As Aster exited the nook, Stella hurried in front of him, and Daiyo followed behind. When Daiyo reached the exit, he pressed a hand to the wall, and the wall receded to reveal an arched doorway.

The stone spirits clustered close outside, trembling in anxiety. At the sight of an unharmed Diayo, they rushed over and clattered loudly at him, as if chattering all at once.

Daiyo knelt, occasionally nodding along. “Yes, yes. No, I’ll be back. You all watch over the nook while I’m gone.”

The stone spirits clustered around him for another few seconds, then backed away. Some fled into his nook, while others vanished into the walls.

Daiyo stood, sighing. “Before I came around, this hall was a mess. Disorganized, stone spirits everywhere, running around like their heads were on fire every time an adventurer came through. I’ll miss it.”

“You can always come back,” Stella said.

Daiyo laughed. “Well… that’s true.”

“You didn’t attack me, on my way forward,” Aster pointed out.

“I didn’t even see you. Wait… actually, a few hours ago, the stone spirits started shouting about a human, but I never saw anything. I thought they got confused again. Was that you?”

Aster rubbed the back of his neck bashfully. “I can move pretty fast when I want to.”

Daiyo snorted. “That’s no joke.”

Lifting his head, Aster pointed ahead. “There isn’t much from here. A few empty chambers where floor bosses should be, but Stella’s moved them all forward.”

Stella squirmed again, uncomfortable. “I—”

“We can push all the way through until the tiger gap, but then… there’s a gap. How’s your jump, Diayo?” Aster continued, ignoring her.

“Oh—I don’t have to go all the way to the surface. But if we’re talking about gaps, can’t I…” He set his hand on the wall beside him, and a hand-sized portion of the stone peeled up from the wall and warped into a slender arc.

Aster pressed a hand to his forehead. Right, I forgot. Stone magic is such a cheat. “After that, there’s a King Slime, but—”

“A King Slime? Gross,” Daiyo muttered.

“—but I still have salt, so we should be able to rush past it, if it even triggers,” Aster finished.

Daiyo turned. “Salt? What’s that?”

“It’s a slime repellent,” Aster explained.

Daiyo nodded. “Wonderful. I need some.”

“Let’s pick up the pace. Daiyo… can I trust you to carry Stella?” Aster asked.

Stella looked at Daiyo, her lips pursed. “If you hurt me, I’m spawning a fire slime on your head.”

“I won’t, I won’t.” Daiyo scooped up Stella and set her on his shoulders. She grabbed onto his head with both hands. The two set off at a walk.

Ahead, Aster broke into a jog. “I’ll go slow, but if you can keep up, we’ll start moving faster.”

Daiyo harrumphed. “I might be a golem, but I’m no clunker!” He leaned forward and started running, his stone arms scraping against his body, stone feet thumping against the floor. He sprinted past Aster, kicking up dust in his wake.

Stella bounced on his shoulders. She squealed in shock, then began to giggle, holding on tighter. “Faster, faster!”

Aster laughed. “It’s a race, then!” He chased after Daiyo, sprinting with all his might. In a moment’s time, he blasted past the clunky golem, turning his head to laugh as he rushed ahead.

“Daiyo, we’re losing!” Stella shouted.

“I won’t lose so easily,” Daiyo grunted. He stomped. The stone floor dropped beneath Aster’s feet.

Aster stumbled. He threw his hands out and caught his balance, then leaped out of the hole and chased after Daiyo, quickly catching up again. “Magic is cheating.”

“Is this the human emotion they call jealousy?” Daiyo asked.

Aster chuckled. He unsheathed his hammer and swung loosely at Daiyo’s legs. Daiyo jumped, but Aster pulled back the blow long before it hit. “Slowpoke.”

“You’re the slowpoke,” Daiyo grunted, pushing himself faster.

“Wheee!” Stella shouted, enjoying the ride.

They burst through hallway after empty chamber after hallway and quickly rushed up on the King Slime’s chamber. Aster peered upward. Slimes coated the ceiling, quietly clinging close to one another. Sleeping?

He pointed upward, then lifted a finger to his lips and slowed. Daiyo glanced upward, then charged through. His heavy footsteps rattled the ground.

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Overhead, the slimes trembled as they woke. One dropped, then another. Daiyo dodged left and right, avoiding the slimes.

One particularly heavy slime plummeted directly at Daiyo and Stella. Stella cried out and threw her hands up. Mana glittered, but formed slowly.

Aster jumped up Daiyo, planted a foot on his shoulder and a hand on his head, and swung his hammer at the large slime. The large slime’s outer membrane ruptured, raining viscous acid down on them. Lifting his broadsword, Aster shielded Stella and himself from the worst of it.

“Gross, gross, gross,” Daiyo grumbled, covering his head with his arms.

Aster turned to Stella. “There’s still the monsters at the entryway. The tiger and the centipede. We can run past, or…”

Stella pouted. “If I move them, humans will come in.”

“Stella…” Aster said, frowning down at her from where he stood on Daiyo’s shoulder.

“Can I really not survive without humans? There isn’t another option?” Stella asked, hopeful.

Aster sighed. “If there is, I’ve never heard of it.”

“What about the deeps, where Daiyo comes from?” Stella asked hopefully.

Daiyo shuddered. Aster clung on for dear life. Shaking his head, Daiyo rubbed his upper arms, distinctly uncomfortable. “That power… isn’t something you want to tap into. The deep dungeons use a dark power, something primordial and dangerous, something hungry. It takes more than it gives, until there’s nothing, nothing left of you at all.”

“But it’s an option,” Stella insisted, giving Aster an I knew it smirk.

Daiyo shook his head. His voice turned serious, an edge of fear in it. “No. Not for you, Stella. Down in the deeps, there’s no Dungeon Spirits. Just… corrupted husks. Soulless. Heartless. Empty. Even the monsters are…”

His voice trailed off. He made a swallowing sound. “I’m never going back there, and I won’t let you do that to yourself, either.”

Stella crossed her arms petulantly, but said nothing else.

Aster took a deep breath. He crouched down on Daiyo’s shoulders, bringing himself to Stella’s height. “Have you ever seen the world outside?”

Stella wrinkled her nose. “No. But it’s full of scary humans.”

“Full of humans… and beautiful. Stella, are you going to live your entire life without ever peeking out of this dungeon?” Aster asked.

Stella nodded firmly, but there was a bit of hesitation in her eyes.

“Without ever seeing stars? Or daylight?” Aster said.

“I don’t know what those are,” Stella said, arms still crossed, but she glanced toward the entrance. Her legs kicked against Daiyo’s torso, and she bit her lip.

“Would you like to find out?” Aster suggested.

Stella looked away. “…no.”

“No?”

She hummed, wiggling uncomfortably. “No…”

“No?” Aster replied, teasing a bit now. “Not even a teeny bit?”

“Maybe… just a glimpse…” Stella allowed.

Aster smiled. “We can do a glimpse.”

“But that’s all. And I’m not going outside!” Stella declared.

Aster saluted. “Aye, aye, captain!”

Beneath them, Daiyo rumbled. His whole body trembled, as if an earthquake rushed through him. Longingly, he gazed toward the exit. “Outside… humans… the surface world…!”

“No further than the entryway,” Aster warned him, thumping the butt of his hammer on Daiyo’s shoulder.

“Yes, of course,” Daiyo said, distractedly.

He turned back to Stella. “So? Can you send the bosses back to their chambers?”

Stella pursed her lips. After a second, she nodded. She closed her eyes and focused, her brows furrowing. Thin strands of mana swirled around Stella.

A hundred legs skittered over stone. From around the corner, a giant centipede arced over the ground, rushing toward them. It looked at Aster, Stella, and Daiyo, then turned away. Turning itself sideways, it slid its flat body into a narrow slot in the wall and vanished, the sound of its legs echoing through the stone walls.

“That… I thought I escaped it by jumping into the lava pit,” Aster muttered under his breath.

Stella shook her head. “I told it not to follow you. In case someone else tried to come in after you. After all, the rat…”

Aster sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Sorry about that. I didn’t know how low your mana was when I killed it.”

Stella grunted.

The tiger loped after it, its body low, eyes narrowed. It watched them warily, sticking to the walls. When it reached their side, it sped into the shadows, vanishing beyond the half-formed King Slime.

Aster cracked his knuckles. He looked down at Daiyo. “There’s a lava-filled pit ahead. Think you can make us a bridge?”

“Let’s go see what we’re working with,” Daiyo responded. He set off at a jog.

Resting a hand on Daiyo’s head, Aster remained at a crouch, surfing Daiyo’s shoulders as the golem strode along. Stella bumped alongside him, nodding her head with each jolt of Daiyo’s body.

Daiyo paused. His featureless face turned toward Aster. “You could walk.”

“I could,” Aster acknowledged.

They stared at one another, at an impasse.

Stella covered her mouth, but couldn’t stifle a giggle.

Aster cracked a smile as well. He patted Daiyo. “You’ve got it.”

Grumbling under his breath, Daiyo turned forward again. Heat welled up from ahead, burning against Aster’s bare skin. Hot red light reflected off the ceiling of the cavern ahead.

“Lava,” Stella whispered, her eyes glittering.

“Do you like lava?” Aster asked.

Stella bounced in place, nodding. After a moment, she shook her head. “It kills a lot of people, though. And monsters.”

“Higher killcount than Daiyo?” Aster joked.

“Oh, hey.”

Stella held up three fingers.

“Three kills?” Aster asked. That’s not more than twelve. Maybe she got confused because one and two are both smaller individual numbers than three…

“Three digits,” Stella replied solemnly.

Over a hundred… no, that could be as many as nine hundred and ninety-nine kills. That really is a lot! Aster gaped, then shook his head. “It might be too much for this early in the dungeon. Can you move it backwards?”

Stella frowned. She struggled, brows furrowing, then shook her head. “I need more mana.”

“Then how about this?” Daiyo walked to the edge of the lava pit and stomped. Stone flowed from the ground beneath their feet and arced over the lava. The ground around them sank, leading to a soft decline on the far side of the bridge.

At last, the bridge connected to the other side. Daiyo dusted off his hands and gave a satisfied nod. “That should hold for a while. Long enough for you to do something about it.”

Stella nodded.

The bridge creaked as Daiyo walked over it, but ultimately, the stone held. They reached the other side. The rat’s bisected corpse laid on the ground, blood long congealed but the meat still fresh.

Stella lifted her palm toward the rat. The rat turned into blue motes and melted into the floor. A faint glow emanated from her chest, then faded.

Aster hopped down from Daiyo’s shoulders and lifted a hand up toward Stella. “Shall we?”

“The surface…” Stella gazed toward the entrance to the dungeon. From this side, the sunlight was blinding, their eyes too used to the darkness to see anything beyond the gate itself. Stella swallowed. She took Aster’s hand and clenched it tight, her knuckles white.

“Come on,” Aster said gently.

Her jaw clenched, eyes locked on the white light, Stella hopped down from Daiyo’s shoulders. Aster released his grip on her hand, but Stella refused to let go. After a moment, Aster held her hand as well. They faced the entrance.

“Are you ready?” Aster asked.

Stella shook her head so hard her white hair lashed her face.

Aster laughed. “Yes, you are. Come on, on three. One. Two.”

“Three,” Stella whispered, and stepped forward.