I was bruised and both physically and emotionally in pain. The physical I could handle the emotional I could not.

I was crying to myself sitting in the entry room just letting it all catch up to me. They were correct of course, I was an insanely stupid liability. The only parallel I could think of was being forced to watch a loved one slowly kill themselves with drugs just to get that high. At some point you had to walk away for your own sake.

That realization made the pain even worse… so bad I threw up and passed out.

I don't know how long I was asleep for but when I woke up I was on my bedroll. Everyone else was quietly talking to each other in small groups.

I looked up and saw Root looking right at me, I looked away in shame.

"You have been acting as a child. You understand that right?" He asked and all the other conversations stopped.

"Yes… it hurts me emotionally to understand that but yes…" I said.

"Good" he said in a hard emotionless voice.

"I at least don't have to ask you what you did wrong…" he said with a small sigh.

"No but you should anyway." I said.

"Such a weird fucking personality…" he said under his breath.

"What did you do wrong?" Root asked.

"Put myself into a life or death situation after you had specifically said not too." I said emotionlessly.

"Yes that is correct… just to complete the damn scolding." Root said with the last part being a murmur.

"So how long have I been out for?" I asked.

"A few hours." Iser said.

"Just give me a few minutes to properly wake up before we head out." I said.

"Will do." Root said.

I knew right then and there that I had just finished off my friendship. I was now just an escort task for them.

"Alright your few minutes are up. I'd like to leave this dungeon as this has now become the longest time I have spent in one." Root said.

"Right…" I said and got up and started to pack my gear up.

Once we were all completely packed up and looked at the group in front of me.

"Ready" I said emotionally dead inside.

They all shared a glance with one another.

"You promise not to do that again?" Root asked.

"Yes… or at least I want to say yes… but the truth is I just don't know… I think the best I can give is I will try my fucking hardest not to." I said.

Root paused for a moment in thought then sighed.

"Fuck… We'll take it… but the first hint that you are doing something stupid dangerous again your out. I do not want to watch a friend die… none of us do." He said, and he got mummers of agreement from everyone.

"Let's get this dungeon over with and back to town… I want to sleep in a real bed tonight." Root said.

The walk back through the seventh floor was far more somber than I was expecting. We didn't have to fight anything again but he kept a lookout for anything new.

I could tell people wanted to talk and joke but at the same time they were still angry with me. The air was tense with emotions. Iser in particular wanted to say something but everytime he was about to he would close his mouth and look away.

I did grab Root for a quick discussion.

"So I didn't thank you for saving my life multiple times now… and I've come to realize I have been taking advantage of the entire group's generosity. And I want to apologize for that." I said.

"You have been taking advantage of us less than you might think. Sure you don't say thanks as often but you have expressed gratitude in other ways." He said in a gentler tone than I expected.

"Still thank you… everyone's friendship has been far more valuable to me than anything since coming to dirt." I said with tears in my eyes.

I paused for a moment to collect myself.

"So I have another question… how badly was I injured?" I asked.

"First off… if Turnip had not managed to grab and protect your head and neck you very likely would have died." He said.

Root then paused again.

"If I had not taken a costly rank up in my first aid skill you also would have very likely died… mind you I had points stashed away in case someone was that gravely injured. Obviously that sort of bled into my anger." He continued.

Then he paused for a moment.

"I did discover a new skill after healing you and settling down. I had ignored my notifications after so I didn't know until the group had come back and found you passed out." He said.

"What is the new skill if you don't mind me asking?" I asked.

"Internal Guidance, it allows me to activate and use the skills of others while I am in direct physical contact. It is excitingly rare and I had only heard of master class healers ever getting it and even then it was very rare among them." He said.

"So what did you have to borrow while healing?" I asked.

"Your shaping ability, it was particularly useful for mending the broken ribs and stitching up your lungs, and intestines." He said.

"I… fuck… you really aren't kidding I should be dead." I said in shock.

"Yes… even your own ability was required to save you. Although other than activating it I sort of just let it do its own thing. Thinking back to that, it was fascinating to witness." He said.

"I don't want to ask but at the same time, what other injuries did I have?" I asked.

"Your abdomen was split open and you had multiple injuries to your intestines. Fractures and internal bleeding everywhere. Oh and a punctured lung… well both punctured. It took us three more blood regeneration potions while I stitched you back together." He said.

"I… fuck… I didn't realize how badly I fucked up… maybe I should retire from the adventuring and delving life." I said in shock.

"So I will give you this… all of us in the group have fucked up almost as badly as that particularly when we were younger. The reason it was so bad for you was your odd control over your abilities. In fact let's stop at your kill and you will get a better idea of what I mean." He said.

When we got to the chamber it was obvious where I obliterated the monster. The side of the bridge where the Beholder had been, a rough cone removed from it. The Beholder was peppered all over a quarter of the cavern in the direction I was facing.

"Fuck…. That… it's …." I was at a loss for words.

"Honestly the abilities you have scare me, this should be impossible until your second evolution. Iser or Turnip might be able to do that but I suspect it would use up all their energy and mana in one shot." He said.

"Ohhhhh…. Umm I have a theory or several theories.." I said.

"And what's that." He asked

"I… I think my skill only acted as a catalyst… something in the clay or slag might have reacted." I said hesitantly.

"How much mana did you put into it?" Root asked.

"60 points worth." I said.

"Yeah ok… I'm starting to see that something completely unexpected happened outside of your control." Root said thoughtfully.

"I'm still very annoyed with the stunt you pulled but I have now seen you shape the blast a few times. You might have been in far less danger if things had worked as expected…" he said.

"Agreed I was more hoping to direct and shape all of the energy into the face of the Beholder." I said.

"Still a very very stupid move." He said.

We eventually made it to the last entry room copy and took a moment to sync.

"So Nicole, what can you tell us about this one." Root asked.

"Not much unfortunately, it would be commonly used as the ultimate nemesis. So its abilities would range very wildly to fit the story." I said.

"Alright then we are just going to treat it as an unknown boss." Root said.

"Nicole, you have any more bombs ready?" He asked.

"No unfortunately." I replied.

"Good stick with the crossbow. All you need to do is assist and get a few hits in." He said.

With that we entered into the final floor.

What eventually greeted the group was a truly massive open cavern lit with different colored softly glowing crystals. The cavern was not bright but it was not pitch black either.

The more ominous thing we saw was the hunched object on the other side of the room. We could hear a soft breathing coming from it and even see it shift ever so slightly. Perspective made it difficult to tell exactly how large it was but I was certain it was larger than 20 feet tall.

"Umm… do dungeon bosses change all that often?" I whispered.

"I mean I've heard of all sorts of claims but never experienced it." Root said.

"It still needs to fall into the difficulty range of the dungeon." Iser said.

"Yeah I think I understand that but it's going to be 40 feet tall if it stands up straight." I whispered back.

"Anyone fought anything building size before?" I asked.

"I mean… we fought a building that one time…" Lluvia said.

"How did you guys do it?" I asked.

"Umm I think we burned it down… it was a very strange dungeon." She said in reply.

"Normally for larger creatures there is some sort of environmental trigger we can use to engage and damage. Everyone keep an eye out." Orlo said.

I saw a higher vantage point but I would need to climb to get up top. I was about to do just that when I realized I might have another option. I compressed the space between myself and my destination like I did the prior day when Lluvia was attacked in that ambush.

The world sort of shifted around me and compressed in my peripheral vision. I then found myself standing on top of the small plato.

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"Oh that was interesting, did you just teleport yourself up there?" Iser asked me.

"No, I think I crossed the intervening space to get up here, just in a very odd way." I said.

I checked my mana.

Mana: 100/125

"Ok not remotely efficient but it's fun." I whispered down.

From this vantage point maybe 30 feet up I could see most of the cavern floor. It was hardly even with Plato's, depressions, crags, and crystals scattered everywhere.

I could tell too that some spots of the ground were much thinner than others. They might hold a person's weight but something bigger would fall into it.

"Ok I have something, spots in the floor are thin. Maybe we get this thing to fall in and take some swings at it?" I quickly asked.

"Weak points on the ceiling as well." Orlo said quietly.

The breathing from the hunched object changed.

"Alright I think it's waking up." Root said in a louder voice.

The creature unfurled itself and raised to its full height. I threw and identify out to get a description.

Prince of Demons, (level ?? 23)

"Umm it's registering at level 23?" I asked.

"Yeah, a single boss like this at the end is expected to be harder and needs a group." Turnip said.

I could hear sniffing in the air as the creature woke up and started to look around. As soon as it spotted our spread out group it turned its entire body to face us.

Arms that turned to whips or tentacles, a barbed tail, and the most noticeable feature two baboon looking heads. It then let out the loudest roar I had ever heard, so loud everyone was clutching what they considered their ears.

"Umm, did anyone else feel that effect?" I asked.

"Yes, just force your way through it." Turnip said and charged at the thing. She quickly moved from a sprint to a sort of hopping lunge and picked up speed. Before I really had a chance to register her mace came smashing down onto the foot of the creature. One of the heads bellowed out in pain and that side’ss arm swing down to try and hit Turnip.

Turnip just sort of disappeared and reappeared about 15 feet from where she was at. During that time 3 arrows shot into the other head, two of them exploding on impact into splinters. I was not even sure where the shots came from.

I could see Orlo near its feet but on the opposite side slicing at its ankles from behind in an attempt to hamstring it.

At most I think they were just pissing it off at the moment. That was until a fire lance shot from Iser's palm and scorched the side of its body leaving nasty burn marks.

Root was mostly focused on monitoring the actions of all the others and occasionally making callouts.

I looked at my crossbow and knew it would be unless, it was not going to even be a bee sting compared to the other attacks.

I had an idea with it that would hold up for maybe one shot which was why I didn't bother before. I pulled out my knife and started to carve and adjust some new runes into the body of the crossbow, particularly focused on the limbs or arms. The idea was to provide a single augmented shot, however the material was not going to hold up for very long.

With that I then pulled out, then pulled off all the metal tips I could from the rest of my crossbow bolts. I used my shaping ability to meld them into a single extra heavy reinforced point.

I checked on the fight, the rest of the team seemed to be harassing it but doing little damage beside what Iser had done so far.

I added runes into the bolt head and the shaft that would allow more energy to be held in the single bolt then dumped 40 points of mana into it. I did the same for the crossbow as well but only 20 as it was already unstable. I also reinforced the string as much as I could but as I could not carve runes into it I could not increase its capacity, that only held about 5. I then checked my mana.

Mana: 47/125

I had enough for 2 jumps if that 25 point value held true but I would need to wait a minute. Actually thinking about it I had enough for one jump as I would need to spend energy arming and guiding the shot. I started the slow process of climbing down from my perch.

I was actually a bit quicker than I expected but not by any significant amount. I guess my body was starting to get used to the higher levels of physical activity I was doing. I didn't feel as winded as I used to get.

During that time the group had managed to get one of the towering beasts' legs trapped in a weak part of the floor. The group was now focused on keeping it from recovering and to keep cutting at it.

With it distracted I managed to get about 25 feet away from its right side where its leg was stuck and aimed at the head closest to me.

I then had to take a jump back as its arm tried to swat at a jumping Orlo and I just happened to be in the way.

Dancing back I then realigned my shot and pulled the trigger. Everything sort of slowed down for me at that point. The crossbow in the process of firing sort of tore itself to pieces. I had to jump back again as its arms flailed more wildly. And I watched as the head I was targeting moved just out of the way more by pure chance.

Then to my surprise it struck the other head right where the temple would be on a human. This caused that half of the body to go rigid and that head's eyes to bulge out of its sockets. The bolt didn't even go that deep no doubt because the hide and bone were so tough. It did try to numbly use its arm to feel around for the bolt but it exploded shortly after impact. That intern caused blood to start leaking out of the side of its head where the bolt had been and blood to leak from its eyes.

"Fuck that was a great shot." Root said.

"Umm… I was actually aiming at the other one… I just got stupid lucky." I said as a reply.

The left half of the body went limp, tentacle arm sort of twitching, then twitching a bit more violently. The other head turned itself to face its other half and roared in what I expected to see as anger or something but it didn't feel or sound quite right.

The 'dead' left half was continuing to twitch And even move around a little like it was an arm that was slept on.

"Oooohh fuck." I whispered in fear.

"Yeah I just realized it as well." Root said unperturbed.

Then both left and right arms grabbed the left dead head and began to twist and wrench and pull.

"Is it doing what I think it's trying to do?" Lluvia asked.

"By ripping off its twin’s head? Yeah…" I said in fear and disgust.

It let out a roar louder than the original challenge shaking the entire cavern. The dead head being pulled free then thrown.

"Umm Nicole you didn't happen to lie to me and actually have another bomb prepared do you." Root said a little concerned now.

"Nope sorry I blew my load into its skull." I said, that made Lluvia laugh.

"Well your problem now!" I said and 'blinked' myself 40 feet back, I caught Root belly laugh even back here.

Seeing as I was effectively out of this fight for the moment I took a chance to evaluate the recently decapitated head. It smelled absolutely horrid, a mix of sulfur, and decay that made my stomach churn.

I was thinking of trying to take one of the teeth but could not come up with a good reason to. Instead I took a moment to study it, which just looked like an oversized baboon head. With that I switched back to the fight.

It seemed the monster was a little more coordinated with only one head even with its minimal control of the left side. The group was getting some good hits in and the missing head was leaking quite a bit of blood.

My friends were taking glancing hits and being knocked about but overall they seemed to be doing quite well.

Then all at once the thing stopped then looked right at Turnip and breathed a stream of lightning at her.

She managed to sense something coming just before the attack and got her large tower shield up but was still thrown backwards. I was worried but I also understood that she was by far the toughest person in the group.

I saw her then quickly get to her feet, pull out a potion, down it and sprint towards the monster.

I was constantly checking my mana, willing it to grow faster.

Mana: 15/125

No luck. I was out of this fight.

I felt a body tackle into me out of nowhere. Then not a second later a reddish beam of heat washed over the spot I was just standing. Lluvia had grabbed me out of the way just in time.

"You really need to pay more attention, neither Iser nor I want to have to scrape up your remains." She reprimanded.

"Sorry… I got distracted trying to come up with a way to help." I said embarrassed.

"Help!? You caused it to rip off its own head. Now just pay attention and don't get squashed." She said with a laugh.

The magical attacks the monster was issuing forth was actually a sign of it wearing. It was moving more sluggish compared to before.

I had prepared one last tiny little attack just because I could. I had taken a tiny bit of clay and worked it around a tiny chunk of slag. It was a third the size of my pinky fingernail.

I pushed every bit of mana I could into this tiny little mix of materials all of about 10 points worth and even then it felt unstable. I was hoping to see another reaction on a much smaller scale than my big bomb had made. I was pretty sure it was going to fail but I was sort of bored.

I aimed at the target doing a finger gun with the tiny bead of material being temporarily tethered to my finger and 'fired'. I had 10 points left and pushed that into moving the projectile to the target as fast as possible, which apparently was pretty fast. The monster would not have noticed something so small but I could still see the wound it left.

It still took another 3 minutes to die with everyone hacking at it. I even managed to get a few swings in with my sword near the end.

Congratulations, you exsanguinated ‘Prince of Demons’ Level 23 to a river of blood! Bonus Exp was granted for annihilating a monster above your level! Reduced Exp was granted for working in a group.

Dungeon Cleared!

All adversaries within The Deep Down Dungeon Defeated.

All Bosses Defeated

Nicole Silberschmidt, MacTinker, level 9 is awarded the Stalker class.

"Finally… that was annoying." Turnip said.

"Anyone see if it dropped anything?" Orlo asked.

"I'll look." I said.

Finally feeling useful I began to search the area around the body, using my skill liberally.

I eventually found something, it was a thin metal bracelet not unlike what we received from the Illithids. I ran Identify on it and pressed some mana into it, and did the same to the one on my wrist.

Communication Band Hub, New, Excellent Quality

Communication Band Spoke, New, Excellent Quality

"Hmm… Well, let's see what it does." I said to myself and put it on.

The item Communication Band Hub requires a SoulBind.

Would you like to SoulBind Communication Band Hub?

Seeing that I removed it immediately, I then went back to the group proper.

"Hey, I found the drop and it's a little confusing." I said.

"What is it first off?" Turnip asked.

"Communication Band Hub… the confusing part is the bands we have are Communication Band Spokes." I said.

"Sometimes drops can be themed but I think I see what you mean." Iser said.

"I never looked over these before I put mine on. Hindsight makes me realize how dumb that might have been." I said.

"Alright so we have spokes and a hub? Any idea what that might mean?" Root asked.

"Could be a form of long distance communication, the name fits… sort of." I said.

"Very very valuable if true." Orlo said.

"Oh the Hub said it's required to be SoulBound to use." I said.

Everyone looked up at me with wide eyes.

"You didn't, did you?" Orlo asked.

"No… I might be impulsive and can make poor decisions at the moment but I'm not an idiot." I said.

Orlo let out a breath.

"So what's up with a SoulBound item anyway?" I asked.

"You can only have so many attached to you at once first off. Second you cannot break a SoulBound Items connection except by destroying the item or the owner dying. The major advantage is that only the SoulBound owner can use it. For obvious reasons they are particularly valuable for some kinds of weapons." Iser said.

"I heard one of the Harpy Families had a SoulBound Dagger that the owner can summon from anywhere." Orlo said.

"So would this be valuable to our group? And I don't mean to sell but to use." I asked.

"Mmm… it actually could be assuming it's easy to use." Root said.

"Well we don't have to use it yet." Turnip said.

"Oh shit I need to check the core for any Roots." I said and ran off.

"But we already have one right here!" Lluvia shouted at me laughing.

I could still hear them talking as I jogged away.

"She knows not to break the core here no matter what, right?" Turnip asked.

I heard the rest of the group running after me.

"This core seems fine." I said as I walked out of the core room, and everyone let out a sigh of relief.

"Give me just a moment I need to burn off some of this excess mana." I said, then I pulled out the last of my clay and slag which was just a bit more than what made up the big bomb.

"You are not going to leave with that." Root said.

"Damn really? I could have a bunch of small bombs ready to go at all times." I said.

"I’m nervous enough knowing you can build one at any time. But…. I think it's okay for the traps you have set up in the past." He continued.

"Alright well I'm gonna do a small test. I need to see if I can reproduce that reaction again." I said, everyone backed away from me and had worried expressions.

"What? I'm not going to be anywhere near it this time." I said. No one seemed relieved by that explanation.

It took me several minutes to put it together and only a few seconds to plant the bomb. I completely forgot I could blink around.

"Alright it's on the other side of the cavern in one of the deeper holes." I said.

Root let out a long sigh then said. "Let's just get this over with."

I triggered it remotely or well more via the strand of mana I left behind to act as signal carrier.

The explosion itself was more felt than seen.

"Yep, that's like last time." Turnip said.

"Alright I can just about rule out two of the possible catalysts just based on that alone." I said.

"It could also be an interaction of magical energies and materials as well." Iser added.

"Oh crap that's a good point and I'm not even sure where to begin… I'll table this study for now as I would need a lab anyway…" I said.

"You think way too much." Lluvia said.

"Yep!" I replied in a very peppy way.

"Alright let's get out of here." Root said.

We exited the dungeon without incident and were greeted by 4 Seekers and 10 Soldiers.