The second floor wasn't much different from the first. There were monsters we hadn't seen before but have heard of. The Spiderlings and Demon Lizards were stronger than the monsters we faced before, but it wasn't too large of a jump in difficulty. When fighting the lizards you had to be weary of their tongues which could shoot out quickly. As for the Spiderlings, they left sticky webbing all over the floor which robbed you of your movement. While troublesome to deal with, they weren't overbearing.

Once we'd gotten use to the new attacks, they weren't problem except for when in large groups. We conserved our mana in preparation for the fight with the boss of this floor. The size of the second floor wasn't much larger. The overall population of monsters increased by about half when compared to the first floor as far as I could figure. It was a credit to all of our work up to this point that none of us were close to running out of stamina.

We soon reached the lair of the second floor boss. Standing behind the cave wall, we took turns spying on the opponent. It was a monster we had yet to encounter. A large, green, disgusting, smelly Orc. To say it smelled was an understatement. The stench could even be considered a special attack of some kind, foul as it was. Why did it smell so bad in the first place? Didn't all these monsters just pop into existence when we entered? If that was true and it smelled this bad after an hour, what if it lived for a full day?

Then again, I was assuming monsters in these dungeon popped into existence. If not, that would lead to a lot of hard questions. Did this world have doors to multiple dungeon dimensions that just kept replenishing themselves? Did they live here forever waiting for us without doing anything? Even if they don't eat or drink, entropy should still matter right?

Woah Bill. Too much thinking! Not enough killing monsters. Puzzle out questions you'll never get an answer to on your own time. As we agreed, they allowed me to face the Orc alone. I could see that they were nervous by the prospect. Both looked ready to jump in at a moments notice. I can't say the feeling of apprehension wasn't mutual. This was the first time any of us faced a second floor boss. I had no idea what to expect.

I closed my eyes as U stood behind the wall, focusing my mana. With the spell was activated, I immediately turned the corner and charged the Orc. The beast stood over seven feet tall and appeared to be composed entirely of bulging muscle. If I had to guess, I would say it was around five hundred pounds. It carried a large club that looked like it weighed as much as I did in as ingle hand. If I was hit by it, then best case scenario I would be down for the count.

As I got closer, the Orc finally turned its attention on me. I stopped running at it once I was a mere ten paces away. Even with the gap, when you consider its long arm and weapon, I was only a few feet out of its range. While I didn't want to waste my mana I couldn't rush in. I needed to feel out my new opponent. Clearly blocking its massive club wasn't an option. I would need to dodge and figure out the Orc's attack pattern and then exploit it.

It yelled out in a rage, taking a few steps towards me and brought the club down upon the spot where I had just stood. It seemed to move and act like a stereotypical Orc. By that I mean stupidly and clumsily. It couldn't have telegraphed its attack any more if it wanted to. I was able to easily side step and back away gaining the same distance before the attack hit the ground. So far the information I was getting matched the hypothesis I was working off of. Large and powerful but slow and crude.

I let it attack a few more times and watched carefully as each one came. It was always the same attack. Once I finally moved in close who knew what it would do though? I just needed to be careful when I closed. I avoided the weapon while staying clear of its free hand. If it managed to grab me that would mean my death. As the weapon came down yet again, I finaly stepped towards my foe, I cutting him across the side of his stomach and quickly backing up.

A sideways swing came at me. By the time it arrived I was already out of range. The monster looked at me as if I were an annoying fly it couldn't swat. It came at me again with the over head attack. I did the same thing as before. This time when a swing came from the side, I predicted it. Ducking under the swing and cutting him at the knee while backing away.

While much thicker than the Devil Goat it had a less tough body. The muscles were bulging but not overly dense. That was a good thing. If the muscles and skin were as hard to cut through as a Devil Goat there was no chance I would be able to kill it before my mana ran out.

Dodge, slip, step in, step out.

I repeated the process over and over landing more attacks. Luckily for me, by this point the Orc was in such a fit of rage it couldn't help but continuously attack me with one swing of its club after another in quick succession. Well, as quick as it could. I realized that a thousand small cuts would take too long to kill it, so I decided to aim for the same spots again and again. Focusing on the right knee and the right elbow which I hit with my third attack.

I was confident I could dodge all these attacks, but having to constantly dance on the knife's edge was taking a toll on me. As black blood spilled out of the Orc I was careful not to lose my footing on it. Even as I knew the attacks were coming I kept having to dodge them by mere inches if I wanted to get close enough to counter. This was the kind of opponent that forced you to get into its range over and over.

While perhaps less physically demanding than the Devil Goat fight. at least that offered the chance at a quick win if you landed a perfect strike. For this opponent there was no way to avoid a longer drawn out fight where I narrowly had to escape death repeatedly.

It felt akin to walking a thick balancing beam over a large distance with jagged rocks one hundred feet below. You know you can do it if you just stayed calm, but step after step doubt creeps into your mind. You lament at how long the path distance seems. Is the beam getting thinner or is that my imagination? Did I just feel a small gust of wind on my back? Is that a spot of water on the beam? Now I need to step over it and change the entire rhythm I had build up.

I continued fighting the Orc. Each pass of its mighty club that came at me caused a slight gust of air at my face as it barely missed. Each drop of blood spilled was a new variable. As the position changed I searched the floor for a pebble or dip that would cost me my life. My mana was now running low. I wanted to finish this before it ran out, but I simply couldn't afford to rush.

Just as I considered saving my mana and fighting without my burning blade, one final cut to the knee connected. The Orc turned on me to counter attack but the weight and pressure its large frame caused its heavily injured knee to buck. It fell face first on to the ground. Unable to maintain its balance with the large club it held. I dove in seeing my chance to finish it, aiming for the back of the neck.

One chop. Two chops. Three chops.

In a few moments, it was all over. I deactivated my burning blade and caught my breath. I needed to master this spell so I could keep it activated longer and cut deeper. I cleaned off my sword on the Orc and walked to Meri and Maddy. Sadly the Orc had nothing we could sell. At least the experience and the fact that I knew I could beat a second floor boss made it worth while.

[Dungeon Floor 2 is Cleared. Floor 3 is now open]

The door appeared next to where the Orc lay. After taking a rest we had a discussion on if we wanted to proceed to floor three. This floor was a bit more challenging than the last one but not too much more. If the next floor made a comparable leap in difficulty we were confident we'd be fine. As for the third floor boss, it might be impossible to defeat it alone, but there should be no reason to believe the three of us couldn't do it together if it came to that.

The decision was unanimous. By that I meant Maddy and I agreed and Meri went along with our decision. Even while she did that, I was getting use to reading her face and facial cues. I could tell that she was curious to see what the third floor would be like and didn't consider it likely that we would meet anything the three of us couldn't deal with. Not only that, she knew it would be her turn to fight next. The tiniest bit of excitement cam to her face at the prospect. We went through the door and continued on to the third and final floor.

A large open cavern was there to meet us with only a single tunnel on the opposite side of where we entered. Inside the cavern stood an enormous group of various monsters. We would have no choice but to face them all at the same time. We started our attack even before all of them noticed us.

Meri fired arrow after arrow as dozens of monsters began their charge. If I had time to count I would estimate we had about fifty opponents to deal with. I realized then that we may have underestimated the difficulty of this floor. That or we got dealt a bad hand.

Fortunately, we already discussed what we would do if such a situation arose. We didn't plan to do it without Malik, but there was no choice but to stick to the plan we made. Maddy activated her weighted sword while I made sure nothing could sneak up behind us or to the sides. After the spell was ready Maddy and I charged towards into the group of monsters that was the closest to us. At the same time, Meri focused her arrows on the next closest group to us.

We cut down everything in our path and quickly fell back towards Meri and dealt with the group that was the next closest. We repeated the process to try to lower the numbers while they were still spread out and closing on us. We made our way back to Meri as we intercepted more opponents. If they were intelligent they could have attacked us all at once. We would have been overwhelmed easily. Thankfully these low level monsters didn't have that kind of thought process.

Only the floor bosses seemed to do anything close to thinking. These low level beast charged recklessly. If they had any thoughts at all, it was only of bloodshed and murder. With each group Maddy and I faced we dropped the number of the horde down two or three at a time before moving on to the next group. We were half way back to where we left Meri when I realized she appeared at my side, short sword in hand.

Had she already loosed the fifteen arrows she had left? With her short sword in hand and the fox claw ready to attack in her other hand there was nothing to do but work as a group side by side. We already made a large dent in the horde by this point, but were forced to keep retreating towards the wall. After each encounter I looked over my shoulder to see just how much distance we had left to give.

Twenty feet soon turned into fifteen. Fifteen feet soon turned into ten. The number of the horde was dwindling, but it seemed unlikely we would finish enough of them off before our time ran out. It would be impossible to block or dodge three or more on coming attacks with no where to move. If we only had 10 more feet to fall back to I think we could make it out of this okay. Sadly, we didn't have any more ground to run to.

There was only one option left. I felt like I was starting to get the hang of it right before coming into the dungeon today. I hadn't successfully activated the spell yet, but it was just like a word stuck on the tip of your tongue. Something you almost knew but it hanged tantalizingly out of your reach as your finger tips knocked it away as you tried to grasp it. The idea was close enough to Burning Blade that I felt I should have learned it by now, yet there was some part of Fire Sword that eluded me.

This was no time to have doubts. I retreated until my back hit the wall. “Hold out as long as you can. I'm going to use my new spell!” I tried to sound confident. I closed my eyes and focused the little mana I had left. If I failed to activate it on this attempt I wouldn't have enough mana left for a second try. Not that we had time for a second attempt in any case. Ignoring the clashing of steel that drew ever closer, I trusted them to keep me safe and focused all my mind on the task at hand.

I made a desperate mental push to finally achieve what had eluded me for over a week. My focus was as strong as Iron. I gathered the mana and forged it to my will. Pushing past all barriers in my path that threatened to make my spell fail. When I felt something was off, or that it was getting out of control I ignored the feeling and pushed forward even harder. Screw it. If I blew us all up in a ball of fire we would be just as dead.

I felt my hands burning as the hot steel and gripped my sword even tighter through the pain. Gritting my teeth I used all my focus to force the flames messily around the blade. I opened my eyes. Ignoring the pain in hands, my mind and mouth both screamed out the same words at the same time. “Get down!”

The horde was only a few feet from the wall and stacked closely together. There was no time to think. I swung my sword in a wide arc at chest level. Maddy and Meri barely managed to get down a moment before the steel and flames sailed over their heads. After finishing my swing, I couldn't hold on any longer. I dropped my sword and fell to my knees in pain. My hands mostly red but also generally discolored with swollen fleshly bumps all over them.

I looked up expecting to see my on coming death. Instead, the horde was ablaze and writhing wildly in the flames. Maddy and Meri quickly got back to their feet and cut down the disorganized horde. I tried to grab my blade to help but even the slightest touch was pure agony. I put the back of my hand against the metal just to check if it was my hands or the grip. As I expected, the grip was cool to the touch.

After finishing the horde, Meri and Maddy came to check on me. Still kneeling pitifully on the floor cradling my hands. Maddy took out our last water skin and poured everything that was left over my hands. The sweet relief was welcomed but only temporary as once the water stopped the burning sensation returned. Though less intense. Not trusting my hands to hold the skin I allowed her to pour the last remaining drops into my mouth.

I used my forearm to whip the tears of pain from my face. The ladies were kind enough to pretend not to notice. Without saying a word, Meri picked up my sword and carefully slid it back into my sheath. The look in her eyes actually seemed more pained than mine. I could tell she felt as if she had failed us again. I gave her a reassuring smile as a pat on the back was clearly not an option right now. She knew what I meant, and some things were better left unsaid.

For now there was nothing that could be done about my hands until I saw a healer. I told myself if need be I could still gut my way through it and use my sword if we were in a pinch, but I soon learned that wasn't the case. The bumps on my hand and fingers only got bigger as time went on. Closing my hands firmly would be tricky. Not to mention fine motor skills would be impossible.

Even if I found a way to completely block out the pain, swining a sword with these hands would likely end with losing my grip and sending it flying in a random direction, which may or may not be near Meri or Maddy. I had no choice but to accept for now there was nothing I could do to help with the fighting. We emptied the room of everything valuable and took a well deserved break.

I could tell Maddy wanted to ask about my level two spell, but with my burnt hands she found the timing inappropriate. It really couldn't be called a successful first usage in the first place. On the other hand I had to admit I learned a lot from it. I believe that after being healed the next time I tried to activate the spell I would be on the verge of doing it correctly. I waited for the acknowledgment that I had learned Fire Sword to pop up, but it never came. I guess even the system judged that as a failure.

At least the result wasn't bad. The three of us were still alive. As far as coming back to the third floor of a dungeon again, I wasn't so sure about that. It could have been we got an incredibly unlucky set up with having to deal with so many monsters at once. It may well have been every monster in this dungeon save for the floor boss. I eyed the suspicious cave entrance across from us.

In any case, tomorrow I would worry about that. If I can heal and properly learn the Fire Sword in the morning then even if we find ourselves in the same situation it will work out just fine. If not, we would probably have to stick to the first two floors until I learned it. After some time passed we stood. The girls were anxious to get out of here and get me back to healer. I can't say I wasn't either too. While I didn't want to rush, we had used the last of the water on my hands and our torches wouldn't last forever either.

We needed to get moving sooner rather than later. We headed to the only cave entrance there was and made our way down in.. Maddy and Meri both holding weapons while I, under my own instructions, I had a torch tied off to my arm. It looked rather silly, but it made me a little more useful than I would've been otherwise. At least now they would be free to fight. There were no side entrances in this long cave. It simply went in one straight path towards our destination. It was rather ominous to be honest.

It seemed my hunch was right. Every other monster in this dungeon besides the floor boss was in that room and now dead. We finally came to the end of the cave and saw what would be the final boss of this Dungeon. Meri took the lead as it was her turn to fight, and a fitting opponent it would be. I have seen this one in a book before. The Red Devil Rabbit. While not particularly intimidating to look at, only a fool would let down their guard down against it. It stood at the peak of the all demon rabbits.

While it weighed a mere forty pouds, its teeth and claws could cut sharper than razors blades. However, that is not what made this opponent dangerous. What made this particular beast scary is how quickly it could move, or so i read.. Tne of the quickest monster you would have to face before the high tier dungeons. It could move almost as fast as a Devil Goat in a straight line, but the instant change of direction and acceleration could easily overwhelm even multiple opponents.

What the Orc was in power this Rabbit was to speed. Meri put her short sword away and opened her hands exposing her fox claws to the rabbit. The short sword wasn't her ideal weapon in the first place and would only slow down her attacks. Maddy and I stood off to the side, putting our backs against the cave. She stood slightly in front of me with her sword pointed outwards and ready to block an oncoming attack. This was truly an opponent Meri was best suited to handle.

The Rabbit launched a charge at Meri pointing its long sharp red horns at her core. Blood lust filled Meri's eyes as she looked over her prey. The anger and frustration she felt over my injuries spurring her into that predator head space. Not to mention, she had not fully come down from the fighting she'd done in the cavern. It was for the best that her head was into this fight instantly. It needed to be.

Right before they clashed, the Rabbit quickly darted to the side. Meri followed not even a heart beat behind, but it was already well out of her range. She ran toward it trying to catch up, but the distance only increased. It was the first time I've ever seen Meri lose in a contest of quickness. The Red Devil Rabbit circled around and closed in on her with an irregular pattern. Meri who was forced to back up unable to predict and match its movements.

She barely dodged and attack and slashed at empty air as it dashed away. She was always behind the pace of this opponent. Maddy and I watched the fight closely but were unable to do anything. Even if Maddy and I could both join in, we'd be more likely to get in her way than help. For humans like us, fighting in the open against such a opponet was impossible. We would need to fight near a wall and play defense until a chance presented itself. At least at our current levels.

Trying to think of something I could do to help, It was Maddy who was the first to yell out to Meri. “Some of its jumps are bigger than others. Back away and try to get it to take a big leap towards you. When its in the air it can't dodge.” Looking at the fight I realized she was absolutely correct. Chasing the rabbit only caused it to hop away or take small zig zag hops to the side. pursuit was pointless and would only exhaust you. If on the other hand you could tempt it into coming at you in a big jump it would be defenseless.

Meri immediately did as Maddy suggested. Attack while retreating, running backwards faster and faster causing the rabbit to move faster to close the distance and take longer jumps. Meri craftily made it use to jumps of that distance and then forced it to take even longer ones by creating even more space with her retreats. She was now moving backwards as fast as she could. She faked another giant leap backwards to tempt the rabbit.

The rabbit in response took a large leap towards her. Meri quickly charged towards the rabbit with all the force and speed she could muster. Seeing what was happening, the rabbit panicked in midair. The reaction speed of it was beyond amazing. It reached out its leg for any purchase or footing, but found none. Instead it only was able to twist around in the air as if trying to swim away from the coming onslaught. It may have thought it found a reprieve as its foot finally felt ground beneath it. By then it was too late..

The foxclaw came down.. The back legs carried out the last command sent to them and jumped away, leaving the front half of the rabbit behind. Meri delivered the final blow to the head to end the high pitched and devilish squealing. The back legs continued to twitch for some time after as if still trying to run away. Meri collapsed on the floor as she caught her breath. I've never seen her so worn out. Then again, I have never seen her keep up that speed for that long. A box popped up in front of us.

[Rank 1 Dungeon Cleared. Dungeon Test unlocked]

I remembered that twenty five days ago I promised Malik that I would complete the first test in a month. For the first time after making that boast, I finally had the chance to back up my words in front of me. Of course I wasn't about to take it now. Still, the milestone of what we had just accomplished wasn't lost on me. Maddy and even Meri after seeing the option pop up had a smile on their faces. We had cleared a rank one dungeon all by ourselves.

There was no point in discussing the test.. We all knew what the answer would be. We quickly gathered all of our items and exited through the other door. After making our way back to town we split up to get everything we wanted done as it was getting late. I went back to our Inn to put ina food order. Maddy took the sack of monster parts to exchange for money and Meri went to find a healer and bring them back to the Inn.

We were quickly parted and quickly reuinted at the Inn. The healer didn't seem so pleased to be called out this late. I'd probably need to pay him extra, but at this point I didn't care. You don't want an unhappy healer patching you up. While he was more expensive than the last one he was also better than her. My hands were no longer in pain by the time he finish beside dull ache. His orders were a good night's sleep and see him in the morning if the swelling didn't fully go down.

Since we had just left the dungeon and Meri had been through a difficult series of battles her usually shyness had yet to resurface. She still acted reserved, but it was nice to see this side of her again. I was sad to know it wouldn't last long as the years of rigorous training she had been through slowly chipped away at her adrenaline high. I couldn't help but chuckle when she ordered an extra helping of rabbit stew. Maddy and I followed her lead for good measure. She gave one of her rare grins in that moment. It was subtle and frail, but it was there.

This being the first time Maddy had seen Meri act so bold I found she came on a little too strong and pushed too hard for more. I couldn't bring myself to tell her to tone it down. Besides, it might do Meri good to be pushed like this a bit. When we started this journey the only connection Maddy and Meri had to each other was myself. They got along but you couldn't truly call them friends. Watching them now I was pleased to see that such a tight bond had formed.

In celebration of our first successful trip through an entire dungeon Maddy ordered us a couple goblets of wine each. Meri had one but refrained from the other. I decided it wouldn't hurt to have both of mine, but I kept out a weary out for anything that seemed out of place while doing so. All of us getting drunk could lead to a bad situation and two was the most I could have and keep my wits about me.

Maddy complained about us being party poopers and quickly down the one Meri declined to drink and with the two she ordered for herself. I was worried she might reach for a fourth one but she was able to excise enough judgment not to. I couldn't blame her for wanting to indulge. She was a woman who was forced into the spot light at a young age. Commanded to act properly at all times and do her duty. The minor games she played with people and jokes she had at their expense were the closest she could come to cutting loose in her life before we left.

Unlike Meri whose instinct to do reach for those things was completely beaten out of her by force at an early age, Meri still had the urge but not the chance. As odd as that may sound, in certain ways it made her circumstances were more depressing. All that being said, I couldn't berate her for one night of letting loose. She had been through so much and deserved it. I would happy see Meri do the same, but she needed to get to the point she would allow that of herself.

With our celebrating and merry making done, we retired up to our rooms for the night. I watch Meri and Maddy enter. Maddy still being a bit unsteady on her feet, but I doubted she would feel sick. I reminded Meri to lock the door and waited to hear the bolt close before heading into my own. Before entering, I took one last suspicious look over the crowd. Trying to spy anyone who seemed out of place or overly interested in us.

I promised myself I would never drop my guard again. After what happened to June, and I planned on keeping that promise. I wanted to practice my magic before going to bed, but with so little mana and feeling exhausted, I decided to take the healers advice and have a nice long rest.

I woke some hours later to a soft knock on the door. Picking up the dagger I now kept on me at all times, I slowly walked over without making a sound. Opening the door in a flourish with dagger at the ready, I saw Maddy standing there. Alone in a thin simple white clothing holding a candle. The flame in the otherwise dark Inn caused her smooth skin to give off a sexy glow.

A hint of her bosom showed slightly through the thin white fabric. The first time I had a chance to see it since the ball. It brought back the memory of the feeling of having her pressing against me as we danced. As well as her teasing and indecent proposal when she offered to set me up with one of her cute friends away from prying eyes.. I put the knife down at my side. I was about to ask her if something was wrong or maybe she was in fact feeling sick from too much drinking.

Before I could say anything she softly asked. “May I come in? I want to talk with you about something.” I shook my head slightly to clear the cobwebs out. Before stepping aside to let her in.

Remember Bill, you don't want any unneeded drama!