1

“Where in the hell were you?” Janna barked as they entered the fourth room.

Ethan set the bundle of fish and the wineskins onto the floor. “We went shopping,” he replied sarcastically.

Janna stood rigidly beside Damon, who was still leaning against the guardrail. She glared at them with her hands on her hips. Ethan glanced at the other two members in the room. Harper and Zack looked equally angry. He raised his hands apologetically. “Look. A lot has changed out there in the past six hours,” he sighed. “That little body of water? Well, it’s a huge river now that cuts right through the forest. And those black spots along the landscape and the border? They’re bigger now, too.”

Janna, Zack, and Harper’s anger dissipated as their mouths gaped.

“How much bigger?” Damon asked softly.

Ethan shook his head. “Twice the size at least.”

“Have the black glitches touched the tower yet?” Harper asked.

“No. But that’s probably just a matter of time,” Emma answered.

They told them about the trip to the village and the fishing while Janna removed Damon’s splint and dressing. “Hand me one of those skins,” she told Ethan. He gave her one filled wineskin. She washed Damon’s arm. He grimaced but looked happy to get the mud scrubbed from his wound. As she squirted more water onto his injury, the team saw the effect seventeen Intermediate Heal spells had had on his arm.

“Dog, you look like me now!” Zack exclaimed as he rushed to Damon to compare arms.

Damon’s right arm was as mangled as Zack’s left. The bone was healed, but the skin was covered with layers of scar tissue. Worse, he had lost some mobility in the arm, just like Zack. “Great,” Damon grumbled. “We’re tanks and we both look like cripples!” He turned to Janna, who was re-splinting his arm with some new canvas. “Am I going to be able to bend this arm again?”

Janna winced and tilted her head. “Can’t say for sure.”

Damon, who rarely ever cursed anymore, shouted an F-bomb that resounded through the stone walls of the tower. One second later, his curse was answered by every creature inhabiting the building. Cascading down onto them, almost in unison, were the growls, roars, and shrill cries of beasts they hadn’t encountered yet.

2

Harper walked slowly to the guardrail, followed by the other members. The storm was still raging outside and the light that filtered through the tower’s aperture was gone, replaced by an indigo sky. Rainwater descended from the opening, and she could feel small beads of water strike her face. They peered up anxiously at the multiple openings along the circular interior. Those rooms were completely dark.

“How many rooms are we going to have to go through?” Emma whispered.

“I don’t know,” Harper replied.

After the cacophony of roars and cries, the tower became deathly quiet again. They could hear the pitter-patter of the rain hitting the stone floor below them. They wondered if a creature would swoop down from a chamber to attack them, but that didn’t happen. It was like the monsters couldn’t leave their lairs.

“You know, if we had a rope,” Zack said in his usual loud volume, “we could climb to the top.”

Harper rolled her eyes.

They turned away from the rail. Zack showed Damon how he had been handling his weapons with one functional arm, using his mangled arm as a hoist. They discussed stopping for the day. Jordan, Ethan, and Emma wanted to continue, but the other members felt they’d had enough.

They settled on a compromise: Angie and Harper would join the other three, forming a scout team. They could venture cautiously into the rooms. Janna and Zack would stay with Damon and prepare for the night.

“But don’t be gone long,” Zack grumbled, unhappy with the concession. “If you clear a room, come back and let us know.”

While the scout team passed through the portal, Zack started a fire in the middle of the chamber near the guardrail. He cleaned the fish and threw the skins into the flames. “They better be back soon,” he grunted, “or we’re eating without them.”

Janna, who was still attending to Damon twenty feet away, agreed. “You know, the food scent might attract the monsters from the other floors,” she reflected.

“Bring it on,” Zack growled. “I’ll fight ‘em from here.”

3

Ethan, the only orc on the scout team, led them into the sixth room. He was disgusted to discover it was on another muddy basement floor. As the lead member, he had activated his Firefly spell. Harper entered next as he scanned the room for enemies. “There’s nothing here,” he muttered.

Harper started charging Fire Bullet. “Uh-uh, we’re not falling for that again.”

Before long, the mud started shaking as clumps of dirt shifted up from the floor.

“Oh, jeez,” Emma sighed. “Not the moles again.”

Her fears were allayed when a skeletal forearm poked out of the mud, clutching a short sword. The earth surrounding the creature oddly folded back like paper.

“That looks weird,” Harper commented. “Did they skimp on the graphics for this room or something?”

“Maybe it’s a magical effect,” Emma replied.

Throughout the chamber, more skeletons were punching through the dirt. The first one wiggled out of its hole and straggled toward them, holding a small shield. Harper’s Creature Description appeared.

HARRY (Level 2)

HP: 25

MP: 16

STRENGTH: 5

CONSTITUTION: 2

DEXTERITY: 2

INTELLIGENCE: 1

WISDOM: 2

XP: 25

DESCRIPTION: The reanimated bones of ancient Greek Argonauts.

“Harry?” Jordan asked, lining up beside her. “What kind of name is that? I wonder if this has anything to do with the village barn.”

Harper glanced at him curiously. She sidestepped Ethan, then flung her Fire Bullet at the oncoming skeleton. It exploded in a scattering of bones as its sword and shield skipped across the floor. The fireball drove past the first skeleton and blew away two more.

Five more skeletons advanced on them. Ethan swung his falchion across their midsections. The skeletons’ legs were strewn across the room. Their hipbones and torsos slammed to the earthy floor. From there, the mobs swung at their calves with their swords.

Ethan glanced incredulously at Emma.

The orc and hunter drove their swords through the creatures’ skulls, finishing them off. As the skeletons continued to rise from the ground, the room grew packed, but these mobs posed no real threat. Angie and Jordan took a wide route around the chamber, slaying the bone bags as they got close.

Meanwhile, Harper decided to try a few unconventional methods. As the other four members continued their attacks, Harper cast Acid Fly and guided the insect toward one skeleton. The creature stopped, dropped its equipment, and grasped at the fly, which was just out of its reach. A pack of skeletons in the same area stopped what they were doing and zeroed in on the fly. They charged at the familiar, clutching for it.

Harper snickered and sent the fly in erratic directions, swaying the mobs back and forth. The other members stopped attacking and grinned as they watched Harper’s sideshow. “I feel like I’m conducting a ballet,” she said giddily.

She ran the creatures into each other as they chased the spell around the room. One skeleton swung its sword at the fly and chopped the arm off of a nearby skeleton. As its bones rattled to the floor, the injured skeleton started mouthing words and shaking its one remaining arm at the offending skeleton, which raised its own bony arms and began flapping its jaws back at the injured skeleton.

Suddenly, they attacked each other in a storm of rage. They drove their shields and swords into one another simultaneously. Both mobs toppled to the ground in a pile of femurs, tibias, and clavicles.

Harper laughed. Skeleton road rage, she thought.

The acid fly still dazzled the remaining skeletons, oblivious to the fight. Harper rushed the fly over and past the guardrail. Nine skeletons raced after it, clambering over the rail. A moment later, their bones crashed against the floor ten stories below them.

The members ran to the guardrail to have a look at the carnage. Epiphany clouds were popping up all over the bottom of the basement. Behind them, they heard the rustle of more skeletons rising from the earth.

“If we’re not at ground level, where are the skeletons from?” Emma asked.

“Don’t ask me,” Harper quipped. “I didn’t design this game.”

Emma giggled.

4

Another batch of skeletons rose from the ground.

More easy points, Harper thought.

Oh, no. You’re not getting all the points this time, missy, Angie replied as she pierced her sword through the skull of the closest bone bag.

As the other members racked up experience points, Harper was content to hang back and experiment with her spells. She tried Poison Sphere, but wasn’t surprised when it was unsuccessful. Song of Distraction also had no effect.

The scout team cleared the room and, once again, more bones began pushing up from the earth. While Emma, Angie, and the brothers mowed down the skeletons, Harper strolled to one of the Epiphany clouds hovering in the room. She passed her hand into the cloud but didn’t receive any messages.

That’s odd, she thought. The cloud must do something? She tried her crescent knife. Still nothing. She tried the baselard next.

Congratulations, Harper! You have upgraded your level 4 poisonous Baselard to level 5 poisonous Bonebase! Your weapon has increased in length. Tell your enemies, “Let’s do some boning before the test!”

Harper gaped as a sharp bone extended from the tip of her sword.

The other four members cleared the room again, and Harper advised them to try the clouds. She cast Acid Fly, ready to keep the next wave of mobs busy. Jordan tried his bastard sword and got an upgrade.

Congratulations, Jordan! You have upgraded your level 5 Bastard Sword to level 5 Boney Bastard! Sharp bones will jut out of the base of your sword, varying your attacking abilities. Tell your enemies, “Always go to a raid with a serrated blade!”

Short bones poked out of the edges of his sword above the handle, reducing in size and tapering off one foot up the long blade. He touched one of the bones; they were razor sharp. He tried the rest of his weapons and came up with zeroes on them except for the shurikens, which received an upgrade.

Congratulations, Jordan! You have upgraded your level 3 Shurikens to level 4 Bone Spurs! Sharp bones will encircle these weapons, increasing their size and balance. Tell your enemies, “I have a bone to pick with you!”

Long, thin bones grew outward and curled with the radius of the shuriken, adding more attacking points to the three-bladed weapon. With the upgrade, the bone spur had twenty-four sharp points and was doubled in size. It’s like holding a frisbee, Jordan thought. He would need to carefully grip the bone spur from its center, but the upgrade vastly improved the weapon.

Ethan, Emma, and Angie transformed their swords in the same manner that Jordan did, with sharp bones jutting out at the blade’s base. The falchion changed to a skelchion and the nagamati sword changed to a Nagamarrow.

Emma and Angie upgraded their shurikens to bone spurs while Ethan saw his battle axe change to a level five bone-axe. That upgrade was the most significant, with nine boney daggers protruding from the back of the blade, making it a double-sided weapon. Additionally, a long bone fang jutted from the bottom of the shaft.

“I’m impressed,” Ethan cooed.

As more skeletons rose from their earthy graves, Harper decided to have more fun with them. Using Acid Fly, she lined up eight mobs near the guardrail, then zipped the familiar across the room at lightning speed. The monsters bolted after the insect, bashing their frames into the stone wall on the other side of the room. Another explosion of bones bounced off the wall and Harper snickered again.

The next round of skeletons rose from the dirt. Harper left those mobs to the other members, satisfied that they’d found a place they could camp for points. She looked over the skeleton drop of swords and shields, but the items were subpar compared to what they already had. Once Angie, Emma, and the brothers were done with the mobs, they exited the room and headed back to the fourth chamber.

5

When the scout team arrived back at the fourth room, Zack and Janna were much more jovial. Zack had the fire running at a low burn, which was enough to keep the chamber warm and push away the dampness. But it was the food that had cheered them up.

“Man, I want to stay in this world just for the fresh salmon,” Zack commented as he bit into his portion.

In unison, the five members of the scout team felt their stomachs grumble and hurried to the food. Grabbing fish and wineskins, they sat beside Damon, Zack, and Janna.

“The mobs keep respawning in the sixth room,” Harper informed them, “so it’s a good place to rack up XP.”

Zack grunted as he chomped his salmon.

“Oh, and Zack,” Angie teased, “those mobs are skeletons.”

The orc stopped eating and grinned. “Yes! I’ve been through giant worms, living trees, and two-headed wolves. Finally, we get to the good stuff!”

They discussed the weapon upgrades and how Harper had manipulated the skeletons with Acid Fly before discussing the experience points they gained.

Harper killed seventeen skeletons, giving her 425 experience points. This brought her total to 703 and advanced her to level 29. With 169 hit points, Harper was content with her constitution stat, so she dropped her 68 attribute points into intelligence and wisdom. Still, she wanted to boost her stats even more and arranged a morning skeleton hunt with Janna, Zack, and Damon.

Ethan bagged nine mobs, giving him 225 XP, which bumped him to level 24. Harper told him to invest his 36 attribute points into strength, constitution, dexterity, and endurance. Jordan sniped eleven monsters, which raised his XP total to 670. That brought him to level 27, and he dropped his 44 attribute points into strength, constitution, dexterity, and endurance as well. Emma picked off eleven skeletons, which added 275 to her total of 1,168 XP and brought her to 1,343 experience points. As a result, she reached level 50 and a new graph appeared at the bottom of her field of vision.

“Hey guys, I’ve hit the level 50 threshold,” she said proudly. “I have a ‘next level’ graphic now.”

The group toasted her with the wineskins. With the new leveling system activated, Emma learned she would need 1,347 XP to reach level 51. Her 12 attribute points from the skeleton hunting, which combined with the 40 she’d received from the salmon fishing, gave her a total of 52 points to spend. Because of her new hybrid role, Harper asked Emma to drop them evenly into intelligence and wisdom.

Angie killed eleven mobs, garnering her 275 XP, which upped her total to 691. She ascended to level 28 and dropped 44 attribute points into constitution, intelligence, wisdom, and endurance.