Pear woke up to the feeling of sharp stones pushing into his back and wind twisting violently through the air above him, trying to whip his hair into a frenzy. Groaning and massaging his aching back, he rose to his feet and looked around the windy, fourth floor of the Dungeon that he and Savantha were moving through.

“Morning,” Savantha said as she noticed him standing and looking around. “Time for breakfast yet?”

“Yeah, here,” Pear said tiredly, reaching into his small pack and grabbing rations for both of them. “Remember, I don’t have an unlimited number of these, so let’s try to make them last.”

“Yeah, sure thing,” his Party member said flippantly as she took her ration and began to eat it. “What’s the plan for today?”

“Move through this floor and maybe the next one too,” Pear said before biting into his own dry, crumbly ration. “I spent more time than I probably needed to on the safe floor, and then I ran into you on the first. My food’s gonna run out at some point and then we’re kind of screwed.”

“Alright,” Savantha said. “Makes sense. Have you looked at the quest for this floor?”

“I have,” Pear nodded, calling the details for the quest from his journal. “Seems like a redo of the Water floor.”

Prune the Wind-stripped Cedar Forest: A forest of Wind-stripped Cedar has covered this Dungeon’s Fourth Floor. Remove a minimum of 50% to a maximum of 83% of the trees that cover this floor to complete this quest.

Rewards: Passage to next floor. Air Perk. As much Wind-stripped Cedar as you wish to keep. A martial arts manual for a monk.

“What do you think the next floor will be?” Savantha asked curiously.

“If it keeps with the pattern it's put up so far,” Pear said, “the next floor is going to be light, death, or life and we’ll have to deal with some sort of problem that’s flooding too much of the elemental mana.”

“And then it’ll repeat to something like this and the water floor?” Savantha confirmed.

“That’s what I think,” Pear nodded. “Makes me wonder, if this Dungeon is out of whack for some reason, then what’s it like when it’s normal? Do the Elementals all attack and you have to fight through the entire floor like a typical dungeon? Or do you have to solve puzzles and avoid the Elementals the whole way?”

“However it works out, we’re dealing with this stuff the way it is now,” Savantha said. “So, less talking and guessing and more spell-slinging out of you.”

“Yes ma’am,” Pear said, rolling his eyes and pulling out his staff. “Stay behind me. I still can’t see you that well and Air mana likes to move a lot more than the other types. It might make my spells a little more chaotic.”

“Just let me know if you see any Air Elementals,” Savantha told him. “It’s strange that none of them have shown up since we’ve been here.”

“Maybe they’re flying higher than we can see them,” Pear suggested as he drew Earth mana into the shape of his Slash spell. “Trying out Earth first.”

As the brown scythe of the Earth-aspected spell flew through the air, Pear nearly groaned as he watched the spell erode away from the dense, swirling green of the Air mana that filled the floor. Before it could impact the first tree, it was nothing more than motes of dust swirling away on the currents of the mana that flowed across the floor.

“Really hoped that one would work,” Pear moaned unhappily. “Water next.”

With a tired wave of his staff, Pear sent another Light Slash spell flying through the air and into another of the Wind-stripped Cedars that dotted the fourth floor of the Dungeon. As the spell sliced through the tree and sent it toppling to the ground, Pear looked hopefully for the notification that he’d managed to finally cut through the last tree he needed for his quest. When nothing appeared, he sighed unhappily and began to wave his staff through the air again and drew another Light Slash to cut through another of the trees.

“This is boring,” Savantha complained from her perch on one of the fallen tree’s trunks. “Why can’t there be a little more action for these floors?”

“Probably because this Dungeon was set up for a squishy caster that had no one to keep them safe from anything,” Pear said. “For all I know, Ripspell set the whole thing up as a way to get out of having to teach his student how to manipulate the different types of mana and how they play with each other.”

“Sounds like a shitty teacher,” Savantha observed. “You sure you want to keep being his student after this?”

“At this point I don’t think I have much choice,” Pear told her. “C99 asked if they could use my character model to make an NPC for the normal servers, so that they could say that Ripspell had a single apprentice that he was focused on and stop others from trying to get him as a teacher in the game. If I quit, they might have some problems with that.”

“Or they could suck it up and set up another NPC to fill the position.” Savantha pointed out. “They wouldn’t be stuck with using your model or whatever and they could make him into some sort of quest-giver or whatever.”

“I guess you’re right,” Pear said as he sent another Light Slash toward another tree. Before he could speak again, the notification they’d been waiting for filled his vision and he had to stop himself from cheering.

You have completed a Dungeon Quest!

Prune the Wind-stripped Cedar Forest: You’ve managed to remove enough Wind-Stripped Cedar that the Air Elementals are finally able to filter the mana from the lower floors once more. As you’ve removed the maximum number of the trees from the forest, your reward has been enhanced.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Rewards: Passage to the next floor.

Perk: Air Skin: You have been bathed in massive amounts of Air mana. You will benefit from faster MP regeneration in areas thick with Air mana. You will have a natural resistance to Air Spells. You will move slightly faster as Air mana will actively propel you as you move.

Any Wind-stripped Cedar you wish to keep will not decay its internal stores of Air mana.

Martial arts manual for a monk.

“Finally,” Savantha said as a small chest thumped to the ground in front of her and the notification faded away from their sight. “Are we good to move to the next floor right away, or do we need to wait for your MP to regen?”

“Wait,” Pear said as he sent another Slash spell at a fallen tree and carved away some of the wood for himself.

“Fine,” Savantha said unhappily. “Never thought I’d come to hate the smell of cedar, but here we are.”

“Maybe the next floor will be different,” Pear said. “I hope it is anyway. I’m getting tired of trying to puzzle out how to do anything and then having it go wrong for me somehow.”

“Ugh!” Savantha recoiled behind Pear as she stepped through the portal onto the next floor. “It’s so bright!”

“Yep,” Pear agreed. “I’m going blind again. Double blind.”

“Isn’t that a poker thing?” Savantha asked. “And do you have any ideas for something to keep my eyesight intact?”

“Maybe and nope,” Pear said. “Let’s just find the start of the Quest and get out of here.”

“You could try asking the person that’s standing in front of you,” a man’s deep, carrying voice suggested.

“Who are you?” Pear asked as he cautiously reached for his wand.

“No one dangerous to either of you children,” the man answered. “Perhaps you could help me.”

You’ve stumbled onto a Dungeon Quest!

Free the Dark Angel: A Dark Angel has been imprisoned on this floor and is preventing Light Elementals from Spawning. Free him and he will leave this Dungeon.

Rewards: Passage to the next floor. Light Perk. Shackle of an Archangel. Key to Monk Asiri’s Cabin.

“We have to free a Dark Angel,” Savantha nodded. “That’s not something that screams ‘bad idea.’”

“I’m sure to you child, it does seem that way,” the man said. “However, freeing me will be no worse for the greater world than when you freed that Devil earlier in your journey.”

“At least with that guy, I knew he was something evil and that he’d probably try to pull one over on us,” Savantha said. “Dark Angels are just evil and won’t honor their words.”

“Actually, I think it’s something similar to what the Devil was,” Pear interjected before the man could answer. “He was a Light Devil, and he acted like a Devil, he was just attuned to using Light mana. I think it’s the same here with this guy.”

“At least one of you children is capable of thinking,” the man said. “It is as your companion says, girl. I am a Dark Angel, yes, but that does not mean that I am a creature of wanton chaos and destruction; rather that I am one that has greater familiarity with using the magic of this world that has been marked by shadows and darkness.”

“Still doesn’t explain why you’re imprisoned here,” Savantha pointed out. “At least with the Devil we knew what kept him here and that he was actually doing something that was helpful to us. You, we don’t know that stuff with.”

“Then allow me to assuage your fears,” the man said. “I was imprisoned in your world by a group of Demon-worshippers that I was sent to cleanse from existence. Unfortunately, their master knew of my arrival and gave them the means to capture me. Once I was imprisoned, the only thing I could do was send myself far from them to hide somewhere that I could recover from my wounds and attempt to free myself. I have managed to heal but this place has kept me bound and the large amounts of Light mana make it all but impossible for me to bring my own powers to bear.”

“So does that mean that you need me to flood Dark mana into the area around you and give you something to work with?” Pear asked with a wince.

“No,” the man told him. “Your companion need only take up my sword and break the chains that bind my wings. Once they are freed, I will be able to take care of the rest.”

“Where is your sword?” Savantha asked suspiciously.

“On the ground by my feet,” the man told her. “It has absorbed so much Light mana that for me to touch it before it has discharged that will be painful and the only way to remove the Light mana is to use the blade at least one time.”

“Sounds like a conundrum,” Pear said.

“Indeed,” the man agreed. “Do we have a deal, Monk?”

“Fine,” Savantha said after a moment of thought. “But if you’re tricking us, then I’ll be upset.”

“Your feelings on the matter now and in the future are irrelevant to me either way,” the man told her. “Let us get on with this matter.”

As Savantha stepped past Pear, he took a step back and tried to peer through the blinding Light mana to see what was happening. He quickly gave up and shut his eyes to see something other than bright golden light.

Standing there with his eyes closed, Pear wasn’t able to see what was happening but he could hear it as Savantha picked up the sword with a slight scrape of the blade on the stone floor and she hefted it with a grunt before the sound of shattering metal filled the air and the whoosh of moving air sounded out as the light faded to manageable levels.

Opening his eyes, Pear was greeted with two sights in his mana-seeing eyes. A large bar of Light mana held aloft by the dead-spot that he’d come to associate with his Party member and a winged figure of smoky Dark mana that pushed the bright, golden Light mana back from them all.

“Thank you for this, Child,” the man said, relief tinging his voice. “You have my gratitude.”

Before either of them could say anything else the angel and his sword disappeared and a notification greeted them both.

You’ve completed a Dungeon Quest!

Free the Dark Angel: The Dark Angel imprisoned on this Dungeon floor has been freed.

Rewards: Passage to the next floor.

Perk: Light Skin: You have been bathed in massive amounts of Light mana. You will benefit from faster MP regeneration in areas filled with Light mana. You will have a natural resistance to Light spells. Illusions made by you will be more difficult to see through.

Shackle of an Archangel: A shackle that once bound the Dark Archangel Crisnarl within Astrana. Now freed, Crisnarl has returned to his rightful place, serving the Divines that reside Outside Astrana. This Shackle, bathed in massive amounts of mana, has become more than it was ever meant to be.

Key to Monk Asiri’s Cabin.

“I feel like I got screwed over by this floor,” Savantha said unhappily as she held up the key that she’d gotten as a reward. “You got a shackle that can probably be used for who knows what and I got a key that I don’t even know how to use.”

“Did you read the description?” Pear asked.

“No, I’ll do that later,” she told him, waving her hand at him dismissively. “Let’s just go to the next floor so you can cut down the trees there.”

“Alright,” Pear shrugged and stepped through the glowing doorway.