I bolted upright, gasping for air. An orange glow illuminated the room. Darya was peeking through the open door. It took a moment for me to process what happened. The light was coming right over my head, from my horns. I checked the time. It was exactly midnight.

“Let’s not waste a minute,” I said, hopping out of bed. “We’re on the clock here.”

Darya yawned, wiped the sleep out of her eyes. She picked up the first dungeon orb in a row and opened the portal to a [t1] Flooded Lair.

Thanks to all the bugs I’d killed, I had fifteen [t1] dungeon orbs. Three Tropical Islands, four Arid Canyons, two Whispering Bogs, and six Flooded Lairs. Each tier of void dungeons had only four variations, and this would be the fourth variation I hadn’t seen yet. Darya didn’t mind which one we did, as long as it wasn’t the [t2] Jungle with the damned snakes.

Darya followed me as I stepped through the portal into a dark, cavernous scene. Murky water filled the chambers, yet passages were left to get through and around without having to get wet. In their depths, shadows lurked, concealing unseen dangers. Echoes of distant currents and sloshing water reverberated against the rough, slate walls.

Despite any obvious sources of light, the terrain was lit by moonlight, casting ethereal beams. The place was a lot like a maze, but thankfully I had [Cartographer] to rely on. Which, coincidentally, ranked up as soon as I entered this new dungeon for the first time.

[Cartographer profession has been upgraded. Resource layer added to the global map.]

I opened the larger map to take a look, but nothing new had showed up. I figured it would be useful outside the Void. Maybe it would show locations of valuable herbs, ores or gems? Or better yet, the deadly webcaps. I was eager to find out, but first I had dungeon bosses to kill.

The regular monsters looked just like the lizards I had killed in the swamp. They sat in clumps by the subterranean pools, clacking their jaws and hissing.

* [t1] Merman [Gray]

For a change, I decided to spare a minute to kill some regular monsters to gather a few power crystals for my wands.

“Follow me and shoot down into the chambers at the sides to draw them after us,” I told Darya. “We’ll gather up a crowd of em.”

Darya furrowed her brows. “Are you sure about that?”

“Oh yeah, won’t be a problem.”

Darya hesitated for a moment, but did as I asked. We dashed ahead, only stopping for a moment so she could shoot. The Merman growled and bolted after us, and soon we had a crowd chasing us, shoving each other as they ran.

We reached a chamber just before the boss, and I turned to face the oncoming mob. Some thirty mermen were screeching, and hollering. With a grin, I unsheathed my new Swift Ivory wands and thumbed the power crystals.

Ten bolts flew out, crashing into their midst, ‘Experience gained’ messages scrolled past. Ivory type wands with five projectile bursts were just perfect for clearing out the small fry in large numbers. I shot again and again, killing the rest except for a couple of stragglers.

I had left the spear in my room, as it was too bulky to carry around if I was going to use wands. Instead, I [Leaped] into their midst, crushing one under my feet, while hacking down the other one with my hatchet. In less than a minute I turned the mermen to sushi, and their remains vanished taking their stench with them.

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

We collected nine minor power crystals and moved on to tackle the boss. In the large chamber toward the back of the dungeon was a deep pool of water. Bulbous eyes peered above the water's surface like curious orbs. They moved, silently advancing, and soon a colossal toad emerged from the murky pond. Its warty skin glistened with a slimy sheen. The creature's throat expanded as it let out a low croak that reverberated through the cavern.

* [t2] War Toad [Green]

“Let me try it myself,” Darya said.

“Are you sure about that?” I asked.

“No, but I always wanted to.”

“Alright, but run to me if you need help, I’ll drop some traps.”

Wands in hand, I was ready to [Leap] into action if things went bad. The War Toad chamber was spacious, and had room to run circles around it, however, Darya decided to shoot the toad in the face, and we retreated back the way we came in. The toad came bounding after us and we kept moving back. Darya treated the boss like a pin cushion, sending arrow after arrow into it.

I didn’t mind that we were spending a little extra time to kill this boss if it meant that Darya would gain confidence and experience in putting down tougher opponents. And she didn’t disappoint. Within half a minute, the toad had slowed from all the venomous shots she had put into it. It crawled after her like a lethargic slug, and I felt sorry for it.

While watching Darya with one eye, I had my status screen open. I had gotten a taste for [Leap] and felt that it needed an upgrade.

* [t2] Leap [Movement]

* Upgrades:

* Mana cost: -20% mana, 1 Skill Point

* Distance: +1 yard, 1 Skill Point

* Cooldown: -0.3 seconds, 1 Skill Point

I had six skill points to use and decided to upgrade its distance twice by another two yards. The skill had proved to be incredible not only in moving rapidly so as to flee, or to close the distance, but also offensively to crush things under my feet.

* [t2] Telekinesis [Duration]

* Upgrades:

* Mana cost: -20% mana, 1 Skill Point

* Force: +20%, 1 Skill Point

* Range: +20%, 1 Skill Point

* Limit: +1, 2 Skill Points

I also decided to upgrade Telekinesis, because I felt it had untapped potential once it was fully upgraded. So, I upgraded the Force option twice, increasing it by 40%, from the base value of 8 lbf, to 11.2 lbf -- which didn’t seem much. However, thanks to my massive Will attribute under the effect of [Measured Savagery] that 11.2 turned to a whopping 97 pounds of force.

***

The 65,808th iteration of The Keeper of the Void peered into the Void, puzzled at what it was seeing. An anomaly. It wasn’t often that its attention was brought down to such a low tier instance -- the lowest in fact.

It wasn’t the peculiar timing right at 0:00 -- it’d seen that many times before, nor was it the tactic of only killing the boss that caught its notice. Such a tactic was a bothersome thing which it tried to ignore. He frowned upon such wasteful behavior. It took a great deal of energy to condense the void into the constructs, to manifest intelligence, and give it will. It was a shame to discard all that after it had come to existence for mere minutes, seconds even.

But what could it do? Quite a bit actually -- if it wanted to.

It had seen many lifeforms come and go in its domain, but this one was new to it. The sheer amalgamation of this .. creature. He wasn’t born this way, was he? No, in fact he wasn’t born at all. But made outside the Void?

How?!

Curiosity got the best of this Keeper.