I stood there, staring at the fiftieth door that looked just like all the others. I could hear fighting on the other side. It was how I knew I’d finally caught up to the remaining sixty players in this game. Sixty sounds like a lot but we’d started with over a thousand it was a sickening visual of how little the Goddess cared about life.

I heard the gurgling scream before it was suddenly cut off. The squelching and snapping that followed made me cringe and step back. I knew that sound. The monster was tearing the body apart. I opened the quest menu, knowing what I would see already.

Two months, three days, four hours, and 59 minutes.

Disciples remaining: 59

The higher I had climbed in the spire, the fewer corpses I’d come across. The last of us were formidable; forces of murderous fury all desperate to reach the treasure at the top. All of them that was, except me. I got this far by pure luck and Frank's talent for drawing attention.

I hesitated outside the door. Finding out what lay on the other side wasn’t something I was interested in. I was already covered in blood, some of it dry and flaking, the rest of it fresh and sticky to the touch. The smell of metal was strong in my nose, overpowering anything else that might have been in the air.

Have you ever done something intense and filled with life-threatening thrill at the beginner only for that same feeling to turn into boredom and drudgery? Like rock climbing, you get to a point where you either go on to bigger and more dangerous challenges or you stop and look for another hobby, trying to find that lost thrill again.

It might just be me. Maybe I’m talking out of my ass here. That’s how I felt though. The door ahead of me wasn’t scaring me like the others had, instead, I was so unbelievably bored of this.

None of it made sense anyway. It’s not like I was hunting treasure in every room, or learning bigger and better thieving skills. It all felt like a playground for a type of player I just wasn’t. The Nox Warriors and Daughters of Umbra were all that was left. Others like me had died a long time ago, being forced into endless battles where sneaking and hiding just wasn’t a possibility unless you had a Frank.

Is this really what the Goddess of Shadow was all about? Turning thieves and rogues into warriors?

I sat on the cold ground and closed my eyes, thinking back to the book on the very first floor and the inscription I’d read there.

The path ahead is strewn with dangers but for the Chosen One, they are but stepping stones of their path to glory. Climb ever higher, face the danger, and earn the blessing of the Shadow Goddess.

I was looking for some hint or misdirect that the Goddess had written into the words but as far as I could tell, there wasn’t one. It was simple. Just face the challenges on every floor as you climb toward the Goddess’ blessing. The so-called ultimate reward.

Bullshit. Pure, illogical bullshit. Where were the puzzles and the traps and the treasure? Something felt off about the whole thing.

A horrible crunch sounded on the other side of the door followed by the high-pitched screaming laughter that reminded me of a hyena that I’d once seen in a zoo. Another player down.

I sighed and slammed my head back against the hard wall earning an angry screech and a slap of a wing from Frank. He readjusted himself on my shoulder, digging his talons deeper into my skin. The thickness of my leather armor was the only thing keeping him from stealing my health little by little.

“What do you think Frank, should we just keep going?” I asked

Frank ruffled his feathers until he looked twice his regular size, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot. It wasn’t an answer but I guess I never thought I would actually get one. It would be a bit spooky if he deviated from his usual script.

Yes, I know I’m procrastinating again. It's what I’m good at, okay?

I fingered the hilt of my sword that was currently pressing uncomfortably into my back. I had tried to replace it with one of the Nox Warrior's more powerful scimitars but the thing had been awkward, heavy, and hadn’t fit in my scabbard. All things I didn’t want from a blade. I wanted this one, I just wanted it to be stronger.

Sighing my frustration I climbed to my feet and approached the door. I pressed my hand to it, tracing the carving with a finger as I had done so many times before. This one displayed a three-headed dog, the kind that guarded hell if I remembered correctly.

I traced the dog's head and the human man that stood beside it, sword and shield raised and ready for battle. That was what this dungeon was for, a true warrior. Someone like Nora, Stella, or Theo. My fingers followed the curve of the dog's back and then the florals behind it.

I frowned. The bumps on the tree behind the three-headed dog felt strange to my fingers. They were close together and in what felt like patterns. I couldn’t see the bumps, they were too fine for my eyes to pick out amongst the patterns in the wood, but I could feel them. I’d felt braille before and this didn’t feel like that.

I closed my eyes and ran my finger over it again, trying to ignore the death screams of another player on the other side of the door.

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The pointy ears, the bushy tail, the long sharp nose. It was a fox. A single paw was lifted, pointing away from the door toward the wall.

The phantoms spoke inside my head, their voices were oddly hushed and distant.

Sasye.

I knew that name. I just couldn’t remember where I’d heard it. I let my hand drop and turned to the wall. I pressed the cold stone. It was firm to the touch, unbending, and rigid. I felt along the wall, hoping for a loose stone that might activate a hidden passage. No such luck though.

I stepped back and let my eyes climb the wall. High above, right where the ceiling and the wall met was a small window letting in purple light from the twin moons outside. The light exposed the pattern in the stained glass. A fox with its tail wrapped around it.

I smiled, reminded how I knew the name. I knew a man who enjoyed exiting through windows. And that man had a fox as a pet. Or two, I wasn't sure. He’d called his Captain Fluffers once but my Identify skill had revealed the fox’s real name; Sasye.

Kendrick had been here before me. I was sure of it. Come to think of it, the man's last name was Nox. Was he a Nox Warrior? My Identify skill hadn’t been strong enough to reveal much about him other than his name.

I approached the wall again and started climbing. The rough brick made it easy, providing plenty of hand and foot holds. I’d gotten much better at climbing anyway; a gift from my thief class no doubt. I wasn’t fast enough for Frank though. The bird took to the air, flapping up to land on the window sill and peck at the finely crafted window.

I reached him soon enough, huffing and puffing just a little. Climbing had eaten away at my stamina, something I’d not noticed it doing in the past. I guess things were different between climbing a drainage pipe and climbing a sheer wall. My stamina was still half full though, meaning I could climb twice this high before dropping to my death. Good to know for future scaling events.

I blinked against the bright purple light now glaring in my face as I shifted my bulk and sat on the wide window sill. The window had looked small from down below but now that I was right in front of it I could see it was almost as big as me at the peak of its half-moon shape.

Carved into the stone of the windowsill, right beside my ass, were words that proved my theory.

‘Kendrick was here.’

I smirked and dug my fingers into my bum bag, pulling out my dagger. I carved my name above his and chipped a line through Kendrick’s. He must have had the same thought as me, and at the same time as well. The dungeon crawl wasn’t the Goddess’ real game. An odd coincidence but not an unwelcome one.

“No, no please… argh!”

I flinched as the scream filtered up to me from beyond the doorway. How many deaths in one single room did that make? Whatever the number, it was more than the last ten floors combined.

Frank hopped over to me, pecking at the spot I’d just carved. I smiled and added his name right beside mine.

‘Joe and Frank Kendrick were here.’

“There, is that better?” I asked the bird.

Frank puffed up his chest and began preening his silky blue-black feathers. The way the purple glow bounced off his feathers made him look more colorful than he really was.

“Well, it must be good if you’re not going to tell me to shut up, hey?”

No matter how I tried to talk to him, the bird refused to talk back. His company was appreciated but even with him I still felt isolated. I needed more. A real conversation with real people. I guess I wasn’t as introverted as I’d always thought I was. The isolation was going to make me crazy if it continued for much longer.

Shaking off that gloomy thought I flicked the latch on the window and pushed it open. The rusted-over hinges creaked loudly but there was no one but me and Frank to hear it. On the other side of the wall was a ledge just wide enough for a single foot. I peeked over the edge and pulled back, my stomach flipping at the incredible height. One false step and that was a long fall to your death. Just long enough to remember how stupid you were before you splattered across the grand gardens below.

Frank wasn’t fazed like I was. He hopped right out onto the ledge and walked along it, stopping every few feet to peck at the stone. No matter how he pecked at it no worms popped up to feed on but he continued to try.

What had the words in the book said? Face the danger. Climb ever higher. Both were things that could be done from outside the tower and within. Clamping my jaw painfully tight I shifted and climbed out onto the ledge, pressing my body against the hard smooth outer wall of the spire. The breeze rushed past me, picking up my stupidly long hair and flinging it into my face.

I took a steadying breath and tilted my head. On every floor, maybe four or five meters between them, there was another ledge. It would be impossible to climb directly from one ledge to the next if it weren’t for the windows in between. Every floor seemed to have them. I’d often used the curtains that draped them on the inside of the challenge rooms to hide as I made my way to the next set of stairs.

I climbed along the ledge until I stood directly under a window. I reached up, a little frustrated that I couldn’t quite reach the windowsill, even on my tip toes. It was just a few finger widths away from me.

I knew what I had to do, I just really didn’t want to do it. I had to jump. I swallowed past the dryness in my throat and looked down. The world beneath me whirled into an enormous vortex just waiting to swallow me whole.

The sound of my heart beating was loud to my own ears and my hands felt damp but also cold. I really, really don’t like heights.

Kendrick did it.

“Kendrick is a psycho,” I said to the voices.

You can be too.

Take Sasye’s path.

Just let go.

“Shut up, would you? None of this is helpful.”

“Shut the hell up!”

“That’s right Frank, you tell them.”

I reached for the windowsill again and jumped. My fingers caught the ledge. I smiled and started lifting my bulk up. My chest was just about level with the sill in no time.

My arms began to shake from the exertion. My damp palms slipped on the too-smooth stone. Frank screeched and flapped into the air far above me. I dropped like a rock through water, a scream tearing from my lips.