The lumbering form of the ogre was making its way through, and for a brief moment I could only stand there frozen as the memories of my last encounter with one replayed in my head. I remembered how the brute had crushed me in its arms. Back then I was powerless to do anything about it. This time though? This time was a bit different.

I wasn’t holding a 5.56 this time around. By numbers alone, the firearm in my hands was more than twice as powerful when it came to sheer kinetic energy that I was capable of putting down range. The rifle came up and the muzzle pointed right for the ogre’s face. It seemed to know what was coming, as unlike last time when it simply walked toward me and took the incoming fire it instead brought its arm up to shield itself.

If anything, I think the dungeon was learning to fear firearms.

I opened fire, and began to laugh as chunks of its forearm were blown away by the hateful power of .308. It roared in pain and dipped into a stance like it was about to charge.

Then Charlie fired.

In that very small room, with how close the ogre was to me, the blast was downright oppressive. I was thrown backward several feet, but thanks to my Dexterity I was able to land on my toes. The ogre, to the credit of its absurd durability, was still standing and alive.

Its right arm was completely gone, pretty much disintegrated to the shoulder by the explosion. The rest of its body was covered in its own blood and bits of muscle and skin that had splattered about. It stared at where its arm used to be, its eyes widening in amazement before it began to roar.

With its head exposed and open for attack, I fired again. The first three rounds took out its left eye before it charged forward, uncaring about the damage it had taken. The speed with which the massive creature moved was outstanding. So much so that I couldn’t get out of the way as its remaining good hand reached out and grabbed the front of my vest.

It picked me up and continued charging until it slammed me against the wall.

Aura: 0%

The little protection that my Aura granted me most likely prevented my spine from being shattered. I could hear and feel my rear plate crumble behind me. It reared its head back, mouth wide, as it got ready to rip my head off with its teeth.

My Blade was repeatedly stabbing into the back of its neck, but wasn’t going to dig through to its spine in time. My rifle? I dumped the magazine into its chest. I think its organs had already failed, adrenaline and the dungeon’s influence were keeping it standing in its final bid at killing me.

It probably would have succeeded if my best friend hadn’t been in the room.

“James! Cover your face!”

All I could do was trust whatever he was going to do. I let go of my rifle and brought both of my hands up to shield my face. I heard something sail through the air, then the sound of Charlie’s 9mm firing once. There was a loud pop, the sound of a pressurized can exploding.

I easily recognized the smell as it filled the air, felt the immediate tingle as the contents of the can hit bare skin.

I could guess what he had done, as the ogre let go and desperately wiped at its face. As I dropped my hands to grab the rifle again to reload I spotted the mangled can on the floor. Charlie had thrown a can of pepper spray at the ogre’s face, then shot it.

I’ve been pepper sprayed on several occasions. Once accidental, twice on purpose. No, I was never sprayed by someone in self-defense, both times that I was sprayed intentionally it was part of a training course. The accidental time, I had been at my uncle’s house while my mother was out of town. There I was, sitting in his favorite chair and messing with the stuff on his chairside table. He maintained a small can of it for just-in-case (he always carried around the house). My tiny hands got hold of it, and I didn’t recognize what it was. After a few minutes of fiddling with it, I managed to spray myself right in the face at point-blank.

Not knowing what had just happened, and with my uncle being outside dealing with something, I was left to flail about on the floor in pain for several minutes before he came back in and helped me.

Years later, I can safely say it wasn’t the worst experience of my life, but at the time it certainly was.

I can only imagine how the ogre was feeling about it.

Maybe I didn’t have to imagine too much, as it fell to its back and thrashed about on the ground as it clutched at its face. It reminded me a lot of my own experience that first time.

Unlike the ogre, I was trained later to deal with the pain and keep fighting. Only a small amount of the spray had reached my face, and that was mostly blocked by my goggles. Sure, my cheeks and forehead were burning, but I could mostly ignore that like a bad sunburn.

Charlie and I both finished reloading before we approached. Two simultaneous shots to the head finally finished it off. We both stood there for a moment, long enough for the body to start dissolving. I listened for the sensor, daring it to ding again. It didn’t. It seemed that the rush was over.

“You good Charlie?”

“I am. More importantly though, how are you doing? I heard your fucking plates crack when it slammed you!”

“I’m fine. My Aura tanked the hit for me.”

“Shit. Can mine do that too?”

“Probably not. It gets more effective as you level up. Things that are higher level can just ignore it entirely.”

“Ah, damn, so I’d have probably died.”

“Nah, you’re built different.”

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“Right… Is it always like this? That swarm was nuts! How have you been dealing with shit like that all by yourself!”

“No, I’ve only seen something that intense in the dedication rooms, and one room that I happened across before the dungeon took its current shape.”

“Then things are changing more than you thought?”

“Maybe. I can’t think of what's causing it though.”

“I mean, I’m here now.”

“What?”

“Think of it. What happens in a lot of RPGs when there is a player two.”

“The difficulty gets ramped up to maintain the balance…”

“Yep.”

“Shit. So the dungeon is pissed off now that there are two of us, and it's ramping up to fix it.”

“If that’s really the case, then I think we’ll need some heavier firepower than what we’re rocking now. I got some stuff at home that’ll be perfect.”

That sounded like a fine idea to me.

I kept guard on the door while Charlie went around to collect all the XP gems in the other rooms and out in the hallway. In a short amount of time he had them all gathered and used.

“Alright, what is your SE sitting at now?”

“A hundred and two out of ten? It says that I can level up now.”

“Awesome! Do it. You should be able to make it to level five in one go.”

He stood there for a minute, and I watched as his body lit up with gold light several times.

“That felt really weird.”

“You’ll get used to it soon enough. Now, I heavily recommend that you use all of those points on Wisdom. That’ll hopefully protect your brain from the dungeon a bit.”

“Gotcha. Also, it says that I need a Class Endowment gem now? What is that and how do I get one?”

“Big golden gem that floats around after you defeat the first boss. We can do that tomorrow, once we’re more heavily armed. I think that today was enough already.”

“You have to defeat the first boss before you get a class?”

“Seems so. Its also how you get abilities. When you kill the boss on this floor, it gives you a choice of one of three classes, then you pick one of three abilities. After that, you get your loot.”

“Each time?”

“The class selection disappears the second go around, but so far I’ve gotten an ability both times. And the loot.”

“What about the second floor boss?

“Choice of one chest. Gives you either loot or ability.”

“That sucks.”

“Indeed it does. Boss two is worth a fair chunk of SE, but really it doesn’t feel worth it. No idea what’s going on there, it totally flies in the face of RPG logic.”

Charlie stopped walking down the hallway for a moment, an idea churning in his head.

“What if maybe the dungeon is trying to provoke you into greater risks, but giving less reward? Like a drug dealer getting his client addicted with large doses early, then charging him more for less.”

It hit me like a freight train full of bricks. I could only curse myself for not piecing that together by myself.

“You’re right… That’s such an obvious explanation…”

And there was no reason for me not realizing it sooner. The first floor had been giving me diminishing returns on normal loot from almost the beginning, driving me to spend more time inside for similar gains. The second floor had been loot starved so far as what I could actually use. All I’d gotten was the scales and a severed artery.

“Charlie. I think I need to apologize to you.”

I thought over how much I’d been jonesing to get back into the dungeon every day. Thinking back, I hadn’t partaken of a single one of my other hobbies besides reading, and even then it had been for the purpose of waiting in the dungeon.

“For what?”

“Because now you’re stuck in this too. This dungeon has been fucking with me all this time, and now that I’ve dragged you in here, its going to do the same to you.”

He grabbed my shoulder and spun me to face him as we approached the portal. His eyes locked with mine.

“Oh shut the fuck up man. Don’t go apologizing, you had no way of knowing how bad this would get! And besides, what kind of friend would I be if I wasn’t down and willing to raid a dungeon with you? Risks be damned! Now come on! We have a birthday party to get to!”

I don’t think that I deserved a friend like Charlie.

He stopped outside the front door before he left.

“I gotta go home and shower, and think about what guns to bring next time. We doing another run tomorrow?”

“I have nothing planned, but are you sure that you want to keep going after today?”

“Hell yeah dude! That was probably the most alive I’ve felt since that time in Somalia.”

“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Sure, let's shoot for just after lunch. I’m sure we’ll both be a bit hungover knowing Fred’s parties.”

“Oh, speaking of, the System doesn’t make alcohol have less effect does it? I’ve seen shit like that in some books.”

“Not so far as I can tell.”

“Awesome! See ya at the party then.”

“See ya man.”

I watched him leave before going back inside to reload my empty magazines and restock my pouch. After the essentials were taken care of I finally went to take a shower myself.

What Charlie had said was still ringing through my head. If it was true, and not just a theory, then that meant that we might have to beat the second floor for any real gains. What if a third floor showed up? What if it didn’t? Sure, there was no sign of XP gem drops going down. If anything, it was getting easier to level up with how many enemies the dungeon wanted to throw at us, but my savings weren’t going to last forever.

We could try to sell the items we got inside, but then people either wouldn’t be able to use the magic stuff, or would ask too many questions for the stuff that did work.

All it’d take was one scientist to examine the materials to determine it wasn’t an earthly metal and we’d be exposed.

We’d have to figure something out.

But hey, at least now I had my best friend watching my back. I could deal with less money for something like that.