After Steph had finished her conversation with Luna, I marveled as the atmosphere of the room, and Steph’s aggressive demeanor immediately shifted. Steph was extremely quick and had realized the implications of the conversation almost immediately. I had assumed that she knew more than she had let on, but knowing about H.G. since the beginning? That was entirely unexpected. I felt bad for her. I really did. She had known the boy, Howard Greene, since she was a child, and had prepared her whole life for the effort of saving him from a monster. Based on her demeanor, it was easy to infer that her feelings for Howard were deeper than that of simple acquaintances or childhood friends.

How terrible it must feel to learn that he was the monster all along. To be told that your childhood crush became the next Adolf Hitler. For the first time, I watched as Steph’s mask broke, ever so slightly. The weight of all those years of searching and training, now seemingly done in vain, showing on her face.

Steph was pouring herself yet another glass of whiskey. There was a slight tremor in her hand as she raised it to her mouth, but it was only detectable through my enhanced vision skill. This was not a problem that drinking would solve, and I wanted desperately to help her, but I was hesitant, the lingering fear of death still fresh in my mind.

She had threatened to kill me, that much was true, and the intimidation skill used against me outside was nothing to laugh at. But I trusted Luna, and she said that Steph would never harm me. I chose to cautiously believe her.

I slowly made my way to the love seat where Steph sat, sitting next to her, and wrapping her in a gentle embrace. She hadn’t even noticed as I moved, and when my arm and wing wrapped around her shoulders, she jumped just a little bit, before turning, glancing at me bearing a complex expression. She looked me in the eyes, and I watched tears start to form.

“Vic… I’m so sorry. I took it too far. I thought you were in danger, and I wanted to scare Luna out. I would have never hurt you… I just want you to understand that.”

I tried to respond, but my mouth would not move as I wanted it to. Steph looked at me with confusion as my face contorted, the necessary muscles to speak not under my command.

Luna, could I have control back, please?

Oh right! I forgot. I’m sorry. Here you go.

Thanks.

I held onto Steph a bit tighter and let out a sigh as she started to shake, tears falling down an otherwise empty face.

“I understand why you responded so aggressively, and I do not blame you. We don’t know each other well, but I’ve known you long enough to see your honor. You are the kind of person who would protect a child instead of protecting herself, and you are the kind of person to risk your life to save a friend of a friend. I was afraid, at least at the start, but I am willing to forgive you now that I understand your intentions.”

“…thanks…”

As Steph whispered her response, I watched for the first time as the age of her eyes and her actions reflected her appearance. It was a refreshing sight. After a few minutes of gentle sobs, she let out a deep breath, and the tears stopped flowing.

“Vic… thanks for being here. And for forgiving me, though I’m sure I don’t deserve such grace.”

“It’s no problem.”

Steph rose, stretching her arms above her head and letting out a little squeak. Immediately, I could tell the sound embarrassed her, as she closed herself off, returning to sit at the desk.

She cleared her throat and donned a more businesslike expression. I had never witnessed the moe gap personally, so I knew I would treasure this moment, though the grim atmosphere made me feel a bit guilty about my mirth.

“So, is there any special reason you came to see me? I know we got rather sidetracked, but what can I do to help?”

“Honestly, not much. I was coming here to get some information from you. I’m still in the middle of finishing the rank 2 dungeon I’m working on, and I’ve been gone for around a week. A lot of shit can happen in that time. Cindy showed me a report about the capital you made, and it was deeply concerning, so I wanted to see if there had been any developments.”

Steph nodded, before taking out some files from a locked cabinet in her desk.

“These are my notes on what I’ve seen, but I can also summarize them for you if you want.”

More reading… no thanks.

“You can just sum them up for me.”

“To be perfectly honest, I haven’t found out much else. I was able to get a permit for the guild to remain in operation, so luckily, they won’t be able to screw us when everything opens back up again. They are still deeply suspicious though.

“Every day I spent there, I saw more and more guards arriving. They are assembling a private army, but no matter what I do, I could not talk to the guards stationed there. They refused to answer any of my questions. The strangest thing of all was that each of the guards has the same build, leading me to believe that they are constructs of some kind.

“The obelisk in the center of the capital was cordoned off with metal bars keeping everyone away from it, and strange magic circles were drawn around it in blood. To what end that could be for, I have no idea.

“The last thing I noticed was that everyone in the capital appeared as a type of magic race. Not a single one of them was a beastkin, monster, or superhuman. They all looked like some kind of elf, though I couldn’t find out what type. When I identified them all I got was question marks, so they must have some type of identify blocking item.

“It’s all deeply suspicious, but I haven’t seen anything truly evil happening. I am refusing to act directly until I notice something that merits intervention. For now, I have been sending spies out to monitor their movements, keeping track of what they have all been up to. Luna, what do you think about all of this?”

I felt Luna push to take control of my mouth once more, so I let her through.

“It makes no sense. There is no way that more than five of the governing body became the same race, and the way they have been treating the obelisk is very strange. If you give me a second, I’ll try and tap into the system over the area to see what’s been happening.”

Luna went silent for a second, her perception whisking away to check on the happening in the city center. After only a few seconds of dawdling, I sensed her return, but our connection was full of confusion and frustration.

“What the hell is going on over there?!? Something was keeping me out, just like the dungeons! That shouldn’t be possible! I should have access to all parts of the system so that I can troubleshoot problems. Something very bad is going on over there, and we need to figure out what.”

“Alright then, Luna. I’ll make sure to keep you and Vic updated on what my spies learn, and I’ll send out a few more when I can. We’ll get to the bottom of this. How much longer do you think the dungeon will take you, Vic?”

I felt control returning to my mouth.

“My guess is a week or two a most. I only have four floors to go, but they are each peak second rank, and the enemies have been getting pretty tough. There were a few close calls on the past couple of floors, so I spent the past week training to make sure I was ready when it came to it.”

“I’m glad you’re being careful Vic. Always remember that it’s better to retreat and live to fight another day. Don’t let your strength go to your head. Research your foes before striking, and start every engagement attacking at full force.”

I nodded with a serious expression. Steph was correct, and I constantly fell into the mistake of assuming I was the biggest kid on the block, before unceremoniously getting my face beat in. First, there was the leader of the Gems. After that was the Skullback Warrior. Then there was the Guardian of Agility, and Guardian of Strength in rapid succession, followed by the Royal Warrior. Each encounter had ended thanks to my skills in combat or sheer luck, but they were all difficult, and each one could have been my end had but one thing went wrong. That was the risk taken when adventuring solo, and it was important for me to engrave the lessons those fights taught into my soul.

“I’ll make sure to be careful, Steph. You be careful too. Don’t neglect your level. It would be a waste of your strength to have you stuck in this office 24/7.”

“I will, Vic. It’s been a long time, but I think I could use a nice fight. Something to help break in this young body.”

“Oh right, Steph. How’s the boy? Did you ever figure out his name?”

After my question, she looked rather happy.

“No, we haven’t figured out his name yet. I’ve taken to calling him Indigo, after the color of his eyes, and he seems to like it. He still hasn’t said a word, though he has opened up a bit, and has been playing with some of the other kids that stay around the guild while their parents work there. I’m sure he will get better in due time.”

“That’s nice to hear. I’ll make sure to meet up with him to say hello after my dungeon dive finishes. I’ll see you around.”

“Yep, see you later Vic. Thanks, again.”

I left the office with a weight pressing down on my chest. Yet another problem to face, right at the cusp of the ending of the last one. Luna losing control of the system could spell the end of the world, and we needed to figure out what was causing it and how we could stop it as soon as I could. I still needed to take one thing at a time though, and first up was figuring out what happened to the spider dungeon.

As I exited the new guild building, I waved to Taylor who was sitting past the majority of the construction workers growing some furniture out of the ground. She smiled and waved back, a look of curiosity on her face. I just shook my head. What I had learned wasn’t my story to tell, so if she wanted in, she would have to ask Steph. I spread my wings to their max, launching myself into the air.

On the way back to the dungeon, I decided to forgo any wind magic used to aid my wings, instead opting to try flying as naturally as possible. It took a while for me to get the hang of the cadence required, the change in the structure of my wings, and where they met my body effecting what was necessary to keep me aloft.

I found that by extending the feathers to the absolute max, stretching the tips of the wings out as far as possible, and letting my tail fly behind me with its feathers splayed horizontally, I could soar through the air with ease. The feeling of the sun heating my crystalline feathers was delightful, and I luxuriated in the sensation of catching an updraft and being sent spiraling to newfound heights. I was going far slower than I did with the assistance of wind magic, but the flight itself was less demanding and felt like it could be sustained for hours and hours.

Beneath me was a now-familiar forest, and after a few moments, I was able to find the small clearing at the entrance to the dungeon. Instead of diving, I spiraled gently to the ground. At ten feet, I beat my wings a few times to stop my forward momentum, hovering in the air, before dropping the rest of the way.

“Wow. That was super cool! What’s your name?!?”

Hearing the exclamation, I spun around. I was not alone in the clearing.

Walking down the trail towards the spider dungeon was a group of people who could only be adventurers. There were four of them, one female elf who was a mage, another beastkin girl carrying a bow, and two beastkin men, one with a wooden shield and mace, and another with an impressive Zweihander strapped to his back. Each adventurer had a guild tag proudly displayed on the outside of their armor.

“Um, hey. I’m Vic. Nice to meet you. I’m guessing you’re here to take on the tutorial of the dungeon?”

The girl with the bow bobbed her head, her cat-like ears flopping with the motion. “Yep, that’s right!”

“Did you read about what to expect from it in the guild library?”

I wanted them to succeed, and I was more than willing to take the time to help if necessary.

The man with the sword spoke up this time.

“Yes, we did. It’s better safe than sorry. Are you here to challenge the tutorial floors as well?”

I shook my head. I guess they didn’t need my help.

“Nope. I’m the person who discovered this one. I’m on the twelfth floor myself. When I finish the dungeon off, I’ll report it to the guild. I recommend you go back to the guild after the tutorial and check the information on the next few floors. The difficulty shoots up pretty significantly, and I just passed it off to the librarian.”

“That’s extremely impressive. Thanks for the information. We all just hit rank 2 and heard that there was a good place to train on the third floor. We wanted to see it for ourselves.”

“Yep. I spent a couple of days there grinding out skill levels. It might help you to do the same, but it’s difficult because of the lack of level up messages.”

“We’re all prepared for it, though, and two of us have unique classes that gave us skills requiring training. We were planning on using that loophole I’m guessing you discovered to get around it.”

“Makes sense to me. Well, good luck. Be careful!”

“You too.”

After bidding my farewells, I walked to the door, teleporting to the hub. The circle to the twelfth floor was calling me. I stepped forward into it, returning to the grand palatial entryway. The rest stop was to my left, but I resolutely walked past it. I would be sleeping there, but I wasn’t tired, and it was time to get to work.

Welcome to the grand entryway; the trial of the guardians! Defeat all enemies to climb ever higher! Good Luck!

0/100 defeated

H.R.H Queen Elizabeth Cunningham, Mother of Spiders, Administrator under Labyrinth

The floor had reset while I was away, meaning there was one more spider to kill. Let’s get started.