“We’re here,” Vuplu said, gasping for breath. Considering his age and his diminutive stature, he had dictated a surprisingly good pace during our walk. The mass of stone buildings that lined up the street ended abruptly, leaving some space around the massive gate at the end of the road. The walls around the gate were filled with reliefs depicting savage battles and proud heroes, but the gate itself consisted only of two unadorned slabs of stone. They sealed the passage completely, tall and wide for Thardos-standards.

I didn’t see any paint or colors anywhere, which only strengthened my suspicion that the Thardos didn’t rely much on their eyesight. I liked that they had found a way to enjoy art nevertheless. Most of the reliefs seemed to be about historic moments of their people; groups of Ratkin fighting each other was a common theme, but the Thardos often seemed to fight some kind of large worm-like creatures too. Weirdly, it looked as if some of the worms were shooting something from their maw at the Ratkin. If I hadn’t faced one particular magical boar before, I would have signed this off as artistic embellishment, but now … I just hoped that the laser-shooting giant worms were on the other side of this Dungeon.

I found scenes with swellers too, albeit not many; they appeared to be side-characters more often than not. One of the carvings portrayed a Thardos with reins in his hands, sitting on a large sweller as he rode it into battle. Another relief depicted smaller swellers and Thardos fighting side by side, charging at a mega-worm.

“How do we open the passage?” Simon asked, more focused on the obstacle than its decoration. I couldn’t blame him for it; the gate had a distinct lack of doorknobs. Pushing it open seemed to be a really tiring prospect, considering the size of those stone slabs. I felt exhausted just by looking at them for too long.

“As I said, it’s a challenge,” Vuplu replied, then touched the gate with the tip of his staff. The surface of the stone began to change, carved letters forming on both sides of the gate. Three lines on the left side, three lines on the right.

> Two jewels open the gate,

> One made of darkness, to dominate,

> Guarded by an ancient wraith.

>

> Two jewels open the gate,

> One filled with light, as counterweight,

> Guarded by a priest of faith.

Underneath the verses Sylven glyphs had formed, translating the challenge for our silver-haired companions. The stone finished shifting by hollowing out a palm-sized space on both sides, presumably sockets for the aforementioned jewels.

“Woah,” Imaya said, then pointed at the text. “What are those runes underneath?”

“Those are words of wisdom,” I said. “They tell us to turn back before we all suffer a horribly, terribly, incredibly painful death.”

Tamara was already opening her mouth to diss me when a flash of light made her jump; a pair of portals appeared on either side of the gate. Unlike Devi’s Ability, these portals weren’t see-through and came in a much larger size. One shone with a blindingly white light and the other was a mixture of purplish-dark tones. A horrible design, to be honest. I couldn’t see the reliefs on the wall, or anything else for that matter; the portal of light blinded me, my eyes too used to the Dungeon’s gloom. When I turned my back to it to get some relief, I found a pesky little notification hovering in front of me.

> Quest received: Guardians of the gate

“What now?” Pell asked.

“Half of us are injured,” Tamara said. “Before we enter these portals, we really should talk about everyone’s role if a fight breaks out.”

“Maybe it’s a stealth mission,” Imaya said. “If the goal is to get those jewels, we may not have to kill anything … or anyone.”

“I doubt it would be that easy,” Tamara said.

“I think we should take the light jewel first,” Simon said. “Seems to be easier than fighting a ghost, and we may need that jewel to defeat this guardian of darkness.”

“Good point,” Pell said. “The riddle refers to it as a counterweight.”

“Alright,” Simon said. “I suggest the same formation as before; Pell goes in first with his Protective Shell, then Tamara and I go next to cover his sides. Imaya—”

“You guys have to be kidding me now,” I cut him off. They all looked at me with annoyance, which was good, because I was getting just as pissed as they were.

“We aren’t turning back, Randel,” Tamara said in a patronizing tone. “I know you want to, but the entrance is blocked by giants. Those of us who cannot teleport wouldn’t make it out alive.”

“And so you plunge head-first into a boss fight,” I said. “Brilliant idea. So much safer, right?”

“What else would you have us do?” Tamara shot back. “It’s obvious that this Dungeon wouldn’t let us pass through without a fight. We have known this from the beginning.”

I snorted at that. “I know of no such thing. We are Players, aren’t we? We’re superhuman beings, defying the laws of physics with powerful magic. You say that the Dungeon wouldn’t let us pass without a fight? Then I’m going to fight the Dungeon so that we can leave without a fight.”

They just stared at me blankly as I held a dramatic pause.

“Out with it, Randel,” Simon finally said. “You’ve wasted enough of our time already.”

“Pell, touch the gate and cast Protective Shell.”

Pell raised an eyebrow at me at first, but then his eyes widened in realization.

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“Oh, right…”

He walked past the portals and placed both of his hands on the gate. When he activated his Ability the stone beneath his feet cracked apart—and so did the surface of the stone gate. Small chunks of stone were ripped out of their place, floating toward Pell to envelop his body. Gone were the carved lines of the riddle; Pell had destroyed a considerable size of the gate in order to cover himself with it.

The self-satisfied grin on my face froze when I saw the gate rapidly mending itself.

“Stupid cheater Dungeon,” I grumbled.

“Oh man,” Pell said from within his completed stone shell, watching new stone flow to the damaged parts.

“Do it again,” I said. “Quick!”

Pell canceled his Ability, shaking his stone shell to the ground with some difficulty. He then pulled his feet out of the rubble and pressed himself closer to the gate. When the large man cast his Protective Shell again, the damaged gate broke even further apart to cover him.

“I won’t be able to do this forever,” Pell said through gritted teeth. “Going to run out of mana.”

“Just keep it up,” I said.

“This isn’t going to work,” Tamara said. “Pell won’t be able to make a hole for all of us to pass through safely.”

“Just keep it up,” I repeated, teleporting Soul Eater into my hand. Pell shot me an uncertain look, but didn’t argue.

Progress got slowly better the deeper the hole went, the amount of stone Pell peeled off with each spellcast outpacing the gate’s stone-shifting capabilities. Devi set two of her clones on the task of clearing away the rubble gathering around Pell’s feet, and Tamara pitched in with her gravity manipulation too. The stone gate looked fairly thick, but that was no reason for us to give up. When Pell announced that he had mana only for one more spellcast, I got ready to wedge Soul Eater into the man-shaped hole.

As it turned out, I didn’t need to do so.

With the last use of his Protective Shell, Pell had broken through. Soft, blue light filtered through a small gap, the deepest part of the Pell-shaped depression. The stone immediately surged forward to seal the hole, but Pell punched it open while the new layer was thin. I didn’t hesitate much after that; reaching in beside Pell, I tossed Soul Eater through the hole before it closed up again.

“There, done,” I said, stepping back and sighing contently. “Whew, that was hard work!”

“You’re welcome,” Pell said, shrugging off his stone armor. “I hope this was worth bruising my body all over.”

“He can now teleport to the other side and leave the guardians up to us,” Tamara said, glaring at me. “I fail to see why this was worth anything.”

“How sad that you don’t consider my safety worth anything,” I said in a joking manner, my earlier annoyance forgotten. Not having to risk my life in pointless boss fights improved my mood a great deal.

“Randel—” Simon spoke on a threatening tone, but I held up my hand to stop him. I opened my collar’s menu, then – after flicking it off and on again just because I could – I navigated to my Abilities panel. My new Ability options were listed below each other, waiting to be chosen.

> Always Armed

> Teleport your equipped weapons anywhere onto your body. Your equipped weapons stick to any part of your body at will. Teleport cooldown decreases by level. Adhesive strength increases by level.

>

> Mark of Replacement

> Mark a living being via direct skin contact. Swap places with marked entities at will. Swapping places consumes a mark. Range of teleportation increases by level. Number of marks allowed on a single entity increases by level.

“Always Armed seems like a fun Ability,” I told the others when I saw them reading my screen. “Fun, but it’s something that a serious person like me would never pick. That leaves only Mark of Replacement, which—oh wow, would you look at that! Exactly what we need right now.”

I selected Mark of Replacement, then confirmed my choice. According to the details that appeared on my Ability panel, the cooldown on the Ability was one minute. It didn’t matter much however, because placing a mark on someone cost 25 mana—which meant that I could create a mark only four times before having to wait for my mana to regenerate.

“You could cast that Ability more than four times, you know,” Imaya said. “Still not tempted about putting points on Spirit?”

“Nah,” I replied. “Where’s the hurry? I won’t waste my points just because you didn’t want to wait a little.”

Not wasting my points was apparently something that Imaya could respect, because she dropped the matter of attribute points. Rolling up my proverbial sleeves, I approached our kinda-confused Sylven companions.

“Devi, I’ll send you in first,” I said. “We don’t know what awaits us on the other side, so create clones for distraction as soon as you arrive. Teva’ryn will come right behind you.”

I looked to Teva’ryn to see whether he objected, but he just crossed his arms as he returned my gaze.

“Your grammar is horrible,” he told me, making me smile.

“How will you do it?” Devi asked. “I’m ready.”

I took her hand and pressed a finger to the inside of her wrist, then thought about using Mark of Replacement. I hadn’t really been sure what to expect, so I almost jumped when a small black symbol appeared under my finger, shaped like Soul Eater in its dagger form. It looked like a neat tattoo blending into Devi’s dark skin, the twisting black lines drawn in such fine detail that even the gemstone was visible at the base of the blade.

“Alright,” I said, letting go of her hand. “Pell, if this doesn’t work and I get stuck on the other side, please open a hole once again.”

That said, I teleported myself to Soul Eater.

It turned out that the blue light came from hundreds of luminescent mushrooms, growing not only on the ground but also on the walls of the tunnel. I stood up slowly from the crouch I had arrived in. Seeing no imminent threat ahead, I dropped Soul Eater and closed my eyes to figure out how this Mark of Replacement worked.

I realized almost immediately that I could feel Devi’s mark within my head. It floated a few paces behind me, moving slightly—presumably because Devi was moving her hand. How strange. It felt like a sixth sense that I had an instinctive grasp on. My collar’s power was more than a little disturbing. I thought about activating the mark – whatever that actually meant – and a moment later I was standing next to Imaya and Teva’ryn, staggering backward.

I then repeated the process on Teva’ryn; leaving a mark on him, teleporting to Soul Eater, then swapping places with the Sylven man. When I arrived back with my hands crossed across my chest, it finally dawned on me; unlike Spatial Symbiosis, Mark of Replacement didn’t let me determine which position I arrived in. I quickly marked Imaya and teleported to the other side of the gate, where Devi had already formed a wall of clones across the tunnel.

I sat down to the ground carefully, then plugged one of my nostrils with a finger. But why stop here? I stuck out my tongue and jabbed a second finger into my other nostril before swapping places with Imaya. She must have been bouncing on her toes in excitement, because I almost fell to my face when I arrived. Karma, I supposed.

I created a mark on Simon’s hand next, consuming my remaining mana. Interestingly, having no mana didn’t make me feel particularly empty or exhausted; if not for the indicator on my collar’s screen, I wouldn’t have been able to tell that I had run out. I teleported to Soul Eater and found myself facing a very pissed-off Imaya, swinging her dirty hand to slap me across the face. Unfortunately I had no time for such petty fighting, so I swapped places with Simon immediately.

“Whew, that was close,” I said, turning toward Pell, Tamara, and Vuplu. “And now we wait till things cool down—I mean, we wait until my mana regenerates.”