Val and Katya’s journey through the second floor was only marginally more difficult than their trek across the first.

Again, Val was taken aback by the open blue sky, blemished only by what could be described as a hole in the air through which the wide, stone staircase from level one made its way to the surface. Again, the rolling fields of green spread out in all directions, though it was dotted by more and denser groves of tall trees than the floor above.

However, as they entered the second level during the day, Val was able to see wandering creatures, monsters in the common parlance of this world, moving around across the open plain in alone or in small groups. He stopped on the staircase, dizzyingly unsupported by any sort of support beams he could see and lacking in the proper guardrails, and watched the pockets of movement, but was unable to discern anything meaningful from their seemingly random wanderings before Katya hustled him along, calling from below.

In the interest of reaching the third level before nightfall, they avoided any sort of conflict with the monsters themselves, and chose not to wait around for the return of whatever adventurers had left their camp unattended at the base of the staircase. Val had procured maps of almost all the levels down into the two-hundreds, but he did not have the need or chance to pull them from his pack. Katya knew these early levels intimately and led them on an unerring path toward the exit, varying only to avoid scattered tree-men, giant dragonflies and yet another pack of slavering baptet hounds.

Mid-afternoon, they circled wide around a few sets of mismatched, rusted out armour, floating inches above the ground. From a distance, they looked to be warriors wielding ill cared for weaponry, but once they got close enough, Val could see the armour had no inhabitants.

“What are those?” he asked, breaking the silence of the trek for the first time since the staircase.

If he’d been ahead of Katya, instead of trailing behind her, he would have been privy to a legendary eye roll, but since he wasn’t she was forced to respond verbally.

“They’re called Armour Wraiths,” she replied, offering nothing further.

Val nodded to himself.

His research had allowed him to gain some understanding of what enemies lay in wait in the labyrinth, but there was no exhaustive bestiary to be found outside of the annals of the various guilds. Certain information was fiercely guarded, and coveted, by each guild, in order to maintain their advantage when it came to dungeon crawling. Even the maps he’d managed to buy were only made widely available by an ancient royal decree, though they were still prohibitively expensive.

“I haven’t heard of those,” he said, “But I’m sure you’ve defeated a bunch of them, they don’t look like they could stand up to you for long.”

Katya’s head snapped around, though she didn’t stop walking, and she examined his expression for any sign of facetiousness or sarcasm. However, Val had trained his poker face over many years of extracting information from a child who got herself into all sorts of trouble, and the question he had very deliberately not asked was only reinforced by the blank look of only the vaguest interest he had set his face into.

“Because you’re so strong,” he finished, his tone as mild as milk.

Katya turned away, allowing herself a small satisfied smirk. Behind her, Val did the same.

“They’re weaklings,” she started, the smirk carrying through into the tone of her voice, “Supposedly ghosts of dead warriors, but if you died on level two, you can’t have been much of a warrior to begin with.”

Val said nothing, not wanting to interrupt Katya’s flow.

“They’re only dangerous to magic users,” she continued, “Since they're pretty much immune to spells, but if you can knock enough pieces of the armour off them, they just fade out of existence. Even you should be able to beat one, if it comes to it.”

“Good to know,” he offered, studiously not taking offence at her barb, and mentally filed the information away.

They continued along their way, leaving the floating armour behind them.

—

After another hour of walking, the wandering groups of monsters had started to thin, so they headed toward the staircase that would lead them to level three without much deviation from their path.

Occasionally, they passed a burnt out campfire or some discarded item that told Val they were on a well-travelled route, even if it weren’t for the long swathes of flattened grass and worn earth. He had heard that even the major guilds blooded their new recruits between levels one and fifteen, so seeing evidence of other travellers, some in very large groups, did not surprise him. He kept an eye on the items as they passed though, aware that he could not forgo any opportunity to acquire a useful supply, however minor.

He was exceptionally well equipped and appointed for his level, but only by a solo traveller’s standards. Compared to what a large group from a well-heeled guild would bring into the dungeon, what they considered trash might be a treasure.

Katya stopped suddenly and put up her hand, and Val halted in his tracks. Without turning, she crouched slightly and gestured him forward. He tiptoed up to join her.

He followed Katya’s gaze away from their path to a pair of fat pigs, hovering gently above the earth on tiny butterfly wings. Val almost laughed at the sight of the butterswine, a name that had also made him crack up when he’d heard it the first time, defying the laws of physics by snuffling in the grass while suspended from their languidly beating appendages. Another quirk of this world, he imagined, because now he’d seen it in person he knew there was no way that there wasn’t some magic involved in keeping them afloat.

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

He looked back to Katya, smiling broadly, but her own expression was that of a predator. Her eyes were locked on hungrily, and to Val she looked just short of starting to drool.

“Uhh…” he muttered.

“Have you ever had butterswine meat before?” she asked him, not breaking eye contact with the animals.

Val scoffed, quietly.

“Too rich for my blood,” he said.

Katya nodded.

“Is it good?” he asked.

Katya nodded again.

“You don’t normally find them this high in the labyrinth,” she whispered, “And never this close to the common paths. They must have wandered up from below.”

She shook herself free of whatever hypnotic trance the lust for butterpork had placed her under and looked over at him.

“Let’s get them,” she said, decisive.

“I thought we were in a hurry,” Val responded, “Didn’t you want to reach the stairs by sunset?”

Katya looked back at the pigs, now greedily devouring clover flowers from a patch they’d discovered.

“It won’t take long,” she told him, “They’re hard to find, but they’re weak.”

“How weak?” Val asked.

“Very,” she said, “Even for this level.”

Val made a thoughtful face.

“Okay,” he told her, “Let me fight them.”

Katya turned and looked at him like he was an idiot.

“Are you serious?” she asked him.

“Yeah, I am.”

Val looked from Katya to the pigs. They certainly didn’t look like much of a threat, but he hadn’t fought anything in this world up to this point, if you discounted his technical victory over Amir the night before.

“Val, I can kill them in a heartbeat,” she said, “And we can get out of here.”

“There’s got to be more to my ‘Daddy’ class than terrible stats and, like you said, I’m never going to find out if I don’t fight something,” Val told her, “This way, we'll at least get a meal out of it.”

Katya’s expression soured. She wasn’t into the idea; but, he wasn’t wrong. She nodded, then glanced pointedly toward one of the hammers on his belt.

“They’re weak against lightning attacks,” she said, “Just make it quick.”

With that, she turned back to watch the butterswine, effectively ending their discussion.

“And don’t let them fly off on you,” she added.

Val took the implicit dismissal and stood up straight, sliding the hammer Katya had indicated, covered in sharp, angular runes, from his belt. He started toward the flying pigs, keeping an even pace, and switched the hammer to his right hand, letting it hang loose in his grip.

As he approached, he became acutely aware that, by Earth standards, these pigs were enormous. Each was easily the size of a fully grown show sow, though at least they were soft and pink, domesticated looking and lacking in the tusks he associated with the wilder variant from his own world. He tried to latch onto the small boost of confidence that gave him.

He glanced back at Katya and she shooed him along, her face impatient.

Val turned back to the pigs and frowned.

Good lord, he thought, is this girl entirely motivated by her stomach?

No that he could be mad about that, seeing it was the only reason he had her as escort for this part of his journey.

He was only a few steps away when the butterswine noticed him. He had kept his body stance neutral, trying not to spook them, but they looked up simultaneously, clocking his approach. and he froze. For a few seconds, they eyed each other off in uncomfortable silence. Val, with a thought, activated the lightning spell in the hammer, flinching as the energy release sent a tremor up his arm.

In response, both pigs squealed and launched themselves toward Val. If he was impressed by their ability to hover gently in the air despite the seeming mismatch between their builds and their wings, and he was, that admiration turned to terror when both of the animals tore towards him with the speed and ferocity of a pair of falcons descending on their prey. Val instinctively threw himself backwards as the butterswine converged on him, swinging the hammer in a wide downwards arc that glanced off the thick skull of the closest creature. The lightning spell discharged from the hammer and the swine flew past Val, crashing into the ground behind him.

Before he could bring the hammer back up, or chamber another charge, the second butterswine was already on top of him, hammering into his chest and sending him tumbling back toward its sizzling partner. The pig swept up into the air after impact, demonstrating even more impressive aeronautical skill by twirling and looping up and away from Val. Val sprung up to his feet, his lungs screaming as he tried to suck a breath into a ribcage that was bruised, if not broken.

The swine to his left squealed as the lightning spell shocked it again, discharging every few seconds with high level electric magic, doing levels of damage that Val could not even dream of matching with a blow from his hammer. Val watched the pig above him loop and circle, and sparked the hammer in his hand to life again. He spread his feet wide, staying open, trying to be ready to move when the pig moved on him again, watching it sway and twirl.

Val saw the butterswine bounce upward and tilt forward, ready to dive upon him, and he broke left, charging towards the downed pig, swinging the hammer backwards. The flying swine dove toward where he was, adjusting its course mid-flight and tearing towards Val as he reached the first pig and brought the sparking hammer down on it again. The two lightning spells redoubled upon themselves, increasing in both intensity and frequency and sending the pig into another squealing fit. Val brought the hammer up again and activated it a third time, spinning around to face the approaching foe, but it was already upon him.

The pig smashed into Val square on, sending the hammer flying from his hand and his body flying over and far from the downed pig, just as it shattered into motes of red energy. Val hit the ground hard, rolling and tumbling away from the butterswine. Val slid to a stop, laying on his stomach, and lifted his head to watch the remaining butterswine twist in the air. His vision swam and narrowed and he fell forward onto his face, clawing at the dirt as he tried to get his hands underneath him.

He managed to pull himself up just enough to see the pig shoot upward, lining itself up to divebomb him again. Val strained his muscles, trying desperately to push himself away from the earth, but, unable to draw in even half a breath, his body resisted.

The pig dove toward him, but a red and silver flash cut across his fading vision.

The butterswine squealed and shattered apart in mid air, and Val passed out.