The three brave explorers of the unknown braved new territory and entered the Dungeon.

Unfortunately, the Dungeon was only new territory for humans. Because the gurglocks had made a point on attempting to raid the Dungeon for its treasures. After they reached the first bend in the tunnel, it was utter carnage. The fish-monsters had invaded the Dungeon and attempted to brute force its traps and puzzles with a massive number of bodies.

Bodies that now littered the corridors, impaled on spears, cut by blades, skewered by spikes, pincushioned by arrows. The ones closest to the entrance were old corpses, blood already dry. They disarmed the traps to allow their brethren access to the deepest parts of the Dungeon. Covering their noses, the humans moved deeper.

They reached two reinforced wooden doors in a medieval style, facing each other on opposite sides of the corridor. A quick glance showed that a fight went on in both rooms; some tall humanoid creatures with bull heads, red scaled bodies and goat legs fought the gurglocks until they were overwhelmed and perished under a mountain of sushi.

Robert examined each room with his spatial senses but found no pocket of air on the other side of the walls. With no other choice other than return or go deeper, they moved onward. More traps barred from resetting by the gurglocks whose lives they took cluttered the path.

Finally, after half an hour of exploration, they heard sounds of battle. Metal striking something, gurgling war cries, grunts, wheezes, and dull thumps reverberated through the walls.

As they approached a double door at the end of the corridor, they saw a bunch of tall two-star gurglocks fighting against a ten-foot-tall demonic Minotaur with an ax as long as he was tall. Both sides were injured but the gurglocks were losing already. All of them were wounded and on their last leg.

The room was big. Six pillars of square stone bricks supported the ceiling but it seemed that some of them were one flying combatant knocked into them away from crumbling. The ground was pockmarked with grooves and craters caused by massive attacks, the gurglocks disgusting blood pooling in them.

"Robert?" Amanda called. "Can you put them out of their misery?"

Robert focused and fired a two-star void lance at the minotaur's chest. The monster reacted with preternatural alacrity and placed its ax to block the beam. The "zoltraak" spell punched through the metal and opened a hole one foot wide in the Minotaur's chest. Yet, the monster bellowed and gored two gurglocks with its horn. Raising its head, he swung and tossed the corpses against the far wall.

The remaining gurglocks piled up on the minotaur, clawing, biting, and raking. Without its weapon, the monster grabbed the fish-men and tossed them against the pillars, one by one. Two pillars collapsed under the impact, causing a section of the roof to fall on top of the combatants, raising a plume of dust and splattering blood everywhere.

Amanda used her shape earth spell to push the dust down, dispelling the cloud faster than otherwise.

"All dead," Robert said. "I sense no signs of life in this room."

The humans entered the room, cautious of any ambushes. Amanda conjured spikes of stone to finish the few gurglocks that were alive along the walls.

"There's a door on the other side of the room," Robert said.

"There's another room on top of this one," Noah said. "I think we could climb from here."

Robert used void punch to break the door hinges, sending a cascade of wood into the corridor beyond it. He wasn't going to mess with the handle because his danger sense warned him of some vicious traps. Damage-per-essence wise, the void punch was more effective than the void spear.

One glance at the corridor told him it was littered with traps just as the ones before it. He could bypass all of them because his Time abilities would warn him if he was about to trigger one of them but it would be a slog.

"Let's try the other room," Robert said. "It might be a shortcut."

"Yeah, I think we — WATCH OUT!"

Two demonic Minotaurs jumped down through the hole.

Noah jumped away and traced a magma rune in the air. "Natural Disaster: Volcanic eruption!"

The pile of rubble exploded upward as heat and scalding smoke spread around the room. The eruption launched the two monsters upward and back into their room, speeding all the way to crush them against the ceiling. Then, as fast as it came, the exploding magma and vapors dissipated back into Ether as Noah dismissed his spell. A crater was left where the eruption took place.

The debris and monsters launched upward fell back down. Though still alive, the two demonic Minotaurs were stunned and severely wounded.

"Amanda, finish them off!" Noah called.

Spikes of stone launched themselves from the broken bricks and impaled the two monsters in the head. The conical spikes morphed into four wedges that extended and further shattered the heads, causing brain mass to spill. The Minotaurs expired.

"Dead!" Robert shouted.

They paused to catch their breaths and assess the situation. Noah cut off the Minotaur horns, along with their hooves and hearts.

"Where to, now?" Amanda asked.

"This room had one Minotaur, the one above ours had two," Robert stated. "Do you want to bet that the room above the one above has three?"

"Are you sensing their lifeforces?" Amanda inquired, suspicion rising.

"Not until Noah cracked the ceiling above. But yes."

"I think some stairs would be nice," Noah said.

Amanda grunted and shaped stairs out of the rubble. They climbed to the chamber above. It was the same as the one below, with the pillars in a better state of repair and the two doors closed.

Noah drew a stone rune and pointed at the cracked ceiling. "Natural Disaster: Earthquake."

The whole room shook but the epicenter was where he pointed at. The ceiling broke and more debris crashed into the room below. The demonic Minotaurs above roared and bellowed in anger.

"I'm capturing them," Robert said. "Hold your fire."

The first demonic Minotaur jumped down the hole, falling past the middle room and crashing on the rubble below. Dust rose, partially obscuring its body.

Stolen story; please report.

"Mind Blackout!" Robert shouted. He felt some resistance but the spell broke through and seized control of the monster's mind. Robert quickly changed its perceptions of friends and foe, following the alterations to the monster's psyche with a cast of beast bond.

[Demonic Minotaur joined the party], said the blue box that didn't appear because this world didn't have a game-like System.

"I name you Apis," Robert said. The monster nodded.

Apis roared to challenge his former allies. The second and third demonic bulls jumped down and crashed next to it.

"Mind Blackout!" Robert shouted again. He'd be almost out of essence by now if it wasn't for the discount to Mental spells his mind palace granted plus the extra reservoir of his void heart.

Once again, he seized control, changed the mind, and bonded with the monster. Robert ordered the two tame Minotaurs to restrain the third while he took control of that one too.

With the battle over, Robert had his three new pets climb the stairs. But he was tapped and starved for essence.

"I bet they would look impressive in armor," Amanda said.

Robert thought about who he was going to fight tomorrow. "Hey, Amanda. Do you think the armorers back at HQ would manage a rush order?"

*

*

They left the Dungeon and surfed the true void back to the passage to Earth. There, they dumped Noah with the Samson guards and dove, Robert, Amanda, and the three Minotaurs, all the way back to the arcology.

Re-entering reality in Amanda's backyard, Robert ordered the three massive Minotaurs to sit down and wait for his return.

Amanda rang the backdoor bell. Minutes later, Veronica appeared.

"Miss Samson! I wasn't expecting you."

The homeowner grinned. "Robert got some new friends, we are looking to outfit them," she pointed at the three monsters idling on the backyard lawn.

Veronica froze. "Impressive. I've seen the puffblooms but to think Robert can control these monsters, it's... Impressive."

"Thank you and good afternoon," Robert said.

"Oh. Thanks, and welcome home," Veronica replied.

"How's your training?" Amanda asked.

"It's going well. My instructor said I'll be ready to start delving the Mollusk passage next week."

"Good, good. Remember to go with a Samson party," Amanda suggested.

"Mr. Blaze... Robert!" Veronica corrected herself. "Most of your books have arrived. I also finished the list of books unique to either the arcology's library or the Pittersville public library. Here. The books and other materials you ordered are in your apartment." She handed him a notebook.

"Awesome!" Robert took the notebook and opened it. Inside, it listed hundreds of books he could only find on one or the other library. Now he could go and finish his collection.

"We're on a time crunch, Robert," Amanda said. "Let's get one of our armorers to measure the Minotaurs and make them armor."

*

*

One hour later, Robert dropped the Minotaurs in Team Actus' private gym and returned to the Dungeon, picking Noah up along the way. They made their way to the third room in the stack.

"Do you think there's a fourth room above?" Robert asked Noah.

"Maybe, maybe not. Most likely, yes. See how the doors seem to be better than the room below? I think there's a fourth room above, with four demonic Minotaurs in it, and then the final treasure or the boss room. It depends on how this Dungeon was designed."

The scientific community was divided on whether the realms had been subject to the intelligent design of an over-being or were shaped by the collective subconscious. The end effect was the same.

"Should we break the roof again?" Amanda asked.

"No. I think we should explore the corridors. There might be treasure in the side rooms," Noah said. "And we should map the Dungeon. Even if it changes layout between resets, knowing what it contains will give the next teams of explorers an edge."

It would be a bother to come this far through conventional means. The Dungeon portal was roughly three thousand miles away from the Earth passage. Whoever wanted to delve this Dungeon would need to cross monster-infested oceans and brave the relentless weather. The round trip would take a ship more than nine days, not counting the time spent delving. On top of that, someone would need to protect the vehicle from the gurglocks outside while the delvers raided the Dungeon.

It would cost millions to fund such an expedition. This Dungeon better have some serious treasure, or else it would become just a footnote.

With his essence pool refilled, Robert used the lowest-potency void lances to disarm the traps by disintegrating their triggers. It caused some of them to spring but he was forewarned of the effects of his actions. That way, they crossed the corridors, learning that the Dungeon was shaped more or less like a spiral. The corridors were all straight and all turns were at right angles. The first-floor corridors made two bends, with the twin rooms in the middle. After the first boss room, a set of straight stairs led to the second floor, where the pattern repeated itself. The smaller rooms all had smaller, eight-foot-tall demonic Minotaurs (small when compared to the ten-foot-tall bosses) but no treasure other than the axes. Noah stored them, claiming that some collectors might be interested in the weapons.

Noah used the opportunity to have his students learn the Minotaurs' fight patterns. Each had a fight per floor, three in total. The hulking brutes held no surprises at the beginning, swinging those massive axes with skill and strength. Only when they took too long to kill one did they reveal their trump card. Each Minotaur was on an enrage timer, and when they became angry. In that state, their strength, speed, and resilience all tripled. Once they learned that, the explorers stopped to talk about it.

"I think it's their talent," Noah said. "They gain those buffs if the battle goes on long enough."

With that in mind, the strategy for the fourth-floor battle was to alpha strike the enemy, regardless of them being four big Minotaurs or one huge boss.

*

*

It was option B. One huge boss. The fifteen-foot tall Demonic Minotaur had reddish-brown fur covering its body instead of red scales and two massive bat wings behind its back. Though the room wasn't tall enough for it to fly.

"Go for broke!" Noah said as he rushed inside and drew a purple-glowing Space rune. "Unnatural Disaster: Fractured Space!"

Amanda threw red bamboo shoots at the boss' feet, a thick veil of green Nature essence wrapped around them.

And Robert fired his signature "zoltraak" void lance, aiming at the monster's head.

White cracks leaking purple energy spread from Noah's runes and split several times, becoming a spiderweb as it reached for the minotaur's body. Some of Amanda's bamboo shoots were cut in half when they intersected these cracks. At the same time, a cylinder of black energy struck the monster's head, disintegrating the outer layers of skin, muscle, and bone but failing to kill the creature.

It was a late three-star monster, with thick essence and a reinforced physique. But Robert's spell caused it to become blind, deaf, and unable to speak or move its jaw. Only a string of tendon kept the bone connected to the skull as it hung loosely around its neck like a gruesome decoration.

The bamboo shoots sprouted as soon as they touched the floor. Back in the puffbloom islands, Amanda could accelerate a plant's growth by six months in just a few minutes. Now, with all the experience and power she accumulated, it was almost instantaneous. The bamboo shot up, piercing the monster's legs and lower abdomen, punching through and pinning it in place.

Just as Robert fired a second empowered void lance, Noah's spatial fractures reached the monster's body. Wherever they touched, flesh and skin were sheared and cut. Hundreds of deep gashes appeared on the Minotaur's body, spraying blood in all directions for a moment before its blood vessels lost pressure.

The second void lance struck its head again but the beam caught on some spatial fractures. Wherever they met, a secondary blast of void essence went at a random angle, poking holes in the Dungeon walls. The main beam struck the side of the monster's head, removing the skull and some brain matter. The rest of the monster's gray matter was out in the open.

Amanda cast a spell. It shaped her bamboo and caused a branch to shoot straight at that opening, blooming with a dozen razor-sharp leaves. Then the bamboo shook, causing the leaves to act as a blender inside the Minotaur's skull.

It fell down, dead.

A wave of power washed over the Dungeon. In the corridors behind, dozens of traps they had skipped clicked as the Dungeon disarmed them to allow the raiders to depart.

The door behind the boss opened on their own, revealing an ornate treasure chest.

The raiders approached the chest. "Is it a mimic?" Amanda asked.

"I don't think so," Robert replied. "I don't sense any lifeforce in it."

He put a hand on the lid and pulled. The chest opened to reveal three glowing glass vials. The top was blocked by white cork and it had silver filigree around the glass. The liquid was transparent with flecks of gold and red.

"What is this?" Robert asked as he took a vial and examined it.

"That's our reward. It's an elixir of some kind," Noah said.

Robert pulled the stopper out of his bottle. He brought it to his lips without letting them touch.

"Wait!" Noah warned. "We don't know what it does!"

"It's nothing harmful, though," Robert retorted.

"Just because it isn't harmful in the window of time you can see after drinking it, it doesn't mean it won't have any delayed detrimental effect," Noah rebutted the retort.

"We have people with appraisal talents back at the arcology," Amanda said. "It's better if we take this to them and see what they say."