, classes?"

"Yeah, actually I got one that I almost took. Juggernaut. Gave me a feeling of endless motion and unstoppable force, somethin’ that none of the other classes did." Brett said, his eyes lighting up in memory.

Alan and Ravenous exchanged a confused look. Ravenous paused her ministrations long enough to pull out a book as big as she was from wherever she kept such things and tossed it to Alan. Alan started flipping through before finding something and tracing his finger along a line as he read out loud. "Juggernaut. An incredibly strong front-line fighter. Highly offensive but is able to ignore much damage. Is unusually mobile. Struggles with recovery."

Finished reading, Alan looked up at Brett. "You said you were fighting with two shortswords? Is that something you want to continue?" 

Brett nodded and winced slightly as Ravenous found a particularly deep cut. "It just felt right. Also I’m shit with a bow, or throwing things."

"I don't know this class. We can do more research when we get back. But now, I think you’ve earned a break." Alan said. Brett wanted to argue that he could do more. But his head was swimming with what he thought must be blood loss and he was really thirsty. And hungry, when he thought about it. So he just leaned his head back and closed his eyes for a few minutes while Ravenous finished patching him up.

A few minutes later, he was on his feet. Looking down at himself, he was faintly bemused. He wore nothing but a hat, jorts, and leather, steel-toed boots. He kinda looked like a male stripper past his prime. If he wasn't covered in blood, of course. That made him look more like a serial killer. Stretching, none of his wounds bothered him at all. Running his finger down the particularly nasty cut on his forearm, all he felt was a pale ridge. Nothing he couldn't live with. "Say, either of you have any water? I'm drier than a tinderbox."

***

This time they walked back at a slow pace. As they went, they all chatted. Even Alan joined in to tell a story of his first solo dungeon. After that Brett felt a bit better about his own performance. He was a pretty funny guy once he loosened up a bit. Brett wore an older cloak that Alan had kept stored away somewhere. It helped preserve his dignity a little and also was something that wouldn't be missed. 

Once they got to the city, they hustled through the streets to their inn, where Ravenous insisted on a bath. Not that Brett was going to disagree with her. Back in their rooms waiting for the bath to be drawn, Brett took off his hat and inspected it again. It was still slightly misshapen and would need to be repaired. Sadly, that was pretty low on the priority list. Leaving the damaged hat on the table, Brett carried Ravenous out to go get cleaned up.