Returning to the fangling lair, insects were slowly respawning and rebuilding. The remaining fanglings sluggishly rearranged their fallen webs. Their ambushes were weak, and dead fanglings dropped a mere two ether. Their previously ruthless attacks had fallen nearly docile.

Vivi, with her new ether reserves, could have defeated fanglings with her bare fists or her steel sword. She used her runesword regardless. The blade felt good to swing. The sword cut fanglings like a sickle swiped grass. Killing fanglings with the crystal runesword was the most satisfying thing Vivi had done in a long time.

“Looks like we cleared this place well,” Vivi said.

“The lair will be as good as new within a week,” Lucius said. “Except if we kill their boss. The boss’s respawn might take longer.”

“I did intend to fight it,” Vivi said. “Eem will be happy to have this place cleared for a few weeks, won’t you?” She smiled, rubbing Eem’s cheek. The little fiend sat on Vivi’s shoulders.

Eem gushed out an incoherent noise of excitement, nodding. She pointed down below. By now, Vivi had mostly learned the path as well. The fang tanker’s lair was a short walk away. She recognized the entrance. Ether oozed from within. The boss was as strong as it had been.

Before entering, Vivi wanted to try something. “Lucius? How close does the sword need to be for you to retrieve it to spatial storage?”

“Uh, preferably close,” Lucius said. “The further it is, the more effort and ether retrieving the sword will take. If the area is clouded with ether, I’ll need to focus hard.”

“Is this close enough?” Vivi asked. She charged her sword with ether, then lifted it above her shoulder with a reversed grip. She threw the sword at a wall twenty feet away.

The sword shot forth with force. Vivi blinked in surprise. She’d thrown it seriously, but she hadn’t expected such force. The sword pierced well into the stone wall, cracks forming around the area of impact. She missed the spot she’d aimed at by a few inches, of course, but the damages were immense.

“Ah, so this is the idea…” Lucius said.

“Uh, can you retrieve it from this distance?” Vivi asked.

Lucius sighed but tried. He required focus and a little bit of time, but eventually, the sword turned to wisps of ether, back to Lucius’s spatial storage.

“That will be hard to do in the middle of combat,” Lucius said. “But it could work as a last resort.”

“Is there anything else we need to prepare?” Vivi asked.

“I say we’re ready. Let’s hope it drops skills.”

Vivi nodded. She took a deep breath, then turned to the fang tanker’s dark lair. The webs in the chamber had been fully repaired. The arena recovered far faster than the rest of the lair. Vivi let Eem off of her back and approached cautiously but confidently. She cleared webs with her ranged claws. She kept the claws only mildly charged to not hit the boss early.

The sleeping fang tanker still looked scary. It could kill Vivi in one attack if its shield-like claws managed to land. However, its defenses no longer looked impenetrable. The exoskeleton was tough, easily tougher than stone, but was it tough enough to withstand a strength rune?

Let’s go, Lucius, Vivi thought.

Ether flowed within her. Suddenly, the chamber became brighter. Vivi could see the hairs growing from the tanker’s face. Her own skin seemed to glow, forming a slight ethereal aura.

She held her sword with two hands and ran forward.

Finally, the tanker’s red eyes opened. It roared; the same taunt that had turned the lair into insanity earlier. This time, all of its underlings were dead. The fight was a clear one-to-one.

The tanker slammed down its claw, the pointy tip aimed at Vivi. She side-stepped the immediate impact. A slight shockwave followed the blow, making Vivi nearly lose her footing. She managed to stand.

Seeing her agility, the tanker took a defensive stance. It backed away with its little legs, hiding its vulnerable abdomen behind a tunnel. Vivi had no target except its tough frontal exoskeleton.

That was exactly what she wanted to hit. Vivi filled her sword with ether, the veins glowing. She swung from overhead, hitting the tanker dead in the torso.

The impact was hard. Vivi’s arms burned, as if she was trying to force her way through a hardstone wall. More ether flowed through the runes, filling the sword with dangerous amounts of power. Any imperfections within her work would have caused the sword to snap in half.

A crack formed on the black exoskeleton.

The tanker’s panicked claw followed. Vivi jumped back, dodging the attack. The tanker let out a pained scream.

I thought my hands would fall off, Vivi thought. How tough is its defense?

“Not tough enough,” Lucius said. “Hit the same spot again! It’ll fall.”

Vivi agreed. The fang tanker looked utterly panicked, screeching and flailing with its claws. It stayed defensively in its tunnel, too afraid to chase Vivi. Hitting it again would be a problem. Vivi stood back to think.

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Lucius… What if we use an old trick?

“What do you mean?” Lucius asked.

Fill my sword with ether, then fly into the air and slash with your claws.

Lucius appeared confused. Do it, Vivi thought. I have a plan. Shoot claws at its head. Try to annoy it as best you can.

“Fine,” Lucius said. He retracted from Vivi’s core and flew to the cavern’s ceiling. From there, he yelled, “Hey idiot! Take this!”

He shot claw after claw at the monster’s head. A claw swipe crashed cleanly into its head. The fang tanker’s focus moved to Lucius. For the next attack, the boss held its own claw to block. It swiped at Lucius with its other claw.

Now! Vivi thought. The boss had taken its attention off of her. She threw her sword forth, using the remaining ether still left in her body.

The sword pierced into the crack in the boss’s exoskeleton.

The tanker screamed a monstrous roar. Black liquid flowed from the hole Vivi had caused. Wisps of ether surged from the wound at a rapid rate.

Lucius flew back to Vivi, refilling her with ether. “I can’t retrieve it! There’s too much ether around it!”

“We’ll have to run for it, then!” Vivi thought. The tanker was too busy screaming in pain. Vivi ran for her sword, pulling it free from the tanker’s chest. A gaping hole was left behind.

The blow didn’t kill immediately. The tanker had energy for a struggle. It swiped laterally at Vivi with its claw. Those hands were surprisingly twisty. The attack was heavy, but not fast. Vivi had time to prepare.

She lifted her sword and swung directly at the tanker’s shield-like claw.

Crack.

Vivi was pushed back upon impact. She couldn’t stop the pure weight of the tanker’s claw. She grimaced, pushing with all the strength she had.

Her sword wasn’t what had cracked. The sound came from the tanker’s claw.

Vivi’s sword cut through. The claw shattered into pieces. The tanker screamed in pain, flailing around in a mad struggle. Its screams were loud enough to hurt Vivi’s ears.

She slashed again, cutting deeper into the tanker’s open wound. With the exoskeleton already cracked, Vivi had an easy time destroying the rest of the beast. The tanker attempted to flail its remaining claw, but it was quickly losing strength.

“It’s falling!” Lucius shouted.

Vivi jumped back. The fang tanker crashed against the ground with an explosive thump. Wisps of ether rose from all over its body. The body glowed, illuminating the room.

Slowly, the tanker’s physical body began disintegrating, starting from its fangs. The pool of black liquid turned to ether. When ethereal monsters died, the mess naturally cleaned itself. A cathartic sizzle of ether filled the room.

Lucius hopped out of Vivi’s core. He had a wide smile on his face as he sat on top of the corpse. He breathed in and began sucking in the wisps of ether. His reserves had fallen below two thousand after runesmithing and making purchases. That ether was quickly recovered, rising to 2100, 2200, and counting.

Vivi watched. The fight had felt amazing. Her sword was a mere one-runed strength sword, crafted with imperfect tools and wavering concentration, yet the sword was powerful enough to utterly destroy a boss monster.

Yet for some reason, watching Lucius collect the rewards felt bittersweet. His reserves grew all the way to 2537.

“Ahh,” he said. “No skills, unfortunately. The tanker was too weak, and it had no special abilities. But it dropped over five hundred ether. That’s a very good price for our time. It was a good idea to not sell the runesword.” He floated beside Vivi, grinning. Seeing her expression, however, his excitement dwindled. “Why do you look so gloomy?”

“Just thinking…” Vivi said.

Five hundred ether. That was a thirtieth of her debt. They’d need to kill thirty more similar bosses to clear her debt. That wasn’t too bad. Vivi knew they had enough time. There was something else that annoyed her.

Lucius had over two thousand ether by now. Vivi had been hunting for less than two weeks. She’d started from zero, yet she and Lucius had already grown strong enough to clear a fangling lair on their own.

Why, then, did the ether hunters hate her so much? The Goldbridge company could have easily offered Lucius a thousand ether, sending Vivi to a dungeon to hunt. She could have paid off her debt in the eleven months she had. Instead, the ether hunters had decided to destroy her life, forcing her to escape to the fourth level.

Did they believe fifteen thousand ether was too much of an investment? They would rather kill an innocent runesmith instead of giving Vivi the slightest chance to repay herself?

“Vivi, look at this,” Lucius said. He was looking down at the tunnel that the fang tanker had been blocking. “This isn’t natural. Someone built this.”

Vivi raised her eyebrows and walked over to check it out. A stairway descended into the level below. The walls turned to stone bricks. Each brick was cleanly arranged in circular patterns. An ice-blue glow radiated faintly from between each brick. The glow was brightest on ground level, growing weaker as it traveled up the walls.

“This looks like a true dungeon,” Lucius said. “The type that was built during the age of typhoons. Thousands of years ago. I think we found the path to the boss.”

Vivi curiously stared down. She sensed ether from below. Her sixth sense was still often vague, but she could feel a subtle sense of dangers lurking.

She had the urge to descend deeper, to truly test the extent of her runeswords. The fang tanker had been a tough enemy, but Vivi had specifically crafted a sword to defeat it. The boss hadn’t posed much of a challenge. She doubted the monsters on the upper levels would be any harder.

But descending too fast was a stupid idea. Killing the boss would mean deactivating the dungeon. Vivi wasn’t yet strong enough to deal with the consequences. The Stewards were her true enemies.

“It’s good that we found this,” Vivi said. “But let’s clear the rest of the hidden dungeon first.”

“Agreed,” Lucius said. “The cave is still huge. We might find more bosses. If we’re lucky, we might earn a skill before clearing the dungeon for real.”

Vivi nodded. “We need to grow strong enough to defeat the Stewards. Last time, I couldn’t see Uundref’s attacks at all. We need to grow faster. There’s a lot to do. Ideally, I would like at least a two-runed runesword as well. For now, let’s rest and form plans.”

Vivi glanced behind herself. “Eem, are you there?”

The fiend entered the room hesitantly. She showed her tongue to the remains of the fang tanker's disintegrated corpse, then jumped onto Vivi’s back, climbing to her shoulders.

Vivi let out a laugh. The fiend said nothing, but her smile said everything Vivi needed to know. Vivi poked the little fiend in the cheek. “Eem? Do you know any good fishing spots?”