Dalton read the quest twice before blinking it away and sitting down by Jackson’s snoring body. He desperately wanted to sleep as well, but doing so would leave the both of them in danger, and anyway his mind was too wired.

First, he put a point into Form Combo, now that he knew what he was doing.

*Ding* You have increased Form Combo from 0 → 1

Next, he thought about the quest he just received and what he learned so far. Each Form had two complementary Forms it could transition into: Wave had Stone and Breeze, Stone had Wave and Flame, and so on.

The fact that he couldn’t transition straight from Wave into Flame or Bolt was troubling. It was something he needed to work on, and the existence of the quest only urged him on to do so.

But for now, he thought, looking down at Jackson, who was muttering in his sleep, I have to make sure we survive this Dungeon.

Which was easier said than done at this current moment. Dalton’s eyelids drooped like snow-laden eaves. He wasn’t even sure how long he’d been in the Dungeon at this point, and before he dropped down here he had pulled an all-nighter playing Evelon. Plus, he’d never been the most active of guys, so all this moving around (though aided by his stats) wearied him greatly.

He tried his hardest to be vigilant. At times when he caught himself falling asleep, he entered Boltform to give himself a little jolt of alertness. That Form made him feel wired, like the time he tried one of his cousin’s Adderals to study before an exam.

It was not an entirely pleasant feeling.

Please wake up, he silently begged Jackson’s snoring body. Any minute now.

At one point, he shamefully poked Jackson with the butt of his glaive. The big guy grumbled and turned but didn’t wake up.

Dalton sighed but didn’t try again. Jackson had healed him using some of his skills, so the least he could do was let him rest.

Time passed agonizingly slow. Never in his life had Dalton just sat down and done nothing. He’d always had his phone or computer playing something in the background. Now, he just stared glumly at the walls, or made funny faces in the crystalline blade of his glaive.

But, he thought wryly, better to be bored than fighting for your life. He thought this must be how active duty soldiers felt.

Eventually, as it was bound to at some point, nature called. Dalton walked to the far wall from Jackson and, with not a little bit of awkwardness, peed.

At least it’s not number two, he thought, pulling his pants up afterwards.

However, that act of normalcy amidst the utter craziness of the past however many hours reminded him of another very human need: food and water. His stomach yowled, and his throat suddenly felt parched.

“Shit,” he muttered, walking back to Jackson, who had somehow gotten ahold of the shield and was cuddling it. “Wish I fell with my lunch bag…”

Dalton bent down to sit again at his spot.

Then he heard it. A scream.

He immediately leapt to his feet with his glaive at the ready. His tiredness didn’t disappear; instead it seemed to intensify at the thought of another fight, but he shoved it away at the back of his mind for the moment.

The noise came from the left path. He agonizingly stared down the darkness, but he couldn’t leave Jackson alone; he had no idea what the monsters of this place were like, and this could be some kind of trap designed to lure him away.

But the screams only grew, and in his muddled state, Dalton could have sworn that was Kelsey’s voice.

He forced himself to enter Waveform for the calming effect, but his agitation broke through, and he angrily dropped out of it.

The sound of screaming intensified. Whoever it was drew closer. Dalton stood at the ready, cold sweat beading on his forehead, while Jackson muttered and shifted about in his sleep.

From the darkness of the path came… a girl. For a heart-still moment, Dalton thought it was Kelsey. This girl was short with brown hair, tanned skin and a small, rounded face, just like Kels, but as she drew closer Dalton saw it wasn’t her. She was too young. A freshman.

Multiple metallic arrows pierced her body. One in her shoulder, the other in her calf, the third through her forearm. She clasped half a broken staff to her chest, weeping and shaking. When she saw Dalton, her eyes widened and hurried her limping pace.

“Help!” she cried. “Help, please! He’s coming! He’s—”

Midway through her sentence, an arrow pierced the darkness behind her and slammed through the back of her skull. The tip exited out her mouth like a forked tongue. Blood sprayed across Dalton’s face.

She stumbled, shocked eyes meeting Dalton’s horrified ones, and collapsed. Her staff rolled across the floor before bumping against his shoes and stopping.

The strange arrows melted in her body into streams of metallic liquid that flowed back towards the darkness.

Where a pair of clanking footsteps could be heard.

“Jackson, wake up!” Dalton shouted, fear making him awake.

“Urgh.. what…?” Jackson mumbled irritably.

Dalton hit him across the head with the butt of his glaive, and the big guy scowled and looked up.

“What was that for?!” he snapped. Then his eyes travelled from Dalton down to the dead girl’s body, and he leaped to his feet.

“What the fuck happened?” Jackson whispered.

Dalton swallowed and pointed his shaking glaive towards the left path. “S-something’s coming.”

He couldn’t explain the sense of dread he felt that was emanating from the path, but he didn’t have to. As Jackson turned towards it, the blood drained from his face, and he took an unconscious step backwards.

“R… Run…” Jackson stuttered. “We should… run.”

Dalton whole-heartedly agreed. But his legs wouldn’t move. He couldn’t even find the Forms. He tried entering Wave for clarity, or Stone for solidity, but both slipped away from his grasp.

And as whatever was in that path came closer, so too did the feeling of dread. Until his muscles weakened and the glaive dropped from his hand, rattling on the ground to an impotent stop.

He and Jackson could only watch as the monster stepped into the light.

It was the shape of a man, broad-shouldered and tall, wearing a standard archer’s equipment from a RPG. His skin and clothing were of the same grey-silver metal that the arrows were made of, and the whorls running throughout it reminded Dalton of Damascus steel. He held a massive longbow of the same metal in one hand, and there was a strange disc embedded in the middle of his chest that had a green bow-and-arrow symbol glowing in the middle.

En, the Dungeon Guardian

His name was written in black. Earlier Dalton had told Jackson that red was the dangerous color to look out for.

What, then, did black mean?

“More humans,” En said, his voice monotone and disinterested. His blank eyes bored into Dalton’s, making him tremble. “Infesting the Dungeon like parasites. I should kill you both.”

“Fortunately for you, a Dungeon of this rank only dictates I kill five of you.” En walked right up to where the girl’s body laid in a pool of her own blood. He towered over Dalton and Jackson and sneered before bending down and picking up the girl’s lifeless body, slinging her over his shoulder. “And this one was the fifth. Grow strong, little insects. Do not let yourself be defeated by lesser creatures. Core willing, I wish to kill you myself in another spawn.”

En turned around and walked away, back down the path he came.

And only when his body was no longer visible did Dalton break out of his paralyzed state. He wiped his sweating face and picked up his glaive, feeling more comfort with its weight in his hand.

“Dalton,” Jackson said, in a similar state of shock. “I…” He closed his mouth.

Dalton stared at the blood where the girl’s body had laid. He didn’t even know her name.

“I know,” he whispered, his hand gripping painfully tight around the glaive. “I know, Jackson.”

He turned and met Jackson’s eyes dead-on. As he did, he saw the image of the arrow piercing through the girl’s face repeating in his mind, and he knew that was something that would haunt him for the rest of his days.

“We’re going to kill that fucker one day,” Dalton swore, entering into Flameform for the passion it gave him. “I promise.”

Jackson blinked at the sudden eruption of flames on the glaive, before grinning madly. “Yeah. Yeah, we fucking are, brother.

And between the two, a notification popped up.

[System Notification]

Special Quest Unlocked: Defeat En, the Dungeon Guardian

En, the Dungeon Guardian, is a fearsome foe who has a chance to spawn in every Dungeon entered. Encountering him almost certainly means death for any would-be Dungeon clearer. Defeat him to gain a unique reward!

Reward: The Class Disc

Dalton blinked the quest away, as did Jackson.

“Right now,” he said, exiting Flameform. “We’re too weak for him. So we have to find other survivors, clear this Dungeon, and get stronger.”

“Right,” Jackson said. He turned to the right path. “Enough messing around. Let’s go down this one. If he came from the left, and the crystal elemental from the middle, then maybe this one is the one where we can find other people.”

Dalton nodded in agreement. “That’s what I was thinking as well. Let’s go.”

With one last look at the blood of the girl, the two boys turned down the right path.

***

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Dungeon of Crystals.

Kelsey scowled as the crystal spiders closed in around her. There were four of them remaining from the eight that had swarmed her from the holes in this chamber. She took a quick peek at the strange orb floating to the right of her. The crystalline sphere was her source of mana that she drew on to use spells, and right now, it was just about empty.

She wiped the blood away from her face and grinned despite the situation. She was having an unbelievably good time. And to think it would end so soon, with her likely getting mauled and shredded to pieces.

“I’m not going down without a fight, you stupid bugs!” she howled, thrusting her hands outwards.

The spiders rushed in.