True to the dungeon’s description, the tiger was a dark red level two hundred thirty four to Zoe’s Identify. A Fervent Sentinel. It snarled and growled at Zoe as it lowered its head and narrowed its eyes. The muscles in its legs flexed for a moment, and then it pushed off the roots it stood on, launching towards Zoe.

Zoe Cosmic Stepped a few feet to the side, dodging the cats charge, but felt a searing pain in her side as she did. The steam surrounding the tiger exploded outwards as it passed, soaking into Zoe’s clothes and burning her skin. She summoned cool water with her Torrents skill and splashed it over herself, pushing Restoration through her to heal from the painful burns.

The tiger’s sharp claws scraped on the ground as it landed, leaving deep grooves behind in the mud covered roots.

“Hey buddy, you capable of speech by any chance?” Zoe asked.

The tiger growled, steam erupting from its mouth and flooding into the forest.

“Guess not, alright. Feels pretty bad killing a good little baby like you, but I guess you’ll just respawn huh? And I really do need the money. So sorry about this. If you can talk though we can talk?" Zoe asked.

Its muscles contracted as it leapt forward again. Zoe Cosmic Stepped a little further away to avoid the explosion of steam, and as she did, a root reached out of the ground and the tiger pushed off it to redirect itself towards Zoe again.

Zoe Cosmic Stepped into the air just above the canopy, catching herself in a suit of earth and watched through her Cosmic Vision as the tiger landed, scraping along the ground again. Its head spun, looking around the forest for its prey. Its nostrils twitching as it sniffed for a hint of where she’d gone.

Several small cones of rock appeared around Zoe, and she flashed an enchantment of Archery, Spear-fighting, Stealth, and a piercing focused Elemental Arsenal. She teleported below the canopy again, drgging her cones of rock and launched them at the tiger as soon as she appeared.

The tiger’s head shot up to stare at her the instant she was below the canopy again, and it leapt to the side with an explosion of steam to dodge the projectiles heading its way. Most of the projectiles smashed into the ground behind it, two were even pushed back by the intense steam. But one found purchase in the tiger’s back left leg, piercing through the thickest part of the muscle.

But rather than blood pouring from the wound, steam flooded out from the hole like Zoe had just pierced into an overpressurized pipe. The tiger let out a terrifying roar, quaking the trees surrounding them and sending shivers down Zoe’s spine as it once more leapt towards Zoe.

Zoe Cosmic Stepped away, dodging the tiger’s pursuit. But even quicker than before, a branch coiled out from a nearby tree, letting it redirect itself towards Zoe. She dodged it again, but it ricocheted off another branch even quicker. In moments, Zoe found herself Cosmic Stepping multiple times every second just to stay away from the desperate pursuit of the tiger, and it showed no signs of slowing.

Steam trailed along behind it, pouring from its mouth and the wound Zoe caused, flooding the forest with scalding hot steam. There was almost no space left to dodge the tiger’s leap without being forced into the scalding steam, something she’d rather not do if she could avoid it.

More earthen projectiles appeared around Zoe and she flashed her prepared enchantment onto them, firing them off one by one each time the tiger leapt towards her. The first projectile smashed into its front right leg, causing it to smash into a tree rather than ricochet after her again.

More steam poured out from its new wound, and the tiger learned not to make a direct path to Zoe, instead bouncing around the forest as it crept closer and closer towards her. None of her projectiles managed to find purchase after that, but they bought her time.

She used that time to put some of her mana towards creating large tsunamis of cool water with her Torrents skill, crashing them down on the trees and web of interconnected branches the tiger had made. The trees survived, but the branches and roots did not, forcing the tiger to slow even more as it couldn’t rely on the footholds it had already made.

Zoe Cosmic Stepped towards the most open section of the arena she’d found — a spot where she had about six feet from the nearest tree, and continued firing off her earthen projectiles as she prepared another enchantment. The tiger raced around her, bouncing from tree to tree like a pinball full of steam as it closed in.

When it felt it was closed enough, it leapt to the tree closest to Zoe and just before it leapt off, Zoe pushed all of her mana into creating a dense wall of earth in front of her. She flashed her prepared enchantment of Shield-fighting, Archery and both Cooking and Elemental Arsenal with bludgeoning focuses. The tiger pushed off, with a surge of fear as it realized the trap it had fell in. A root extended from the ground to try and give it a foothold, but Zoe launched her wall towards the tiger.

The wall smashed into the tiger in an explosion of steam, and Zoe grasped control of it again, pressing it down into the ground below. Zoe grasped control of the mud and dirt below, forming it into a dense, hard rock and squished the tiger between the two slabs of rock in one final explosion of steam.

“You’re too damn fast!” Zoe shouted. “Damn.”

*Ding* You have cleared the Scalding Marshes dungeon. Would you like to claim your reward?

Zoe pushed her confirmation towards the system.

*Ding* You have accepted the Scalding Marshes dungeon reward. Barrier will be removed after 60 seconds or when you leave… 59… 58… 57…

Mana swirled in front of Zoe, culminating in just over a hundred gold coins of different denominations as well as a peculiar looking silver coin separate from the other pile. On one side was a laughing, jovial face and the other side a skull.

Zoe stored away the coins, separate from the rest of the money and wondered how she was supposed to pay her fee anyway? When she left The Ruins of Abyllan, nobody stopped her to ask if she’d cleared the dungeon. There was no check, no guards pestering her for her fee. They just let her leave, without any concerns.

Would a guard stop her now that she’d cleared? How would they know that she had cleared? Did they have people watching the dungeon boss to see who cleared? Maybe the tiger would just tell them when it respawned who cleared it?

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Zoe cast Magical Scouring to clean herself off and Restoration to repair the bit of damage done to her purple dress, then pulled out all of the moisture from it with her Water skill and stepped through the shimmering blue barrier.

A group waited on the other side, three women, two in their twenties to Zoe’s eye and one with gray hair who looked to be in her mid forties, or maybe early fifties. The women eyed Zoe and chuckled.

“No armour?" The older one asked.

“Nah, I much prefer a pretty dress these days.” zoe laughed.

“See! I told you some people do that.” One of the younger women said.

“I didn’t say nobody does it, I said it’s stupid.” The older woman turned to Zoe. “No offense.”

Zoe summoned a suit of armour with her Elemental Arsenal. “None taken. I’d wear armour if I couldn’t make my own, too.”

“See?" The older woman said. ”Even the stupid ones have armour. Either get a skill, or put up with your armour.“

“Fiiine.” The younger woman drawled.

“Good luck,” Zoe said as she left.

“Thanks. You too.” The older woman said.

Zoe heard the familiar ringing of a bell a moment later as the three women stepped into the arena for themselves, and flew her way back through the dungeon towards the entrance.

This time however, she was stopped as she passed through the gate by one of the guards. “Good haul?” The man asked.

Zoe nodded. “I think so. First time here.”

“Well.” The man cleared his throat. “We’re going to need half of your monetary reward from clearing the dungeon. I’m required to inform you that should you falsify your reward claim, you will be penalized to the fullest extent of the law. Any items you received as a reward are yours to keep, free of any taxes or fees. Should you require any identification services, the dungeoneering guild provides these for free of charge so please check in at any main guild office.

“Though, between you and me, we’ve been a bit busy. I’ve heard the wait list is up to about a month now, you might be better finding somebody else.” The man said.

“Huh. How’d you know I cleared the dungeon, anyway?" Zoe asked.

“Wouldn’t know. I just get told when you’re approaching to get your reward.” He answered.

“Fair enough. You have a table somewhere I can count these coins out?" Zoe asked.

The man nodded off to the side. “You can count em on the ground, or make something yourself.”

Zoe stepped aside and summoned a platform of wood where she summoned her pile of gold coins. In total, she counted two hundred fifty eight gold worth of coins, and gave the man half of them.

“Thank you very much. As a reminder, further entry will require you pay another fee on entrance since you have now cleared the dungeon.” The man said.

“Thanks!” Zoe smiled and left.

With the twenty gold fee for entering, that left her with just over one hundred gold of profit from the dungeon. Seventy nine if she took away the fee from her failure at the last dungeon. Not bad for a few hours work, though she’d prefer to find another dungeon with more monstrous creatures to fight. Tigers were just too cute — though the explosions of steam and fierce pursuit helped a lot with getting past that mental block.

Either way, with that influx of gold she had a little more than enough for a year’s worth of rent and could take her time exploring the city. She looked to the sky, seeing the sun setting on the horizon. Her adventures out in the dungeons had taken the better part of a day, it seemed.

If she waited here, at the Scalding Marshes, would Frederick arrive to take her back still? Or should she make her way back to The Ruins of Abyllan to get picked up? She still hadn’t quite figured that out, but imagined it would be safer to just stop in at the dungeon she was dropped off at and ask next time she was in the royal office.

Zoe walked out of the small town outside of the Scalding Marshes and flew her way back over to the Ruins of Abyllan. She spent the night outside, watching the people chatter and sell their wares. Even as the moon rose high in the sky, the town never stopped its excitement.

Fitting, for a dungeon at such a high level she supposed. Most people over level three hundred probably didn’t need to sleep very much at all, if at all. There were still inns set up — for people whose classes relied on sleep, maybe? Or for lower level people, or just people like Zoe who sometimes enjoyed a comfortable night’s sleep in a warm bed.

The morning sun came, casting its beautiful orange glow over the city and a few hours later, a surge of magic wrapped around Zoe as reality folded inwards again, leaving her in a dark space without sound or light for a moment. The paper like folds of reality undid themselves, placing her back in the office, sitting across from Frederick.

Zoe blinked, staring at him.

“Welcome back.” He said. “I’ll need a statement of any goods you received since your destination was outside of the city, and…” He rummaged through the papers on his desk for a moment before tapping a finger on one of them. “Ah! And you haven’t re-entered, according to this.”

“Uh. I got my dungeon reward, one hundred twenty nine gold. Seventy nine in profit after the dungeon fees. And I got this coin.” Zoe summoned the silver coin she got as a reward.

“Well if that’s all, then you’re free to go after you just sign this sheet, please.” Frederick pushed a sheet of paper towards Zoe and handed her a pen.

Zoe looked over the paper — it was much simpler than the other ones she’d been made to sign, there was no repetition of needless fluff. Just a simple sheet stating she was brought back safe to the city and was truthful with her claims.

“Thanks very much.” Zoe bowed her head as she got up to leave. She walked down the road to the nearby dungeoneering guild building and up to the woman who waved her down.

“Hello, how can I help you?” The woman asked.

Zoe summoned the silver coin and placed it on the counter. “I got this from the dungeon, I was told you will tell me what it does for free?"

“We do, we’ve had an influx of request lately so it might take longer. Is that alright?" The woman asked.

“Yeah, that’s fine. How long do you think it’ll be?" Zoe asked.

The woman shook her head and frowned. “We can’t say, unfortunately. Lots of factors come into play. We’ll get it done as soon as possible, though.”

“Alright, thank you then. No paperwork to sign?" Zoe asked.

The woman chuckled. "No, no paperwork for you today. Depending on what it is, we might have you sign some papers to get it back but that’s very rare.“

“Awesome, thank you.” Zoe said.

“Thank you too,” the woman said as she took the coin and placed it in a basket below the counter. “Have a nice day.”

“You too.” Zoe said as she left. She wandered down the streets back to her room at the inn she was staying at. The sunset from the painting shone down in her room, so she closed the blinds, collapsed on her bed and drifted off to sleep thinking about the audacity of having to close blinds over a painting.