I treated Shadara to breakfast for three hundred shards and then spent another twelve hundred to get myself up to eight hundred percent energy again. Again, we were left with what to do for the day.

Shadara pursed her lips. “We never got to enjoy all the amenities of the last floor.”

I leaned forward onto the table. “Why did you take me to this floor? Why not find someone who could help me on the previous floor?” Shadara knitted her brows. I leaned back and threw my arms up. “I’m grateful, but you didn’t know what this floor was like. Was it really the best move?”

The panther woman chewed her bottom lip. “That’s…it was a hard decision. Elara was gone, the sphinx was pretty upset at the damage you caused, and you weren’t moving. There was also the problem where nobody could be found on the floor. I thought it was a better chance to find someone who could help on this floor rather than blindly guess at an infinite number of rooms until I could find someone who could help.”

I froze. “Oh. Well, when you say it like that, it makes sense. You thought about that far more than I would’ve.”

Shadara chuckled. “I’m more than just brawn and a pretty face.”

A giggle bubbled out of me. “Yeah.” I sighed. “So, what is the story with this floor? I’m starting to notice each floor has a theme to it.”

Shadara leaned back in her chair and waved to the stone wall we could see. “It looks like we’re in the middle of a war zone here. Who’s at war, and why? I don’t know. You said you needed to reach this floor to deal with the thing that’s supposedly following you, isn’t that right?”

I folded my hands in my lap and hunched my shoulders. “That’s right, that’s still a thing. It’ll require us to look for Gary again. Just to warn you.”

My friend nodded. “I had a feeling you’d say that. Do you think we can just head out thinking about finding Gary?”

I leaned forward and held my head up. “That’s a good question. We can try, that’s all we’ve got.”

Shadara pushed herself back and stood up. “It’s a start. While you were in a coma, I didn’t ask around much. I just stayed by your side, hoping you’d wake up.”

I pushed myself out of my chair. “Sorry about that again. By the way, how long was I out?”

Shadara motioned towards the stone wall. “Four days. And I’m just glad you woke up.” She started heading towards the gate. “About the only thing I’ve been able to figure out is that the monsters around here are undead.”

I followed her. “So what does that mean, exactly?”

She shrugged. “Undead are particularly difficult to kill. Most of them require you to destroy a certain part.”

“Like what?”

“Well, zombies require you to destroy their brains.” Shadara placed a pointer finger from one hand on the other pointer finger and began listing off different undead, moving her finger down with each item she listed. “Then you have skeletons, where you have to destroy their torso. Specters, ghosts, banshees, and wraiths just need to be damaged with magic. Then you have other, more powerful ones, like liches that just don’t stay dead.”

I whistled. “That’s a few different kinds. And why don’t liches stay dead?”

Shadara shrugged. “No idea. Getting any information about liches tends to cause problems.”

“Why?”

The woman turned to me with a horrified look. “Because they find out and have you killed. They keep their secrets very well hidden.” She then turned into a smile. “But we shouldn’t have to deal with one here.”

We approached the stone wall. Once I was standing next to it, I could see that it was much larger than I gave it credit for. It was a full thirty feet tall, and the gate was closed. Three different kinds of beastman guards stopped us.

The guard who approached us was a toucan beastman. “Ladies, I’m going to have to ask you to exit through another gate.”

I looked around and noticed a lot more guards assembling on the wall. I pointed up. “What’s going on?”

I exchanged a quick glance with Shadara, noting the tension in her posture. Something is definitely happening. The sudden influx of guards without them saying anything only added to the suspiciousness of it.

“What’s happening?” I asked, trying to put more authority in my voice.

The toucan beastman glanced around before leaning in closer to us. “Do you have a defense pass?” he whispered, his voice barely audible over the march of soldiers atop the wall.

“A what?” Shadara and I asked simultaneously.

The rabbit beastman behind the toucan stepped up. “Undead creatures are setting up a siege camp. They’ll likely attack within the hour.” He pulled out a small copper eight-pointed star medallion. “This is a defense pass that permits adventurers like yourselves to aid in the defense.”

Shadara pointed at it. “How do we get one?”

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The toucan straightened his back and tilted his head back. “Fifty thousand shards.” Shadara flinched. “Each.”

I flinched. “Why so expensive?”

The guard tightened the grip on his sword hilt while holding his shield closer to him. “Normally, you must petition for one with the lord of this fort. But if you want in now, we can bypass all that bureaucratic nonsense. For a small fee, of course.” Small?

Shadara crossed her arms. “So bribery.”

He shook his head. “Not so. This is a simple exchange. Tit-for-tat. Adventurers like yourselves are always itching to get more levels.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “How do you know we’re adventurers?”

He pointed at me. “Because of what you’re wearing. If you were part of the guard, you’d be in uniform right now.”

Shadara and I looked down at ourselves, then at each other, and shrugged. He’s got us there. Although now I feel pretty stupid for asking.

Shadara nodded to me. “How are you feeling today, Rina? I know you said you’re feeling much better than yesterday, but do you really want to fight in a war?” She winked her right eye, the one the guards wouldn’t see.

I slid my foot across the ground as I averted my eyes. “Now that you ask, maybe not that good. Let’s go find another gate.”

“Alright ladies, then move along.” He pointed in the opposite direction. “The southern gate should be clear for you to leave that way. But why would you leave and not want to fight?”

I shrugged. “Fighting in a pitched battle is far from the peaceful excursion I had envisioned for the day. I’m looking for a specific dungeon.”

Shadara grabbed my shoulders and turned me back the way we came. “Alright, let’s go.” She turned back to the guard as we kept walking. “Thanks for the tip. Try to stay safe.”

The guards didn’t reply as they turned to head back to the gate. Then Shadara pushed me in between a set of tents and down so that I was kneeling.

“What?” I asked as I shrugged my shoulders.

Shadara held up a finger as she poked her head back towards the gate. “Listen, joining that fight sounds like the best place to get some levels. It’s just like the bav’varst from the third floor.”

I tilted my head. “What? Why are we hiding? Do you really want to pay that crazy amount for one of those passes? I was serious. I don’t want to fight in a pitched battle like that.”

Shadara grabbed my shoulder. “We don’t have to. We can still join, fighting at the fringes and picking our targets carefully. Who’s going to check to see who has a pass when the fighting starts?”

I turned my head. “That makes sense. Is that something you want to do?”

The panther woman sat down. “What level are you at now?”

I checked my status.

Name: Rina Lone Augments: Level: 28 Cellular Regeneration Agility: 251 Synthetic eyes: lvl. 2 Arcane: 230 HUD Power: 75 Epidermal plating (arms) lvl. 2 Quickness: 405 Epidermal plating (hands) lvl. 2 Resilience: 225 Arm blade (right), Retractable Toughness: 215 Synthetic tendons (legs) lvl. 1 Unassigned Points: 0 Synthetic muscle (legs) lvl. 1 Shards: 51884 Synthetic tendons (arms) lvl. 1 Synthetic muscle (arms) lvl. 1 Shadow Powers:

Mana battery (shadow) integration

Manifestation lvl 3 Synthetic bones (arms) lvl. 1 Shaping lvl. 2 Sub-dermal plating (torso) lvl. 2

“Twenty-eight.”

Her eyes lit up. “Hey, I’m twenty-eighth too. Look, we need the experience, and this will be the safest and easiest way for us to maybe get a level or two.”

I sat next to her. “Sure. You didn’t get that much on the last floor. With all the shards I got from Tasha, my new augments gave me four levels.”

“Wow. Four levels?” Shadara asked. I nodded. “Yikes. I’m going to fall very far behind like this. Besides, we need the money to get you some chest armor to protect your mana battery.”

I turned to sit on my knees while facing Shadara. I tapped my chest, feeling the metal plates under my skin. “Punch me.”

She arched an eyebrow. “What?”

I tapped my chest again. “Punch me right here. Remember, I have plates underneath my skin now. It’s one of the augments I got. If you hurt me without hurting yourself, I’ll get the armor.”

Shadara sat up. “And if not?”

“Then we get you a melee weapon.” I could see the confusion on her face. I extended my arm blade. “You have only your bow. I have this and my gun. Soon, I’ll hopefully figure out how to utilize my magic. For the next while, I plan on increasing my speed and agility again. If someone gets close to you, you don’t have a way to fight them beyond your fists.”

Her ears dropped slightly. “I see. This is for your own good then.”

She wound up and punched me straight in the gut.

I doubled over slightly from the force of Shadara’s punch, the metallic plating beneath my skin shifting and absorbing most of the impact. It still stung. I straightened up, rubbing my abdomen where her fist had landed. How strong is she?

“Okay, okay, I felt that,” I said with a forced smile. “It looks like I owe myself some chest armor.”

Shadara grinned, a glint of amusement in her eyes. “I’ll hold you to that.”

So we waited. Fighting in a war zone wasn’t exactly how I’d envisioned spending my day, but Shadara is right. It’s an opportunity to gain valuable shards and levels.

Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was still off. These don’t sound like the bav’varst. They sound more intelligent and organized. If they are building a camp, that means that they aren’t mindless.

As we waited, more guards approached the wall, and we even saw a sizable amount of adventures. Then, the fighting started. From our vantage point, we saw arrows, large rocks, and various magical spells flying and hitting the soldiers on the wall. The soldiers and adventurers were launching just as much as they were receiving.

It was chaos.

I turned to look at Shadara, who also stared at the scene. “Is this what you want? Do you really want to get involved with that?”

She shook her head. “Nope. I’ve changed my mind.”

Good. Because now, I really want to leave. “Wanna head to the south gate?”

Shadara turned to me and nodded. “Yup. Sounds good. Let’s go. We weren’t invited to help them anyway.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle.