One month later

I looked up exhausted, hearing a chime.

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Congratulations, you have finished all of the Beginner's level tests.

You will now be rewarded.

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I cheered, raising my arm and nub into the air and falling back into the soft grass.

Finally, I'm out of this place.

Over the past month, I didn’t know if it was due to the sheer number of times I lost my limbs individually, but I grew to become quite numb to the pain of it all. It did take a week to get over the mental shock of watching the fluffy being munch happily on said limbs.

That fluff ball jumped on me happily, my arm in his mouth.

“Oi don’t drip my own blood on me!”

I sat up pushing him off, wiping off the blood. Mezu looked up at me, his lips pouting and trembling around my arm.

I was really becoming a twisted person. How could he make a puppy dog look while he eats me?

I smiled down at him and petted his head.

“You should eat your food properly. If you run with food in your mouth you could choke.”

He sat down properly and nodded.

Another chime rang out, taking my attention.

Calculating results

I heard the now normal sounds of Mezu eating my arm next to me as a circle pulsed under the message.

Another chime rings out.

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Rewards:

Escape from the Beginner's Dungeon, .5 points of respect from Alcoroth

Items:

Sacrificial blade, Tamer's Gauntlets, Generic cloak, 

Generic boots, Generic shirt, Generic pants

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That's it?

I looked over at Alcoroth who seemed to be smiling smugly.

"What the hell is this? Why did you train me with a wooden rapier and all I get as a reward is a dagger to cut my arm off for Mezu?"

Alcoroth scoffed as if I'd somehow offended him, I was the one that's offended with these useless rewards!

"Do you really expect a sword to get handed to you? You can now conquer any D rank dungeon so go get one yourself."

I sat up and let out a heavy sigh. Not much had changed in the past month. Alcoroth still acted like it's a chore to be around me; it's not like I asked him to be here.

I looked over at Mezu to see him beaming in what I would normally say was an innocent manner, but with my blood all around his mouth, I don't think most people would come to that conclusion. But to me, he seemed especially cute today. Maybe it was simply me being in a good mood now that I would be leaving this training center from hell.

I took my destroyed shirt and cleaned off his face before standing and stretching.

My rewards appeared in a stack in front of me, so I stood, got dressed, and then we exited the dungeon through the portal.

We stepped out into an unfamiliar space. In front of me was a large city that frighteningly looked very similar to what I always assumed was the elven capital.

“Huh?”

I rubbed my eyes for about the third time, still not believing where we were.

"Why did we come out here? I went into the first dungeon in Azmar."

I looked over only to see Alcoroth shrug.

"I told you. I only have minimal administrative powers. I can't decide what dungeons do."

I put my hood up after letting my hair down so I could hide my ears and eyes.

"This is the worst place for me to come out."

"You wouldn't be scared of meeting high elves, would you?"

Despite the seemingly evil grin on Alcoroth's face, I knew he wasn't allowed to kill me. The worst thing he could do to me was fully using me as a portable food source for Mezu. But since my monarch seemed intent on watching me challenge the tower, I don’t think he would be allowed to do that just yet.

Which, in itself, isn't necessarily a relaxing thought. But jokes aside this really was not a safe space for me to be. Especially now that I knew I'm a half-high elf, I did not need to or necessarily want to learn anything more about that.

"Those bastards hate halfers, let's just get out of here."

I grabbed Mezu's hand and headed off in the opposite direction. Even though I didn't want to run I thought it was best to get away as fast as possible.

Despite all my training and the daily work out quests I still had, my stamina wasn't the greatest. It certainly improved. Running the ten kilometer a day had gotten so easy that the system upped it to twenty, but once twenty was possible I didn't get much better. So, I couldn't do it for too long.

Alcoroth was quite frustrated with the level up restrictions in place in the training domain. But apparently, once I make it to the tower that won’t be a problem anymore. Whether that meant we would continue and then up the training requirements once inside I didn’t know. But I couldn’t lie, it would be nice to see and I had gotten used to the morning workouts.

When I finally decided to stop, having gotten tired, I looked up at the quest banner to see I had done 30. I looked again then it hit me, what the hell? Why am I seeing this not in a dungeon?

I looked over at Alcoroth to see an annoyed look on his face as if he already knew what I was thinking.

"You have Mezu, he is a connection to the system so you will see banners wherever you are."

I looked at Mezu as he grinned up at me, only to be distracted by a butterfly. Just what the hell was this kid? Over the past month, I had heard Alcoroth slip up a few times almost calling him the young master, but the connotations of that always had me worried.

I wasn’t that dumb not to connect the fact that a monarch had chosen me, an utter weakling that just happened to be able to grow my limbs back, at the same time that I had met Mezu and his Babysitter? Attendant? Butler? Nanny? Whatever their relationship is.

Aside from that initial message I hadn’t heard anything from that monarch. And who knows maybe they were a sadist and wanted to watch someone struggle to climb. I didn’t want to spend too much time thinking about the monarch and why he had chosen me. I didn’t care too much, Mezu was a pretty great company.

I ruffled his hair; it was as fluffy as always. I mean besides the fact that he looked so happy while literally eating my arm or limb or whatever Alcoroth managed to cut off that day. And the fact that I was concerned about how powerful he actually was, he just had this air about him. He was fluffy and needed to be looked after. Maybe that’s why I had gotten so attached to him.

I shook my head trying to get myself to focus. I started walking again and noticed the woods were thinning. Before we got to the edge, I stood behind one of the trees and looked out.