With the pup hidden in my backpack, I advance down the dungeon corridor. I haven't taken ten steps when one of those popup windows appears before me.

Analyzing subject... Analyzing... Calibrating power levels...

I stop, puzzled. The wolf pup, poking its head out from the top of the backpack’s pocket, barks.

"Shhh," I scold it.

Last thing I need is to attract every living monster in the area.

Since it barks again, I take it in my arms, that calms it down.

The screen keeps flashing with the same phrase, calibrating power levels, for almost a minute.

Traveler from another world, select difficulty level.

Available levels: hardworking, hard, insanity.

Difficulty level determines reward level: generous, abundant, brutal.

"Great," I whisper ironically instead of thinking to myself, since my voice seems to calm the pup, which has stopped barking. "No easy level or tutorial. Well, obviously the lowest difficulty, I'm not crazy. I'm not going to die here."

I stretch out my hand to select hardworking and hesitate at the last moment. Because... do I really have to select something? If I don't maybe I can just turn around and leave the way I came in. The other dungeon was for newbies and I'm little more than a newbie in terms of my level, another thing is the magic I possess. If this one has much higher difficulty, I don't think I can do it even on hardworking level. On the other hand, that thing about calibrating, could it be that it analyzed me and hardworking would present a challenge for me? That is, could it be one of those dungeons that adapts to the player's level. Hmm... I don't know what to do. If this were a game I would've already picked hardworking, but if I die nothing guarantees I'll return to my body on Earth, it could be the end. It wouldn't be so terrible to fail the academy exam, right? A quiet noble life and that's it. I could look for other dungeons, ones whose level I knew, and keep leveling up at my own pace. Maybe they'd let me take the exam another year. Yeah... the idea of not choosing is becoming more tempting. I start moving my hand to withdraw it when the wolf pup squirms in my other arm and launches itself at my forearm, making that hand that's near the popup window give a swat, right to the right, touching where it says insanity.

Insanity level selected.

What? Damn seed of evil pup, what have you done?

I let out a couple of curses to vent. My heart's racing and I feel afraid. Terrified.

"We're dead," I state the obvious out loud while looking at the little creature that with an innocent face climbs onto my shoulder and gets into the backpack pocket I'm wearing.

"Dead."

The dungeon rules are simple. Survive its three levels to obtain the reward. The dungeon can only be abandoned with a special return stone for this dungeon. Good luck.

"Luck?" I snort.

Not even with luck can I clear an insanity level.

Angry, I take off my backpack and hold it with my hands near my face, to glare at the black wolf pup's head.

"You pull something like this again and we're done."

For all response, it sticks out its tongue and licks my cheek.

Well no.

Its adorable tricks aren't going to soften me up this time. I tell it seriously. And that's assuming a miracle happens and we survive. I put the backpack back on and, carefully trying not to make too much noise, sword in hand, advance down the corridor.

_______

As I walk slowly, I start hearing a sound, a tapping, ahead. It gets louder and louder. I stop. I identify metallic sounds, like metal hitting metal and something hard. I look ahead of me. I only see the walls which are made of stone. Not polished slabs but irregular and rough blocks as if they'd been excavated from rock with a pickaxe. There are torches distributed every so often, casting light. When whatever's approaching enters one of the lit areas, I see it's a skeleton, bones held together by bluish magic instead of cartilage and tendons. I guess it's magic, as it's a glow of that color what seems to sustain the creature, allowing it to stand and move instead of being a pile of whitish bones. In its eye sockets burn two spheres of more intense blue, like flames that move but don't crackle. It's wearing pieces of metal armor that clank as it walks, hitting each other or the bones. In one hand it carries a rusted sword and in the other a small shield, a buckler, that it uses for cover. It approaches quite slowly. I have plenty of time to analyze it while it comes and, to my surprise, as I scrutinize it, I see letters appear above its head:

Skeleton Warrior, Level 3.

Looks like now I can see what my enemies are, like in video games. I wonder if it's something about the dungeon or a new passive skill I have now. In any case, I'd love to have a mace. Against skeletons that's best. Determined to use my sword to hit with the flat of the blade instead of trying to cut with the edge, I take a deep breath and run toward the creature. It fixes those malicious blue orbs from its eye sockets on me and opens its jaw in a silent scream. It tries to cover my blow to its head with the buckler but it's slow, very slow, so slow that it's no trouble to change trajectory and go for its rib cage instead of its skull. There's a dry sound of my steel against its ribs, which shatter into splinters. Like a proper undead, it ignores its missing bones and keeps fighting. I quickly withdraw to avoid the thrust it launches at my side. I take advantage of it just lowering its guard to give it one to the head, with the flat part of the blade, which while this time doesn't break bone does seem to hurt it, as it stays like stunned. I don't even think about it, it doesn't cross my mind that it could be a trick to catch me by surprise. I start hitting it savagely until I burst its skull. Then yes, the blue flames of its magic go out and like a broken doll its parts collapse to the ground. I crouch and pick up its shield. I don't know how to use it but maybe it'll be useful, so I grab it with my left hand.

"That wasn't so bad," I mutter.

Instantly regret my words. I hear the same sound the skeleton had made when approaching, only much louder.

I prepare myself.

When they approach one of the torches, I see there are four.

I let out a not-very-nice curse and go for them. I don't want to use magic; I have few spells and prefer to save them for when I have no choice. So with my sword and shield I get into a fight too close for my taste. They're slow, very slow, and that's the only advantage I have over them. I go quickly for one, hit it and run back. I can't let them trap me between several. My strategy works until fatigue and pain in my arms start taking their toll.

I've managed to eliminate two of the skeletons and decide to stop sprinting and jumping to dodge because I've been out of breath for a few minutes now. I stop and wait for them. Let them come. I block the sword strike from the one on my left with the buckler and with my sword deflect the blow from the one on the right. Madness. My shoulders and arms hurt and I don't know how to fight. I'm going on instinct more than anything else, I'm sure if I could see myself from outside I'd raise an eyebrow at how uncoordinated my movements must be. However, they're slow and that saves me. I manage to defeat them, not without ending up with a cut on my side. It's not very deep and in my backpack I have an alcoholic bottle that smells similar to Earth's cognac. I brought it for this, to use as disinfectant. I wrinkle my brow and hold back the urge to scream, because it hurts. Then I bandage it. I check my sheet. I've lost one health point. I'm going to save my healing spell as long as I can.

The pup licks my face, taking advantage of me leaving the backpack on the ground and being crouched down. I sigh and resign myself. This dungeon is clearly not an easy one with slimes. If this is just the beginning, I'm more and more certain that either I find the exit stone or I'm dead.

"And it's all your fault," I whisper to the little wolf.

I stand up, put the backpack on, ignore the pain in my side when walking and continue. I haven't taken three steps when I stop again.

"You're an idiot," I mutter, berating myself.

I can't just advance like this. What's next? Eight skeletons? Sixteen? I couldn't even handle four.

I review my spells: minor fire bolt, minor wind blade, minor channeling. Minor water breathing which isn't very useful right now and earth control, which with such a small volume doesn't help much. Well, and minor healing.

Neither fire bolt nor wind blade have penetration, so they'll only damage one target. I have to save them for some more powerful enemy, like the dungeon boss. Channeling sounds great, to give more defense to my body or more damage to the sword. The problem is it doesn't last more than a minute.

Something occurs to me, it's crazy but it might work. I open my sheet and, regretfully, choose the runner skill. It's the one I'm least interested in but it raises my agility by one point and I'll run faster. Also, with great pain I raise those three free attribute points I was saving, spending them on agility. Then, I wait until I hear the skeleton footsteps again. This time there are seven. When they're close, I run toward them with the buckler in front. I dodge those in the front line, slipping between them while thanking the corridor's width. The ones in the middle don't react and I also slip between two. However, I have one of the back ones in front of me, blocking my path. I push it with the shield and manage not to fall. I run leaving them all behind. Don't even turn to see how they turn around and come after me. I advance, slowing down, and see there are some kind of small balconies in the stone walls ahead. I speed up. Good thing I did, several arrows pass close to me. Skeleton Archers, also level 3. Worst of all, I'm approaching the next group of skeleton warriors. My tactic doesn't change, dodge them. I just hope I don't take an arrow while doing it. Somehow, I still don't know how, I get into the warrior group and zigzag between them. The archers, once I mix with their allies, stop shooting. With my heart beating a thousand times per minute and forgetting fatigue thanks to adrenaline doping, I come out successful. I don't know how many there are, but definitely more than before. I accelerate. I don't run straight, or I'll eat an arrow. I keep running. After a hundred meters there are no more archer skeletons. After two hundred the path is cut off by a wall.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I stop, exhausted. I hit it with my sword's pommel. Though I don't know how to tell when a wall is solid or hollow. I close my eyes for a moment, I don't have time for this. It's two waves of skeletons coming after me; hopefully the archers are still in their balconies. The first wave is close. I haven't achieved my goal of reaching the dungeon's next level and leaving the enemies behind. Well, what's called rushing a dungeon. My other option, grouping them all and then using channeling, doesn't seem feasible either because it would mean going back through this group and getting hit by all of them halfway, and there are archers there.

I check my experience bar. Still need more to level up. Maybe I'll get it with the first wave, but I've already experienced that I don't recover strength or mana when I do. I don't heal either.

I catch my breath as much as I can while they approach and, before they arrive, I throw a fire bolt at one. The creature, slow to react, doesn't manage to dodge it. A quick small arrow flies from my fingers toward its forehead bone. It sticks there and the creature bursts into magical flames. After a few seconds it dies. Yes! They're vulnerable to fire magic, like in the otome. I activate channeling. Spend two mana points, three left. I enhance my sword with fire and wait for them to finish arriving. Back against the wall, I make arcs with my weapon that keep them at bay and, whoever gets too close, I hit with the edge. It's not blunt damage, I don't cut the bone, but I do apply magical fire damage and it devours them. It takes longer than when the bolt hit, I guess because of the direct damage the arrow did, but they all end up falling before me. I barely get a small break before the other group arrives. Better. Because my channeling doesn't have much time left. I manage to defeat them. The magical fire goes out when there are still three left. I'm missing two more health points, from hits they've landed. Back to using the flat of my blade as a mace and fighting. I'm tired, feeling the pain more and more, but I'm not going to let myself be killed. Then, while I finish one off by destabilizing it with a kick that sweeps its only remaining leg and crushing its skull with my boot, I feel a sharp pain in my back and neck.

The damage received would have lowered your life below one point. The Greater Protection Necklace activates. You are at 5 health points.

I swat away the window while regaining my back-against-wall position that I lost without realizing. Two, I have two enemies left. If not for the item, I'd be dead already. A blind rage invades me and I finish them off pulling energy from places I didn't know I had stored. It ends. Everything ends. I close my eyes for an instant. I realize I no longer hear the metallic and bone clanking of their steps. Besides having defeated both waves.

Exhausted, the adrenaline leaves me and I let my back slide down the wall until I end up sitting on the floor.

A couple of minutes pass. I hear a whimper. I frown and take off my backpack. The pup looks at me complainingly. I think I hurt it somehow during those times I crushed my back against the wall. I pet it and examine it, seems to be fine. Then I check my sheet, I've leveled up. However, although I just got a notification of said level up, there's none about being able to go to the dungeon's second floor. No door or access has opened either. I guess I have to deal with the archers.

Bianca L'Crom

Race: Human

Age: 17

Level: 5

Constitution: 6

Strength: 2

Intelligence: 3

Agility: 5 + 1

Wisdom: 6

HP: 5

MP: 3

Magic Affinities: Earth, Water, Fire, Air, Spirit, Light

Skills: Runner

Spells: Earth Control - Beginner Level. Minor Water Breathing. Minor Fire Bolt. Minor Wind Blade. Minor Healing. Minor Channeling.

The pup is quiet. It can clearly smell how pissed off I am. If not for it, I would have tried to leave the dungeon and, if that hadn't been possible, would have selected the lowest difficulty level. Like this... A fucking insanity.

I look at my sheet. I have one free attribute point to place. Saving it is not an option. Dying seems certain, so I have to burn all my cartridges. The plan is this: finish off those skeletons and then rest, eat something and sleep in this level before moving to the next one, to recover my mana that way. Right now I have three points. One is clearly for a healing spell, since the necklace that saved my life is on cooldown. The other two are for fighting.

If earth magic moved more volume, I could try crushing those skeletons inside their balconies, but that's not the case. Channeling is again my best option. With fire I'd kill them quickly, with earth I'd raise my defense and maybe could survive the arrow shots to the back that I'll undoubtedly take when I try to kill any of those skeletons with my sword. I didn't see them very well, was too busy running for my life. Couldn't say how many there were; without doubt, many. Well, I'm going to tie the buckler to my back, to cover neck and head, with how small it is it won't do for more. I take a rope from my backpack and get to it. The pup stays quiet. Next, I look at my sheet again. The problem won't be killing the archers, it'll be surviving the arrows from the others while I do it. Those balconies are separated by several meters on both sides of the wide corridor. If for example I start with the closest one on the right, I'll get shot by the next one on the right and two on the left. The others I don't think have range. I have five of six health points. I need to raise my defense, which I'll do with spirit channeling using earth element, and my health. I move my finger toward constitution and hesitate. If I raise wisdom it will increase my mana and if I raise intelligence the damage or, in this case, what channeling protects me. I'm going to assume this works like in the game, since everything I've been able to see so far is that way. So, I can raise my health by one point, raise my mana by one point or increase what that channeling does, as it simulates a stone skin spell that protects me. If I manage to take one point off the damage those arrows do me, it'll be easier to survive. Especially if, as I think, right now an arrow only takes one point unless they crit; at least that's what it took before.

I decide.

I choose intelligence.

"You're going to stay here, I can't protect you," I tell the little wolf while taking it out of the backpack and leaving it in a corner.

It stays quiet, looks at the ground, stays still.

"Good."

I put the backpack on again, since it will protect me somewhat, and approach slowly. As soon as I see the two closest archers, one from each wall, place an arrow and start drawing their bows, I take a step back. Their arrows don't reach me, I'm barely out of range. I spend two of my three mana points and activate the spell. It is not able to cover my entire body, so I apply it to my back and the back and sides of my legs. I feel like a warm energy runs through me and see a brownish glow on my skin. Perfect. 60 seconds. I run toward the archer on the left.

At the last moment, I jump to the side to dodge the point-blank arrow he just shot at me. I think I got lucky and dodged a couple more with the movement. I go for him, sword in hand. In close combat he's as slow as the skeleton warriors and much easier to kill, since he only has his bow to block the hits from the flat of my sword. Three impacts push me forward, throwing me against him. Three arrows that hit the buckler, the backpack and my kidneys. None takes health points from me. As for my hit, it lands on his skull, cracking it. The next one splits it into several pieces while bone shards fly. Then I grab his bow to break it in two. I might have taken his head off but I don't trust he won't keep shooting if I go for his companion across, since the bones of his body haven't collapsed yet. Despite being wood and looking somewhat flimsy, I don't have the strength to break it. Several more arrows hit me. One of them, from the one peeking from the balcony on this same wall, gets me in the side of my leg. It's critical, takes one health point from me. If it had hit me in the face... I realize that kind of arrow shot could kill me instantly, with or without stone skin. I raise my sword and destroy one of the skeleton's arms. That way it can't shoot. I run to the one across, I'll finish it off later if it's still alive.

Like this, one by one, carefully getting well inside each balcony so the skeleton next door doesn't have a side shot at my head, I keep finishing them all off. I thank the buckler, which stops hits that otherwise would have executed me. There are fourteen. I finish eleven during that minute and the remaining three without the extra protection from channeling, but I manage it.

I'm bleeding, with an injured leg and an arm disabled—not the sword one—and exhausted. I ignore the popup window that appears, remove the arrow I have stuck above my elbow, in the triceps muscle, and also the ones from my back and my leg. Immediately cast healing. My wounds close, the bleeding stops. I can move my arm again. Then yes, I look at the message:

You have just completed the dungeon's first level. The stairs to the second floor have just opened.

That's it? No loot, no treasure, nothing?

Because none of the skeletons dropped any items. I look at the balconies. The archers are like piles of bones stacked without trace of that blue energy that held them together and animated them. There are no chests or any hint of a secret room full of my reward. This difficulty level was supposed to have the best loot. But it's insanity level. If they gave me equipment and health potions now, wouldn't that make it easier?

Because the other times I cleaned the newbie dungeon, they only gave me small jewels like rings, no magical equipment or potions.

"Damn seed of evil," I mutter between my teeth.

I return to where the mentioned one is, in the corner where I left it, only it's not a corner anymore because where there was a wall before there are now spiral stairs descending. They have torches. I peek over, several meters below I can see floor.

Perfect.

I'm not going down until I eat, sleep and recover my mana, which right now is zero.

As for my level, I haven't leveled up again. In the otome you needed many experience points for that. Maximum level is twenty. I had to clear a newbie dungeon several times to reach four. The experience needed to level up doesn't just double each level, it increases exponentially. That's why, I know they must have given me tons of experience from the skeleton warriors to be able to reach level four. I guess that, with insanity difficulty, they also give you more points. These archers have only filled my experience bar thirty percent. Well, I shouldn't say only, it's a lot for fourteen enemies.

I sit on the floor, look at my arrow-riddled backpack that, thanks to my tough skin, didn't get me injured. I remove them. My water skin is punctured, I drink what little remains before it spills. The food, bread, cheese and some kind of raw bacon strips, is edible. A bit beaten up and full of holes, but edible. I take a big bite and plan my next steps while chewing. With my six mana points recovered, I should be able to clear enough of the second level to level up again. At level seven they offer specialization and new skills and spells. My goal is to find the return stone. If I can secure a place to rest and recover mana again, even better. I'm in no hurry, I prefer to face a scolding from the steward for being gone several days without notice than end up dead. The pup is looking at me, puts one of its tiny paws on my leg. It's clear what it's asking for.

"Here, but don't get used to it because I'm still mad at you," I give it some of the bacon.

It eagerly takes it from my hand.

We finish eating, not much since I don't know how long we'll be trapped in the dungeon, and I pack everything away. Then I look for a place to lie down to sleep. I'm getting comfortable with the backpack under my head when another notification appears.

Warning. The dungeon's first floor is going to close. Proceed down the stairs if you don't want to end up crushed. Time remaining: 10 seconds.

"What?"

The pup barks at noticing my startled jump.

9.

The ground starts shaking.

8.

"Fucking hell, I curse my luck for finding this wolf!"

I grab the backpack and run toward the nearby stairs.

7.

8.

9.

I start hearing collapse noises.

But there are still seconds left!

I throw myself down. The pup has grabbed onto my leg and comes along as a stowaway.

2.

I keep going down.

1.

A deafening crash sounds above my head. The entire upper floor is collapsing. I speed up so much that I trip on the last steps and end up falling face-first on the floor. It hurts, but doesn't lower my health. I look up scared, anticipating all the earth and debris that's going to fall on me. But it's not like that. There's like an invisible barrier that prevents the rubble from entering through the stairwell. I pick up the pup, which has its teeth clamped on my right boot, and hug it. I thought we weren't going to make it. Carefully and just in case, I move away from the stairwell. Instantly, it disappears, replaced by a stone wall.

"Well, welcome to the second level of hell," I mutter to myself.

The seed raises its head from between my arms and licks my face.

Screwed, I'm screwed. Zero mana points and I highly doubt they'll let me sleep here. This, without doubt, is the fucking end.