Alex and Claire found the dungeon after about thirty minutes of walking.

It hadn’t been a particularly difficult endeavor. The dungeon stuck out like a sore thumb— literally. A large brown cave entrance jutted out of the ground, about twice Alex’s height and wide enough for six or seven people to enter it side by side. A faint scent of flora and honey wafted from its entrance, though Alex couldn’t place what was causing it.

The cave only went about fifteen feet deep before coming to a stop before a swirling green disk of energy. His fingertips tingled in its presence. It felt vaguely familiar to the energy in the portal they’d taken to escape the Mirrorlands. As they approached the dungeon, Alex paused.

Beside the cave, jutting from the lush grass, was a polished white plaque just a little bit shorter than him. It glistened in the afternoon sun and was completely devoid of marring or damage.

“It’s the dungeon history,” Claire said, guessing his question before it could even form on his lips. “There’s one in front of every dungeon. They keep track of people who have completed the dungeon as well as the extent of how much was completed. I’ve never managed to get on one, so I have no idea if you get something extra for it.”

“Wow. You got both of my questions in one,” Alex said.

“Not that I don’t like compliments, but they weren’t really hard to guess. You kind of have a one-track mind.”

“Yeah, that’s a fair assessment,” Alex admitted. He chewed his lower lip in thought. “I didn’t think there would be a portal to get into the dungeon. Can we leave after entering?”

“Yeah. You could leave all the ones I entered, at least. You just have to be in contact with whoever you’re entering the dungeon with or you might get started at different locations. And don’t ask me how big dungeons are — I think it depends on the individual dungeon. I don’t know for sure. I really didn’t get that much time poking around in them before… well, you know.”

“Well, only one way to find out, then. Shall we?”

“Shouldn’t you summon Glint first?”

“If we have to be in contact? I’ll pass. He’d cut me in half on accident. I’ll summon him when we get inside.”

Claire nodded. They approached the swirling portal and stood before it for a second. Energy prickled against Alex’s face and his eyebrows itched. It felt like standing in front of a river of electricity. Oddly enough, the portal was completely silent. He’d have expecting a faint hissing or… well, anything, but there was nothing but silence.

He shook his head and extended a hand to Claire. She took it, and the two of them stepped forward. Their skin touched the green energy and there was a loud pop. A sharp jolt shot through Alex’s body and he drew in a surprised hiss.

By the time it had finished, his foot had fallen on solid ground — but he was no longer in the cave.

He and Claire were surrounded by greenery. A smattering of trees were scattered around them along with a number of thick rose bushes and other heavy foliage. There wasn’t quite enough to be called a forest, but it wasn’t far from one either.

A clear blue sky rose overhead. It would have looked just like the outside world if it weren’t for the fact that there wasn’t a single cloud in the sky, nor was there a sun. It was just blue.

The illusion was further broken by two doorways, one to their right and one in front of them. They were pitch black and looked more like gaping holes in reality than passages. A system message scrawled across the air at the top of Alex’s vision.

Razor Forest (Novice)

The words faded away as quickly as they had arrived, but the message was enough to snap him out of his momentary distraction. He couldn’t afford to stand around gaping like a tourist. He pressed a hand to the deck at his waist. It had just barely been an hour since Glint had last died and he could no longer feel the monster’s powers.

“Glint, come out.”

A crunch split the air to his side. The Shardwalker stepped out from a cracked portal that quickly knitted itself shut behind him. Glint turned to Alex, patiently awaiting his next order.

“Defend me from anything that attacks,” Alex said.

Glint’s mirrored claws glistened in the light. He had no idea where the light was actually coming from. It just seemed to be omnipresent — but now wasn’t the time to worry about that.

There were a lot of places for something to hide. Even though it was bright, all the thick tree trunks or the dense bushes could provide a lot of cover. Claire lowered into a fighting stance beside him, drawing her sword, and the two of them scanned the room.

“I don’t see anything,” Claire muttered. “Why can’t monsters just stand around and wait for us to pop up?”

“I’m sure they do somewhere, but you can’t blame them for hiding with all this good cover,” Alex said. “And at least we know the dungeon is Novice tier. At least we aren’t going to run into some untouchable monster like the ones we were seeing in the Mirrorlands.”

“Yeah. Small victories. Why do you sound slightly disappointed about that?”

“I plead the fifth.”

“The what?”

A flicker of motion behind a tree a short distance in front of them caught Alex’s eye. Claire spotted it too because they both fell silent and turned as one. For a second, the only sound was the gentle rustle of leaves.

Actually, isn’t it a bit odd for the leaves to be rustling? There’s nowhere for wind to come from or leave. We’re in a room. Is it coming from the exits? Or is the dungeon just making it?

He shoved the idle thoughts out of his head. Novice tier was still more than enough to kill him or Claire, especially if the monsters were on the middle or upper end of the tier. He was not about to get killed because he was daydreaming.

“Glint, can you spot anything?” Alex whispered.

The Shardwalker didn’t respond. That really wasn’t much of a surprise. Alex’s lips thinned and he scanned the forest, subconsciously holding in a breath. There were definitely monsters with them. If there was one, it was wise to assume there were more. He just had to find out where —

Glint leapt. Alex stumbled back as the small monster slammed into a green form, intercepting it before it could reach him, and tumbled to the ground in a cacophony of hisses and snarls.

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The fight was so short that Alex didn’t even get a chance to see the monster’s level. Glint rose, the bloodied body of a small squirrel-esque monster lying ripped to shreds at his feet. It had greenish fur and beady black eyes. Its mouth wasn’t quite large enough to contain all of the large teeth within it. A tiny green flame rose up from the monster’s body and flickered above it.

“Not very strong, but hard as shit to see,” Claire observed. “I think Glint just saved your ass from a nasty bite.”

Alex didn’t get a chance to reply. The leaves rustled and he spotted a pair of eyes staring at him from within a nearby bush.

Razor Squirrel - (Novice 1)

Alex spotted four more of them in rapid succession. There weren’t just a few of the small rodents in the room. It was positively chock full of them.

“That’s a lot of squirrels,” Alex muttered. He glanced around in search of some sort of a weapon. Even a loose branch would have been useful, but there wasn’t anything near them. The squirrels weren’t strong, but with numbers like this, they were still a threat.

“I hope you don’t like cute things too much,” Claire said.

“You think these are cute?” Alex asked, momentarily taken aback. “They’re hideous.”

“They’re cute in an ugly—”

The squirrels didn’t seem to take kindly to the insult. Small green forms leapt out from all around them, charging to avenge their fallen brethren.

Alex jumped back, narrowly avoiding a squirrel that whistled past his face. He cursed as one grabbed onto his pant leg and started clawing its way up. Glint carved another one from the air as it jumped at him.

He grabbed the rodent on his pants and it bit into his palm. Cursing in pain, Alex pelted it into the ground. The monster hit it with a crunch, dying instantly. Claire had put down several of the rabid little creatures herself, but there were still more of them coming.

One leapt at Alex from the trees. He reared back and swung his fist, punching it straight in the face. There was a mildly satisfying crunch and the monster flew back into a bush. A steady stream of energy — minimal, but still noticeable — flowed into him as he and Claire fought their way through the forest as it came alive.

But, as many squirrels as there were, the monsters weren’t truly a threat. Despite the nasty bite that one had given him and a few more scratches he collected fighting the little bastards off, they were a lot less dangerous than they looked.

It didn’t help that they had the resilience of the average household hamster. That didn’t stop the hatred in their beady little eyes when they leapt at him, but his fists certainly did.

The assault ended as suddenly as it had begun. After just a few minutes of fighting, Alex and Claire were left panting and slightly scratched up in a once-again still forest. Razor squirrel corpses littered the ground around them.

Glint didn’t look like he’d even gotten scratched once. Alex wasn’t sure if that was because he’d avoided the monsters or if they just hadn’t even bothered attacking him.

“That was… really annoying,” Claire concluded. She dropped the body of a squirrel she’d drained of blood and wiped her mouth with the back of a hand, her lips curling in distaste. “You’re not hurt, are you? These things are gross. I don’t want to drink from them.”

“Nah. I’m fine. Just some scratches. A number of them, but nothing serious. Nothing bleeding too badly.” Claire scrunched her nose. His eyes narrowed. “Are you disappointed I didn’t get injured? You’re spoiled.”

“Hey, you’d heal. I was hoping for a snack, but those scratches are already patching up. I don’t want to eat a scab. That’s just gross.”

“How is it any different from normal blood?”

“It’s crunchy.”

Alex decided not to argue the semantics of eating blood with the literal expert. He just shrugged. “Suit yourself. Glint, collect all those little souls the squirrels left behind. No point wasting them.”

The Shardwalker didn’t hesitate to comply. He went around, grabbing the miniscule green motes of energy and popping them into his mouth like jelly beans.

“Shall we go deeper, then?” Claire asked. “The first room wasn’t too bad. We could probably get more.”

“I don’t see why not,” Alex said. “How are you holding up? Not too tired? You were in the Mirrorlands a lot longer than me.”

“I’m fine,” Claire said. “The blood you gave me helped a lot. Maybe we do one more room, see how it goes?”

“You don’t have to ask me twice.”

He stepped through the foliage along with Claire and Glint in the direction of the nearest black, doorway shaped hole in reality. The three of them kept their guard up as they walked in case more monsters were lying in wait.

They arrived at the door uncontested.

“Do we have to go through together?” Alex asked.

Claire shook her head. “No. These portals should all be directly connected. They always send you to the same spot.”

“Great. Let’s go, then. Hopefully the next room is a bit more interesting.”

They all stepped through the portal. The world changed in a flash and the smell of flora hit Alex like a punch to the jaw. It had been strong before, but now it was so thick in the air that it was impossible to ignore.

Tiny motes of yellow pollen hung in the air, held aloft by a faint wind that swirled through the room. He craned his neck back, his eyes widening, as he took in the room before him.

Brilliant pink hues and sunset oranges intermixed in the car-sized petals of a flower that loomed over two stories above him. Its stem was as thick as a tree trunk and covered with large thorns the length of his arm.

It wasn’t the only one. Massive flowers towered in the air, a painter’s swathe of color. Some were as tall as the first, while others were only a little taller than him. They all moved gently to and fro as the wind rustled through them. Their shadows shifted in an inscrutable dance across the ground, causing the room to flicker between light and darkness.

Alex bit back a sneeze as the sweet pollen in the air tickled his nostrils. The awe filling him faltered as he caught a glimpse of something sharp jutting out of a nearby flower. It had been trampled, its stem snapped by something equally as huge. And, jutting from its stamen, were rows upon rows of pointed teeth.

“The flowers are the monsters,” Alex whispered. The System hadn’t identified them yet, but that didn’t change anything. Normal flowers didn’t take bites out of things. He went to take a step forward and Claire’s hand clamped down on his arm. He glanced back at her. “What is it?”

“Blood,” Claire said in a taut whisper, her eyes narrowed and tongue poking out of the corner of her mouth in concentration. “I smell it. A lot of it.”

“Where?” Alex lowered his voice as well and glanced into the forest of flowers, their shadows now far more ominous than before.

She shook her head and squinted into the wall of towering flora swaying before them. “I don’t know. The pollen is too thick. I can’t tell for sure… but it’s there. I know the smell of blood.”

Alex wasn’t about to question a Dhampir over their ability to locate food. “Let’s take it slow, then. See what we’re up against.”

Claire nodded and the two of them crept away from the portal, making their way toward the ominous flowers. As they drew closer to the huge stems, Alex caught something poking out from behind one of the large stems out of the corner of his eye.

His breath caught in his throat. It was a human leg, and they weren’t moving. Claire spotted it a moment after he did. They exchanged a wordless glance and she lowered her stance, keeping her sword held before her as they moved to the side to get a better view of the body.

Maybe they’re still —

Alex’s thoughts died before they could finish forming. The leg was attached to the body of a young man, but there was no doubt that he was dead. His neck had been wrung like a washcloth. Sightless eyes stared up into the dancing petals far overhead.

He wasn’t alone.

Tossed across the ground amidst streaks of blood and viscera were two other brutalized corpses. Every single one of them had been… wrung. There was just no other word for it. Alex’s eyes lifted from the bodies as desperate, wheezing chokes reached his ears through the rustling of the flower petals.

A man that could only have been described as unnaturally huge loomed above the bodies. His skin was a pale white, nearly bordering on translucent. Enormous muscle bulged through the blood-splattered tank top he’d squeezed into and dripped from the thick, sausage-like fingers of his left hand. His right was wrapped around the throat of a struggling woman, though his hand was big enough to nearly cover her face entirely.

Before Alex could even think about doing anything, a sharp crack split the air. The woman dropped to the ground, her neck broken like a toothpick, denied any final words. She laid in a crumpled, lifeless heap.

The man’s features were completely flat and devoid of all emotion. If Alex couldn’t see anything beneath his neck, he would have assumed the man had just gone to toss out the trash.

Then he turned, and his beady black eyes locked onto Alex.

Diego - Steel Crusher (Novice 6)