“Wow,” Lucius said after listening to Aang’s speech. “He steals bosses from the Stewards! That’s so insane!”

Lucius was as excited as Eem was when offered a fish. Aang’s plan made Lucius’s presence spin around inside Vivi’s core. Vivi felt a tickle.

“It’s not impressive as it sounds,” Aang said, “We usually only clear one or two out of the five squadron bosses to minimize risk. The Stewards still need to believe their time is worth it. Otherwise, they’ll start to make changes. So far, they’ve helped us by letting the bosses brew longer. This cycle, two bosses are already dead. The fangling lair, and the Mist Arachne. After the Ember Golem, we’ve cleared three bosses.”

“How often do you earn skills?” Vivi asked.

“We average one and a half every year,” Aang said, frowning. “Bosses that brew for only two weeks drop weaker skills, and the chances are lower. We’ve gathered a total of nine skills. All are common rarity, and only three offer us noteworthy advantages. However, things might soon change. Lydi has finished a prototype for a new potion.”

Vivi vaguely remembered Lydi from a few days ago. She was the grumpy demon with ashen fingers.

Aang continued deeper. He didn’t need Eem’s directions to pass through the dungeon. Eem sat on Vivi’s shoulders, calmly watching. The scenery turned back to black flowers and vegetation. The monsters here were far more passive, but they encountered a stone-leaf. Aang knocked it over with a forceful tackle.

After a few more minutes, Aang led Vivi to the exit leading to his apartment. He lifted the stone slab out of the way and told Vivi and Eem to go in first.

“After this point,” Aang said, “no more talking about the hidden dungeon. The gang uses code words if we need to speak about something that other nimrods aren’t supposed to hear. I’ll teach them to you later. For now, play along and try to understand as much as you can.”

Ascending out of the crawlspace, Vivi found the apartment already lit up. Two demons were waiting there, including Lydi. She wore a grey alchemist's robe, fabric filled with old potion spills.

Lydi gave Vivi, who was still disguised, a weird look. “I don’t recognize your scent. Who is this?”

“Allies,” Aang said, ascending after Vivi. “Vivi, take your mask off for a moment.”

Vivi did so.

Lydi leaned back, surprised. “Aang? What is she doing here?”

“Vivi is a new member,” Aang said. “She’s coming on the raid today.”

Lydi blinked, still shocked.

The other woman in the room stood calmly beside Lydi. She was a shorter demon with dark skin and short hair. Her alchemical robe was far cleaner than Lydi’s. She didn’t appear to be strong, but she had a reserved and respectful posture. The look of a proficient alchemist.

Next to them was a handheld potion rack, lined with ten vials of some liquid that resembled strong clear spirit. Wisps of trapped ether were spinning at the bottom of the vials, making the liquid look alive.

“You got them to work?” Aang asked.

“They worked on an ether stick, at least,” Lydi said. “On any stronger monsters… They’re probably too dangerous to try out.”

“Let’s do it, then,” Aang said. He opened the trapdoor and descended back to the crawl space.

Lydi sighed, but didn’t argue, as if she expected the response already. The demons followed, heading back to the hidden dungeon. The two alchemists brought the potions, though Lydi didn’t appear too happy. She spoke louder in the dungeon.

“What I meant is that the potions are definitely not ready to be used on a boss monster. Feni and I fed one to an ether stick. The monster grew twice its size, nearly killing us. It didn’t drop a single wisp of extra ether.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

“It’s worth a shot regardless,” Aang said.

“What are those potions?” Vivi asked.

Lydi gave Vivi and Eem a side-eye, wondering if she should be talking at all. “How trustworthy is this human?” she asked.

“Vivi seems sane,” Aang said.

Lydi leaned her head forward.

“The plan will be revealed to her anyway,” Aang said. “You can tell her what we’re doing.”

Lydi frowned, but spoke. “We’re trying to speed up the brewing process. These potions are supposed to cause a reaction in a monster’s core that forces the host to intake ether from the nature around it.”

“You mean, you’re trying to manually brew monsters?” Vivi asked. “How do you do that?”

Lydi looked reluctant to answer. She straightened her sleeves, hiding her ashen fingers.

“The dungeon has plenty of ether stuck in its walls,” the other alchemist said. “That ether is calm and dormant. Manipulating natural ether has proven to be possible. We’re currently using emberstones and—”

“Don’t share our formula, Feni,” Lydi said. “We’re trying to buff the boss for a higher chance of earning skills. That’s all she needs to know.”

Feni gave Vivi an apologetic look and shrugged.

“Speaking of ether,” Lydi said. “Why are we all dry? How are we going to get to the boss if all of us have less than three hundred ether?”

“Vivi has ether,” Aang said. “And she’s strong. I’d like to see how she fights. Vivi, can you clear the way to the boss for us? The guards have completed their patrol through the Ember Golem’s lair. We can kill monsters there.”

“Let’s do it,” Lucius said before Vivi could consider anything. “I want to fight this boss. If we need to reveal my presence, so be it. I don’t care. Let’s do it.”

If the boss drops a skill, we won’t be the ones to wield it, Vivi thought.

Lucius paused at that. “It’s fine. Aang seems like a good ally. We can always hunt other bosses later.”

“Lead me there,” Vivi said. “I’ll fight. As long as I can pick up the ether from the monsters I kill.”

“Of course,” Aang said. “Emmy can lead the way. To the fire cave. Do you remember where that is?”

Eem nodded three times and pointed at one of the crawl spaces.

“Big paths, please,” Aang said.

Eem pouted, then pointed to the rightmost path. Vivi followed the instructions, now walking at the front of the group.

The first ten minutes of the trip were uneventful. Aand and Lydi discussed plans and strategies, talking about the preparations they’d done. They referred to earlier events a lot, making it hard for Vivi to understand what they were talking about. She tried to ask for elaborations, but Aang merely told her to wait and see.

Vivi encountered the usual wandering monsters of the black flower area. Ghost blades and stone leafs. By now, she was strong enough to outmaneuver the ghost blades. She didn’t need Lucius’s blocking to keep up with the assassins’ speed. Losing to a ghost blade would have been embarrassing, considering Vivi had five times the ether count compared to even the strongest ghost blades.

Vivi fought with her steel sword to avoid questions. She planned on revealing her runesword when a good opportunity came, but she was still uncomfortable revealing the extent of her abilities.

The stone leafs were a struggle with the steel sword, but Vivi managed to smash them down with ether-enhanced strength. Steel could beat stone as long as the attack came with a lot of force.

After hacking down the stone-leaf, Vivi’s old steel sword was a sorry sight. The edges dulled. The blade almost looked wrinkled, and a part of the sword was falling off. It was a miracle the sword didn’t snap in half. Vivi almost wanted to apologize to her sword.

Aang smiled. “We know you snapped Rohan’s blade. It’s obvious you’re hiding your powers.”

“Um, I’m just practicing,” Vivi said. “It’s good to use weaker equipment to gain more experience from fights.”

“Not incorrect,” Aang said. “One day, you might not have maxed out ether reserves, or a proficient weapon. At that point, your instincts and practice are the only hope of defending yourself.”

“Are you sure we can trust her?” Lydi asked again.

“If she was here to kill me, she would have done so already,” Aang said. “I hold three hundred ether. She can defeat me without a question.”

Vivi glanced at him. His tone had come off as provocative, as if challenging Vivi to try him. Aang is hiding powers as well, Vivi immediately thought.

“Agreed,” Lucius said. “Fighting him would be stupid.”

He’s our ally, Vivi thought. We don’t consider attacking allies.

“Of course,” Lucius said. “I’m just stating the obvious.”

“Ivwi,” Eem said, taking Vivi’s attention. She was pointing at a tunnel leading down at a sharp angle.

A subtle red glow peeked out from the narrow tunnel. As Vivi approached, the temperature rose. Circular embers were embedded into the walls. Not emberstones—actual smoldering embers. The stone ground was tinted red.

At the bottom of the tunnel, a black burning skeleton blocked the path. It wielded a pitch black ethereal greatsword. The sword was formed fully out of wisps of ether, making its surface appear unstable, but the sword was solid and clearly strong. The skeleton must have carried at least a thousand ether.

Vivi still held her poor steel sword. The skeleton was too strong to fight with a steel blade. Maybe it was time to retire her first blade. Lucius retrieved the sword to spatial storage.

Vivi went into stance and called her runesword.