Kleo led them to a bed chamber containing a party treasure chest. Frank pulled out Dennis’s old greatsword from storage. It was a good thing that storing and retrieving items in Safe Zones was a dungeon-crawling feature.

Jay spent some time eyeing the treasure chest before getting called to help the party set camp.

Jay lit the brazier as the others got out bedrolls, food rations, and canteens. It had been Kleo’s insistence that the party rested up for a solid eight hours. Frank needed it the most since he hadn’t slept much. He’d stayed awake in the Living Room Safe Zone, and he’d gone scouting and keeping watch when they first reached the Second Floor Safe Zone.

“How are you still going, dude?” Dennis asked.

“In the beginning,” Frank said, “when they wanted to weed out candidates, they used sleep deprivation exercises. Sometimes for a few days. Sometimes for a week. I learned to go without sleep, or I’ll get taken away. I don’t know what happened to those who couldn’t hack it.”

Dennis gawked.

Mike looked like he wanted to ask something but held his tongue.

“Man, you had to work your ass off for the twelfth spot,” Jay said lightly. “The rest of us showed up at a party, got buzzed, and had the offer fall in our laps. Sucks, doesn’t it?”

Frank stared into the fire and didn’t bother to answer.

“I’m going to combine all the context clues I’ve gotten,” Kleo said, “and guess you guys got thrown in together by a drunk egomaniac.”

Mike snorted. “She does have an ego.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Jay said.

“I won’t go there with you,” Mike said, turning back to Kleo. “The story started with our patron deity celebrating her birthday and a new high school year with a house party. Little did we know she manipulated twelve of us to be there before she dropped the mother of all exposition bombs. We learn about the Multiverse, the System, and magic in a series of hours. We got our classes with beginner gear and then got shipped out in all-black government-issued vehicles to top secret black sites ran by very high-ranking people that don’t have classes or system powers and were quarantining parts of our small city, so we teenagers⁠—from Central Florida⁠—with the task of saving our universe from a bad introduction to the Multiverse via a callous System Apocalypse⁠—can be here. Did I mention we’re teenagers from Central Florida? Hearing Junker Rick talk about that hammered it home for me.”

“I imagine Central Florida lacks the cream of the crop of teenagers,” Kleo said. “Where do you get the better ones? Northern Florida?”

“We don’t speak of that part of Florida,” Jay said.

“Says you. Northern Florida is great,” Dennis said.

“It wasn’t good enough for their teenagers to be the chosen ones,” Kleo said dryly. “They probably couldn’t hold their liquor as well as you guys.”

“I wasn’t drinking or getting high,” Frank corrected. “The other eleven were before we met. I was held in a cell, waiting to get the green light to go. That wait was the worst I’ve ever endured.”

“Most of us didn’t enter the dungeon drunk or high, by the way, except for Jay,” Dennis explained.

“I was only a little buzzed,” Jay said.

“He got that way because he drank after YoAnna showed us magic and completely wiped away the buzz,” Dennis said. “Which was so amazing, Kleo. You should’ve been there to see it. I bet the look on my face was outrageous.”

“I do love the looks you give when something surprises you,” Kleo said. “Sounds like you guys got invited to the pool and kicked into the deep end. Sure, you’re floating near the top, but the depths go so deep that few reach the bottom.”

“Why did she have to do it this way?” Frank asked. “There were more agents like me that were plenty capable.”

Kleo chuckled. “Because they’ll all think like you, and that’ll wipe you out. The most successful dungeon crawlers are usually odd. They’re mixed groups of people with different ways of seeing things. There are exceptions, of course, like dungeon crawlers who are family, but that family will still be oddities. You, Frank, come across as someone who lost their touch of personality. If you hadn’t agreed to Jay’s gravity cheat idea, your by-the-book attitude would’ve cost your party.”

“It had to be this way,” Frank said. “Or I wouldn’t have made top agent. I wouldn’t be here.”

“Okay,” Jay said.

Frank arched an eyebrow at the [Freak].

“I believe you,” Jay said. “Which makes me glad you’re not completely dead inside, man.”

“Let’s just get some sleep,” Frank said, turning over to face the wall.

The brazier fire crackled in the middle of their bedroll circle. Jay laid back and stared at the ceiling until Kleo settled on her back next to him.

“What’s it like outside the dungeon?” Kleo asked him.

“Another dungeon,” Jay said. “But the walls, traps, and monsters you face are more subtle. Might even be harder, honestly.”

“Why would I want to go out and face all that then?”

“Because it comes with its good parts. Ridiculous food options. Entertainment that gets fancier and bigger every year. People who aren’t out to kill you or force you into a specific role and recycle you over and over again. Normally.” Jay pouted. “Then again, that last part can happen still but not in a literal way. Sometimes. Okay, sure, it’s a different type of dungeon, and it’s scary, but you’ll get a new chance out there.”

“I don’t think it’ll work the way you want it to,” Kleo said.

“I don’t know how it’ll work,” Jay said. “But it’ll be different for you and me, and that’s something you can trust your master on.”

The top of Kleo’s head split into cubes that wobbled in the air. They recombined slower than before as she studied him.

“I’m giving up one master for another,” Kleo said.

Jay nodded slowly.

“I need you to be my toy,” he said, leaving it at that.

“Sleep tight, Jay,” Kleo said. “I’ll wake you up when it’s time to go.”

***

Jay belted out the lyrics to an old punk rock song as the party rounded up their stuff. He had a fairly good singing voice, which helped rouse the party as they got ready. Knowing that this last leg of their journey would conclude their dungeon crawl, they stored their bedrolls and anything they wouldn’t need for future challenges. The rucksacks got stored except for the one Dennis would carry. Dennis’s rucksack would hold items that wouldn’t fit in the knapsacks.

Frank made unique preparations using duct tape, a survival knife, and a few pleasant surprises. He stored the wrapped-up gift in the rucksack Dennis would haul, which unnerved the Superjock a little.

Mike got a count of the crystal spread for Health, Stamina, and Mana. At this point, they had a rough idea they could use each item safely every ten minutes. At most, they could absorb two crystals together for emergencies. Not a terrible limit, but one that could hurt in drastically quick and deadly fights.

As they moved about, most of the party struggled to address Kleo without staring.

Jay treated her as if nothing had changed, but there was no hiding the advancement of her degradation. Parts of her face and body were missing, leaving cube-shaped gaps like someone digging around in the ground randomly in Minecraft. It was pure uncanny valley nightmare fuel and not meant for those with a phobia of holes.

Dennis nearly vomited his breakfast, but he forced it down. Good man.

“Ready?” Kleo asked weakly.

“Yes,” Frank said.

Kleo got another piggyback ride from Dennis, and the party left behind the grave castle of a cheated raid. It was another hour through snow, chilling winds, and drifting ground fogs before they reached their next destination.

“Where’s the challenge room?” Jay asked, staring at a normal-sized locked door set at the bottom of a giant locked door. When he used [Identify], he got back nothing special. If they tried to open the door, it would lead to a plain, impassable wall.

“There was a solo room here,” Dennis declared. “It was to fight a level seven battle monster. Frank wanted us to level up to where we are now so I can smash this thing and get us going.”

“I bet one piece of malarkey the Toyreveler recycled the challenge as part of his alteration,” Kleo said.

“I raise three pieces of malarkey. It’s the first challenge when we enter the boss room,” Jay said.

“I’ll raise five pieces of malarkey that you’re full of it,” Kleo said. “Big bad guard monsters come second before the boss itself.”

“I’ll accept your bet and match your malarkey,” Jay said with a smirk.

“Ugh,” Mike groaned.

***

When they passed the second inert challenge room, Jay and Dennis sang classic country songs, which impressed Jay a bit. The Superjock was a little rough in his pitch. But his voice carried his passion and could leave an impression. He’d be a crowd-pleaser on drunk Karaoke nights.

As for the challenge room, they gave it some attention in case it was still active. The party met with the same result as the first.

By the time they reached the third and final challenge room, Jay, Dennis, and Mike started helping Kleo learn the lyrics to a particular song that matched her mood. The four didn’t bother to check on the challenge room.

Frank was going to do it to be thorough, anyway. The agent glared at them like their tomfoolery would bring down a reckoning.

They were almost at the boss’s door when Kleo felt confident enough to sing. Jay, Dennis, and Mike provided renditions covering the instruments with only their mouths and creativity. Frank looked like he was a minute away from ruining their fun. He was the type that preferred being serious and moody, after all. Jay was happy with the song he’d convinced Kleo to sing and beat Frank to the punch.

Zombie by The Cranberries.

For someone who’d never sung in front of others before, Kleo’s voice resonated. It was gritty, imperfect, and raw. Her type of voice conveyed her message better than Jay had hoped.

The pain, the abuse, the abandonment, the uncertainty.

The hurt, the grief, the anger.

The hope, the delusion, the surrender, the destruction.

It was all there in her voice, a myriad of subjects. These were concepts Kleo knew. They were a part of the plastic degrading from her body. And that struck each boy silent, letting Kleo sing alone and uninterrupted until she finished.

Frank politely asked for an encore.

***

They reached the boss chamber.

Two giant white doors loomed above them, split by a thin crack of darkness with only enough space to let one crawler pass at a time. When they used [Identify] on it, they got what they were looking for. The entrance to the inner sanctum of the Dungeon Master. There was a three-part challenge waiting for them. Each challenge was at the Hardcore Tier for their rank.

Jay felt a miasma of evil seep out the crack of darkness.

He grabbed Kleo from Dennis’s back and wrapped the Cloak of Stalking Delight. He gave her some extra stuff to help her along with the cloak. Then he returned her to piggyback Dennis.

Jay moved in front of the party. He kicked at the snow, letting his thoughts sort out as everyone waited.

“Thanks,” Jay said. “For seeing this through to the end. When we get going, we can’t stop until it’s done. Then I’ll give myself a magic name and call down a miracle.”

“How do you know what you know?” Frank asked.

“What can I say?” Jay shrugged. “There’s something about the gravity of it all. It speaks to the [Freak] in me. And that’s hard to describe.”

“The [Freak] class is a rare class, so your patron is an interesting person to grant you that,” Kleo said. “I don’t know too much about it, but I know that it’ll drive you mad. Can’t tell you if that’s good or bad.”

“I bet a piece of malarkey my madness will be awesome,” Jay said, spreading his arms wide.

Kleo chuckled softly. “That’s what I like to hear from my soon-to-be one and only master.”

Jay gasped, feeling the ripples of something important reverberate from Kleo’s declaration. There was no going back now. They either crashed and burned or stuck the landing like all-stars.

Jay stepped aside and gave the party leader the floor.

“Dungeon crawlers,” Frank said, pointing his greatsword at the entrance. “Kill and loot.”

He led the way, and everyone followed. Jay pulled up at the rear with a big smile, his eyes glowing bright purple as they passed through the dark entrance.