When Max woke up on the fourth day, he took some time to gather his thoughts. It was incredibly easy to level up, or at least it was right now. He wondered if there was some sort of way that allowed him to change his classes later on, or if he was stuck with warrior and survivor for the rest of his time here in this world.

If the latter was the case, then he definitely wanted to be careful about what classes that he obtained. If he were to venture a guess, he would assume that there was some sort of invisible level cap, probably around 100 or so. This world definitely didn't work off of Dungeons and Dragons rules, since he had been leveling up super fast so far in both of his classes.

That left a higher level limit than 20, anyways. He had nothing else to base it on, but for now he figured level 100 was the maximum level he could reach. And if that was the case, and classes were cumulative, then he needed to be careful about what he decided to specialize in.

When he had played Dungeons and Dragons, his favorite classes to play as were Barbarian and Bard. Max definitely didn't have any musical instruments, and while he liked his singing voice well enough, he wasn't about to be drawing the attention of every monster in the dungeon.

Barbarian also seemed like a bad idea to try and get the class of-raging meant that your AC was lowered, and Max didn't want to have to take more hits than he needed.

In fact, he was specifically trying to raise his dexterity so as to avoid attacks, right? A thought flitted through his mind. When he had played Pathfinder, a variant of D&D, he had played as a Swashbuckler, a mix of the Fighter and Gunslinger classes.

Their main shtick was being about to dodge around enemies and being able to parry enemy's attacks, as well as the finesse to riposte afterwards. That sounded like something he should attempt to do.

Although… He looked down at his broadsword. It wasn't exactly a finesse weapon, if he remembered correctly. He'd need to make due with it for now, but if he wanted to gain levels as a Swashbuckler, he'd need to learn how to parry the attacks with it, and he wasn't sure how long it would hold in it's rusted state. He'd need to find a new weapon, and soon.

With all of these thoughts finalizing in his head, his mind was made up. He'd try and become a [Swashbuckler], and he needed a new weapon. That meant that he needed to explore more. Actually, now that he thought of it… There had always been some treasure in the domains of the large beasts. And if the Idex was well and truly dead, that meant that he should go back and see if there was anything back there that he could use.

He fed himself breakfast, and looked suspiciously at the leonir body that was lying on the ground. It should have been rotting already, and Max wasn't sure why it was still good to eat. Regardless, he was running out of meat on it, so he was going to need something new soon if he wanted to keep himself fed.

He took a look at it's antlers, and after a minute, broke them off and stuffed them in his bag of holding. Maybe he could use them as a makeshift weapon in the event that his sword broke, or better yet he could throw them on the ground behind him as he ran from something and have them step on the antlers and maybe it would give him time to run.

He traversed the maze once more, and this time a giant bat swooped down on his head out of the darkness. It looked way bigger than the bats that he had killed yesterday, but it was just one bat, so he wasn't as worried about it as them. It bit his arm, and flew off before he could strike back at it.

Ok, scratch that, this thing clearly knew what it was doing. He waited for it to strike at him again, and tried to catch it in the air with his sword, but to no avail, and it struck him once more and flew off before it could get hit with his counter attack.

He was beginning to understand how it was swooping down on him, though and when it came for him, he swung up with his weapon and cut into the beast. It screeched and flew back up into the air.

This time, he was going to try and knock the bat out of the air when it came for him. That counted as some sort of parry, right?

Clearly the giant bat wasn't doing super well as it tried to get the drop on him again, but almost as if his hands were guided by something more intelligent than him, he swung the sword with great ease and cut the beast down to the ground, heavily damaging it. Before it could fly up into the air again, he struck at it, and clipped one of its wings.

It was having trouble from all the hits that Max had dealt to it, and it's flying had become erratic. Monsters in this dungeon apparently didn't have a sense of self preservation though, as it came for him once more. He cut at it as it tried to bite at him again, and while his cut was shallow, it didn't get to bite him.

He went on the offensive and chased it as it flew back up into the air, and took a leap off of some crates that lines the side of the dungeon, swinging as hard as he could at the giant bat. He caught it in the back, and it fell to the ground in a bundle of skin and bones.

THe fight was over, and had it not been for the few hits at the beginning of the engagement, he would have been fine. He was getting better at this whole fighting monsters thing. He went back briefly to heal himself, before going back into the maze.

This time he was barely hindered. There were a couple of monsters here and there, a couple of normal sized rats that tried to fight him, some big but not quite giant spiders, and something that looked like a mudkip from Pokemon. He wasn't taking very many hits, and he was grateful that on his way towards the fountain in the first place, that he hadn't fought anything other than a giant rat.

He finally found his way back to that first room that he had hidden in, and looked about it. It looked untouched since he had last been here, with the bed and desk being in the same places he had dragged them too. He went to the closet. Where was - aha!

He took the small sewing set that he had seen earlier in his journey and put them into his bag of holding. That was one mission objective down, now he needed a new weapon.

He made his way further up the tunnel system, where the name Idex had been marked on his map. He paused for a moment, considering something. What if the thing that he had seen, that huge tentacles insect, wasn't the Idex, but rather something that had taken up residence in the area since whoever had made the map had moved on?

It was possible, and Max was going to be wary as he entered into the area where he had seen the bug like creature. He entered the area cautiously, and was disgusted to find out that the thing had laid eggs everywhere. He set about smashing the eggs, he wasn't about to deal with fighting a shit ton of whatever that thing was later on, that would be asking for trouble.

He had just finished smashing the last of the eggs when he heard a screech, and looked around.

There, at the other end of the room and leading further upwards into the dungeon, was a smaller version of the beast that had chased him at the onset of his adventure. He quickly took a glance at it's spider like legs and knew that the leonir's antlers would not slow this thing down as makeshift caltrops.

The thing let out a frosty breathe attack, but Max dodged out of the way of the chilled air. He had seen what getting frozen had done to a being stronger than he was, and definitely didn't want to get caught in it.

It chittered towards him, and lashed out with one of its tentacles. He swiped at it with his sword, intending to just attempt to parry it when He sliced cleanly through the tentacle, cutting it off at the halfway point.

That had been a stroke of luck. He pressed his advantage though, and with a twirl of his weapon, he cut at the other tentacle that was coming for him. So much for his showmanship, though, because the time that it took him to twirl his weapon left him open to the second attack, and it slammed him into a wall.

He wasn't down yet, the impact had hurt barely more than the giant bat's bites earlier. He could still keep going. He let the beast attack him with its tentacle again and dodged underneath, before slicing at the second tentacle, cutting that one off too.

With the majority of its weapons gone, the bug like creature blasted him point blank range with its freezing breath, and he was caught in it. Cold chilled him to his core, and he saw the six mandibles dropping raising into the air. He knew that if those touched him, he might as well be a goner.

Adrenaline pumped through his veins, even chilled as they were, and with a burst of strength that surprised even him, he broke the ice that had formed around him and thrust his sword into the mouth of the beast as it drew closer to it.

The creature surely hadn't been expecting this, and as his sword cut deep into the insectile monsters head, he saw the light leave its eyes. He was incredibly lucky that adrenaline boosts in time of danger was a thing, or else he would be dead.

He took a moment to look around the room, looking for treasure underneath all of the spider eggs that he had smashed, and was surprised to find a long wooden box. He opened it, and was surprised to find a pristine rapier sheathed inside of it, as well as some oils. He presumed the oil was used as a type of maintenance for the blade, to keep it from rusting. That would be useful.

He took out the rapier and examined the blade. It was made of a glittery surface, and Max wasn't sure what metal it was made out of, perhaps some kind of metal that exists in this world but not in his own? Regardless, He wouldn't be using the rusted broadsword anymore, this thing was much nicer, and also sharper. He assumed that he'd be doing more damage with the rapier.

Plus, he had gained a skill yesterday, [Sword Proficiency]. He assumed that meant that he was at least a little bit capable with all types of swords, and gave the rapier a few swings and stabs. Oh yeah, this thing was a hell of a lot more balanced than the broadsword had been, and it was definitely going to be hurting monsters. He could already tell that he'd be better at fighting with this thing.

He took one last look around the room, before evaluating his next move. He could try and travel further up in the dungeon, and maybe run into some other water source. Or he could return to the leonir's den and continue working with leather. That seemed like the best option to him.

He attached the rapier's sheath to his belt and set on going back to camp. He was looking forward to the easy travel back when he came across a shambling mass of bones and flesh. What the hell was this? It looked like some sort of undead, but not any kind that he had ever seen before. It was roughly the size of half of him, so he figured that he could take it on.

With his newfound rapier, he cut and stabbed at the shambling mass of bones and flesh. It didn't make any attacks against him, but he didn't want to risk this thing forming into an actual undead construct or something. Eventually, after a minute or two of tearing at it, it gave a shudder and collapsed to the ground, pieces of it going everywhere along the ground.

Well, that was uneventful, even with the undead thing existing in the first place. Maybe he should be on the lookout for more, that thing reminded him of a small version of the Rotten from Dark Souls 2, and he was not looking forward to fighting something that big yet.

After traversing the maze once more, he found himself back at his camp. He lit a fire and made himself food, eating the rest of the leonir meat. He really needed to hunt for some more meat soon, or perhaps he could try and go to the gardens that he had seen on the map previously.

He worked with the leather as he ate, and used what little skills he had in sewing to sew together two sides of the leather that he had made.

Overall, he was happy with the results of his effort. While it wasn't perfect, it would certainly work. Max took it over to the fountain and filled it up with the magical water. He took a strip of leather and used it to tie off the top of the pouch, effectively meaning that no water would spill.

Nice. He had something that looked kinda like an organ of some sort, but it effectively carried a gallon or two of the magical water. That should be enough for his daytime adventures into the rest of the dungeon. Now all he needed was more food, and that would come tomorrow. But for now, he'd sleep.

[Warrior level 5!]