Astrid stared at the approaching monsters. Why could they see her? Probably because she had made a lot of noise trying to open the box.

She jumped to the side as another fire blast rushed towards her. She couldn’t fight all of them, so she had to get the boxes open now. Retreating to the barrier would give away its position and bring the others in danger. Then again, if she died, the barrier would collapse, exposing her friends anyway.

She sent the most powerful wind blast she could muster at the slugs, pushing them back a bit before turning her focus to the boxes. With no new ideas, she returns to beating the padlock with her staff. It would have to break eventually. At least she hoped so.

Another blast rushed towards her, and she threw herself out of harm's way again, crashing hard on the ground. The slug’s fire blast crashed right into the red box she had been trying to open. The lock dissolved, and the box sprang open, emitting a glowing red light.

As fast as she could, she got back to the now-open boxes and retrieved its content. A Key. It had to be for the door that would get them out of this room. Without missing a beat, she sprinted towards the door, slamming her staff into any monster that got within reach. She reached the door and inserted the key into its complicated locking mechanism. Now that she was close enough to study it, it became clear that one key wasn’t enough. She needed two more, and there was only one place they could be.

Astrid fought her way back to the boxes, trying to understand what had happened. The box had unlocked when it was hit by the slug’s attack. Could that be the answer to the puzzle? Use the monsters’ own magic to break the locks. It was worth a try.

With the new plan in mind, Astrid placed herself in front of the blue box and, with another wind blast, pushed the slugs a few feet further back. She wanted them to stay at a distance as she needed them to attack with magic blasts.

It didn’t take long before the first lightning blast from a yellow slug rushed towards her. At the last moment, she jumped aside so the blast hit the box instead of her.

With anticipation she looked at the blue box expecting it to spring open, but nothing happened.

Disappointment and confusion filled her. Why hadn’t it worked? After all, the red box had opened when it had been hit, so why was this different? Maybe it had to be a specific type of magic for each box. The red box had been opened by fire magic, so the blue must be opened by water magic and the yellow by lightning magic.

Astrid slammed her staff into a slug that had gotten too close, killing it instantly before casting another wind blast. This was going to be almost impossible to time properly. There were too many slugs in the room attacking her at once for her to stay in one place waiting for the right magic type, and with more appearing every minute, she had no hope of reducing their numbers on her own.

“I think I know how to get the boxes open,” she shouted, hoping the others hiding inside the protective barrier were listening. “But I need help clearing out some of the monsters.” She quickly explained her plan, hoping the others would come to her aid despite everything they had just learned about her.

She waited for a reply while trying to keep the monsters from hurting her too badly. It was getting impossible. Dodging one blast led her right into the trajectory of another. While she was busy fighting monsters in one direction, some would sneak up on her from behind and deliver a painful bite before she angrily knocked them down with her staff. The only reason she hadn’t been overrun yet was that the slugs moved slowly and took a long time to fire their attacks. Even so, if it hadn’t been for her high amount of health, she would have succumbed to her injuries already.

When, after a minute, Astrid still hadn’t received a reply from the others, she began to lose hope that they would help her. Maybe they planned on waiting until she was dead before solving the puzzle for themselves. They knew how to do it now as she had just told them.

Then two figures appeared from the barrier, wasting no time before joining the fight. Walter cast spells into the horde of monsters, and Ina stabbed at those near the edge. Astrid was glad some of her friends had decided to help, and soon most of the monster’s attention was directed towards the two stronger fighters, who quickly reduced their numbers to a more manageable amount.

Now that Astrid could move freely without needing to dodge incoming attacks every other second, she got back in front of the blue box and scanned the remaining monsters for the perfect target.

It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for. A blue slug at the edge of the horde. It had its back to her, trying to get to the other fighters but unable to do so as all the other monsters were in the way. Firing a basic blast at it got its attention. It wouldn’t do to kill the monster before it had done what she wanted it to, so she had kept the attack as weak as she could. Now all she had to do was wait.

The blue slug moved slowly towards her while preparing to fire a water blast to retaliate. Astrid held her ground. The slug fired, and at the last moment, Astrid got out of the way. The box—now soaked in water—sprang open as the lock dissolved into nothing. She quickly retrieved the key and went to the yellow box to repeat the process one last time.

This time it took a bit longer before a slug got into position. Astrid wasn’t sure how long, but it had to be over a minute as a new wave of monsters appeared from the wall and began approaching the fighters from behind. Astrid hoped they would be able to keep on fighting long enough for her to complete the task.

Finally, a yellow slug was pushed to the edge of the horde by the others, and Astrid quickly fired her weak basic blast before it could disappear back into the crowd. Astrid watched the yellow slug prepare its lightning blast, wishing it would do so faster.

The moment the monster fired its attack at Astrid, she jumped to the side, narrowly avoiding getting hit. Instead, the lightning hit the box that had been behind her, and the lock dissolved like the others had.

Astrid got to her feet and raced to the box. She grasped the key and pocketed it so she could join the fight. However, the slugs no longer seemed interested in attacking her or Walter or Ina. Instead, they slowly moved back to the walls and disappeared the same way they had entered.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

“I got the keys,” Astrid informed the others who were looking confused at the retreating monsters.

“Then let's go,” Walter said. Astrid dismantled her barrier, and they all rushed to the door.

“Any idea what we’re going to face beyond that door?” Walter asked

“Another hallway full of monsters if I remember correctly.” Astrid said as she inserted the last two keys into the locks.

“In that case we’ll use a similar plan one last time.” The leader said. “I’ll make us some room with a powerful wind blast, and Astrid will set up the protective barrier. All fighters will attack the monsters one at a time. Stay inside the barrier when it's not your turn to attack. Kelan, you should stay at the back and rest some more. Only help if it's absolutely necessary.

“I’m not working with followers of deception.” Villads said, sending Astrid an angry glare. It hurt to see her friend look at her with such contempt, and she began to doubt she would ever be able to fix their relationship. What would she do if he and the others never forgave her?

“Until we're out of here, we don’t have much choice,” Walter said sounding reluctant.

“But how do we even know if we can trust her?” Brigitta said. “For all we know, she’d kill us all here, and return to Largon pretending to be a hero.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” Astrid defended, angry that anyone would even suggest she would do something like that.

“We’ll just have to take the chance,” Walter said. “Now let’s go.” Before anyone could start another argument, he pushed the door open. He stepped in first and made some space just like planned. Astrid set up the barrier as fast as she could while the others began attacking.

As soon as she was done with the barrier, she caught the first glimpse at what they were up against. The hallway was packed with monsters of various kinds. Most of them were at level one, but she noticed at least a handful that were at level two. The monsters in the hallways hadn’t been that strong the last time she had been here. She knew they were in for a long fight and quickly joined the others.

They fought for what felt like hours, slowly slaying the monsters. Astrid was the first who had to step out to replenish her mana with a potion. Her once substantial supply of various potions was getting low. She didn’t want to think about what would happen when she ran out. With Kelan still suffering from mana fatigue, these potions were their best source of healing.

She rejoined the fight, but as she was about to cast her next blast, something struck her in the back.

She turned to see Villads still with his staff lifted after the attack. He didn’t look the least bit apologetic.

“Why did you do that?” she asked

“You were in the way.”

“No time for arguing,” Walter said. “Stay focused.”

Astrid retreated to the barrier. She looked towards Brigitta, Filip, and Ina, but none of them showed her any sympathy. It was like they couldn’t care less that she had gotten hurt.

She was once again out of the fight as she had to check how much damage she had taken.

Health: 15/ 43

Though she hadn’t been at full health when the battle began, she could see that Villads hadn’t held back. At level two, each of his spells could deal up to twenty damage when fully powered. It felt like a waste to take one of her few remaining health potions, but she had no other choice. She couldn’t trust Villads not to repeat his actions, and another hit like that would finish her off.

Even after recovering all her health, Astrid was hesitant to rejoin the fight. They clearly didn’t want to work with her, and at the moment she didn’t feel like working with them either.

Astrid made herself invisible, left the protective, and rushed unnoticed towards the other end of the hallway. Her eyes were burning from the tears she desperately tried to hold back as she zigzagged through the monsters.

She made it to the other side and stopped in front of the next door. Beyond that, the boss awaited them. She didn’t think she could fight it alone, but she should be able to sneak past it like last time. However, that would not count as a full clearing of the dungeon. Maybe the others could defeat the boss on their own, especially since Walter and Ina were both level three fighters, but that wasn’t a chance Astrid was willing to take. Besides, even if the others hated her, it didn’t feel right to just abandon them here.

Behind her the sound of fighting reverberated through the hall, but she could not see what was happening. Were they holding their own, or were they about to be overrun?

She sank to the ground, furiously wiping the tears she could no longer hold back. There was no way she would be able to go back to her old life after this. She wasn’t sure she could handle losing everything again.

She noticed that her spirit bar was dropping to a dangerously low amount. This was not the time or place for that. With her last strength of will, she downed a spirit-replenishing potion and pushed away her negative thoughts. Whatever happened, happened, and she would deal with that later. For now, there was a hallway full of monsters that needed to be slayed.

All the monsters were trying to get to the other end of the hallway where they could hear the ongoing fight, so it was easy for Astrid to sneak up behind them. She managed to backstab half a dozen before any of the monsters noticed she was there, and she had to retreat back to a safer distance. She began firing fire blasts at the monsters that approached her, and whenever one got too close, she would finish it off by slamming her staff down on its head.

Unlike the slugs in the previous room, who had been exceptionally weak, often dying from a single one of her spells, these monsters took five or more spells before going down. Only her backstab and hitting with her staff killed the monsters immediately, as they were both divine special attacks that dealt a lot more damage than regular attacks.

Only a few monsters attacked her at once as they had difficulties turning around in the narrow, crowded hallway. Still, she occasionally took a few hits when she could dodge or raise a shield fast enough, but she ignored them. Her health bar was high, and her cloak offered extra protection.

Soon the monster population began to dwindle, and she was able to see the others again. It seemed like they were all still alive, which was a relief. They were still at the entrance where she had set up the barrier, taking turns attacking.

As soon as the last monster was defeated, Astrid dismantled her barrier.

“We’ll rest here for a while before we move on,” Walter said.

Astrid sank to the floor, suddenly feeling how exhausted she was. She noticed she had received a message and quickly read what it said.

Offensive spells have reached level two.

You can now cast new spells and use less mana per spell.

The level-up bonus was automatically added to her mana, raising its maximum value from one hundred to two hundred.

She excitedly told the news to the others, but they just ignored her. Villads even gave her a hateful glare, solidifying the fact that their friendship couldn't be saved. She had truly lost all the people she cared about forever. Again. Just like she had lost her family. What had she done to deserve this?

Don’t think about it, she scolded herself. She couldn’t afford to let her spirit drop again. They were still in a dungeon, and she could no longer rely on the others to help her if she needed them. However, that didn’t mean she should do the same to them. She would ensure they got out of here, and then maybe they would like her again.