Once they reached the gate of the city, they went their separate ways; Shilia headed home while he made his way to the adventurer's guild. He would get a new healing potion and some food then he was going back out. This time he was going to get a dungeon that suited his fighting style. One that paid awful rewards and thus had no people waiting for it. It was time to level up. 

Brett needed to get stronger, a lot stronger. And this didn't seem like the place to do it. As he ate, he recognized most of the faces at the tables around him from when he was last there. Ravenous was right; no one seemed to be really trying to advance. It was midday, and most of them had drunk a fair amount of beer just in the short time it took him to finish his meal. 

He had checked the lists in the back of the hall. They were job postings. He had expected it to be things like helping someone chase beasts off their farm or something like that. But no, it was things like loading bricks and other low-skilled manual labor. When he checked the pay, he was even more surprised. A full day's work wasn't any more than he had earned through two dungeon runs that hadn't even taken him more than a few hours.

Despite all that, he still saw several people go and pick jobs. Even if the dungeons didn't pay more, it still wouldn't make sense. At least with a dungeon, he would gain levels as well as the regards. Even the easy dungeons should pay better. 

Speaking of pay, he still hadn't read the message for defeating the dwarven dungeon; the aftermath had completely driven it right from his head. Also, that made the calculations even worse…

Congratulations on completing Hammer's Forge. Completion score: B, Reward: 35 coins.

Nothing special; he could probably go through it a little faster now that he knew how to run it. But it would probably be best to go for something higher level now that he was level five. Brett looked around, and nothing had changed. It was too bad that no one around here was reliable. His class would be best in a group, after all, but he didn't want to get used to it. He would need to do a lot of fighting on his own in the future, and he couldn't get a group wrapped up in his revenge. If only he had a healer to patch him up before his buff ran out. And someone to switch off with while he was on downtime…

Brett just shook his head and pushed his empty plate away, and pulled out the dungeon report. What was next?

***

Welcome to Big Smash, a level-nine dungeon. Objective, clear the dungeon. 

Big Smash was a bit of a stupid name, but it accurately described the dungeon. It was an ogre-ridden forest. They were the perfect enemies for Brett to face, big and slow. They had a thick hide that protected them, but he could still do damage, and their large amount of health didn't really bother him.

They were also territorial. So once he finished one, he had plenty of time to recover from his skill usage. After a few mishaps, he figured out a good way to fight them. He rushed in and cut vulnerable tendons in the back of their legs, then just dance in and out until they were dead. 

He wasn't sure why there weren't more people around this area. Well, he kind of did know. The report had warned people away, and the suggested group size was 10 level 9's. Apparently, the average person around that level didn't have the strength to pierce the hide regularly, and they were extremely dangerous. One hit, and you were pretty much dead. 

Brett knew that, but they were slow enough that he didn't need to worry about getting hit. Plus, with his boosted strength, he didn't have too much trouble getting through the hide. It might take him a couple slashes, but he made it through consistently.

That was why this was his third time through the dungeon. There were nine of the beasts scattered throughout a forest. Their positions changed each run, and he wasted a bit of time tracking them all down. But it still only took him an hour and a half to clear it. At his current pace, he was on track to do it even faster this time.

Still, after nearly five hours of constant fighting, he was starting to get tired. And when he was tired, he was slower. A glancing blow sent him flying into a tree, and he had to use his third health potion of the day. He had bought a few during lunch. That was when he learned he wasn't supposed to take them more than once an hour. There had to be a drawback, of course.

Luckily this was the last ogre. It was already stuck in one place, but he had been a bit ambitious and tried to take out both legs in time to end the fight quicker. It wasn't like he could just rest now, though. If he got out of range of its hands for too long, it started throwing rocks and trees at him. He could hide behind trees, but they never survived more than one hit.

With still a little time left in his skill, he charged forward again. An empowered leap brought him about eye level with the ogre; its reaching hands came up to catch him before he could strike at its face. By now, he was used to its reaction speed and knew how to counter the move that had cost him his second potion of the day. Swinging both blades, he removed the thumbs of the ogre. 

It screamed in pain as it stared at its mutilated hands. As much as they fought the same, their emotional reactions varied greatly. Some kept fighting endlessly, some gave up, others got angry, and some got scared. It was a lot different than the other dungeons he had gone through. He wondered why that was.

Moving in quickly, Brett ended the ogre's suffering. A few seconds later, he blinked away notifications and stepped through the exit portal. It was a trick he had figured out recently. He could quickly view the notification and get rid of the glow, then come back to check it later. The trick was something he had figured out completely by accident over lunch. There was a trick to it, though; he had to open it with the intention of reading it, then not actually do it.

It took a couple tries, but it was good for getting rid of the glow in combat. Looking around, he sat on a rock before going over his gains.

Base Strength Increased 13-> 14

Base Dexterity Increased 12-> 14

Base Endurance Increased 15-> 16

Brett smiled at the two-point improvement in his dexterity. He had been working on that as much as he could. The fast movements were what made his fighting style work so well. That, and the ability to keep going forever. At first, he had thought strength was the most important attribute for him, but now he was thinking that it was about the third most. If it fell too far behind, he would suffer greatly, but endurance and dexterity were far more important.

At his current rate, he would max out his base stats in a few weeks, the physical ones at least. After that, his growth might slow a bit, but hopefully, he would get his next skill at that point, and it would be something that would carry him to the next level. Speaking of levels…

Congratulations, you have reached level six! One free stat point is available to allocate.

Only one level? I would have thought that running a level nine dungeon three times solo would have got me more? If this was the case, then each level might take significantly longer than the last. That would explain why everyone leveled so slowly. Well, if level nine was barely enough for this, then tomorrow, I'll go further. I'll try level ten, I guess.

Then he went over the three completion methods. The dungeon didn't pay well, but still, he got 123 coins from it. That was no more than what he got in the level eight dungeon for each run, which would explain why he had it all to himself.

Groaning with the soreness deep in his muscles, Brett stood up and started walking back to the city. He patted his pockets; three more vials and a bag of coins were still there. It should be more than enough to get a meal and a night's sleep, though he wasn't going to stay in the fancy inn that he had spent the last couple of nights enjoying. A plain one with a bed and a bath would be enough for him.

He would need to take care of his swords as well. Chopping wood with them probably had fucked them up a bit. Bernard would probably never forgive me if he found out. Speaking of them…

Brett pulled open his chats. Selecting his friends, he made a group and started drafting out a message. It took him a couple tries to get it right.

Brett: Hey, all. I survived my first day :)

Brett: Made level six, heading back to the city. Gonna go back out tomorrow.

He closed his chat and kept walking. It didn't take long before he blinked with a notification, but when he opened it, he frowned. That was not who he was expecting…