“Good work.” I was startled out of my reverie by a pair of green eyes peering at me from the side. “You survived well.”

I gave a halfhearted chuckled, saying, “Why does that sound like an insult.”

“It’s not. The most important thing, besides not panicking, is to not die.”

“You were responsible for my life, weren’t you? I doubt I would have died.”

The elf shrugged. “You fought like I wasn’t there, in any case. Congratulations on getting bloodied.”

With that said, his cloak shifted for a second before he raised an armored hand out. I followed his finger to a point in the tunnel. At first, I was a little confused with his actions, but I realized what he was pointing towards as the dust began to die down and Marcus’ idle chatter with the other members of our group rang out from the side.

Over in the middle of the tunnel was a Featherkin corpse. It’s body was propped up on the ground, leaning over a spear as if it had tripped and stopped mid fall. The spear itself had then stabbed straight through its stomach to come out from the other side. Dribbles of blood were running down the shaft’s length and a red puddle began to stain the floor.

I blinked at the sight, realizing that that spear was my own. That somehow the Featherkin had impaled itself on it as it had tried to chase after me. Even if my limbs were still shaking, I felt a little embarrassed at how stupid the monsters were.

“Woah, you did that?” Marcus whistled, and I turned to see him helping the other guy in our group to our feet. “I know it was weird that you ran to help me without your weapon, but geez… that’s pretty hardcore.”

The guy in Marcus’ arms laughed awkwardly, keeping his weight off of his right leg. “Yeah, now I’m feeling bad that I got injured.”

“You don’t need to feel bad!” The female member of our group piped in quickly. “You got it from protecting me. I should be the one apologizing to you…”

Our watcher stood abruptly, and I got the distinct feeling that he did that so he wouldn’t have to hear the two flirt in front of him. Sadly, my legs still felt like jello, leaving me to sit between the only wounded members of our party.

“This is Julio and Diane, by the way.” Marcus said, “Julio and I go way back, so he’s pretty cool.”

I honestly didn’t know how to reply to that. Okay, your friend is cool… good job? More like, why are you telling me?

Holding back a sigh, I said, “nice to meet you. I’m Glen.”

“Yeah, we know! It’s so cool to meet you. Sorry for dragging you down and all, I didn’t really mean to get hurt, but those claws were pretty sharp. I didn’t know they would cut through my armor so easily!” Julio spouted, and gestured to his bandaged leg, showing a gathering bloodstain on white wraps around his thigh.

Diane, luckily, was rather quiet in the whole tirade; a trait that Julio probably enjoyed since the man seemed to like hearing himself speak. Instead, she quietly messed with the bandages on her arm, tugging them tighter as if she were afraid they’d fall off.

Marcus offered a weak smile, mouthing an apology. If anything, I accepted it because the guy seemed abnormally good at reading the air. Well, at least whatever I was thinking in most cases.

Finding that Julio had started up another conversation with Diane, I turned my attention towards our elven companion. The man was eerily silent in whatever he was doing, so I hadn’t heard anything around us. And I was correct in thinking that the man would act efficiently as he had already returned to our sides without me even noticing. In his hands were a few cleaner feathers from the Featherkin and the beaks that he seemed to have gruesomely twisted off of the corpses.

“Featherkin feathers are good for arrow fletchings and their beaks are good for alchemy, I’m told,” he explained easily as he pocketed a few before handing Marcus and I some feathers and three beaks. “Remember to turn them in when you get back. There are no more free lunches, as you humans say.”

“Hey! What about ours? We helped kill some of those monsters!” Julio exclaimed.

I could tell there was a frown in the back of his dark cloak before he started to speak. “They are payment for saving you.” There was vitriol in the elf’s voice for the first time as he pointed at Julio’s bandaged leg. “Should the wound have been deeper, you would have been bedridden for days if not weeks. Now, there is only a limp that will be gone in a day or two.”

Diane tightened her grip around her bandages, and I could somehow tell that there was something about the fight that had eaten at her, too. As selfish as it was, I was a little relieved that there was someone other than me that took the fight with less vigor than the rest.

“Do you need more rest?” Our watcher asked suddenly, the shadows of his hood distinctly looking in my direction.

I blinked at the attention, almost pointing to myself in disbelief. “Me?”

He nodded. “Taking ample rest is paramount to a successful return. One cannot be in a constant state of fighting without certain Traits or periods of rest.”

“I mean-” I paused as I found everyone looking at me. “I- if we’re just going back to the entrance, I should be fine. What about Julio and Diane? They probably need more rest than me.”

He didn’t even spare the other two a glance before speaking. “Even if their injuries worsen, it’ll be much more dangerous if they do not follow. Humans tend to come from worlds without access to inner or outer energies, so getting those are the most important thing now.”

“Wait, are you talking about magic?” Julio asked, his limp suddenly going away. “Like real magic? Honest to god magic?”

“Magic is a faucet of outer energy, yes.” The elf explained.

There was a sigh as Marcus sat down beside me. I looked over to him as he shrugged and waved his hand in Julio’s direction, I relaxed in my place on the floor. It appeared that this might take awhile if Julio wasn’t stopped soon.

“This is magic we’re talking about; a huge game changer! Why we’re we taught about this earlier? I wouldn’t have had to run so much, and I would have gotten to use magic!” He frowned, looking at the bandages on his leg that had gotten a deeper shade of pink. “I wouldn’t have gotten this wound, too… hey, why weren’t we-”

“Human, you will shut up.”

Julio clamped his mouth shut so fast that I swore he had chipped a tooth. However, I was more focused on the fact that our watcher had stepped close enough to the man that they were practically nose to nose, and I hadn’t even seen the guy move.

“You humans are a pitiful lot. Two months of wasteful effort, two months of wasted food and two months of wasted time. All for you,” the elf spat. “You will die in a month with or without the magic you desire. I have no care for a man who sees not what he has gained.”

There was a lump in my throat as he spoke. I found it difficult to swallow, and I knew Julio was having a worse time. It almost made me feel like the guy didn’t deserve it. Still, I knew the first thing about complaining is that if you’re going to do it, complain in your head.

“We have rested enough.” Our watcher declared, gesturing further into the Dungeon.

No one complained as we all stood to follow.

Whatever good mood we had cultivated was gone in an instant. We just trugged on behind the irate elf, hoping that he wouldn’t suddenly attack us. I knew we had no chance if he did, but I didn’t want to find out the penalty for not following him.

In the process, I had finally started to pay attention to our surroundings without distractions. The glowing seeds from people before had, as we had been told, provided all the light we could ever need. Once dark and damp tunnels had been turned into easy to navigate caverns with a couple forks in the path every now and again.

However, even the forks in the Dungeon’s ever present tunnel system were also easy to navigate, as there were signs carved out of the walls at every possible split. It was so well done that I began to wonder exactly why there were so many casualties in the Dungeon. And, at the same time, I shivered at the thought of how terrifying those dangers were that they claimed so many despite how many advantages we had been given.

My inner reveries were driven to the back of my head as we came to another fork in the tunnels, but instead of there being an empty path on both sides, there was another Newbie group that were exiting their path. The watcher of their group was a normal human wearing a bright smile as soon as his eyes landed on our elven companion.

“Wayland! Funny catching you here; I’d assume someone like you had already finished and home back to the mines below.” He said.

Our watcher, Wayland, paused midstep. “I can’t find a room.”

“Wait, really?” The human looked almost startled, shuffling awkwardly as he looked back at the tunnel behind him. “Er, I guess it’s been awhile since we volunteered for the Newbies…” he quickly pulled out a sheet of paper before tracing his finger over paths he could see, and then pointed to the path that was next to the one he came out of. “Based on old man Thunderclaw’s charts, there should be a Descriptor room on the left path.”

“If only he gave me one in the first place…” Wayland grumbled to himself, and I was personally shocked at how expressive the elf was around the other human.

As possible relations swirled in my head, the human watcher laughed moving in the direction we came from. “It’s probably what you get from calling Beastmen ‘beasts’ at every opportunity. I keep telling you that there’s a reason they have a clan name, but you refuse every time.”

Our watcher grunted moving towards the tunnel he had been pointed in, sparing no more words for his fellow comrade. If anything, the human just shook his head as if there was nothing he could do.

Marcus hurried to help Julio and Diane follow after Wayland, and I pushed myself to follow. The training we had done before had served us well as we were doing nothing but walk or jog to keep pace. I had liked to think we were in better shape than the group we had passed as I saw several of them covered in sweat and bandaged in several places. However, I also kept in mind that their watcher probably hadn’t protected them as well as ours had despite their vastly different personalities.

Steadily, we made our way through the Dungeon, following the silent lead of Wayland. We had chosen to keep our silence as our watcher seemed to be in an even worse mood than before, but it was only after a couple minutes that he stopped in front of the next bend, causing the rest of us to pause behind him.

As we had no idea what he was going to do, everyone had been looking in my direction. I sighed internally, knowing that they were hoping for me to do something.

With the uncalled for authority being given to me, I gave a silent prayer before walking up to the elven man. He didn’t turn around, but I could feel him addressing me as he spoke. “Do you mind if I cool down up ahead?”

“Um,” I frowned at how he sounded. “Sure? What do you mean ‘cool’-”

Before I even asked what he meant, Wayland had rushed forwards around the corner and out of sight. I had felt my heart skip a beat as he left my sight, and quickly rushed after him, my feet pounding on the ground while my spear bounced in my arms. Behind me, I heard the familiar rumble of feet charging after me.

However, whatever expectations or worries we had when we arrived around the corner were blown away as I almost tripped over the split torso of a Featherkin. A gag filled my throat as the acrid scent of blood and gore flooded my nose, and I pushed my gaze away from the corpse to the insane scene in front of me.

The tunnel was not what I’d called the most pristine place, and I wouldn’t ever call it explicitly dirty, but the tunnel in front of me reminded me of what I once thought hell looked like. Blood and entrails had covered the ground. Even the walls hadn’t been spared as streams of liquid red dripped down to form small puddles in the divots on the ground. The Featherkin bodies were strewn about the place, but their corpses were always in two pieces as if they were split by an impossibly sharp blade.

Standing on the other side of the field of death, was our silent, elven watcher surrounded by several screeching Featherkin. My breath was caught in my throat as I counted the enemies around him, and I was half convinced he was a goner while trying to plan how to run away before movement caught my eye.

Wayland’s cloak fluttered for a moment. He was spinning, my mind supplied, as his black and blue cloth twisted around his form. Then, like magic, the Featherkin that surrounded him fell as their upper halves slipped off of their standing legs. Briefly, I caught the sight of something in the elf’s hand, but I was either blind or the weapon was invisible as if it was merely a part of the wind.

While the elf had successfully culled the immediate numbers, there were three enemies that had dodged by luckily jumping to attack him. However, instead of panicking, he moved closer to the nearest enemy, slapping the outstretched claw before it connected with him. It tumbled in the air as it hit the ground when he parried its attack, and the other two landed behind him and immediately rushed at him again.

He didn’t even turn to meet the enemies behind him, leaning forwards as the Featherkin to his right grazed his back with a seemingly mistimed swing. Wayland twisted as soon as the monster’s attack missed, and an outstretched palm met the creature’s chest, pushing it back several steps.

The other two monsters attacked him right as he cleared up space, but the elf wasn’t even bothered by their attacks. He easily weaved around the haphazard swings as if he could see where they would strike before they had even moved.

I couldn’t see any difference in movement, but there was something almost magical as he ducked under another swing, using his arm to push the arm up and forcing the monster to move backwards as he pushed. The next move happened in an instant when I realized that Wayland had lined up all three enemies in front of him by pushing and shoving their attacks away without being touched.

Then, it was over. One of his armored hands rose up with his fingers clenched around an invisible weapon, and the three were split from crotch to cranium. Whatever passed as their organs spilled out of the impossibly clean cuts, spreading more putrid ichor onto the ground.

Part of my mind was numb to the violence as the smell filled my nose. I had already had my thoughts about how strong the veterans and the people who had already climbed or descended into the other floors were. However, I had gotten a glimpse that maybe I had been underestimating them.

Because, despite how bloody the floor was, there wasn’t even a drop of blood on the bottom of his boots.

Perhaps the terror had spread a bit to the group as well as we just stared at Wayland standing there, his breathing slowly going back to calm. We were frozen on the spot, and I doubt we would have moved anytime soon if it weren’t for the sounds of something coming from deeper into the tunnel.

I slowly tore my eyes away from the scene in front of me, trying not to pay attention to the corpses around me and the blood soaking into my boots. Further into the tunnel was a group of well equipped people guarding a massive wheelbarrow behind them as one of their members dragged it along.

One of the members at the front jogged forwards, shaking his head at the scene in front of him. I blearily noted the man was a beastman as he turned towards Wayland. “Yo, thorn bush! I get that you’re guarding Newbies, but you shouldn’t baby them too much.”

"What is it you want this time, beast?" Wayland spat, and I was honestly taken back by the man's aggression. You thought you knew a guy, huh...

"Nothing much," the beastman laughed as if the insult flew right by him. "Just wanted to see how my favorite elf was doing nowadays. I get so lonely on the positive second floor, you know... Maybe you should come and visit sometime when you're not busy doing, uh, actually I don't know what you guys do on the negative second floor. I haven't been down there in years."

"Training." Our watcher said. "Something you forget to do as always."

The beastman laughed again, showing a pair of sharp canines that looked uncomfortably like they extended into his lower jaw when his mouth shut. "You're prickly as always, thorn bush." He paused to glance over Wayland's shoulder to smile at our group. "How's the hunt, Newbies? Based on these corpses, I'd say that my friend here likes you all or is pretty annoyed."

I flinched involuntarily at the thought that all this was caused because our supposed protector was merely 'annoyed.' Perhaps that was all that the man needed to see as his gaze zeroed in on me, and I suddenly felt like ice water was being poured down my back. A cool sweat began to build up on my brow as I didn't dare to match the beastman's eyes.

"So that's what it is," the beastman mused aloud, turning back to the elf. "Well, you guys are suckers for people like him, huh. Remind you of home?"

Wayland clicked his tongue inside his hood and turned away. "Can't keep your mouth shut for a second."

With his piece said, he marched past the beastman, turning to motion us to follow. I hesitated as I stared at the clear veterans that were moving about the tunnel to pick up the bifurcated bodies and put them into the massive wheelbarrow. Carefully, I stepped past them, giving a polite nod as I passed.

“Sorry about him; he gets grumpy when he's not fighting or training. A true nuthead. Still, looks like you guys got the weak hunt, huh.” The beastman from before grinned at us, leaning in as if he had something secret to say but kept his voice at the same volume. “Pretty impressive to get the Butcher of the second floors, though… He’s a nice guy, but kinda boring if you know what I mean.”

I looked around as he pointed at the slaughter. He merely laughed at whatever face I had been making. “Don’t worry, elf bait, we’re just here to pick up the corpses, you know. We ain't here to start anything other than getting these bodies back for rations or whatever they want with them. The Dungeon would be a much dirtier place if we didn’t volunteer for this every now and then.”

“Thanks?” I asked more to myself.

“No problem, elf bait,” he leaned in again, and I flinched back at how dangerous his eyes seemed. “You know, now that I take a closer look, I really don’t like your eyes. Makes sense when I think about it, but they're pretty irritating to look into.”

I flinched at how blunt he said that, and carefully moved to follow my group. They hadn’t gotten far since the beastman had taken an interest in me. However, Wayland seemed to be in a hurry to get out of the area, so I had to pick up my pace to catch up.

“Hey, elf bait,” the beastman called out to my back as I hurried away. “If you ever make it to the second floor, ask for the sharptooth clan. I’ll make sure you get some ambition in you!”

I tried to keep the frown off my face as I reunited with my group, but from the odd looks that marred their faces, it still showed. Marcus offered a slight smile, trying to alleviate some of the tension that Wayland’s slaughter had sparked. Julio was having a hard time breathing, but I attributed that to the fact that he had antagonized someone who could easily split us in two with nothing but a wave of his hand.

Luckily, we were all spared from another couple minutes of awkward silence and walking as Wayland stopped in front of another hole in the wall. Except this time it wasn’t another path in the Dungeon, but a sort of stone archway that looked as if it had been grafted into the side of the cavern’s wall. On the top of the archway, there were a series of words carved into the wall reading: Basic Energy Descriptor Room.

“This is the room we need.” Wayland spoke up and I was half sure that we almost jumped at how sudden he began talking. “Humans normally don’t come from worlds with inner or outer energies. These rooms are for you.”

I looked at the archway, wondering if the reason it was so different was because there was something to gain from it. “Are there any restrictions for these rooms?” I asked carefully.

“Some require certain achievements, but most on the first floor are easily accessible. Descriptor rooms add descriptions to your Traits, or they add a new Trait entirely.” Wayland said, spring a look over his shoulder to stare at me. “Keep in mind that some descriptions will harm more than help in some cases.”

“O- oh, thank you.” I said, remembering how the beastman had called me ‘elf bait’ for some reason. It would explain a bit of why Wayland seemed to interact with me, but I had no idea how it happened in the first place.

“Follow me,” Wayland said, entering the room.

Our group shared a look before following carefully. We had already gone this far, and Diane as well as Julio certainly could use some rest in what was hopefully a rest area. However, I kept my guard up, just in case this turned out to be a ‘boss room’ like Sabrina had been talking about.

Luckily, as we walked in, I found the place held no immediate dangers. It was a dome-roofed circular area with a floor that was made from perfectly cut stone. On the walls were murals of humanoid figures with rings that seemed to float behind their backs; some having black or white rings depending on the paint used.

“These are paintings?” Marcus spoke up suddenly. “A religion?”

Our watcher turned to him for a second. “No, a destination.”

“Destination?” I asked carefully.

“Why would you climb or descend the Dungeon in the first place if there wasn’t something at the end?” Wayland countered easily, and I found the reason why so many wanted to enter the Dungeon even if there was a good chance they would die to be so stupidly simple.

My eyes narrowed at the murals on the walls. “So, everyone continues onwards in order to become some sort of god or something?”

“Or something. Everyone's goals are often times different from each other, but for the most part, people find that they have no choice but to complete the Dungeon. Some just choose to enjoy the process.” Wayland said offhandedly, and he gathered our attention to the center of the room where a black pathway had extended from the center of the room. The stone on the floor had turned into a pitch black solid that stopped at the far wall of the room. “Now, walk the path and choose.”

“What do you mean by choose?” Julio asked quietly, making sure not to make any sort of eye contact with the elf. I noted that he had kept his words clipped and concise.

“Inner energies, outer energies or both.”

Julio looked like he had another question, but he kept his mouth closed. Instead, he looked over in my direction. I sighed, knowing what he wanted. “Is there a reason for not always picking both? It seems rather counterintuitive to pick either when you can just have both.”

“It's more effective to pick one and focus on that. The only ones who can effectively use both are geniuses, or,” he paused to look directly at me as if to tell me something. “Those who can only succeed through a significant amount of hard work.”

I paused at how directed his words were. It helped that I knew how weak I really was, but getting told that I needed quite a bit of work was a little punch to the gut. Wayland was basically telling me I had to choose both. Still, I was half tempted to choose something else in some form of childish disobedience.

However, as I stepped onto the black paved road, a voice rang out in my head. And all thoughts of defiance left my mind when I read the options.

Would you like to walk the path of singular mastery or potential?

I nearly laughed at how the Dungeon categorized the two. It was almost like the first option basically guaranteed you to success, but the other was just simply ‘potential’. Yet, I knew why some picked the less guaranteed option.

There was a little sham called equality that everyone insisted. However, I knew from day one that that so-called equality was more of a fairytale than the situation I was in. That sometimes, no matter how hard I tried, I held no talent in either singular option. It was an unfair world, and in order to survive, I needed to be at least as strong as Wayland to have a chance.

Perhaps, that's why he showed us how strong he really was. I knew we weren't as strong as him, but I was still thinking a bit with logic in a place that could defy any logic I presented. After all, I still couldn't even look anyone in the eye if they didn't want me to.

So, I’d take the gamble of potential over a guaranteed pitfall.

And as soon as I made my choice there was a sound of drums in my ears. The world had suddenly fallen away from me, shrouding me in an abyss as black the floor below me, and it felt like there were millions of strings that brushed against my skin, rubbing and twisting around my limbs before the sensation cut.

As quick as the sensations came, I was left with the phantom thought that something was there, but I couldn’t feel them anymore. I couldn’t even tell what I was feeling, too. It was as if a blank had been put into my memory from the event.

Trait has been acquired. Descriptions of some Traits have been changed.

Honestly, I had expected there to be more.