While it was dangerous, I turned into a manture and spread my wings and shot for the well, my eyes scanning for the wizard.

I completed a circle over the well, but failed to spot him. I made a sharp maneuver as an arrow hissed by just a hair away from me. Doing so saved my life, but misbalanced me. I had poor command on my wings anyway and I suddenly found myself belly up. Not knowing how to regain control of the flight, I fell.

In mid air I transformed into a stone giant, and hit ground just next to the well. I felt like I had crushed someone underneath me, a pained whimper confirming this. I immediately got aside, fearing I had crushed one of my own monsters to death.

But no, it was a player that had somehow infiltrated the perimeter of monsters. He had already been injured and my massive weight had administered him the coup de grace.

Seeing a miniature man on the edge of the well made my stone brows shoot up my forehead. The wizard.

He was looking over the edge, calculating his next move. I tried to swat him, but the bastard rolled sideways and I missed. I realized it was stupid trying to defeat such a small adversary when I was myself so big.

Reverting to a Manture’s body, I swooped for the mini wizard, running about the rim of the well, trying to find a way to get down.

He couldn’t just jump because the bottom was a long way down, and doing so would be suicidal for him.

The wizard saw me coming. He drew out a small sword from a hidden scabbard. To avoid the sharp object hitting my eye, I was forced to turn suddenly. I crashed against the inner wall of the well and I plummeted.

The small wizard grabbed the opportunity and leapt right on top of me. He held tightly on one of my wings, losing his sword in the process. I flapped my other wing desperately. As much as I wanted to let the wizard fall and die, I couldn’t afford killing myself in the process.

I did not turn into a stone giant because the well was narrow and I would have gotten stuck, which would only help the nefarious wizard, as he could then climb down to the door using me as a ladder. I could have become one of the intermediate sized monsters, but then I would have fallen and cracked my skull.

There was one solution –turning into one of the small monsters to get the wizard off me, and then changing back into a manture, but caught in action, logic had deserted me.

Somehow in mid air, I was able to regain an upright position, however even still the wizard clutched onto my wing, digging his nails into my flesh. I tried to flap my wings to gain height, but the weight of the wizard, small as he was, only allowed me to flap my wings enough to slow down my fall, not stop it altogether.

Pinwheeling uncontrollably, I impacted the bottom of the well. Pain and a decline in health followed. The wizard’s groans sounded sweet to my ears. At least, my unwanted rider was not unscathed.

He didn’t even seem to have any health vials with himself. However, the hardy rat was up on his feet in no time, much faster than me. He ran for the door a few meters away, though it was a distance thanks to his size.

I switched to my smaller body, and hobbled as fast as I could after him.

My fingers found a hold on the back of his shirt. He turned with a furious scowl and boxed me on the face, right at the nose. A literally breath-taking (as in unable to breathe) display of fireworks filled my vision, and once they cleared, the next thing I saw was the wizard entering the door.

It was night again.

Level number four.

The wizard shivered violently as he came out of the door, his teeth rattling. My heart sank. Another level lost. I thought the wizard would come to hit me, but instead he fell on his knees, trembling due to the cold. It was the icy level. I was a defender and hence my skin detected no change in temperature.

My face flushed with anger. I turned back into a human, and I stomped on him, staining my sole with red.

Success could get you killed.

Some monsters were looking down at me.

“Find the cave and protect it,” I directed them.

There was no time to waste thinking over what was lost. Protecting the current level was top priority. This is the level where the players must be stopped. I flew back up the well as a Manture.

It was snowing, and I saw that instead of trying to find the door to the next level, many of the players in the immediate neighborhood were kneeling and shivering, their skin turning icicle blue. The monsters were executing them with little to no resistance like they were tranquilized vermin.

The sudden change from extreme heart to extreme cold had physically shocked them and paralyzed them. Only a few players were still moving lethargically. A player picked up a sacrifice stone and the next moment he had a blanket. It would probably save his life from the cold, but it must have also required a considerable sacrifice on his part.

I was in pain. My health was falling, but it was stabilizing slowly. I just prayed it wouldn’t go all the way down to zero. My shoulder and my waist hurt fiercely. The injuries I had sustained in my manture form had passed to my human body.

My scheming mind was at work however.

We had delayed the players at the third level for a good chunk of the day. Perhaps by six or seven hours or even more. The only reason that had been possible was because the monsters had found the well beforehand. We had to repeat the same at this level.

I grabbed a sacrifice stone. There was no shortage of them. The ultimate sacrifice had to be made, before a player overcame their brain freeze and made a sacrifice, seeking the thing I wanted.

“I want to sacrifice my ability to become one of the intermediate monsters,” I said to the sacrifice stone. “Just get me to the place where the next door is.”

It was the least important ability I had.

“That one sacrifice is not enough,” the sacrifice stone replied to my dismay. “Give up your ability to transform. Only that will suffice to get you what you wish for.”

Gah, I didn’t want to give up the transform spell altogether. But I reasoned I would still have my messaging spell. Once I got to the cave, I could just ask the monsters to guard it.

“Then so be it,” I said to the stone, well aware my sacrifice would increase my vulnerability. “I sacrifice my ability to transform.”

“Your sacrifice has been accepted,” the sacrifice stone said. “You now know the way to the cave that hides the door to the next level.”

And I did.

It was amazing. One moment I knew nothing about the whereabouts of the cave and the next moment, I knew the exact path to it.

I planned that once I reached the cave, I would call the monsters—one by one so as not to unintentionally hint the players on the cave’s location.

I had to traverse a great distance. I began to limp my way through the snowy terrain. It was dark, but regardless it was easy for me to navigate. In fact I could have made my way even if I was blindfolded. I knew the route to the cave so well.

I saw a murdered player lying in the wilderness. A shawl was warming the snow next to him. Quite a few of the players had made sacrifices to protect themselves from the unforgiving cold. They had probably used up their health vials in the last level.

I flung the shawl over myself. It would serve as a guise. The player’s fallen sword I made mine. Too bad I had lost Kiara's magic sword in the sea. She had crafted it with love for me. But any protection was better than no protection.