Monica placed both hands on the crystal doors and pushed. Nothing happened. Not even a groan or a scrape. The surface remained smooth and unyielding under her palms.

She tried channeling the Obsidian Flame into her hands. The black fire spread across the crystal but didn't leave a mark. She increased the intensity until the flames roared against the surface, but the doors didn't even warm up. The crystal seemed to absorb the heat without effect.

The doors remained unchanged.

"Well," Monica said, letting her flames die out. "That's not working." She stepped back and studied the doors again.

That's when the notification rang in her head.

*Ding*

Quest Updated – ‘Eradication I/III’

Destroy all the Corrupted Constructs plaguing the first floor of Viscera in order to retrieve the Key to the Temple of Dhoznil.

Progress: 6/80

Reward:

* Rare Loot Chest x3

* Second Class Slot

"We need to kill more spiders," she said. "The Quest updated. We need to clear all eighty of them to get a key. The key didn’t appear in the Rewards, which meant it must have physically been somewhere."

Sir Tristan scrutinized the doors, craning his neck up, and putting his armored hand on them. Then sighed. "Couldn't have been that easy," he shook his head. "So we need to kill all the spiders first?"

"Seems so," Monica replied.

"That's quite a few of spiders."

"Not if we do it right," Sir Tristan crossed his arms. "As long as none of us lose their minds again, we should be able to go through them faster. I have to admit, your Classes might not be leveled up, but they can deal a lot of damage. Let's make sure you're all prepared for what's going to wait for us in the lower levels."

"They like to hide in buildings," Ted said. "Maybe we should sweep through the residential district?"

Everyone looked at each other and then started descending the stairs.

“Ted,” Monica suddenly asked. “Wasn’t I supposed to get a Skill at Level 20?”

Ted shook his head, but it was Sir Tristan who intercepted the question.

“It’s not guaranteed,” the large man replied, looking at the steep slope of stairs with a raised eyebrow. “Every ten levels, you’re likely to get a Skill, but many Classes happen not to get one for tens of Levels. The stronger the Class, the rarer the Skills.”

“Maybe that’s why you didn’t get any Skill,” Heidi said to Ted with a smile. “Your Class is extremely strong.”

“May I ask,” Sir Tristan said, “how does your Class work?”

“He has a name,” Heidi said.

“Ted,” Sir Tristan corrected himself. “May I ask?”

“You may, but you may not get an answer,” Heidi replied.

“It’s fine,” Ted shrugged. “I got the Bard Class, but I only have one Skill, Song of the Phoenix.”

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"You only have one Skill?" Sir Tristan sounded surprised.

"Yeah. I don't know. I just can't get many levels," Ted shrugged.

Sir Tristan looked at Ted's level. He was currently Level 25. Then he looked at Heidi, who through the past two engagements had already reached Level 36. Considering the impact that the young man's Skill had on battle by empowering both Heidi and Monica, it wouldn't have been surprising if he actually got slightly more experience than both. But he seemed to only be growing in level slightly faster than Monica herself.

Sir Tristan suspected that the woman had a terrifying experience multiplier to satisfy in order to level up such a strong Class as hers. But could it be that the young man had something similar? He himself only had that pitiful 1.2 for his Steel Knight Class. They were currently fighting monsters more than fifty levels above their own, and yet they were only leveling up this much. And this young man wasn't getting any kind of freakish growth.

"So you have one Skill, this Song of the Phoenix, and it empowers them because they have Classes with 'Phoenix' in their name?" Sir Tristan asked, trying to get a better picture.

"Basically," Ted shrugged.

That made somewhat sense to Sir Tristan, but it was Ted himself who cleared up his thoughts.

"If I had to guess," Ted said, "the Bard Class is basically this manifestation of a reflection of someone else's powers. As a Bard, I think I'm still here to assist Monica. I'm not really sure, to be fair, what my Class is really up to, but I think that the power of the Skill, the reason Song of the Phoenix is so powerful, is because it's so specific. It doesn't empower anyone else but those who were blessed by the Twin Phoenix. I'm not even sure that 'blessed' is the right term - just those affiliated with the Twin Phoenix. So maybe that's why it's hard to gain new Skills, because there's only Monica and Heidi, and I'm already playing the one song I know."

Sir Tristan fell silent, thinking to himself that even like this, Ted's Class sounded insanely strong. Despite the high degree of specialization, it was clearly Ted's help that allowed Monica, none other than the Avatar of the Twin Phoenix, a being that supposedly was on par with Old Gods, to punch far above her weight.

"So there's no way to level faster?" Sir Tristan asked.

"Not that I know of," Ted replied.

Monica studied him thoughtfully. "What about new songs?"

Ted looked up from his mandolin. "You mean like creating them?"

"Yeah. Could you make songs that do different things?"

"Maybe," Ted said. "The Song of the Phoenix just came to me when I saw you fighting. I didn't plan it."

They reached the bottom of the stairs. Monica looked at the buildings around them.

They walked together through the residential district. The stone dwarves lined the streets, frozen in their daily routines. Monica made sure to keep her distance from them. Something about disturbing their eternal stillness felt wrong.

"No spiders," Heidi said after they checked another street.

"They must be somewhere," Monica said. "We need that key to get the Spear of Dhoznil. And we need the Spear to kill Machina."

They passed a market square. Stone vendors stood behind empty stalls of goods that must have decomposed a long time ago. A mother held her child's hand, both turned to stone mid-step.

"Still no spiders," Dotty said.

Sir Tristan led their formation, shield ready. "This isn't right. We've seen them attack before. Why are they hiding now?"

Monica nodded. "The Spear is our only chance against Machina. Lucas was clear about that. My flames won't be enough to kill her. We need to find these spiders and get that key."

They walked another hour through empty streets. The artificial sun in the cave ceiling cast long shadows. More stone dwarves watched their passage. But no spiders appeared.

Then they saw them. A group of three Corrupted Spider Constructs stood at the end of the street, their metal legs clicking against the stone. Monica tensed, ready to fight. Sir Tristan raised his shield. Heidi's hands burst into black flame while Ted readied his mandolin.

But the spiders just watched them. Their mechanical bodies gleamed in the artificial light. Then, as one, they turned and skittered away into a side street.

"That's... strange," Monica said.

"They're avoiding us," Sir Tristan lowered his shield. "But why?"

They saw it happen two more times. Groups of spiders would appear, observe them from a distance,and then retreat before the group could engage.

"This is getting annoying," Heidi said after the third group fled. "How are we supposed to get the key if they won't fight us?"

"We need to figure out why they're running," Monica said. "These are Machina's creations. They shouldn't feel fear."

"Unless they were ordered to avoid us," Ted suggested.

“Why would they—”

Suddenly, a notification rang in Monica’s head.

*Ding*

Quest Progress Updated – ‘Eradication I/III’

Progress: 6/80 -> 6/84

“The spiders are multiplying,” Monica said.