The three cows netted them two large Tuna-Cow steaks for cooking and six of the ten fish steaks needed for their guild quest. The generous drops gave Ayn hope that there weren’t too many more Tuna-Cows on the floor. Those things weren’t always slow, and they hit like a ton of bricks.

A quick scan of the seagrass pasture revealed nothing interesting, and Miit’s continued absence assured Ayn she hadn’t missed any treasure.

The party continued on. They followed the curve of the coral and rock wall, and much to Kayara’s chagrin, nearer the sound of bleating.

“What if it’s more of that farmer’s stupid moon-sheep flock?” Kayara said from behind Ayn, where she’d been creeping closer and closer.

“The one he had is supposed to be the last one,” Ayn said. “If that wasn’t true, I’d figure finding the others would be a quest.”

“I agree,” Bren said, surprising Ayn when he didn’t take the chance to goad Kayara. “More likely, it’s the goats he spoke of.”

“Right,” Kayara said. “He didn’t like those, did he?”

Kayara sounded as if she was trying to convince herself, so Ayn nodded emphatically, hoping to save her shoulder from another assault. In fact, she was about to tell the party to attack the goats to get it over with when a flash of bright color caught her eye.

The swaying seaweed pasture, which still sat close to their feet, had continued along their path. The wall they were following had just dipped right into a large, empty looking alcove. A few rocky pillars were scattered across its length and width.

A flash came again. Crystalline blue with accents of green and pink darted from behind one pillar to another. It looked like…a horse.

Kayara’s head swiveled toward the flash, and Ayn moved away and toward the creature before she had to figure out if the ranger was afraid of horses, too.

The creature paused halfway between two pillars as Ayn moved closer. Its coat glittered in a multi-colored hue, not unlike the coral which surrounded it. It regarded Ayn with deep, clear eyes, then tossed its seaweed mane, flicked its seahorse tail, and vanished behind a pillar once more. Seahorse. Ayn grimaced. She supposed such a simple pun was hard to avoid. Regardless, the creature was quite beautiful, and the sight of it filled Ayn with the need to touch it.

Ayn jerked as a shadow passed over her. Sheyric floated past.

“Pretty,” he muttered in Ayn’s direction, then continued deeper into the pasture and closer to the pillars.

“Shey—”

Bren’s voice cut off. A quick glance revealed Kayara to be the culprit, her hand over the mage’s mouth. Bren’s face grew an angry red-brown. It seemed horses were indeed on the list of things Kayara feared.

A sharp neigh brought Ayn’s attention back to the matter at hand. Sheyric floated in the center of the scattered pillars. The Seahorse darted out into view, barely out of touching range, and when Sheyric lifted a hand, it flitted behind a pillar, only to pop out from a different one. Ayn had a distant feeling she should be more wary of the creature, but a light sense of joy smothered it. She wanted to play, too.

Ayn joined in on the game, approaching from the side. The Seahorse took it in stride, darting toward each of them in turn before pirouetting out of reach with a whicker. Ayn took the offensive. As soon as it got close to her again, she lunged forward. Her fingers came so near its muzzle she was sure she’d touched it, yet her hand swiped through water and the Seahorse shot away. Ayn followed. She and the creature darted in and out of the pillars. When it became clear she wasn’t getting any closer, she broke away and charged the Seahorse at an angle. While she wasn’t familiar with herding horses, she was very familiar with herding chickens, and if she cornered it, a horse wouldn’t slip through her legs.

She drove the Seahorse to the back of the alcove. Finally, she had it against a dip in the wall. Ayn rushed forward. The Seahorse neighed, its front hooves pawing at the water, but it had nowhere to go. Ayn’s hand brushed its muzzle. It was soft as down, despite its crystalline appearance. As soon as she touched it, the Seahorse quieted. It went still and leaned into her caress. A shimmering light enveloped it, and for one horrifying moment, Ayn was afraid her touch had somehow killed it.

The light shrank until the Seahorse was only the size of her palm. With a delicate chime, the creature settled in her hand, leaving a blue, green, and pink piece of crystalline coral carved into the shape of a Seahorse.

PET [CORAL SEAHORSE] RECEIVED

Ayn rubbed her thumb across the surface. The carving shimmered again and dropped to her side, where it coalesced into a miniature Seahorse that barely came up to her leg. The little thing made a great show of rearing and pawing the air like it had in its larger form. Ayn petted it without thought. The thing was adorable.

She’d heard about pet drops in the Dungeon before, but never seen any. Such items couldn’t be used outside of the Dungeon or personal homes, after all. The admins had long ago decided that letting everyone show off their pets would cause streets to get clogged, and looking at the Seahorse, Ayn knew she wouldn’t have been able to resist showing it off. In fact, as soon as she’d spent a minute reveling in its silky-smooth coat, she led it back toward the rest of the party.

Sheyric had shifted back with Bren and Kayara, but moved forward again when he saw Ayn and the Seahorse coming towards them. As he drew closer, Kayara shrank back, and a sinking feeling bloomed in Ayn’s stomach.

“Pretty,” Sheyric said as he sidled up to the little Seahorse. “Colorful.”

The mage wrung his hands, somehow shuffling side-to-side while being suspended in water.

Ayn cocked her head. “You can pet it, if you want.”

Sheyric’s hand stretched out before Ayn even finished her sentence. The little Seahorse leaned into the petting and whickered.

Sheyric chuckled.

The sound caught Ayn so off guard, she wondered if she’d imagined it, but Sheyric confirmed it by chuckling again as the Seahorse spun in place. Ayn had been half-convinced the mage was incapable of mirth, yet here he was giggling like a little boy. She cast a sidelong glance at Kayara, who floated a long way off by herself.

Bren moved up to pet the Seahorse as well. He raised an eyebrow at the giggling Sheyric. “So, the horse was a hidden pet. Congratulations, Ayn. I’d honestly thought it was a trap, and I’d have to fireball it after it tried to eat you.”

Ayn smiled weakly. That had been a definite possibility, far more likely than a hidden pet, yet the impulse to touch the creature had overridden all else. She really needed to get her impulses under control before they led them all to ruin like her last party.

Bren frowned as Sheyric batted his hand away so he could keep petting the Seahorse. “Hey. It’s not yours, you know. If you like it so much, why didn’t you chase it down?”

Sheyric paused mid-pet, then withdrew his hand and hung his head. “Too hard.”

“Too hard? Is that why it took you so long to heal us the first time? It was too hard?”

Ayn looked at Sheyric, wishing he’d peel back his hood for once so she could see his face. She had a feeling the truth was a far cry from the words he’d chosen.

The Seahorse vanished with a sweep of Ayn’s hand, reappearing in her palm as a tiny carving. She held it out to Sheyric. “Take it. It’s yours.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Sheyric’s head snapped up.

“Why are you giving it to him?” Bren asked. “You got it on your own. Besides, those things are quite valuable. If you really don’t want it, we could sell it and buy gear from a proper crafter.” His face flushed as Ayn glared at him. “My apologies. I didn’t mean to insult your crafter friend, but we could use better equipment.”

“Aren’t you the one who’s wanting to leave?” Ayn said. “What’s the point of better armor if all you’re doing is waiting for the party to disband?”

“What? I don’t—”

“Besides, I caught the Seahorse because I’m a farmer and I know how to corner animals by myself. Unless Sheyric has similar experience, he’d be chasing the thing until he died of exhaustion. Or, like you said, it could have been a mob waiting to attack. Better me than him, even if that means you lose out on a warehouse worker.”

Bren kept quiet and backed up.

Ayn’s brain caught up to her mouth. She went cold. Bren had insulted Sheyric, who was clearly feeling vulnerable, and insulted Tal. His actions had triggered painful memories, making her lash out at a favored son of Cristak’s only crafting guild, who also held a contract that could destroy all of her dreams with one misstep. Had she gone insane?

“Keep it,” Sheyric said. The words hissed through his teeth as if he loathed to let them out.

“No,” Ayn said. She’d gone this far and chewed out the one person she’d begged to stay. She wasn’t about to rescind the offer. “You take it. I can’t use it, anyway.”

Sheyric paused. “Why?”

Ayn nodded toward a distant Kayara. “I have to fight close to her. Do you think she’s going to be okay with an animal nearby? She won’t even come near us.”

“At home?”

“I have Miit, and I don’t dare make him jealous. He’s quite fond of waking me up by laying on my face at night when he’s mad. Just promise me you’ll only use it when Kayara’s not nearby.”

When Sheyric still didn’t take the carving, Ayn tossed it in his direction.

He let out a quick yelp and grabbed it, fumbling for a moment before cradling the carving with both hands. “Thank you.”

Ayn sighed and looked at Bren, an apology on her lips. The mage shook his head and headed back to Kayara, his expression blank.

They all stayed quiet as they followed the seaweed pasture around to another cul-de-sac. This one contained more Tuna-Cows and Shrickens. Kayara and Ayn cut them down with gusto. Ayn was eager to have something to take her frustrations out on, and it seemed Kayara felt the same.

The drops finished out their fish-steak quest, and Ayn was about to pick up the last feather for the soggy feather quest when she noticed something odd. The back of the cul-de-sac had a sharp drop at the back that formed a hole, and from within, the top of something smooth and speckled peeked out. She moved closer and peered in.

A bird’s nest, woven from dead kelp and studded with plucked Shricken feathers, circled an egg four times the size of any Shricken they’d fought. Blue spots covered its shell, and as Ayn stared at it, she could have sworn it moved.

“Uh, guys,” she said. “I think I found the egg the farmer was talking about.”

The rest of the party gathered around.

“Wow. That’d make quite the omelette,” Kayara said.

She wasn’t wrong. The thing wasn’t quite as tall as any of them, but it wasn’t much shorter, and it was wide enough it would take two of them to wrap their arms around it.

“So,” Bren said. “We’re supposed to destroy it, right? How about just cracking it?”

Ayn took the initiative, suddenly curious what raw egg would do under water. Her saber reverberated off the shell so hard it numbed her arm for a second. “That’s a no to sabers.”

Kayara tried next. Her arrow ricocheted, nearly hitting her in the head before burying into a wall.

When Bren started to sing, the other three scattered. As expected, his fireball bounced off, although Bren had angled it in such a way that it went straight up, leaving a boiling circle a dozen feet above them.

They all glanced at Sheyric, who simply shrugged.

“That’s a no to physical and magical attacks,” Ayn said. “So that must mean there’s a way to destroy it somewhere on the floor.”

“Like a special mechanism?” Bren asked. “Smart.”

Ayn cocked her head, unsure of whether his compliment was aimed at her, or the floor’s design.

“Well, I hope the Tuna-Cows didn’t trample it,” Kayara said. “Those things move around a lot for something so big.”

“I don’t think so,” Ayn said. “Or if it was, The System would spawn more. I’ve never heard of an uncompletable floor. Have you, Sheyric?”

As much as Ayn loved Crawling and absorbed every bit of info on it she could, she hadn’t ever been as far into the Dungeon as Sheyric.

“No.”

“Well, there you have it. It looks like our next step is to figure out how to destroy the egg.”

Kayara eyed the egg incredulously. “How? It’s not like we can fit that thing in our inventory, right? I certainly can’t carry it around.”

Seeing as how no one else seemed willing to try, Ayn touched the egg. Some items only activated on touch. Nothing happened. Oh well, she thought. It was worth a shot. “I think we’ll just have to explore some more. Hopefully, whatever it is, it’s obvious. Once we find what we need, we can come back and get the egg.”

“Can we pick it up?” Kayara asked.

That was a good question. Ayn wrapped her arms halfway around it and scrabbled for purchase. What little grip she found on the thing wasn’t enough to budge it. Kayara took the other side, hugging the other half and grasping Ayn’s hands in the middle.

“On three, pull up,” Kayara said. “One…two…three!”

The egg came free of its nest, suspended between them. It was heavy, no doubt about it, but now that they had in it their grip, Ayn didn’t think it would be too hard to carry over long distances. Just bulky. “Let’s put it down.”

Kayara obliged, and the egg resettled in its nest.

“Definitely movable,” Ayn said. “But fighting is out of the question.”

“Isn’t fighting with it around what we want?” Bren asked. “If we drag it in front of mobs, who just so happen to destroy it, then quest completed.”

“Yeah,” Kayara said. “But it will also mean we’ll start every fight with Ayn and me as sitting ducks. I don’t want to think what would happen if we ran into another Tuna-Cow while we had our backs turned.”

Sheyric floated over to the egg as if contemplating how best to grab it.

“Thanks,” Ayn said with a smile. “But I don’t think your strength is high enough to carry it. Besides, having our healer as a slow-moving target is even worse. We’re just going to have to keep it here for now. I doubt The System will make it hard.”

With nothing more to do, the party continued along the right wall, shifting from east to north. The floor dropped away once more. The seaweed pastures of the southern side vanished back into silt, debris, coral, and the occasional patch of kelp far below them, which Ayn eyed warily. She wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to see the stuff without a shiver running up her spine.

They hadn’t gone far when two things happened at once—a sudden roaring whoosh in the distance set off a chorus of loud bleats, and Miit appeared next to Ayn.

Kayara had already been trailing behind, so she was spared her antics, and she pretended to not hear the high-pitched shriek that the noise mostly drowned out.

Miit floated off to the side, and Ayn followed to the inevitable hidden chest. Another roaring whoosh sounded out as Miit fiddled with the treasure chest’s lock.

“That cat of yours is quite handy,” Bren said, coming up beside Ayn.

Miit paused mid-lock pick and glared at Bren.

“He prefers ‘familiar’,” Ayn said, barely suppressing a chuckle.

“Right.” Bren bowed in Miit’s direction. “Apologies, good familiar. We would be much poorer without you to help us. You are much appreciated.”

Miit huffed and went back to his work. He pretended to dismiss Bren’s compliments, but Ayn saw the happy flick of his tail. She glanced at Bren, remembering the less-than-great end to their last conversation. “I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier.”

Bren shrugged. “Who says I didn’t deserve it?”

The treasure chest’s lock clicked open, and Bren surged forward, hands in inside, before Ayn could respond.

SIXTY-ONE GOLD RECIEVED

“Huh,” Bren said, looking somewhat dejected. “You can have the rest.”

Ayn cocked an eyebrow and moved close enough to peer into the chest. A single item lay folded on the bottom, some sort of medium leather hauberk by the looks of it. That’s why he looked dejected. Spellcasters couldn’t wear anything other than clothing and light armor. Although, why he hadn’t grabbed it to sell, she didn’t know. The mage was a complicated fellow. Regardless, she and Kayara could wear medium armor, and she already had the bow for Kayara. Perhaps she could add this piece to her gift. Ayn scooped up the armor.

Twin Sword Hauberk

Minimum Lv. 3

+8 defense

+3 damage to dual sword attacks

+3 to agility

Ayn’s eyes widened. The armor seemed hand-crafted for her. Kayara’s daggers wouldn’t benefit from the increased damage, and while the ranger could use the agility, Ayn had never seen her get hit. She, on the other hand, had stressed Sheyric’s mana reserves throughout both floors.

With the decision made obvious, Ayn slipped the armor into her inventory and turned to pet Miit, who waited by her side for the compliments he justly deserved.

“Thank you,” she said as she scratched under his chin.

Miit leaned into the scratches, closing his eyes and purring loud enough to vibrate the bubble surrounding him. He held the position for a minute, then vanished, but not before Ayn noticed a touch of fatigue in the way he held his body. Normally, he’d stay by her or her mother’s side. Teleporting so much was very unusual for him, and she hoped it wasn’t doing him harm. All the more reason to have that talk with Kayara, she supposed. Once she knew the problem, she could work on a solution. But first, she needed to finish the floor and watch Bren tear up that infernal contract.