"Are you going to help me?" Michael asked, more than a little agitated.

"No," Nathan answered, ignoring the warrior trapped under a statue which stood around forty feet in height and weighed several tons.

"Please," Michael begged. "It's draining my Health away from the pressure, and I can feel it starting to break bones."

"That's fine," Nathan continued to poke at the statue he was standing by.

"No, it's not!" Michael exclaimed. "I'm going to get crushed completely as soon as my Health runs out!"

"Your hands and head are free," Nathan said. "Use Health Potions if you need to. You should be able to buy some from the Item Shop, since you haven't used it since we arrived here."

"You're an asshole," Michael said.

"I'm not going to help you when it's not necessary," Nathan said. "Just use Health Potions if you're that worried about it."

"If I were Samantha, would you leave me like this?"

"Probably."

The two had become separated from the others a few hours before, after entering the fourth chamber to work on the Dungeon's requirements to complete. Rather than having to clear monsters, they had to navigate a spatially-compressed network of rooms and halls.

Samantha and Keith had been dropped down a hole, while Katie and William disappeared at some point without Nathan being able to put a point to. Then he found himself alone with Michael wandering down a hall with giant statues of statues of beings that appeared to be a cross between bears and the demons.

To exit the room, they had to find a hidden passage, which made Nathan feel like they were in an actual video game, for the first time.

"Maybe like this?" Nathan poked the statue again.

"You really are an asshole," Michael said.

"Maybe here?" Nathan poked again, a different toenail of the statue than the previous spot.

"Consider yourself lucky I'm stuck under this statue, or I'd kick your ass."

"You'd try, then fail, and probably lose your life," Nathan said, then muttered. "This one?"

He poked another toenail, and nothing happened.

"Maybe it's not the toenails?"

He had assumed the toenails was how they were activated as the statue Michael was crushed under came to life when the warrior pushed on one of its toenails, then stepped on him with one of its massive feet.

"Hm," Nathan mused for a moment, then activated his magical sight again. "I guess I have to cheat again."

After examining the statue with his magical sight, he knelt and pushed one of the designs in the base of the statue, then stepped back as the entire statue began to slide to the side.

"There we go!" He declared.

As the statue he was messing with moved to reveal the hidden passage, the statue standing on Michael removed its foot from the warrior and returned to its stand.

"You big baby," Nathan told Michael as the other teen approached. "Couldn't even wait for me to finish figuring out how to make it move."

"As if you knew it would move!"

"I did," Nathan told him. "This statue has a different enchantment from the others. And I was able to read enough to know that all of the others were set to return to their spots once the passage was opened."

Michael glared at him, but followed him down the steps, Nathan summoning an orb of light to illuminate the dark passage. After both stepped off the stairs, they heard the statue sliding back into place.

"Just like in the movies Samantha likes," Nathan muttered.

"Samantha watches adventure movies?" Michael asked.

"Maybe," Nathan answered. "They have normal statues down here."

By 'normal', he meant statues of the normal demons, rather than variants like the winged ones or the cross-breeds.

They continued walking, eventually arriving back in the first room of that stage of the Dungeon. As soon as both had passed through it, the entrance from the passage disappeared. Keith and Samantha were sitting on the floor, playing cards.

"Your boyfriend refused to help me when I had a statue sitting on me."

"Unfortunately, I figured out how to open the passage before he died."

"Glad to see you two returned," Keith told them, ignoring the comments as Nathan approached Samantha and sat next to her, kissing her. "Now we're just waiting on William and Katie."

"How are we going to finish this one?" Michael asked. "We were told to restore the fire to the braziers at the end of it."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"I figured out how to get through without getting separated," Keith told him. "We just have to wait for the others to return, then I'll lead the way."

The four of them played cards until William and Katie arrived twenty minutes later, then Keith instructed them to stay behind him and to not disrupt his focus.

"If you do," he told them. "I'll likely screw up the spell. I've never done spatial spells before, so it's going to take all of my focus and most of my mana to do. Screwing me up means we'll be sent right back here, and we'll have to wait until I recover my mana to try again."

They made their way through the entrance to the next section, and found themselves back in a plain hall, where they were initially separated. Slowly, they walked through the various sections of that stage, eventually coming to the same room Michael found himself under a statue in. No message telling them to exit through a secret passage appeared.

Instead, a doorway on the other end of the hall was visible. They made their way down the hall, Michael praying it was not like in video games and the statues would not come to life, attacking them out of nowhere.

They reached the other end and passed through the door, finding themselves in a room with four braziers surrounding a small altar. No flames burned within them, an issue solved by Keith sending four fireballs into them.

In addition to the message informing them their stage was cleared, a second message appeared in their vision as well.

The spatial distortion has ceased. You may return to the main hall by exiting this room.

"Thank goodness," Keith gasped, releasing his spell to secure their party's company. He bent forward, catching his breath. "That was far too draining, and I nearly lost it while lighting the braziers."

"What do you think this chamber was used for?" William asked.

"Special offerings?" Katie offered. "The main altar is probably in one of the rooms at the end of the main hall."

They had tried to enter them, only to be informed that they needed to clear the rest of the Dungeon in order to acquire access, something which caused Nathan to try to break the door down until Samantha and Keith calmed him.

"Sex," the demigod answered, and everyone gave him incredulous looks. "They'd fuck one of the younger demons – not a child, mind you, just a younger adult, a fresh adult – on the altar. There would be four of them fucking it, taking turns. Once all of them were spent, they would then cut open his chest and rub a salve onto his heart. And then-what are you all looking at me like this for?"

"Are you making this up?" Keith asked.

"No," Nathan answered. "It's probably for the same reason I knew about the other stuff. Anyway, after they did that, they would send him to the main worship hall. They would do this to four of them. With their natural healing abilities, their chests would heal pretty fast, and the salve was designed to increase their sexual ability for the next few hours, or something. I don't know the specifics on it, I guess it didn't actually matter or do what they wanted it to do. The four of them, with cum leaking out of their asses, would then form a circle and-"

"Have an orgy?" Michael guessed.

"Pray to my father to be picked for the queen to reproduce with."

"I thought they were godless?" Keith asked, and Nathan shrugged. "That is weird as fuck. Why did you add the 'with cum leaking out of their asses' bit?"

"In case it pleased the bisexuals or gays to know?" Nathan offered, and Samantha groaned.

"Nathan," she said. "I don't think they're caring about those details."

"Oh," Nathan said. "I think the demons were bisexual, too, since if there weren't women around, they'd fuck each other instead. Hm. I think my father didn't care for them."

"Why do you say that?" Keith asked.

"Because I get the feeling he ignored their prayers," Nathan answered. "Maybe this was a ritual they did before they became godless? Who cares. Let's head back to the main hall."

The six teens left the chamber, finding themselves back in the entry hall of the main temple. As they stepped into it, a notice appeared in their visions.

Half of the secondary stages have been cleared. The temple's entrance has been unsealed. You may take a break. Return within twelve hours of exiting and begin another stage, or the Dungeon will become sealed off to you.

"Should we take a break now?" Keith asked.

"I vote yes," Michael quickly answered.

"Same here," Katie said. "It took us eight hours just to do four chambers because it's bigger inside than outside and a mess of a maze."

"Agreed," William said.

"I'm adding my agreement," Samantha said. "We could all use a break from this."

"I have to pee," Nathan left the temple, and the others followed him out, finding him having already disappeared.

"Let's get camp set up," Keith told them. "I have the tents."

They set up camp, and Nathan returned after everyone finished, making most of them suspect he had left just to avoid setting up camp.

"Why did you pee on the temple?" Keith asked Nathan once the demigod returned, causing the others to stare.

"To see if I'd be damned for it," Nathan answered. "I wasn't."

"Please avoid antagonizing the Overseers," Samantha sighed.

"They sent me a notice," Nathan looked at Keith. "They said to stop destroying the forests."

"I guess there's only so much damage we can do before they want us to stop," Keith told him. "We can still test elsewhere, we just won't have the advantage of frozen time to give us extra time."

"Yeah," Nathan said. "I'm going to have something small to eat, then head to bed."

True to his word, Nathan ate a few granola bars, then retired to his tent, confusing everyone but Keith.

"That's not like Nathan at all," Samantha said. "I'll make dinner."

"Contrary to popular belief," Keith said. "Nathan can get sick."

"He's never been sick before," Samantha said. "And doesn't the System-"

"It bolsters healing," Keith said. "It doesn't make us immune, and keep in mind he has a phoenix kept within him right now, too. I think Nathan contracted something only demigods can, he's been feeling off the last few days and my healing scans are showing something slightly divine affecting him."

"Has he mentioned if Ichtvar said something about it?" She asked.

"Yeah," Keith answered. "Ichtvar told him that it's what he gets for granting so many permanent blessings in such a short time. Apparently, it's not good for a demigod to create more than one permanent blessing every five years."

"And he did two in, what, a year and a half?" Samantha asked. "If we include the time in the game as actual time, since it'd be just a couple of days otherwise. So it has an actual effect on demigods?"

"Yeah," Keith answered. "My own familiar doesn't know too much about it, and says that he thinks Nathan got sick from doing it repeatedly in a short period of time. While you work on dinner, I'm going to do some enchanting in the tent, so that Nathan can give some input if he has any."

"Alright," she said. "Tell him I said to feel better."

"Same from me," Katie added.

"Will do," Keith said. "I've set a mental timer for ten hours, so that we can make sure we're in the temple and doing the next stage in time. I've asked my familiar to alert me as well, and set my phone to an alarm."

"I've set my phone as well," Samantha said. "Alright, time to get started!"