Zane entered the stairway and found it to be a spiral staircase. It wound down until it opened up into a room that had a fountain identical to the first one he saw on the first floor. The kitten immediately jumped down and hopped up onto the edge, taking long drinks of water. He didn't feel too tired himself, but it would be good to take a moment to have a drink and a small snack before heading deeper into the dungeon.
As he sat against the edge of the fountain enjoying his snack, he looked at the kitten that was still drinking from the fountain. "You know, Kitty, I got this new skill that allows me to identify monsters and it said my identify was too low of a skill to identify you. So, either that means my identify is just crap or you're so strong that it just couldn't measure you. You want to tell me which one it is?"
The kitten actually lifted its head and looked at him, tilting to the left as it meowed at him. Zane smiled as he got the impression it was telling him 'You'll just have to wait.' "Fine, keep your secrets."
It actually shook its head at him before going back to drinking. He had to laugh at that. It was obvious this cat was more than then it seemed and this made Zane glad. He noticed a light flashing at the edge of his vision. As he turned his head to see what it was and the flashing moved, staying around the edge of his eyesight. It was really starting to bug him that the flash was staying out of sight no matter how he moved his head.
"System," he said with exasperation. "Do you have anything to do with this flashing?"
"Yes," the System replied. "You have a pending message. Would you like to see it?"
A pending message? How could he have a pending message? He thought that he had gone through all the messages after he had defeated the boss. "Yes, show me the message."
Congratulations! You have leveled up!
"I leveled up? How did I miss this? Status."
Name: Zane Mangold
Age: 21
Race: Human
Class: Unassigned
Level: 2
Exp: 50/200
Strength: 37(+2)
Dexterity: 82(+2)
Intelligence: 42(+2)
Wisdom: 20(+2)
Constitution: 77(+2)
Health: 820/820
Mana: 445/445
Two points to every stat. Was that good? Didn't he have something that affected that?
"Yes, you have the Blessed Hero trait."
Zane was surprised. The system responded to his thoughts. "What did that do again?"
"All of you xp gains are doubled and all level up stat gains are doubled."
"So, I gained twice the stats a normal person would? Cool. I noticed that I have no class assigned. When will I get a class?"
"You will be assigned a class after you have completed this dungeon," the System said.
"What does a class do for me?"
"When you receive a class, the associated stats level up at twice the rate. Also, you will be gifted with class skills."
Zane nodded. "Well, I better get to done with this dungeon then." He got back up and put his pack back on, the kitten jumping up on top of it. He refilled his water bottle and left the fountain behind. The hallway went down a couple hundred feet before it came to an intersection, with a path going forward and two paths splitting left and right. In the middle of this intersection was one of those mutated rats that he had fought at the end of the first level.
This time when he looked at it, words were floating above its head. It was a mutant rat and had 50 hit points. As Zane looked closer at it, he noticed it didn't look as large as the one he'd fought on the first floor.
As soon as it spotted him, it charged. Zane set his stance and waited for it to get close to him. It lunged at him when it was only few feet away, but rather than dodge, Zane struck the rat in the face with his shield. The rat's momentum stopped and it staggered backwards, stunned by the strike, its head thrown back. Zane didn't waste any time and thrust his sword under its chin and up into its head.
He pulled his sword out, letting the dead beast fall to the floor. As the mutant rat disintegrated, a +20 XP floated above where the body was. It left behind two rat's teeth.
He picked up the teeth and added it to the stack in his inventory. He then walked into the middle of the intersection, looking down each of the hallways. They all went straight until it reached another junction. In each junction was the figure of another mutant rat. "At least this feels like a dungeon now."
Zane followed as many paths as he could, killing as many of these mutant rats as he could. He tried different ways of fighting them, but found that the straightforward way he used when meeting the first rat on this floor was the best. They all came at him and lunged at the same time. A hit with his shield to stun them and then a stab through the head.
By the time he found the boss door, he had gained another level and was halfway to the next level. That meant another two points to each stat. His weapon proficiency had also gone up.
Zane sat outside boss room, taking a short break with the kitten. It had stayed on his pack the entire time, sleeping through most of the fighting. If you could even call it fighting. He felt like he was doing pest control. Everything so far had been disappointing to him. The dungeon design was boring. The enemies weren't even a threat. He had had no reason to use his Parkour and all he was getting for loot was rat teeth. Were they even worth anything? He hoped things would get more exciting soon.