The next morning, I woke up to an overly excited rabbit bouncing up and down next to me.

  “Come on, come on. It’s time to go. We will reach the dungeon today!”

  “Ugh… I need coffee.”

  “Uhh, I’m unsure what that is,” Ben said. “But maybe we can find you some in the dungeon.”

  I chuckled slightly at that. “If there is coffee in the dungeon, ill be moving into that place.”

  “I’m not sure that would be ideal. The skeletons don’t take kindly to intruders.”

  “Wait, did you say skeletons?”

  “Yeppers. Some even have bows, but most just have swords and maces. At least from what I could see at the entrance.”

  I simply blinked at the energetic bunny for a moment. “How are we supposed to fight skeletons? All I have is claws and teeth, and you… well, you have your head I suppose.” Thinking of when the rabbit head butted the six-legged cat.

  “I don’t know Mother put you in charge. I’m sure you will figure something out.” Ben said, completely un-discouraged. “Now come on, let’s go.”

  I had absolutely no idea how to deal with skeletons. Especially ones with weapons. I still needed to be level ten to use magic. And then all I had was ice touch.

  “Come on.”

  “Okay, okay, I’m getting up.”

  It wasn’t long, and we were back out of the house. Leaving the same way we came.

  “So, are you going to explain how you found that entrance? It doesn’t seem like something you just happen upon.”

  Ben stopped as they came out of the hole, then looked around conspiratorially. “It’s a secret.” He then just turned and took off.

  I followed, shaking my head. That rabbit was weird. After a couple hours of traveling at a speed that was on the verge of being too fast for me, I had to stop. Ben kept going till he realized I was no longer following and turned back.

  “Is everything okay?” Ben asked.

  “Yea, I just need a breather.”

  “We are almost at my resting point. It’s not much further. I thought I was keeping the pace slow enough for you to follow.”

  “I can follow, but you are going a bit too fast. If we ran into something, I’m not sure I could even run away properly.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to worry about anything around here. The wolves keep everything ran off their territory.”

  This got my attention, and I began looking around wide eyed.

  “It’s fine. The wolves only come out at night.”

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “I used my identify on them. Sunlight massively weakens them, while nighttime, especially a full moon, boosts them. Now come on, we can walk at a slowed pace. It’s better than just standing here.”

  Sighing, I agreed. The rabbit never seemed to get tired. He was like the energizer bunny. Well, if the energizer bunny was addicted to shrooms. Though maybe he wasn’t actually addicted.

  “I can’t wait to show you the place the shrooms grow. It’s the only place in the entire forest they grow. And luckily, the wolves only eat meat.”

  I rolled my eyes at this. “Yes, we are quite lucky they only eat meat.”

  We continued on for a while, at a slower pace but faster than I would have liked. I kept trying to think of how to deal with the skeletons. I had asked Ben several questions about them and was surprised at the in-depth answers I got. The rabbit was a walking identification machine.

  Ben hadn’t gone into the cave mouth where the dungeon actually began. He said the Mother Tree forbad it and he wouldn’t dare disobey her. I found the wording a bit odd but was too focused on everything else to pay it much mind. From what I could gather, Ben seen four skeletons at the entrance. All humans or humanoid skeletons. A Level five archer and three warriors, levels three six and two.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  The low levels were nice. I wasn’t sure if the skeletons and other monsters gained classes spells or abilities at level ten, but I had a feeling they did. Ben had no idea about this either. However, Ben’s class as a healer would be useful, if I could count on him that was. This did bring up the question as to how a rabbit gained enough essence to reach level twelve. After contemplating this for a bit, I thought I would just ask.

  “By the way, how did you reach level twelve?”

  Ben stopped walking and turned around wide eyed. “Why what did you hear?”

  This startled me, as I’ve never seen the rabbit act so defensive. “I didn’t hear anything. I just thought you could give me some tips or something. Level ten is when I gain my class spells.”

  Ben’s gaze lessened, and he nodded before he spoke. “I don’t really have any tips, but yes you do need to reach level ten. Unlocking your class is a must. It’s how I obtained my first spell.”

  I was taken aback by the rabbit’s oddity. He was acting like he had done something sketchy. But the mention of gaining a spell when reaching level ten had my complete attention. “So when you reach level ten, you gain a spell?”

  “You should. It’s when I got mine. I chose enhance body. It’s now my highest ranked spell at normal rank.” Ben said, proudly.

  I imagined normal was an improvement over lesser. But I paid this little attention, as I was so excited about getting to choose a spell, I could barely wait. However, the rabbit didn’t seem too sure.

  There was still the problem of dealing with the skeletons before I needed to worry about level ten. They would need to be dealt with before I could gain the essence to level up.

  Not much longer, and we were in a place I actually recognized. It was the first place I had seen Ben eating mushrooms. It had to be him, as we hadn’t noticed any other creatures in the area. I had thought this was odd at the time, but now knew why. Though I wasn’t comfortable being so close to the wolves cave. Ben was already next to the shrooms, picking some.

  “I’m not sure it’s a good idea to eat those right now.”

  “I’m not eating them. I’m bringing some with us. We will need the mana boost during the dungeon.”

  I was just about to say something when Ben continued. “Don’t worry. As long as I don’t eat many, then they don’t have much of a side effect. I watched in disbelief as the rabbit shoved three fairly large mushrooms into a pouch on his stomach.

  Ben spoke up. “It’s my special pocket. Though it can only hold three items, I really hope I can upgrade its rank again. It would be awesome to carry around more things.”

  “Yea, too bad I don’t have a way to carry anything.” Suddenly, I had an idea. I wasn’t sure if it would work, but it might. The shrooms didn’t have any side effects on me and it could really help keep my familiar active. As the human was the only way I could think of to deal with the skeletons.

  Knowing how to summon the familiar was natural as climbing up trees. A few hand gestures and words I didn’t really understand and there was a flash of green light, then the human was standing in front of me. It was annoying he didn’t come with any weapons, we would have to take one from the skeletons and give to him. It was a human.

  “You really need some clothes I said to him.” The human looked down as if just now realizing all he had on was a loincloth. Maybe he could understand me. “Do you. Understand. Me?” I said this as clearly as I could. The human then started speaking gibberish, and I rolled my eyes. I saw Ben move closer and stare at the human. Realizing he was likely using identify, I did the same thing.

  Name: Jason Storgan

  Race: Human

  Class: locked

  Level- 1

  Available attributes: 0

  Essence to next level- 250

  Essence available- 0

  Health- 100

  Stamina-50

  Mana- 25

  Vitality: 10

  Endurance: 10

  Strength: 10

  Agility: 10

  Intelligence: 10

  Wisdom 10

  Luck: 11

  Charisma: 10

  “Well, you're pretty basic.” I said, closing the stat page. “Okay, if you can understand me, go over there and pick as many shrooms as you can hold. Jason, as the human was apparently called, moved in a jerking motion at first, but then his movement smoothed up and did as I asked.

  “Great! You're doing a fantastic job Jason, you're such a good boy.” The human looked up at his name and I had to tell him to get back to picking. My mana was slowly dropping, but I now had a twice as much mana as before, however it still had used a quarter of my mana from this brief time with my familiar.

  “Okay great.” I said as Jason finished picking the shrooms. “Now I’m going to dismiss you and re-summon you.”

  Doing so, I was delighted to find my familiar appeared with the shrooms in his hand. “Great, now I’ll re-summon you when we reach the skeletons.”

  The human then began speaking gibberish with what looked like a scared expression on his face. “Don’t worry, little guy, I’ve got a plan.” I then dismissed Jason.

  “Thats awesome.” Ben said as he hopped over. “Now we can have plenty of shrooms! It’s to bad you couldn’t have gotten a better familiar though. Humans are vile and evil creatures, but as long as you can control it, then it should be fine.”

  “Evil? There not evil.”

  “Uhhh Yes they are! They killed my entire family and ate them right in front of me!”

  I was at a loss for words and had no idea what to say. I had actually had a rabbit once when I was a human. One of my cousins brought it over when I was young. Though I didn’t think this was a good thing to tell Ben. I should probably not mention that I was a human. Or that my goal was to turn back into one.

  “I’m really sorry. That sounds like a horrid experience.”

  “It’s okay. Those humans got what they deserved.” Ben said in an emotionless tone. “Come on, were getting close to the dungeon now. “

  I just followed Ben without saying anything. The normally energetic rabbit had a lot more depth than I had first realized. It was unnerving how quick he shifted from overly energetic to murder vibes.