“It really does look like it wants to devour us.”

Lumi stood before the arched stone gateway of the dungeon, peering up at the carvings that adorned it. A pair of stone serpents coiled up and around the arch, not quite meeting in the middle. Instead, the triangular heads of the snakes hung downwards to either side of the center point, giving a vague impression of the fangs of some great maw.

Kera stood behind her, nervously scratching Ceri, who was sitting on his usual shoulder-perch.

Jason, who finally had a clean shirt again, was putting the finishing touches on the upgrades to his carry harness: loops of twine along his belt that now held a series of thin stone vials at his waist. He and Lumi had worked together to make make them. The vials were very fragile, because Lumi couldn’t manage much more than a thin sheet of stone or a fist sized rock with her [Cantrips], but it had been enough once Jason used [Artifice] to supply a mold, allowing her to shape them with relative precision. They’d then simply conjured up some kind of spongy wooden vine, sliced off a piece to use as a cork, and voila: they had a simple, if easily broken, stone potion vial.

Jason had filled a half dozen of the things with healing potion, while another three held doses of the antitoxin he had previously given Kera. Seeing as his throwing skill wouldn’t likely be helpful in the narrow confines of a cave or corridor, Jason had chosen to take the role of medic for the time being, and thus had made the modifications to his carry harness.

Not that he was unarmed; he had elected to bring his [Crude Stone Hammer], since it had worked against Seraptis before, and he still had his remaining spear strapped to his back just in case. His third had been damaged during the fight; the wooden haft had cracked badly when he'd thrown it at Seraptis. Instead of wasting time repairing them, he'd dismantled both, and simply packed the chipped-stone blades and twine away in his bag, with the intent to make a new set later.

“My mana is refilling really fast, by the way,” Jason commented, as they clustered about the entrance. "I used almost all of it making this stuff, and I’m nearly three quarters full again."

Lumi checked her status briefly.

“Huh. You’re right, I’m refilled too,” she said. “Is that why this place feels so...off?”

Kera shook herself slightly. “Brr. It kind of sends tingles down my spine. Feels good, but also kind of ominous, you know? Like that thrill when you’re watching a scary movie but having a good time.”

Jason looked at her with surprise. “Really? I didn’t get that at all. When I was here before, I just felt like I’d eaten a too big meal and couldn’t fit any more. It was more the look of the place that was creeping by me out.”

Lumi shook her head. “No, I get what she means, I feel it too. There’s definitely something wrong about this place that gets your adrenaline pumping. Can’t put my finger on it.”

“Jason can’t cast spells though. Maybe because we’re mages, it affects us differently?” Kera suggested.

“I could see that being the case,” Jason conceded.

“Well, we won’t find out standing around here.,” Lumi said. “Are we ready to do this?”

Jason and Kera nodded.

“Ok then, just like we talked about. Let’s keep our heads and do this carefully. Your hammer, Jason?”

Jason held up his weapon, and Lumiriel ran her hand along the stone. A soft white glow, bright but easy on the eyes, suffused it. Jason the rested the hammer on one shoulder; he would be in the middle, acting as a portable light source since they had no pitch to make torches. They weren’t sure how long the glow would last, but the rock they’d tested it on while they’d made preparations had lasted nearly twenty minutes; more than enough time for Lumi to regenerate enough mana for another [Cantrip].

Next, Lumi pinched the blade of her sword and ran her fingers down the edge, activating [Sharpen]. Jason saw the rust melt away as her fingers passed over, leaving behind a honed edge of new-looking steel. He wondered what would happen when the buff wore off. Would the rust reappear?

“Alright, down we go,” Kera said.

Lumiriel went first, stepping beneath the archway, pausing just in case anything happened. When it didn’t, she moved downward until she’d moved just past the second strawberry bush that had been growing along the wall just inside the entrance.

As she passed the bush, she suddenly jerked to a stop and raised her sword, startled by something. Then she relaxed, and lowered her weapon.

“Well this is definitely a dungeon,” Lumi said with a short, nervous laugh. “The System just gave me a quest. Scared the crap out of me.”

She motioned the other two forwards. “Seems safe enough up here. I’ll stand guard, you two grab those berries.”

Jason entered, and as he approached the strawberry bush, he realized they were glowing faintly. Before, he thought it was just a trick of their color, but here in partial darkness he could see they gave off a faint golden aura. In fact, peering down the tunnel past Lumiriel, he could see the glimmer of a third bush growing in the distance.

As he and Kera entered, they too received a quest notification.

“That’s awfully generic, isn’t it?” asked Jason. “Just ‘Clear the dungeon’ and nothing else? No mention of rewards or objectives or anything?”

“Uhhhh,” said Kera, “that’s not what mine says,”

She shared a portion of her screen.

You have received a new personal quest: Slay Keeper Seraptis. Bonus Objective: Master your fear and strike the killing blow. Reward: One additional Boss Chest if the dungeon is defeated. Bonus Reward: +2 Spirit, +1 Resolve

Lumi look at Kera’s screen with interest. “Personal quest? That’s definitely not what mine says. Is that because of what you said earlier, I wonder?”

Kera shrugged uncomfortably.

“Eyes front, Lumi,” Jason reminded her. “Let’s worry about oddities later. Kera, just do you best.”

“Right, sorry!” Lumi said sheepishly, turning back to watch downwards into the darkness.

As he and Kera began carefully pulling [Golden Strawberries] from the bush, Jason took a moment to take a detailed look around.

The tunnel here wasn't like that of a natural cave. It was a rectangular corridor, formed of hard packed earth, with a plain dirt floor. No wood or metal supports of any kind seemed present, which Jason though was strange, but then again he wasn’t any kind of architectural expert. He knew mine shafts needed supports, but that was about the extent of his knowledge of tunnels.

The passageway remained relatively level up to the point where the second bush was just barely visible within the entrance, where the ground began to slope downwards. Down below, the faint glow of the third bush cast deep shadows into what seemed to be a small chamber. Though Jason’s hammer was currently giving off light, it didn’t provide a great deal of it, and the narrowness of the tunnel meant he couldn’t really see very well.

“These bushes really look like some kind of lure, don’t they?" he commented. "I can see another one down there."

“Yeah, like an anglerfish,” Lumi replied. “I thought so too.”

“Ceri doesn’t seem too worried,” commented Kera.

“Yeah but he-“ Jason started to reply, but Lumi hushed them.

“Quiet, listen,” she said.

They fell silent. A faint noise echoed up from below.

Chnk.

It came again.

Chnk.

The sound was soft and metallic, almost like that of a shovel or a pick being driven into dirt. It repeated regularly, every few seconds.

“Someone’s... digging? Maybe Seraptis?” Kera guessed, whispering.

“Doubtful,” Jason shook his head. “Not the way he was hurt before. Something else probably. Let’s keep moving. We can finish harvesting more berries on our way out; I don’t want to get attacked by something new while we’re busy.”

He and Kera formed up behind Lumiriel, and they descended.

A good thirty feet later, the tunnel did indeed end in a small chamber. It was essentially a simple cubic room, perhaps fifteen feet across. Each corner of the room held a small tree, whose trunks seemed to be fused directly with the walls. The branches of the trees stretched up and flared partway across the ceiling, unnaturally growing directly towards the center of room. Despite being underground and in the dark, the trees were lush with bright green leaves. A single large strawberry bush sat in the middle of the room, and a second tunnel leading further in could be seen on the opposite side. The tick-tick of the digging sound seemed quite loud here, but Jason couldn’t see anyone present apart from themselves.

“Well that doesn’t at all scream ‘Trap!’, now does it?” Lumi commented sarcastically.

“Whoever thou-,” she cut off suddenly as with a final metallic noise, a large segment of wall on the left side of the room collapsed into nothingness with puff of dust and dirt. There was no warning, no shaking of the ground they stood on. It just crumbled away with a final clunk and a brief sound of falling stone.

The dust cleared in an instant, leaving behind what appeared to be the beginnings of a new tunnel. It was square, just like the one they stood in, also formed of packed earth, and extended only a handful of feet inwards. No dust, loose earth, or small stones were visible on the floor where moments ago had been a dirt wall. The connection between the new small space was slightly curved, giving the impression of a doorway. There was no sign of any creature who might have been doing the digging.

“Is the dungeon... growing?” asked Kera hesitantly.

Jason eyed the new space warily. “Maybe...?” He said. “I don’t think I’ve ever played anything like that.”

“I have,” Lumi said grimly. “If it’s anything like what I’m thinking of, we should do everything we can to kill this place before it gets out of control.”

Kera looked incredulous. “How do you kill a place?”

“What’s so bad about it?” asked Jason.

“I don’t want to make assumptions,” Lumi said with a shake of her head. “I’ll explain when we get to the end. Let’s check out the room. Oh, and Kera? From now on you’re rear guard. I don’t want anything getting dropped right on top of our heads. Have Ceri watch our backs.”

“Gotcha.”

Lumi began cautiously crossing the room, sword held cautiously before her.

Jason, suspiciously examined the bush in detail. Obviously there was a trap of some kind involved. He spotted a pair of beady eyes hidden among the strawberries.

“Stop!” he yelled.

Lumi froze.

“Kera,” he ordered, “use [Analyze Beast]. Among the berries. About two feet left of center and just off the ground.”

“I see it now,” Kera said. “Analyze.”

“Oh wow,” She said after a moment. That’s weird. It’s all highlighted to me now.”

“Careful, Lumi,” she continued. “There’s a Level 2 [Bush Viper] hiding in there. It’s big. And poisonous. Don’t get bit.”

“I’ll distract it,” said Jason to Lumi. “You kill it.”

Jason slung his hammer over one shoulder and pulled out his spear. “Just like the frog. I’ll throw, you zap, and then we just cut in it in half. Should be easy.”

“Ready when you are.”

Jason moved around to stand slightly to Lumi’s side, then hefted his spear. With a grunt, he hurled it into the bush. He wasn’t really trying to hit the creature, but he didn’t need to. With its hiding place disturbed, the snake sprang out from underneath the leaves, making a beeline for him.

Jason could see immediately that it was excessively large for a bush viper; nearly six feet long once it had uncoiled. It was practically a python, where normal ones in the wild never really grew more than a third that size. This variety was primarily green with a black patterning, and its scales were shaped somewhat like spines, giving it an almost hedgehog-like appearance.

Kera gave a sort of a half-shout to Ceri behind him, but Jason kept his eyes on the snake as Lumiriel charged her fingers with electrical energy. If it lunged for him, he’d have only a split second to react.

Lumi finished activating her skill, and unleashed a small arc of lighting at the viper, which spasmed and then lashed around violently. Lumi’s sword came down directly on its middle, cleaving it in half.

Jason turned to scan the room in case there were others. It turned out he needn’t have bothered. Kera stood behind them, holding Ceri in her arms and giving the very smug-looking reptile a scratch on the chin. A slightly-smoking second snake lay twitching on the ground at her feet.

“One tried to drop on us from the ceiling,” Kera said with a shrug.

"Did it just appear from nowhere?" Lumi asked her sharply, with an intense look on her face.

"No. It dropped from the branches," Kera replied, pointing. "Why?"

Lumi started to reply, but then a slight breeze stirred through the room, and the bodies of the two vipers broke down into motes of light, which faded away into thin air. A pair of long, wicked looking fangs were left behind where each corpse had lain.

“Huh. I guess they were made of mana or something?” Kera commented. “My [Analyze] said they were a dungeon variant. I guess that’s why?”

“They were way bigger than normal too,” replied Jason, scooping up the fangs and placing them in his pouch.

Cautiously checking for any more snakes first, Jason retrieved his spear from the bush, but no additional vipers presented themselves. He and Kera took a moment to harvest a few more berries before they moved on.

Somewhat ominously, as they left the room the tink-tink sound of an unseen shovel started up behind them once again.

Lumi held up one hand, motioning for them to stop. Behind her, Jason stood, hammer at the ready, with Kera still taking up the rear. Ceri was in her arms, with his head lying on her shoulder so he could peer backwards into the darkness behind them.

“Another room,” whispered Lumiriel. “This one’s occupied.”

They’d passed two other chambers after leaving the room with the [Bush Vipers]. The tunnel itself had turned several corners to conceal the rooms' contents, but both had turned out to be simple empty chambers, as if the place wasn’t quite finished.

Jason was unsure why; the place seemed very sparse to him, not at all what he was used to in big MMOs or action RPGs. Usually there was at least something, even if it was just a jumping puzzle.

He thought about that for a moment.

God, I hope that’s not a thing here. Imagine missing a jump and falling to your death into an endless abyss or worse, breaking your legs in a deep chasm and slowly bleeding out.

Lumi interrupted his morbid thoughts and grabbed his attention back by quietly pinching his arm. She whispered harshly at him.

“Pay attention. I think that’s Seraptis in there.”

That brought him back to reality fast.

“Are you sure?” whispered Kera with a bit of trepidation. She hugged Ceri to herself for reassurance, causing the reptile to squirm a little in her arms.

“It’s hard to say without getting closer,” Lumi said quietly. “But yeah, I think that’s him. He’s curled up, absorbing something from the air. Healing, I’d have to guess.”

“If he’s asleep, let’s move in to get a closer look,” Jason said. Each of them nodded.

They stepped into the chamber, Jason wrapping his arms about his weapon in an attempt to dim some of the light in case the creature was asleep. Like the pervious two rooms had been, this one was relatively drab, though it was a wide and circular instead of a simple cube. Low mounds of scraped-together earth were dotted about the room, which slopes slightly downwards into a small depression in the floor. There, apparently sleeping on a pile of animal skins, was Seraptis. Occasional blue wisps of dimly visible energy flowed through the air around his ‘bed’, and every so often one was drawn into him as he breathed.

As the three friends stepped into the main portion of the room, the glow around him abruptly ceased, as if suddenly cut off from whatever source powered it. With a snort, Seraptis began to shift.

Kera whispered something to Ceri, whom she then tossed into the air. As Seraptis awoke groggily, Ceri quickly darted to the opposite side of the room, where he hunkered down in a corner, attempting to conceal his presence.

Lumi took up a defensive stance in front of the other two as Jason fell back to the rear; he knew he wouldn’t be much help here armed with only a hammer. The creature realized there was a light source moving about its lair, and turned to face them with a snarl. Its feathers puffed up menacingly and its claws unfurled.

Jason could see that it had been healing, but had yet to fully recover. While Seraptis was no longer bleeding and the slight burns from Lumi’s fire and Kera’s shocks had disappeared, the wounds on its side and head were still visible; whatever spell or ability that was causing it to recover wasn’t nearly as effective as the potions Jason had made.

Good. One more advantage for us then, he thought.

He noticed the creature favoring one arm over the other thanks to its wound.

Make that two.

Lumi brandished her sword at it. “Time for the next round, jerk. Bring it!” She said.

Whether or not the creature understood, her tone was clear. The beast surged forwards toward her, lightning fast. Jason tensed, and from his position in the rear, he could see Kera did as well, but this time she held fast as Lumiriel called up her new skill.

“Flame Shield!” She yelled, thrusting out a hand. A shimmering wave of fire in the shape tower shield sprang up between her and the serpent creature, forcing it to cut short its charge. It lashed out at the barrier. A flash of fire and smoke erupted where its claws struck the shield, and the creature roared, recoiling away.

Jason and Kera spread out to either side to Lumiriel, but remained close enough that the girl could quickly interpose herself between them and Seraptis if he made a move in their direction, which is exactly what he tried.

This time, perhaps remembering the blow Jason had dealt him previously, Serpatis lunged for Jason. Lumi tried to intercept, but a lash from the creature's tail sent her rolling away to avoid being tripped. However, the distraction was enough of an opening for Jason to get in an awkward hit, grazing the monster’s wounded side.

It roared at him in a rage, reaching out with both claws. Jason fell backwards, trying to dodge as Lumi let out a shout of “Frostbolt!”, and a shard of ice slammed into the creature’s side, bowling it over.

It lashed Jason across the face with the end of its tail as it fell, and Jason cried out in pain as his felt his nose break. He rolled over, trying to stand as his head spun in a daze.

The creature surged upwards, about to pounce on him, only to be forced backwards once again by Lumi.

“Not this time! Flame Jet!” She yelled, and a sustained roar of fire washed over Jason’s head as he felt Kera’s grab him by the shirt with both hands and drag him backwards from underneath it.

The creature flailed backwards, completely unbalanced by the sudden change of strength and ferocity in its opponents. It slithered backwards as fast as it could, its hands shielding its face as Lumi advanced, sword down, with her left hand held forward as a five-foot torrent of flames erupted outwards from her palm.

Once Jason was on his feet, Kera released him. Eyes watering in pain, he quickly pulled one of his healing potions from his belt and downed it while Kera ran to the center of the room. As he felt the bones and cartilage of his face shift and begin mending, he saw blue lines erupt along Kera's skin and arms as she began to charge [Static Shock].

Dropping her hand, Lumi ceased spewing flames at the snakeman. She lunged forwards, making several quick thrusts with her sword that didn’t strike home, but served to keep the creature’s attention.

Lumi’s feints and stabs slowly led Seraptis around the room, until he was facing the corner Ceri hid in, with Lumi directly between the two.

Kera meanwhile, maneuvered herself to stay in the center of the room, occasionally dodging swipes of the beast’s tail as she built her static charge. She could have struck out at the beast's tail, but instead appeared to be waiting for the most effective time to strike.

Jason, standing well back and out of the way, saw the opportunity first.

Seraptis was rearing back with both claws to strike again at Lumi, but then hesitated ever so slightly, off balance by just a hair thanks to its wounds. Jason called out an order to Lumi. The girl immediately threwing herself to the side, dropping prone.

Ceri, who'd been hiding in the corner and steadily building up his charge the whole time, leaped into the air as Lumi dived to the ground, and slammed directly into Seraptis’ chest.

The room rang with the sound of the thunderbolt that was discharged through the monster’s body. He fell backwards, right in front of Kera, who brought down both hands in an overhead swing on top of his head, striking him with a second discharge.

Seraptis flopped bonelessly into the dirt. Flesh burning, the creature jerked wildly as Kera held him down, pumping several discharges into him one after another.

Finally, drained of mana, she released the creature. It didn’t get up again.

Lumi heaved great breaths, winded, while Kera slumped down onto her hands and knees.

Jason crossed the room to Kera to offer her a hand as the girl retched a time or two, shuddering as if she was going to vomit, though she didn’t.

“You alright?” He asked, concerned.

She waved him off with one hand and a shake of her head.

“Fine.” She gasped. “Just-“

She flopped over onto the ground, rolling onto her back and staring up at the ceiling as she gulped deep breaths.

“Just.. need.. to calm.. down,” She panted, squeezing her eyes shut. Jason could see faint tears in the corner of her eyes. He realized that despite her outward calm during the fight, she must have been terrified the whole time.

He handed her a raw [Golden Strawberry].

“Here. Some sugar might help. They’re pretty good.”

She accepted it silently, shoving it into her mouth whole and chewing. She spat out the stem.

Lumi finally straightened, wiping her forehead with one hand.

“Holy hell that takes a lot out you,” She said, still worn out. “How do people manage more than a few minutes of this?”

“Usually they don’t,” he replied. “My friend Jim back home tried to take up fencing once for exercise. He said the hardest cardio he’s ever done was just standing in one place doing lunges at a target with his epee, trying to memorize the right movements to strike specific points. I’m sure the chain smoking didn’t help, but he said one of the first things they taught you was that even a tiny thin sword felt like it weighed a hell of a lot when you were constantly moving and holding it up in the air.”

“There’s a reason that competitive martial arts or weapon sports have combatants trade off during competitions; it’s exhausting,” he finished.

“No kidding.” Kera said, still lying on the ground.

“You ok yourself?” Lumi ask Jason. “You took that slap right in the head, and you’ve got blood on your face.”

He touched his nose gingerly, then winced.

“I’ll be fine. Broke my nose, but I took a potion already. Doesn’t seem to need setting.”

“Speaking of injuries...” he continued, nudging Seraptis’ body with a foot. “Is it dead, or just unconscious?”

“Dead,” replied Kera, biting her lip. “Bonus got checked off. Not sure how I feel about it.”

“Why hasn’t it evaporated like the snakes?” asked Lumi.

Jason’s scratched his head. “Not sure. Actually for that matter, my [Basic Harvesting] skill is telling me I can’t get anything from actual people with it. Which is disgusting to even think about.”

“This was a person?!” Kera exclaimed shrilly, sitting up suddenly.

“A person that was doing its best to kill you,” Lumi reminder her.

“But we came into its home! With weapons! Of course it-“

Lumi put a hand on Kera’s shoulder. “It tried to kill you first, Kera. Without you ever having done anything to it. It was a monster, even if it could think for itself. At least this way, it won’t harm any more passing travelers.”

“I-I guess,” Kera said. She looked ready to cry again, but didn’t.

“Besides,” Lumi said, voice hardening, “if this place is like I think, we’re definitely doing people a favor.”

“You said something like that earlier,” Jason said. “This related?”

She nodded. “Come on, let’s keep moving. I’m willing to guess this guy was the last line of defense, otherwise we would’ve seen creatures in the other room. Have a quick bite while we get some mana back, and then let’s finish this.

Well this doesn’t look at all dangerous, Jason thought to himself as they regarded the final chamber. Guess Lumi was wrong there.

They stood at the entrance to what Jason could only refer to as a hatchery hall. Smooth sand spilled out across the room of the entire wide chamber, with clusters of different-sized eggs in small clumps, warmed by large braziers that provided both mood lighting and heat. Jason couldn’t decide if the eggs were real and fertilized, or merely decorative, because they hadn’t seen anything capable of actually laying them. It sort of reminded Jason of those odd spider dungeons you sometimes found in games, with eggs half as big as you were, that just sat there dormant until a player was careless enough to touch one, at which point it would spawn a bunch of wimpy spider mobs.

The room itself was rather large, easily twice the size of Seraptis’ lair, with clutches of eggs to either side and a slightly raised platform at one end.

There was also a shimmering energy barrier covering some kind of pillar at the back of the platform. The thing pulsed with mana, enough so that Jason couldn’t make out what was inside, but the whole situation put all three would-be adventurers on edge.

Lumi in particular seemed to be dragging her feet, eyeballing the pillar of energy as it were some particularly dangerous specimen. Her sword was held downwards in front of her, ready to come up at a moment’s notice.

They stood in the doorway, debating.

“Well, we haven’t finished the quest yet. I don’t see any other exits,” Jason said.

“Neither do we.” Kera said, indicating herself and Ceri.

Lumiriel shifted forwards cautiously, the others close behind. Partway through crossing the room, there was a brief rumble from the pillar, and a bright white energy sparked up and down the pillar. It spun around the pillar and then peeled off, swirling into a ball in front of it.

“Down!” Lumi yelled, as she dived for cover. The other two threw themselves to the floor behind her.

“Wall of Ice!” She yelled, throwing out a hand, as a crack of thunder boomed and lighting arced towards them.

A sheet of solid ice sprung up just in time, and the bolt struck the barrier and shattered it instantly, sending ice and snow exploding in all direction. Lumi was flung backwards, but threw out a hand and summoned another wall as a second bolt, just as powerful as the first, flashed out. It shattered the new one as well.

The room rocked with the force of the strikes. Ceri squawked in fear, cowering in Kera’s hair as she and Jason rose to a crouch in time to see another wave of energy swirl around the pillar. This time it was the same pale blue energy they’d seen in the first room, and it speared outwards towards two different clusters of eggs on one side of the room; one large, one small.

With a cacophony of cracking sounds, the eggs hatched in an instant. The cluster of smaller eggs spilled out a trio of large red lizards the size of small dogs. The other cluster of eggs opened to reveal a pair of humanoid serpents, similar in form to Seraptis but much smaller and brown-scaled, as well as lacking the feathers their previous foe had had.

The trio of red lizards turned towards them, and opened their mouths. A deep red glow built in their throats.

“Salamanders!” yelled Kera, and the three scattered, throwing themselves to the side as each lizard spewed forth a wash of flames towards the spot they’d been standing.

Jason dived to the left, and felt the heat as he was nearly clipped by one of the blasts. He rolled, heard a strange pinging sound from the girls’ direction as he let go of his hammer, and pulled out his spear as he rolled to his feet; he knew trying to approach a salamander, even an infant one, would be like trying to walk into a furnace. Before he could throw, though, Lumi gave a shout, and he was forced to dodge again as another wash of flame passed him.

Not good.

The three lizards began alternating, each one spitting fire while the other two waited, while the two salamander-kin got their bearings, looking around as if seeking a weapon to use; their claws seemed much less useable than Seraptis’ had, if they were even the same species, which Jason doubted.

After a moment of harried diving out of the way of fire blasts, which thankfully were not followed up by lightning bolts, Lumi gave a growl of frustration.

“Screw this!” She yelled. “Shadow Curtain!” she shouted, standing straight and holding both hands to either side. A rippling wave of blackness sheared off half the room, as if someone had dropped a massive sheet of inky black rubber across it. Lumi stood there, visibly straining, as something invisibly slammed into the opposite side, causing ripples to roll across the barrier.

“I hope you guys have a plan,” she said through gritted teeth, “because this is draining my mana hardcore and I can’t keep it going more than a few seconds.”

“Drop the barrier and throw a fire attack at one of the Salamanders,” Kera ordered, “Then you two focus on the snake dudes. I’ll deal with the lizards.” With a toss, she sent Ceri flying out of the room, back down the tunnel.

“What? That’s crazy,” Lumi said, still holding up her arms as if physically supporting her wall of darkness. She flinched as another impact rippled across the shield.

“Just do it!” Jason said. "She's got a plan, we'll go with it."

“Alright, it’s on you then. I'll take the snake guy on the left. Everyone on three.”

Lumi counted, and then dropped the barrier. “Firebolt!” she yelled, flinging one in the direction of the Salamanders, striking it. The impact rocked it slightly, but it was unharmed.

“See what did I tell you?” Lumi said as she dodged another blast of fire.

Jason heard a second soft ping sound, but didn't have time to wonder about it; the humanoid salamanders had given up on finding something to use as a weapon, and were now advancing. So he gave them one, flinging his spear and scoring one directly across the chest. It fell backwards, injured but not dead, as he dived for his hammer. Lumi ran at the other one with her sword.

With the barrier now gone, Kera was flinging herself towards the Salamanders.

“Status!” She yelled, as Lumi’s firebolt impacted the middle lizard. Then with a savage grin, “Fireproofing! Static Shock!”

He looked over in her direction just in time to see one of the Salamanders spit flames right in her face, only for the girl to come through completely unscathed. She slapped down a hand directly on top of the creature’s head, and sparks flew; the salamander collapsed. The other two, seeing themselves suddenly under close assault, turned towards the Kera, mouths opening, too stupid to realize what had happened.

Jason watched her briefly with a grin.

God I love blue magic, he thought.

And then the fight was on, and he had his own opponent to deal with.

Things went quickly after that. An unarmed opponent was no match for Lumiriel, even with her mana drained to nearly empty, and she and Jason quickly dispatched the second Salamander-kin after she slew hers. Kera simply walked from lizard to lizard, slapping them down with a beefed up [Static Shock]; apparently one’s skin being immune to fire didn’t stop your insides from being fried by electrical current.

After they defeated the monsters and called back Ceri, they realized that the barrier of mana around the back pillar had fallen, or perhaps had been used up, and that they’d all received notifications about having completed their quest. On the platform, two small golden chests appeared. One had Kera’s name inscribed on it.

“Ok, that’s kinda creepy, really. Why does the dungeon know my name?” She asked.

“Maybe it’s system generated?” suggested Jason.

“I hope so,” Lumi said darkly. “I don’t think we want that knowing us.” She pointed.

Set halfway up the pillar, a large, dark crystal pulsed with a deep red light. Jason could feel malevolence rolling off it in waves, like a great heartbeat.

“W-What is it?” Kera asked, her hands to her mouth.

“It’s a dungeon core,” said Lumi. “And not the fun, satirical, ‘I hope you had a good time come back tomorrow’ kind. I was afraid of this, especially when I saw the digging.”

“What do you mean?” asked Jason. “Not that I’m arguing. I can feel that thing looking at us, and I don’t like it.”

“It’s the dungeon. It’s heart, anyway. The animating force that keeps the whole thing alive. Think of it like the center of a vast, evil fungus, except instead of mold you get new rooms and monsters as it grows. All it cares about is eating, and growing, and the treasure inside it is just a lure for those foolish enough to come unprepared, as well as an enticement to leave it alone and come back later if you beat it.”

“What? How do you know?” asked Kera.

“Like I said, I’ve played a game like that once. There’s some differences here, like I don’t see any imps running around, and this core is tiny, and I don’t know what Seraptis’ role was in all this, but that’s definitely a core.”

“Can we kill it? Should we kill it?” questioned Jason.

“We absolutely should,” Lumi said. “It exists to kill. Not just us, but everything. People. Animals. Plants. The landscape itself, possibly, depending on the rules here; thats certainly how the game I played worked. I don’t know or care how it got here, but it’s bad news for the area if we just leave it be. Most likely, it will grow and grow, feeding off whatever wanders in or it’s minions can capture, until it’s strong enough to start taking over portions of the surface, possibly spitting out hordes of monsters periodically.

"I could be wrong of course, since this place has lots of rules that we don’t know or understand, but I’d feel better not taking that risk. If it was safe to leave here and farm it for loot, there’d be guards, or guilds, or a town outside. Something would be here if it was a good source of wealth.”

“So how do we do that?” asked Kera.

“Simple. Like this.”

She raised a hand in the core’s direction. “Lance of Light.”

A jet of brilliant white energy roared forth from her palm, striking the pillar. With a sound like the tolling of a great bell, the chamber shook.

Blinking alway his sudden blindness, Jason saw the pillar had been reduced to rubble. The core lay on the floor, cracks splintered across its surface, it’s dark pulsing now silenced.

Jason leaned forward and examined it for a moment, activating [Analyze Item] just in case.

Synergy Detected: [Analyze Ingredient]. [Analyze Item] has been upgraded to include analysis of alchemical traits. Results depend on synergy skill rank. [Inert Dungeon Core] - May be revived at a later time or used as a rare ingredient for certain items. Trait Discovered: Transmute. Special: If crushed into reagents, provides four times normal quantity.

“Oh really, now?” He said to himself, picking it up.

“Geez, Lumi, warn a girl before you sear her eyeballs out like that,” Kera complained, rubbing her eyes.

“Sorry.”

“Anyway, enough of that,” Kera said, “it’s time for loot!”

Lumi laughed. “Not even level 10 yet and you’ve already turned into a seasoned murder-hobo. ‘Oh, I defeated some kind of epic evil?'" she said in a falsetto, "'That’s nice, where’s my treasure?’ ”

“Bah,” Kera replied. “Let’s see what’s in here,” She said, flinging open the first chest, the one not adorned with her name.

“Hmm, let’s see. Well this is obviously for our crafter extraordinaire,” she said, holding up what looked like some kind of backpack.

Jason and Lumi stepped up besides her.

“It’s called a [Handy Haversack] whatever that is,” Kera said. “Pretty sure it’s magic, it’s got runes all over the metal bits.”

She handed it over to Jason.

“Analyze. Ah. Yeah. It’s a kind of bag of holding,” Jason explained. “It’s enchanted for extra space and weights almost nothing when worn. Doesn’t hold as much weight as a high end bag of holding, but it has more volume plus several side pockets that are like mini bags of holding with some kind of preservation charm on them. Very nice.”

He immediately sat down on the ground and began transferring the contents of their packs over while the girls looked through the chest.

“Looks like a pair of armored boots for you, Lumi.”

“I’m going to look silly with just boots I’m afraid. And I don’t know if I want to go stomping around in the woods for days with them on.”

“We can just keep them in the sack for when you need them. Oooh, a cloak. Dibs, because you two already have something, and I’m always cold.”

Jason could practically hear Lumi's eyes rolling, but the girl didn’t protest.

“Hey, check it out!” Kera said, “More upgrades!”

“Oh thank god,” Lumi exclaimed. “A new sword, with a proper belt, too!”

Jason saw her pull a longsword from the chest. It came accompanied by scabbard and belt made of a reddish-brown leather, with some kind of ornate decorative design running down the scabbard. The belt itself was plain.

“Now I can finally stop being terrified I’m going to trip and lop an arm off while walking down the road,” Lumi said, as she attempted to work out how to strap on the belt.

Jason though it looked far too big for her, but as soon as she had it around her, the belt suddenly shrunk down in size.

“Whoah, self-adjusting clothes!” Kera said, fascinated.

“Is it enchanted, or is that a loot thing, I wonder?” Lumi asked, twisting around to look at herself.

“Analyze,” Jason said, examining the scabbard from where he was sitting by the haversack.

“Nope. Not enchanted,” he said.

“Did you just analyze Lumi’s butt?” Kera asked.

Lumi turned red. “Kera!”

“What?” She replied with a grin.

“No, you can already tell that’s quite magical,” Jason commented blithely. He gave Lumi a half-grin to let her know he was just teasing her, before quickly turning back to transferring the contents of their old packs into the [Handy Haversack].

Kera laughed uproariously as Lumi give a highly embarrassed, half-outraged, splutter behind him. Jason tried unsucessfully to suppress his grin, because he knew he really shouldn’t have, but when you get set up for a joke like that, sometimes you just had to take it.

“That’s all for this one!” Kera declared with flourish. She opened the chest with her name on it. “Now for my bonus. Hmm, a belt?”

Kera held up what looked like leather belt formed from snakeskin. Thankfully, it didn’t appear to be made from Seraptis or anything; his scales were a dark green, while this was a dark blue. The silver metal buckle was, of course, shaped a triangular serpent's head, with the tongue forming the actual tongue of the belt.

“Oh, wow. Apparently since it’s from my quest I get to know what it does. Here, check this out,” she said, sharing a screen.

[Coil of the Sundered Serpent] - Provides a boost to the wearer’s Might and Agility. Once per day the wearer may activate the belt to take the form of a massive serpent with one of the standard dungeon templates. The form lasts until the wearer wills it to end, or until a full day has passed, at which time the effect ends and the belt becomes unusable until recharged.

“That is so cool!” Kera shouted, as she buckled the belt around her waist.

“You want to be able to be a snake for hours at a time?” Lumi asked dubiously, eyeing Kera with a skeptical look on her face.

“It’s not about being a snake, silly,” Kera replied. “Haven’t you ever wondered what it’s like to be so completely different that we have have no frame of reference for it? What does a snake really see? Their eyes are different from ours. They can sense heat. They taste smells. I heard somewhere that while they don’t have ears, they do have ear bones or whatever, but they’re in their jaw or something.

“With magic, there so many things you could experience that would be impossible back home. I could see what it was like to be a boy, or a cat, or I could try out being super tall, or have a tail, or even fly under my own muscle power! With magic involved, we could even change ourselves for good maybe if we liked something. How cool is that?”

Lumi laughed. “Ok, I hadn’t thought about it that way. It is kind of cool, though I don’t know if I’d want to change myself permanently somehow.”

“We kind of already have, haven’t we?” Jason commented, causing the others to fall silent. “I mean, we’ve all spent stat points. We can feel the difference each time we get a little bit faster, or stronger.”

“Or braver,” he added with a nod in Kera’s direction.

She tilted her head to the side, thinking.

“I do feel more confident,” she said after a moment. “I got that reward right away after.. well. I didn’t really notice until now, but you’re right. That’s both creepy that it’s messed with my mind but also kind of awesome at the same time since I can deliberately work to improve myself in obvious ways.

“That’s definitely an advantage to this system, I’d have to say,” commented Lumi. “I agree it’s a little creepy when you really think about how some mystery force is in our heads, but I guess that’s not really all that different from some religious beliefs, is it? At least you can work towards changing yourself on purpose, and actually see a measure of your progress. People try and change all the time back home, but most fail because they get discouraged. Change is hard there, but here? It’s easy.”

“Change, huh?” Kera said pensively, this time half to herself.