Dan paused, forced himself to relax, and let his senses unfurl and spread, like a flag in stiff wind. Ahead there was the buzz of insects and an amorphous cloud of danger. Around him hung the thick, wet air of a world not his own. It was hot and still, rich with the fresh stink of swamp, and clung to his skin, belongings, and the stone walls of the dungeon corridor. The danger was still and distant, so it was safe to stop and think. Days ago he had been home, safe, content. Now he'd been surgically extracted from that life and conscripted into the most convoluted cosmic personality profile/job interview imaginable and charged with saving Earth. No pressure. It bothered Dan that he couldn't quickly remember just how many times he'd almost died since then. It was a lot.

Yet he had grown strong. He was so much stronger, so quickly, with abilities beyond sci-fi and in the realm of fantasy. Quicker, stronger, tougher, once again sound in body, gifted with quasi-magical aether abilities, and beyond and above all of that, he was a Chosen Esper, anointed with powers that combined to grant what seemed almost a localized omniscience. Tactical Precognition and Danger Sense were the weird ones. It was impossible to understand how they could work. They worked. The mental dissonance was like sand in the gears of his mind that added friction to the flow of his thoughts and made it hard to act appropriately on the information those senses gave. They'd proven reliable, saved his life repeatedly, but they still felt alien and it took effort to trust them.

On the hard packed dirt of the floor beside him, First Ray of Dawn Through Wet Leaves hopped slightly to the right. The raven was Dan's greatest asset, a wholly unearned deep reservoir of experience, wisdom, and power, as well as a friend and companion in a terrifying, strange world. Since meeting Ray, the obviously correct answer to nearly any question was to ask the bird what to do, then do it. Dan knew this, and was grateful, but still resented it at the same time. His greatest strength was his ability to take a mass of data and sink into it until its secrets grew solid in his mind and the path forward lit up. He'd been Chosen out of 10,000 earthling test subjects to receive ridiculous information gathering super powers. The whole test was apparently of how well the subjects could make fast, sound decisions, with limited data and under extreme physical, mental and emotional stress. And now the solution to every problem was "Ask Ray." It was like the whole thing had shifted into a multiple choice exam where the right answer to every question was A. For the first several, one might be able to keep focused and think through B, C, and D carefully. After a while? You started to move to fill in the bubble for A before even really understanding the question.

Still, that was where he was at. Once again there was a question, once again he'd probably die if he came up with the wrong answer, and once again the right answer was obviously to ask his familiar.

"Ray, I think we're about to run into that swarm problem. Any more ideas? Because I don't like the launch one fireball then run plan, but I haven't got any better ones."

"I can temporarily disorient a swarm of weak minded bugs. That will delay them, and help us retreat."

"Better than nothing. How do we actually kill a swarm of normal sized, highly venomous, stinging, flying bugs though? I don't think that this dungeon should have insoluble problems."

"Yet it appears to be such. Is there a trick? Some resource we, or more likely you, have been given that answers this question? I do like tricks. If it were my task to build a dungeon, there would be tricks."

"Good point. Whatever the buzzing swarm is, I don't think it's going anywhere. It's waiting for us to make the first move, so we should have a bit of time to think this through. The bugs we've fought so far don't seem smart, but do seem to be coordinated by something or someone. An odd thing: Sense Life and my ears say there are a bunch of bugs ahead, but Detect Monster only indicates one monster. Do you think that might be the master, and the others are just normal, if dangerous, bugs? If we kill the master maybe the normal bugs won't continue to attack us?"

"An odd thing? An odd thing!? Dan, I am clever and experienced, but my senses are not as absurdly acute as yours. I can't help adequately if you withhold vital information. Yes, only that makes sense. If you sense danger, and life, and hear the buzz of a swarm, but sense only one monster, then that monster is the master and the swarm is of simple, but dangerous, flying creeping stinging things. We must kill the master before it knows we are there."

"I like this plan much more. Uh, how? I know that you are good with illusions, but you said that it takes a lot more Aether to make me undetectable than it does for just you. Can you sneak in and kill the thing alone?"

"Possibly. I doubt it. In dungeons, it is wise to distrust anything that seems easy."

"Yeah, I don't think so either."

"So, one master controlling a bunch of dangerous non-monster bugs. We need a plan for both. I think I remember something about insects not doing well in smoke. Do you suppose those robber fly and giant scorpion corpses might be flammable?"

Several minutes later, greasy, acrid smoke filled Dan's nostrils as he waited. The dead scorpions had been heavier than they looked, but now burned a merry flame in a grotesque insectoid pyre. Ray, imperceptible to most senses, flew silently and invisibly around the corner of the hall and toward the buzzing mass. Dan listened for any sign of how the bug boss assassination attempt fared. As it happens, it went better than expected.

Congratulations! Dungeon Mini-Boss Defeated.

Reward Bonus Multiplier - Party of One!

Reward Bonus Multiplier - Dungeon Pioneer!

Bonus Aether Gained.

Congratulations! You have reached Level 8 in Esper Class. 2 Points of Perception awarded. 1 free attribute point awarded. 1 free level eight perk awarded. 1 free Aether Ability awarded. Aether Ability "Scent the Blood (R5, Esper)" awarded.

Monster Defeated, Corrupter of Creeping Beasts (Fallen Naga), lvl 15. Aether Gained.

Well, that aether ability didn't sound creepy or anything. That thought was about all Dan had time for before a once again visible Twilight Raven shot around the hall corner and toward the safety of the smoke cloud, pursued by a swarm of decidedly ill-tempered hornets. They were big, about the size of Japanese Giant Hornets, and extremely ticked off. Ray flew through the smoke and over the fire toward Dan. As soon as his familiar was clear, Dan launched a fireball at the approaching horde, turned, and ran like crazy. Man and bird fled as the surviving insects, hampered by the smoke, gave chase. Dan and Ray quickly approached the second fire they'd prepared, fueled by the corpse of the giant ambush worm. Dan leaped over the burning conqueror worm, close behind Ray. The hall was poorly ventilated and the hornets had lost their controller, though why they'd gone mad at the bug master's death remained unclear. The plan, such as it was, was simple. If the hornets followed Ray, lead them to the first fire, then blast them with a giant aetherial fireball. If they flew through and over the first fire, hope they'd turn back when they reached the second and get trapped in a hall steadily filling with smoke.

The points in the hall where the fires burned were carefully chosen. There were no windows between the two, no escape route from the choking smoke. The monster corpse fuel burned wet and threw off thick, black clouds. Dan's Greater Fireball, courtesy of his Firestone Amulet, had taken out a wide swath of the swarm, and only a few hardy hornets made it through the gauntlet, weaker for it. Dan and Ray disposed of them easily as they waited for the smoke to do its work and for the fires to die down. There was something ironically humorous, in a way Dan could not quite put into words, about the System transporting him to one world, then to a dungeon in another, all to culminate in a test of his ability as a pest exterminator.

The duo traveled down the hall, avoiding or killing the few surviving hornets, until they reached the large room that held the hive and the dead Corrupter of Creeping Beasts. The body was more thin than that of the Fallen Naga guards they'd fought upon arrival in the dungeon, with an intricate tessellating pattern of dark scales over light. Lifeless, it looked fragile, harmless, and rather beautiful. Shouldn't monsters seem more monstrous? This thing had controlled that terrifying Conqueror Worm, among other horrific minions. The hive, disquietingly empty, rested on a short stone pillar in a corner of the large room. Sense Life detected no remaining hornets - every last one had attacked following the death of their master, which, Dan assumed, had triggered some sort of dead-man switch and driven them into a suicidal frenzy of vengeance.

The room was lit by a large glowing crystal that hung from the ceiling. Short, broad wooden tables cluttered the space, along with a number of sealed earthenware jars and unfamiliar hand tools that looked rather like surgical instruments.

"Ray, does the concept of the Mad Scientist exist in your world?"

"An interesting phrase. As an archetype, it does not, though the Lifeweaver is a devoted researcher whose personal habits are rumored to tilt toward the eccentric."

"In the stories of my world, it's a classic trope. They are brilliant minds consumed by thirst for knowledge that end up tampering with things they shouldn't, with disastrous consequences. Anyway, I think you just killed a mad scientist monster, and this is its laboratory."

"Interesting."

Dan had hoped for a bit more of a response than that, but wasn't sure what he'd expected Ray to say. He was tired, and felt a sudden, strong need for a long nap in a warm, safe bed. It was an urge unsuited to the situation, and he forced himself to focus. His danger sense was quiet, and while the surroundings were vaguely creepy, the situation seemed safe enough. He forced his mind to cycle through each of his senses, old and new, focusing on the reports each gave. Nothing was amiss, other than the fact that he was in a dungeon on another world, inside the lab of a crazy alien monster scientist he and Ray (who was a sentient, centuries old bird with terrifying powers, and his only friend in this world) had just killed. Life had gotten so, so weird.