The two teens and their powerful familiars slowly walked along the dirt path, which soon turned to stone. There wasn't a trace of life that they could see, and still their only light came from Ichtvar's flames, the elemental's light, and Nathan's lantern.

Beyond the borders of their light, only darkness lay, though the teens could hear something moving around, following them. After nearly ten minutes, the elemental flew off, disappearing out of sight of his master for a few moments before returning.

"I take it that was a shade?" Keith asked, and Ichtvar nodded. "It's an F-1, Nathan."

Nathan nodded. They'd expected tough monsters, so having one at a higher rank made sense, especially if a shade needed holy power to kill. The game likely only allowed them access to that Dungeon because of Keith's familiar.

The warrior swept his gaze across the darkness. Whatever was following them was still there. It was moving just as slowly as they were, and in almost complete silence. Only the occasional snuffle and step alerted them to its presence.

As they walked, Keith began to wonder just how close the creature was to them. If the darkness suppressed a powerful lantern and a heavenly elemental's light, then it likely muted sound as well. Thinking back, he confirmed that – though they were right at the water's edge, only a few steps past where they could see it were they unable to hear the waves.

If that was true, then whatever was following them was neither very far behind their range of sight nor as silent as they thought.

With a mental command, Keith ordered his familiar to shoot five feet back as Nathan tossed the lantern up to Ichtvar, who caught it. The elemental obeyed immediately, revealing the head of a boar ten feet in height, its dark brown fur nearly black, its eyes crimson, its tusks black.

The elemental soared up a couple of feet as Nathan charged forward, his fist slamming into the boar's snout. The great beast barely moved from the impact, and he threw another swift punch, using Impact as he did. The boar moved back a foot.

Nathan wasn't deterred, however, and immediately spun around, kicking the boar with the back of his foot and causing it to look in the other direction, just in time for one of Keith's air slices to slam into its snout. The spell cut open a slender, shallow wound as Nathan jumped back a few times, reaching Keith.

"This thing is tough," Keith said.

"And it's probably not among the most dangerous things here," Nathan commented. "Familiars?"

"No," Keith said as the boar took a few steps back into the darkness. "When it charges, you hit it so it's shifted to the side. I'll strike it with several more slices."

Nathan nodded, his gaze traveling along the edges of their vision. Then, he braced himself, before launching forward. As he did, the boar broke through the darkness he was looking at. The warrior stepped to the side as the last moment, striking the side of the boar's face several times, changing the direction of its charge in time for it to meet with Keith's air slices.

The boar squealed as it disappeared back into the darkness, and Ichtvar rose above the teens, the phoenix's flames brightening as the elemental disappeared from their sight, the edges of its light no longer encompassing their range of sight.

"My familiar's going after several shades," Keith told Nathan, who was scanning the edges of the darkness to prepare for the next charge. "According to him, around twenty just showed up. He's not sure why, since they're just lurking in the distance, watching."

"Ichtvar, why would a bunch of shades show up to this?"

"Feeding on the souls of the dying empower them."

"Ichtvar said that feeding on the souls of the dying empower them," Nathan relayed the information as he wondered how Ichtvar knew that if the phoenix had never encountered them before.

Shifting, he prepared for another charge, then bolted forward, using Impact as he struck the boar and changed its course. Keith's slashes struck it in the hindquarters, and it squealed as it vanished back into the darkness.

"Are you sure you two don't want some help?" Ichtvar asked.

"You help us, we'll get less Experience," Nathan told him. "If we need it, we'll ask."

"I can incinerate that thing in a few seconds, you know. Maybe a minute."

Nathan ignored the comment as he skimmed the surroundings, then ran forward as the boar charged out of the darkness. This time, it had angled itself so that when Nathan struck it, it would be on-target for attacking Keith. The beast had realized that Nathan was attacking its left side and was forcing it to the right, so it aimed at the left of Keith.

Noticing the angle of the boar, Nathan jumped into the air, using Spatial Mobility to allow him to flip over to the other side of the beast. He dashed forward as quickly as he could and struck the boar with all his might. It took three hits to knock it off-angle, though Keith had already moved, casting his air slices, which struck at the boar's legs, cutting shallow wounds into them.

He began scanning the shadows again.

"How much more Health do you think it has?" Keith asked. "I'm barely damaging it."

"Same," Nathan responded. "Did you notice, though?"

"That we're actually injuring it?" Keith nodded. "Wait. We're barely injuring it… and I'm not getting damage notifications."

"Exactly," Nathan said as the boar charged out again. He jumped to the side and watched as it disappeared into the darkness once more. "So either this boar isn't real, or not everything has Health."

"The boar has information through Scan," Keith said as Nathan continued to watch the darkness. "It's an E-2. Thoughts?"

The boar charged out of the darkness once more, and Nathan waited until the last moment to dodge to the side as Keith jumped straight up, throwing several air slices down and into the boar's back.

"A Skill of some sort," Nathan said as the boar disappeared back into the darkness. "It's possible it either negates its Health during use, or drains it constantly. It might be how it sees in the darkness, or might be augmenting its strength and speed. I'm leaning towards the latter."

"Some sort of berserk?" Keith asked.

"One where it keeps a more rational mode of thought, rather than mindlessly attacking," Nathan rotated. "Can you see it?"

"Yes," the phoenix responded. "I'm looking at it through magic sight. Wait. You aren't, are you?"

Nathan activated his magic sight, which allowed him to see the boar clearly through the darkness, even if his normal vision was limited.

"I am."

"You just turned it on, didn't you?"

"What else is around us?"

Nathan kept his gaze fixed on the boar. He couldn't see the boar itself, but he could see the magic it was using at the moment, which gave him a more accurate idea of where it was and what it was doing.

The warrior was in the habit of using it only when enchanting, or he'd have remembered sooner. He could see every enchantment glowing due to his training with it, which meant that Keith's wards in the school and the department's wards at the facility were always visible to him if he had it on.

Using it for enchanting had some benefits, however, as it let him discern certain types of spells and enchantments, which helped with the boar.

On it, he noticed several enhancement spells around it, including one for strength and speed in its legs and one for increased durability on its snout. Just as he suspected. He wasn't able to see the artificial Health barrier yet, but he was sure that if he could, he'd see it being drained or shut off for that.

This meant the boar was enhanced, and it was possible that they'd have an even more difficult time if it wasn't using its Health for the enhancements.

"Fuck," Keith said.

"What?" Nathan asked.

"My familiar just reminded me to use magic sight," Keith said. "And… let's get this thing killed. When it charges again, I'm going to hold it in place. Do what you can. And whatever happens, stay within thirty feet of the spot of ground directly beneath Ichtvar."

Nathan kept his gaze on the boar, taking a few steps back as it prepared to charge, the magics in its legs bending with the legs. He was tempted to look around and see what it was that Keith was concerned about, but opted not to, lest he make a mistake that cost them both.

The boar charged forward again, and Keith generated his hand of wind, using it to stop the boar, whose momentum pushed forward several more feet before the spell won against it. As Keith moved the hand to hold the boar's head so it couldn't back up and escape into the shadows, Nathan charged forward, delivering several strikes to its sides, legs, and snout. It had a light magical barrier up, which was the reason Keith hadn't simply applied force magic internally to kill it. Just like most of the monsters in the System.

As Nathan punched with Impact again, he also released a burst of force magic. His pushes of it were still lacking in power when he did it over a distance, but up-close, he could utilize a fair portion of his magical might.

The boar, still gripped by Keith's hand of wind, was pushed several feet to the side. Nathan performed several more of those strikes before it ceased struggling and a notification appeared in his vision.

+1 Level +26 Points

"What was that 'fuck' about?" Nathan asked as the boar collapsed onto the ground and his ally released the spell, bending over and gasping, hands on his knees. "You okay?"

"Yeah," Keith said. "That spell takes a lot out of me. It's not one I use often, so it's both Mana-intensive and mentally-draining."

"And the 'fuck'?" Nathan looked around. His magic sight only extended around twenty feet in each direction if he couldn't actually see the target, and the boar had been within that range. "You sounded pretty panicked."

The magician's own magic sight extended further than that, he knew, as Keith's psychic power bolstered it in some way that Nathan didn't understand.

"Uh," Keith said. "Well, we're apparently walking on a path between some canals. I can tell that much because of the enchantments lining them to protect them from erosion. My familiar would've commented if they had water in them, and they're twenty feet deep, if I'm not mistaken."

His eyes glowed briefly.

"Twenty-three."

"Spatial Mobility and quick reflexes," Nathan commented.

"Maybe," Keith said. "But I'd rather not lose you during a fight, even for a moment."

Nathan thought that over.

"Same for you," he said. "So what else caused the 'fuck' comment?"

"Come here."

Keith led Nathan close to one of the canals. The paths themselves were around seventy feet in width, which was why Keith had told Nathan to stay within thirty feet of the center, where Ichtavar was hovering above.

Resting two feet from the canals and situated every ten feet along the side of the path were rectangular pillars. Measuring eighteen inches on each side and three feet in height, they seemed like an odd decoration. When examined with magic sight, however, they yielded a series of enchantments and magics that Nathan couldn't discern.

"There are too many for me to tell what's going on," Nathan told Keith. "What are these?"

"I'm not sure," Keith answered. "They have anti-read enchantments on it, but considering this is a Dungeon in the game, I'd rather not risk touching them."

Nathan nodded, then examined the pillar they were looking at for a few more moments before kneeling at the edge of the canal, peering into it.

"Ichtvar," he said, and the phoenix floated down.

Nathan took the lantern and held it over the canal, lowering it down a little. Nothing but emptiness until the bottom. He frowned, then look at Keith.

"Can't you use your sight to see where the talisman fragment is?" He asked.

"No," Keith shook his head. "Unfortunately, I'm blocked from doing so. If I knew what the talisman actually was, it might have been possible to look past that, but for now, it's not."

"Alright," Nathan said, then lurched back as something shot out of the bottom of the canal, a shadowy humanoid figure with silvery eyes and a faint silver aura at the edges of its shadows, though not the sort of aura that came from magic. "The fuck?"

"Careful!" Keith shot several blasts of wind at it. "That's a phantom!"

Nathan let out another curse as he swung his lantern at the phantom, which was attempting to attack Keith. The lantern passed through, causing the phantom to howl as light entered it.

Target -5 Health

"Fuck! Right!" Keith exclaimed as Nathan growled at the message. "Nathan, distract it while I try to do something!"

"Better make it fast!" Nathan responded. "Where's Splashy?"

"He got swarmed by phantoms and shades and is doing his best to keep them from reaching us," Keith responded as Nathan swung the lantern at the phantom again, causing the creature to float back to avoid being struck. "We can get this with light and fire, Nathan. Just keep it distracted for a few seconds, and I'll take care of it! We won't need our familiars!"

Nathan swore and swung the lantern again as he wondered what Keith was doing. He was too distracted keeping the phantom from attacking the magician to figure it out.

Just as he prepared to order Ichtvar to attack, a slice of light flashed by him, cutting into the phantom, which let out an ear-piercing howl. A few seconds passed before another slice cut into the phantom, which howled once more.

The creature went after Keith again, who was forming another slice of light, and Nathan leaped forward, swinging the lantern and causing the phantom to move back again. Keith finished the spell and launched it, the horizontal wave cutting through the phantom.

Nathan thought the creature was stupid. It remained upright, rather than jumping up or ducking down to avoid the attacks, and it only took another slice from Keith's magic to kill it, the pair of them earning 22 Points for the kill.

"Jeez," Keith gasped, collapsing to the ground. "That was not fun!"

"Light slices?"

"A modified version of my air slices," Keith nodded. "Never tried that before, but only light can hurt a phantom. The only reason you can tell a difference between them and a shade is the silver 'aura' and silvery eyes. That one was particularly stupid, it didn't bother trying to duck under it or jump into the air. A more intelligent one would've, and that fight would've been a whole lot worse. Can we take a breather? I'm beat."

"Yeah," Nathan look at Ichtvar. "Make sure nothing gets too close to us."

"Will do," the phoenix responded. "Though I should warn you that I'm sensing a particularly powerful creature at the center of the island. It's probably beyond my abilities to deal with quickly."

"You're in the Ultimate Trinity."

"I'm a phoenix," Ichtvar said.

That comment reminded Nathan of what Darren from the Black Orb had told them about phoenixes not being offensive creatures, as well as the fact that it took Ichtvar several moments to kill some of the monsters in his first run of games, even after their Health was depleted. The golems, for instances, took a couple of seconds each, despite supposedly being weaker monsters.

"Phoenixes aren't offensive," Nathan said. "Yet you seem to manage just fine before."

"That was against weaker things," the phoenix retorted. "Phoenixes are healers and life-givers, supporters. Unicorns are defenders, and dragons are attackers. We each have our specialties, even if we can branch into the other two's domain. I could probably take it out in a fight, it'd just take me awhile."

"Well, just make sure we're safe for now," Nathan said. "It'll take a bit for Keith to recover his Mana, he lost a lot in those two fights, and he's exhausted, too."

Nathan was tired and sore from the boar fight, but he wasn't going to mention that. Instead, he dragged Keith over to where the boar was and started pulling it apart, since the creature wasn't fading. The phantoms did, but that was into shadows, and in the first Dungeon, the monsters often turned to sand.

The boar, on the other hand, remained perfectly fine.

"You know you can't take those parts out with you, right?" Keith asked as Nathan removed the tusks with his Shadow Sword.

It took him quite a bit of effort to manage to slice them off, and he was grateful he had the System's augmented Strength for it. He wasn't sure if the stats remained applied after death or not, and was hoping the toughness of the beast's body was a result of the System's Endurance on it.

"These are for Splashy to play with," Nathan set the second tusk to the side, only for the elemental to soar in and grab both of them, shifting them so that they appeared to be horns coming off of its ever-shifting form. "See?"

"And the rest?" Keith rolled his eyes as Nathan got to work butchering the creature.

"How often do you think we'll get fresh meat instead of jerky?"

"And if it's toxic?"

"I'll try it first," Nathan said. "Since I'm not a big baby about it. We have a phoenix, he can just use his tears to heal us."

"I'm not your personal medic!" Ichtvar protested.

"Yes, you are," Nathan commented before resuming his work.