The walk to the dungeon had not taken long after his conversation with Diana. Or perhaps it was that Alex had not been paying much attention to the passage of time after that.

They had rejoined the group by the wagon after the Siren was put away and talks about their power had died out. Despite many attempts by Daven to engage him, Alex had been mostly silent. The archer had taken it as nerves for going into his first dungeon, no doubt, and had left Alex alone to his brooding.

In truth, he was just doing his best to hide his excitement. After all, happiness attracted jealousy like vultures to carrion. He had learned that from a young age after his family was gone, while being around other kids in large, government-sponsored foster homes. Too many kids with too little laughter to go around. If you had a smile on your face they would seek out the reason for it and either take it for themselves or, if they couldn’t have it, make sure no one else could.

Alex had no doubt that his power would be coveted should others know about it. And if they couldn’t have it… well, he could think of no easier way to ensure the whole world couldn’t have it than his death.

He was still putting up a sullen façade when Cedric pulled them off the beaten-earth road onto a smaller trail that led deeper into the woods. The trail was rarely used, even someone with as little experience in wilderness as Alex could attest to it. Thorny brambles edged onto the grass footpath to grasp at their legs, and the wagon snapped branches and vines alike as it passed through the narrow trail like a bull.

“This can’t be the actual entrance,” Daven complained as they trudged further in. He was having a hard time getting his bow back from a tangled brier.

“There’s a legitimate starting point further down the road.” Cedric hooked a thumb back the way they had come. “But I doubt any of us want another half hour walk if it makes no difference.”

“Why not?” Diana asked. “Shouldn’t we start at the start?”

“I have to agree with her,” Valerian put in as he pulled off some leaves that had gotten stuck to the pony’s hair. “If we are to do this, let us do it right.”

Cedric gave them a dramatically sad smile. “Your lack of faith in your leader is disheartening,” he said. “But don’t worry, you’ll see what I mean in just a moment.”

And just as he promised, not a few minutes of walking later, they saw it. The border of the dungeon appeared as if out of nowhere in the middle of the small clearing they came to, cutting it neatly in half. One moment Alex had been looking at a vast expanse of forest beyond the clearing just like any other around them, then with the next step he took there was a wall of shimmering air a few feet in front of the crew.

They all stopped to stare at it, eyes wide and slack-jawed. Even Valerian seemed surprised at the wall’s sudden emergence, though he hid it better than them.

“Impressive, isn’t it?” Cedric asked, smiling back at them as he stood just a step away from the barrier.

Alex was the first to snap out of it, and he slowly approached the shimmering wall. He squinted to try and see past it, but it was useless. It was like trying to look through a fogged window; he could see the rough shape of the trees and the brush beyond it but nothing more. Glancing up, he searched for the top of it only to start.

It’s not a wall. He looked back down and followed the blurred air as it cut through the forest, until it slowly curved inward in the distance.

“It’s a dome,” Alex breathed.

Valerian squinted dark eyes at the barrier. “I’ve heard of dungeons like this,” he said. “But they are rare, from what I know.”

“Are they always this easy to just… find and go in?” Alex asked.

“Sounds dangerous,” said Diana, striding up to inspect the barrier more closely. “Anyone could just stumble into it if they weren’t paying attention.”

Cedric chuckled. “That’s why we don’t need to go to the ‘official’ starting point. This dungeon doesn’t have any specific entry or exit spots. You can just access it through anywhere along the dome. At the center of it there’ll be another, smaller dome to access the next stage, and on and on until the fifth.”

Now that Alex thought about it, the man had mentioned dungeon’s having stages before. “Will we have to go far?” he asked.

“For a few festival catches?” Cedric sniffed. “No, the monsters on the first stage will be more than enough for that. The CCC rates this dungeon on the lower end all across the board. It’s perfect for this, really.”

The others nodded easily, and Alex was quick to swallow the questions that arose about this CCC. Some kind of government organization, if he were to guess, but if it was as widely known as he expected, he would be better off keeping his inquiries to himself. Ignorance was a vulnerability he was not keen to show to the people around him, especially after his earlier discovery.

A discovery I need to confirm beyond all doubt, he thought, and opened up his status screen.

[Status]

Name: Alex Hart

Level: 3

Class: Mage

HP: 60/60

MP: 80/80

[Attributes]

Strength: 6

Dexterity: 8

Vitality: 6

Power: 10

Soul Affinity: 8

Free Points: 7

[Skill Points]: 1

Fire Proficiency - 2/5

Water Proficiency

Lightning Proficiency

Air Proficiency

Earth Proficiency

Arcane Proficiency

[Locked]

[Locked]

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[Locked]

…

One skill point and seven free points available.

Looking at it like this, Alex wanted nothing more than to start branching out into other skills. Lightning was the first one that came to mind in regards to combat, and after seeing the possibilities that Arcane Proficiency could bring, he was partial to that one as well.

But he also needed to test out what he’d learned from Diana.

If it’s true…. If he truly got better with each level he invested in a skill while others had to master it by training…. It was a game changer. And perhaps he could start putting some stock on the message saying he was chosen to become the Second. Even if he didn’t yet know exactly what he had been chosen for.

“Everyone ready?” Cedric’s voice cut through his thoughts. The crew leader had taken his spear in hand while Alex wasn’t watching, though he still looked carefree in the face of entering the dungeon. “Remember, dangerous or not, standard rules still apply. We’re not here to prune it though; let’s just go in, get our prizes, and get out.”

“Those rules being?” Alex asked. He felt like a child putting his hand up in class.

“Stay together. Keep your eyes open. Follow your leader’s lead. And don’t fuck up.”

He nodded. “Simple and to the point.”

“You have no idea how quickly the last one goes out the window sometimes.” Cedric barked a laugh, then he walked right through the barrier.

Before Alex could blink, Diana stepped through after their leader, and Daven followed behind her, giving him a little wave of goodbye. He could see their shape emerging beyond the dome, shadowed and indistinct. Valerian brought up the rear, leading the pony by the reins, and Alex didn’t feel like being left behind. With a confident breath, he took a step forward.

Immediately, white light flashed his eyes. A film of cold pressed against him, like his whole body had been wrapped in icy saran wrap. But it took no longer than his foot touching down on the other side for that feeling to be gone, leaving only an echo of disorientation behind.

He nearly stumbled with the next step, though he managed to keep to his feet by raising his arms out to the side for balance. Still dizzy, blinking out white spots from his vision, Alex was expecting many things when he opened his eyes, but a normal place had not been one of them.

He looked around in bewilderment, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary. Except it was exactly what it looked like. They were in the other half of the clearing the trail ended on. Beyond it on three sides was… forest: ankle-height grass, tall trees, thick bushes and dappled sunlight, same as before. The only difference was that the land was mostly flat, and Alex could see an ocean of oaks and ash and the occasional yew tree carrying out into the distance.

“Congrats man,” Daven said, grinning back at him. He stood near his sister and Cedric a bit to the side of the clearing, both watching him with amusement in their eyes. “You just lost your dungeon virginity. How does it feel?”

Alex rubbed at his eyes as he scanned the area. “I pictured more doom and gloom, to be honest. Maybe some old bones thrown around for effect.”

“Enjoy it as is,” said Cedric. “Because it gets grimmer out there.”

Before Alex could answer, a sound like air being vacuumed out of the atmosphere came from his side. Valerian appeared from the barrier a moment later, ripples spreading along the shimmering wall of air like tiny waves rising from his body.

The man himself seemed completely unaffected by the experience, square-jawed face set impassively; but the pony behind him came out agitated, whinnying and sniffing at the air. The poor thing’s eyes looked terrified, and only Valerian’s firm hold on its reins and the heavy wagon behind it didn’t allow it to take off.

“Easy now girl,” Cedric said in a soothing voice. With an artful display of skill, he spun the spear in his hands and planted the blade into the ground before he walked up to the pony. The animal neighed and stomped the ground as he approached, throwing its head about in a frenzy. “Easy, easy.”

Passing the reins to the crew leader, Valerian reached inside one of the saddlebags on the pony’s side and came out with an apple in hand. He tried to feed the animal, but the pony didn’t make it easy for him, even rearing up on its hind legs before Cedric pulled it back down.

Alex’s brows furrowed. “Is it okay?”

The pony had been nothing but calm during the trip and now suddenly it was completely freaking out. Surely the daze of passing through the barrier wasn’t that bad on it. Horses were resilient creatures on their worst days.

“Animals don’t tend to like crossing into a dungeon, nor being inside one,” Cedric said in between shushing the pony.

Alex peered around them again. He even sniffed at the air, trying to find something beyond the smell of moist earth that hung in the forest, but it all seemed normal to him.

“Is there a reason for that?” he asked.

Cedric shot a smile back, but it wasn’t Alex he was looking at. “Well go on,” he said to Daven, “you need to know this one if you want to be a licensed chaser.”

The archer winced. “Uhh.” He scratched the back of his head. “I was totally listening to you back then, but, uh…”

Diana stared at her brother for a moment, then sighed. “It’s because they get eaten,” she said, punctuating her words by elbowing Daven in the ribs.

“That’s right.” Cedric nodded. “One of the reasons dungeons need to be pruned is the effect overflow has on the local animal life and hunting community. Monsters will attack animals if there’s no humans to be had. Let a dungeon go untended for too long and you’ll have a dead forest for dozens of miles around.” He ran his hand through the pony’s mane. “For Lady here, it feels like she just walked into a wolf’s den. You need to remember this, Daven. This kind of stuff is just as important as how good you are with your bow. The CCC doesn’t just hand certificates to anyone who’s a good shot or can swing a sword.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Daven rubbed his side, scowling at Diana. “My bad, I was just—”

“Stop.” Valerian cut in. With his tone, everyone but the pony fell silent. He was looking around the area, scanning the foliage after something. “Do you hear that?”

Alex paused his own search and listened. And above the stomping of the pony and the sighing of the wind, he could hear it, a skittering sound somewhere in the forest, as if someone was rapping their nails against a wooden table.

One hand still holding onto the pony, Cedric sighed. “Ah, those critters,” he said with annoyance.

Alex meant to ask who, but, perhaps unsurprisingly, the archer was the first to spot it.

“There,” Daven said, pointing off to their right. “What in the First’s name is that?”

Alex turned. Some thirty yards from them, an old fallen tree lay decomposing on the ground outside the clearing. Moss beds covered most of the trunk, and a large crack on its side showed that the tree was hollowed out inside. He couldn’t see what Daven meant at first, not until it jumped from the dark hollow inside the log onto the ground.

It was a giant spider… or rather, it looked like one. The eight legs were there as you would expect, only they were made out of segmented twigs covered with green lichen for hair. A mass of vines the size of a basketball sat where the thorax should be, its tendril-like shoots writhing and twisting atop each other.

There was no head to the monster. No eyes for it to see. But Alex knew it was staring right at them.

A bright blue tag hovered above it.

[Vineling lvl 1]

Creepy as it was standing there, the scary factor of the monster didn’t hold much weight when he could see its low level.

Wait. Alex glanced at the archer of the group. Why did he…

Could he not see the tag hovering above it?

“It’s a vineling,” came Cedric’s answer. As he said it, two others emerged from the fallen trunk, one leaping down to join its brethren, the other crawling along the side of the mossy log. Their twig legs made a staccato click-clack sound as they moved. “They’re quick little beasts, to be sure, but not much in the way of a threat. Just don’t let them grab onto your head or they’ll choke you to death with their vines. ”

Diana’s lips were curled with distaste. “We’re not taking some of them back with us, are we?”

Cedric shook his head. “The gaps on the wagon are too large for them,” he explained. “But they’re good target practice for you hopefuls, so they’re all yours.”

Alex found himself staring at the crew leader, wondering. Perhaps Cedric could see the tag identifying the vineling like he could, though he thought it more likely that he simply already knew the monster’s name. He did tell them that he’d pruned the dungeon a few months back.

“Well, I’ll take the one in the back,” Daven announced. He reached a hand behind the small of his back, came back with three arrows on his fingers, and started off toward the tree line farther from the fallen log to get some distance. “You two pipes can decide for yourselves.”