A Change in the System

I don't know if I decided to go into the dungeon because he looked as nervous as I was, or if I just wanted to have a better chance than the last time, but I took him up on his offer. This was my first time interacting with other hunters in this life after all.

"Wait, why did we not enter the dungeon first?"

The man I now knew as Kei was looking around the white room with his mouth wide open. Right, I didn't explain anything to him, did I?

"For some reason I always enter here first. It even gives me the option to choose which dungeon I want to enter." I pointed at the screen with the map function in the center of the room.

Kei's eyes went wide and he tried to touch the screen. However, where my hand would normally hit a solid surface, his hand passed through the screen entirely.

"Huh. Am I doing it wrong?" Kei tried to touch the screen once more to no avail.

To me it looked like he was just floundering in front of a hologram with his hands shaking in random directions. I stifled a giggle under my breath.

"Hey, don't laugh at me! I just saw you work it a moment ago. That's not fair, let me do it too." He sounded like a child throwing a tantrum.

"Calm down. Just tell me where you want to go."

It felt like all the anxiety and mistrust that I felt from this morning had been wiped away. Like he had some sort of charisma that could lighten any mood.

"Still, is this a kind of skill you can unlock?" Kei scratched his head and looked at the semi-transparent screen.

"I don't know. Originally, this was just a room I came to after the tutorial. It seems to have upgraded from there." I zoomed out the map and noticed more towers had unlocked since entering the last time. Did just finding the exit count as conquering the first floor?

I probably should just keep a journal of everything I come across from now on.

"Are the green towers the ones you have been to already?" Kei stared at the map I was manipulating like a child looking at candy. "This would be super useful in a guild. Don't you think so?"

My movements paused. I would probably be even more highly sought after if anyone else found out about this. "Ummm. Kei, do you mind keeping this a secret? I don't want to stand out like that." I looked nervously to the floor.

"Oh. Yeah, I can see why you would like to keep things private. I won't do anything to lose your trust like that. Besides, if we are in a party then I can take advantage of your skill too. It would be hard to do that if there was more competition."

I let out a sigh of relief. I felt incredibly lucky to have come across Kei. "Right, we should probably pick an easy dungeon for today. Let's just…" My voice trailed off as I noticed an indicator over the Silver City Dungeon.

From what I remembered this dungeon was supposed to remain a beginner dungeon and not evolve. So I had been ignoring its presence on the map whenever I decided which dungeon to enter. I clicked on the icon and a new description popped up.

[Silver City Dungeon: Although this was meant to stay as a beginner dungeon, popular opinion in the city has wished for more of a challenge. The system has taken the opinion of the city into account and remodeled the dungeon. Thank you for playing!]

The system takes public opinion into account? I had found several instances where the towers were basically treated like a fun game. The system itself calls me a player. Of course there were times I was fighting monsters where it did seem fun, but one could die in these dungeons. What kind of sick and twisted person would create such a system?

"Kai, you ok?" Kei asked from behind me.

I shook my head. There was no point ranting about my theories when we just met. "No, it is just… The Silver City Dungeon changed."

"Changed? What do you mean? It's just a tutorial dungeon, right?" Kei looked over my shoulder and read the description. "Does that mean every time we think a dungeon is easy it's just gonna upgrade it? What kind of sick joke is that?"

I understood his remarks immediately. There was a reason I made a point to watch the news each night. Some cities had chosen to ignore the towers recently. The cities were overrun with monsters. The footage of the aftermath showed utter destruction. Like the ruins of some sort of advanced civilization from one of those popular mangas.

In Silver City the dungeon was treated like a new way of life and, even in this new advanced life, it was becoming increasingly centralized as the source of our economy. One could see that by the way the advertisements had changed to advertise armor and support items on the billboards.

"Should we warn the city?" I asked quietly.

Beginners only had access to this dungeon after all. It would be dangerous to send them here if the dungeon became more difficult.

"Let's check it out first. Hopefully, the first floor remains unchanged." However, Kei's voice shook at the end of his sentence. Like he did not even believe himself. The joy of finding someone else to share my dungeon exploring trips with was gone in that awkward air.

I clicked on the dungeon icon and the familiar warm light engulfed us. The Silver City Dungeon was always a forest. Very different from the dungeon I had entered the day before. The oppressive air of powerful monsters was nowhere to be felt and the most difficult monsters were the one foot tall bees buzzing about the area.

I had defeated this dungeon several times, and even earned the backpack that was sitting on my back by getting the best completion time. It was the perfect place to practice your basic set of skills, which were awarded by the system.

Since I was familiar with this dungeon I led us around. It was the same small size with the same enemies. Normally, it would take me some time to fight through all the monsters, but true to his word, Kei was able to power through them much faster than me.

"This seems to be the same thus far." Kei said over the death cry of another bee. "Let's explore the outer edges."

Like the other forest dungeon, the forest was lined with stone walls. The ceiling looked like the sky out in the world, but these walls made it all too clear that we were in a dungeon.

"Could almost mistake this place for the outside world." Kei muttered under his breath. Since the walls were slightly outside the overgrown trees there was an open space with the lightest of tree cover. A glowing pillar of light could be made out in the distance.

"Kei, do you see that?" I pointed to the pillar and after covering his eyes Kei noticed the pillar as well.

"Wow, I didn't even notice that until you pointed it out. Do you have some kind of detection skill?"

I shook my head and we headed over to the pillar.

I pulled out the map I had made previously and compared it to where the giant pillar lay. It seemed it popped up in the only space on the map that was large enough to be called a clearing. Flowers were growing in this area, so I had used it for breaks before.

"I think this is how you get to the next floor."

On the ground, where the pillar touched, was what looked like a magical circle, similar to those in my previous life.

"I will go first to make sure it's safe."

Kei took a step towards the circle, but I stopped him with my hand.

"No, I don't think there is a way you can tell me after you walk in. Let's go together."

Kei paused and then nodded his head.

If we were going to explore unknown parts of the dungeon, then we needed to go together so that our odds of survival were that much higher.