“Up and at ’em!” Marshall said as he prodded the still sleeping Ian with his boot, “We’ve got adventuring to do.”

Ian’s eyes sprang open, glaring a hole through Marshall, a small flame appeared in his hand. He was silently daring Marshall to try that again.

“Oof, point taken. We’re getting ready to move out, hope you got your beauty sleep. Also, save that shit for the creepy crawlies.”

The group packed up their belongings, each of them methodically chewing away at some of the land’s finest water bear jerky. Marshall figured they could open up a small roadside stand if the whole adventuring thing didn’t pan out.

The journey to the next ledge was mostly the same as before, except this time they stopped every few feet for Seth to collect some weird new souvenir from the walls of the cavern. He was building quite a collection of stones, moss, mushrooms, and ores. Soon they’d be able to open a ‘System Tutorial’ museum back at camp. It could become a hot spot tourist destination for any other hapless souls sucked into this mess.

With the second crystal on the roof illuminated, they were now able to see the bottom of the cavern. The sloping path from their current ledge continued on for a ways and ended abruptly at a round cavernous floor. There were no doors and no tunnels. There wasn’t anything noteworthy besides a large stone in the center of the space.

One thing at a time Calvin thought.

The group turned away from the edge and made their way into the tunnel entrance before them. This time, no barrier sprang into place behind them. You’d think that would comfort the group somewhat. Somehow, it made the atmosphere far more ominous.

They entered a small, circular, nearly featureless room. The walls, floor, and ceiling were composed of the same smooth, white stone resembling polished quartz. The only features of note in the room were six glowing runes situated in a circular formation on the floor. Each of them radiated a different color and depicted a different image.

Ian’s nanovision; as Marshall liked to call it, told them that the runes were teeming with energy while practically everything else about the room was lifeless.

Seth approached the runes, thoroughly examining each one. The first rune resembled a syringe. He moved around the circle stopping at the second rune, which took the form of a shield, and the third rune a spear.

He continued along the pattern and it started to make sense.

“These runes appear to align with our classes. The syringe must be Marshall, that shield I’m guessing Freya.” he pointed over at another rune, “those daggers are you Amy.”

Calvin stepped up to the image of the spear. “I guess this one’s me.”

“Yup. The fire is Ian, and this gear must be mine.”

Calvin tapped the rune with the butt of his spear.

Nothing happened.

He shrugged over at Seth and stepped onto the rune.

Nothing happened.

Each of them hesitantly stepped forward onto their rune, sure that poisoned arrows were about to shoot out of the walls or sand would start filling the room. They’d seen the movies.

Ian was the final one to step onto his rune.

That step plunged Ian from the edge of reality into the depths of an inky abyss. His mind drifted off into a cosmic void as he gradually faded away.

“Ian…” an ethereal voice reached out gently through the darkness.

“Ian…”

“Ia--”

“What?!” Ian awoke with a start. The ghostly voice faded away.

He was lying in the grass near their base with Amy beside him trying to shake him awake.

“Are you coming?” she said.

Ian tried to shake the cobwebs from his mind. Weren’t we just in that dungeon?

He looked around in confusion trying to get his bearings.

Over by the fire, Calvin and Marshall finished getting their supplies packed up. A happy Freya bounded by with a huge stick. The orange gemstone in her collar seemed to flare with her excited yips. It seems she cornered Seth into a little game of fetch. Ian thought with a smile.

“Oh, uh, yeah. Thanks, Ames. I must have dozed off.”

The air felt so crisp and clean here. The smell of the alien jungle had no longer felt strange in his nose. It spoke of pristine, unpolluted air. Ian took in a deep breath, gathering himself.

He still felt very out of place.

Ian made his way over to Seth, giving Freya a little tug as she passed him by with her prize.

“Got your stuff packed?” Seth asked as Ian approached.

“Packed? For what?”

“Ha. Hilarious. The road trip. Get your shit. We’re moving out in 10.”

Ok… what is happening? Road trip… right. We were going to the beach. But… Amy, Calvin, Freya. They weren’t there. Were they? Ian wrestled with his fragmented thoughts.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Hey, Earth to Ian. You good?”

“Uhh, yeah, all good. Just… a little groggy.” Ian was struggling. They were on a road trip, he remembered that. Then that thing showed up, wrecked everything, and dropped them all here.

“Freya’s coming too?” he asked.

“HA! Hey Cal! Think we should leave Freya behind for the trip?” Seth called out.

“Sure, you go ahead and tell her. Marshall can patch up your wounds.” Calvin replied.

Freya let out a small growl, letting everyone know that would not be a wise move.

“Ok, Seth, tell me if this sounds off to you. Weren’t we just in that dungeon?”

“The academy? It wasn’t that bad was it? C’mon man, let’s roll.”

Seth slung on his pack and clapped Ian on the shoulder.

That small slap sent a shock of pain through Ian’s body. In a flash, Ian was on the beach. The crisp, clean, jungle air was replaced by the salt-tinged spray of the sea. The sound of chirping birds and distant jungle creatures shifted seamlessly to the echo of crashing waves. I’m losing my damn mind, aren’t I?

Freya ran through the waves on the shore. She hopped around joyfully looking for poor clams to dig up and toss around like little chew toys. The gem in her collar burned with a radiant orange gleam in the sun.

Calvin tossed him a beer, “Rise and shine sleepyhead. Burgers will be up so-o-n.” Calvin froze for the briefest of moments before heading back to the grill. He poked a burger with his spear and flipped it. “Food’s up in five everyone!”

Ok what the fuck?

Ian’s mind was threatening to tear itself to pieces.

No… we were in the dungeon. Cal was not on our road trip.

A terrifying thunder tore Ian from his thoughts.

Above him, the sky began to tear itself into an endless rift spanning from horizon to horizon. The chasm between the rift’s edges was like a window straight to the Milky Way. And from that window, enormous reptilian claws punched through and grasped the edges, ripping it open like it was tissue paper.

What crawled through the rift was unlike any of Ian’s worst nightmares. It was a damned dragon.

The titanic red creature forced its head through the tear in the rift and drew in a massive breath. It was like the atmosphere around him was being sucked into outer space. After what seemed like an eternity to Ian, it unleashed an apocalyptic stream of fire from its gaping maw, turning miles of the shoreline and the nearby city waterfront to glass and ash.

Ian sprang up from his lawn chair, staff in hand.

“You gonna put that fire out mate?” Marshall called over to him, tossing a football to Amy.

Ian was sprinting down the beach now. “Calvin, Freya, on me! Seth, get a rune down!”

He looked back and saw zero response from the team. Calvin still tended to the grill, Seth was working on a sand castle. Freya still darted around, chasing the gulls away from her little clam prizes.

The crimson leviathan was now fully through the breach and fell with great speed toward the shore. It splashed down in the shallows sending up a mighty geyser of seawater.

Ian unleashed Storm Surge at the gargantuan creature and watched with helplessness as the lightning dissipated harmlessly on its scales. He followed up with a relentless barrage of Rock Shot. Each projectile essentially dissolved on impact.

The dragon turned his gaze on him, its eyes were like harbingers of molten ruin. It began to draw in another mighty breath and Ian knew he was screwed.

Ian sprinted back toward the group. He looked over his shoulder as he ran while his mind scrambled for options. Everything was fucked.

“Guys, get down!” he called.

A fiery wrath erupted from the dragon’s mouth. Ian dove to the ground and mentally slammed on Rift Gate. A dark void opened up between him and the dragon’s wrath for just a few seconds. A fury of flames broke around the edges, turning the beach into glass and swallowing the crew. Ian’s Rift Gate consumed the flames that impacted it directly, saving Ian from certain death. He wouldn’t be able to reactivate that skill for quite some time.

By now, Ian was sure everything about this was out of place. This trip, his friends, it was all wrong. In fact… as the flames died down to embers, there they were. They were all still enjoying their trip, doing the same thing they were doing before.

Except Freya.

She sat on the beach calmly, now, staring at Ian. It was an unsettling stare. The orange gem on her collar burned with an extreme intensity. Just then, it clicked.

That gem should be blue.

Ian acted on pure instinct. He was completely out of options. He sprinted over to Freya and ripped her collar off as the ruby-scaled nightmare readied another infernal strike. He threw the collar into the sand and placed his hands over the gemstone, spending every last point of mana he had on Rock Shot. The gemstone shattered into dust and the world shattered with it.

With a gasp, Ian awoke back in the dungeon. He looked around in a panic.

His friends were all there, lying on the ground, still trapped within their nightmares. Ian noted that his rune had gone dark. He scrambled over to Amy nearby and saw that blood was streaming out of her nose and ears. Marshall was drenched in sweat and Calvin wasn’t breathing. He shook Amy vigorously.

“Amy!”

There was no response.

Ian stood up, forcing his panic to the back seat. He scanned the room again. It was the same smooth stone with no distinguishing features. He flicked on his nanovision and immediately noticed a difference. Streams of nanite energy were flowing out of each of the occupied runes toward the center of the formation. Ian could sense the energy concentrating just below the surface of the stone floor. He downed a mana potion and fired a Rock Shot into the floor, barely chipping the stone.

He frantically searched his pouch for something he could use and found nothing. Kneeling down over Seth, he tried to search Seth’s pouch but was denied. A gurgling cough erupted from Amy as blood began to pool on the ground beneath her lips.

Tears streamed down Ian’s face, “Come on! What do you want from us?! I solved your stupid fucking test. Let us go!”

He grabbed Seth’s hand, “Seth buddy, wake up. I need you man. We need to get everyone out of here.”

His eyes scanned Seth’s body for any response, and they settled on the device on his wrist. It was the runebinder’s scalpel he’d been using to systematically dismantle the dungeon.

Ian ripped the device from Seth’s wrist and slid over to the center of the formation. Mentally sending a stream of nanites into the scalpel he began cutting through the stone floor.

In just moments, the gleam of an orange gem shone through the hole. He continued cutting until the gem was free. It was burning hot and he could feel the heat radiating intensely from it. With a grimace, Ian snatched the gem in his hand, the white-hot heat seared through his glove and melted the flesh on his palm. In a furious rage, Ian flung the gem at the nearest wall, shattering it to pieces.

It was like he flipped a runic light switch. Each of the runes went dark simultaneously, and Marshall stirred weakly.

“Marshall, buddy, get up. I need you. Now!.”

Marshall groaned slightly, slowly sitting up.

“Hey man. Get your ass up! Cal isn’t breathing. Amy is coughing blood.”

This shocked Marshall fully back to reality. His Medic’s Intuition skill alerted him to the group’s most critical needs.

Marshall tossed a potion over to Ian, “Here, get Seth to drink this.”

The duo moved in practiced unison.

Next, he scrambled over to Calvin. He activated Field Surgery which summoned a hovering drone above Calvin. The drone began emitting a green-tinted field of bio-energy over his motionless body. Within seconds, Calvin began to draw breath. He was still unconscious but the drone should take care of that.

Freya was slowly coming to and with a worried whine, she crawled over to Calvin and rested her head on his stomach.

Finally, Marshall slid over to Amy. He quickly dosed her with his nanomist and poured a potion in her mouth for good measure.

Just a few moments later everyone was at least conscious and moving further away from death’s door.

The damaged section of the floor opened like an iris and a pedestal rose out of it, crowned in a blue crystal. Nobody made a move toward it. They were all in a deep state of physical and mental recovery. Treasure would have to wait.