Arrin followed the trail into a small room with two beds and two chairs. He noticed the door vanish, but it wasn’t like he was going to try to go back until he’d killed Andarit anyway. He only had three days, now. It wasn’t enough time.

A quick look around the room didn’t tell him anything; he couldn’t read the exit door, but he didn’t spend much time trying. Andarit had gone out that way, but after the nightmare of the tunnel transportation, Arrin knew he wasn’t going to catch up today. It was better to rest and recover.

“Huh. You weren’t joking when you said you weren’t human. I wasn’t entirely sure.” Andarit’s voice rang in Serenity’s ears as he stirred from the darkness of sleep. “And the reason your armor looks like scales is because it is, isn’t it? Your scales.”

Serenity was stretched out awkwardly, one wing anchored against his body by the sheet partially wrapped around himself while the other was stretched out at its full extension. He was curled around his Crystal Hilt, and it took him a moment to realize that he didn’t currently have an armor-form manifested.

Only his dragon form and his Crystal Hilt were out. He’d clearly lost control at some point during the night, though he wasn’t certain why his armor had shifted into the hilt.

Serenity shook himself and tried to unwind from the sheet. Shifting would be much easier if there wasn’t anything in the way.

“Yeah. Could you look away for a moment? I’d like to get ready for the day.” Sure, she probably wouldn’t mind him running around naked as a young dragon; no one else did, and trying to wear clothes as a dragon was just silly. He didn’t want her watching as he shifted, though, if it wasn’t necessary. Especially not when he was shifting two forms at once and they were both major changes. He wasn’t entirely certain what it looked like; from what others had said, it mostly just looked like darkness and shadows, sometimes with specks of light, but he didn’t know how she’d react to seeing that.

Andarit flushed and ostentatiously turned her back on him.

Serenity kicked the sheet again to free himself; he might have torn it a little. It didn’t seem to be as sturdy as his nice high-thread-count sheets at home, but it was what the dungeon provided so he really couldn’t complain. Especially since he wasn’t planning to take it with him.

Finally free, Serenity shifted; today, he decided he’d use his normal human form and the same armor he’d been wearing. “You can look again.”

Andarit turned around slowly. “That didn’t take long.”

“There’s no reason it should.” Serenity climbed off the bed. “Ready for breakfast?”

“Your hair is the same colors as your scales. And your feathers. I think I even see some of the silver at the tips. That’s … I don’t think I’d have noticed if I hadn’t seen your wings.”

Serenity forced a chuckle. “It’d be more surprising if they were different colors. So, how about breakfast?”

He’d really rather not talk about his hair color. It was what it was; it wasn’t like he dyed it or really did anything other than basic maintenance.

As Serenity performed his preparations for the day, infusing the spells he thought he’d need, he noticed that everything looked a little different. Clearer? No, his sight wasn’t clearer; the magic was more defined. Wait, had he hit level 10 and picked up Magesight already?

Name: Serenity

Species: Chimera

Base Form: Essence Dragon (Wyrmling)

Core: Unique

Progression: 85%

Tier: 3

Features: 5/11

True

Crystal

Link

Death

Origin

Path: Zonal Evocation Mage

Level: 11 (0/440)

Tier: 3, 100/100 Spent

Serenity grinned. It wasn’t as immediately useful as a combat spell, but Serenity knew he was going to get tons of use out of Magesight. Simply not having to switch back and forth or maintain multiple Sight abilities separately was huge.

Andarit seemed impatient; she was already waiting at the door as Serenity closed his Status. He headed over to join her, still happy about the upgrade.

The only thing the exit door said was WELCOME TO TRANSIT STATION REK, EVACUATION ROUTE THREE. Serenity had read it the night before, but he read it again before they left, in case it told him anything new.

It didn’t.

“Any guesses what we’ll see next?” Andarit touched the door handle, but didn’t open the door.

Serenity shrugged. Why were people always asking questions they’d know the answer to soon? “Probably something on Evacuation Route Three. I’m expecting danger, but that’s all I can say.”

Andarit bounced a little, clearly excited to start the day, then opened the door.

They were hit with a wall of heat and humidity. The outside was dim and slightly greenish.

“A jungle. That’s going to be fun.” Serenity didn’t really mean fun. Jungles were simply unpleasant, and a jungle inside a dungeon was frequently deadly as well.

Andarit didn’t seem fazed. She looked from the doorway and waited for Serenity to lead the way in. At least she still had sense, even if she was eager to press forward.

They spent a few minutes looking around the area next to the door after they stepped out, and found the key to the area: there was a route marked with posts hammered into the trees. The posts and the signs were both bright yellow.

The first post even still had a small sign hanging from the post; it was damaged, but legible enough to tell that it had once said EVACUATION, even if the rest of the sign was broken off. The second one only had the post, but it wasn’t too hard to find since it was still brightly colored.

They headed off into the jungle, following the posts.

The first set of monsters they encountered was a flock of brightly-colored birds. While they were a little more dangerous than the imps, Serenity had infused some of the pebbles he often carried with small area-effect spells. Once they were infused, he had to carefully keep them separated so they wouldn’t interfere with each other, but they made the birds almost a non-event. Each fire-pebble took out several of the clumped-together birds and the remainder were handled easily by Andarit’s magebolt. None even got close to the pair.

The second encounter was a band of monkeys. Serenity wasn’t certain if he should be happy or not that they opened up by throwing rocks, but he decided to be grateful that it wasn’t poo. At least he didn’t have to smell it later.

The monkeys were tougher than the birds, mostly because the birds had fallen if their flight feathers were singed, even if they weren’t otherwise badly hurt. The monkeys didn’t stop throwing things until Serenity or Andarit actually took them out, and they weren’t as bunched up as the birds. It was the first encounter of the dungeon that actually injured Andarit; she received a number of bruises and small cuts.

Serenity offered to wait, but Andarit wanted to keep going. Her hair ornament would handle the healing whether they were walking or stationary, and she wasn’t in bad enough shape to stop.

After that, they ran into a single big cat. It was clearly a monster, as it was tall enough that its head reached Serenity’s shoulder. If Serenity hadn’t noticed it before it ambushed them, it might have been a real fight. As it was, they were able to handle it from a distance. Serenity simply opened up with a Death Magebolt and the cat fell.

A short time after that, Serenity noticed Andarit sneaking glances at him. He was watching for the next encounter, and her glances kept pulling his attention off his surroundings. Serenity deliberately gentled his voice; yelling at her for distracting him wouldn’t be useful. “What is it, Andarit?”

“Uh.” Andarit halted for a moment then started moving forward again. “Ah, your magebolt. I want to know why it’s so …” She waved her hands in the air, like she was trying to find the right words. “So good.”

Serenity didn’t want to explain everything, but he probably should say something. “It’s a Tier Three Affinity magebolt. My highest Affinity. Also my highest Concept.” He wasn’t going to mention the Incarnate. “It’s a ridiculously high Affinity, so it’s very powerful. The power of specialization; I had a choice between a single powerful magebolt and magebolt where I could pick my Affinity as I cast it. I normally like flexibility, but sometimes power is worth it. You can tell which option I chose.”

“What affinity is it?” Andarit’s response was immediate and eager.

Serenity chuckled. “You shouldn’t ask things like that from people you don’t know well. It’s a little personal.” Not that she wouldn’t be able to find out. Or, at least, her father would be able to if he ever saw it. “With that said, it’s Death. Which is part of the reason they’re simply falling; if it wasn’t enough, who knows what would happen. Chances are that it would be something like the chimera fight, where it only killed what it actually touched. I simply made sure it touched something important.”

Andarit nodded and seemed to accept the explanation initially. After a couple of minutes, she challenged his words. “But Death is a weak Affinity. How can it be that good?”

Serenity shook his head. “I’ve heard that a lot of times. Handled incorrectly, it’s true, but think of it this way: everything dies. Everything. How is that weak?”

Serenity paused to let it sink in, then added another question that should have additional meaning for the daughter of Kalo Lichbane. “For that matter, a lich is or was dead. Liches are not weak; killing them is a significant achievement. Death is not a weak Affinity. Really, there aren’t any weak Affinities; there are simply people who are bad at using them.”

Arrin left the rest area and found himself in a room full of metal debris and the bodies of four odd-looking monsters. They were dead and the trail was clear, so he simply followed Andarit out of the area.

Finding himself on a cobblestone street was a surprise, but not an unpleasant one. With luck, whatever monsters were here were already dead. He followed the trail past several buildings, watching how Andarit had entered and left each building, until he came to a door she’d entered but not left by.

Her trail was everywhere in the ruined store. It crossed itself repeatedly. Arrin grinned; that meant she’d spent a lot of time in the store. He was catching up!

At the other end of the store was an open door. It was clear that Andarit’s trail went through the door, so he simply followed it and found himself in another room with two beds, very much like the one he’d left about an hour before. The major difference was that both beds had been slept in.

He wasn’t far behind, but he didn’t understand what was going on here. The dungeon had very clearly stated that there was only one other participant; why were both beds used?

Was it possible that Andarit had some kind of summoning or thrall Path? No, summoning wouldn’t make sense; the summon wouldn’t be sleeping in the next bed, it would simply be unsummoned. A thrall Path was possible, but even then they usually worked far better on monsters than on people, and the only being Arrin had seen with Andarit was that man.

On top of that, Arrin had thought thralls counted towards the limit for dungeons.

No, that couldn’t be it. But if that wasn’t it, what was it?

He’d have to keep it in mind for when he caught up; Andarit might not be alone after all.

Arrin didn’t want to waste more time than he already had; just look at how quickly he’d caught up! If he’d only pushed forward the previous night, he could have caught up while Andarit was sleeping and taken care of it with days left! He was short on time.

The door opened onto a jungle and Arrin frowned. He hated jungles. Hopefully, Andarit would be slowed by monsters and he wouldn’t be, but he couldn’t count on that. Not in a jungle.