“Hey, Mariel, wanna join us for a dungeon dive?” Said Bogdan. It was pretty late in the day too since I had ended up talking with the revolutionaries longer than I should’ve, but I really didn’t want to go back to the pocket dimension.

“Are you going on one this late?”

“The tavern is full, pal, I don’t wanna be here when there’s that many cunts trying to get ale. I end up staying in line all day long, get half a cup, and end up going home sober. I might as well get some adrenaline in me, you get what I mean?” I was tired of dungeons. I just got in one a week ago. Could I really be bothered with going in one again?

“It’s late, and I went to a dungeon a week ago anyway. It’s the same thing over and over again, so why bother?” Bogdan quickly looked at me before replying back.

“They figured out how the pillars work apparently, so they can change it into whatever now.” Really? Well…

“Bogdan’s gonna make us do something suicidal anyway, so it’d be good to have someone to fill in for him when he does that.” Said Stephan. Ugh, fine. Better that than going to the pocket dimension right now.

“Alright. What are all of you anyway? I’m an all rounder with no abilities, just straight power.” Bogdan nodded in acknowledgement.

“Maria just does damage. Her knives got fire infused into them or something.” Huh. A literal fiery redhead. That made me chuckle a little.

“And he’s not a tank for some reason.” Said Maria.

“Just because I’m a lardass doesn’t mean I’m a tank. I like my ale, what about it?” Wait, he wasn’t a tank? That was… certainly news to me. Big people always tended to be tanks for some reason. “I’ll tell you the rest while we’re walking there.” All of us got up, and got out of the busy tavern. I heard the crickets and felt the crisp cool air hit my skin as soon as we were under the rapidly darkening sky.

“Yea, for some reason, he decided that he should also go fully into damage.” Said Maria.

“Look, I think he understands that it would’ve been better strategically if he was a tank, but at some point you have to realise he just chose his role for his weapon.” Said Stephan. What weapon would be that good that he’d ignore team dynamics for it?

“What weapon was that?” Stephan looked at Bogdan as I said that, who nodded before taking out a sword with little rivets on it. I didn’t see what was so–

“Boom!” He pulled a line attached to the sword, and it burst to life. Each rivet was spinning like a chainsaw… because this thing was just a chainsaw. “Isn’t that cool?” I had to admit, it was… somewhat justifiable that he’d choose it. I certainly saw the appeal, even as it slowed down after he stopped pulling on it. It was a manually operated chainsaw, which certainly made sense. The Goddess wasn’t about to let us have actual technology.

“Huh. I see that. What about Stephan?” He looked away after I said that, clearly embarrassed by his role. “Stephan?”

“Oh? Yeah! Uhm… I’m a… how do I say this? An… uh…” I turned around and grabbed his shoulders.

“Stop that, it’s annoying. Just say it, I won’t judge you.” You looked away, still clearly embarrassed. “Just spit it out before the other two do it for you.”

“I’m…” He was going to do the same thing, and as such, Maria got sick of it.

“He’s a warlock. There. He’s just embarrassed because he only chose that so he could summon succubuses.” Dude… There was no way that was actually real.

“Really? Is that actually true?” Stephan looked away again after briefly looking at me after Maria said her thing.

“Look! I was a year younger and a fool. It isn’t like I’m like that now. I just use demonic powers. I’m not just doing it to get someone to fuck anymore.” Well, that was something at the very least. Still, I get why he would be embarrassed by it now. I would be embarrassed by it, and my mind is pretty strong. Like, sure, I got into depressive episodes from time to time, but those fixed themselves soon enough anyway.

“You should just accept it now! It is part of you.” Said Bogdan in an attempt to reassure Stephan with advice that most likely worked for Bogdan, but this was clearly not what Stephan needed to hear. Nobody liked it when somebody told them to embrace a negative part of themselves just because they did it long ago, and because it was now ‘part of them’.

“You’ve made up for it anyway. You’re a wiser man, with a wiser set of powers and ways of acquiring them. There’s no need to hold onto the past. You don’t have to embrace it if you don’t want to. Just keep marching on into the future and life will turn out just fine.” I felt like that was the best thing he could’ve heard at that moment, but what did I know? I wasn’t a therapist.

“Huh, I guess that’s right. Thanks.” We weren’t walking for that long before we reached the pillar, and saw the exhausted mage by its entrance.

“Hey bud, how are you?” Said Bogdan, approaching the mage with a big smile on his face.

“Tired. Someone should’ve come to replace me by now. How’d you like your dungeon this time?” It seemed like the two of them already knew each other. I presumed that the mage would’ve asked for Bogdan’s level if they didn’t.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Make it fiery. I heard they had one of those down where Bucharest used to be.” Oh, yea, that one. I was there once or twice. Got my ass whooped both times.

“Huh. Alright.” We walked inside the small building in which the pillar resided, where it also broke through the roof because we weren’t about to build an entire skyscraper to house it, and watched as the mage touched it without going in. When I looked closer, I realised a seal was protecting him from the pillar, and lighting was coming out of his hand before each strand hooked itself into the pillar, which is what made it glow red. After a good half minute of silence, he pulled his hand off the pillar, and fell down, then pulled himself upwards before speaking. “Should be what you want now.” The pillar was now glowing a pale red, and emanated heat as I and everyone else got closer to it. Bogdan threw a couple gold coins at the mage as a tip, and ran into the pillar before anyone else managed to reach it. I guess we already had permission to go in then. I reached out next, and felt myself physically get dragged into the pillar before stepping on a hot stone.

“This… this is too much lava.” Said Bogdan before everyone else teleported in. The Bucharest dungeon was not like this. This dungeon was open air, and had its floor be made up of hot stones floating on lava, instead of charred bricks. It was also a lot hotter.

“Where to now, captain?” I said.

“Uhm… Let’s go right. Right’s always right.” And so, we walked in that direction. Initially, the whole dungeon felt pretty empty and peaceful, but then a golem made of lava climbed out of the floor. It leaked a bunch of lava down onto the floor that made those stones impossible to be stepped on. In short, we should’ve been killing that thing quickly before it started walking on more ‘tiles’ and made them inaccessible.

“I got it!” Said Stephan before shooting it down with a shard of ice. The golem’s core was hit, and as such, the rest of the lava around it fell into a puddle– Hold the fuck on, what type of demon had ICE magic?!

“Ice?” I said, absolutely perplexed.

“Huh? Yea, what about it?” Wha– Huh? How did he not see that as weird? He was a warlock, using the power of demons, who lived on hellworlds from what I knew. Hellworlds didn’t sound like places with a lot of ice, or any ice for matter of fact.

“What demon uses ice?” I said.

“My one? What’s so weird about it?” Ugh, nevermind. We didn’t have the time for this.

“Forget I asked. I think the deeper we go in any direction, the harder the monster’s are gonna be. Would make sense that it would just end with the boss of the dungeon. We just need to keep going now” Everyone else nodded and we kept going deeper. Every now and then, some small monster would show up, and instantly be decimated by Stephan, until a couple more showed up, and a couple more, and eventually groups of monsters started coming together to attack us all at once. A couple of the golems had merged into even more unstable clumps of lava.

“Can you people fill in for me, please?” Said Stephan before stopping his attacks. I rushed in, punching one of the monsters, feeling how hot it actually felt. I didn’t bring my sword because it was at home, but I could manage it if these monsters were low level enough. It didn’t feel that hot, so I grabbed the merged monster and separated it in two before both of them got killed one by one by Bogdan. Some smaller spirits were spit out one golem’s mouth, and I just punched them, using them as target practice. Soon enough, they were all dead, and we moved forward again.

“How the hell are you touching that stuff? It burns like hell!” Said Maria, who briefly touched the lava. “My powers are literally fire related. How are you more tolerant towards heat than me?” So they were definitely much lower level than me. Wait… Does that mean I finally get to show off? To feel good about how much power I have?!

“I guess I’m just that strong.” HELL YEA! NO MORE DEPRESSION FOR ME! I am finally the top dog for once. Bless the gods!

“Hmph.” That was the first scoff I’ve gotten from Maria, I think. I’d have thought she’d done it more often.

“Guess we got nothing to worry about then!” Said Bogdan, a lot more cheerful than before. We kept walking, kept destroying the ever increasing amount of monsters, and kept walking again. Well, until we met a sort of… mini-boss. Ten entire golems had merged together and since everyone else was picking off the smaller golems, I walked towards the mini-boss.

“Uhm, you really wanna take it on? I could just use a spell for it.” Said Stephan.

“Don’t worry. Keep your magic for the actual boss.” I jumped right into the thing, practically swimming through the still very hot lava until I found one core, which I crushed. Then another, and another, and another, and was then spit out by the no longer glued on lava.

“What the fuck–” I barely heard the rest as I jumped right back in, and crushed another, and another, and another, finally stopping as the last one was in my hands while the golem surrounded me, trying to pull my arms apart, but they weren’t strong enough, and I finally crushed the final core. “Mariel!” Bogdan jumped right next to be, pulling the lava off of me despite how hot it was for him.

“Stop.” I said, before jumping away to stop him from injuring himself. I started peeling the lava off myself. “You can’t handle the heat as well as me.” They just watched and whispered as I finished taking the lava off.

“Let’s not do that again, alright? We’re scared for you, bud. There’s no need to injure yourself like that.” He said before coming at me with a health potion, which I reluctantly accepted. I didn’t want to make them worried.