Huay turned to look at the portal behind her. It was gone. Only the immense ebony frame remained.

“The doors… They’re gone? The guidebook didn’t say anything about that…” Huay broke out into goosebumps at their disappearance.

The burly woman with the spear, Beale, looked back to respond. “Why are you acting surprised? Have you never run a dungeon before?”

“Well…”

“It’s fine if you haven’t. There’s a first time for everything, right?”

“Uh-huh…”

“You’ll be alright. You’re strong, aren’t you?”

“About that…”

“Confidence is fifty percent of success. So chin up. Salein has a sharp eye for talent. You wouldn’t have been allowed to join us if you weren’t capable.”

Huay was at a loss for words. She had yet to tell a full-on lie, but keeping up her charade was already unbearable. The thought of what the group would think of her after learning the truth terrified her more than the dungeon itself. She knew that she had to speak up before things got too serious, but her breathing grew uneasy whenever she thought about doing so. She couldn’t bring herself to say anything.

“You really should’ve done more preparation,” continued Beale, “but there’s no point in telling you now. Dungeons get their name from the fact that it is impossible to leave one without first clearing it. It’s do-or-die once you step foot inside, and each party is sent to their own realm when they step through the gate, so nobody can come to rescue you.”

“Oh,” Huay mumbled. Well, I would’ve died either way. And I already cheated death to get here.

“Beyond that, there really aren’t many common threads between dungeons that you didn’t read about last night.”

“I see…”

The group returned to their characteristic silence as they continued toward the tomb. It was a truly foreboding structure. Dark purple bricks, each larger than their whole party, stacked endlessly atop one another until the bleak silhouette of the five distinct layers of a ziggurat became apparent. The building’s oppressive shadow doused the sandy path on which the group walked in a cold gray. Only the blue sky remained untouched by the dreariness, but there would be no sky inside the tomb.

They continued unflinchingly toward their target. Even Huay was able to remain relatively calm, having already resigned herself to death. The fear that her demise would be slow and painful was all that remained. As they drew ever closer to the pyramid’s entrance, Salein spoke:

“So, to recap for Huay, our plan is to clear floor one, the funeral room, and the second floor today. There are safe rooms between each floor, and we’ll camp out on the one between floors two and three for the first night.” She paused. “We’ll clear floors three and four on the second day. The third day will be the last: we’ll kill Sosiri and loot the boss room before exiting the dungeon. Is everyone clear on all that? Three days total. Only the funeral room should give us any trouble.”

Huay nodded. She knew she had to tell them she wasn’t who they thought she was, but ever-increasing anxiety kept her silent. All she could do was follow any directions that came her way and pray that doing so would prevent the group from abandoning her.

They reached their destination after a few minutes of walking. A gigantic and very unceremonious crack in the side of the tomb marked the entrance. Stepping inside revealed a long, dark hallway of immense height. The passageway itself, though, was narrow to the point of claustrophobia.

A disembodied voice began to speak with a rhythmic slowness. Its words echoed nigh-endlessly against the purple walls of the dungeon. “Foolish mortals. Who dares disturb my tomb? Turn back at once lest you wish to perish at my hands.”

“That’s dialogue option three.” Jorlaan grinned. “We got lucky. That’s the void limb pattern—Beale should have no issues with that.”

“But why are his lines so cheesy?” asked Huay. He sounded like a video game character…

“What do you mean by that?” asked Beale.

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Huay looked down at her sandals. “Nevermind.” Guess they wouldn’t know anything about that.

Jorlaan lit a torch and, with that, the group pressed into the dungeon. The width of the tunnel forced them to form a line with Beale in front, followed by Salein, then Huay, and lastly Jorlaan. Huay could feel her body brushing up against the walls every few steps, her movements imprecise on the uneven floor of loose sand. The air inside was still and damp, and the smell was like rotten meat.

She suddenly found herself slammed into Salein’s back following an abrupt stop by the others ahead.

“Tripwire,” said Beale from upfront. “Step over.”

The group did as instructed and continued. Huay strained her eyes to see the trap as she lunged past, but it remained invisible to her unrefined vision. She wondered if she would have died then and there if Beale hadn’t noticed.

Continuing onwards the stench of decay grew more intense until it was nauseating.

“Monster coming up. A zombie, judging by the smell. Possibly multiple.” Beale pulled her spear out from its holster on her back.

“Tell me its level when it appears, Huay. I want to see your ability in action,” said Salein.

“Oh. Um… Alright. No problem. I can do that.” Huay looked ahead for the zombie. She was quite tall at 5 foot 9 and so she could easily peer out over Beale and Salein in front of her. Even so, it was too dark for her eyes to make out anything ahead of the group.

Faraway groaning noises became audible as they reverberated along the tunnel and, with only that information, she could roughly pick out a level in whatever the source was.

“Level 6, I think.”

“We haven’t even seen it yet,” remarked Salein.

“That’s why I’m not sure.”

“Weird ability.”

“You’re not wrong…” said Huay.

“Not a bad one though,” said Beale, sounding relieved. “The range is impressive. We can use it to spot ambushes and avoid unnecessary encounters.”

Huay hadn’t even thought about using it that way. Having a concrete application for her power made her feel slightly better about herself.

“What are the limitations?” Salein sounded skeptical.

“I think I can perceive levels in basically anything,” Huay paused. “Oh, I didn’t mention, I can see them in like, parts of things too. Your left hand is only level 13, but your right is level 19.”

“Hands don’t have levels. But I did injure my left hand in the last raid a few months back. It hasn’t been the same since,” Salein said.

“What do you mean you ‘think’ you can see these levels? How long have you had this ability?” asked Jorlaan.

Huay hesitated. “Uh, I got it pretty recently.”

“So how did you survive before that? What other abilities do you have?”

Beale interrupted the conversation before Huay could answer. “Zombie is here.” Her spear began to glow with a beautiful golden aura whose light was several times brighter than the torch and lit up the tunnel more than before.

A moving ooze of flesh was revealed by the intense glow. It inched along the ground with swollen limbs that left a trail of puss in their wake. Several eyes grew out of its skinless back and head, and the fetid aroma it gave off up close was nauseating. Just a single glance at the creature made Huay sick to her stomach.

Beale moved with speed Huay perceived as a hazy blur as her spear skewered the monster straight through its skull. A deafening shriek followed and for a brief moment there was the sound of a struggle. A second impalement drowned the area in silence a few seconds later.

“Partial Kill. +6 XP.” The voice spoke again. The information I gave must have counted as an assist.

“A crawler.” She glanced at Huay and then back at the creature’s corpse. “A single bite is fatal to just about anyone. And they’re sneaky at higher levels. Hiding on the ceiling and whatnot.”

“You don’t need to tell us.” Salein seemed annoyed. “We’ve all seen this dozens of times before.”

“Huay hasn’t been in a dungeon before. I doubt she’s had the misfortune of seeing one until now,” said Beale.

“I hope your experience as a fighter makes up for your lack of dungeon experience, Huay.”

Huay provided no response, so the group resumed their journey through the tunnel without another word. The crawler was about ten feet long, leaving Huay and the others no choice but to walk along the slimy corpse to continue. Goopy flesh and unknown fluids reached her feet through the Yeezy Slides she wore.

Eventually, after reaching the end of the tunnel, two doors greeted them on either side. One was an ornate door made from wood of a dark, reddish hue. The other door was much duller, and of a more mundane lumber.

“Red,” Salein said promptly.

“Why red?”

“Because the red door leads to the Funeral Room.”

Huay remembered skimming a section about the doors of layer 1 on the prior night. Both doors were supposed to lead to layer two. The white door was a straight shot to the next area while the red one led to a so-called ‘Funeral Room’. It was a place where the belongings of adventurers who had perished trying to clear the dungeon would reappear in future runs, and the potential to find something valuable was quite high. A dangerous ‘miniboss’ resided inside, and it was necessary to defeat before one could leave the room.

“Shouldn’t we just focus on progressing through the layers? We wanted to get through two of them today, didn’t we?”

“We decided on this months ago.”

“But…”

“Save it for later. We’re going in.” Salein readied her bow. “Open the door.”