“Oh! Hey, hello.”

"No, Kendra did it.”

“What? No, we’re real.”

“No, we’re not monsters. Why would you think that?”

Myles was not prepared for the reception his team got upon returning with him and Kendra not only alive but in one piece and moving under their own power.

“Yes. We’re alive!”

Despite the array of odd questions, the shouts, clapping, cheers, and requests to cook were like the storming stones of Shardking all over again, but no one stopped them. He was more than happy with this as crowds parted, leaving him to approach Sindra and the remains of her team unmolested.

Micha and Rinas were still with her along with their other members Myles didn’t know, but otherwise, they were alone surrounding a large, perfectly circular hole with stairs leading down into the darkness. It didn’t take a genius to know what it was, but he had to ask anyway.

“Is that…”

She squeaked in a way Myles found extremely funny but recovered quickly. “You’re alive!”

“News of my death was greatly exaggerated.”

Kendra took time out from her conversation with Will to eye Myles and loudly sigh her disappointment in him.

“What, it’s a good summary!”

Lyna snorted with laughter.

Sindra snickered despite her surprise and looked him over. “You’ve got some blood, so I’m going to guess you were injured, but the Broken King doesn’t just injure someone. It kills them. How did you…” As she spoke, Sindra processed everything faster than Myles would have, “Oh! Shardstorm radiates out from the core area, doesn’t it?” Myles nodded in confirmation. “I’m surprised no one ever noticed that. I’ll make a note of it for the next Run even if it might not be accurate. Was there aetheric pressure? How intense?” Myles gave her a brief description of feeling weight, but his senses weren’t exactly clear at the time. With that, Sindra seemed satisfied. “I’m still pissed and you will have to answer for breaking rank, but I’m glad your team survived. We need teams like yours.”

Myles took it for what it was and pulled out two small vials. They glinted softly, throwing the weak light of the blue flame and little else. “I have the oath to keep.”

Sindra eyed the vials curiously. “Two?”

Myles didn’t hesitate to hand them over. “Two.”

Soul Oath Fulfilled.

You have gained a new title - Oath Keeper

Again, Sindra seemed to process it and spoke more to herself than to him as she looked at the two vials of identical liquid. “A dual Class must have a chance at one per class. I’m surprised you didn't get one from Gregor with those odds,” she mused, fingering the vials. “Well, your team is definitely invited to the rest of the wipes once we get a feel of our power compared to the second floor.”

“Thanks?”

“Oh, it’s no problem. I’ll give everyone a fair price if they want to sell it, but the more people with dual Classes that come, the more options we have to get them.” She brushed them aside and continued to look down into the hole as she spoke before pocketing the vials. “We can catalog the rest of your equipment later, right now, I think that it’s only fair that your team accompanies mine to chest the next floor. Oh, and you can take this as a reward for going above and beyond the call of duty.”

Myles felt the item pressed into his hands and knew it before he opened it.

A Soul Dew vial.

Soul Dew

Value: Priceless

Grandmaster Enhancement Item - Potion (Soul Elixir)

Class: Unifier

Description: A small vial of clear, gently glowing liquid.

Detail: Soul Dew, first discovered by an [Oracle] during the Age of Trials, is the condensed essence of a Soul Node, otherwise known as a Class Skill or a Trait. This unique liquid is produced in one of three ways, but most commonly from distilling a soul’s essence in the process of Soul Break or death.

It has extremely potent mana restoration properties and can serve as a catalyst to unique Class modifications or evolutions based on the Class that condensed the Soul Dew.

When used by a Unifier:

Effect 1: When drunken, increase your mana regeneration, Soul Energy regeneration, and mana pool by 50%.

Effect 2: 1/10 chance to Manifest a new Skill or Trait.

When used by another Class:

Effect 1: 10% Chance to Manifest a new Class from the current Class(es) in conjunction with Unifier.

Effect 2: 70% Chance of modifying a compatible Skill or Trait

What was a [Unifier]?

Wasn’t she a [Strategist]?

He pocketed the vial, intent on asking Silphia and the others later, and looked back at his team. Everyone was worn out, exhausted, and running on the last embers of the oven. Turning back to the Runner leader, he picked his words carefully. “I don’t know if we’re ready.”

“I still have slime in my boots,” Kendra complained as a pair of eyes peaked up from her shin. “But I think we can take a peak.”

“Rocky needs to take out some frustration on some beasties after this,” Lyna added. “We didn’t get to smash the golem-like we wanted.”

“We should be okay,” Tail said quietly. “We can always run back up the stairs.”

“The first area should be safe enough,” Will confirmed. “They’ve been in the past anyways.”

Ashra just nodded to Myles.

Mitchel was unreadable as he looked ahead, but he gave a better response than Ashra. “Whatever you say, Myles.”

Well, that settled it. For his team, Myles hefted his spirits the best he could before turning back to Sindra, who was looking past him now at the newest member of their group.

Mitchel looked at her, looked through her with the sternest expression he’d ever seen on the man.

“Mitchel?”

“I’m not coming back, Sindy. Not yet. Maybe not ever.”

Her face hardened, screwing up like she’d tasted a sour grape. “Mitchel, we need you.”

His armor never shifted as he shook his head. “No, you don’t. I need to be out there, not just when you say so.” He gave her a weak smile. “Besides, you have Micha, she’ll do just fine in my stead, and if she doesn’t, there are other [Armored Walls].”

Sindra’s face flushed, and Myles could swear by the fire in her eyes, but it died almost as quickly as it appeared. “If that’s what you want.”

“It is.”

“There will always be a place for you, Mitchel.” She turned back to Myles the picture of peasantry. “Now as your friend said, the first area is usually a safe room or a staging area to whatever challenge the dungeon deems fit, and since we have to get our descender award, it wouldn’t make sense for it to be straight combat right out of the gate. So, if we get separated, just come back up.”

The smile was back on her face now, but Myles could tell how fake it was compared to that time they’d met in the temple. He stole a glance at Mitchel to confirm things, but his face was just as it had been, stern and slightly annoyed.

Just what had happened between them?

If Mitchel was going to stick around, they’d need to talk about it at some point just to be ready if anything happened with Sindra.

Holding out her hand, Sindra shook Myles from his thoughts with two simple words. “Shall we?”

Myles looked back, got the confirmation from his team, and nodded, but he didn’t take the hand. Instead, Myles reached a hand out toward Kendra and Topoff. The slime responded, squirting like a flood from Kendra’s boots, well Myles’s boots technically, and slurping over his hand, forming a fingerless glove and feeding power back into his spent mana supply.

“That was disgusting!” Kendra shivered. “Don’t do that again.”

Myles smiled, ignoring the protest as he turned back to Sindra. “Sounds good.”

There was no more argument as the first pair of many teams took to the stairs of the second floor and descended into the visible darkness.

They were not prepared for what awaited them as the notifications arrived.

Welcome to the Second Stage!

Floors Two through Ten Await!

You have entered a safe room.

From now on, Runner versus Runner combat is allowed between parties with the exception of safe zones.

The First Floor of the Grand Dungeon of Kess has been cleared of its guardian.

Floor Skips have been now officially enabled.

Early Skips have been Returned.

Treasure Distribution has been set to Dungeon Wide.

All:

Enchanted Pillow of Lucid Dreaming Enchanted Flannel Sheets of Warmth Enchanted Winter Wardrobe Enchanted Boots Housing Upgrade (Insulation)

The loot and terminology were one thing.

Myles’s eyes lingered on the words Floor Skips, then again on the word Returned. There were ways to skip floors entirely?

What did it mean by Early Skips? Could you only skip floors after the first? It seemed that way from the message saying it had been enabled.

That paled in comparison to what happened next.

“Where’s the rest of the floor?” Micha asked loudly as they entered a room. A large room, but a room all the same. It was maybe twenty feet tall with walls encircling the entire room, giving them about two hundred feet in any given direction. It was well lit with glow stones evenly spaced on the wall and a new seal in the center of the room bearing what at first glance seemed like scratches, but Myles recognized it for what it was. The seal carried the same language he’d seen in the book he’d gotten from taming Silpha’s dungeon.

Otherwise, Micha was right.

There were no other entrances, no other exits, no doors, no windows, no indentations, nothing but perfectly smooth, uniform walls and floors. The room was completely bare of anything except for the stairs, the seal, and the light.

“I don’t understand,” Sindra said, taking her steps forward, looking at the seal, and around the room. “This is the second floor. The messages all say so.”

“The second through tenth floors,” Myles pointed out.

“A puzzle then?” Will asked as more Runners began to file in behind them.

Sindra seemed to consider this before turning to her party. “Start to create lines. One in, one out. No one can linger without approval. This is a safe area, but we don’t know for how long or what else might occur. Treat it as a danger waiting to happen.” Then, she turned, taking her place on the seal and broadcasting across the entire raid this time rather than select groups. Myles, and the others nearby, heard it as a second delayed echo of the real thing.

“Attention! The raid is now disbanding. If you need to, collect your loot by entering the second floor, have your leader leave the raid, and return to your homes to upgrade them. Tomorrow, we should have the donors coming. Instructions will be waiting in your mailboxes at first light. Team leaders are responsible for getting them to you, so don’t be late. Good job, everyone! Looks like we’ll have quite the battle waiting for us on floor ten! Take a few days off and relax. We meet again in five days to discuss things.”

A cheer went up as far back as Myles could hear, and he felt a pang of loss.

He’d never missed the bakery more than he did right now.

“You will be fine. Being a leader is not easy, Myles. Knowing the truth is not easy, but it makes you stronger.”

The [Monster Tamer] stared for a moment at her with only a hint of disbelief coloring his eyes.

She smirked back.

Ashra always seemed to know what he thought before he put it into words himself. With a sigh, he admitted to himself that she was right. Sindra was a good planner, but a poor leader as far as he was concerned. He didn’t have all the pieces, but the picture Mitchel and his own experiences painted were damning. His father had taught him what to do about those kinds of people in the kitchen, what to do about people that cared more about the power they wielded than the work, but…

But when it came down to it, Myles still wasn’t sure that was what Sindra was.

She had power, and she wasn’t afraid to show it. Even knowing that she seemed to genuinely care about the Runners. Most of them rallied behind her without question, did as she asked, and they succeeded well enough. In the early days, even he’d followed her lead because she had everything together.

At least, she seemed to until Shardking deviated from her plans.

Was it his place to say otherwise if he didn’t want the job himself?

Could he have even taken it if he wanted?

No.

If he wasn’t going to take the lead, it wasn’t his place to say anything except to his team. Otherwise, it would just create cracks in her armor, and that would end up causing more trouble than it would prevent.

Or she’d put him down like she did the Dwarves.

We will be fine, Ashra. It’s the others I’m worried about.

“It is your place to want the best for them. They are your people, after all.”

Ashra said nothing else, but he felt a smugness coming from her with a mix of other emotions. She was proud of him, eager for him to take leadership and responsibility, and clearly smug about him not accepting what he wasn’t ready for. She didn’t use to be so easy to read, and he couldn’t help but wonder when that had changed so drastically. Was it the influence of Squishy’s open book emotions? Was she trying to push him as she had before? Myles wasn’t sure.

In the end, there was nothing left for them there.

It was time to go home.

Myles, Ashra, Mitchel, Kendra, Will, Tail, and Lyna agreed to go to Myles’s, see if they had anything, then go back to their homes and sleep for as long as they could without getting bedsores and pissing off whoever was going to try and talk to them the next day. As one, the team made their way out of the second floor, back to the ruins, and worked themselves carefully back to the plaza where they arrived at Myles’s home, and all crashed on the floor of Myles’s home in a heap of exhausted sapients.

Myles made it as far as his bed before falling into a deep, dark sleep that not even an angry Dungeon Core could have roused him from.

***

From beyond the world of the Dungeon of Kess, Darwin smiled.

“Well done! Well done, my friends!”

It had been a little touch and go there as the Broken King, as Shardking, released its new Skill upon the world. The [Barbarian Queen]’s little girl had done better than he’d expected, but then again Sindra was her daughter. That woman could beat her way through an argument with her fists and still have people agree with her.

They’d done it with far fewer causalities than he’d expected too. She still had well over half the Runners alive, and with the four teams that had skipped to the second floor back in play, Darwin was eager to see just how things would go. The next set of floors weren’t exactly something they could rest on…

A smile grew across his face at the unintentional wordplay.

Rest would be the last thing they’d be getting once they figured that loot out. For now, though, he had other things to do, more important than the life and death of the Runners, and the smile slipped from his face.

It was time to organize the delivery day.

***

For the first time in a long, long time, Trosana Leea felt a familiar sensation as her Class complexity increased. She wasn’t near a [Priest] or [Priestess] of Vul or a [Appraiser] right now, but she had been Proficient 1 at last check a few months back. More than likely, she was reaching the top of Proficient if the strength of that shiver had been any indication, but the knowledge of a new Skill didn’t elude her as she looked at the person sitting across from her.

“Appraise,” she whispered under her breath.

Lesser Appraise Individual Successful!

Name: Kith Van

Race: Human

Class: Journalist

Trosana cheered to herself, but it was a skill most of these people probably already had. For her though, the small victory was one of many she’d won over the past week. At her side in her new satchel of holding, the very same kind the Runners had she noted, she had everything for Myles and his team, and it had only grown in the day since she’d last cut things off. All the letters she carried were handwritten reminders from the outside world just how much these people mattered, and it didn’t hurt that there were some from the extended royal family. She relished the thought of being in any way associated with the royals.

The looks of pure venom she’d gotten when her charges had beaten Shardking only confirmed her choice as she smiled at the rest of them, especially Rachel Skyholm, the one that had sold her Will and Kenda’s exclusivity clause so cheaply.

Just goes to show caffeine and awareness charms are not a luxury in this business.

She wouldn’t be able to pull that again though.

If she wanted Mitchel to complete her set, it was going to cost her far, far too much…

Right now, anyway.

Lost in thought, the words of the [Master of Ceremonies] broke her out of it.

“Good afternoon, everyone! I’m sure you’ve enjoyed your advanced, live feed of the fight with the Broken King, or as well like to call him, The Shardking.”

You have no idea, Trosana thought to herself.

He gave a wink in her direction, startling her for just a moment before he continued. “In six hours, you will be granted six dungeon hours to speak with your charges. I know, I know, it’s not nearly enough time for some of you…” his voice lingered, pulling on that last syllable as he looked in a sweeping motion around the room. “Don’t worry about delivering your packages, those will be taken care of soon enough. Speaking of though, you've already been checked for contraband, and as you know, smuggling will get you executed.” There was a murmur of activity as Darwin let the word stand before adding. “Oh no, not by me, though I could easily kill any one of you. No, the Grand Dungeon will take care of that itself. I take no responsibility for the collateral damage though.”

Opening her inventory, Trosana double-checked for anything out of the ordinary, then checked her armor, and then the battle claws she had bought just for such an occasion.

“Now, the caravan will arrive shortly, then the room will be sealed again until you return. Standard procedure, I assure you. I suggest you all rest now. There will be plenty of time to make nice once everyone on both ends has had a nice, long rest. I leave you now with this piece of advice: do not, under any circumstances, attempt to sway the Runners out of any plans or ideas they may have. You are there to interview them, not to advise them.”

A few raised concern with that but were silenced by a snap of Darwin’s fingers.

The sound was louder than it should have been, and suddenly Trosana felt the weight of the world on her shoulders and the lids of her eyes gained no less than five hundred pounds as they came crashing down.

“Oh, by the way, getting rest wasn’t an option, you…”

Then, the world went dark, the words lost on the traveling party as the Skill of the [Master of Ceremonies] triggered in full.

***

As the masses slumped before his words, Darwin sighed.

Regular people were just so… so weak! That Suggestion hadn’t even cost five mana. Did they have no Will of their own?

As Darwin the Everchanging looked about at the sleeping masses for any signs of activity, someone began to snore.

In the silence of the sleeping chamber, Darwin excused himself to the top of the dome to watch his fellow Runners deep in the last vestiges of their peaceful slumber, wishing that he could be part of the action once more.

But, his time had long passed.

For now, he was just a deterrent, a sideshow for the nation, not an adventurer.

No matter what the Grand Dungeon told him.