"I take it you didn't bring us here just for a training opportunity for the 8th Floor," I said, when we had a moment between monster encounters on the cave's first level.

"Obviously not," said Bruzigan, "but I'll need more than a quick breather to explain. Once we've cleared out this level, I'll give the team a proper briefing."

That was fair of him—this was not an easy dungeon. The monsters were tough, tricky, or both, and Arvallei was still earning plenty of Pathfinder keep helping us avoid a startling number of traps. In fact, I doubted that most of the dungeons we'd face on the 8th Floor, at least early on, would be as troublesome.

Too, Bruzigan was right in that we were totally unable to get more than scant moments' peace until we'd killed everything on the dungeon level. It was almost as though the monsters were possessed by something akin to a Monster Lord's control, though I had to assume that wasn't the actual force controlling them.

Eventually, we were able to sit down near the stair to the next level for a welcome breather. As soon as we were reasonably settled, Bruzigan cleared his throat.

"By now we're all familiar with that certain rare class of items that are basically fruits, vegetables, and even more rarely other food items that can have an extremely wide range of beneficial effects, many of which even interact directly with the Tower's mechanics," he began, "they are never given an item grade by the Tower, because they possess exceptional quality, usefulness, and rarity to begin with. There are also no items of their category to possess a Four-Digit designation.

However...Three, Two, and Single Digit designations are another story. Our target is to secure the Herlisian Apple, a Two Digit item in this category, which is officially known as Special Consumable. Specifically, it is #37 in Special Consumables, and is also the Unified Two-Digit Consumable Item #99.

There are two possible ways to use it. According to its Tower description, if a single challenger consumes it entirely, it has a chance to grant them an Immortal Lifespan."

Bruzigan let that one sink in for a moment. I was speechless, and I think so was Mewi. Ri'legh, Arvallei, and Anna released exclamations that ranged from disbelief to awe. “A chance, I said. As far as the Federation is aware, that chance is purely theoretical. The first record the Federation has of attempting to use this item is also the only known attempt to grant this effect. It resulted in the full death of the one to make the attempt—all their Extra Lives extinguished at once."

"Yeaaaah," I said, "there's usually a catch to that kind of thing, all right."

"However, the second time the item was obtained, a method was developed after exhaustive research which resulted in an alternative effect. Instead of being entirely consumed, the Herlisian Apple can be divided by a special process into twenty slices. Each of these slices confers a different effect, though each one is beneficial and entirely safe—so long as no one attempts to use more than one slice. However, it is impossible to know which effect out of the twenty possible a particular slice will confer until it is consumed...though I suppose if somehow all twenty people met in a room to eat their slices, the last person to go would know. Not that that's likely to happen."

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Just a bit of a tangent there, boss," I said, getting a couple of chuckles. "I have a question: Once we secure this mega-item, what then? I think I get why we avoided agitating the wildlife on the way here, but there will still be risk of this being discovered, right?"

Bruzigan nodded. "There will absolutely be great risk of that. Once we secure the item, I will take personal custody of it, to then pass it to a trusted Federation officer who will then immediately turn in his team mission. You will all continue as normal, but we'll still arrive at the Floor Exit at the same time. Once we arrive back in Area 1, we will quickly move to further secure the item.

In spite of the Safe Zones being disabled, the Pantheon has its own ways of dissuading violence, so there isn't much risk of being attacked. However, I have been apprised that it would be an ideal scenario if we were able to conclude this operation without it getting out that the Apple had spawned on the 7th Floor. In past instances, the news has gotten out, and it led to significant loss of life and other difficulties for the Federation one way or another."

"I have a couple questions," said Mewi, "how many times has this Apple appeared on the 7th Floor?"

"In the Federation's top-secret records, it spawned eight other times, never sooner than a century after the previous. Your other question?"

"Are we getting some of these slices, for doing this?"

Bruzigan grinned. "Yes, we are. Usually a team of our caliber isn't on hand to secure the Apple. The average casualty rate among the usual strongest of the Federation available sent to do it is in excess of 70%. Twice, opposition factions have even been able to take advantage of the situation and abscond with the item for themselves. We'll prevent this loss of life, and even in our being rewarded, we'll enable the Federation to catalogue which fourteen of the twenty effects remain after we're done. Very win-win.

But we still need to make it through the rest of this dungeon first, and that includes a tough boss. Let's move out, team!"

It wasn’t an ordinary tough boss, either. After a long trek through a total of five levels, we entered a cavernous chamber where we came face to face with an actual golden dragon.

At least, I thought it was a dragon until Enemy Scan called it . Given that it was as big as the Magma Golem--not as tall, but at least 20 feet from its head to the end of its tail, I had to think a real dragon would be Smaug-big.

"Go for the eyes!" Bruzigan roared as we went into action.

Enemy Scan had revealed the details of its breath attack to me, so I also called out, "if it breathes mist, don't try to tank it! It's a petrifying effect!"

The thing was fast enough that even with my auto-aim cheat, not all of my spells reached its eyes. Anyone who missed the eyes did very little damage—even me. I wasn't sure why, but clearly my ability to bypass 50% of Fire Resistance had no effect.

Once again, Arvallei was MVP, since he was able to manipulate wind to clear away the petrifying mist. Mewi was also of great help—by now, he'd mastered a Space element spell which seemed to be the only restricting spell that even had a chance of affecting the boss.

Bit by bit, we wore the thing away until eventually the eyes themselves had been damaged enough to blind it. When that happened, it spewed petrifying smoke uncontrollably, trying to fill the entire room. With Arvallei and Mewi's combined efforts, the tactic quickly failed. It still had quite a lot of health left, but Bruzigan advised us that its snout was as vulnerable as its eyes had been.

With it blinded, the fight got easier. It could still hear us and orient on us that way, of course, but its attacks were much less precise, and its movements were less rapid. The team continued steadily wearing it down until it finally collapsed. When it did, a small opening appeared at the far end of the chamber, through which brilliant light streamed into the cave.