Another ooze spilled out after its core shattered into a million pieces, mixing the caustic black acid with the red solidified mana. Shadara sighed as she shook her quiver. There were two arrows left.

“What do you say we go back?” She pursed her lips as she pointed to my arm. “I’m out of arrows. You’re out of both mana and food potions. We’re both out of mana. We’ve got nothing left.”

I scratched the back of my head. “Could you even get out at this point? I mean, we’ve been wandering down here for almost seven hours. For the last three, we’ve been constantly picking directions at random.”

“If I could’ve salvaged my arrows after the fights, then maybe we could keep going. But unless you have a way you can start using your gun again, we have to just run back, hoping we get lucky.” Shadara sat down on the only remaining cushioned bench. The ooze destroyed the others as we kept away from it. “Besides, I’m beat.”

I sat next to her. “Yeah. There’s a bath somewhere calling my name too.”

Shadara pinched her nose and waved her hand. “No kidding. And I’m pretty sure your pants weren’t shorts when we started.” Her smile disappeared as she slumped forward. “But we really should’ve made a map while wandering down here.”

I elbowed my friend in the side. She flinched away with a mocking, hurt expression. “That’s for saying I stink. It can’t be that bad.” Shadara pointed to her nose. “Yeah, yeah, your sense of smell is better than mine. But it still can’t tell what’s a mimic or not.”

I looked around the room at all the small portraits on the wall. Each one was of a different ghost maid or butler. But why don’t I see Elara’s? Our directionless wandering led us to another dead end.

“So, what do you suggest?” I waved at the door we entered from. “We’ve killed quite a lot of those oozes and several mimics. What if we run into more of them?”

“They’re pretty slow. We could just run around and avoid them.” Shadara lowered her head. “But if we run into a dead end, we’ll be trapped. And you willingly sticking your hand in the oozes to pull out their cores is equal parts insane and brilliant.”

I rubbed at the metal coating that was my skin. “Yeah, but it worked, didn’t it?”

“So long as you had food to replace the damage they caused you. But now we’re out of food and lost.” She rubbed at her temples. “Agh. Why was I so stupid and didn’t make a map?”

I placed a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay. You wanted to see what was in this dungeon. Your curiosity got the better of you.”

She turned her head and glared. “That doesn’t help.”

I don’t remember how we got here. Shadara doesn’t remember how we got here. Orange, do you know how we got here?

Yes. We can remember everything clearly. If you would like, we can attempt to create an overlay of a basic geometric representation of the dungeon you have seen on your HUD.

You’re just now telling me this? Why? And if you say…

You didn’t ask.

Why you little…

“Rina, you okay?” Shadara’s voice snapped me back to reality.

I snapped my head around and looked at my friend. “Sorry. Uh, why are you asking if I’m alright?”

She inched away from me. “Because you’re grinding your teeth pretty loudly.”

I leaned back and relaxed. “Okay, there’s a way we can get out.” The little wiggle of my friend’s oval ears was cute. “I may be able to remember if you can give me a minute.”

Do it. She doesn’t need to know that you’re telling me where to go.

Starting from the top of my vision, a slow printout of semi-transparent lines arranged themselves. It wasn’t long before I was looking at a mind-bogglingly intricate maze that had intertwined with itself while twisting in knots.

I blinked several times, and each time the HUD never went away. There was a small red dot with an arrow pointing from it. There was also a small ladder icon on the map.

That is you. The other is the exit.

Good to know. But the more I looked at the map, the more I noticed we had mostly completed it. Yet we hadn’t run into Gary. There was a hallway we hadn’t gone down yet, as we had turned in a different direction.

“Hey, Shadara.” I gave her a gentle nudge. “What do you say we check out one more spot before we head back?”

The beast woman sighed. “Fine. But I can’t help with fighting. So we’ll have to run the moment we run into danger.”

I took a quick look at my status. After receiving stats from a dozen oozes that I killed out of the thirty we saw, plus the six mimics that had decided not to be chests, I had focused more on my defensive stats and agility. I needed the extra balance, and since I was literally sticking my arm in acid, it just made sense.

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Name: Rina Lone Augments: Level: 24 Cellular Regeneration Synthetic muscle (arms) lvl. 1 Agility: 245 (+25) Synthetic eyes: lvl. 2 Arcane: 150 HUD Power: 65 Epidermal plating (arms) lvl. 1 Quickness: 405 Epidermal plating (hands) lvl. 1 Resilience: 170 (+45) Arm blade (right) Toughness: 170 (+20) Synthetic tendons (legs) lvl. 1 Unassigned Points: 0 Synthetic muscle (legs) lvl. 1 Shards: 39240 Synthetic tendons (arms) lvl. 1

Oh, and before I forget… I created a forty thousand shard gem and placed it in Shadara’s hand. “This is what I owe you.”

She took the gem and placed it on her chest, absorbing it. “Thanks. If we get out of here, I’ll definitely be able to get a magical bow. Hopefully, it can shoot lightning bolts or something cool like that.” Her eyes sparkled as she stared at the ceiling.

I chuckled. “We’ll see.” I slapped my hands on my knees as I stood up and offered a hand to Shadara. “Come on. We might even find Gary. From what I can tell, we explored most of this dungeon.”

The beast woman took my hand and pulled herself up. “How do you still have so much energy? My legs are killing me. I’m going to need another one of those massages to be able to go to sleep tonight.”

I lifted my leg and shook it. “Since my muscles aren’t organic anymore, I guess I don’t have the same problems you do. No fatigue, no lactic acid, and no pulling them. I’m even far more flexible now too.” To prove my point, I lifted my leg and twisted my foot one hundred and eighty degrees.

Shadara pointed at my foot and grimaced. “That’s not flexible; that’s wrong. Doesn’t that hurt?”

I returned my foot to normal. “What is there to hurt? My muscles and tendons don’t have any significant feeling to them. I mean, I can feel them, but it’s not the same anymore. Yeah, the skin stretching is a touch uncomfortable, but not painful.”

We left the room. And I'm probably still awake because of all the food I’ve eaten. Or drank in this case. If I were back on Earth right now, I’d put every all-you-can-eat buffet out of business in one day.

Using my new handy map, I led Shadara to the hallway we hadn’t traveled. With a simple request, Orange made the image smaller and in the corner of my vision so I could more easily pay attention to what was in front of me. And the door at the end of the hall, with a large metal door with a bust of a strange man sticking out of it, demanded my attention.

“That’s kind of freaky,” Shadara whispered from behind me. “I don’t like the look of it. We’ve seen this hall; now can we go?”

Please open the door. It wasn’t a voice I had ever heard before echoing in my head.

I took a step forward. “Did you hear that?”

Shadara pulled on my shoulder. “No. Can we go? Please?”

I turned to her. “What’s wrong? Aren’t you curious about what’s on the other side? Besides, someone asked me to open the door.”

Before I could turn around again, Shadara grabbed my wrist. “Stop. Yes, I’m curious. But something is off about that door. I don’t know what, but just being around it makes my fur stand up on end.”

My friend’s eyes were wide and slightly dilated as they darted around. Her ears, pulled back, twitched intermittently. She was slightly hunched over as her tail stuck straight out, puffier than usual as it, too, twitched.

I’ve never seen her this scared before.

Please open the door. A wave of calmness that flowed through me accompanied the voice.

There it is again. They are politely asking me to open the door. Maybe they would introduce themselves. “Who are you? Why do you want me to open the door?”

Shadara pulled me down the hall despite my unwillingness to move. She was way stronger than me, and resisting her wasn’t going to happen. “Who are you talking to?”

“There’s a voice in my head asking me to open that door.” I pointed back to the hall. “Maybe someone needs our help.”

The panther woman’s eyes went wider. “You’re hearing a voice? Right now?”

“Yes.” I gave the woman a skeptical look.

“Nope. We’re leaving right now, and that’s final.” She pulled me up and over her shoulder as if I weighed nothing to her. She scratched her claws into the stone floor, leaving an ‘X’ at the beginning of the hall. “We will wander around until you decide to cooperate and tell me how to get out of here.”

You need to open the door. You must open the door. You must help! The voice in my head screamed even louder.

“Let me go.” I pounded my fist into Shadara’s back. “We need to go back. Someone needs my help.” Even in my tantrum, I was careful not to stab Shadara with my arm blade. I need her to let me go, not hate me.

“Nope.” She bounced me on her shoulder, nearly knocking the wind out of me. “You aren’t thinking straight. I need to get you out of here now.”

“Put me down.”

“Nuh-uh.” Shadara walked down a hall that would take us further from the door. “This is for your own good. You’ll thank me later, I promise.”

Return and open the door. You must help!

If she won’t put me down, I’ll make her. I twisted and bent my left arm at an unnatural angle before punching as hard and as fast as I could. She stumbled forward as she grabbed at the back of her head. Once my feet hit the ground, I kicked her nose with my knee as hard as I could. My leg snapped and slammed into her face, spraying blood.

The beast woman fell to the ground, unconscious. When I saw the blood leaking from her broken nose, my breath caught in my chest, and I fell to my knees. What have I done? No. No, no nonono.

I scrambled to her side. Why did I hurt her? I never wanted to hurt her. She was still breathing, albeit shallowly.

Return and open the door. You must return.

At the sound of the voice in my head, I clenched my fist. “This is your fault. Who are you? What is so important that you made me hurt my friend?”

To save your lives and the lives of everyone on this floor.