The next morning Astrid stood outside the headquarters watching Walter’s team depart for the dungeon. She wasn’t in disguise, so she appeared as her young self on her way to school. Everything in her life had been going so well. Why did it have to change so suddenly?

“Aren’t your sister going with them?” the mayor asked from beside her.

Astrid shook her head. “She doesn’t think they are ready yet.”

“Walter has reassured me that they are.”

That’s easy to think when you don’t have a clue what you're about to face. Astrid thought grimly. She was sure she’d never see any of them again, and a part of her felt bad for not going with them. A larger part felt angry that they hadn’t listened to her yesterday. She was the one who had been in the dungeon before, and she was the one who could spot hidden traps. The whole reason she had been put on the team in the first place was because of her experience with the dungeon.

It still wasn’t too late to follow them. She could catch up to them and guide them through the dungeon. Maybe. There was no guarantee that she herself could do anything if too many monsters attacked at once or if a puzzle were too hard to solve. Sure, she had some abilities that could increase her odds significantly, but they were all tied to the god of deception, and using those in front of the other team members would be a dead giveaway of her secret.

As soon as the team was out of view, she turned away, walking towards school.

Her first class was supposed to have covered some historic event, but instead the teacher explained how Walter's team would go down in history as the heroes who saved the world from monsters.

Astrid thought he was overstating things. Even if they somehow managed to clear the dungeon, they would at most have saved Largon and the surrounding area. It would take a lot more than a single successful dungeon to kill all the monsters that plagued the world.

On her way to the first combat magician class, the Villads came up to her.

“Why did your sister refuse to go with the others?”

This felt like a conversation she had had before, so she repeated the same answer. She wished people would just stop talking about it. Every time it was brought up her emotions were all over the place, sad that she would lose so many of her friends, guilty that she hadn’t gone with them and angry that they hadn’t listened to her. What she really wanted was a distraction.

“My brother will succeed, and he will return with the entire team.” Villads seemed angry, but Astrid could see through the façade and tell how anxious he was for his brother’s safety.

“I hope so too,” she said.

The teacher called the class over and instructed them to do the warmup exercises as usual. Astrid’s stamina was improving from all the running she did during class, but she no longer got any real experience points for it. It would take much bigger challenges to push through the last quarter of the level progression for her running skill. This was fine. She was behind on stamina from her premature level-up, so she could use the opportunity to build it up as high as it could go before trying to get to the next level.

During her offensive magic class, the situation was reversed. She had maxed out her mana for the level and was now working hard to push herself through the last bit to level two. Many of her classmates had reached level two, including Filip.

Some still hadn’t, though. She was happy to see that Ruben, who had tried to kill her a few months ago, was still working on building mana and was nowhere near level two. It filled her with glee that it was unlikely he would level up in time to graduate with many of the others. However, casting spells at the air didn’t provide much challenge when she was used to fighting monsters, so there was no guarantee she was going to make it either. She had worked hard to get all the grade tokens necessary to be allowed to take the test, but she still needed her skills to level up. She had until midwinter, so she was confident she could do it. There was no way she would let herself be held back with the bully when all her friends graduated.

Although each student got to work at their own pace, there were two official tests a year that the students could take to move up to the advanced classes if they passed. Of course, for the right price, the test could be taken any time as long as the criteria were met.

In the afternoon she trained with her friends. Since they had already reached level two, they focused on getting Astrid to that level as well using the same training techniques she had used to help them. They teamed up against her.

Astrid dodged one spell and cast a shield to block another one. Before she had a chance to counterattack, she had to dodge the third spell. With three opponents, it wasn’t easy to get any offensive spells in, as all her focus was on avoiding getting hit. She had to be ready to protect against attacks from every direction and sometimes multiple at once.

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Even though it was hard, she occasionally managed to fire an offensive spell, and no longer stuck with only using basic blasts, she took every opportunity to use different ones. She swung her staff and cast a fire blast straight at Brigitta but then had to move out of the way of an unidentifiable blast headed towards her. She still couldn’t tell most of the level two spells apart. There were a lot more of them than there were of level one spells, and many of them weren’t as straightforward as elemental blasts were.

She managed to stay in the fight a bit longer and even landed a mud blast at Filip before a wind blast knocked her off balance and she tripped over a root spell someone had cast when she wasn’t looking.

“That’s two hits.” Villads said. “You lose.”

“Are you okay?” Brigitta asked, helping her to her feet.

“I’m hardly hurt at all. Are you guys ready to go again?”

They fought a couple more times, and Astrid lost every round, but she managed to get a good chunk of experience points in both her defensive and offensive magic skills each time. She was getting really close to leveling up.

*

A frantic banging woke Astrid early the next morning.

Who could that be this early? She thought as she threw on her dress and went to open the door.

Villads stood on the other side, out of breath.

“What happened?” Astrid asked concerned.

“Where is your sister?” he managed to get out between gasps of air.

“I don’t know,” Astrid said.

“What do you mean you don’t know?” Villads seemed confused now, and Astrid hurriedly came up with an explanation.

“I haven’t seen her since I left for school yesterday.”

“Aren’t you worried about her?”

“She has been out on her own before. She is properly training or doing quests.”

“Do you think she could have changed her mind about going with the others?”

“I guess she could have.” Astrid said uncertainly. “What’s this about?”

“My brother and the others haven’t returned yet.”

“It’s only been a day. Clearing a dungeon might take some time.” Astrid didn’t believe her own words having gotten through the place in half a day.

“My brother said they would be back before sunrise.”

Astrid looked out the window where the sky was only beginning to turn orange.

“Maybe they are just a bit delayed.” She wasn’t sure why she was trying to reassure Villads. She was pretty sure the team wouldn’t return. Most likely they were all dead by now.

Still, a part of her hoped she had been wrong about the team’s abilities and that any moment now they would come walking into town with triumphant smiles on their face. However, that was unlikely considering what they were up against.

“Or maybe they are in trouble and need our help,” Villads said.

“You can’t seriously mean you’re planning to go to the dungeon yourself.”

“Of course, I am. I would have asked your sister to go, but since she’s not here, we’ll have to do it.”

“We? What could we possibly do?” Astrid needed to talk him out of this crazy idea.

“We have to try to help them somehow. We can’t just let our siblings die.”

“I don’t even think my sister went there.”

“She could have. You said you haven’t seen her since yesterday when the others left.”

“We don’t even know where the dungeon is.” Astrid's hope that this argument would settle the matter was quickly shattered.

“I do. My brother left a map in his study.” He held out a piece of paper with an area circled in red ink. It was the place Astrid herself had confirmed as the dungeon during one of her first meetings with the team.

“Still, even if we manage to get to the dungeon, we’ll never get through alive.”

“I had never thought you were such a coward,” Villads snarled.

“I’m not,” Astrid defended. “I just know my limits.”

“Well, I’m going with or without you.”

“At least wait another day for them to return.”

“By then it might be too late.” He turned to leave, and Astrid knew she wouldn’t be able to change his mind.

“Fine, I’m coming with you. Just give me a minute to pack supplies.”

*

Astrid and Villads made it to school. Since Villads didn’t have his own quarterstaff and Astrid couldn’t use the one she had without drawing suspicion, they had to borrow some. However, first they went to the classroom to see if Brigitta and Filip had arrived yet. They had. It was surprisingly easy for Villads to convince both of them to come along. They didn’t even bring up how dangerous it would be or how they weren’t prepared for anything they could encounter in there.

Astrid had hoped Brigitta could talk some sense into the Villads, but she didn’t even try. Filip just looked determined. Maybe he saw this as a chance to prove himself.

Astrid suppressed an exasperated sigh. Their eagerness to go only showed that they had no idea of the terrible thing hiding in the dungeon. Somehow, she had to find a way to keep her friends safe so that they could all return alive.

After grabbing a staff each, they headed out. It didn’t take long before the four of them were in the forest. If they didn’t encounter any monsters, they would be by the dungeon in an hour.

Villads didn’t seem concerned about the dangers lurking amongst the trees, and Astrid knew she had to step in.

“We have to move more carefully,” she said.

“We don’t have time.”

“We’re going to attract every monster within a mile if we continue like this.”

That seemed to get his attention, and he slowed down significantly. For good measure, Astrid discreetly cast a spell on each of them so the monsters wouldn’t notice them. It wouldn’t prevent them from seeing each other as they already knew where everyone was, but monsters would leave them alone.

“What are we going to do when we get to the dungeon?” Brigitta asked.

“We are going to go in and get my brother and his team out.”

Astrid was about to comment that that wasn’t a plan, but Filip beat her to it.

“That’s not a plan. It's an objective. What challenges will we face in the dungeon?

“I don’t know.” Villads looked uncertainly at the others. “But we have to try something.”

“It’s not too late to turn around,” Astrid said.

“No,” Villads said. “We keep going. We’ll figure something out.”

Soon they found themselves standing in front of the dungeon entrance.

“Once we enter, the only way out is to get all the way through.” Astrid said. “This is our last chance to turn around.”

Villads didn’t hesitate before stepping through, and Astrid sighed.

“Guess we’re actually doing this then,” she muttered and took a step forward, entering the dungeon.