They were on the second "day" of delving. At least it was what their [Dungeon Clock] said. These pocket watches had chains to bind to the bandolier and belt but were a few seconds apart from each other, the delay in the summoning of the devices. Nero's read one day, two hours, fifteen minutes. They slept comfortably, the bedrolls and mufflers combined making a huge difference in the softness of their sleeping place. They kept the tradition of sharing a spot where only one person fit to double down on the thickness of the bedding.

But they were growing bored of hunting rats. A well-connected punch with his spiked bucker and a few bashes with the toothed slab of metal that was his sword when inactive more than enough to finish a rat. They farmed a few cards and several dozen Essence crystals, but nothing worth of note besides a white [Rogue] Class card. Altia was only picking up the loot as she hadn't attacked once. She was feeling a bit bored.

"We should move to the serpent area. I got [Antidote] slotted and two vials ready. And now they heal small wounds and restore Stamina."

Altia's Class features combined turned the antidote into a weak healing and refreshing potion.

"You got it. Let's hunt the stone serpents."

Despite not bothering to memorize the tunnels, Nero found the serpent area easily. He looked at the sand and saw through his goggles the same reddish energy emanating from a spot. He picked up a sizeable rock and tossed it right where the red wave was. A stone serpent jumped out of the sand and bit the rock. Confused, the serpent turned to lick the air and Nero brought the activated sword down on its head.

"These goggles are awesome. I can see serpents easily. Next [Permanency] we get is going to your own set of goggles."

"Yes. This equipment is really good. The muffler, especially. This lower section of the Dungeon was always a bit too cold for me."

"Nero, the sand shifted at the end of the tunnel."

He looked. Gloating about the goggles could wait, he was careless. He could see three sources of the red aura approaching. Their movement made the faintest ripple in the sand.

"Three serpents, coming our way. Move back."

Nero pressed the trigger of his weapon and prepared to strike. The serpents jumped as if they could sense his presence from underneath the sand, something they didn't do before.

"Something changed. The serpents are being attracted to us."

The three serpents jumped out of the sand at the same time, all three coming for Nero. He sidestepped the leftmost one, punched the middle one and stabbed the serpent to the right. He felt the serpent crunching and scraping against the spikes and killed the third one as it bit on the sewing teeth and was shredded from inside. The first serpent went past Nero and after bouncing back on the sand, jumped straight at Altia.

She screamed as the serpent bit her arm. Altia brought her dagger down a bit behind the serpent's head and opened a small cut. The rock coating was too thick, too hard. Nero dispatched the second serpent and went to help Altia. With the serpent latched to her and flailing her tail, Nero swept low, connecting and cutting the serpent in two pieces. The thrashing part still attached to Altia was spraying gray blood everywhere. Altia stabbed it again in the same place and got a deeper cut. The serpent started to dissolve and lost strength. She peeled the reptile away revealing purple gashes running from the punctures and down her arm. The bite marks were shallow.

Nero remembered when it happened to him. The serpent had dug halfway into his arm. Altia tossed an [Antidote] at herself. it was faster than drinking. The wounds closed a bit, the bleeding ceased and the purple veins vanished.

"I'm fine. I won't even need a [Healing Potion]," She showed her arm. The places where the fangs pierced were just bruises now.

"Six Vigor. That's what happened."

"Yes, maybe," She replied. "Now, what caused the change in the snakes' behavior?"

"They seem to know where we are, instead of relying on waiting for something to disturb the sand."

"Maybe one of our new items is luring them. That's the only thing that changed."

"We also grew stronger, Altia. Maybe they can sense strong enemies and come to fight them?"

"Suicidal much? I am pretty much as strong as I can get and still be able to delve in the rank I Dungeon. I don't think the serpents just come to be killed. It must be something else."

Nero paused to think. He looked for clues in the behavior of the serpents and then something snapped in place. "Did you say that this section felt cold before?"

"Yes, but with the mufflers..." she snapped a finger. "Maybe that's it. Can the serpents sense heat?"

"Maybe they do. Let's put the mufflers away and test."

They removed the mufflers and stowed them in the backpacks. Nero picked up the rock and walked down the sandy tunnel, trying to find another serpent. It behaved like before and was quickly dispatched with the clockwork sword. Down a long stretch of straight tunnel, he could sense two other serpents. He moved forward but they didn't react. He threw the rock and truly enough, the snakes reacted to the movement.

"The poncho was generating excessive heat," Altia concluded after picking up the drops. "And we got a green [Shield Bash] card."

[Shield Bash] - green - Requires melee class.

+1 Vigor

+2 Endurance

"Give'em a solid metal punch."

The user can spend 1 Stamina to perform a mighty attack with a shield. Low chance to cause [Stunned] status.

Nero examined the card. "It has good Attribute values, but some green versions of this Skill have no Stamina cost and a better chance of stun." It seemed that some Skill cards were more about an Attribute bonus card than the Skill proper.

"This would sell for at least six thousand Essence at that Emporio. You know how they love their Attribute bonuses.

Even with the Stamina cost, it wasn't like you needed to use the Skill with every blow. And if someone were to use six of these, that was eighteen more Attributes.

"Let's keep moving. We still have no [Egress] cards."

Always the main concern. Trapped in the Dungeon until the Dungeon deemed them worthy of leaving. Nero and Altia picked up the pace, their improved Attributes lending them more confidence in defeating the rock serpents. After a whole day of slaughter, they felt it was the way to start looking for a defensible position for the night.

"There was one item I saw at the Emporio, but didn't decide to buy," Nero confessed. "An [Essence Scale] to easily count the loot." The scaled measured not weight but total Essence.

"Like the one the clerk used to count our hundreds of tiny crystals?" Altia asked. "That is too expensive and we don't need it. The gap between levels is too big for the monsters here, we can sort the crystals just by looking at them, and from there we just need to do multiply the two values. It is not hard."

Nero was awestruck. "You can multiply that easily?"

She put her hand on his cheek. "Yes, because while some stone-headed boy was busy single-mindedly swinging swords, I was studying several things."

"What's your point?" He was slightly hurt by her implication.

"You should diversify your studies."

"Oh, don't worry about that. I'll diversify enough now that I can't control where my Attributes will go," He joked bitterly.

"I was just teasing," She defended herself.

"No, it is fine. Here," he slid the spiked bucker back and offered his hand she took it. "Now, how do we leave these serpent tunnels? We might want to go back to rat-land to sleep."

"I don't know. There should be some kind of clue as to which direction leads to the boss, like the inclination in the caverns."

He looked carefully at the tunnels. When asked, the adults just told them it was part of their training. They had to figure out things on their own in the Dungeon. He disagreed but it was tradition. There should be some cue in the tunnels that pointed out the way.

They fought another score of serpents, the fights becoming easier and easier as the monsters did not change their patterns and the goggles gave away their position under the sand. Nero noticed that this Dungeon had a better drop of food and other Consumable cards and a very low drop of clothing and armor. Given how the quartermaster reacted to their decks of food, he assumed the Dungeons each had a specialty.

At a dead-end of the snake tunnels, they had to come to a decision. Rest there and risk an attack by the serpents, or keep going and fight exhausted. For Nero, the decision was easy.

"We will make camp here. The goggles are not bound, whoever has the watch gets to use them. Once we get another [Permanency] card, we'll summon another set for you."

With that said, he made his buckler retract. The gears clattered as the metal plates slid under one another, retracting in a circle and folding in a neat package underneath his forearm. The gadget seemed to change its mass, taking and stowing metal plates somewhere.

"Okay," she said after a while, her mind elsewhere.

"What is troubling you, my love?"

"I'm rather useless here. The only monster I fought was the serpent that snuck past you."

"I see no problem with that. I'm part of you as much as you are part of me. And looking at you helps give me strength."

She stared at him. "Is that what I am? Eye candy? A muse to inspire the great hero to defeat evil?" She feigned being hurt.

"All of that and much more. That your fair features are easy on the eyes are the lesser of your great gifts, milady."

She blushed. "You flatterer! Where did you learn to speak that way?"

"The massive Charisma boost from your Class. It is inspiring me to find words that are barely fitting of the wonderful woman you are."

"Shut up!" She turned away, hiding her face.

He came from behind, putting both hands on her waist and holding tight. "All true," He whispered and then saw a flash of red. "Serpent!" he shouted.

The serpent jumped out of the sand with impressive speed. It was one of the big ones, but not as large as the stalactite one. Altia drew her dagger and stab-parried the serpent. Nero pushed her to the right and willed his buckler to form, with spikes. The plates' clattered fast but the shield was half-formed when he punched the ophidian, no spikes at all. Nero kept his eyes on the serpent's head and maneuvered to put himself in front of Altia.

"Watch our backs. There might be more coming."

"Okay."

The snake coiled then attacked. Nero met the gaping maw with a buckler punch, wishing he had the green Skill they found equipped. Before the snake fell, he grabbed her from behind, holding onto the rocky skin. The snake hissed and tried to wriggle free but Nero's grip was strong. it instead opted to coil around his arm, trying to pry it away so it could release its head.

"Stab it!" He turned around.

Altia drove her dagger through one of the serpent's eyes. Nero felt pain in his arm as the snake attempted to break the bones and then the monster relaxed. Its stone skin started to glow and disappear into motes of light. He tossed the serpent down and kept watching both ends of the tunnel, wary.

"What drew them to us now?" Altia asked.

The snake dissolved, leaving a large Essence crystal and a silver card. As no other monsters approached, Nero picked the crystal and gave the card to Altia.

"I don't know. My guess is that your cheeks were burning so cutely hot you drew them to us."

Altia sheathed her dagger and crossed her arms. "Cutely hot?"

"It's the goggles' fault," he tapped the device in front of his eyes. "I think it is made of rose quartz."

"Gods, what is wrong with you today?"

"He sighed. Nevermind. I might be too tired. I think we are camping at the serpent area. Let's find a dead end.

It ended leading them deeper into the stone serpent zone. The ophidians were coming in levels four and beyond now, almost the size of the stalactite lurker. The Essence dropped, however, justified using Nero's sword by a fair margin. They were exhausted when they set up camp.

"You sleep, at least I am good enough to watch," She said.

"Hey, kettle with a Class," He teased. "If you want to get a weapon and cover yourself in gore, you can do it and I'll support. But what happened with being together regardless of what happened?"

"You are right. It is just that... the future is unknown, you see? I don't know when the Dungeon will push me out."

"You'd still have to get three Level Accolade, and those are a tenth of the frequency. Which means you'd get about two or three to each Attribute. Not a bad deal. Now, don't worry and trust me as much as I trust you.

"And thanks for stirring my parents to look for me. I'd be a corpse otherwise."

She kissed him. "You're welcome. Good night, my hero."

Nero checked the clock. Two days, thirteen hours, six minutes. Only one [Egress] card. The other delvers didn't seem to have such problems but most of them delved solo. He wondered if the presence of a card inhibited the drop of another. He knew that large parties usually broke down after a long dry spell because some wanted to get out but the others didn't want to get trapped in. In one case, the one ninja that stole the [Egress] was killed by the exit portal because the rest of the party endured until they all left, and since all leaving appear roughly at the same time... And ninja was a term for a thief of Dungeon drops, a betrayer of the delving party.

They were lost in the serpent area. Without knowing the indicator of depth, they wandered idly. Until they found rock ground ahead.

"Did we get back to the rat caverns?"

Altia walked forward past Nero, trusting his goggles to sense monsters. "No. The walls are worked stone."

Nero froze. Had they reached the Creepy Crawlers? the third type of monster in the Dungeon, of which he only had the technical description.

Ranging between levels 4 through 7, the crawlers are three to four feet tall armored bugs, mobile, dangerous, and ugly as hell. While the body was just a foot across, the rest of their size was filled with anything from twelve to twenty pairs of legs, jutting from everywhere in their body, with sharp spines that work as saws, blades, or spines, depending on the way it hit you. They didn't as much crawl as roll around, propelling themselves and rolling as the legs moved all around. The little balls of death were unpredictable.

"Altia. Stand still," Nero hissed, looking past her.

It was too late to go back. The crawlers were notoriously vicious and fast. While the rats had nothing special and the serpents were ambush predators, the crawlers just skittered toward their targets. And Nero saw the red glow of one approach.

He turned his sword on and rushed past the girl, the spiked buckler in his left hand. The crawler came, a maddening mass of legs and hooks and claws. Nero lowered the buckler and pushed the clockwork sword in front of him. The crawler crashed against the shield but the spikes on its legs counteracted the ones in Nero's equipment. Worse, it allowed the crawler to grab and hold onto the buckler, using it as leverage to stretch back to rubber-band and flail its own body and the limbs on the other side in an overhead swing aimed at Nero's bespectacled face.

Nero wouldn't let it. He swept with the sword slowly, giving it time to saw through the think but hard limbs. He cut enough and the crawler detached mid-flight, going over him.

"Altia, look out!"

The girl wasn't oblivious. She didn't move but kept watching the crawler spin. Once the part Nero de-limbed showed, she tossed her dagger and jumped back, bashing her backpack against the cave wall. The crawler, now sporting a dagger lodged in its body, fell to the ground and started to stand up.

Nero drove the clockwork sword down as he spun, catching more legs of the crawler and reaching the body. He put his weight on the weapon like a lever and drove it to saw through its carapace, reaching the gooey organs of the bug-like monster and cleaving it in twain.

He directed the splash of gore forward, painting the sand with the monster's green fluids. It vanished after a few seconds, leaving behind a glowing crystal. Nero examined it by putting it over his device.

"One hundred and twenty-five Essence," he read his display.

"That's a level five," Altia replied. "The lower end of the crawlers."

"They are smart and fast. I think we should try another one. Our armor should protect us."

"I'm summoning a short bow," she declared and punched the card into the slot of her device. The bow appeared with a quiver of arrows and she donned them, slinging the quiver on her right hip.

"Archery?"

"I gave it some thought. There are a few bow Skills a [Chemist] can use and I will have high Dexterity and [Double Tap] anyway. Why not?"

"I'm fine with that. But I wish you'd told us sooner, we could get you a nice bow back in Honeywitch."

Altia sighed. "That's exactly why I didn't."