The stone-leaf’s corpse sizzled with the most ether Vivi had seen in the dungeon so far. There were almost fifty wisps in this one corpse alone.

The vines holding Vivi disintegrated along with the monster. She fell on the ground, mostly unharmed.

She’d been absolutely useless in the fight. The vines had caught her off-guard. There wasn’t much she could do after that. Without Lucius’s quick support, Vivi would have died. Again.

“I’m sorry…” she said.

“About what?” Lucius sat in a loaf next to his kill and proudly collected ether. The kill was worth 48 ether. His reserves rose to 197.

“I nearly died,” Vivi said. “How many times have I almost died now?”

“You haven’t even gotten close to death yet,” Lucius said. “I won’t let you get yourself killed. Not when we have so much ether to gain.”

Vivi sighed. “I need to grow stronger. So that you don’t have to constantly watch over me.”

“You’re already stronger than most nimrods,” Lucius said. “You defended against two of the stone-leaf’s vine-attacks. Those were anything but slow. I was caught by surprise too. Next time, you’ll dodge all three.”

Vivi nodded. She couldn’t forget that the monster she just fought was worth almost fifty ether. That was half of what nimrods had to earn in a week. Just a few more monsters, and Lucius would reach over three hundred. They could continue to grow from there.

The fight with the monster had warmed Vivi’s body. The cave was quiet and comfortable. The air tasted fresh.

“Remember this, Vivi,” Lucius said. “You don’t need to fight alone. As long as I’m there to save you, any fight is our victory.”

“But it’s better if I don’t have to rely on you every time,” Vivi said.

“Yes,” Lucius said. “The more you manage on your own, the more effort we can place into our offense.”

Vivi took a deep breath. She still held her sword. There was no need to sheathe it, considering monsters could ambush her at any moment. The steel sword was weak, but it was still a sword. It would serve her until she gathered the tools for runesmithing.

For now, there was only one path to take. “Let’s explore the dungeon,” Vivi said. “Carefully.”

“The word is hunt,” Lucius said. “Let’s go on a hunt.”

***

The hidden dungeon turned out to be a sprawling cave network, spanning dozens upon dozens of caverns and tunnels.

Crystals and the black flowers dominated most of the cave’s vegetation. The aesthetic quickly became familiar, though Vivi decided to avoid the batches of flowers after an incident with a snake-monster. The beast hid under vegetation, thrusting its fangs at Vivi’s leg when she stepped close. The fangs luckily hit her boots. Vivi killed the snake for three ether.

Insects and pests were common where vegetation was active. Vivi avoided anything colorful, hoping to avoid venom. Some rooms were fully covered in plants and crystals with no reliable footholds. In these cases, Vivi chose other directions.

Crawlspaces and holes existed in almost every cavern and tunnel. A whole network of crawl spaces must have existed above. It was no wonder the fiend, with her small size, was fond of this place.

Monsters were surprisingly scarce. Scarce enough that Lucius complained about the lack of action. After two hours of exploring, Vivi had wandered into five more monsters.

One of the monsters was a ghost-blade. Vivi fought it with a similar strategy to the first, but this time with more practice. Lucius blocked the assassin's attacks, while Vivi pushed the monster into a corner. The battle barely lasted for a minute.

The next two monsters were lone stone-leafs, both a little less powerful than the first. Fighting one-to-one, the stone-leafs were easy enough. Vivi dodged the ranged leaf-attack now that she knew it was coming. Then, she sent Lucius to stab the eyes. Lucius’s spirit form could take advantage of the stone-leafs’ glaring weakness easily. Vivi had no reason to risk her own life.

The last two monsters nearly killed Vivi.

The insect-like monster ambushed her from behind a corner. She was tackled to the ground, crooked claws thrusted at her chest.

She managed to raise her sword, blocking claws. Another attack came right after. The monster’s fangs pointed at Vivi’s face.

Lucius didn’t appear to block the attack. Instead, he enhanced Vivi’s left hand. She slashed at the monster’s charging face with her claws. Her hand was at an awkward angle, but she managed to block.

The monster was light. She grimaced and pushed, throwing the monster off of her. The monster recovered, joining up with its allies.

She stood up to find two more monsters of the same kind in the room with her.

“Fanglings,” Lucius said. “Annoying critters. They excel at venom and ambushes. We defended the ambush. Let’s slaughter them.”

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The huge insects walked on four legs with two crooked and clawed arms. Their thin bodies had black exo-skeletons and a hairy tail. The fanglings didn’t have eyes; instead, sharp fangs poked out from where eyes usually would have. Venom dripped out from the fangs that nearly killed Vivi.

The three fanglings stood with their claws out at a defensive stance. Vivi regarded them carefully, still spooked from nearly dying a second ago. The insects were taller than her when they stood on two legs.

“It’s an intimidation tactic,” Lucius said. “They’re hoping you’ll get scared and run away. Then they’ll assassinate you. A fangling’s real defense is terrible. Your sword will cut right through. Just follow our strategy.”

Right, Vivi thought. She went into stance and dashed for the leftmost fangling. She had to stay on the offense. On the defense, she was useless.

The fangling attempted to block with its claws. Vivi swung directly at the defense. Her sword crushed the arm; the insect couldn’t bear the weight of her swing. With the arm gone, the monster was defenseless.

There was no time to finish the kill. The two other fanglings attacked simultaneously.

Vivi growled, slashing wide with her sword. Her technique was nonexistent, but she swung hard. One of the fanglings met the sword head-on. Its exo-skeleton was slashed open.

One attacker remained. The fangling prepared a lethal blow, thrusting its venomous fangs at her throat. Vivi’s defenses were wide open.

But I’m not alone! Vivi thought. Lucius appeared from her core with his claws out. He pushed with all his might, as if trying to stop a charging bull.

He was too light to stop the fangling. But he had slowed it down. Vivi recovered and drove her sword through the fangling’s chest, killing it.

Behind her, the armless fangling attempted a similar charge. Vivi growled. With all her strength, she swung her sword around. Her timing was good; the fangling charged directly into her swing.

The room fell silent.

Vivi wiped her forehead of sweat while Lucius collected the monsters’ ether. Each fangling was worth nine ether. A low pay-off for such deadly monsters.

After eating up the fanglings, Lucius’s reserves hit 309 ether.

He grinned. “Above the limit.”

“That was insane,” Vivi said. “One mistake, and I would have died.”

“You made plenty of mistakes,” Lucius said. “Most of your swings were far from optimal. But the swings were good enough. That’s what matters.”

Vivi took a breath. Somehow, she doubted this would be her only time nearly dying in this dungeon.

Lucius wasn’t even slightly concerned. He flew to Vivi’s eye-level and spread out his claws. “Watch this,” he said.

In his cat form, the claws hadn’t grown in length, but the concentration of ether within his claws had grown to dangerous levels. Lucius slashed at the stone wall.

The claws left a mark. A small one, but they could cut into stone. His claws were beginning to do real damage.

“I need some more ether before my claws evolve,” Lucius said. “Right now, they’re still just claws. None of my true powers have been unlocked yet.”

“Evolve?” Vivi asked. “To what?”

“I’ll show you after we gain a few hundred more ether,” Lucius said. “They’ll grow sharper than your sword in a flash.”

“Not if I start runesmithing,” Vivi said.

“We’ll see about that,” Lucius said, seeming proud of his claws. “I’m starting to sense a lot more ether. I think there’s a fangling lair below us.”

“You mean, we’ll have to fight more of these insects?”

“Yes,” Lucius said. “Think of fangling lairs as ant colonies. Fanglings usually have multiple queens and broodmothers, as well as bosses to protect those queens. Individual fanglings are weak, but clearing a whole lair will grant us tons of ether.”

“Lucius, we nearly just died to three fanglings,” Vivi said. “And you’re calling them weak.”

“We are weak,” Lucius said. “And we must grow. I’ll scan the area for ambushes. Let’s descend deeper.”

Vivi wanted to sigh. But she hadn’t come to the dungeon to sit around and fear death. She patted her raincoat free of grime and the descent continued.

As Lucius had guessed, more fanglings began appearing, one every few minutes. Vivi had to be careful everywhere she walked, watching for ambushes and possible spots where she could be surrounded. The fanglings loved to surprise her from crawl spaces and from camouflaged flower patches.

If Vivi managed to repel their ambush-attacks, killing off the monsters was simple. Their defenses couldn’t deal with Vivi’s sword. She could push the fanglings fearlessly into a corner before slashing at them, trusting Lucius to cover any attempts at counter-attacks. Only when fighting three or more at a time, the fanglings became a problem.

Their strategy of Vivi on offense worked impeccably against agility-based monsters with low defense. Vivi simply walked up to her enemies, focusing entirely on offense while Lucius swiped off attacks that tried to kill her. It was terrifying from Vivi’s perspective, trusting her life for a spirit to protect, but so far, Lucius had defended well.

The deeper Vivi approached, the more fanglings came after her. The area was infested with the little devils. While Vivi was fighting one, a larger fangling appeared from the next room over. An elite fangling. It was taller and thicker, and fin-like hair ran across its back.

The elite was faster and bore sharper claws, but its defenses were still frail. It couldn’t withstand a direct hit from Vivi’s blade. She slashed as hard as she could, cutting the elite open, while trusting Lucius to deal with any blind spots.

After clearing the elite, Lucius’s reserves grew to 457. Vivi swiped her sword clean of ether wisps. Monsters didn’t leave blood, but a monster’s ether was surprisingly stubborn. Wisps flew around Vivi’s sword like abandoned souls cursing the object that killed their host.

Vivi was just catching her breath and wiping her face, when another fangling appeared from behind, from the path Vivi had already cleared. She slashed at the charging monster with her sword, managing to kill it without Lucius’s help. Another 10 ether was added to Lucius’s reserves.

Vivi, however, was totally spent. “We’re starting to get ambushed from all directions. We’re deep into their territory now.”

“That’s good,” Lucius said. “We’re finally starting to gain serious ether.”

“We haven’t prepared enough,” Vivi argued. “We have no plans for surviving monsters that are too tough for our strategy to defeat. We won’t defeat three elites simultaneously. Fighting through exhaustion is stupid.”

Vivi expected Lucius to shrug off her worries, as he always did. For once, however, the cat seemed to take her points seriously. “You’re right. Fighting tougher elites will be difficult if we’re constantly surrounded by little critters. We’ll need an attack that can one-shot fanglings.”

As he was finishing speaking, another fangling sprinted toward the room, charging Lucius with no fear.

“I think I have just enough ether to try it out,” Lucius said calmly. His claws shone with concentrated ether. He was charging an attack.

He swiped at the fangling from ten feet away, releasing the energy from his claws.