We left the room where I’d lost control over myself and ended up in a rather narrow hallway that was about one and a half my width, and only a few feet taller than I was. I followed behind Amy as she led me deeper into the dungeon, walking in silence for a bit. I was about to say something to break the silence after what felt like an eternity, when Amy finally started speaking.

  “Alright I can’t seem to grant you access to the menus I see, so you’ll just have to follow along and let me know if you can’t keep up.”

  “So, basically our normal thing?”

  “Yeah,” Amy said, barely pausing long enough for me to grunt an acknowledgement before she continued. “For starters, I guess we should talk about Skill Ranks so you have an understanding of how they work before we tackle how they play into combat. Honestly, I should have started with this before we threw you into the dungeon, but I didn’t expect it to be relevant so soon…”

  I raised an eyebrow at that, but otherwise remained silent while Amy spoke.

  “Ranks are slightly different from levels in that they have letter values associated with them, rather than numerical ones.”

  “Right, I gathered that when you mentioned my Sword Skill calculated at Rank B rather than F.”

  Amy nodded back at me before turning her head forward again, “Rank F is the bottom of the list, and where most Characters start at.”

  “That makes sense,” I said, nodding in understanding. “F was the lowest grade you could get in school, so it only makes sense it would be the bottom one here, too.”

  “Never really understood why they skipped E in school,” Amy said dismissively before shrugging. “Anyway, you’re correct that B is higher than F, but for your sanity, as well as everyone else’s, it goes: F, E, D, C, B, A, A+, S, S+, S++, and then finally EX. These 11 Ranks are–”

  “Wait, hold on,” I said, interrupting Amy and making her sigh. “Why are some letters just letters and others are the same letter just with a plus or two added? And what’s EX?”

  “If you could keep all your questions until the end,” Amy said, not bothering to hide the annoyance in her voice, “I’ll likely answer them as I go.”

  “Sorry,” I said sheepishly.

  “Anyway, as I was saying, the higher the Rank, the better the Skill. In combat, your Skill Rank is compared to your target’s Rank to calculate what’s referred to as your skill bonus. If your rank is higher than your target’s, you’ll have a higher skill bonus. But if yours is lower than theirs–”

  “I’ll have a lower skill bonus,” I interrupted.

  “That’s correct,” Amy said. If she was annoyed by my interruption, she didn’t show it. “While each Server handles Skills a little differently, this core principle is the same across all of them.”

  “I think I’m following,” I said, realizing that Amy had paused to allow me to ask questions.

  “Good, because we’ve not gotten to the confusing part yet,” she said with a chuckle, which made me groan. “Each Skill Rank is associated with a number–”

  “Then why are they letter based and not–”

  “–and that number is used to determine your Skill’s weight,” Amy continued as if I hadn’t interrupted her. “At Rank F, your Skill’s weight is 1, increasing by half a point each Rank until reaching Rank EX and having a value of 6. You then divide your weight vs the target’s and that’s how you get your skill bonus.”

  “That’s…” I paused, actually a little disappointed that it was basically just substitution and then division.

  “Anticlimatic? Boring? Simple?” Amy offered.

  “All three?” I replied with a frown.

  “If you’d like, I can explain the more complex calculations such as accuracy or armor type bonuses?”

  “No,” I said, wincing at the thought of more math. “I’m fine with not knowing the specifics for now.”

  “Suit yourself,” Amy said, sounding somewhat disappointed. “Understanding the formulas is the best way to manipulate The System in my opinion.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind,” I said, having no intention of bringing the topic back up anytime soon.

  “I’m sure you will,” Amy said with a scoff before resuming. “Anyway, the System calculated your bonus as 300%. I almost overlooked it, given none of those Goblin Scouts had more than 4 Hit Points, so it made sense you’d drop them in a single hit as even at Rank F with a sword you’d have done a minimum of 7 damage, had you hit.”

  “Oh? Then what caused you to look into it?” I asked, genuinely curious.

  “A single hit to the heart I’d have considered lucky, but four in a row with a Luck Stat of 0?” Amy laughed as if she'd said some kind of joke that I’d not understood. Realizing I didn’t get it, she added, “You didn’t even know that goblins had their hearts on the opposite side to yours,” she said flatly. “There was no way you managed to get four vital shots without something going on.”

  “I suppose that made sense,” I said. I paused as I noticed Amy had stopped walking at an intersection in the hallway we’d been traveling. “Something wrong?” I asked.

  “Trying to figure out which path to go,” Amy said, sounding like she was once more focused elsewhere. “How do you feel about trying some Goblin Warriors?”

  “Uh…” I said, unsure of what the difference between a Warrior and a Scout was.

  “Right, you’re not even aware of the Classes, are you?” She said with a sigh. “Alright, left path it is,” she said, turning left. I followed after her as she said, “I’ll finish explaining the Skills, and then we’ll use these goblins in the next room to explain Classes.”

  “What else is there to cover?”

  “Honestly, not much,” Amy replied, causing me to frown. “The main thing you need to know is that your Stats are significantly higher than anything in this Dungeon, you just need to actually let them do their job, instead of holding them back like you did in that first room. Given these next few will be Warriors, this’ll actually be great training for that, as your Stats should make it so that it's impossible for them to hit you.”

  “I would say that’s reassuring, but you and I both know how the last time went when you offered me what was supposed to be words of encouragement,” I said, remembering the pain of the two arrows that had impaled me. “Hey, how did you get those out, by the way?”

  “Cat magic,” Amy said, stopping at the edge of the hallway and stepping aside and sitting down so I could walk past her into the new room. Unlike the first room where I’d not been able to see all the goblins at first, this room was clear as day, allowing me to see every goblin in the room; all 8 of them.

  “Uh…” I said, involuntarily taking a step back as I did.

  Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

  “Relax, goblins are not a multi-combat monster until the higher levels. These should only attack you one at a time, unless you engage multiple at the same time.”

  “Remember when I said you weren’t reassuring?” I said, glancing down at my hip as I felt a weight suddenly appear there that hadn’t been there before as my rapier reappeared, this time with a sheath. “You have access to my Personal Space, too?”

  “Yeah, how do you think I dismissed your weapon last time?”

  I considered that for a moment before shrugging and looking back at the goblins. “They all look like they have the same weapon. Is that bronze?”

  “Yeah, except for that one right there,” Amy said, highlighting one of the goblins near the back. “That one has an iron sword, the rest all have bronze.”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “Surely you don’t actually need me to explain that, do you?”

  I considered that for a brief second before shaking my head. “I guess not,” I said with a shrug. “How does it compare to my rapier?” I asked as I drew the weapon from its sheath. Now that I wasn’t in an anger induced rage, I felt the weapon and could feel that it was slightly off balance, which caused me to frown slightly. I was used to fencing swords, and while it was expected that there would be a difference between the two types of swords, a nagging sensation in the back of my mind wouldn’t stop pointing out that this wasn’t as good of a weapon as it could have been.

  “Iron smithing by humans in this world is significantly less quality than what you would be used to back on Earth. Even steel made by humans would be of significantly lower standards than what you’re used to. If you want something similar to what you’re used to, you’d want to find a dwarven made weapon, though those are pretty rare here.”

  I frowned at that but nodded. “I guess I’ll make do.” I turned my attention back to the room of goblins and chewed my lip. “The other goblins all had 4 Hit Points you said?”

  “Yeah,” Amy nodded. “Though, since these are Warriors, they have a higher Hit Point count than the Scouts.”

  “I suppose that makes sense,” I said, still frowning as I nodded. “You said you’d tell me the difference between the Classes while I fought in this room?” I asked, taking a deep breath before stepping past Amy and into the room. Immediately all 8 goblins turned their attention to me, but only one of them advanced, and he did so at a walk, rather than a run.

  “Wait until it swings, and then try and dodge it,” Amy advised, to which I nodded. The goblin stopped when it was within arms reach of me and then swung its sword at me. I briefly considered if I should try and parry, but at the last second something told me that wouldn’t work, so I stepped to the side instead. I felt the air as the blade cut through where I’d previously been and shivered slightly. “You hesitated,” Amy said, the frown evident in her voice without me even looking back to see it on her face. “Don’t do that.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” I said, huffing in annoyance.

  “While parrying with a rapier is highly effective, I wouldn’t recommend it at your current skill level,” Amy commented.

  “Do you mean Skill Rank?” I asked, dodging another swing from the goblin as I tried to get a feel for it.

  “Did I say Skill Rank?” Amy asked, sounding somewhat confused as she did so. “No I didn’t,” she replied to her own question before I’d had the chance to say something stupid back. “Hey, dodge another attack or two for me, please? I want to check something.”

  “Uh, sure, I guess,” I said, dodging another two attacks from the goblin before delivering a counter attack of my own. I missed hitting the goblin in the chest, managing to instead get them in the shoulder. The result seemed to be the same, though, as the goblin crumpled to the ground and another one started toward me. I quickly looked at my Combat Log to confirm the kill.

  You have dodged an attack from: Level 2 Goblin Warrior [x4].

  You have dealt 11 points of Melee damage with: Iron Rapier.

  You have defeated Level 2 Goblin Warrior.

  “Neat,” I said, only to feel the sting of a blade against my chest as another goblin attacked me while I was distracted. Wincing, I noticed that my Combat Log had updated while being open.

  You have taken 1 point of Melee damage from: Bronze Sword.

  Without even thinking about it, I retaliated by shoving my sword through the chest of the goblin that had hit me, seeing the kill message also populating on my log.

  You have dealt 11 points of Melee damage with: Iron Rapier.

  You have defeated Level 2 Goblin Warrior.

  This time I didn’t pay any attention to the updated messages, instead focusing on the next goblin that came toward me. “Good, you’re learning,” Amy said, causing me to growl in annoyance.

  “Whatever happened to explaining Classes to me?”

  “Sorry, I got distracted with the audit logs again,” Amy said, causing me to grunt in annoyance as I dodged an attack from the goblin and retaliated with one of my own.

  “Three down,” I muttered to myself. “So, Classes,” I once more asked Amy.

  “I’m getting to it, calm down,” she said in annoyance. “Right, so those goblins you attacked in the first room were Scouts, which fall into the Range category of Classes. As you might suspect, they attack from afar with ranged weapons like bows and arrows, though some use throwing weapons or even crossbows and bolts. You’ll want to watch out for them, as they do heavy damage to unarmored targets such as yourself. They’re pretty nimble, but at your level they shouldn’t be much of an issue.”

  I grunted and nodded as I lunged forward and killed my fourth goblin, this time not even giving it a chance to attack me first. “And these Warrior goblins?”

  “Warriors focus on physical offense and defense, though you won’t see much of the latter with these low level goblins given they’re usually found not wearing any armor. Unlike the other Tier 0 Classes, the Warrior Class is the only one that grants points to your base Constitution, which is used to determine your overall Hit Points.”

  “So they’ll have more Hit Points compared to others of the same level,” I asked, lunging forward once more to kill my fifth goblin.

  “That’s correct,” Amy confirmed. “There are two other Tier 0 Classes: the support Class Chaplain, and the magic focused Class, Acolytes – though we won’t encounter any of those here since Goblins aren’t a magically gifted race.”

  “So there are no magic using goblins?” I asked, starting to look back at Amy as I did.

  “Focus!” Amy scolded, causing me to turn my attention back to the goblin that was advancing toward me.

  None of the goblins had moved from their original starting place, so now that I was on goblin number six, they had a bit more distance to travel before reaching me. Still, I didn’t want to take damage if I could avoid it, given that it hurt, so I decided to focus on the goblin for the time being while Amy continued to explain.

  “Magic using goblins do exist, though only in higher level dungeons. Goblins are primarily found as either a Melee or Ranged Class. The runts of the pack are often Spiritual Classes, and offer support, but you’ll only find those around dungeon bosses.”

  I dealt with the sixth goblin and nodded my head. “I like these Warrior ones more than the Ranged ones; they’re easier to deal with.”

  “Ranged monsters only attack one at a time, but they aren’t considered to be attacking in between volleys, which is why you were hit in rapid succession like you were. Nice job,” Amy said, causing me to smile slightly as I pierced the chest of my seventh goblin.

  As I pulled my blade free from the goblin, I noticed the final goblin just standing there still. I frowned and looked down at Amy. “What’s his deal?”

  “You’re outside its range,” Amy said, causing me to frown.

  “But the others all attacked me from here?”

  “Yes, but this one is level 3, so it’s different from the rest.”

  “You’re saying it's smarter,” I asked.

  “I’m saying it functions differently,” Amy clarified. “Think of it like a video game. Each one has a different AI based on its level that progressively becomes more challenging the higher the level.”

  “So this one won’t attack me until I get closer or something,” I asked, taking a step closer to the goblin and watched as it stood still, eyes never leaving me.

  “Pretty much,” Amy replied. “You’ll need to get closer.”

  “I figured that,” I said with a sigh, taking another step, and then another. It wasn’t until I was in the middle of the room that the goblin finally started moving, this one actually running at me rather than walking like the others had.

  I dodged its swing easily and then lunged, piercing it through the shoulder. I pulled my sword free and blinked as the goblin swung its blade at me, hitting me in the side and causing me to stumble slightly.

  “This one has more Hit Points than the others, don’t let your guard down.” Amy called out, causing me to grunt in annoyance.

  “You couldn’t have told me that before?”

  “I didn’t think you’d stupidly let your guard down like you did,” she replied as I dodged another attack before I dealt the finishing blow with my weapon. “Besides, it was just 1 damage; you’re fine.”

  “I hate you so much,” I muttered under my breath as I turned back to look at Amy who hadn’t moved from the doorway. “Well?” I asked, a bit more heat in my voice than was maybe necessary. “Now what?”

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