I'd known growth milestones were a thing: they were the points at which you started getting more free stat points. I'd heard of getting Marks at the first milestone, too, but I hadn't been expecting to get any. Pretty much everyone in the village got [Focused] for spending all of their skill points on [Farming]. I hadn't done that, though, so why did I have it?

  And that last Mark... That wasn't right. The entire System interface had glitched out.

  It wasn't even there. The new Mark didn't exist on my Status. What was it trying to say? [Outsider]? What was that supposed to mean? Yes, I was an outsider in the royal canton, but... well, it was beyond obvious that wasn't what it was referring to.

  I once again brought up the description of my first Mark.

  Up until now, I'd focused purely on the effects. The description of [Ancient Soul] was so divorced from my daily reality, and the implications so ineffable, that I'd completely ignored it. Taken literally, it implied that, with effort, I could remember another universe. What did 'another universe' even mean? Wasn't 'the universe' everything that existed? But if that was the case, where did the gods live?

  Whatever the case, there wasn't anything I could do about it here and now. Perhaps [Outsider] had an effect that would soon make itself known, or perhaps it was a one-off glitch, and I'd never see it again. It was impossible to know. For now, I had other Marks to check, starting with [Focused], the only one I was familiar with.

  It wasn't for spending all my skill points—it was for getting a C-rank Skill to stage five. For most people, the two would be synonymous, since getting a Skill from E-rank to the end of C-rank cost twenty skill points, but I had extras.

  I wasn't sure about the effect... It would be a net win if I evolved every Skill at some point, but I wouldn't be. From what I'd learnt recently, I knew that active combat Skills and spells tended not to evolve. Having their skill crystals cost more to use was a pain.

  What did my other Marks do? Next up was [Diverse]

  ... Well, that made any discussions about whether [Focused] was a net gain utterly redundant.

  Again, it was something that would have taken all twenty skill points for a regular person, but I'd managed to get both. The fact that [Adept Foraging] and [Expert Stealth] had gone beyond E-rank apparently didn't matter, leading to the amusing situation that [Expert Stealth] was a part of both Marks.

  That just left one final one.

  I guess that was okay? One extra stat point per level in exchange for reduced flexibility. I'd take that trade, because I wasn't planning to neglect any individual Stat to that extent, but it wasn't like one extra stat point per level made a huge difference compared to the thirty-six I'd have got anyway even without the Mark.

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  It did make me wonder what sort of Mark I would have got if I'd put as much into Stamina and Mana as I had in the other six. Maybe they'd get a point per level, too, leading to three bonus points instead of one, if it didn't cut my free stat points further.

  Alternatively, what if I'd put all my stat points into a single Stat, or learnt twenty different skills from Skill crystals? I definitely wouldn't want a Mark that increased the cost of advancing a Skill by a point, even if it made skill crystals free to use. And what if I'd reached the first growth marker without spending any stat or skill points at all?

  It also made me wonder what sort of Marks I'd get at the next milestone. No-one in the village had mentioned getting any, but given the sort of criteria, I could see why they might not qualify. I, on the other hand, could qualify for things far more easily with my extra stat and skill points, to the extent I could get conflicting Marks by accident.

  It would be advisable to seek some advice, to ensure I didn't pick up anything detrimental to my future plans. Maybe the guild library had something about it? And speaking of those future plans...

  I had no need to spend the stat points just yet, but raising [Dagger Proficiency] was a priority.

  In any case, now that I'd reached my goal, it was time to leave, so I backtracked out of the dungeon and returned to my inn. And so continued the next few days, reading in the morning and delving into the Slime Pit in the afternoon. Each day, I rushed through one additional floor, ignoring the side rooms in favour of killing higher experience monsters deeper in. Getting some training on the tougher monsters as I prepared to kill the boss. Red slimes, yellow slimes, and, on the fifth and final floor, black slimes.

  The black ones were particularly annoying, as their colouring made it impossible to see their cores. Thankfully, my armour was done by the time I reached them, and even if it was low quality, so were slimes. I could kick the black ones hard enough to splatter them against a wall, revealing the core. With [Dagger Proficiency], which was now at its final stage, I could smash them before the slimes regathered themselves.

  Thankfully, the group of Johns didn't bother me again. If the aunt they'd mentioned had been the adventurer I'd spotted out front, presumably she was off in the Harvent Canton, and I had until she returned before they realised I'd fobbed them off. By then, I'd be D-rank.

  I hadn't finished reading everything in the library. What sort of Processing would it take to have read everything in a matter of days, and how much Memory to usefully store it? I'd read everything I'd found that was applicable to a newbie adventurer like me, though, and I really needed to start earning money. There was just one final thing to do before I took my first job; clear the dungeon.

  Amongst what I'd read in the library was a description of the boss. A giant slime, slower than the mobs, but much larger. The core would be impossible to reach without whittling it down, and while its digestive abilities were not significantly stronger than the black slimes, that didn't matter much when it was big enough to simply drown me. I needed to fight it for a protracted period without ever letting it engulf me. Thankfully, it could be fought over a protracted period. Swiping at it with a blade would knock out chunks of slime, which it couldn't reintegrate. With my Strength, something with more surface area like a hammer would be faster, but, as the boss of a dungeon that was even lower level than the Fluffy Meadow, I wasn't bound by efficiency.

  "Good morning," called Oliver as I walked past. I was early enough that the guildhall was still fairly busy, but the morning rush for the best jobs had already finished. People were eating breakfast, or making preparations before setting out, but the queue at the desks had vanished, and the other receptionist had already buggered off, leaving Oliver alone. "Visiting the library again?"

  "Not today, actually. I'm going to clear your dungeon, then tomorrow I'll take a real job. I imagine you're a little short on manpower."

  "Heck yes, but alas, it's the higher-rank jobs that are the problem right now, not the sort you'll be doing."

  He had a point. While the guildhall was about as busy as the first time I'd set foot in it, the demography had been completely reversed. There were only young adventurers. The veterans may have had a poor work ethic, but they still did some work.

  "How much longer until they're back?"

  "Who knows? Given the distance they needed to travel, they've probably only just arrived. Sorting out the mess could take weeks. Don't worry; we've got enough manpower left to take care of emergencies, but the problem with things like orc villages is that if you don't nip them in the bud quickly, they tend to snowball. If we leave jobs to fester for too long, we'll soon find everything is an emergency."

  Only just arrived? The dig site was right at the south of Harvent Canton, and I hadn't crossed the distance that quickly. Maybe they hadn't stopped off in Greyforge, despite my warnings about its dire food shortage, or they were simply moving a lot faster than me. Maybe both.

  "Guess I'd better hurry up and get promoted, then," I said.

  "Hah. Yes please. If you could reach C or B-rank by the end of the week, that would just be perfect."

  "That's going a bit far, but I'll at least see about D-rank," I answered.

  "... What? Seriously?" asked Oliver, peering suspiciously. "Wait until you've completed you first job before making proclamations like that, please. And don't forget you need to have exceeded level twenty."

  "I haven't forgotten. Don't worry."

  I'd read the job board, after all, and D-rank missions mostly involved slaying wolves and goblins. Exterminating the sort of pests that could make themselves at home in a forest, breed and become a danger to people, but that were weak individually. I'd taken out a goblin village when I'd been far weaker than I was now. I had no doubts I could complete them. Heck, with my Stats as they were now, I could clear the Fluffy Meadows even without [Dagger Proficiency].

  "That would certainly be impressive. No wonder the Thorned Rose were interested in you."

  "Eh, it's not that great. I'm older than I look," I answered, employing my usual excuse. "And now, it's the Pit for me."

  Oliver grinned as I headed through the doorway and down into the fusty basement. The guard—who recognised me by now—waved me through, and I traipsed down the lengthy dank corridors, ignoring the side rooms, descending staircase after staircase as I headed towards the boss. A foreboding pair of double-doors, flanked by a pair of censers, styled after dragons.

  If not for having read up on what was behind the doors, I'd have been far too terrified to open them... The dungeon design was rather more impressive than its monsters.

  Although, on further consideration, wasn't the Fluffy Meadow even more skewed in that regard? What was harder; some fancy interior decoration, or an entire fake sun?

  Dungeons were weird.

  Whatever the magic that operated them, I shoved open the doors, which creaked ominously, kicking up a cloud of dust as if no-one had been here for centuries.

  Behind them was a vast arena, a circular pit twenty metres across, surrounded by a high wall. Above the wall, tiered seating for thousands, all of which was empty. Not that I'd trust the seating. Quite aside from all the dust, it was as rotten as the rest of the dungeon furniture. Anyone sitting on it would find their bum went straight through.

  In the centre of the arena, a transparent slime—a ball almost twice my height—jiggled threateningly. Again, had I not had advance knowledge that it was far slower than me, and had the doors not ground shut and locked themselves behind me, I'd have turned and fled.

  "Bring it on," I declared.