The Corpse Hunter was reading through one of the journals he’d brought along when Maria finally woke up. She pulled a small loaf of bread from her pack and a canteen of water.

“How long was I asleep for?” she asked before taking a bite out of the bread.

Aiden pulled out his pocket watch and checked it. “About six hours.”

“You let me sleep for six hours?”

“You needed it.”

The girl grumbled quietly and continued to eat. When she was finished with her meal she stood up and stretched. Atop its pile of pebbles the small blue shelled beetle fluttered its wings. Apparently it had just woken up as well.

Maria held out her finger to the beetle, she smiled as it crawled onto her hand. The small bug flew onto her chest where it clung to the front of her armor, fluttering its wings now and then. It was the first time that Aiden had seen the girl smile.

“Ready?” the man in gray asked, putting away his book.

“Yeah, let’s go,” Maria said.

Together the two Ascenders walked through the dimly lit cave taking care to avoid the various glowing mushrooms that sprouted from the walls and floor. The ceiling, fortunately was void of any fungi so they needn’t worry about them dropping down on them. Eventually the tunnel they were traversing emptied out into a large room. The space was twice the size of any other chamber they’d found previously.

The Corpse Hunter squatted down beside Maria. “Alright, you know what to do.”

The Rift Caller raised her lantern and quietly began scanning the room for any signs of what they might be about to face. As the light danced across the surface of several clusters of mushrooms the young Ascender noticed something strange. The mushrooms in this room didn’t glow, they weren’t the same color as the others either.

While in the light of the lantern the fungi seemed to shutter slightly, as though the light was making them uncomfortable.

“They’re purple,” Maria said. “Weren’t all the others blue and green? And glowing?”

“They were,” Aiden said. “Always be suspicious of the things that stand out to you. If something feels off to you in the Dungeon, that usually means something is wrong.”

“So the mushrooms here are weird. Weirder than the others, ok. Now what do I do?”

“What’s weird about the mushrooms besides their color and the fact that they don’t glow.”

“They don’t seem to like the light that’s coming from my lantern.”

“That’s a solid lead. See where that takes you.”

The Rift Caller thought for a moment trying to decide what her next course of action should be. When she pulled a torch out of her backpack the Corpse Hunter nodded. Necessity had forced this child to learn quickly which was showing here and now.

Maria lit the torch and tossed it into the large chamber in between a pair of the purple fungi. The mushrooms began to shake violently as long tendrils rose up out of the ground beneath them. They lashed about wildly trying to destroy the torch that was causing them an excruciating amount of pain.

To the amazement of the young Ascender the fungi creatures began to whip one another in their panic. Chunks of fungus tore off their bodies and fell to the ground in small heaps as a clear liquid dripped out of their wounds. Moments later the two monsters collapsed to the cave floor shuttering in the light of the torch. They had literally torn one another to pieces.

“They ripped each other apart...” Maria said with surprise.

“Mauve Sprouts don’t have eyes or ears so they rely on vibrations to track their enemies. When something disturbs them they lash out blindly at it with their tendrils. What you just saw is the reason why they usually grow separate from one another.”

“Then why are they all clumped together in this room?”

“That’s because there’s a queen nearby. These ones didn’t grow on their own, the queen sprouted them.”

“A Mauve Sprout Queen?”

“Exactly. If we kill enough of the regular Sprouts the queen is sure to show up.”

The Corpse Hunter handed the Rift Caller a lit torch.

“I bet you can’t hit that dirt patch between those three over there,” he said, pointing to a trio of Mauve Sprouts.

“I bet I can,” Maria said confidently as she chucked the torch.

Eight torches and twenty minutes later the room was filled with dead and dying fungus monsters. Purple chunks lay in heaps where the Mauve Sprouts had once stood. Nearly every surface was now coated in the clear liquid that had seeped from their bodies.

The Ascenders waited for the mostly dead creatures to expire before stepping into the large room. No sense in going in early just to get whipped in the back by an almost dead creature. Better to give them enough time to bleed out.

“So…where’s the queen?” Maria asked as they crept into the chamber.

No sooner had the words left her mouth the ground began to rumble. A stalactite fell from the ceiling, shattering on the floor a few feet ahead of the duo.

“Here she comes,” the Corpse Hunter said. “Remember, it can sense the vibrations from your movement. So stay out of its range and show me if you can throw a knife as well as you can throw a torch.”

Maria nodded as the monster burst forth from the ground, pulling itself upwards by its many tentacle-like arms. Two daggers and an arrow slammed into the monster before it even finished climbing out of the hole in the ground. Its tendrils flailed violently in the direction of the attack but the assailants were already gone.

The man in gray went right while the young girl went left. Both did their best to stay out of arm's reach, or in this case, tendril’s reach of their opponent. Every knife and arrow that pierced the fungus creature was met with a slow but accurate retaliation.

As long as the Ascenders didn’t stay in one place for too long it wasn’t too hard to avoid getting hit. But the spongy body of the giant mushroom was far more durable than its smaller kin.

Aiden jogged along the right hand wall firing arrows while on the move. It could aim, fire, and nock a new arrow before the creature had a chance to react. Though each swime of its limbs missed their mark as the man in gray refused to stand still.

On the opposite side of the room Maria kept pace with her would-be tutor. She left from rock to rock, stopping just long enough to toss a dagger. Then she’d leap away before a tendril slammed down on the place she’d been standing.

But the huge creature tanked every attack, refusing to go down quickly. It looked like a pin cushion by the time Maria had thrown her last weapon.

“I’m out of daggers!” she called out. “What should I do now?!”

“Get creative!” the Corpse Hunter shouted back as he released an arrow.

The Rift Caller ducked behind a stalagmite. “Get creative? What kind of advice is that? Oh gross,” Maria said as she realized she was standing in the remains of two Mauve Sprouts that had bludgeoned each other to death.

She looked around the room for something to replace her empty bandolier of knives. Some of the rock formations that jutted out from the ground looked pretty pointy. But she doubted they’d make good weapons even if she was strong enough to snap them off. They would be far too heavy and cumbersome for her to wield.

In the end she came up with a much better use for them. A more creative use, one could say.

The young Ascender hopped up from behind the stalagmite she was using for cover and began jumping up and down. She didn’t have to wait long before one of the tendrils came flying her way. It slammed down onto the tip of spiky rock just as Maria jumped out of the way.

When the Mauve Sprout Queen tried to pull its limb back the tendril tore off. It trembled with pain as the stump swung around harmlessly, spraying its transparent blood across the floor.

“That wasn’t what I had in mind,” the Corpse Hunter said. “But I’ll take it.”

As he continued to fire arrows into the fungus creature Maria ran to the next stalagmite. Same as before she began jumping up and down until one of the long purple appendages came swung out at her. The girl’s timing was spot on as she jumped well before the limb impaled itself upon the rock.

White fluid gushed out of the severed limb and onto the eleven year old. It coated her chest causing the small blue beetle to fly away.

“Gross, gross g-”

Another tentacle swung at her from the side leaving Maria with little time to react. She tried to jump away but slipped in the blood-like fluid. Maria closed her eyes and hoped for the best.

Aiden was in the process of nocking drawing another arrow from his quiver when something fell from the ceiling. It slammed into him, knocking the man to the ground as he landed on his back. Vagrant squawked angrily and crawled away from the tangled heap.

“I’m sorry!” Maria cried as she scrambled to get off the man in gray.

The Corpse Hunter threw the child halfway across the room just before a tendril slammed into his chest. He let out a groan. Even with the protection afforded to him by this leather armor and the enchanted overcoat, blunt force trauma still hurt.

A second appendage reared back to strike at the prone man as he drew his short sword from its sheath. Aiden braced himself and the tendril swung down upon his sword.

The blade did little to mitigate the impact as he felt the force spread out across his chest and shoulder blades. Ignoring the pain the Corpse Hunter pulled the blade lengthwise down the tendril splitting it in half vertically. The two halves peeled apart like a banana and flapped about awkwardly.

With a grunt Aiden rose to his feet. The Mauve Sprout Queen only had one tendril left which swung around its backside feeling for the foes that attacked it from all sides. It struck out towards him as he slowly approached the creature.

The Corpse Hunter had been going easy on the monster, fighting at a pace that Maria could keep up with. But now he was sore and pissed off, so it was time to end this. It took very little effort for the man in gray to dodge the next strike when the creature became aware of his presence.

He moved off to the side as it passed by his head close enough to rustle his hair. When the appendage hit the floor he sliced down on it with his shortsword catching the limb between his blade and the stone floor. The tendril fell limp from the body it had once been attached as clear fluid poured out over the man’s boots.

The giant fungus shuttered and began slowly rocking back and forth. Aiden walked over to Maria, who hadn’t moved from where she’d been tossed.

“I’m sorry…” she said when he approached her. She was too embarrassed to look him in the eye.

“I heard you the first time.” He held the sword out to her, the handle pointing towards her. “Go finish it off.”

Maria gripped the sword with both hands and walked over to the still trembling monster. She clenched her jaw and stabbed the creature. Then she withdrew the blade and stabbed, again and again, and again. She cried out in anger and frustration as she buried the blade up to its hilt with each thrust.

She had panicked again, acting out of fear. If she did that in front of her mother, in front of the assessors, all of her training would be for nothing. And her life would be over.

Only when her arms ached and her heart pounded did Maria stop attacking the dead fungus. Part of her wanted to cry again, like before. But the rest of her was just too angry to let that happen.

So she gathered up her daggers and the arrows that had survived the fight instead. She didn’t have time to wallow in sadness and self loathing. She needed to train.

Maria tucked the daggers back into her bandolier and brought the arrows back to the man in gray. He took them from her and placed them back into his quiver. Neither he nor the vulture resting on his shoulder said anything as they looked to another for a brief moment before looking back to the girl.

“Let's go,” The Corpse Hunter finally said after an awkward pause. He placed his hand on the doorknob. “You still want to train, don’t you?”

“Yes,” the Rift Caller said.

“Good.”

Aiden opened the door and the group passed through.

***

“Are we moving?” Maria asked as they entered the thirteenth floor.

“It would seem so,” the Corpse Hunter replied, feeling the room sway back and forth. “Which means we’re on a boat.”

“But we’re indoors.”

“There was a time when people sailed across the world, back before the sun went out. Their journeys could take weeks or even months. And their boats had everything they needed to accommodate such a long journey. They were more like portable houses compared to the boats down in the reservoir below the Column.”

The room they stood in was empty, except for a few inches of water that moved slowly from side to side as the boat swayed back and forth.

“Looks like this is the bilge room. This is the perfect place to train your fate, actually.”

“Here?” Maria looked about the room. “But there isn’t anything to fight.”

“No there aren’t any enemies here, but we don’t need them to stress test your Fate. The bilge room is at the very bottom of a ship, beneath the water line. That means we’re surrounded on three sides by water on a moving ship.”

“So if I teleport too far in the wrong direction, I’ll end up underwater?”

“Yes. Can you swim?”

“No.”

“Then you had better focus.”

The Corpse Hunter walked over to the door and opened it. He looked out into the adjoining hallway and found it void of any distractions. “I’m going to bar this down from the outside and wait in the hallway. All I want you to do is leave this room."

He tossed a glass potion into the room and shut the door as it shattered on the wooden floor.