Desiree was having a great time. The first room the dungeon dropped her in had a couple Lava Imps, and every swing of her Holy Applewood Stave dealt a critical hit. Each hit sent them flying into the wall as well, which was as satisfying as it was effective.

  The little creatures continued to pop up in twos and threes, and it wasn’t long before she learned that if she knocked one imp into another, it would deal additional damage in the collision. That was a game changer.

  She slammed her stave into the round belly of a Laval Imp, sending it flying into a group of its peers. All four health bars plummeted to zero, and they did not stir.

  Desiree whirled around, eyes peeled for the next batch. “Come on! Got any more?!” she yelled. The words felt wild and daring, like she was taunting the dungeon itself. Desiree felt powerful in a way she’d never imagined she could, like she could take on the world and win.

  The glow of her staff faded and returned to normal. It would be the work of a moment to recast her spell — she had to refresh it every five attacks or so — but before she could do so, the haze of combat lifted.

  “Woo!” Desiree pulled up her stat sheet.

  Name: Desiree

  Race: Human

  Class: Demon Slayer

  Level: 12

  HP: 115/115

  MP: 40/100

  EXP: 3,010/65,000

  Stat Points Available: 7

  STR: 17

  AGI: 10

  INT: 10

  WIS: 10

  CON: 13

  Skill Points Available: 1

  Skills: Holy Imbuement

  One round of easy peasy Lava Imps was enough to take her through to the next level! This dungeon was about to be incredibly rewarding, she could already tell. By the time they got all the way through it, she’d be the highest leveled person from Grovefall!

  Except maybe her mom, but she totally didn’t count since she was going through the dungeon, too.

  Desiree thought of Billy, still level ten with the Child class. She wouldn’t lord her class over him, of course, she was way too mature for that. But she also was looking forward to the look on his face when he found out.

  With that pleasant thought in mind, she turned to her stats. She had seven points to allocate, and her instinct was to put them all into STR and CON, like she had at her last level. Her mana pool was screaming at her, though. Holy Imbuement was the bread and butter of her attack strategy, and running out of mana would cripple the whole thing.

  She hesitated, torn, and ran the numbers a few times over. Her mom had prepared her for this day. She was always warning Desiree against min-maxing (which, depending on the day, sometimes pushed Desiree toward the concept). Desiree wanted to fight on the front lines. She wanted to be up close and personal, she wanted to feel the fight in her bones!

  But she had to admit that with her skills progressing the way they were, some more mana would help keep her on the front lines. WIS would allow her to cast the spell more times and INT would make it last longer. Even putting all her points into STR wouldn’t give her enough of a boost to compare with the multiplier she got from using her skill, and they were only on the first floor of the dungeon.

  With a sigh, she split her points among all five stats, with two points going to WIS and INT each, and one to the rest. She also scanned her list of skills, since she had one skill point remaining from an earlier level up.

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  Desiree wanted to get some kind of mana regeneration skill, like James had. She would have gone for health regeneration, but mana seemed like it would be more important in the short term, and she still had all her apples, not to mention all her HP. She only had three levels before she’d get more skill points, and with how quickly she expected to level up in the dungeon, she should be able to survive long enough to get a health regen skill at level 15.

  She also really really wanted a combat skill. Something like Wicked Strike or Holy Death Blow. She would leap into the fray and slay demons by the dozen!

  She grinned at the thought, but didn’t dwell on it. There would be time for that later. Rule #1 of survivability was regeneration, so she’d have to start there.

  Desiree filtered her skill list for mana regeneration and was surprised not to see anything. What had James called his? Meditation? It wasn’t showing up on her list.

  She groaned. She’d never meditated before, and the only time she’d seen anyone do it was when James was sitting on the floor! What did it even mean to meditate?

  Now that Desiree wanted the skill, she was determined to do whatever necessary to put it on her list. She sank to the floor and sat cross legged like James had done. Was that it? She peeked at the list. Nope.

  What else had he said? He was just sitting there, eyes closed, thinking about…what?

  Desiree closed her eyes. She didn’t have to worry about monsters, because she was pretty sure she had cleared the room already, but also because if anything showed up, she’d be alerted to the combat.

  She tried to just sit there and think about meditating. What was meditating? What did it mean to meditate?

  After what felt like forever, she checked her list and groaned. Still no skill.

  Maybe she’d just wait and ask James to help her. She could hoard the skill point for a little longer. Her mana wasn’t so low as to be dangerous yet, she could cast Holy Imbuement two more times. That was probably enough to clear one or two more rooms, and she was sure she’d reunite with her mom or James by then.

  With that in mind, she looted the imps and took a step toward the tunnel which had opened up after she killed the last of the monsters — only to see her mother already walking toward her.

  “Aww,” Desiree pouted. She’d been looking forward to doing another room on her own. A part of her had been hoping that she would finish the next room low on mana and feel the rush of living on the edge, knowing that if she had to fight another battle on her own, her life would be on the line.

  Inara raised an eyebrow. “Don’t look too excited to see me.”

  “It’s not that.” Desiree flopped her arms against her sides. “It’s just, I was looking forward to getting all the EXP one more time.” Her eyes lit up, then. “Mom, I made it to level 12 from killing these imps!”

  Inara’s frown deepened as she scanned her daughter. “You’re uninjured? How many apples do you have left?”

  Desiree scoffed. “Both of ‘em. Imps didn’t even touch me.” She puffed out her chest. “This dungeon is easy.”

  Inara bit her lip, forcing herself not to laugh. The dungeon really did introduce people to its dangers based on their own abilities. For the first time, she was grateful for it.

  “Let’s find James,” she said. “I bet he’s helpless without us.”

  Desiree grinned. “Totally! He better still be alive, I need him to teach me Meditation!”

  Inara really did smile, then. Two days ago, Desiree would never have asked to learn a mana regeneration skill. No matter what Inara said, her daughter was hell-bent on min-maxing with STR and CON, insistent that “those other stats are for mages, and I wouldn’t be caught dead being a mage.”

  Maybe there was hope for her, after all.

  “Come on, then,” Inara said. “Let me go first, I don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “Mommm, don’t be like that! I want to level! I can take ‘em!” Desiree cast Holy Imbuement on her weapon, and it glowed brightly with holy magic.

  Inara eyed it curiously. She had to admit that her daughter had cleared a room on her own, could probably clear another, and the best strategy for the party was to let EXP go to the members who could use it.

  “Fine,” she said. “You go ahead. I’ll hang back in case you need it, but otherwise those kills are yours.”

  “Yay!!” Desiree gave her mother a big bear hug, then ran off down the tunnel. “You won’t regret it, this is going to be amazing!”

  Inara sighed, already kind of regretting it. Still, she was certain it was the right call, and she could always step in if the fight got too tough.

  Whether she liked it or not, Desiree was growing up.