Max wiped his forehead, pleased to see he didn’t have any blood on his face. "Okay, that's the last giant in the dungeon outside of the leadership encampment.”

“And it will be for what, another three days?" Lavinia asked.

"Pretty close to that, yup." Max replied. All the giants were dead. Again. He’d gotten very good at killing them. All that was left was the two boss monsters and their minions. Since he knew that he wouldn't be interrupted now, he decided to take another look at the leadership encampment.

Lavinia must have caught wind of his train of thought. She nodded and disappeared from sight.

Max thought about the mana units that he had and frowned. For every giant he'd killed, he'd received a decent amount of mana units, but he'd by far gotten the most after finishing the quest to leave the dungeon. The first five giants that he'd killed had satisfied the quest, and since then he'd wiped them all out…three times. It seemed every third day one new giant would spontaneously appear in the dungeon or walk in from the edges. He wasn't entirely sure. Whenever the new giant showed up, Max would track it down and kill it.

That way he would remain unbothered as he continued to observe the giant chief and the giant shaman. All the giant-watching had come with some general observations.

He’d noticed that while all the giants seemed to eat moss, or rocks, or other normally inedible things, the command group enjoyed cannibalism. Several times now, he’d come across an area where there should have been a dead giant, one he killed, and the body had been gone. All that was left was drag marks back to the giant chief’s camp.

Max thought about this as he silently traveled to the large but crude settlement that the giant chief and shaman lived in.

The bonus quest for the dungeon had been to kill one or the other, but he wondered how many extra mana units he would get for killing them.

“It’s too bad I don’t get more mana units for killing the new giants that pop up after the rest have been wiped out.”

"For sure," Lavinia agreed, her voice directly in his ear.

Max made a face. Actually, let’s talk mentally. We’re not close to the chief’s camp, but I don’t want to take chances.

Works for me

Anyway If it worked that way, like I could get mana units for killing the new giants, and I stayed for another few years farming them, getting an endless supply of mana units, I could reach a three star mana body easily

Even if you could, you can’t stay in the dungeon forever.

Yeah, yeah, said Max. I won’t stay here more than a few months, promise. But anyway, how much do you think I'll get for completing the optional quest?

Hard to say, Lavinia replied. I've always suspected that those types of things were part of most dungeons just to try convincing foolish or greedy groups into getting themselves killed and sent back to their home worlds. Like a test. After all, when you think about it, if a group is reckless, one of the best lessons they could learn is what that sort of mindset can lead to.

I suppose that makes sense. I’ll buy it.

Anyway, to answer your question, it's probably at least twice what you got for finishing the dungeon itself. Probably more.

Max couldn't help it–he chuckled for a second, thinking of how many mana units that could be.

Lavinia mentally said, I don't know why you care that much though. After all, the big question is whether you'll survive after you get out of this dungeon. And if you do, can't you just do more dungeons in the future? Get more mana units?

I don't know about that, said Max. This has been an eye-opening experience for me. Even if I learn how to queue up my own dungeons in the future, I don't think I'd ever trust the system again. At least not until I'm powerful enough that it won't even matter anymore if I get sent to a higher difficulty dungeon. There are just too many ways I can think of for people to screw with me if I’m in the dungeons, too.

Too bad you needed to get all the notoriety you have, said Lavinia. Most students probably don't have to worry about entire groups of lifers wanting to kill them or make their life miserable.

Yeah, well, it's not the first time something like this has happened, Max replied.

You mean in your past life?

Yes. Now you know my big secret, that I was Chasa de Milo…Do you think that I became the Hero of Albion without people trying to end me every step of the way? Hell no. Stubbornness and spite kept me going through some very hard times.

Lavinia's mental voice sounded shocked. Other than the problem you had with Alexi the Just, I thought all of your enemies had been the enemies of humanity.

Hardly. I was born the lowest of the low. You better believe that once I started exhibiting power at the same level of the children of the aristocracy, there were people not happy about that. Back in those days on Albion, sure, there was a war going on, and yes, humanity was being threatened with extinction, but never underestimate the greed of people that already have much more than others and still want more. Something I've learned is that greed comes in different forms, and it's not always just about money or material things. Sometimes it's about validation or even self-image, and those are the most dangerous types of motivations people can have. Other than a drug addiction I don't know of many compulsions that can be stronger for a weak-willed person.

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Lavinia was quiet for a while. Sometimes I forget that I'm contracted with a living legend. I guess part of me still hasn't really accepted it yet.

Well, that's kind of why I didn't tell you in the first place, he said, mental voice wry. That and I wasn't sure what our relationship would be like or whether you could even tell other people. There are a few things I'd like to keep close to the chest right now. My past life being one of them. Obviously having three paths being another. Going back to Earth…Actually, there's a whole bunch of stuff I need to keep secret right now.

In the back of Max’s mind, Saliron chuckled evilly and didn't say anything else. As usual, Max thought this habit of the dark spirit was equal parts creepy and annoying. The problem was, Saliron was probably already aware of this, so he didn't say anything about it. Neither did Lavinia. By unspoken agreement, neither of them gave Saliron any encouragement.

Suddenly, Max received a burst of mental information from Lavinia–position information. He had already known he was getting close to the giant chief’s camp, but it was nice to know for sure. Max slowed down.

He bent and produced two beads from strings around his ankles that he absolutely refused to call “anklets.” Then he transferred the beads to his shoelaces and activated them. These muffling beads would help his footsteps stay silent and prevent him from making any footprints. He also had a stealth bead ready in case he needed to stay still for a while, whether hiding or observing.

Max circled the distant encampment to a small hill he knew of, where he climbed up and then hid in a cleft between two huge, enormous rocks. Then, he dropped his stealth bead and settled in to watch his enemies. This was not the first time he’d done this, but it might be the last. He'd been formulating a plan that just might work to take out the entire group.

The giant chief was a huge male, far bigger than any of the other giants. Tusks jutted from the chief’s mouth, almost as long as the horns on his head. Meanwhile, the shaman was female and smaller than most of the other giants. As far as Max could tell, the shaman had a lot of the same powers as the feral faun shamans had, just much more powerful. This similarity in magic definitely seemed to confirm that there was a connection between the feral fauns and the goat-like giant.

There were three other giants living in the camp that acted as guards, or soldiers. The encampment sported a giant-sized iron spit where the group would sometimes roast body parts of another giant. The sight of the giants butchering and eating another giant was grisly to see. Max had to assume that before he came along, the giants had actually killed one of their own in order to eat them, since their behavior seemed to be one born of long habit.

He idly took a twig out of his pocket and a smaller piece of vine, wrapping the twig into a circle. Max had learned a lot about Bead Sorcery over the last several weeks and had experimented quite a bit with this new power. Now he knew that although the efficiency could be weak, just about anything that was circular with a hole in the middle could be a bead if he thought of it that way. On top of that, quite accidentally, he’d discovered that real beads had much higher efficiency. Beads that had actually been worn for a while could even be imprinted more powerfully than the ones he still had pockets full of.

After a brief, light movement of power and concentration, the wooden circle shimmered to his eye. Looking through it now had an effect similar to a spyglass. By now Max was already well familiar with the occupants of the camp so instead, he surveyed the edges, looking for weaknesses or opportunities to exploit.

He was there for over an hour just watching, and all his spirits knew better than to interrupt him. Max idly brought up his screen, looking at the big button that he could push at any time to return from the dungeon. He had most of a plan now, and he felt pretty good about it, since he was also sure that if it all went sideways, I could just run into the caves again, or just use the button to transfer out of the dungeon.

But this risk would be worth it. Who knew how long it would take him to reach a three-star mana body? He needed mana units, and there was a good–if difficult–way to get them in eyesight.

Your thought pattern just changed. I take it you have a plan? asked Lavinia.

Sure do.

Are you going to tell us about it? asked Lavinia.

I will when we get back to the caves. Not least of which, because... I need to ask you all some questions first, and either way, even if I have to change the plan, all of you are going to end up helping me with it.

Lavinia's grunt echoed in his head. I can't say I'm happy that we'll be doing something dangerous again, but I have to be honest, Max. Staying in this dungeon as long as we have has already been the most boring experience of my life, or unlife, as the case may be. And I spent hundreds of years in Summoner Academy.

Yeah, yeah, said Max. It's a little bit more interesting if you're learning new types of magic like me, but I can imagine that you aren't exactly on vacation here.

I don't even have any books to read," Lavinia complained. The others are fine. I mean Slick does exercise, and Saliron can just go down the chasm and start cracking bones and–

He interrupted her. I really don't need to know what Saliron does for fun. The dark spirit chuckled in the back of his head again but Max ignored it. Anyway, I hear you. Luckily, I think you're about to get your wish.

You mean leaving here? asked Lavinia.

That's right. Then he amended, If I can kill the chief and the shaman. There's nothing else for me to gain in this place.

Saliron's voice intruded on the conversation. What about the other cave? asked the unsettling spirit.

We've already talked about that, said Max. I'm not going near that place, even if I reach a three-star mana body. Remember what we found in the faun cave? Through their bond, he could feel Lavinia's shudder.

It seemed the fauns had found a small tunnel that they usually kept blocked off, but when unblocked, would allow entry of giant centipedes. The freaky room had shown evidence that the fauns sometimes let a single centipede in to gang up on. Evidence suggested the fauns had killed and eaten the enormous centipedes fairly often. What's more, the direction the tunnel ran was towards the other cave system. Max had never seen them outside of their cave, but it didn't take a lot of imagination to imagine what was in the unexplored caves. It also didn’t take a lot of heavy lifting to form theories about what the centipedes usually ate.

What a messed up ecosystem," he thought.

If you feel that way, good thing you're about to break it, said Saliron, followed by his signature chuckle.

Max didn’t respond, just shrugged and trudged back to his cave home. He had a lot of preparation to do and some conversations to have with his spirits.