It appears you are all of the opinion that peace and caution is the way forward. I have, nor do I want, any place in such activity. Cirrostratus has alerted me to strange winds from the East. Possible dangers that would be best quashed now. I will go, along with Altostratus and some number of the storm, and quell any threat before it might grow. Afterwards, I shall enter secluded meditation. Call upon me when peace is no longer an option. Until then, I shall prepare. – Letter from the Voice Cumulonimbus

“It’s bad Kai. Real bad.”

Djimon’s eyes told a story his words could not. Deep bags despite the man leaving only this morning well rested and energetic. A constant pacing that slowly took him back in the direction of Rosewater Bazaar. His reluctance to give details about his experience.

Kai clapped the other man’s shoulder in sympathy, “I’m sorry you had to see whatever horror show that beast created in the bazaar. We cannot let emotions dictate our next actions though. How long do the survivors have?”

“Maybe another day? Two at the outside. At that point people are going to start dying of dehydration. Every minute is increasingly dangerous though. Young kids can only be kept quiet for so long, even with sound dampening talismans.”

“Hmmm. Not ideal. We are only halfway to the bazaar as it is, with a good five or six hours left to go. Do you believe they will be able to last that long? We could get there faster, but then we would be fighting while exhausted.”

“I think they have a better chance of surviving waiting that long than we do surviving fighting that thing tired.”

“Alright, I will let everyone know. You keep scouting out the path. Try to clear anything that might slow us down.”

“Alright, I’ll check back in in an hour or two.”

#

If Li thought the team was serious when Djimon left, it was nothing like after he had come back. Wandering Horizons, usually a very friendly group, had become deathly silent. They never stopped moving at a pace that Li could only barely maintain. None of them took their eyes off the route, focused only on maintaining their run.

It was unnerving. Like his new friends and teachers had been replaced with mechanical copies. Every action was optimal. No energy was wasted. Any noise was quickly silenced to avoid attracting attention to the party. The loudest sound was his desperate gasps for air as the day wore on. Kai seemed to use it as a pace setter, slowing down the group just enough for Li’s Ki to rejuvenate him. Then, the moment he was recovered, Kai would speed them back up. Just a tiny bit beyond his ability to handle.

If the stitch in his side and need for air hadn’t left him thoroughly irritated he would almost be impressed at the sheer skill with which Kai pushed him. Straight to the very edge, but never over. It felt like only his own stubbornness and the mental pressure from the importance of what they were doing kept him going.

The group didn’t even stop running to eat, simply passing out meal rations of granola bars, jerky, and dried fruit. He had no idea how Emiko managed it, knowing that she was a pure mage with no focus on body reinforcement. She should have been having an even worse time than himself, but every time he looked to her she seemed composed. Focused entirely on the path ahead.

Djimon, while not present in the group, made his presence known with a complete lack of monsters in their path. Not to say there hadn’t been any, the other man had left plenty of bodies behind. While normally the team would have broken down any monsters for every usable part, even Djimon wasn’t willing to take the time when he could potentially be clearing the route ahead instead. Li knew this was supposedly a far safer area and that the Adventurers had been holding back in their fights so far to give him some experience, but was it really this much of a difference?

Emiko was supposedly only E- rank. Only one step up from his own estimated F+ rank. Sure, she was probably past due for promotion to E rank, but Norah had confided that she felt he was pretty strong for an F+ rank. How much of a difference could one rank really make?

Much more that he had expected if this experience was anything to go on.

#

Emiko was grateful when Kai finally called a halt thirty minutes out from their destination. She was just getting to the point where she was worried about regenerating her entire mana pool before the fight. Even with potions.

Heart’s Flame wasn’t a particularly efficient spell, though it could temporarily give her physical power on par with someone who had opened two Ki Channels. It cost a lot of mana and felt like she had liquid fire running through her muscles, but the spell was one of her trump cards. She’d also enjoyed the looks of incredulity Li had been giving her the entire run.

No time for that right now. Recentering herself, she pulled a vial of blue liquid from her belt and downed it. The stuff wasn’t naturally blue, but most alchemists would add a dye of some kind to help adventurers differentiate easily. Crossing her legs, she sat and began to meditate. Mostly losing herself to the massive influx of mana refilling her core, but leaving just enough attention to hear Kai’s conversation with Li.

“I am asking you to sit this one out Li.” Kai’s voice was soft, but there was definite steal underneath. He didn’t want to offend their newest member, btu it was clear this was an order and not a request.

There was a long pause, and she could feel the tension growing. But it was broken in an instant.

“I understand. If I went in, I’d just be a liability. Something you have to protect that doesn’t provide any advantages. Just promise that you’ll help me get strong enough that next time I can help. Okay?”

It was obvious saying it bothered Li, but she could also hear the resignation. He knew that Kai hadn’t come to this decision lightly and he wasn’t going to fight the man on it. Good. She knew he was smarter than he looked. And acted when Djimon was around,

“Of course. You are part of our team now, and on our team nobody gets left behind. I want you to go join the survivors. Help get them out of the bazaar and go with them if anything happens. They should know a safe way out of the dungeon. I also want you to take this.”

He’d be giving Li the black bag then. Inside were letters from each member of the team to their loved ones and the rest of the party. In case anything happened. There’d also be each of their wills and a bit of gold to cover their funeral expenses. Grim, but a necessity for a job like theirs.

“There’s a letter in there for you too. Just something to help you out if we can’t.”

Li response had some forced humor to it, “Alright, but I’m only letting you use me as a mule today. If I’m still stuck with this thing in the morning, I’m going to be pissed!”

“Haha, fair enough. We would not want to overburden our delicate new recruit!”

Five minutes later, it was time.

#

“Alright, everyone get out their emergency potions supply. This things strong, so we’re going to smack it around with our wallet!” Even with her jokes, it was obvious to Ananya that Norah was nervous about the coming fight.

It was unfortunate that they were going to be breaking into their potions already. Or at all really, even the cheaper specialized potions they kept in their emergency supply was easily worth as much as a month’s rent in a nice hotel. Still, money existed to be used. A large bank account wouldn’t keep you alive if you didn’t spend when the situation demanded it.

It still hurt to take the three little vials.

The first was something they had picked up before visiting the Crystal Caverns. It was a general protection potion that would grant some amount of defense against stone and earth spells. More interestingly, it did this by rapidly eroding any magically empowered materials that got too close. Each member of the party had provided a mana sample to the alchemist, so their own spells would be exempt from the affects.

The practical affect of this was that most forms of petrification would be entirely nullified. Considering the alternative was to fight the Garja’lu on a time limit, there really wasn’t any avoiding this expense. She would have preferred to save these potions for later considering they had interesting effects on golems, but she could agree that this was more important. Plus, she’d heard the report that this thing armored itself in stone. If they were lucky, that would be close enough.

The second potion was one of the cheapest, but also one of the most practical. It was a simple mental and physical enhancement, granting them sharper focus and greater strength. An incredibly common potion that almost every adventurer took before a boss fight.

The third potion, which was the most they could reasonably handle without being incapacitated for weeks by the backlash, was individualized for each of them. Ananya herself took a potion that would naturally reinforce her body, making her much harder to hurt by enhancing the effects of her Ki. Kai and Emiko took potions that would cause their fire spells to persist after being cast, clinging to whatever they hit and continuing to burn for about thirty seconds. They potion would weaken the initial power of the spell to fuel the clinging flames, but was worth it when dealing with hardy monsters.

Djimon’s wasn’t a potion. Well, not entirely. It was a pair of vials, one marked with a, of all things, smiley face, the other with a frowny face. The smiley faced vial he would take himself, and it would grant him high resistance to the poison that filled its sister vial.

Norah’s potion was a strange one. It was usually used on comatose patients to help prevent degradation and muscle atrophy by flooding the person who took it with life energy. Essentially it would take the place of eating and exorcise for days or even weeks with the more powerful versions like this one. When combined with Norah’s ability to share lifeforce, this potion would allow the team to endure far more healing than would normally be possible. It would also let them all stave off exhaustion.

After they took the potions, they did a final equipment check. Each of them running through weapons, armor, and enchanted gear. Activating more passive spells and double checking that nothing felt off. It wasn’t likely, especially with how familiar they were with these particular potions, but there was never a one hundred percent certainty of how a given potion would interact with someone’s magic. Ananya felt the last of her metal plates fall in place and looked out through the gap in her faceplate. She was as ready as she was going to get.

“Everyone ready?” Kai called out, “Everyone knows the plan?”

At the chorus of affirmatives came back to him he simply nodded. Ananya assumed he hadn’t expected anything else. They all knew how important this was, and the plan was simple. Garja’lu were physically imposing, but not particularly dexterous. Instead, they mostly relied on their earth magic and petrification to wear down their targets while enduring with the powerful defense provided by their stone armor. Their team decided that, they would simply play the things game better. It would take far to big of an investment to kill the thing slowly. Without its petrification ability though, they should be able to dance around it all day. Therefore, that’s what they would do. Build up small advantages and slowly take it apart, only finishing it off once it no longer had a way to fight back.

“Alright. You know that I am not the best at this, but I am proud of each of you. Remember to take care of each other and, if anything happens to me, I know you can finish what we started.”

Kai was right that he wasn’t good at pre mission pep talks. Thankfully, that was where Norah came in.

“Oh, quit it with all the doom and gloom Kai! We’ve trained for this. We know what we are doing. This thing may be a D- rank monster, but we’ve been training to take on things like this all year now. You have all become incredible adventurers and this thing won’t know what hit him. When we win, Kai’s going to make us all one of his famous lava cakes. Whether he wants to or not!”

#

Moving slowly and carefully, they began working their way into the bazaar. As Djimon had warned them, it was a scene of nightmares. Perhaps nowhere worse than the smashed “statues” present outside the things nest, each filled with putrid flesh. The smell blanketed the area, so thick Ananya could feel it as a film of grime across her tongue. Like a sewer, mixed with sour milk. She felt the urge to scream at the scene, but stopped herself. Locked it in a little box in her mind and shoved it to the side until she could afford to come back to it.

Sneaking into the tattered tent and looking down on the sleeping form of the creature, she didn’t feel fear. Respect for how dangerous it could be, sure. Worry about how much harm those massive claws and teeth could do to her team, definitely. But mostly she just felt disgust.

Disgust at the stench that, while muted, still flooded the nest. Disgust for the grotesque statues of humans in pain that lined the back of the large bowl it had dug into the earth. Disgust at the almost human smirk she could see on the things sleeping face. Disgust for the knowledge that this thing was responsible for all the destruction and death outside.

She couldn’t help but smile as she joined the team in slowly, quietly arranging themselves for their opening salvo. Smiling when Kai launched himself into the air as the thing woke, driving down like a falling star to embed his sword deep into the things armored right foreleg. Smiling as Djimon appeared behind it and stabbed deep into the space between its shoulder blades. Smiling as Emiko launched a fireball into its face and Norah launched a thousand green spears into its chest.

They had come to do what Adventurer’s did best. Protecting people from the things that went bump in the night. This was what they were meant to do. This is what she was meant to do.

Her metal plates flew out, and she created a wall of steel as the thing roared in pain and rage as it prepared to pounce on Emiko. As long as she was here, the thing would not touch a hair on Emiko or Norah’s head.

She controlled metal orbs to slam into the lion’s side, hoping to knock it off balance as kai unleashed a flurry of blows into its flank. Instead, it endured her strike without flinching and sent Kai flying backward with a swipe of its paw. She saw pain in the thing’s eyes. But more than that, she saw anger. Anger that things it saw as barely above insects had managed to hurt him. Anger that they had dared to attack it instead of run in fear.

Then it opened its mouth and roared once again. The deep bellow shook the earth and she saw Djimon stumble slightly as the wooden ceiling beam he was running across flailed. Then a gray cloud of dust flew from its mouth in a violent tide. She felt it try to stick to her skin, to build into a thin layer of stone scales that would restrict her movement. Just as quickly the potion kicked in, breaking the stone down just as quickly as it attempted solidify.

The potion could do nothing to stop the cloud from obscuring their vision though, and she barely saw the shadow of movement that warned her the lion was charging straight at her. With mere moments to react, she threw up a small shield in front of herself leaped backwards in the hope she could absorb some of the impact.

It was like being hit by a landslide. The next thing she knew, she had been knocked out of the tent and through the wall of a neighboring building. Her head felt strange. Like it was packed in cotton and two sizes too big for her neck. She felt ki draining into her skull and shook her head in a futile attempt to clear it.

Through the hole her body had made, she heard Kai shouting for Emiko to back off and Norah to take her place on defense until she returned. A pained grunt from the monster accompanied his order, followed by a screech from the monster. A wave of heated air slammed against her face and finally snapped her out of the daze. Pushing herself up with a groan, she threw herself back into the fight.

When she returned, she saw Kai off to the side. His shoulder was dislocated, but a vine was already yanking it back into place while the glow of Norah’s healing magic covered the area. In the bottom of the basin, Djimon harried the Garja’lu’s flanks. Small cuts targeted at the gaps between the stone armor bled black blood and the thing flailed like a cat with something tied to its tail. Emiko was preparing some larger spell, chanting as runes appeared in the air around her and the temperature in the area slowly rose.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Re-entering the fight, she threw a number of metal orbs that rapidly coalesced and grew into three large blocks that slammed down between Djimon and the beast.

#

Over the following minutes they watched as the thing slowly weakened. More often than not, the things form was covered in hungry flames that burned away the things fur and melted the flesh below. The poison caused its eyes to become bloodshot and left dark streaks in the thing’s veins. Kai and Norah had worked together to rip chunks of stone from the beast’s body, often taking chunks of flesh with the armor.

They hadn’t managed it uninjured though. Blood covered Kai’s face from a shallow gash a barely dodge claw had left over his eyebrows. The wound itself had been rapidly healed, but the thing had taken advantage of Kai’s temporary blindness to smash Emiko in the head with one of its stones. Ananya had spent long minutes keeping the unconscious girl out of danger until Kai had found a chance to put enough pressure on the monster that Norah could afford to heal her. She hadn’t been willing to risk a fast and dirty healing spell on a head injury.

Now, back at full strength and the monster on the back foot as Kai struck with ferocious aggression, they aimed to make a decisive blow on the thing. The monsters left foreleg was undefended, the armor long since pealed off, and Ananya made the call.

“Kai, Norah! Focus on the left foreleg! I’ll distract it. Emiko cover me!”

Warning given, she threw herself while building a massive shield in front of herself while Emiko flew fire into the monsters face. As she charged, she flung her steel orbs forward and heard a yowl as one lucky blow hit it in the eye. It wouldn’t do any damage, the thing was absurdly sturdy even in the unarmored areas, but she had its attention.

Hearing the crunching of stone under its paws as it prepared to lunge, she abruptly stopped and braced herself, constructing reinforcing rods behind the shield and out of sight of the monster. The entire construct still shuddered when the beast slammed into her, driving her backward and even forcing one of its claws clear through her defenses. She heard the roar of pain when Kai brought his sword to bear on the things foreleg, but rather than let it change targets she quickly reformed the shield.

The majority of her metal flowed up the things right paw like liquid, reforming into an almost pauldron that kept the beast from being able to bring its fangs to bear on its left side. With only a small amount of metal for her own defense, the thing quickly seized on the opportunity to savage her instead. Using its free paw, it swiped with a savage slash that broke through her defense and left four large gashes across her torso.

Incensed by the sight of her blood the thing tryied to charge her, only to be pulled up short by the vines binding its other foreleg. The thing snarled with contempt, before throwing itself forward with a sickening ripping sound. She saw a fountain of blood as the thing tore itself free, leaving the limb behind. Unable to react, she could only cry out as its jaws closed around her leg.

She barely kept herself conscious as she was flung around like a rag doll, only just able to make out the sounds of Kai giving commands. Realizing the thing was attempting to break her neck, she rapidly shrunk the metal around her shoulders and head to form a sort of brace while cycling plenty of Ki to the area. For a moment, things didn’t seem so bad. Then she felt something give. Her entire body shifted as a deep, tearing pain flowed up from her leg, followed by only blackness as she lost consciousness.

The world returned as she felt the cool, numbing energy of one of Norah’s healing spells cover her body. Looking around she realized it couldn’t have been that long since she lost consciousness. Everything seemed pretty much the same as before she was grabbed and there wasn’t too large of a pool of blood under her.

#

The fight continued. The thing got revenge when Djimon chose a poor moment to attack and it ripped off his dominant arm while Djimon took its eye. Emiko managed to burn off its entire tail. Ananya herself broke half the things teeth by switching Kai for a solid block of steel.

By the end the thing was swaying drunkenly and clearly having a hard time seeing through its remaining eye. Most of the remaining fur on its body was clotted with large amounts of blood and half of its mane had been sheared off. Only rage kept it on its feet.

#

When Djimon came to get him, Li couldn’t help but gasp in horror at the state of his arm. Or rather the lack of it. The other man had been quick to reassure him that Norah would be able to reattach it when they had a minute, but it was still discomforting to see the bloody rags at the end of the sleeve. Djimon had been quick to change the topic though, and Li let him without argument. Apparently, Kai wanted to show him something.

#

That something turned out to be the Garja’lu. Beaten, battered, seemingly put through a blender, but still alive.

“This is an opportunity Li,” Kai said. “A chance to see what a truly powerful monster is like. You are going to fight it. Don’t worry too much, Norah and Ananya will keep you alive. Take it seriously though. Even like that, it could easily kill you without them to protect you.”

Li couldn’t help but feel some amount of disgust when he heard that. The thing had been kept alive and in pain, tortured really, so that he could fight it. It was…barbaric. But it was also an opportunity for him to get some experience as well. Both kinds. Kai obviously saw the conflicting emotions on his face, because the other man turned to give Li his full attention.

“Like I said. This is an opportunity. I want you to see the kinds of things real adventurers are expected to face. To see the kinds of things we fight either for personal glory or to protect people. We think you could be an impressive adventurer. This is to see if you want to be. Or if seeing what real power is like scares you off.”

He cracked a small smile after finishing his more serious speech, “It would also truly be a shame if you didn’t get any experience from the thing. Even like this you should receive a level or two.”

So Li agreed to fight.

#

According to Norah, without her and Ananya’s intervention he would have died seventeen times. Mostly because even a single hit would have crushed him and none of his force constructs were strong enough to actually stop any of the things attacks. In comparison, his own attack did nothing to the monster.

His flying daggers were barely pinpricks and even the Stonepiercer rune could only make those into the equivalent of paper cuts. His Force of the Colossus Armor, even running at full strength, still made him feel like a toddler fighting an adult. Even his Potential Energy Well spell could only any real damage if he hit the thing in a critical location. It wouldn’t even leave a mark on the remaining pieces of armor.

Each minute left him feeling more despondent and bruised. He couldn’t help but feel as if he had been set up to fail. But that didn’t mean he was going to quit.

What finally had done the trick was a rather brutal combination of cut throat tactics. He had thrown himself straight at the things face with a burst from his armor, driving his runed knife into the things already blind eye. It barely sunk in far enough for the knife to actually stick, but that was all he needed. From there he had slowly used potential energy well spells on the knife, punching the pommel with reinforced strikes whenever he could so that each time the spell released it would drive the blade another inch or two into the things eye.

Eventually Li had found his hands covered in blood and gore and the knife had found itself driven all the way into the monster’s brain. He had barely remained conscious long enough to read the system messages before he passed out.

Congratulations, you have gained 125 Racial Experience (x1 Near Dead Garja’lu). As you have no class, you have gained 0 Class Experience. You have gained 42 Evolution Points.

Congratulations! You have collected 100 racial experience and leveled up! The core of your existence has strengthened as you pursue survival. You have gained 12 Free Stat Points to distribute. Access your status page to spend these and strengthen your chosen stats. You have gained 15 Evolution Points. As you are in a dungeon, the wild mana is extra dense. Additional Mana has been brought into your core. You receive one Stat Point in Perception and one State Point in Dexterity and 5 extra evolution points.

Congratulations! You have obtained the right to a Beginner Class. You have gained access to the “Warrior” Class. This Class will grant you additional Ki, +2 Strength, +2 Constitution, +1 Resistance, and +1 Resilience per level. This class will affect the spells you are likely to gain from the shop. This class will offer Class Skills at certain Levels.

Accept? Y/N

Please note that currently you may only obtain the rights to Beginner Classes.

Congratulations! You have obtained the right to a Beginner Class. You have gained access to the “Rogue” Class. This Class will grant you additional Ki, +3 Dexterity, +2 Strength, and +1 Endurance per level. This class will affect the spells you are likely to gain from the shop. This class will offer Class Skills at certain Levels.

Accept? Y/N

Please note that currently you may only obtain the rights to Beginner Classes.

#

Norah finished patching Li up, but let him continue to sleep. He’d started awake briefly when she finished the healing, but the sleeping draught and exhaustion meant he was never even fully conscious. Her perception spell, Shape of the Soul, let her know that he had gained access to a beginner class, though since it was only level one she couldn’t tell which.

He wasn’t the only one going through changes.

Almost as soon as she had finished reattaching his arm, Djimon had been encased in an orb of shifting shadows. He must have achieved a Racial Evolution, for which she was happy for him. He’d never much cared for his born race and had already denied several evolutions as he worked for a path to become who he wanted to be.

She wasn’t sure what he’d been offered by the shop this time, but he was obviously happy about it. That or he was tired of waiting. She hoped it was the former. He deserved it.

Done smothering her pups, she left the heavily bandaged and sleeping group of four to go join Kai by the fire. The other leader of their little team had been busy getting the survivors set up and prepared to leave while she’d been dealing with their own injuries.

“Surprised he actually managed to kill the thing. I was expecting to have to step in at the very end.”

“He’s resourceful, you know that. And you can’t be too terribly surprised considering you refused to take my bet that he’d manage it.”

“Nobody should be as good at gambling as you are. What is your Luck stat anyway?”

“It was hardly a gamble Kai. I just had a feeling.”

“Hah.”

Kai sat in silence for a little while after that before finally speaking, “Do you still think this is not the end of it? That there is something else wrong with the dungeon?”

“Unfortunately. I don’t know what this thing was doing out here, but I won’t feel comfortable until we figure that out.”

“Do you think we should take a look inside the mountain. Once the Mountain Gatekeeper is defeated and the gates are properly aligned, we would have an hour to scout it out. Go in, take a look around, and get out? Or maybe just send Djimon.”

“I would rather do it as a team if I’m being honest. Besides, we’d all have to be there to beat the mid Boss anyway. Well, maybe not all of us.”

“Fair enough. I would rather have the safety of numbers while we go in there anyway.”

“Do you want to tell them or should I?”

“I will.”

“You don’t always have to be the bearer of bad news Kai.”

“I do not have to be, but we both know it makes them feel better when I say it. I am more likely to have a plan to deal with it instead of some insane long shot that was made on a whim.”

“Well now, that just seems rude.”

The two laughed as they enjoyed the fire and waited for morning.

#

When Li woke up in the morning, he had been surprised to find a rather lanky man six wearing Djimon’s robes. The individual had to be six or so inches shorter than the other man if you discounted the tall, deer like horns that protruded from his brow. While the man’s skin was dark, there were patches of pitch black – the kind of black that seemed to actively absorb the light around it – that formed shifting shapes on his arms.

He nearly jumped in shock when the man spoke in Djimon’s voice, “What’s the matter Li? I have something on my face?”

“The hell? What happened to you?”

“Oh come on,” Emiko chimed in, “I know Djimon’s ugly, but it’s not nice to point it out like that!”

“Hey!”

Emiko dodged the small pebble the stranger who apparently was Djimon lightly tossed at her. She turned back to see Li’s flabbergasted face and took on a thoughtful expression.

“You’ve never seen a Racial Evolution, have you? Or at least not one as extreme as Djimon’s here. That’s fair, most people don’t change so much when they evolve.”

“Damn…I heard the shop mention that as a possibility. I just…didn’t expect quite so big of a change.”

“Yeah, that’s fair,” Djimon chimed in. “I’m not a Tavulus anymore. Now I’m an Ancerva, a distant relative you might say. I think I’m going to miss the height a little bit, but I always felt a little…large in my old body. Like I was always taking up too much space. This feels a lot better.”

“Looks like you are Shadow Touched too.”

“Yep! Got a couple fun Racial Skills and I can already feel how it’s empowering my spells.”

Shortly afterward Ananya joined them with a large tray of eggs and bacon, and the three realized just how hungry they were. All four elected to stop talking until they’d filled the empty voids in their stomachs. It was just as they were finishing that Norah and Kai joined them.

Apparently the two had been trading with the remainder of the Rosewater Bazaar. Trading in what they could, buying some more supplies, and leaving messages with the remaining Adventurers to be taken to the guild. The survivors would be leaving soon, once they had gathered what they could, but the party was taking off as soon as food was done and everyone was packed. Nobody wanted to stay on this bloody battlefield longer than they had to.

According to Kai, they would be going to scout out the mountain, assuming the mid Boss hadn’t changed. If it had been replaced with something more dangerous, they’d re-assess. Norah had been pretty clear that that meant they would probably leave the dungeon and tell the guild they needed to call in someone higher ranking. A prospect none of the Wandering Horizons team members seemed to like.

With nothing left to say, they packed up and headed off into the dungeon.

#

Less than three days later, Li had found himself sitting on a ledge and looking down on the mountain below. The boss room had turned out to be a large, square room at the top of a set of covered stairs. The platform had nothing but a waste high railing on three of the sides, and you could see miles of Labyrinth all around them. Along with the slowly spinning dungeon in front of them, maybe five hundred feet away. Far below, the base of the mountain spread below the platform.

The Mountain Gatekeeper himself had turned out to be something of a disappointment. The massive, spear and shield wielding golem had been powerful, but had put nowhere near the same level of pressure on Li and the team as the Garja’lu had. He had to admit, the Gatekeeper had been far more visually impressive though. A statue so detailed it almost seemed alive. Eyes made of carved jewels and fine inlays of various metals turned it into a gorgeous work of art.

Until they had smashed it to pieces, just like Kai and Norah had anticipated.

Now it was time to move deeper in. At least temporarily. According to Kai and Norah, once a day a large bridge would become accessible. They described it as…fan shaped. The bridge never stopped moving, but because of the wide outer edge it would continue to allow somebody to pass without issue for the entire hour. Now they were just waiting for it to get here.

#

The bridge had turned out to be fairly boring. The entire thing was covered, with no way to see outside, and the mosaics on the walls were so faded as to be nearly impossible to make out. Some massive serpent consuming monsters and slowly growing in size. It wasn’t the first snake imagery in the dungeon, but Li still wasn’t sure what to make of it. According to Norah, the boss monster of this dungeon was another golem. The Mountain King or something.

The gates were more interesting, if only because in this area the mosaics were better cared for. It seemed to show an army of stone golems warding off the massive serpent, but slowly being torn apart and destroyed. Right up until the gates themselves, which appeared as two massive tower shields held up by a frame shaped like a pair of golems. As they approached the gates pulled to either side, as if the golems were creating an opening for them to escape through.

“Alright everyone,” Kai checked a pocket watch then continued, “The gates will remain open for another fifty-three minutes. I want us back through them in forty. Sound good?”

At the general sounds of agreement, Kai stepped through. Li himself, as the most vulnerable in the party, was the last one through. Which meant he was closest when the gate slammed shut just inches behind him.

“Um, Kai, I thought these were supposed to stay open?”

Status

Name: William (Li) Aiden Licht

Class: Warrior, Level 1

Race: Human, Level 16

Constitution: 113

Resistance: 97

Resilience: 97

Strength (L): 98

Endurance: 135

Dexterity: 151

Intelligence: 130

Wisdom: 145

Acuity (G): 152

Perception: 148

Charisma: 77

Luck: 85

Evolution Points: 89

Class Experience: 22/100

Free Stat Points: 0

Racial Experience: 35/100

Free Stat Points: 0

Skills

Scarification Tier 1

Self Regulation Tier 1

Endurance Hunter Tier 1

Hysterical Strength Tier 1

Enhanced Charisma Tier 1

Jack of All Trades Tier 1

Abilities

Motion Sense

Mana Sense

Spells

Greater Force Manipulation (Intermediate)

Force Construct (Intermediate)

Potential Energy Well (Beginner)

Arts

Force of the Colossus Armor (Intermediate)