We all had questions, yet no one spoke.

Why? That was what we all wanted to ask. Something that precious and powerful, at least as far as I knew, just dropped as some trial reward for Fogdahn? Why didn’t it go to Burquinn? He was the rightful owner, and he was literally right there. It had to be some kind of mix up with the rewards, and I had to question why Fogdahn didn’t just give it to Burquinn since he clearly didn’t need it or want it.

Unless there was some other reason he received it instead. Some kind of… divine intervention?

As Fogdahn put it back in his bag all I could think about was my quest; my absolute necessity. That belt could keep me alive. It could get me to where I need to be! Yet I couldn’t just ask for something that was so… well, so powerful. So not rightfully mine by any means. I had no claim to it other than a random quest by an odd old wasp and a need to survive. But I let it go, watching it sink back into the confines of the bag.

There may come a time when I do ask for it, but for now I wouldn’t cry or beg; I’d save that for when I was closer to death.

[Decay Timer 59 Hours, 22 Minutes, 35 seconds]

Just over two days left before things go south. I still had time to find my own path before sinking as low as to ask Fogdahn to bail me out. No, not after what he did to Ak. I’d focus on finding my own way for now, then I’d head out to Presley.

Our team only waited a little longer, maybe an hour or so. We had discussed sleeping a bit however with Goomba still on cooldown no one really wanted to sleep in the open with the possibilities of spiders all around and Burquinn still most likely lurking around. Exhausted and still not 100% prepared, we all got up, ensured we were as ready as we could get, then headed for the torso entrance.

Just beyond our campsite plateau lay the dark, massive corridor that was the torso. It was way, way different than the other passages that seemed more like big, empty, linear spaces with a clear entryway and exit. No, this was an expanse unlike anything I imagined, and I briefly had a hardcore case of vertigo just picturing the scope of something this large actually existing. I wasn’t lying, it was vast enough to encompass an entire city; maybe Boston or Philly, not New York.

Inside of the space there were… things. Things you’d expect to find inside of a body on a smaller scale. Everything had been fossilized as if made of stone, and ivy, moss, and even some kinds of fungus all grew from all around us. Massive structures littered the darkness in odd shapes, clearly some were organs while others were possibly bone; we hadn’t noticed any of the sections being bones before, but I also had no idea how any of this shit worked. Anyway, we walked up a bit more, each taking a minute to examine the space around us and marvel at just how impressive it all was.

Then it came.

[Dungeon Alert: Fifth Trial will commence in three minutes]

“Oh, come on,” I said as the notification popped up. “Ah, shit. Guess I should have expected this. Any idea what this could be?”

Fogdahn shook his eyeball head. “None. I did not have knowledge of the fourth until it commenced either. Most have some aspect of combat, though some rely heavily on the tasks, goals, or traps with battle itself only serving as an additional obstacle. Everyone, prepare yourselves. This will be more difficult than our last. However, this should see us to the final chamber to claim the reward.”

“Great,” I answered, heavily seasoning my word with a double dose of sarcasm, because fuck that eyeball guy.

“There,” Ak-Lok grumbled, pointing toward an entrance to an enormous snaking tube-like structure that stood about a yard from us. “We should walk there.”

“I must agree, dearest Ak-Lok. Surely a tunnel such as that must serve some purpose, whether it be an exit for a monstrous creature or a deep channel in which we must investigate. Aeronik, our reluctantly garish grandson, please do the honors of lighting the tunnel with your lanterns, if you will,” Foggy said, motioning with his hands and arms as if anyone could possibly miss that particular structure.

Aeronik sighed and, just as Foggy said, reluctantly agreed. Foggy followed close behind, weapons out and prepared, while Ak did the same. Fogdahn stepped in front of me which left me and Scrappy to guard the rear; a bad call if those spiders ever came back. Once we got to the opening I decided to allow the others to check it out while I took a brief moment to examine my new rank 6 abilities and pick one before the next trial started.

[Boom Boom Bananarang - Active. Type: Nature. Cost: 65 Mana. Cooldown: 60 Seconds. Effect: Summon a Bananarang to use as a thrown projectile weapon. Bananarang explodes on contact, dealing 10X damage where X is equal to the Angiomancer’s current rank. Leaves a sticky residue that slows the target's movement speed by 20% for 10 seconds]

[Doppelberry - Active. Type: Light/Illusion. Cost: 185 Mana. Cooldown: 90 Seconds. Effect: Conjures a duplicate image of the angiomancer that lasts for 60 seconds. The duplicate does not move or attack, however if a target makes contact with the image they are stunned for 0.3 seconds per the target's level]

[Berry Preserve - Passive. Type: Nature. Cost: N/A. Cooldown: N/A. Effect: While not in combat, health and mana regen rates are doubled. All party members within a 1 yard radius receive a 20% increase to their regen rates]

Shit, I thought to myself.

I really wanted some decent passive options this time. Unfortunately this was my most disappointing set to date; in my opinion, anyway. All three were more for utility than anything else, with the Bananarang at least having some damage aspect to it.

So this is going to make me sound like an idiot, as most things in this story does, but hear me out; I don’t like illusion abilities. In any movie or game it just made shit more complicated. Takes a lot of brain power and precision to be some kind of illusionist, and while making a doppelgänger might be useful if I strategized it out perfectly, it wasn’t really something that fit with my current combat style.

You know, the combat style where I just cast spells as often as I can and hack away at shit with my sword.

Not wanting to take more time than necessary, I chose the [Boom Boom Bananarang] with a heavy dose of disappointment and closed my interface. Between this most recent batch of abilities and my recent single-song mastery of the penny whistle I was really not feeling like a very useful berry. Still, I tried to be optimistic about the situation. At least the boomerang was sort of like having another weapon, even though I was almost positive it was just a boomerang shaped banana that blew up into banana goo.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Interesting,” Aeronik said, peering into the tunnel with his lantern.

“Yes! ‘It’s a tube of quite vast proportions! It may easily fit our whole party,” Foggy said. “Should we… should we venture forth?”

“No!” I said in unison with Ak, Fogdahn, and Aeronik. I thought I even heard Bellbane make some kind of huffing sound as well.

“No way, man,” I added. “The trial is going to start soon and I don’t want to get stuck in there when it happens!”

“Hmm,” Foggy pondered aloud, as he was one to do. “Aeronik, may I toss a lantern in to see a bit further? I have a feeling about this tunnel. You know, I was once dubbed The Super-Sized Psychic for my premonitions!”

“Damn you, Ryzzah…” I said under my breath.

“No,” Aeronik quickly answered, pointing one of his pointy bee fingers at Fogwarth and wagging it like an angry mother. “You may not toss one of my very expensive lanterns into the unknown tunnel just because you have a feeling!”

“Orchid,” Ak interjected. “Give the lantern to the Orchid. Have it scout the tunnel. I do not sense foes within it.”

“A splendid idea! Our Scrappy is a courageous guardian! A brave warrior! Scrappy, will you do us the honor of scouting this tunnel?” Foggy asked, kneeling down and making eye contact with the [Battle Orchid] familiar that was standing on my head.

Scrappy shadow boxed a bit, proving his toughness, then raised a tiny leaf fist high into the air in agreement.

Aeronik rolled his eyes then passed over the hovering, glowing lantern. He held it close to the orchid for a few seconds until it subtly vibrated, then he let it go and it hovered right over Scrappy, the lantern being nearly half the size of him. After he backed off and made sure the lantern was fully linked to Scrappy, I stepped beside my fighting floral familiar and walked him up to the entrance, giving him the Rocky and Mickey talk as he released a couple of enthusiastic jabs.

“Alright, Scrappy. You got this. Go as far back as you can then turn back the moment we get a trial countdown. You got it?” I said, adding some gruff to my voice. “You’re a killin’ machine, Rock.”

The orchid looked up at me in confusion then turned back to the duty at hand and headed inside of the shadowed tunnel. We stepped back a bit, each of us carefully monitoring his progress without being too close to the entrance. As Scrappy walked we heard the whistles of his fists punching the open air and the gentle tapping of his rooty feet against the uneven stone of the tube. He was almost out of sight around a steep bend when the alert sounded.

[Dungeon Alert: Fifth trial will commence in thirty seconds]

“Alright, Scrappy. Head on back now!” I called out, cupping my grotesque gray gloves to my moon and shouting through the tunnel. “Countdown is going to start soon.”

Then we heard the rumble. A shaking sound of something shifting and moving, something heavy and fast. It was almost like the sound of the rising walls, and I turned back to see our exit into the pelvis area had been cut off entirely. The rumbling didn’t seize there, instead it sounded like a distant storm that was approaching us a bit more breath by breath. I barely had time to react as the thing came barreling towards us.

[Your Familiar, Scrappy - Level 7 Battle Orchid, has died]

“Hey! My lantern!” Aeronik shouted to the sounds of shattering glass that echoed through the tunnel.

“My flower!” I added.

We all stepped back, weapons at the ready for whatever came down that tube. No one here would hesitate, not after seeing what the last trial had for us. We would go all out on whatever terrible creature emerged from the strange tube. Our party fanned out to surround the entrance while also keeping an eye on the deep shadows of the cavern around us; anything could be lingering in the dark.

Then it smashed into the entrance at a speed that would impress Dominic Toretto. It was here.

A huge, pill-shaped object made of an extremely rough, cracked stone, flew down toward us and halted with a screech of stone on stone right at the entrance. The cragged stone was wider than Foggy, with a carved top and hollow interior that seemed fashioned into odd shapes. The length was also impressive, and the longer I stared at it the more I realized…

[Dungeon Alert: Fifth trial will commence in ten seconds]

“Is that shit log?!” I shouted.

Ak shrugged, examining it. “We are meant to be within this vessel. These are seats.”

“Yes, my Golem. You are correct,” Fogdahn added, also examining the brown object. “It is perfectly formed to fit our entire party. It is clear we are meant to enter it for the next challenge.”

“Because of course, right? Of course we are meant to ride in the shit. I hate this place…” I said, approaching the log.

[Dungeon Alert: Fourth trial commencing. Delvers of the Juniperscar’s Husk, welcome to your Fifth Trial, the Intestinal Race Track, Team Reliance -First Half. This is an obstacle trial. Your party must enter Vacel’s Fehicle Matter, and utilize the lower intestinal tract to navigate your way to the Abdominal Arena for the second part of this trial. Throughout the intestinal tract there will be targets that must be hit to unblock certain pathways, as well as deadly opponents to halt your progress. Intestinal Race Track will begin once the party has entered the Fehicle Matter]

“See?! I told you it was shit! Who is making these dungeon trials anyway? What immature, mildly handsome, partially deranged, bald idiot creates such a thing?” I cried out, inching my way toward the Fehicle; I really hated calling it that.

“Oh, sir berry, you simply must stop with the humor!” Foggy barked with laughter. “My friend, you know how to make light of even the more serious of dilemmas. Here we are facing a trial with potentially deadly hazards, and you assure that we face it with a smile. Come, sir berry! Let us enter our chariot and prepare for what is to come with the cheer that you have bestowed upon us!”

I groaned as the group all moved into position at the cart, with Fogdahn calling out the order where we were to sit.

“We must displace our weight with the heaviest in the front of this vessel, as to gain momentum should we face sharp turns and steep declines. Fogwarth and Ak-Lok, you must each stay at the front; Fogwarth will be in control of that odd yellow knob that I believe controls the cart itself, while Ak-Lok will fire at targets that align with the obstacles the alert mentioned,” he said, gesturing for them to get in the cart. “The Icaraz scum and I shall take the midpoint, while the blueberry and Bellbane take the rear. Blueberry, you have shown to have some disabling abilities. If anything should come for us from behind it will be on both Bellbane and yourself to halt their progress and buy us time. Understand?”

“Whatever,” I answered, climbing into the cart and finding it to be uncomfortably warm. “How do we start this thing?”

Aeronik was just barely in his seat when Foggy exclaimed, “I believe this should do it!” With a creak the shifter knob thing was pulled back, causing the cart to jerk forward and almost knocking Aeronik out of his seat; which wouldn’t have been the worst thing. The cart slid forward, slowly moving up the bend of the intestine like a rollercoaster reaching its high point. I turned back to look behind us, waiting to see if the entryway to the tunnel would close up like the others.

Instead an enormous, coiled, ghost-white flesh mass fell from the ceiling right above where we had just been standing, slamming to the ground hard enough to shake the entire cart. As everyone turned back to see what it was, the thing began to move, sliding grotesquely like a snake and shoving its thick body into the intestinal tube behind us.

Eyeless, fleshy, and with a circular mouth full of long, needle-like teeth that spiraled deep into the depths of its dark gullet, the thing began to gain some speed as it squirmed its way into the tunnel, barely able to fit through it.

“It’s a… it’s a…” My words seemed to catch in my throat as I hyperventilated. I swallowed hard, berry eyes bulging from my berry head. “It’s a Dune worm!”