Four hours later, Rin soared through the clouds as a skeletal raven beside Trixie with his new magical storage ring clutched in a bony claw. Their goal was to reach Windton before nightfall. The mountain town was named after the level 29 wind dungeon within its limits. Unlike the level 15 earth dungeon that had been left abandoned, the wind dungeon was quite renowned and popular. Windton was a year-round tourist destination because of its hot mountain springs, and according to the Sonnigs, the dungeon entrance was well-maintained and easy to find.

They landed outside the town, hidden from view of the main gate by a cluster of pine trees. One quick transformation later and Rin was wearing a suit of the latest fashion, complete with a magical lining that increased his defense thanks to a deftly applied mana weave.

From the feeling of their bond, Rin could tell Trixie floated beside him, invisible to the naked eye. “We got here fast,” he said. “Too bad we can’t just run away from this stupid duel. I doubt Lord Easton can fly.”

“You heard the tailors,” said Trixie, her body still hidden. “Now you’ve accepted, the Game of the Gods won’t allow you to back out. Your life is forfeit if you don’t show.”

A disgusted snort escaped Rin’s mouth. The whole situation was unjust. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, not at all. He was supposed to get a strong class and become a student at the Magic Academy, just like he’d planned with his parents. No one his age should be fighting to the death against a noble fifty levels higher.

No use crying about it. I just have to get stronger.

As they approached the main gate, Rin nodded to the guard and was about to pass by unheeded when the man stopped him.

“Hold up. What’s your business here, Cursed?”

Ugh. Why didn’t I land inside the town?

Rin made a show of flashing several gold coins before depositing them back in his storage ring. “I have money to spend and was told your hot springs are second to none. Unless you’d like for me and my gold to go elsewhere?”

The guard shuffled nervously. “Ah, no of course not, young master, uh,” he glanced again at Rin’s status line, “Cartwright.” The man gave the boy a fresh appraisal, taking in his expensive clothing. Apparently, it was enough to sway his judgment in Rin’s favor because his throat bobbed as he gulped. “As in the noble Cartwright family from Dunspire City? Forgive me, m’lord. No one told me you’d be arriving this evening!”

The sweating soldier hastily ushered Rin on his way, begging his pardon. Rin painted a bored smile on his face and strode forward like he owned the place. He thoroughly enjoyed the confused expressions of everyone glancing his way. They struggled to reconcile his title of a level 6 Cursed Potato Farmer with his arrogant swagger and lavish clothing. That was the problem with wearing something so eye-catching. It highlighted you as someone worthy of attention, resulting in everyone using Identify to learn your name.

I probably should have snuck in after dark and avoided all this.

Before him, the mountain obscured the setting sun, casting the town into a darkening shadow. The Sonnigs’ detailed instructions led him through the steeply ascending streets, and he tramped steadily to the wind dungeon on the other side of town. The dungeon entrance was the first he’d seen that wasn’t of the mundane kind. It was mesmerizing in its beauty: a shimmering blue portal suspended a dozen feet from the ground, with a bored guard standing loosely at attention beneath it. Beside the guard was a rolling stepladder on wheels, which Rin deduced was how most adventurers entered the levitating portal. He had something else in mind.

Finding a secluded spot, Rin transformed into the Scout of the Undead and launched into the air. When he was directly above the portal, he activated Silent Flight and circled lower. He slipped inside without the guard noticing so much as a whisper of his passing.

You have entered the dungeon: Windton Stepping Stones (Wind Type)

Unfortunately, Rin hadn’t planned for the experience of entering the magical portal, naively thinking it would be like walking through an open doorway. Instead, he was violently disoriented, to the point where he couldn’t tell up from down. By the time the portal deposited him at his final destination, his senses were overwhelmed. His bird body tumbled through the air, plummeting toward a rocky plateau strewn with shattered boulders. He desperately flapped his skeletal wings and managed to pull up in time, curling around to return to the portal and gather his bearings.

The sky was alive with the throes of a violent thunderstorm in full swing. Lightning ripped through clouds with thunder blasts so explosive that they possessed an actual shockwave, knocking him spiraling away again.

He arrived back at the portal looking a bewildered mess and collapsed on the place where he should have landed had he not been flying in a haphazard daze. The spot was the flattened top of a towering granite pillar jutting into the sky. The pillar’s surface was unnaturally smooth as if some gargantuan sword had bisected it cleanly in half to create the platform where he now stood. It was topped with a field of waist-high grass that fluttered furiously in the stormy winds, and each of the pillar’s sides was a sheer drop, straight down.

Once Rin had his breath back, he looked around and spied dozens of the towering pillars jutting into the sky, their bases hidden in the foggy depths below. It gave them the appearance of slender sentinels, marching into a horizon masked in mist.

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Stepping stones.

The top of each pillar was connected tenuously to the next stepping stone by a metal wire bridge that bucked in the wind. With so much lightning present, the bridges seemed a death trap to Rin, as was the prospect of transmuting into the metal-typed Shadow Weaver.

The raging storm scrapped their initial plans of making camp. It was better to plow forward and get it over as soon as possible. Still, he was encouraged by the level 32 Scout of the Undead at his disposal. It gave him a host of options unavailable to regular low-level adventurers attempting this dungeon. His ability to Charm every monster—except for the mandatory boss fight—meant the dungeon should theoretically be a walk in the park. Albeit a park suspended across pillars hundreds of feet tall, packed with deadly monsters and lightning.

Piece of cake.

He approached the first wire bridge and opted to transmute into the level 22 Bog Squirrel. It was earth-typed, the natural anti-type to lightning since it grounded any such attacks, rendering their damage ineffective. Earth types were also a powerful counter to wind, and the squirrel was so light-footed it wouldn’t affect the bridges, unlike the lumbering Dirt Stomper and Dungeon Digger.

He sped across the bridge, arriving at the next pillar-top without incident to meet the first dungeon monster. It was a spinning creature the size of his fist, thrumming with wind magic as it whirled about.

Level 27 Wind Fairy

Craven’s Special Note: Fairies have high intelligence and resist charming attempts from base physical life forms they consider inferior.

Good luck.

Damn. This dungeon might take some work, after all.

It was the first time Identify had included a special note, let alone one from a god. As if to emphasize the rarity of the occurrence, he received a further notification.

The following abilities have advanced by negligible amounts:

Identify

Double damn.

Advancing Identify was said to be difficult and now he knew why. It took him this long to receive a single notification about the ability’s progression.

While Rin was gaping at his notifications like an idiot, the wind fairy attacked, firing a volley of crescent-shaped wind blades in his direction. The first clipped his cute little squirrel tail, severing its tip as he cried out in pain.

That got his attention.

From then on, he dodged every one of the fairy’s attacks with ease. The problem was the Bog Squirrel lacked a way to retaliate. Although he could evade everything the fairy threw at him, he also couldn’t inflict any damage of his own. They were at an impasse for several minutes until, in a moment of divine inspiration, Rin considered Craven’s special note once more.

The note specifically mentioned physical life forms. I wonder.

“TRIXIE! A little help?”

As far as Rin could tell, the ghost had done nothing helpful so far, staying back from the fight as they’d originally planned. However, at his cry, she darted forward, eager to impress. She propped her hands on her hips directly in front of the wind fairy, daring the monster to attack, and confident that if it did, it wouldn’t affect her.

The monster’s velocity slowed to a gentle twirl and it halted its attacks. It seemed Trixie’s antics made it curious.

“Here, give it this,” said Rin, conjuring a piece of wind-based fabric and passing it to her with his dainty squirrel hands. The material dropped through Trixie’s ephemeral hands, fluttering away on the wind, and Rin palmed his squirrel face at his own stupidity. “Sorry, that was dumb. I forgot you can’t hold stuff. New plan. You keep the fairy happy and I’ll try to feed it?”

“We got this!” she said, pumping her fist. It was a needless gesture, but it opened Rin’s eyes to how eager she was to be involved.

Trixie danced about in the air, waving her hands and hopping from foot to foot. The rotating wind fairy slowed to a complete stop, revealing a feminine humanoid, six inches tall. It was grinning with glee and clapping tiny hands, but for all its cute behavior, its needle-thin teeth and blood-red eyes were outright terrifying. This was no beautiful benevolent fairy from the tales he’d heard as a child. This was a monster, through and through. He had no doubt that, if given the chance, it would happily impale his head on a spike.

Rin conjured another square of the wind-based fabric, Zephyr’s Fury, and held it out to the creature. The wind fairy accepted the offering without question, not even glancing in Rin’s direction as she chomped down. When she did, her eyes lit up with joy and she whirled in place a few times before settling and clapping her hands once more.

You have charmed a Level 27 Wind Fairy (Wind Type)

Duration: 2 minutes

Rin exhaled with relief and fell onto his squirrel backside. “Sheesh. This is gonna take some work.”

Trixie settled down beside him, allowing the pacified fairy to lose interest and spin away. “It could be worse.”

“Oh? How so?”

“You could be taming that.”

Rin raised his head in the direction she was pointing. When he still couldn’t see what she was talking about, he transmuted into the undead raven with its unparalleled Perception stat.

On a pillar several miles away was an enormous rhino clomping around. Every stomp created a bright web of electric arcs that flew through the air, creating a sphere of destruction wherever it tread. Its horn was ablaze with lightning, firing impressive bolts anytime its head bucked.

As if the monster knew it was being watched, it stilled and turned to gaze in Rin’s direction. It was difficult to say for sure, but the beast might have winked at him.

“Aw, gods no.” He turned human and flopped back to lie on the grass. “How in Craven’s name is this dungeon so hard?”

They rested there as the rain pitter-pattered down, and Rin snacked on one of the sandwiches hoarded in his ring. The wind fairy was the only monster on this pillar, and the customary dungeon flower should materialize at any moment. However, after several minutes, nothing happened, and they were stumped as to why.

“Come on,” said Trixie, undeterred and rising to her feet. She reached down and grasped Rin’s hand, pulling him to his feet using the connection of their bond. “I know what’ll cheer you up.”

“What?” The sulkiness emanating from the boy was palpable.

“Let’s go find some treasure.”

Despite his best efforts to the contrary, Rin smiled.