The treasure was at the other end of the shrine, which made sense—couldn’t just put it right at the beginning. You had to make players work for it.

And “work” it turned out to be. Because the corridor to get there was blocked with debris, one had to go underground, through a stinking sewer built to transport waste along an underground stream.

They fought a variety of low-to-mid-level monsters over the next four hours. There was some sort of red-eyed, albino rats that liked to travel in packs of four and five; an octopus-like creature that swung barbed tentacles at them from the walls; and little fungal toads covered in glowing mushrooms snapped at Carey’s ankles and swarmed the party at times, requiring area-of-effect spells to take them out by the dozens before they could do real damage.

At one point, the entire dungeon began to tremble.

“Whoa,” Carey said. “Anyone else feel that?”

“Earthquake?” Will said.

It began as a low roar, a shiver that went through the stone, tickling the hair along Carey’s tail with its vibrations. It rose into a loud rumble that made them cover their ears.

“Definitely an earthquake,” Beatrice said. “Let’s hunker down and wait it out.”

“Good idea,” Carey said. He hated the idea of suffering damage from something as avoidable as a natural hazard.

Over the next ten minutes, they ate and drank to replenish their hunger and thirst meters. It was kind of funny watching his friends drink from shaking water sacks and have food fling away from their lips as they tried to chew. When the earthquake finally subsided, they got up and went on their way.

After another string of low-risk battles spread across the next hour, Carey checked his character sheet to evaluate his progress. He’d racked up over 2,400 XP, bringing his total for the current level to 2,925 with a level up at 13,500.

The required points kept getting larger, which meant it was taking longer to level up the more he progressed. They’d have to start taking on some higher-level enemies if they intended to level up sometime this decade.

The loot down there wasn’t bad at all. Carey picked up a sweet bundle of glass flasks he could use to make deadly cocktails, like molotovs. His money was up to 14 silver, 460 copper—though he still hadn’t gotten his silver back from that damned thief.

He kept tabs on Min-joon the entire time.

The boy avoided Carey, making sure to keep Will or Beatrice between them at all times. When he spoke, it was to relay inane stories about his time in the shrine, things he’d seen, weird enemies he’d snuck past. Beatrice had to shush him several times. At one point, Carey said, “Do you ever shut up?” and the boy went silent for a full ten minutes, during which Carey found himself feeling slightly remorseful—but only slightly.

Eventually, they found a ladder leading up to a manhole that took them out of the sewers. Beatrice went last.

“Don’t want any of you looking up my tunic,” she said.

“Speaking of which,” Carey said, “don’t you find it weird that the game renders genitalia in a lifelike fashion? I mean, what was the point of that?”

“Your brain renders it,” Will said.

Beatrice added, “Remember, your avatar is a projection of your psyche’s recreation of you.”

Carey shook his head. “Fascinating. Not that I understood a word of that.”

Their quest marker floated against a set of double wooden doors set into the wall. Both doors were cracked and dusty with age. Carey inspected the area.

“Spider webs covered this before,” he said, indicating the clumps of webbing that had been torn away and discarded. “Someone went in here recently.”

“Look,” Will said, and pointed his torch at a crafting area nearby.

“Thank God,” Beatrice said. She jogged over to the alchemy station.

“Wait,” Carey whispered harshly at her. “Are you out of your mind?”

“Oops.” She retraced her steps. “Totally forgot. My bad.”

Carey scanned the area and found three basic traps. He disarmed each one carefully and successfully, reaping small experience bonuses and pocketing the traps for later. He used the workbench while Beatrice used the alchemy and enchanting stations. Will waited nearby, keeping a look-out and occasionally checking his recipes, planning his crafting session. When Beatrice was done, she kept watch while Will took her place at the benches.

There were several recipes in Carey’s inventory that looked promising. He used (2) Manspur Roots, (2) Flustercane Roots, (2) Spider Legs and (2) Glass Flasks to make (2) Drinks of the Spider God, a potion that granted him +10 PER, +5 AGL, and the ability to see loot outlined in his surroundings.

He also crafted (6) Lockpicks using (2) Iron Shards plus (2) Sandpaper Shreds, the latter of which Will provided. Next came (4) Shroom Boom Grenades using (2) Alkahest, (2) Speckled Horned Shrooms, (2) Lengths of Twine and (4) Demonic Gypsum Dust. The dust was provided by Beatrice, who exchanged it for two of his bottles of Alkahest.

He used (4) Basic Bear Traps, (4) Web Residue, (2) Luminether Crystal Shards and (2) Big Leg Flamer potions (any exploding “cocktail” weapon would have sufficed, resulting in varying levels of damage) to create (4) Exploding Sticky Bear Traps.

“Those’ll be fun,” Carey said, eyeing the exploding traps in his inventory and grinning madly.

As promised earlier, when Carey had selected throwing as his first skill to gain the Deus Arc Machina mastery, Beatrice gave him (5) Nullifying Crystal Shards, which were enchanted throwables that could discharge a blast of Luminether energy capable of disabling an enemy’s protective shield spell.

“Okay, here’s the plan,” Carey said at the door, keeping his voice to a whisper. “I’ll open the door slowly and quietly. Once I see what’s inside, we’ll figure out a strategy. I need everyone to be very quiet.”

The others nodded, eyes wide with anticipation and fear. Carey felt more excited than afraid, but the fear was undeniable. There could be anything on the other side of that door.

He eased it open. Poked his head inside.

Retracting himself and facing the others, his voice came out a frightened whisper thick with terror.

“My God, it’s like something out of a horror movie…”