After a long, heavy silence where no one seemed to know what to say, the stone walls around them shimmered.

The skill room faded away.

In its place stretched the now-familiar black cube tunnel, its edges glowing faintly as it pulled them forward toward the pale wash of early morning light. A cool breeze touched their faces as the tunnel spat them out into reality — their own property, damp with dew, birds beginning to stir.

Ding!

SYSTEM NOTICE Quality of Life update for your world System

System Users can now share their System notices with others.

Level progression will now be shown by a % amount.

One-time System Store access while in a Dungeon. This resets when you successfully complete a floor.

Class Selection moved from Level 10 to Level 8.

Extra details will now be shown on Class Selection.

Party formation can now be made at Level 2 instead of Level 5.

Drop-down menus can now be created in the System interface.

Everyone stopped mid-step to read the glowing message.

"Okay, so—" Kai started, his voice picking up energy for the first time since they'd returned.

"NOPE!" Tarni cut across him, holding up both hands.

Kai blinked. "Nope?"

"Nope," Tarni repeated firmly. "I am nopping this conversation until we are sitting at the house. Chairs. Tea. Maybe a bucket of fried chicken if the gods are kind. Then — and only then — will I deal with dropdown menus."

Zane gave a tired snort. "Fair enough."

The rest nodded in agreement, too drained to argue. The message lingered in their vision, but nobody opened their menus. Not yet.

They started the short trek back toward the house. The System had healed their wounds, but it couldn't touch the bone-deep exhaustion weighing on their steps. Muscles still ached with the memory of battle. The silence between them was comfortable, but heavy.

On the edge of the paddock, a small mob of wallabies munched lazily at the long grass. One raised its head, ears twitching, and stared at them with unblinking curiosity. For a strange, fleeting moment, the little group of survivors and the wild animals regarded one another in the quiet dawn.

Then the wallabies bounced away into the bush, and the party trudged on, the sound of their boots muffled by wet earth.

Food, coffee, shower, and clean clothes later, everyone had claimed a spot in the lounge room. Zane sprawled half across one couch, Kai sat cross-legged on the rug with a steaming mug of coffee, Bell leaned against the window with her bow across her lap out of habit, Tarni was making dramatic groaning noises from an armchair, and Lily had her notebook out, neat handwriting already filling the page.

"Alright," Lily said, tapping her pen. "System Quality-of-Life improvements. Let's break them down one at a time."

Tarni groaned louder. "Do we have to do homework right after almost dying?"

"Yes," Lily said sweetly, not even looking up. "Because if we don't, you're going to forget half of it and then blame me later."

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Kai grinned. "She's not wrong."

Bell raised a hand. "First one. Sharing System notices. That's big."

"Yeah," Zane agreed, sitting up a little. "No more wasting time reading everything out loud or trying to explain what we saw. We can just… ping it to each other."

Kai's eyes lit up. "We could even share during combat. Like if a boss is about to cast something stupid, I can throw the warning into everyone's feed instead of screaming it across the battlefield."

Tarni sipped noisily at his coffee. "Or you can just scream anyway. You're good at that."

Kai flipped him off without looking up.

Lily scribbled a note, then moved on. "Second. Level progression now shows by percent."

"That's dangerous," Bell muttered.

Zane frowned. "Why dangerous?"

"Because," Bell said, "I guarantee Tarni is going to be obsessively checking it after every rat he squishes."

"Excuse you," Tarni said, hand to his chest. "I will professionally check my XP bar. For science."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Third one — one-time System Store access while inside a Dungeon. Resets when you complete a floor."

That got everyone's attention.

"Wait, what kind of store?" Kai asked.

"No clue," Lily admitted. "But if it lets us buy potions, or gear, or even scrolls mid-run, that's a lifesaver."

"Or it could just be overpriced garbage," Zane muttered.

Tarni leaned forward, grin spreading. "No, no, no — hear me out. What if they've got, like… System-brand nachos? Instant morale boost."

Everyone stared at him.

"What? Don't look at me like that. We've had worse ideas."

"True," Bell said dryly. "Most of them were yours."

Lily tapped her pen. "Fourth. Class selection moved from Level 10 to Level 8."

Lily's comment made Bell tilt her head. "Wait… we're level nine. Doesn't that mean we should have class selection now?"

That stopped everyone cold.

Zane frowned, pulling up his interface, flipping through menus with quick gestures. "Huh. She's right. We're above the threshold. But…" He shook his head. "Nothing new's popped up."

Tarni leaned back in the chair, legs sprawled. "Maybe the System's just screwing with us again. Wouldn't be the first time."

There was a long pause before Lily spoke, tapping her pen against her notebook. "No, I think it's intentional. We'll probably get the option when we're inside the dungeon again. The System seems to prefer using that space to… hand out milestones."

Kai rubbed the back of his neck. "Makes sense. It's like the dungeon's the… interface? The tutorial space where it can shove things at us without breaking reality too much."

"Or," Zane added grimly, "it's just easier to control us in there."

Nobody argued that point.

Bell sighed, setting her bow aside. "Either way, we're going to need to be smart about this. Class choice is permanent, right? No redos?"

Lily nodded, expression serious now. "From what we've seen, yeah. One choice. Locked in."

"Then we'd better be ready," Kai said quietly. "Because the next time we walk into that cube tunnel… the System's going to want its answer."

Zane nodded. "And 'extra details on class selection' means we won't just be throwing darts in the dark. We might actually get descriptions now instead of vague labels."

"Watch it still be vague," Bell said. "Like, 'Congratulations, you are now a Fancy Stick User. Please whack responsibly.'"

Tarni snorted coffee through his nose.

"Fifth," Lily continued smoothly. "Party formation can now be made at Level 2 instead of Level 5."

"That would've saved us so much trouble at the beginning," Zane muttered.

Kai nodded. "Makes sense. If the System's rolling out to Earth soon, people need to form parties before they get wiped out by, I don't know, wild dingoes."

"Or Mux Ox's," Tarni added helpfully.

Everyone ignored him.

"And last one," Lily said. "Drop-down menus."

Silence.

"…That's it?" Kai asked.

"That's it," Lily confirmed.

Tarni raised his hand. "I, for one, welcome our new drop-down overlords. Finally, I won't have to scroll through seventeen stat screens just to check how charming I am."

"You're not," Zane deadpanned.

Tarni flipped him off without missing a beat.

Bell sighed, but a tiny smile tugged at her mouth. "Alright. We've got improvements. But don't let this fool you. The System isn't handing out kindness. If anything, this just means the next stage is going to be worse."

The room quieted again, coffee cups cooling in their hands.

Then Tarni broke it. "Still calling dibs if the System store sells nachos."

"Denied," Kai shot back instantly.

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