Mirai stomped ahead, glancing back at Edgar repeatedly. Her looks were sour, then tender, then grossed out. She slapped him with another water blast.

“Hey! What was that for, I’m clean, I swear.”

“As if, humph!” She spun and continued on.

They reached the central room where the hearth sat, flickering warmly, and a large marble door swung closed behind them.

Cleared the Zombie’s Crypt

Room 3 of 5

Mirai finally got her words together.

“I was so… worried! Why didn’t you tell me you had a healing skill! I really thought you were…”

She balled her fists and a few angry tears rolled down her cheeks.

“I just didn’t want you to see that. It’s not something I’m happy about. Damn Pharaoh is trying to—”

“He gave you a unique skill that can keep you alive! hic—” she cried.

Edgar deflated. “I’m so sorry, don’t cry. I didn’t mean to—”

“No, listen. When we’re in the Rift you’ve got to do everything you can to survive. You can’t ignore your skills! How am I supposed to trust you now that I know you’ve been neglecting such a strong skill?”

Now Edgar was getting angry, “I’m not neglecting it! This skill is the only reason you’re still alive. I used it so I’d be strong enough to carry you out of the dungeon after the fight with the Prince of Imps.”

Mirai flinched, more tears.

Edgar instantly regretted bringing that up.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Sigh… It… It freaks me out still. I’m not used to being… this.”

Edgar gestured at his body. Mirai glanced from his cat ears, to his teeth, to his claws.

“I just want to be… normal.”

Mirai paused, then something clicked for her and she chuckled. A warm, compassionate laugh that caught Edgar off guard.

“Oh, Edgar… I think I’m starting to understand. What does that word mean to you?”

“Normal?”

“Yeah.”

“Well… Like everybody else.”

“Is that what the world you come from is like? Everybody is trying to be like everybody else?… That sounds exhausting.”

She laid a hand on his arm. “Well, let me let you in on a little secret. This world—-the Network—isn’t like that at all. It’s impossible to be like everybody else, because everybody’s different.”

“Sigh… I’m being a bit childish, aren’t I? I think my therapist would have words for me too.”

She flicked his arm. “You’re deflecting.”

“How do you know to say all this?”

“What do you mean? You mean the truth?” She flipped her hair. “I always speak the truth. If you didn’t realize it, then you haven’t been listening.”

Edgar smiled ruefully, “I’ve been a bone head.”

She palmed her face, smiling, “oh Pharaoh, these bone jokes…”

“Oh, while we’re on the topic of sharing skills, I really wish I could show you what happened to my screen after Mammon answered my questions.”

She frowned. “Your question about the curse? Am I gonna like this?”

Edgar pulled up his status screen.

Ability: [Curse of the Grand Imp’s Bloodline: Level Corruption]

* Leveling is now more difficult.

* [System] The base factor in this player’s x://☐ess3ncexthresh0ldx/> for leveling activity is raised by 50%.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

* Level: 1

* Progress to level 1: 46%

The strange text in the system effect fizzled and glitched, as if it wasn’t supposed to appear.

“I’m pretty sure it says ‘the base factor in this player’s essence threshold for leveling activity is raised by fifty percent.’ Does that mean anything to you?”

Mirai scratched her chin. “No, it doesn’t… and we should be careful telling anyone about it until we understand what it means.”

“How are we supposed to understand it if we don’t ask anyone about it?”

“Don’t be difficult. We just have to find knowledgeable people we can trust.”

“Sigh… I’m sure you’re right.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. Then reached for one of his ears.

“H-hey! You can’t just grab them out of the blue like that!”

Edgar shivered away from her grasp, managing to keep himself together despite the extremely sensitive feeling of her fingers on his ears.

She plopped down by the hearth and patted the ground next to her. “Come get some rest, little monster. It was another good day. We’re now officially on track to have a shot at clearing the Rift for real—one day left and only two doors.”

Edgar glanced back at the doors they had cleared: the Bone Arena, the Djinn’s Chambers, and the Zombie’s Crypt. There were only two left.

“Do you think we’ll actually clear it?”

She shrugged. “Maybe, but don’t forget our goal is not to clear the rift—it’s to survive. If we are out matched, we retreat and bunker down. You might have a self-healing skill, but I don’t… and we have zero potions left.”

They chatted for a while and then Edgar took the first watch. After a few hours of meditation and practicing his skills, he woke Mirai for her shift and drifted asleep himself. The next thing he knew, she was waking him up and it was time to continue on. Two nights of partial sleep were starting to show on her face. Edgar made a mental note that if they were going to live like this, having some way to rest safely inside the rift would be a huge benefit. He could feel it in himself too, a grogginess that he did his best to shake off with some quick exercise.

Mirai did her own exercises and before long they were ready and standing before door number four.

Edgar glanced at Mirai. “What did the Bonesmith say about this room?”

She had a hungry look in her eyes. “There’s mushrooms called the Faun’s Footstep. I’ll find every, single, one. I want that moon metal!”

Edgar couldn’t help but smile at her passion and make a mental note to help her find these mushrooms. Magic flared and the door opened, revealing a giant space of thick green moss and neon bioluminescence. Fungi of all shapes and sizes glowed different colors on the walls and ceiling, creating a sort of underground oasis in the dark.

“Whoa…” Edgar could believe his eyes, taking a few steps into the dim, colorful light of the room, running his hands along one of the mushrooms. Its trunk was as thick as a palm tree and its crown opened up above him, revealing glowing pink tendrils underneath.

His memories from his previous life were fading and dimming, but even so, he felt confident in saying this room was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.

Mirai joined him under the mushroom, looking up at its lights. “Pretty.”

“Yeah.”

They stood for a moment, soaking in the scenery. The cavern they were in was massive and loaded with mushrooms. There were some small bugs too, sounds like crickets and fireflies dancing in the air between the plants. The path sloped down into the thick of the mushrooms, so dense it was like a jungle.

“How are we gonna know which mushrooms are Faun’s Footsteps?”

Mirai smirked, tapping her head. “Just gotta throw one into your inventory and see what it’s called.”

Edgar nodded. “Magic for the win.”

“Come on, let’s get that moon metal.”

Mirai led the way down the path, leading in amongst the mushrooms. The path was narrow, but surprisingly clear. In the back of his mind, Edgar wondered if the path was clear because there were animals here, walking among the mushrooms. Curiosity bubbled in him at the thought of what sort of creatures would live in this strange place. Something about mushrooms and fungi made it easy to imagine dinosaurs wandering around. The image of a Brontosaurus chomping on a mouthful of glowing plants made him smile.

There were some small creatures, skittering among the undergrowth of moss, but nothing that threatened them outright. He tried to catch a glimpse of one and it definitely looked a bit like a salamander, but it hustled off on two legs…

He smiled to himself, marveling at this room—-no, at this whole world he had been thrown into. Was he really about to see living dinosaurs? He tried not to get his hopes up too high. He had seen zombies already today, so there was really only so much a person could ask for. Although, having to eat the zombie had been a pretty steep price to pay for that particular experience.

He felt an odd shiver run through his body, remembering how gross and yet delicious it had been all at once.

Thump.

Edgar stumbled backward. “Sorry.”

Mirai stumbled forward and shot him a reproachful glance. Ahead of her was a fork in the path.

She gestured at the path. “Should we flip a coin?”

Edgar stepped up to check out each leg of the path. He couldn’t detect any noteworthy differences, so sat on a rock in the middle and closed his eyes, focusing on his nose. This room was bringing his sense of smell to life. He hadn’t really had a chance to use it to its fullest, but now it was like he could see in a whole new dimension—one that wrapped around corners! He sniffed, taking in the scents from the left, then the right.

“Oh, it’s that way.”

“How do you know?”

“Well, the air doesn’t smell so foul down there.” Edgar made a gesture like tipping his wizard hat at her.

She gave him a pained smile. “You’re doing that thing again, aren’t you? Where you say weird stuff there’s no chance I’ll understand?”

Edgar shrugged. “If there’s no ’normal’ in this world, shouldn’t there be no ’weird’ either?”

Mirai raised a scolding finger at him in mock anger. “Hey! I was trying to comfort you, don’t use my own kind words against me!”

Edgar laughed, standing and stretching his arms, gesturing magnanimously towards the less foul smelling path. “After you, my lady?”

Mirai shook her head and marched right past him, flicking her hair imperiously.

As she continued, Edgar glanced down the other path… He hadn’t lied, there were many nice smells coming from that direction, but one that hid under all the others. It was different from the sweetness and bright pollen filling the air all around them.

The smell of fresh death.

He turned to follow Mirai, looking into the dark spaces in the mushroom jungle for hints of danger.

~~~~~~~~~~

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