Theo ran at full tilt while a horde of packers chased him through the darkness. He hastily retrieved another crystal and began charging it with mana. After Mavis had shown him that these crystals could be reused, Theo decided to keep a few in his pocket as emergency light sources. Their second, more explosive use was something he’d thought up on the fly. All magic tools react violently when broken. Considering these crystals produced light, it only made sense that they would release that stored energy as a blinding flash.

Or, they could have simply fizzled out, like when a ball of magelight is broken. Theo was very glad that hadn’t happened.

If Theo had realized how potent they would be, then he would have filled his bag with crystals at every opportunity. Instead, he was already down to his final shard. Without it, he would be running blind, and so Theo regretfully held the crystal out to light his way.

The outlaw’s legs screamed as he ran. His wounds continued to bleed, further enticing his pursuers. Theo knew that he couldn’t keep this up. Losing them in the darkness was impossible. He couldn’t outrun the packers, nor could he hide from them. Theo cursed inwardly and drew his dagger. As he did so, the outlaw caught a glimpse of something at the edge of his vision. Theo had been moving too quickly to see it clearly, but it had been conspicuously white.

*Hiiine*

One of the packers cried out in terror.

*Snap*

The horde stopped. Theo did too. He looked back and saw a blue tentacle protruding from the wall. The other packers growled fiercely, but the tentacle appeared undaunted. Suddenly, more tentacles burst through the tunnel. The packers were plucked one by one. A steady rhythm of snapping noises rang out, and then there was silence. Theo hesitantly inched his way towards the gruesome scene.

“Mavis…is that you?”

One of the tentacles retraced and a white mask poked through the hole.

“Glad…find…you.”

Mavis slithered onto the ground and quickly worked to reform its body.

“Feel…rumble…other side…burrow…find…you.”

“You felt tremors from me running and then burrowed through the wall?”

Mavis nodded happily.

“Well, whatever. I’m just glad that you’re ok.”

“If I’d done all that fighting, just to start from zero again…” Theo wisely left that sentiment in his head.

Mavis’s ‘hair’ twitched for a moment, and then it looked away.

“Glad…you…ok…too.”

After a brief pause, Mavis suddenly turned to face Theo.

“Wait…no…ok…many…damage…”

“I’ll live.” Theo assured it. “What happened to the guy chasing you?”

“He…die…”

Theo blinked. For him, the slime’s guilty tone was even more surprising than the fact that it had won. He wouldn’t have expected a monster to feel sympathy towards its attacker. Theo sighed as he remembered how Mavis took care of him after he’d passed out. Mavis had been genuinely worried about him even before he promised to take it to the surface. Maybe that was just the slime’s true nature.

“You did what you had to.”

Mavis said nothing as it continued to reshape its body. Theo shrugged and got to work treating his wounds. Injuries were an every-day affair for raiders and they had several ways of handling them.

Recovery potions were cheap to make, but difficult to carry. Most potions needed to be drank in large doses to have any effect. Carrying some for emergencies was prudent, but they couldn’t be relied on for casual treatment.

Magic could heal wounds, but that required the assistance of a mage. Channeling mana into tools was something that every human (and monster) could do, but casting magic was an entirely different beast. There had been an extremely small number of eccentrics who studied magecraft before dungeons appeared. Mages were more common nowadays, but becoming one required diligent study and even more importantly—talent. Theo had already been assured that his talent as a mage was nonexistent.

Healing magic tools were easy to carry, simple to use and incredibly effective. They were also expensive enough to make most raiders cry tears of blood. These high-quality treasures could only be found in the furthest depths of a dungeon. Obviously, they were out of reach for an outlaw.

Which left Theo with the fourth and most popular way of healing in a dungeon. Though, it was only popular by necessity.

Theo spun his dagger between his fingers as he walked towards a packer’s corpse. He knelt down and cut into the monster’s chest. The raider plunged his free hand into the wound and retrieved a tiny black orb. It shone dimly with magic energy. After grimacing for a moment, Theo popped the orb into his mouth. He could feel an invisible power exploding inside of him. Various cuts and bruises on his body began to disappear.

All dungeon monsters had cores. For a slime, their core was everything, but that was outside the norm. Most monsters simply carried cores inside of them. Cores were the source of a monster’s mana, but their exact function was still being debated. Monster cores would persist for a short time after their owner’s death. During this time, raiders could eat them to recover their vitality.

Theo quickly moved on to the next corpse. Weak cores like these weren’t very effective. However, just like packers as a species, their lack of quality could be made up in quantity.

“We should get out of here.”

Theo stood up. Blood remained on his clothes, but he had fully recovered.

“No…finish…”

“You can touch yourself up later. I don’t know if that rich guy survived, but it’s better to be safe than sorry.”

“Ok…go…where?”

“Uh…” Theo scratched his head and pointed in the direction that he’d been running. “That way. It’s not like we have a compass. So, the plan is to keep moving until an exit appears.”

“Ah…” Mavis muttered. Its hair suddenly fell flat.

“What?”

“Forgot…search…corpse…”

“Oh…”

Theo wore a conflicted expression.

“That’s fine…Everyone makes mistakes…”

When he thought about the rare tools that guard must have owned, Theo really did want to cry tears of blood.

- - -

“I-It’s…There’s…We…”

For once, it wasn’t Mavis speaking nonsense.

As the sun began to set in the world above, Theo stumbled across something that he hadn’t expected to find. It was light. Not light from a crystal. Not light from a torch. Not light from a mage, or the glow of enchanted clothing. This was sunlight from the outside world.

The raider stared dumbly at the tunnel ahead of him. Unlike an endless number of passageways in the first layer, this one lead to the mouth of a cave. An exit. Mavis looked somewhat alarmed as Theo sped off towards the light. He crossed the threshold and gazed up at the reddened sky. Theo was about to laugh, but then his eyes caught a faint shimmer rippling beneath the clouds. He noticed similar aberrations every few seconds. They were particularly noticeable near the tips of the mountains that surrounded this area.

“Oh…”

Theo sank to his knees.

“I forgot…you can’t leave Naraka from the first layer without a lift.”

Mavis caught up to him and glanced around. The slime looked incredibly confused.

“Room…so…wide…no…ceiling…”

“Yup.” Theo chuckled ruefully, standing back up. “Welcome to the second layer, Mavis.”

“Huh?” Mavis muttered. It crouched, staying low to the ground like a frightened animal. “This…was…second layer?”

As Theo watched the slime, he caught himself smiling.

“Have you been here before?”

“Found…long…ago…no…ceiling…fear…came back.”

Theo raised an eyebrow. “The entire surface is like that, you know.”

“Ehh?”

Mavis quivered for a moment and then stood up straight.

“Ok…no…problem…”

“Can you see that mountain?” Theo pointed. “We’re technically outside right now, but the mountain peaks are enchanted. There’s a massive invisible ceiling far above us.”

“No…see.”

Theo looked back at the slime and traced its line of sight. It was staring directly at the mountain.

“Oh yea, six meters. You keep looking around with that mask, so I forgot.”

A slime’s vision might allow them to see through darkness and past corners, but their ‘sight’ only extended six meters in any direction. This was ideal for living in tunnels and caves. However, it became a serious flaw under an open sky. Travelling to a faraway location was impossible without outside help. When Mavis first discovered the second layer, it hadn’t seen a sprawling mountain path. It had only seen a disturbingly empty clearing.

“Layer…so…different…how?”

“I don’t know how to answer that.”

Mavis’s hair fluttered slightly. “Tell…about…layers…how…work.”

“Does it even matter? We’re going straight back to the first layer.”

“But…here…surface.”

“Like I said, this is still part of the dungeon. Even if there’s a sky, we can’t…”

Theo suddenly closed his mouth. He placed a hand on his chin furrowed his brow. Mavis waited patiently while he thought.

“Every layer in Naraka has an exit. We could turn back and search for a lift, or go further down and look for a one-way portal.”

“Which…easy?”

“The first layer’s monsters aren’t anything to worry about…no offense. We might run into that rich guy, but that’s not guaranteed. The real issue is actually finding a lift. Traveling through the first layer takes about three days with a compass. Without one, we could be wandering around for over a week.”

“What…about…one-way portal?”

“The monsters on the second layer are more dangerous. The raiders here are generally stronger, though the pair we fought were probably strong enough to enter the third layer. As for the portal, I heard that it was about half-way through. Traveling the second layer takes around a week, so we could leave in three or four days.”

Theo turned to Mavis.

“What do you think? Which sounds better?”

Suddenly, Theo realized how strange his life had become. He was genuinely asking a slime for advice. The two of them were sharing information and making decisions like any raiding party would. Taking a slime as a party member…Days ago, the very thought of it would have made him laugh. Even when he first met Mavis, Theo had expected it to be more of a mascot than an ally.

But this slime had saved his life. Twice, in fact.

When he reflected on his experiences in Jigou, Theo realized that Mavis might actually be the most reliable party member he’d ever had.

“What is…day…and…week?”

Though, that said more about his acquaintances than it did about Mavis.

“Uh…they’re units of time, I’ll explain later. The point is, we can get out of here twice as quickly if we travel through the second layer.”

“First layer…safe. Second layer…fast.”

“Yup.”

“Hear…from…raider. Raiding…never...safe.”

“That’s true.”

“Then…choose…fast…less…chance…go wrong.”

“I…” Theo stared at Mavis with wide eyes. “I actually agree with you.”

Mavis’s hair swayed back and forth, like a dog wagging its tail.

“More…exciting…too. Never…see…second layer.”

“Well, I guess I haven’t either.” Theo replied, catching himself smiling yet again.