I would have just wandered straight through town, of course, if I wasn't carrying a dead swordswoman. I could probably--definitely--have just given her over for resurrection and left before she got a look at me, but... well, having just recently been on both sides of death, watching Louise and also coming back from my own demise, I just didn't feel right being that callous, even to a stranger. I would have, before; I would have made sure that she was coming back, but I wasn't in emotional shape to try to help anyone else overcome massive trauma, and I didn't want to argue about it.

The most likely story, here, was that she had been part of a group and the last to die. If that was true... then the other corpses had faded, unless they were in her inventory (I seemed to recall that when stacked like that, they aged at the same speed as the one outside, though--it was a fussy detail that I didn't need to know, so I didn't really think about it). That probably meant she had lost her friends, or possibly closer people than that.

And I couldn't get out of my head the dying scream of someone falling through the void, sacrificed to a fairy guardian because I had chosen to take that hidden path between dungeons. If that was a friend of hers...

A little while later, though, her body reformed in the Church. She was an attractive, asian girl or woman, too young for me by... probably ten years? Kind of short, black hair... I couldn't tell exactly where she came from, but then, I was never a big fan of trying to guess lineage and place of origin by looks. I didn't bother checking her player info, either, since it didn't really seem to matter much, but watched as she slowly came back to life.

And then she suddenly jerked upright, her breathing ragged, panic in her eyes.

"Easy," I said, calmly. "You're... you're alive. You're going to be okay."

"Shit!" The girl wiped her eyes with a forearm, and I realized she was crying. "Shit, shit, shit... solo diving is easy, my ass... introductory dungeon, my ass... I never should have let her talk me into this..."

I raised my eyes and moved away a step so she had more room. "You dived the dungeon solo?"

She shook her head, for a minute, and then nodded, not really looking in my direction as she swung her feet off of the table that the NPC priests used. "Stupid as hell, I know. I just... I'd heard someone did it, and it seemed possible, I just..."

I tried not to laugh, mostly because I was glad that I didn't have to tell her that all of her friends were dead. "I was worried because there was nobody else there. If you'd--"

"Yeah, no, I..." The woman stood up, and registered, suddenly, the number floating above my head, well above what it should be for someone in this place. "Holy shit! What are you..." She blinked and looked around. "Where am I? Am I not in the dungeon?"

"It's complicated," I offered. "I had to sneak into the dungeon for a quest. This is Pearland, floor 15."

She stopped freaking out and just looked at me. I know I must not have looked particularly impressive--as Soulforged, I had no real equipment on me. "Did you come alone? You've got to be strong enough to beat this place alone now."

I just looked at her and shrugged. "I'm not worried about it," I admitted. I... I didn't want to explain, really. I didn't want it to come off as gloating, not after what she'd just been through. Mel's group had taken it badly enough, when they were definitely not freshly traumatized... well, actually, maybe they were? Jenna had just died. Man, I really didn't think these things through, sometimes. "You should be able to get out--"

"I'm not leaving," she said, suddenly, and with determination.

I crossed my arms over my chest, interested in hearing her justification for that.

"I'm not... I can't just be... ugh." The girl finally hopped down off the table. "This stupid class is all about sword mastery, and every time I'm in a group, people expect me to just stand in front of other people and swing my sword like a... like a stupid..." she sighed. "I don't know. It's hard to put into words."

I grinned at her. "I get it," I said, quietly. Or, well, I thought I got it, from her description. "You can't defend the party and do your job at the same time."

"Right!" She pointed at me, as though I'd put something into words that she was struggling with. "My class doesn't want me to stand there. I have to move, but then they all get mad at me because they can't stand there and take hits from the monsters, as though it's my fault that they don't have any defense..."

I let her rant for a moment, then asked a question when she paused. "So... are you using the Skeleton Lord's Flambard, then? Or something else?" As long as she beat the first boss solo, that would drop for her, so it was a decent guess.

She looked at me, as though a little surprised, but nodded. "Yeah. I had gotten a better sword on a previous run, but... the Flambard was something I won all on my own. It's special."

I nodded, again understanding the sentiment. "Awkward as hell to use, though."

She shrugged, and retrieved the item from her inventory, unsheathing it and letting the steel shine in the quiet atmosphere of the church. It felt a little odd, because the wave blade was the same as mine, to the smallest detail. It had been a trophy, and I had grown so used to it being mine. In fact... I'd never actually run across someone else using the Flambard, not that I ran into a lot of peers, especially not back then. Hell, I had better weapons before I left the dungeon.

Her hands gripped the sword, comfortably, and it lit up from within with a gentle white light.

Holy blade, Merry informed me. She has some kind of anti-evil thing going in her class, I think. I can only peek at it; the class is called Kensei, and it's basically built for sword skills, resisting stuff, and extra damage from this holy stuff.

The girl walked outside, and I followed her. She suddenly started running through exercises, and although she was a little awkward with them, I could tell she had actually studied the blade... a little. She lacked experience and polish, and the wave blade was a little awkward in its style and weight, but she made a competent showing.

After a moment, she put it away, breathing just a little bit heavily. "It's okay," she said, a little proudly, as she turned back to me. "I'll manage."

I nodded, silently. "When I came through... I had no real training, so I just kind of stabbed and slashed everything like a maniac at first." I summoned the two blue spectral Flambards that I had, which caused her to take a step back in surprise. "And I definitely shouldn't have been dual-wielding back then, but I did. Having the spare to act as a shield helped me a few times, admittedly, but mostly it just got in the way. Still..." I kind of shrugged, and grinned. "I needed the extra hit to keep up the damage and the pressure, and I got a lot better with practice.

She did look surprised at first, to see me with the weapons--or maybe because my copies were glowing translucent. I may be a mind reader, but I don't pry. After a minute, though, she seemed almost... disappointed. "So you were entirely self-taught?"

"I wouldn't recommend it," I admitted, letting the swords lapse. "Especially when you're solo, your number-one job is always to stay alive. Proper weapons training would have kept me from making a whole bunch of mistakes that almost killed me."

She considered her sword, then I saw a thought cross her mind. Not quite with the obviousness of Max--or maybe, it's because the thought clearly moved a lot faster through his head than Max's. The set the sword down and offered me her hand, out of nowhere. "Sorry, I never introduced myself. Michelle Takoyaki, you can call me 'Chelle."

I shook her hand, finding that she had an usually firm grip. "Jerry Applebee."

She paused, and again, I saw a thought run through her head fairly quickly. "The Jerry Applebee? Who cleared this Dungeon solo?"

I nodded, somewhere between proud of my accomplishment and also relieved that she didn't know me as a murderer--or didn't bring it up. "Worst period of my life," I said after a brief pause. "I grew strong, but I lost a lot along the way. I just got off a stint working with a small group before I came here, and..." I had to admit that I felt better in a group, even Max's group, but I spent a lot of that time not working, and not able to focus. I'd always been an introvert, but after diving solo, I'd started to think I was a natural for combat. But, maybe not? "...and it's not the same at all. You don't learn what you need to fight in a group, acting alone."

Michelle, apparently, didn't need to think hard about that. "I suppose," she said, and seemed to dismiss the topic. "You're continuing in the dungeon, right?"

I nodded. "I have to go all the way to the end, but..." I paused, thinking. "It's probably not safe to come along with me."

She snorted. "More dangerous than going alone? I would have died if you weren't there. If you want to go our separate ways later, that's fine, but I really need to get some pointers from you. Is that okay?"

I... well, I could bring her back if she died, but more than anything, I couldn't help feeling like she was more positive to have around than anyone I'd been with so far. I loved Louise, but I had to keep her safe; Susie was independent, but also cynically self-interested. Mel's group didn't understand solo diving. "If you want. The dungeon seems to be more dangerous when I'm around, but I'll try to keep it from getting to you."

"Awesome. I need to get some food, but we can continue after that if you want."

I just nodded, and watched her scamper off. Somewhere inside, a part of me couldn't help thinking of seeing her corpse item, though... and thinking back to my victims. To the two dungeoneers--two human beings--I'd sacrificed, just a few floors down, for power that I didn't even want.

Merry stirred at the thought, but didn't comment, and I wasn't sure just what she was thinking.

Chelle was a decent solo diver, and I let her lead except when the increased spawn rates threatened to overwhelm her. Floors 16-19 were a graveyard biome; while the first few floors were a dungeon with skeletons, this was focused thematically on "dead people"--zombies, wraiths, and yes, skeletons. They were slow and vulnerable to holy damage, so she was in her element.

And I felt like everything she did pissed me off.

"Recover after every strike!" I shouted at her, I don't know how many times. It wasn't that she was posing, pretending that she was in a game or anything, but the stress of fighting made her thinking grind to a halt. She would do one thing at a time, and then pause to reassess. She doubtless knew that, but she was too nervous to execute on it.

When four zombies ganged up on her, I let her dangle in the middle of it, and I could tell she was looking for me to save her. I didn't, because I knew she could do better, but that wasn't how she saw it. "Just keep moving," I said at least four times, as she complained. "You're faster than them."

Eventually, she found her nerve, and the graveyard stopped being dangerous for her, which it really shouldn't have been to start with. Although she lacked Assassination and wasn't going for critical hits, and therefore was doing a lot less damage than she could, it was still only a couple hits with her holy aura to stop any given baddy. If she moved half as fast as I knew she could, she'd have been unstoppable.

I don't really know what was holding her back--doubtless, it was experience of self-confidence or something like that, but I'm no self-help guru--but I kept trying to impress upon her, again and again, that she was faster than she acted. We worked our way through 16 and half of 17 before she had to take a break. I didn't argue with her about that--the stress of going solo was killer, and I wasn't the sort of experienced trainer who knew for sure where other people's true limitations were.

As we settled down by a little campfire, though, and I messaged Louise to explain that I'd be late and why, Chelle seemed frankly disappointed in herself. When I put the portable messenger away, I could tell she wanted to say something, and just kind of... waited, to see how she was put it.

"How do you do it?" she asked, finally. "How do you break through?"

I snorted. "You don't want to use my method," I said, sourly. "I'm not sure you can. I fought an almost impossible boss and just never gave up. If I'd failed to dodge I would have been gone for good. Honestly, that's how I beat the Flame Lion, too--I just kept running and taking little shots at it until it died."

Chelle flinched. "I was doing that," she said, defensively. "I misjudged how much I did in a single hit. I thought I was going to finish him off, but..."

I nodded. Of course that was familiar; the surge of relief, the wanting it all to be over, the hope... "You have to stay cold until the end," I said, like we were talking about something idle and stupid, and not life and death. "There is no hope until it's over, and there's no despair until you're dead. Just keep working until one of those two things happens. Either it's over, or you're dead."

The kensei looked into her little campfire, and I didn't really try to read her expression.

She took a nap, and I cut up some small fry that were wandering the area, and we moved on not too long after.

As much as I wanted to rush the dungeon--and frankly, that seemed a better idea than letting Michelle drag me down--there were a couple things about floor 18 that ended up slowing us down. Under the circumstances, I was pretty sure I detected the heavy hand of the Administrator in them.

First... the graveyard biome had, starting on floor 18, vampires, and that wasn't a big variation on the theme; it didn't bother me then, and it didn't really bother us now. They were faster, more skillful opponents, and Chelle found her skills tested by them, moreso because there were far more of them with me around than there usually were on the floor. She could have been fast enough, if she wasn't hesitating so much, but at this point it was a foregone conclusion that she would keep doing so. She was scared, and not quite experienced enough.

Of course, she wasn't in danger until I fell into a trap.

Now, I don't have as much of a history with the graveyard biome as I had with the savanna or the cannibal's or even the skeleton dungeon at the start. Because you couldn't turn the monsters here into good food, and because I was kind of high on my power, I just kind of skipped through it. I should have been grinding until I was massively over-leveled, but I wasn't; I was slightly ahead, with some decent equipment, but that was about it.

But, for all that my experience was limited, I'm pretty sure that this trap wasn't there before.

It was a massive sinkhole that was right on the path from the entrance to the exit, or well, maybe just a bit to the side, and it opened up into a labyrinthine crypt, and sealed the door shut as soon as I fell in. That meant that Michelle was alone on the surface with whatever monsters the Administrator chose to throw at her; I could probably have broken the surface with my telekinesis, but I had to hope that this wans't going to be some insanely dangerous bullshit for her. So I explored the little crypt to find the exit, discovering with my telekinetic sense that it reconfigured itself a couple times to delay me getting out. I'm not sure if he didn't know I had the skill, or just didn't care... though, probably the former, really.

When at last I got to the end of a hallway without it cheating me, I found a massive stone tomb with a beam of light falliing on it from a hole in the ceiling. Through the hole in the ceiling, I could hear and sense Chelle fighting desperately, a whole lot of zombies and vampires and whatever else circling around her.

I got the impression that things were laid out so that I was supposed to beat a difficult boss and rejoin her just as she reached the limit of her endurance, but as I examined the tomb, a different plan came to mind. The hole wasn't supposed to be enough for me to escape from, but with telekinesis...

With telekinesis, I reached up, grabbed Chelle by the ankle, and dragged her down into the hole, widening it just slightly to let her through, and then all but sealing it up after her.

She screamed, of course, and I thought that was kind of funny. But since I hadn't unsealed the tomb, the room was relatively safe, and as soon as she dropped into it, I could feel the hordes of undead above stop and mill around in aggressive confusion.

Michelle took a long moment to look around, convinced that death was right around the corner, but it was just me, sitting there looking all wise-master-y and un-apprehensive. "What the hell," she said, sounding genuinely hurt. "You scared the shit out of me, Jerry."

"Take a breather," I replied. "And then I want you to fight this hidden boss."

I... could swear I sensed a wave of alarm from nowhere, that I took to be the administrator. At the same time, there was a similar sense of shock from Chelle. "Are you sure?" she said. "Hidden fights are usually harder than the main boss, and I'm not confident--"

"Michelle," I interrupted, a little annoyed. "If you really want to learn to be a solo diver, this is a fight that you have to face. And, knowing this Dungeon, the reward is worth it. So... get your mana back to full, rest up, and then just do it."

I didn't tell her, of course, that this wasn't a fight meant for her--it was a fight meant for me, and it was clear the Administrator had turned up the cranks on it like he had the last one. But... if it was just a single opponent, then she had a chance.

I turned my back to her, so that she couldn't see, and gestured momentarily in the direction I thought the Administrator was, hoping that he would come closer. And I whispered, so quietly that even I could barely hear myself.

"Don't you dare make this easier for her. She needs an impossible fight, and I think she can survive it."

I got the impression that he heard me, and smiled grimly in the darkness.