“Is that the sword you’ll be taking?” my dungeon guide asked.

“Yes!” I coughed, quickly pulling the sword to me like I was afraid she’d take it.

“Ah… D-d-don’t touch me there!” Alysia gasped.

My hand was on the side of the blade. I pulled it away.

“S-sorry…” As the little girl approached me, I straighten up. “Sorry I took so long!”

“You’ve picked a splendid blade. It was this dungeon’s newest addition. It was just forged.” She explained and then frowned. “Hmm? There was another blade here too. They came together. It was a companion to this blade.”

“It’s fine!” I forced a smile. “I only need the one. We probably should continue with the trial.”

“Very well. We shall. Please leave through the exit. I won’t be able to follow, but I will see you on the other side for the first trial.”

“Thanks, I will!”

I realized I was coming off a bit too excited, but the girl didn’t seem to notice my change. What she had just said left me extremely alarmed. If my guess was right, then anyone who died by that blade had their soul sucked into the dungeon. Then, they were turned into a blade. Alysia and my soul were sucked into this dungeon and become these weapons.

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This didn’t seem that unbelievable. Souls could be turned into miasmic monsters, so why not weapons? However, she mentioned two souls, which meant that my soul had been in this room too. We must have done something strange. People who died on the blade became weapons for the trial, while people who grabbed the hilt and met the requirements were given the chance to perform a trial. She died on the blade, but my soul went with her. Then, when I initiated the challenge, my soul was transported to the point to start the challenge.

At least, I turned back into a human, and it didn’t seem like this guide even realized it had happened. It was probably something automatically done that sat outside of the curse’s awareness, like safe rooms. This gave me some hope. Not only did I now understand why I had my soul back, but if I could turn back into a human, so could Alysia!

The pair of us left through the door the little girl had indicated, holding Alysia tightly in my hand. As soon as I walked through the door, I realized why she couldn’t follow. This was a safe room. It also contained a stairway. This dungeon was built a bit differently than the ones I had seen before. It looked like the safe room sat between the 1st and 2nd level, rather than being hidden somewhere in the level for us to find.

“Okay, we’re safe here.” I sighed, after closing the doors and locking myself in the safe room.

This wasn’t a physical place, but a soul realm, so it stood to reason that this similarly wasn’t a real place. It didn’t contain the dungeon transport system. There was no returning. You could only move forward. I supposed since the dungeon had no physical location, it didn’t need to have a connection with a clearly defined way out, or perhaps it was better to say that I wouldn’t know the way out. I wished Miki was here. She might have been able to figure this out.

“Where is here?” Alysia cried out. “I don’t see anything. It’s dark. Please… don’t let me go.”

I looked down at the sword in my hand, not sure how to explain things to her. “We need to talk.”