With his latest enhancement and Seul-ki’s regenerative supercharge, Mason was feeling much better in minutes. As Rebecca fussed over him and eventually helped him to stand, he rose up and stretched his limbs a little, deciding he was already healed enough.

His nose crinkled at the smell in the cavern—his supersenses not always a blessing. The pool below might be ‘cleansed’ officially, but it sure as hell stunk unofficially.

“We ready to move?” he said, with a glance at his brother and Seul-ki.

“Are you?” Blake answered, his eyes a little incredulous.

“I’m fine. And these zombie things reek, so let’s go.”

Blake shook his head and looked away from Mason’s bloody arm and clothes.

“Alright, but I’m not getting used to that.”

Mason looked at himself and decided it did look fairly bad. After the many, many injuries he’d taken since this new world began, he supposed he was getting somewhat desensitized. Mind you, most of the blood wasn’t actually his.

“You’d be surprised what you can get used to,” he said quietly, then gestured to the nymph. “Let’s go. Stay sharp.”

She squinted. “My spear doesn’t require sharpening, druid, the tip is honed with natural magic and…”

“I mean pay attention.”

“Oh.” She rolled her eyes, as if to say ‘I always pay attention.’

They walked down the ramp, past the animal and Sister corpses and the many arrows Mason used to re-decorate. Fairly quickly the cavern opened up into side passages, and though the pool might have been cleansed, the surrounding corridors were not.

Slime trails coated the floor down most of them—like something was dragged, or else crawled.

“Some sort of giant snake, or worm?” he raised a brow and looked at Calypsa.

The nymph frowned. “Anything is possible, druid. I cannot know.”

Great, he thought, about to pick a random corridor before he stopped and turned to Blake.

“Do the honors. They all smell equally bad.”

“That way.” Blake gestured left. “It’s still a kind of maze, after all.”

“Left it is.” Mason held his bow loose in one hand, ready to summon his Claw with the other. The passage was almost perfectly round, which only cemented the idea it was made by some giant snake or worm.

Mason wasn’t excited to meet the creature big and strong enough to make it. With a shiver, he hoped it was just some kind of tunnel magic.

They crept forward, Mason’s senses tuned for any tiny sound or change around them. He practically summoned his sword and did a spinning chop when Blake spoke in the silence.

“You see, ladies, we’re moving so slowly because like the great archaeological hero, Indiana Jones, our mighty Mason doesn’t much like snakes.”

“First of all,” Mason hissed, “shut up. And second, who the hell likes snakes?”

“Well put as usual, brother. But what he doesn’t mention is a rather poisonous rattlesnake once bit our poor guide when he was nine. Fortunately, our parents had the money for a cure. It’s something like $10,000 dollars, you know! Rather steep, but then they’ve got you at something of a disadvantage. Anyway, the cure was expensive, but the chance to make fun of a terrified Mason forever? Priceless.”

“Quiet.” Mason squinted in the gloom, hearing some growing sound of life ahead. “Any idea what that is, Calypsa?”

The nymph took a breath. “A nest. Of something that crawls.”

Mason fought the shiver that threatened his spine. Blake was annoying, but he was also correct. Mason had always hated snakes.

He considered going back and picking another route, but a lifetime of being Blake’s brother told him not to question his random decisions.

“Alright. So snakes. Great. Just great.” He considered the group’s powers, and forced himself to look at Rebecca. “If there’s a giant cluster, do you think that shield of yours can blow them up?”

She looked frightened, but nodded with resolve. Mason took her hand. “We’ll see what we’re dealing with first.”

They snuck forward in the dark, the only source of light a kind of translucent glow that dully permeated the entire dungeon. It was enough for Mason, but he suspected the others couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of them.

The tunnel turned, then there in plain view maybe a hundred feet ahead, Mason saw a mound of writhing, moving things. A distinct hissing sound became clear as the creatures coiled and sometimes fought.

“Snakes,” Mason grumbled, “why did it have to be snakes.”

Blake practically choked behind him, and Mason turned with an angry glare.

“This is funny to you?”

His brother looked confused. “I mean…surely you…oh man. That’s incredible.” Blake looked to the girls, all of whom stared with as much confusion as Mason.

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“Unbelievable,” Blake shook his head. “As usual I must enjoy the intellectual universe alone. But I love you all anyway. As to your question—snakes are often associated with the devil. It could be our robot god thought it represented the worst thing we could imagine. In which case, we might also start preparing for uncurable STDs, and laser shooting dinosaur sharks.”

“You literally never shut up, do you?” Mason adjusted his bow and clothes, feeling like bugs were crawling on his skin.

“I mean I must. I sleep,” Blake said. “Though I can’t be completely sure.”

Becky moved up beside Mason, and it gave him enough reason to continue forward. His weapons and powers were not well suited to handling a giant room full of potentially deadly snakes.

When they were as close as he dared without provocation, he dropped three deadly traps using terrain he expected would explode.

“You did well back at the pool,” he said just loud enough for her.

“Thanks.” She smiled, then swallowed, moving a little closer. “I want you to trust me to handle myself, learn to rely on me. I’m a player, just like you, and made to be tough.”

He nodded, knowing she was right. He met her eyes. “I’ll try. It’s just…I don’t like putting you at risk.”

Her smile widened, then she leaned over and kissed him, turning slightly pink before glancing at Calypsa.

“Is there…should I be…awkward? Kissing you in front of her?”

“Not even a little.”

Rebecca’s shoulders relaxed slightly at that. “Should I even ask exactly what the deal is? I mean I know it’s something…”

He sighed. “When we’re out of this place, we’ll talk all about it. What matters is that you know I want you, nothing at all has changed. She’s not a factor.”

“Do you promise?”

“I promise.”

She perked up a little. “OK.”

Mason eyed the snakes one last time, then glanced back at Seul-ki. “I’m thinking we super charge Rebecca’s shield, and blow up the whole damn room. You have enough mana for that?”

The quiet Korean nodded, and Rebecca was starting to look almost eager.

“I can do it,” she said, maybe as much to herself as anyone.

“Alright.” Mason did his best not to imagine things going wrong. “If there’s any problem at all, if you get worried, you run back to the traps and just keep running, and we’ll deal with whatever. OK?”

Rebecca gave him another quick peck on the cheek, then stood up and rolled her shoulders. “Hit me, Seul-ki. I ain’t afraid of a bunch of snakes.” She winked at Mason, and he was reminded she was a country girl who’d been around animals all her life.

Seul-ki put one of her tiny hands on Rebecca’s shoulders, and a small blue light pulsed around her skin. Then she was on her feet, and charging in.

* * *

Mason followed Rebecca’s footsteps, ready for some giant snake to burst out from the floor and swallow her whole.

“Can you pull her back with Telekinesis, if needed?” he called to Blake as he jogged.

“Uh, too heavy. Probably. For now. But I wouldn’t tell her that, brother, women don’t like that sort of thing,” Blake called back pleasantly.

Mason wished he could share his brother’s calm. Instead his heart thumped wildly in his chest as Rebecca entered the snake room and walked straight to the giant mound.

Nothing pounced on her, and clearly concerned with Seul-ki’s time limit and unsure what else to do, Rebecca walked to the breeding or otherwise busy snake pile, and kicked it.

It was effective. With a violent surge of hissing and erratic movement, the giant pile of snakes surged and slithered towards her.

Her usually blue shield had a purple tinge as snake after snake coiled and struck, fangs stopping in mid-air.

“Come on, come on,” Mason practically bounced back and forth as he watched, a feeling of disaster threatening to cloud his usually clear mind.

The snakes came ever forward, the mound lowering and lowering as more and more surrounded Rebecca and tried to break her shield. She stood perfectly still, hands out and long legs hunched as if she carried a weight on her shoulders.

“My mana is low,” Seul-ki said without tone, and Mason cupped his hands over his mouth and shouted.

“Now, Becky, do it!”

Whether she’d heard him over the din or not he had no idea. He was ready to run in and physically pull her away when the hissing all died away.

It was like the whole world froze and quieted for a fraction of a second as Rebecca’s shield sucked inward from all directions, then exploded.

Mason covered his eyes, but the flash still left a sun-like silhouette that pulsed in his eyelids. He opened them and blinked until the spots cleared, and he saw blood and snake guts and blasted corpses covering every square inch of the room.

Finally, Rebecca came walking back from the snake-room with a wide smile and swaying hips.

“Hell ya!” she pumped a fist and did a little dance, and Mason’s fear blasted away as he grinned. He ran up and pulled her to his arms and lifted her off the ground. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he kissed her.

“That was awesome.”

“You weren’t worried about me?”

“I was terrified.” Mason laughed and Rebecca joined him, then threw her arms around his neck and squeezed for dear life.

“I leveled up, too!”

“As did I.” Blake grinned. “Must have been the moral support.”

“Seul-ki your boost is amazing!”

The Korean smiled politely.

“Well, I don’t mean to break the mood,” Mason said. “But we do need to keep going and see what we’re dealing with.”

“Right. Sir, yes sir.” Rebecca freed a hand to salute.

To be honest he loved seeing her so excited, though he preferred it in a different context.

But it was time to focus.

“Let’s go see the damage.”

It was extensive. What had been a giant mound of dangerous creatures was now the world’s nastiest paint. There were some eggs in the corners of the room, corrupted plants on some of the walls, and a tunnel that led down. But it seemed like nothing crawled.

“I feel a bit like Geppetto inside the rotten whale,” Blake turned up his nose. “Or maybe Jonah. Why are there so many people getting lost in whales?”

Mason felt something wrong, and looked for some new threat in the room but saw nothing.

“What was that? Did you feel that?” He swallowed. “Shit it’s a giant snake, isn’t it. I bloody knew it. Calypsa?”

“No, druid. I think this room…it’s actually a giant flower. A kind of lily,” the nymph explained. “It has different cycles, but it’s not intelligent. It doesn’t know we’re here.”

“Alright.” Mason still had an uneasy feeling, but he trusted the nymph’s knowledge. “Going down that tunnel really doesn’t appeal to me. But I don’t see any choice except turning back.”

“It would just lead into the flower,” Calypsa shrugged. “There wouldn’t be much purpose. Though there might be hidden secrets or treasures inside.”

“Ohh, that sounds good.” Blake perked up. “Secrets. Maybe special magic items or some kind of unique challenge?”

Mason looked at his brother and sighed. “I don’t suppose you’re volunteering to go down first?”

“Well.” Blake cleared his throat. “That’s not really my forte, but, certainly I can. If there’s literally no other option. Like at all.”

Mason muttered a few curses as he started pulling out his rope.

Then the floor shook again, and Mason glanced at the nymph. Her usually passive face was starting to show concern.

“The plant is in a night cycle. It shouldn’t be moving again so soon.”

The ground shook again, this time with considerable force, and the whole party started to run without instruction.

The others were collapsing, and Mason realized the floors had begun to slant inward from every side. Straight towards the tunnel.

He summoned his Claw and stabbed it into the ground, then reached for Rebecca. He missed.

She and Calypsa both slid down, Rebecca screaming in panic, soon vanishing into the hole. Mason saw Blake and Seul-ki still holding on, but that didn’t matter now.

He pulled out his sword, turned around, and slid after them.