So much effort, all lost because of a level cap. Apparently, entering a sphere item didn’t guarantee awakening. When people had said that the daggers were similar to the awakening shrines, that’s exactly what they meant—only the daggers were similar to the awakened shrines. Other items, like the one Dallion was exploring now, weren’t. Upon that realization, Dallion for the first time felt as he was supposed to feel—grumpy, like being on a job.

“Had enough rest?” Kallan asked.

“Almost,” Dallion replied. The pain from his fingers had gone, but it didn’t look like he was going to resort to music skills for the next two levels. “What do you think is down there?”

“Darkness,” the boy smirked. “And monsters,” he added.

Dallion could tell that he was being tested, or rather that he was being treated as a newbie. In itself that was good, it meant that Kallan had gone through his doubt and was starting to accept Dallion as one of them. Unfortunately, that came with the obligatory chores and talking down to. Dallion had been in enough games to know the experience, he also knew that the smartest thing to do was go with it in joking fashion.

“Are the darkness and the monsters separate, or do they charge us at the same time?” Dallion asked. As expected, his question attracted two very puzzled glances. “I’m just asking to know which side of the corridor to stand. Don’t want to light up a monster by accident.”

Janna stifled a chuckle, while Kallan narrowed his eyes.

“Smart-aleck,” the boy mumbled.

“Seriously, though, what do you think is down there?”

“Depends on the item type. Some grow, others shrink, it’s never the same.”

“In what way?”

“Sometimes each next level is larger than the last. Sometimes it’s smaller, but the monsters are tougher. One time we went seven levels down and ended directly in the guardian chamber.”

That sounded slightly ominous. By the sound of it, it sounded like the siblings had been part of a larger party. Clearing seven levels was no small feat. Hopefully, they had managed to kill the final guardian, or they would have had to go through every monster once more.

“Are there any cases of the levels being the same size?” Dallion asked.

“Sometimes. Only when we’re dealing with weapons. That’s a way to tell that something might be a weapon.”

The conversation came to an abrupt end. Dallion stood up from the floor and started picking up the shields and weapons. The lanterns were also returned to him. Only Janna decided to keep one of her bucklers on. The damage she had received in this fight had pretty much reduced her health by a third. If the one on the second level was twice as strong, that would leave her just enough to reach the final monster.

It took a while to reach the second level. If the entry chamber was any indication, it was of the growing type. The light that Dallion was carrying was barely strong enough to reach the walls of the chamber. Three tunnels continued on, one in each of the cardinal directions, the fourth being the way to the level above.

“Which way?” Dallion asked in a near perfect whisper.

“We’re not exploring the entire level,” Kanna replied. There was a moment’s pause as both Janna and Dallion looked at him. “Right, always head right.”

“How could you tell?” Dallion squinted stared in the direction. The three tunnels seemed identical: pitch black and silent.

“He always goes right,” Janna explained. “It works half of the time.”

There was no denying the logic, so the group headed in that direction. One thing that became immediately apparent was the composition of the walls and floor: they were like mother-of-pearl. At first Dallion thought that it was only the entrance chamber that was different, but it soon turned out that everything was made of that material.

Unable to resist the temptation, Dallion moved closed to a wall and slid his fingers along it. The surface was smooth and yet pleasantly warm. Several things passed through his head. The first was whether he could improve an object to such a state. Apart from increasing its value, it would be stylish and pleasant to touch. The second thought was much less pleasant.

“Have there been cases of sea monsters in sphere items?” Dallion asked in a semi-casual manner.

“Not in items,” Janna replied, still looking straight ahead. “Why?”

“I don’t know, I thought that maybe the material the walls are made of might be a clue?”

The girl glanced briefly over her shoulder, giving him a side glare. A moment longer and she would have no doubt said something biting and sarcastic, but events didn’t let her. A faint squishy sound came from the distance.

Dallion braced himself. Seconds later, he regretted being right.

A giant octopus tentacle emerged from the darkness, heading straight for Dallion. There was no combat warning, no green markers, just a crimson biomass determined to squish him. Instinct made Dallion jump back. Fear tried to stop him in his tracks. In any other circumstances, he would have grabbed a weapon and tried to fight off the tentacle, or at least make his capture difficult. Overburdened by a stack of weapons, shields and armor, removed that option. Dallion’s only hope was for the siblings to help out, yet for some reason none of them had attacked.

What are you doing? Dallion thought.

The tip of the tentacle smashed, lashed out at him, aimed at his right shoulder. The action was faster than estimated, ripping off the lantern and… smashing it on the floor.

Dallion blinked. It took him a moment to realize what his eyes were seeing, and several more to notice that the remaining two lanterns were no longer on him, but held by Janna and Kallan further down the tunnel. The two had successfully moved near the wall, avoiding the sudden attack, then—against all logic—they turned out the lanterns they had summoned from Dallion. Moments later, the tentacle was heard slithering away.

For over ten seconds Dallion stood there, unwilling to do anything to attract the tentacle’s attention.

“It’s gone,” Kallan said after a while. While there was no light, Dallion’s improved hearing gave him a good idea where the boy was. “We’re lucky.”

“I’d say.” Dallion took a step forward. The remains of the lantern crunched beneath his feet.

“We’re fighting a shelfey. It’s very territorial, so it hates light and other creatures. That saves us some time.”

“Mind filling me in?”

“Shelfeys are full level guardians,” Janna explained. “They can only be found in sphere items. They are so big that their head fills up the entire guardian chamber, leaving the rest of their body to stretch about the level. For the most part, they just ignore people, but they really hate light.”

“And other creatures,” Kallan explained. “All explorers come across them sooner or later.”

Dallion didn’t say a word. Just when he thought he was getting used to this place, he came across something that would play basketball with his logic before throwing it in orbit. Ten minutes ago, he had fought an owl made of liquid fire, and now he was about to fight an elastic hermit octopus? There was so much about it that just didn’t make sense.

If the guardian was so large, how had it appeared? Also, at that size, why would light annoy it, but not sound?

“How do we fight it?”

“Fighting it is easy, just uncomfortable,” Jenna said, moving further away in the darkness. “All we have to do is reach the main chamber.”

“Sure. Why not?” Dallion grumbled and followed.

Walking in pitch dark turned out to be simpler than he imagined. Even with all his senses increased, Dallion had kept relying on his sight to walk around. Since here there was no such option, he had to take a crash course in sightless navigation. It wasn’t only the sound that helped him navigate, but also the sensation of air passing through the tunnels.

As it turned out, if the siblings were to be believed, the shelfey also had the properties of a giant sponge, as in that it grew with time up to the point of filling out the entire level. It was said that there had been two such cases, requiring that the exploration party hack its way to the guardian chamber and kill it. This specimen hadn’t grown nearly as much, but facing it was annoying nonetheless.

Every now and again, the group would reach a point that was completely blocked by a tentacle root or other biomass. In such cases, the crossbow was used to burst a hole through the obstacle. For once Dallion was glad there was no light for him to see what was actually going on. The slithering sound that followed, though, was enough to make him feel slightly queasy.

After a while, the party reached a part of the level where the draft was felt outright.

“Stop,” Janna whispered. “We’re near the mouth.”

Fun, Dallion thought. Suddenly, he felt his load getting lighter.

“Stay near the wall,” Kallan said. “And better crouch.”

“What’s the plan?” Dallion asking.

“After I shoot, it’ll contract. At that point, turn on the lantern and rush towards the chamber. We only have a small window, so don’t trip.”

We’re rushing into its head? Dallion wanted to ask. All this sounded as reckless as one of his own plans. Looking at it from the sidelines, he didn’t think it would work at all.

“You’re sure you’ve defeated these before?” Dallion moved to the wall. Just to be on the safe side, he knelt down, positioning his left hand in such a way that the buckler would protect as much as possible.

“Lots of times,” Kellan whispered.

“Three,” Janna corrected. “It’ll be fine, though. Trust us.”

“Deal.” Dallion didn’t have a choice. “As long as we explore the rest of the level once you’ve defeated it.”

“Don’t mess up and we will.”

The moment of truth arrived. Dallion could hear the crossbow being prepped. The trigger clicked as four bolts were released. Dallion couldn’t see the bolts, but the impact was difficult to miss, especially since it was followed by a roar that made the entire tunnel tremble. That was the sign. Quickly, Dallion lit up the lantern and rose to his feet. Janna had already thrown the crossbow to the ground and was running forward, followed by her brother. Dallion quickly did the same.

Given the squishy sounds that he had heard before the roar, Dallion expected the tunnel floor to be covered with blood and fleshy remains. To his surprise, there was nothing there. The mother-of-pearl floor was as spotless as it had ever been.

There was no time to be surprised, however. In the distance, some two hundred feet away, A crack had appeared in the darkness. At first it seemed like something a crackling might cause. As Dallion approached, though, he saw that it was completely different. The crack turned out from the entrance to the guardian chamber, almost completely blocked by a red blubbery matter.

“Run through before it closes,” Kallan shouted the obvious. “And don’t let go of the lantern!”

What’s the big deal with the lantern? Dallion wondered. They had already reached the chamber, so there was no danger of tentacles emerging and attacking. Or wasn’t there? Unwilling to find out, Dallion gripped the lantern tightly and followed the rest into the chamber. There, in the vast hollow dome, surrounded by chunks of red organic matter, Dallion got his first glimpse of a shelfey. And the sight terrified him. The creature that was supposed to be the guardian of this floor had a striking resemblance to a chainling.

LEVEL 2 GUARDIAN

Species: Shelfey

Class: Crippled Star

Statistics: 72% HP

Droplets of sweat formed on Dallion’s forehead. There was no mistaking it—the dog-like silhouette, the blackness, the ability to attack with anything and deform it, making it part of itself.

Dallion drew his dartbow. The only question on his mind was how to survive this encounter.