Meera stood at the mouth of the tunnel with the waiting wraiths on the other side of the barrier. They had entered a state of frenzy the moment she had appeared from the room. Now, they were piling over themselves, phasing through one another, trying to get at her. She had been here enough times to know what had to be done. She could avoid them easily. It was the invisible wraiths that worried her.

She had pulled out these metal vambraces from an armor suited for a warrior from her belt. Meera didn't know what metal they were made of, but they were goldish. If this armor was made with real gold, then she was in trouble, but she figured no adventurer worth his salt would go trampling in the forest with a gold armor. So, it had to provide some protection. The vambraces were a little big for her, so they covered her arms a little past the elbow. She had also taken the shoulder pads of the same armor for added protection. She left the chest piece as that would slow her down too much.

"So, what are you waiting for?" Shade asked, flying overhead. "Do your thing and get out there."

"I need you to show me the way, don't I?"

"Oh, right. Sorry. The rooms with the boxes first, right?"

"Right." Meera turned to the rat. "Cinders, you'll be okay to make it on your own?"

"More than okay. I can walk through these walls to the next tunnel, as can our horse friend." She turned to look at Onyx, who had stayed far behind.

"If only we'd known that the last time, eh," Shade commented.

He was right. Meera wouldn't have taken that hit from the invisible wraith if they had known Onyx could just run through the walls to come around to this cave. This is how Cinders and Shade had scouted out all the tunnels.

"You ready?" Shade asked.

"One moment, please." Meera reached into her Hoard Belt and pulled out the Gem of Echoes, which she had found in Shade's room. The gem was like a super-charged version of Nimble Ears. As soon as the gem was out of the Lunar Hoard Belt, her ears were assaulted by the wraiths' wailing and shrieking. Each sound was like a bomb going off in her ears. She closed her eyes and focused, taking deep breaths, trying to focus on one sound, but they were all garbled together that it was impossible to pick one.

"Cinders, start singing!" Meera cried.

There was a momentary pause, but then the rat started singing. Meera winced at the new sharp singing sound. Now that she could hear so well, she could tell that Cinders was singing so off-tune. But regardless, Meera focused on her voice and her voice alone. She tried to tune out the noise, and like the Eagle-Eyes zoom-in or out feature, she tried to lower the sounds, and it worked. She smiled as she turned down the sounds of the wraiths and brought Cinders' singing to a crisp focus. It was not like the wraith's sounds went away, but they were just background noise at this point.

Meera opened her eyes and dropped the gem in her pocket. It was about the size of her thumbnail, so it didn't take up space. She just hoped that it didn't fall out in the fighting.

"Okay, now, I'm ready," Meera declared. "Shade, fly away."

"Let's get to the rooms on the second floor as there is only one room with the box. Our friends can get cozy and get to know themselves better in the meantime."

Then he snickered as Onyx practically turned into a whiff of smoke and merged with the wall. Even Meera snorted a little at that. Onyx was a thousand times the size of Cinders, and he was a ghost, but he still brought his fear of rats with him after death.

"Return to us when you're done there, and we can move together from here," Cinders said.

Meera nodded and looked to Shade, who flew out of the tunnel over the heads of the wraiths. The bloodthirsty phantoms barely registered his presence as he flew off to the second floor. Meera waited, heart thumping, as she knew what awaited her.

Then, something happened that she was not expecting. Shade must've used his hypersonic voice as he flew, and she caught it. She could see the locations of the wraiths, as in she could tell where they were. It was hard to describe as a mental picture formed in her head, but it was relative to where she was standing. She was sure she would have been able to tell much more if she stood next to Shade.

Shade flew in a spot on the second floor, which was her signal.

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"Good luck," Onyx managed.

Meera turned to him, winked, and then disappeared in a poof of smoke. She reappeared on the second floor beside Shade.

"It's this one." Shade flew into the tunnel right behind them.

Meera wanted to follow him. All her instincts told her to follow him as the wraiths were coming, the visible and invisible ones.

"What are you doing?" Shade shouted.

"Come out here. We've got a wraith to kill."

"Oh, you've got to be kidding me."

Their first blow fell before Shade even made it out of the tunnel. But Meera was ready. As soon as she felt a cold touch on her abdomen, she teleported back a few steps and threw a chakram. Her chakram hit the wraith and stayed spinning on the spot for a moment before it fell.

Meera recalled it as the notification bell went off. She heard Shade use his voice again, and the picture of the cavern was painted in her mind. She didn't need to see below that the wraiths were climbing over each other, trying to get to her. She only had mere moments to get this done.

"Anything?" Meera asked her bat friend.

"Wait," he hovered in the air for a moment. Meera quickly checked where the wraith's blow had fallen. There was a small tear of her leather armor and a thin line of blood, but nothing major.

"Got him!" Shade cried. "To your left! Duck!"

Meera ducked in time as she figured the wraith's phantom strike passed overhead. The scary part was she felt nothing. There was no wind on her face, no whooshing sound, nothing.

Without waiting, she swung her hand in an arc. Her chakram got embedded in something, and finally, she heard a scream. She didn't wait to follow up. With her other hand, she pummeled the unseen wraith with her chakram. Each hit brought a fresh scream from the phantom.

She saw that the regular wraiths had almost made it to her, thanks to Shade's hypersonic voice and her advanced hearing. She had a precious few seconds left. She upped her onslaught.

"Jump back!" Shade cried.

So, Meera did, but she was a moment too late, as the wraith got her. Its attack left a nasty scar from her cheek down to her neck. She activated Vitalize as she threw both her chakrams in front of her. Only one of them hit, and that too for a moment.

"That was good. You almost got its head," Shade said.

"Where is it?" Meera yelled. The other wraiths had made it to the second floor and were racing towards her from both directions.

"Behind you."

Meera turned, and without bothering to dodge, she launched an onslaught of fist after fist with her chakrams in hand. She hit her assailant, but it got her pretty good as it had buried its claws in her stomach. Pain unlike any other erupted in her gut. But she didn't stop until she heard a final dying scream.

"You got it." Shade cried. "Now, get in the tunnel."

She used Shadow Step, reached the safety of the tunnel, and collapsed to one knee.

She activated her healing skill, and it took even less time to heal herself than it would before and with less Mana. That last crystal was something else.

She turned from the wraiths trying to get at her and moved towards the room. Inside, strapped to the table, was an animal she had never seen before, for they didn't exist on earth outside of skeletal form.

"Is that a dinosaur?" Meera exclaimed.

"What the hell is that?"

"That." Meera pointed to the enormous reptile tied to the table. The dinosaur was about a dozen feet long and very wide. It had a singular horn above its nose, like a rhinoceros. Its skin was leathery gray with spots of green. She couldn't tell if it was the color of its skin or some form of infection.

"That is no dino-whatever. That there is a baby Druvis. One that still had a lot of growing up to do. They tend to grow to over fifty feet tall."

Meera's eyes widened. "Fifty feet tall?"

Shade scratched his head. "Which world are you from that you've never heard of, Druvises? They are called imperfect dragons, related to their much larger and fearsome cousins. They can't use magic to breathe fire and other things. Also, given their lack of wings, they cannot fly."

If these imperfect dragons grow to fifty feet tall, how large are the perfect dragons? She didn't voice this as she didn't want Shade to think their savior was an utter fool. Just when I think I'm getting the hang of this world, it throws these things at me.

"Where did you find the crystal?" Meera asked, changing the topic.

"This way." Shade flew to rest on a table at the room's far end.

Meera noticed the box. She opened the box, and inside was a green crystal.

[Crystal of Druvis Power – Whosoever crushes this crystal will earn a skill that will make their body more resilient and gain the ability to perform feats of strength far beyond their natural capacity.]

Meera smiled. "Here goes nothing."

She crushed the crystal in her hand, making Shade tilt his head, and though she could not read his expression, she could tell he was thinking she had lost her mind.

A moment passed, and nothing happened. Meera thought she had made a mistake, but smoke hissed from the crystal shards in her hands and breathed deeply.

*ding!*

[You have acquired the skill Druvis Power – Level 1. Please forgo one skill to make room for Druvis Power.]

Meera frowned as this was different than before, as it didn't even ask her if she wanted this skill. But based on the crystal, she knew which skill she was going to give up. She exchanged Primal Power for Druvis Power.

She activated her new skill, and her eyes widened so much that they threatened to pop out of her head. She felt strength like none other coursing through her veins. It was like activating Primal Power but on a dinosaur level.

She let the crystal shards fall from her hand and half-heartedly punched the wall. A crater formed on the wall at the point of impact. A crater the size of Meera. Cracks traveled outwards from her fist to span the entire wall. It was like she had achieved superhuman strength.

"Well, looks like I will never have to invest points in Power again," Meera commented.

"What was that?"

"That was Druvis Power."