We jumped five more times.

And he was right, the floor pressure in the forties was unbearable. That was where I finally lost my stomach. By the time we finally stopped on the twenty-seventh floor, I didn’t even bother sitting up. The ground was my friend and I didn’t mind cuddling with it.

The terrain had changed to a different biome each time. The fifthteenth floor had been cold with snow as far as I could see. The twenty fourth had been muggy, with swamp water surrounding the gate and a single path weaving its way through the creepy wet forest. The forty third floor had been the worst and all I remembered about that one was that the ground wasn’t cold, hot, or wet. The thirty fifth floor had been a relief, being less pressure than the previous floor. The ground had been rocky though, with large rocks everywhere, creating almost a maze leading away from the gate.

I rolled over on my back and stared up at the clear sky. The smell of flowers was everywhere. I looked at the rolling meadow and then back at the sky.

“What are you doing?” I closed my eyes.

“The Nobles will have tracers following their kids. We jump around a few floors to lose them.” The boss picked me up and set me on my feet.

I opened my eyes and fell against him. The world was spinning. I felt a tug on the rope and realized Oz had fallen to her knees and was pulling me down. Of all of us, Rix was the only one still on her feet and she was trying to help Justia up.

Gesai Alard was the only one not tied to us and she was still unconscious. I didn’t know if they had put a spell or something on her, but I was starting to wonder if she was going to live. Her shirt was torn where she’d been stabbed and I couldn’t see how the blade hadn’t gone through her heart. I knew that if there was a good healer, they could bring someone back who had died recently, provided that their body hadn’t been destroyed or they hadn't been decapitated. But none of these men struck me as being a Healer.

“Up!” The boss ordered and the other three began getting us to our feet.

“This is the twenty-seventh floor.” The boss eyed us. "The monsters here will kill you if they catch you.” He walked over to Rix and grabbed her chin. "Don’t think about running, or you’ll get your boyfriend here killed with you.” He let go of her chin and eyed each of us. "Let’s go!”

We started marching, which was harder than it sounded because of all the floor hopping he’d been doing. The flowers didn’t really impede our journey, it just made the beautiful landscape feel wrong. Even so, I was making a mental note to bring Aelin and Ether here as soon as we got to this level.

We walked for about thirty minutes before something rose up out of the flowers. The boss dropped Gesai and stepped in between us and it and braced himself. The other bandits huddled around us as he stared the monster down.

It was a huge toad, at over seven feet tall. I was about to ask what was going on when it snapped its tongue at me. There was no way I could have done anything against a level twenty seven monster even if I hadn’t been cuffed and tied to the others.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The boss caught the tongue and yanked the monster forward, smashing his fist into its mouth and turning it into a cloud of dust. He bent down and picked up the crystal and put it in his band.

“They’ve never spawned that fast!” Hogo began looking around.

The boss eyed me. "No they haven’t.” He picked up Gesai. "Let’s hurry before anything else shows up.

My legs were burning as we ran for an hour. I’d done more running before, but being tied to others while being prodded by the Bandits made it much more difficult, and that was before taking the floor pressure into account. We ran into two more toads before we finally stopped. The boss was so overleveled that no one got hurt, but I could tell by the look on the other Bandits faces that they didn’t want to tangle with the monsters on this floor.

We reached the dungeon wall and the boss began tracing his finger over it. I watched him for a few minutes, but it was one of his men who got impatient first.

“Boss!” Jax began pointing towards the field. "They’re coming!”

I looked, hoping to see Trent, but instead there was a giant bee. It was easily the size of a person and it didn’t look happy.

“Almost found it…” The brown-haired man kept feeling at the wall.

“What are you doing?” I looked from the man to the monster.

“BOSS!” Jax ran over and pulled on the other man’s arm.

The leader of the Bandits punched the wall, then grabbed the other man’s hand and put it on the wall. "Keep Looking!”

The brown-haired man ran at the flying monster. When it thrust its stinger, he twisted, grabbing the deadly appendage with his left hand as he grabbed its throat with his right hand. He ripped the stinger out and jammed it into the monster’s chest, reducing it to smoke. He collected the crystal and stormed back over to the wall.

“Is it a monster surge!?” Jax looked at his boss.

“No, there’d be a lot more of them if it was.” The older man was upset and I really hoped he wasn’t the type to start throwing things. I thought he might the way he bent down to pick up Gesai, but he flipped her over his shoulder and continued to feel the wall.

“Where is the damned tunnel!?!” The boss punched the wall.

“Found it!” Daren had his arm through the dungeon wall all the way up to his shoulder.

“Let’s go!” The boss ran over and walked through the wall.

“Move it!” Jax grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the spot where his boss had disappeared.

I winced as he pushed me through the wall.

I stepped into a completely different biome. Inside a dungeon there were things like the woods and the grasslands, but those transitioned. This place was like I had just walked through a gate to a different floor.

There was black sand everywhere, except for the rivers that flowed around me. It looked like they wove their way in some type of pattern, but I couldn’t tell what it was. What was really off putting about them was that they were red.

Gesai was on the ground propped up against the wall and the Bandit leader was fighting a giant spider looking monster that had electricity arcing between its legs.

What I found most disturbing was that he had a sword. All the monsters so far, he’d killed with his bare hands and this monster required a sword.

Not that it took him long to kill, but I made a note that they were something that he respected.

“Where are we?” I turned around and watched everyone else walk through the wall.

“Less chatter.” The boss picked up Gesai. "And stay away from the water.”