Huay’s eyes widened. “What? Isn’t she winning!?”

Beale turned back around and continued to dance between attacks with the same grace as before, and she was still landing hits. Huay couldn’t see any reason to give up so suddenly—especially not when the fight had yet to conclude. She looked to Salein for answers, who had long since gone stiff. Her face was heavy and drained of life.

Salein closed her eyes and took a long breath before stepping toward the bridge while slowly reaching to her belt for a knife.

“Cut the rope, Huay!” Beale’s now desperate shout stopped Salein in her tracks.

Huay’s stomach dropped. She took a step back, suddenly nauseous. “But you’d fall too!”

“She’ll die either way!” Salein shrieked at Huay. “Make it count!”

“But she hasn’t lost yet! She can still win!”

“We can’t let it get closer! Do it!”

Huay looked up at Beale and then to Salein. With tears already in her eyes, she drew her sword. It felt heavier than lead in her quaking hands. I can’t do this! She took a step forward. This is wrong! Another step forward. I’d be a murderer! She arrived at the base of the bridge and to frayed ropes that held it. Why am I doing this?! Huay knew that she had to act. The monster would kill all three of them if she failed to do what needed to be done. Is this what it comes down to? All because I was too weak to survive on my own? She raised her blade up above her shoulders and hesitated. It always comes back to me. Jorlaan. Beale. They died so that I would live.

“Please, Huay!” Beale called out one last time.

Huay grimaced and, with great lamentation, brought the sword down.

The bridge roared as it went plummeting down into the abyss. Beale and the monster quickly disappeared into the black and, with that, an overwhelming silence took hold. The threat was gone.

Neither Salein nor Huay moved for some time, and it was only after the voice spoke that the world resumed.

“Partial kill. +844 XP.”

“Level increased to 10.”

“Ability earned. Golden Glow: User can temporarily boost the strength of parts of their own body.”

“Title earned. Lamprey: User steals all kill XP awarded to those in the vicinity.”

“Partial kill. +1250 XP.”

“Level increased to 11.”

“Beale wanted me to get the XP from the kills…” said Huay. “Both of them…”

The two stood at the ledge for a while longer. A lot had happened in a few short days. Salein had lost her two closest friends, and Huay felt responsible for their deaths. The world seemed to freeze in wake of it all, and neither survivor knew what to think.

After some time, Salein looked toward the enormous double doors marking the entrance to the fifth floor. Seeing this, Huay understood the gesture and approached them. Both worked wordlessly to push it ajar.

An enormous staircase greeted them, this one by far the grandest of the dungeon. They began ascending. Decorative paintings depicting disembodied hands and legs lined the walls.

“So you’re level 10 now,” Salein broke the silence, “What did you receive?”

“I got to 11,” said Huay. “I got XP from Beale too.”

“Well, that’s what she wanted…” Salein clenched her fist for a moment. “You got a Title and an Ability. What are they?”

“My Title is Lamprey.”

“I see… You should avoid telling that to others. And what about your Ability?”

“Golden Glow… the same as hers.”

Salein stopped. “Is that true?”

“Yeah.”

“I can’t believe it. That’s ridiculous…”

“...Yeah.”

“Can you use it?”

“How would I do that?”

“Just activate it.”

“Just… activate… it?” Huay frowned. There was no way it could be that simple. Even so, she decided to give it a try and raised her hand.

It took some effort but, after a few seconds of focus, her entire body began to give off faint yet unmistakably golden light. Seeing herself glowing surprised Huay and broke her concentration. The light disappeared.

“That’s definitely her Ability.” Salein sighed.

Huay tried to use it again, finding it much easier on the second attempt. Her body lit up as soon as she willed it and stopped glowing immediately after she wished for it to stop.

“You have a powerful ability. One of the best I know of,” Salein said. “You should avoid telling others about it too. That’s the kind of ability that recruiters will hunt you for.”

“Do you think we can beat Sosiri?”

“Probably.”

The awkward silence returned. Huay thought mostly about Beale and her ability. It was a strange feeling to suddenly have magic powers. She felt guilty whenever her mind drifted toward wondering what she could use them for. The fact that she had gained so much because of Beale’s death soured the thought of her newfound strength.

“So, what will you do after we finish the dungeon?” asked Salein. “You never said.”

“I still don’t know. I really didn’t think I’d make it this far…”

“Start thinking about it. You can live off the loot for a few months. Longer if you sell Sandiver. I imagine that auction would pull some big names.”

“I’ll probably sell it. I don’t want to be in a situation where I’d need it again.”

“The money won’t last forever.”

“Aren’t there other things to do for a living?”

“You could run easier dungeons… Even Sand-Swept Tomb again, once you’re a few levels higher.”

“I never want to step foot in another dungeon.”

“Fair enough. But you should know that immigrants don’t have many options. You can be a farmhand, a factory worker, a footsoldier, or an adventurer,” Salein said. “And adventuring is the only respectable option. You don’t have to run more than a couple dungeons a year.”

“Is there really nothing else?”

“I doubt it. Even if you were a citizen, things would be about the same. It’s hard to get anywhere in Misrafal without having been born into a clan.”

Huay took a second to think. “Being a farmer sounds doable, I guess. Maybe I’ll try that.”

“Well… Good luck.” Salein shook her head.

The two continued their ascent. Climbing the staircase felt remarkably easy to Huay after all of the level ups, and they made rapid progress toward the fifth floor.

It was an amazing feeling. Huay had been something of a couch potato before her arrival to the new world. Before, even something simple as walking up a hill had been quite taxing. Now though, Huay felt like a proper athlete. The rapid progress was an intoxicating pleasure, and Huay couldn’t help but be a little curious about how it would feel to be someone with power like Salein’s. I bet I could’ve outrun Dirma if I’d been like this before…

They eventually arrived at the top of the staircase. The destination was a monumental chamber adorned with macabre displays of otherworldly elegance. Fleshy statues made from stitched-together human parts depicted scenes of amputee monarchs in battle, adorned with high-level jewelry and headwear that Huay understood from the guidebook was the main source of dungeon loot besides the Funeral Room.

A massive ebony arch that looked the same as the frame of the portal they’d come through into the dungeon protruded out from the wall in front of the staircase. Huay assumed that the portal would activate after Sosiri was dead. There it is.

A low throbbing like the beating of a drum resonated throughout the fifth layer. Huay tensed up upon realizing that the source was a gigantic heart, about the size of a room, chained to the ceiling like a chandelier. Level 30. Putrid blood spurted out from its valves like a fountain with each beat and fell to a gigantic basin at the center of the room.

Atop a gilded throne on the side opposite the portal frame was Sosiri. He sat upright with a stiff back and eyes closed shut. Level 18? That seems awfully low… Huay broke out in goosebumps. Sosiri was little more than a corpse—with a small, bony stature. He was still limbless, but there was now a gaping hole in his chest where the heart should have been. Just looking at the shriveled creature, who remained motionless as a corpse, sent chills down her spine.

“He won’t attack until we make the first move,” said Salein. “Relax.”

“Why is he only level 18?” asked Huay.

“Because this is a level 15 dungeon. The higher level monsters you’ve come across so far are meant to be avoided, not killed.”

“Wait. So this guy is easier than the miniboss?”

“Saathraan is miles above him, yes.” Salein dropped her bags near the staircase. “The funeral room guardian is always the strongest in a dungeon. But this won’t be easy. We only have two people and dungeon bosses are unnatural beings. Killing them can require unconventional tactics.”

“So what’s our plan?”

Salein pointed to the heart on the ceiling. “That’s our target. Sosiri will die once his heart stops. His body is nothing more than a puppet of the core… I’ll shoot into the heart, while you keep the body busy. How confident are you in your skill with Golden Glow?”

“I mean… I just got it an hour ago.”

“Then we’ll train.”

After a few hours of dedicated practice, Huay was a great deal better with Golden Glow. Salein’s instruction proved invaluable in part due to her extensive experience with Beale. She knew a great deal regarding the inner workings of the ability and, by the time the two were done, Huay had obtained some level of rudimentary skill with the Ability.

She was still entirely incapable of modulating Golden Glow’s intensity—which, according to Salein, was absolutely essential to make effective use of the Ability—but she could at the very least partially focus the glow into her hands. It took total concentration to accomplish even this minor feat, and she could only maintain the focus required for a few seconds at a time. Moreover, the other parts of her body were even harder to focus the glow into.

As if those limitations weren’t bad enough, there was also the fact that using Golden Glow for any prolonged period of time was incredibly taxing on her body, to the point where using it for more than thirty seconds at once left her too fatigued to move for several minutes afterwards.

The reason for this immense strain, explained Salein, was because of Huay’s limited control. The Ability, as she was capable of using it, was either one hundred percent or nothing. It was a far cry from the mastery that had allowed Beale to use Golden Glow for hours on end, only providing small boosts where it was most crucial.

Seeing as how things had gotten so dire, Huay ended up showing Salein the Pocket Gauntlet during their training session. Salein had been quite impressed that she had found such a valuable item, explaining that, among all their loot, it was second only to Sandiver in monetary value. She said nothing of the fact that Huay had kept it a secret up to that point. Why isn’t she mad at me?

The first tier of Golden Glow could only be used to augment oneself. Using Golden Glow on objects—as Beale had done with her armor and spear—was something that only became possible after receiving Golden Glow II. So for right now, it worked best with an unarmed fighting style. As such, Salein advised Huay not to even bother bringing Sandiver into the battle. The blunt impact of punches with Golden Glow and the Pocket Gauntlet would be more effective against Sosiri than anything Sandiver could do—seeing as the boss was immune to physical damage. It could at least knock him down.

Salein spent a few minutes giving Huay a crash course in fistfighting so that she would at the very least be able to land a few hits against Sosiri.

“Certification earned. Pugilism [Novice].”

The end result of the training session was Huay gaining the ability to punch with such unfathomable force that she could leave visible cracks in the brick walls of the dungeon. A Golden Glow infused fist, when augmented with the Pocket Gauntlet, could do enough damage to kill an average person.

With Huay’s training finished, the two took out the last of their rations and began what they hoped would be the final meal of the dungeon.

“So to reiterate, your job is to be a distraction. Don’t let him near me unless you’re about to die. The heart regenerates if left unattended.”

“Right. I can do that.”

“Good. Did you read about his void limbs in the guidebook?”

“I remember Jorlaan saying something about that, but nothing from the book.”

“Okay. Sosiri will have at least one ‘void limb’ at the start of the battle. You’ll know it when you see it. He’ll stop at nothing to steal the limb that corresponds with it. If it’s a leg, he’ll simply fall over and crawl at you. If it’s an arm…”

“If it’s an arm?”

“You’ll have to be cautious.”

“Can’t you just distract him yourself? He wouldn’t be able to catch you.”

“You don’t have any effective ranged attacks, and I can’t shoot accurately while running.”

“Well, what if you killed Sosiri and then focused your attention on the heart?”

“Again, Sosiri’s body is invulnerable so long as the heart remains. I could shoot at it all day and never pierce its skin.” She sighed. “We’ll do as I said earlier. You distract the body while I kill the heart. Simple as that.”

Salein was already warming up by the time Huay awoke.

“We start in ten minutes,” Salein said. “Get ready.”

Huay’s grogginess disappeared immediately. It had been hard to rest with the constant drone of Sosiri’s heart always reminding her of the coming battle. She jumped up onto her feet and ran through the warmup Salein had told her about.

She started with the glow focused at the top of her head and tried to gradually move it down through her body toward her toes. It was difficult, and all the while Huay had the feeling she was doing something wrong, but by the time she was done, Huay felt as prepared as she could have been.

She walked to the spot she was supposed to stand for the start of the fight and waited for Salein’s orders, leaving Sandiver with the rest of her belongings at the staircase. Once in position, she slid the Pocket Gauntlet onto her right index.

After several minutes, Salein called out to Huay. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” Huay’s hands were shaking.

“One minute! You only have to last a minute.” She readied her bow. “Good luck.”

Salein summoned an arrow and brought it to the bowstring. She pulled back, took a deep breath, and let it fly.