Crawling into the dragon turtle’s head was worse than Owin had expected. It reminded him of the ocular guard he had ended up inside back in the Great Forest, only with significantly more blood. The ocean water had rushed inside, stirring the viscera into a cloudy mixture. He felt around until he felt something metal and yanked it out, only causing more blood to somehow flow into the small cavern.

By the time he was back out, chunks of brain clung to his skin, even as the ocean water washed away the blood. Shade moved away as Owin jumped back to the ground, and after a moment of waving away some of the cloudy water, Shade cautiously picked some brain chunks from Owin’s helmet, flicking them toward the boundary wall.

“Truly disgusting. Do you see why I didn’t want to crawl inside? What would I look like now if I had done that? Can you imagine? Oh, the filth.”

“I would’ve unsummoned you.”

“What if the mess ended up in my box? What then, Owin? What would I do with such a mess in my box? There is very little room, you know. A chunk of brain could take up half my space!”

Owin shook his head, which worked some chunks out of his ears. “I already got the sword. Can you just put it away?” He held it out and shook it until Shade took the weapon.

“If you had longer arms—”

“I know.”

8:20

“We still have a long time to go before the portal opens.” Owin wiped another chunk of brain from the end of his nose. “Can we get moving?”

“You seem annoyed.” Shade crouched beside him. “Are you annoyed?”

“Of you.”

The skeleton put his arm around Owin’s shoulder. “You know, this reminds of a time when you used to unsummon me, putting me back in my box, just because I talked too much.”

“Shade, that was like two floors ago.”

“I believe it was three, actually, but still to my point. I—” The Incandescent Blade fell to the ocean floor.

Summon the Withered Shade

The gray cloud of dust beside Owin slowly spread into the water, mixing with the blood. It was silent, and for a moment, that peace was welcomed.

But only a moment.

Summon the Withered Shade

Shade squatted beside Owin, grabbed the blade, and slid it into the sheath. “Want to go murder another boss?”

“Yeah.” They walked the opposite direction, heading toward the next boss, before Owin stopped. “Should we grab the battery?”

“Uh . . .” Shade looked back at the dragon turtle corpse. “Maybe? What would you use it for? Bringing something the quest needs when you don’t intend to use it is asking for the quest to go wrong. Right? Why would you bring it right to them if they need it and you don’t want them to use it?”

Owin shrugged. “I saw a demon fix Myrsvai’s leg with some mana batteries before.”

“If they don’t disappear after this floor, they could definitely be helpful. I don’t know if they would stick around or not, but the way to find out would be to shove them into your bag and hope.” Shade peeled back one side of the bag at Owin’s side. “Imagine how much less room you would have if I hadn’t used all those health potions.”

“I’m still not happy about that.” Owin grabbed the skeleton’s arm and dragged him toward the boss’s corpse. “Go grab the battery while I check for loot.”

“How are you going to do that?”

Owin shrugged again. He hadn’t figured it out. Lifting the massive corpse wasn’t an option at his current strength. Maybe picking up a small part of it would be enough for something to fall out.

Shade slowly inched around the face of the turtle, poking it a few times and flinching back each time, before finally running toward the chest.

Lifting even one arm of the turtle proved to be nearly impossible. With both hands, Owin managed to get it off the ground, but not high enough to look beneath it. He tried again on the edge of the shell, but it was too tall and he couldn’t get higher, even if he was strong enough.

Shade ran back over with the mana battery shoved into his ribcage.

“This won’t explode, will it?”

“Explode?” Shade looked at his ribs. “Oh, like before when I almost killed everyone.” He knocked his knuckles against his ribs. “I don’t think so. I would, maybe, recommend keeping your distance.”

“I have an idea.”

Shade took a step back. “Does it involve me exploding?”

“What if you left that in your box and I immediately summoned you back?

Shade squinted, causing his eye sockets to unnaturally narrow. “Using it as a storage? Hm.” He shook until it dropped from his ribs and into his hands. “It’s possible, I believe. In the past, I spent a lot of time in there even when there was a master of my bones.”

“I don’t plan on keeping you in there at all.”

“We can try it.”

Summon the Withered Shade

Summon the Withered Shade

Shade appeared with his hands still outstretched, but they were empty. He looked around and shoved his fingers into his ribs. “No sign of a mana ball. A ball of mana. I left my ball in the box.” He took a big step toward Owin. “You know, if we put too much in there and I die, I’ll be really squished.”

“What would happen if the box was full when you appeared?”

“Discomfort, I assume. A new way to prove I am the most flexible being in existence, perhaps? A reshaping of my bones? A—”

“Okay, I get it.”

Shade looked at Owin’s hands and checked inside his bag again. “Did you find any loot? A big turtle has to have something.”

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“No. It’s too heavy.”

Shade strode over to the turtle and gestured at its mouth.

“What about it?”

“Every mob has a way to loot it. Even Sloswen isn’t mean enough to stop you from looting a boss.” Shade flinched, looked at the surface, and shrugged. “Apparently he agrees.”

Opening the turtle’s mouth wasn’t an easy feat either, but with some “help” from Shade, Owin managed to crack it open wide enough to crawl inside. The skeleton stuck his own head inside to stop the jaw from snapping shut. It crunched and caused cracks to slither over his skull.

The turtle’s tongue squished under Owin’s boots. Surprisingly, Shade was right. There was something near the back of the turtle’s mouth.

“Is that a good idea?” Owin asked.

“I would say this is about one of the worst things a mortal could do, but . . . prepare yourself for a surprise. I’m immortal!” The jaw snapped shut, crushing Shade’s skull and sending a puff of gray dust into the water before all light disappeared.

Summon the Withered Shade

“Well.” Shade flailed in the dark, smacking Owin in the face. “Oh, there you are.”

“Do you need light to see? You don’t even have eyes.”

“Ah. You’re right.”

Shade’s footsteps audibly squished on the tongue as he walked farther in. “I can grab this. You just focus on getting out.”

Using his strength to open the mouth again was easy enough, but he would have to stand still to keep it open, which would make escaping difficult. What would Myrsvai do? He would just blast it open with some spell.

“Oh.” Owin took a step and punched. The turtle’s lower lip gave a little from the strike. Another punch caused something to crack. Owin let a flurry of blows strike the lip until it shattered, letting light pour in.

Shade appeared directly beside him. He yelped and jumped to the side.

“Don’t do that!”

“I was standing there the whole time. Here.” Shade held a dull red gem.

Empty Minor Charge Gem

Collect magic of one type to power an item or entity.

Note: Collecting more than one type of magic will cause the gem to explode

Note: Charge gems will shine when fully powered

“I’ve never heard of a charge gem before.” Owin slipped it into his bag. “Do you know about them?”

“Vaguely. Alchemists can fit them inside items to let the thing recharge itself. It’s a whole confusing process I never really learned.” He shrugged. “They probably have other uses too.”

“How much do you remember of your old life?”

Shade ducked down and waddled out of the turtle’s mouth. He looked back up to the surface. “More than I did when you first summoned me. That’s all I can say.” He offered a hand and basically dragged Owin out of the turtle’s mouth.

“I’d keep the charge gem away for now. Neither of us have the brains to use it safely.”

“What are you saying?”

“That we should go find the next boss. Maybe it’s something delicious. I haven’t seen you eat anything in a while. Might want to get that appetite started before the big fight against whatever demon falls out of that portal.”

Owin did start walking, but he eyed Shade. “I feel like you’re trying to say something.”

“Think about all the other people that might be better off with that gem. Myrsvai, for instance.” Shade put his hand on Owin’s helmet and turned him slightly to walk completely opposite the turtle.

“That’s the only other person you know that we trust.”

“You can’t prove that. Maybe I trust . . . What was the girhuma’s name? The one who wanted help?”

Owin shrugged.

“What if I wanted to give the gem to the girhuma? What if I trusted my life to that mob?”

“Do you?”

Shade slightly adjusted the angle again. “Keep walking.”

Glowing crystals illuminated their path over the rocky ground. A big sea star crawled over rocks in the distance, quickly disappearing into some other part of the floor. He didn’t mind not fighting all the small mobs. The sea stars weren’t that scary. They were just big and a little slower to kill than some mobs he had fought in the past.

What he really needed to do was find some buffs. For the first time since taking all the potions Ernie had sent him, the mobs were actually about as strong as he was, and now on an isolated floor, he had to do all the fighting himself.

“Ah!” Shade flinched and swung at a bubble that had popped up from beneath a rock. The skeleton somehow missed.

“If I find all of your bones, will you be better at fighting?”

Shade grabbed Owin’s shoulders, halting his movement. “I don’t even know what class I am right now. I wouldn’t go ahead assuming anything about myself. What I do know is I can see the top of something’s head just over there.”

Owin tried to stand on his toes to see, but Shade kept pushing him down and to the side.

“Do you see it?”

“No.”

“If only you were taller, huh? What a world we live in.”

Owin shrugged Shade’s hands off his shoulders. “You’re not even actually alive.” The rock right in front of him was easy enough to climb, and unlike the coral reef earlier, he was able to get to the top without hitting a boundary wall.

A few hundred feet ahead was a little arena built out of stones with a design in the center that looked almost familiar. Owin stayed low as he looked at the creature standing within, hoping to avoid being spotted early. If something that big had a ranged attack, there wasn’t a lot he could do to stop it.

The creature was about the size of an ogre with mottled white skin. If not for the mottling, Owin would have said it looked like a cathkabel, or something close to cathkabel. All of the creatures he had seen from Elysium were ugly, but the one before him was even worse. Its arms were so long that its hands rested at its feet. It was hunched and walked about the arena, dragging its hands.

“A cathkabel war beast?” Shade asked. He walked along the outside of the rock and leaned against, just below Owin. “An odd choice from Sloswen. And a new addition. Well, new enough. New is relative, okay?”

Countless questions begged to be asked, but Owin already knew Shade would ignore them, or he would be dumb enough to try to answer before being sent away by Sloswen again. Those questions had to wait until after the tenth floor. “What’s a cathkabel war beast?”

Shade simply pointed.

“I know that. Is it a cathkabel? It looks different.”

“It is, ironically, considered a lesser creature. Below the deacons, priests, and all that. Just like how the demons have their colossuses. Colossi? More than one of a colossus, you know? I think it’s colossi.” Shade looked up at Owin. “Oh, you’re still confused. Is it the grammar or the coloss . . . i?”

“Both.”

“Well.” Shade tried to crawl on top of the rock, but his bony fingers just scraped on the side of the stone without giving him any leverage. He leaned against it instead and tried to act casual. “If you’re wondering whether that beast over there is cathkabel or not, you would be pleasantly surprised to find that the answer is yes, it is both. War beasts are some mutated, hybrid cathkabel creatures made only for fighting. I don’t know if Elysium made a war beast or the Abyss made a colossus first, but they were answers to one another.”

Owin slid off the rock, landing right beside Shade. “The cathkabel fortress we were in on the first floor didn’t have anything like this.”

“First floor. Does this look like first floor material to you?”

“It was a secret.”

“Does this look like first floor secret material to you?”

Owin waited a moment, but noticed that Shade was just staring at him. “Do I have to say no?”

The skeleton nodded.

“No.”

“Exactly!”

A rumble came from the war beast as its oversized silver eyes locked right onto Owin.

“Shade, stop yelling.”

“Oh, yeah. That one might be my fault.” He grabbed Owin, shoved him forward, and crouched behind him. “Don’t let it eat me.”

“It’s not going to eat you. It doesn’t even know who we are.”

“Goblin demon,” the war beast said in a deep, ethereal voice.

“I am impressed. To have the ire of Elysium so early in your career. Really truly a feat unmatched even by myself!” Shade pushed Owin forward a little more. “Go show the beast what you think of its masters.”

“Goblin demon must die.”

“What kind of attacks does it have?”

“Here’s the thing,” Shade said. Owin immediately realized the skeleton’s hands weren’t on his shoulders anymore. He turned around and spotted the skeleton as he hid behind the rock. “Knowing a war beast and fighting a war beast are very different things. I don’t know what that will do, but I am thrilled to have an opportunity to see.”

“What if it kills me?”

“Just don’t die. It’s better for both of us if you live.”

Owin sighed. “Thanks, Shade. Great advice. Can you at least help me get the sword? I can’t use the lich bone on a cathkabel.”

“Yes, yes.” Shade sprinted over, pulled the Incandescent Blade from its sheath, handed it off, and immediately ran back. “Now, I am thrilled to watch.”

Owin threw the lich bone knife back, smacking Shade in the face. “Hold onto that so I don’t accidentally break it.”

“Impressive aim.”

Owin actually smiled.