The first thing they did was get out pen and paper. All part of their master plan to earn a perfect grade.

The Lost Mines ahead of them were to the Salamander’s Den as the Dry Sewers were to the larger Sewer system—barren, dim, lifeless. Something made to look like it had been bled dry and then abandoned.

The familiar ruby veins along the walls were scarce and dim. Their team had to wait for their eyes to adjust to the low light. It was also hot, humid, and the air thin. Micah felt like he was in an oven. The mauled stone around them didn’t help with the image.

The tunnel was wide enough for three of them to easily fit side-by-side, but it made him feel all the smaller standing in the maw of the beast. He had almost forgotten how expansive the Tower was.

It went on forever.

And we’re stuck here. There to start and up to the fourth floor. But only for the purposes of fighting guardians or finding an exit, not to roam.

The thought soured his awe. He found it hard to recapture. Sweat was already making his skin itch, a single step and he felt off-balance on the uneven ground, and the walls looked so rough in places, he wouldn’t want to bump against them without a helmet or armor on.

The school must have seen their requests—Salamander’s Den, Kobold’s Mines, and Dry Sewers—and chosen the worst aspects of all three to assign their floor: Jason’s [Find Water] Skill was less useful, Micah and Brent wouldn’t find many ingredients, Ryan and Kyle opponents, and Alex was stuck with the rest of them.

If he’d had to rate it, Micah would have chosen a six out of ten. Maybe a seven. It had a few upsides. The largest being that the Guild didn’t know much, yet. Their team had a lot to offer.

So while Kyle kept watch, Ryan and Alex got out the measuring tape to record the tunnel’s dimensions and Brent got out a hammer and chisel. Micah directed him toward a sturdy vein of fire crystal in the wall.

“Here, this one seems good.”

Together, they chiseled out the entire rock around it out to collect a sample. The tunnel dimmed further.

None of them wanted to be here, but that wouldn’t stop them from getting a great grade.

“Water is North-North-East from here,” Jason said. “About … two to three kilometers from our location?”

“How powerful is your Skill?” Micah asked over the sound of metal routinely hitting stone.

“Oh, no, it didn’t tell me that. I can always sense the Great River in the distance, in the city, so I just imagined where I would have to be to have the same feeling there and then estimated the distance on a map. Two to three kilometers.”

“Make sure to write that down,” Ryan reminded him. He gave Alex a boost to reach the ceiling. “The direction is from your Skill, but the distance is an estimate on your part. Mark your reasoning for your report.”

“Aye, sir.”

After maybe three minutes of working in the first few yards from their starting point, collecting info and getting used to the stark difference in climate, Kyle spoke up, “We’ve got company.”

Micah glanced down the distance and felt his whole body shudder in revulsion at the sight.

Whip Spider.

The black, crab-like, unholy crossbreed of a spider and a scorpion with long legs pointing everywhere.

And unlike natural whip spiders, these could actually harm people. They skittered across clothes and looked for openings to crawl in so they could drum their hands like tiny spiked maces. The stings varied from person to person, from a brush with nettle to a hornet’s sting.

It snuck at them through the rubble and shadows of the mined recesses, thinking it was clever.

They were only on the second floor. It wasn’t even the second floor of the old Tower. It was less probably dangerous than a Sewer Rat.

Still terrifying. Why did it have to have so many … things going on? And the way it moved—

“Somebody kill it,” Micah said. “Please.”

“Yah’,” Brent agreed.

“You’re the one with the slingshot,” Alex told them. “I haven’t even strung my bow yet.”

“Not wasting ammunition on that.” The thought of touching it with a steel ball made him think of touching it with his hand and—

Argh-ahahaha-ew-no-no-no, please.

“Kyle. You spotted it, you kill it.”

“But Micah,” he mocked, “that would be against proper team behavior. Scouts are supposed to report dangers first.”

Ryan groaned and took two steps forward to throw his spear. The whip spider tried to dodge but the blade sheared past its side and broke it in half. It burst. He walked forward to pick it back up.

Note to self: Do not touch Ryan’s spear until he washes it with industrial-strength cleaners.

“I don’t see what the problem is,” Jason said. Like a freak.

When Ryan brought the crystal back, Micah dialed his forced venting down to get a better look. It was rocky and thin, parts looking almost like ore. He didn’t recognize the essence.

Meaning I can add it to my journal later.

It was the first one they— Well, Ryan had earned in months. He couldn’t help but smile.

“One down,” he mumbled.

“At least a billion more to go,” Ryan added for him, which just made him smile wider because he had actually joined in.

Kyle made a disgusted face. “If you’re done, can we move on? We have work to do and I really want to get phase one of your stupid plan over with so we can move on to phase two.”

Phase two. Right.

They relied on their [Scout] and met the tunnels left and right with the eyes of researchers instead of adventurers.

Everything was documented, sampled, and analyzed. The whip spiders hiding in wall recesses were killed. The Ember Beetles that tried to sear them with their glowing butts met the same fate. Centipedes, moths, other bugs hidden under chunks of rock were drowned, crushed, or incinerated.

Micah took notes on essences of the air, walls, monsters, dirt … He didn’t even know if they would want any of this but it was his contribution. Maybe Ms. Denner would look over them.

When they were done, they split up along the scouting rules of the school—always maintain a line of sight—and formed a chain to check both directions.

Ryan and Jason had the final say on where they went. One had [Enhanced Senses] and the other [Find Water] and [Wanderlust], which he claimed pointed him toward great sights.

Still, the normally upbeat guy sighed when they moved on and started measuring tunnel length. He sighed for all of them.

None of them wanted to do this, but they had to. Work first, then play. Survey the Lost Mines as much as possible to gather every scrap of information they could and then …

They had another thing in common with the Dry Sewers. They were connected to the more popular floors—here, the Salamander’s Den below and Kobold’s Mines above—and more likely to house Guardians in hidden pockets. Guardians like the Golem Ryan had knocked into the chasm … or Maria. Even on the lower floors, hopefully, those would give them a challenge.

All they needed to do was find them first.

So all throughout the first day, they would head deeper at a steady pace that pushed at the borders of safety. As their conditions adjusted to the temperature, they increased that pace.

North. North-North-East. It was the only advantage they had over the day-jobbers, hobby climbers, and new age adventurers. It was the only way they would remotely be satisfied. Because the higher into the Tower you went, the more dangerous it became. The deeper, too.

“Besides, if the Guild wants information on the immediate surroundings,” Micah had told the others during the planning sessions, “they can ask the drop-outs or one of the others groups.”

He had immediately worried the words would come across wrong, but surprisingly, his teammates had agreed without hesitation. The school had decided to send three of the sixty-two available teams into the Lost Mines. Without even knowing who the others were, they were clearly the best.

Micah skewered a Teacup Salamanders with his short sword and was surprised when it didn’t burst into smoke. Blood oozed down his blade. It still tried to wiggle off and snap at him.

“Hey, look.” He turned back and held it a little higher. “Dinner.”

Brent nodded. “Neat.”

He studied the beast before it disappeared in the wrappings. They looked different, now. Some of them. The Salamanders. And only a little. Slimmer and redder. More reptile than amphibian.

He pointed it out to Ryan and only got a nod in response. He was probably used to a variety of Teacup Salamanders from routinely sparring with Lisa.

They also saw actual lizards along the way; some that reminded him of her tiny summons, one that spat something at them. Micah suspected it was poison but it hissed into smoke when they killed it.

That being said, the monsters were scarce. They overturned the occasional stone with clusters of creepy crawlies—and multiple whip spiders that ran at them—but the other ones were always on their own. Single Ember Beetles burned in the distance like isolated fireflies.

They seemed lonely, stuck in another kind of jar …

Ha! Serves them right, Micah thought as he wiped a slap of sweat from his forehead. From what he had seen, this floor sucked.

After just half an hour, they were dripping with sweat. He wanted to do something about it but every time he glanced at the others—Brent, Alex, Kyle—he never saw them do it first.

He didn’t want to be the first to break.

But … he was a year and a half younger than the rest of them. He had only recently recovered from a grave injury, too, and … well … he wanted to.

So he waited until it was his turn to cycle out from scouting with Ryan, then tried to be subtle about it. Right. Left. Nobody was watching. He took a quick sip from his canteen and popped a yellow gummy cube into his mouth, trying to mask the movement with his canteen hand.

When he turned around, Jason was staring at him.

Micah stopped chewing, gummy halfway-squished between his teeth.

Jason stared harder and just as Micah worried he might say something, he glanced the other way and turned back on him with looming puppy dog eyes.

“Just one? Please? Like, think of it as boosting morale. We got stuck on this floor and I don’t even get to have any of the candy.”

Micah copied the glance back and whispered, “But we don’t tell anyone about this, okay? If anyone asks, Kyle was the first one to break.”

He nodded vehemently.

Micah handed him a gummy and he happily ate while looking around like a dog eating from an unattended plate.

None for you, Brent had told Jason and Ryan this morning. The little candies were made from Honey Ants. Technically, they granted “Least Vitality”—an effect just strong enough to register on appraisals, but not enough to grant a Skill—and were meant to help with stamina.

If they ate all of them, they might even get [Lesser Vitality] for a short while, Brent had told him, but since Ryan and Jason already had proactive Vitality Skills, they wouldn’t do much for them.

They still tasted sweet, though, and Micah could see Jason smile while chewing on his.

Maybe he would sneak Ryan some later. Better than climbing cookies, which tasted like biting into stone.

It took over an hour for their trek to bring them to Jason’s body of water, closer to three kilometers in rather than two, and the guy asked, “Think it’s safe to drink?”

It was a gurgling spring flowing from a crack in the wall. Lichen grew in patches nearby. It must have flown long enough to round stone and create a small indent in the ground that led further in.

It still wasn’t much, though.

“This caused your Skill to trigger?”

“It must be,” Jason said and glanced around. “I think. Either this, or something larger close-by.”

Huh.

“I could try it,” Brent offered.

Micah heard a burst of smoke as Alex killed something behind them. The clink of a crystal followed.

“Let Micah take a look first,” Ryan said.

“What good will that do?”

Micah had already stepped closer, shield held out in case there were invisible … water centipedes or something hiding in the small spring. He didn’t trust water in the Tower anymore. Not that he had ever. The last lake they had found had been filled with invisible murder fishies.

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

When nothing jumped out at him, he began to fold through the essences inside. A glimmer of something silver-ish. Flakes here and there. Edges to the water like skin that shouldn’t be there. Dots weighing it down, dragging it along the essence of the floor, seeking it out.

“There are hints of metal inside.”

“Metal?” Jason asked.

“Could be a high mineral count,” he said.

“Could be fake quicksilver,” Ryan added.

Jason took a step back and checked on the others.

“If it’s fake, I can definitely try some,” Brent said. “If it’s real, a sip won’t turn my brain to mush.”

“Okay,” Micah said, thinking out loud. He checked with the others. “So we used my [Essence Sight] to do a preliminary check and assessed the types of dangers we might be facing. I can find no poisons, spores, or any obvious toxins from the water or lichen. Now, we’re using Brent’s [Careful Taste], [Taste Magic], and [Lesser Constitution] to see if the water is drinkable or has any other properties of note.”

It seemed like a sound decision to make, for a survey. He wanted to be sure before they made a mistake.

“Yeah, yeah,” Brent said and held a finger toward the stream.

“Wait!” Micah quickly poked the opening with his sword. Nothing shot out to bite it or reacted otherwise. He eyed the pickaxe on Jason’s back, but that would probably cause more problems than it solved.

Could be a treasure chest like in the Sewers. Could be a flood that killed them all.

“Okay, now.”

Brent shook his head and tried a drop. “It’s fine,” he said. “Definitely drinkable. No idea about the details, though.”

“Sample?”

“Sample,” Ryan agreed. He turned to Jason. “You got the map and sketch done?”

“Uhm … map, yes. Sketch …”

“Here, let me help.”

Micah filled a bottle, wrote a note marking it, where they had got it from, and where it was referenced in their notes—after checking with the other two—and then got to doing the same for the lichen.

They still didn’t top their canteens off. The chance of tainting their water supply wasn’t worth the minimal gain. Instead, they would condense water from the air and boil it later to be safe.

At least one benefit of the air, here.

No mistakes. If any interviewers asked, he wanted to be able to say that with perfect earnesty.

A tiny downward stream joined them to their right when they continued. They periodically checked to see if anything was in the water. The first chance they found, Jason led them East instead of North.

Kyle grumbled something when they allowed it.

A few tunnels in, the groove of the river shifted into an uneven slant in the middle of the way as a second, more forceful source joined in.

They stepped over it and backtracked to find its source. It was a ceiling leaking all over and got another reference on the map, but after Brent tasted some, they decided it wasn’t worth wasting a bottle to sample.

“Guys,” Kyle said again. “Company.”

“You know you can just kill whatever it is after you tell us, right?” Ryan asked him as they headed back to the corner.

The air was almost viscous here. Any hair that stuck out from Micah’s helmet clung to his skin. He brushed it away to free up his eyes, though it was nowhere near close to covering them.

“I would love to, but I think you’d all shit on me if I did.”

What was that supposed to mean?

Ryan called watch and Micah nodded at him in thanks before he peeked around the corner.

A wolf was crawling along the wet walls towards them. Well, a wolf if it had the body of a monkey and thick, shaggy fur. It was grey and angry as it bared its mouth, revealing long, sharp fangs.

Light blue, translucent tentacles wrapped around its limbs. Suctions cups pointed outward as they curled here and there. The gums of its teeth had a layer, too, with tiny teeth poking out.

“What the hell is that?” Brent asked.

Alex knocked an arrow.

“Didn’t you read the reports?” Micah asked him.

“I skimmed them. ‘Was kind of busy with other stuff, like cooking for you lot.”

He’d had to prepare stuff, too, but Micah didn’t mention that. Brent had a little more on his plate.

“What did they call them?” Jason asked. “Cavern Prowlers?”

Oh, good, he thought. He’d had his suspicions, even reading of them in reports, but the hands and blue tentacles had thrown him off. The only other Prowlers he’d seen had blood spirits. This one? Some kind of water spirit? It explained how it could crawl on wet walls, at least.

“One of you ranged folk kill it,” Kyle said.

Alex aimed, mumbling, “I kind of don’t want to.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Yeah,” Micah agreed, “kind of want to see how it fights. Gather data, you know? It has an octopus spirit coiled inside it.”

They all stared at him.

“Like … uhm … Golems, you know?”

Brent shook his head. “You’re so freaking weird.”

Alex loosed his arrow. The beast ducked. It passed through a tentacle as if splashing water and slowed. Another reached up to tap it and its tail caught from the air as it passed, snapping the shaft in half.

Micah winced.

The [Archer] didn’t look amused. “Alright, fucker,” he said and put his bow aside to draw his sword.

“It uses phantom water tentacles to slow momentum and has … something weird going on in its mouth!” Micah called a warning.

The others could probably see the sweat dripping off its pelt in droves, but they couldn’t see the rest.

He got a raised sword salute before the wolf jumped at him.

Out loud, he remembered, “The rules!” He turned on the rest of their group. “Someone needs to keep watch in the other direction, we need a middleman to Ryan, and someone needs to back Alex up.”

Kyle stalked forward with a hatchet out. “I call backup. What’re you doing?”

Micah got his writing pad. “I want to see what the spirit does.”

He alternated between taking notes and drawing a rough sketch in the corner of the page. Poorly, because he was doing it while standing. Most climbers eventually learned how to draw at least rough sketches for reports eventually.

“Nothing against your [Essence Sight], Path, opinion, or whatever,” Brent said, glancing over his shoulder as he checked on Ryan and Jason, “but are you sure it’s an octopus?”

“I see tentacles, so pretty sure. Why?”

“Cause those are saltwater creatures. And we’re in the middle of an abandoned mine system, which houses creepy crawlies and reptiles with a fire-theme, next to a freshwater spring.”

Huh. Point taken.

But that was the final thing going for the Lost Mines: They were abandoned. Anything could settle here. A sheer variety of beasts that would normally only be found in the upper floors of the new Tower.

Micah shrugged. “And Teacup Salamanders are oversized salamanders with lizard parts, venomous fangs, and magical fire scales that can convert heat into sweat. I’m calling it as I see it.”

“Fair enough.”

He watched the fight.

Brent still mumbled, “Wonder what freshwater octopus would taste like.”

“It’s a spirit. Please, don’t try to eat it.”

That got a chuckle out of him. “Relax. I chose [Cook], not [Gourmet].”

Micah glanced at him, a question on his lips, but they were already chatting too much in a combat situation.

Later, he thought.

The monkey-wolf was using its tentacles to further its reach and something toothy snapped from its mouth with every bite. It slowed its prey with each swipe that missed and shed sweat in droves. It also jumped from wet wall to wet wall with ease and tried to trip people up with its tail.

But in the end, it was a second-floor beast on its own, nothing worse than a Rathound, and Kyle and Alex pinned it to the ground. Blue and grey smoke rose from its wounds.

“Hey, Micah,” the latter called. “Is this doing anything?”

He waved his free hand left and right over it. A tentacle there curled and rolled with the motion.

[Shape Water]? Wait, that could affect spirits? He was definitely affecting the sweat, at least. Maybe indirectly?

“Yes,” he answered. “And please, stop. You might make it angry. The spirit, I mean.”

The wolf was already plenty angry—it had charged them on its own while it could see five of them—but if the spirit got angry, too …

“Got it,” he said. “Measure up?”

Micah took a hesitant step forward but … No, he did not trust that gum-showing snarl. He put his stuff aside, pulled out a knife, and got the measuring tape from Alex’s backpack.

“Hold still,” he spoke to the spirit as he showed it the blade, “or we will hurt your puppet.”

He wasn’t even sure if threatening it was wise, but it seemed polite to at least try to communicate.

Two of the tentacles coiled up and down.

Micah had no idea what that meant.

He started a rough measurement. It snapped at him. Kyle and Alex held it down with more force and he finished as best he could.

Kyle killed the beast. When the smoke cleared, the spirit was gone and a blue crystal lay in its stead. It was the largest they had found today, but smaller than regular Prowler crystals.

Second floor, Micah sighed.

“How quick would you say it was?” he asked while it was still fresh in their memories. “How far could it leap? Any other notes to keep in mind?”

Kyle brushed past him, making his hand jerk forward and draw a line across the page.

“Hey!”

“So much for phase one,” he grumbled.

Nobody argued back.

Micah looked around. Everywhere he saw, morale was low. Brent and Jason were dragging their feet on an already slow pace. They had done little but help with that spring a little while ago, after all.

“We agreed we have to do this,” he reminded them.

They shrugged, but still didn’t look thrilled.

When Ryan caught up, he handed Micah a small crystal and said, “At least, it’s safer than last time.”

He sighed. “Yeah …?”

No.

They were only a little over two hours in and already, his motivation for sticking with the plan was failing. This minute detail work wasn’t what he wanted to do as a climber. At least, not if it wasn’t in his field of interest.

Measuring tunnel dimensions, monster sizes, first accounts of battles, taking notes for others, rock samples, water samples, doing this incredibly safe and slow on the second floor …

Ryan and he had survived the ninth with half the amount of caution. They could do better than this. He finished the interview with Alex and put the pad away. Were they doing this wrong?

He wondered all the way they followed the river east. So when he spotted a screen of golden light, it was no surprise his leg jerked and he had to stop himself from running through it.

Memories of crashing through another filled his head.

He called Ryan. Not even three hours and they had already found a guardian thanks to Jason.

His heart was suddenly pounding. They tried to assign guards as they huddled in the small tunnel leading toward the screen but really, everyone wanted to get a peek. Micah kept an eye out himself whenever he could.

The river took up half of the passage, too, so only two people practically hugging could walk side-by-side without alerting whatever was beyond. He caught a glimpse of a waterside on the right—probably an underground lake—and his mind raced as he tried to imagine what might face them.

Giant serpents, alligators, slimes, centipedes …

Ryan was whispering battle strategies, but a sound interrupted them. Something slipped out of the water. They all backed out of the tunnel and hid behind the walls left and right, then immediately poked their heads around to look.

In the distance, a Teacup Salamander walked from the waterfront on the right across the room to someplace they couldn’t see.

A familiar snarl met it there. The crackling of flame. A high-pitched blub came in answer.

It made him think of Sam.

They inched as close as they could and tried to lean to the right to get a peek at the left. A small cliffside? The Teacup Salamander was missing. The sounds of fire came from higher up than they were.

“An outcropping?” Alex offered. He smiled and shoved Ryan lightly. “Seems like you might make use of that bow after all.”

“New plan,” Ryan said. “Three eyes on the water. Two ranged back-up for me. I’ll get the Kobold up there before it can rain arrows or spells down at us. There’s only one, as far as I can tell.”

“Oh, and how are you going to do that?” Kyle asked. “Last I checked, you’re a horrible shot.”

Ryan didn’t humor him with a response. He didn’t ready the bow he had brought with him either.

“Who does what?” Brent asked.

“Unless you want to borrow a weapon,” Alex said, “you’ll probably be one of the eyes on the water. If someone comes out, you’ll have to occupy it.”

“Me?”

“Someone can back you up,” Ryan added. “Jason, Micah. You got your slingshots ready?”

He nodded, though it had been hard shifting his equipment around in this cramped space. They were all huddled up to avoid the stream. He could feel and hear rather than see Jason get his.

“Wait, what about my food?” Brent asked. “If we’re fighting a Kobold, we’ll have to wait a minute for the fire resistance to kick in.”

“I’m good,” Alex said.

Micah was, too. He had his ring.

“Uhm, Micah—” Jason started.

“Kyle?” Brent asked.

It hadn’t been a surprise that Micah had wanted to rush through the golden light the moment he’d spotted it.

It also shouldn’t have come as a surprise that Kyle was quickly becoming fed up with this conversation.

“This is stupid,” he mumbled. “It’s one Kobold.” The guy set one foot into the water to start running, causing a splash.

What was a surprise, was that Ryan beat him to the punch. He switched out a subtle scowl for a familiar phrase and ran. “We can fight it!” Then golden sheen and broke to pieces as he pushed through.

Micah could almost imagine his surprised face reflected in one of the shards before he smiled and rushed after his friend.

This time, they were doing this on their terms.

He drew his slingshot and searched the room for targets. A stone outcropping maybe two meters up rose at the end of a large cavern to their left. A tiny path led up at the opposite side of the room, but Ryan ignored it. They also ignored the small lake to their right, trusting their teammates.

At the top of the ledge, a Kobold sat and held a flame out to a drenched Teacup Salamander.

It wasn’t the only one in the room.

All over, they dotted the walls and hissed to attention. Two, four, six, eight? He made a mental count.

Easy.

Micah loosed his first shot and dented scales with bleeding cracks. The Salamander lost its grip and hit the ground.

Ryan met the wall at a curve and planted his feet against the stone. One, two …

Three, Micah thought as he shot his third target. An arrow took another when Alex backed them up.

His friend used his shield arm to grasp the ledge and hauled himself up. The Kobold was already readying a [Firebolt]. That turned to a puff of flames as a steel ball smacked into its shoulder and knocked it off-balance.

Ryan raised his shield and stabbed its other arm, then dragged the spear across its sternum in a swipe.

Micah tried to hit the Salamanders swarming at him, but some of his shots missed. Once they were on the ledge, the edge hid them. He couldn’t hit them from this angle. Ryan might need back-up.

Nobody had mentioned the lake. The water was still. He slipped his backpack off and threw it into the tunnel, then sprinted at the wall. He had to use the corner to jump back and forth, and hit the ledge with his stomach. It knocked the wind out of him and his arms scrambled for a hold on reflex.

When he caught his breath and looked up, two smoke clouds rose from red crystals on the outcropping and Ryan and stabbed the Kobold through the throat. It froze and burst into smoke.

A last Salamander ran at him and Micah threw its knife at it. It hit the wall and lay still, leaking light.

Ryan might need back-up? Micah thought and almost laughed. Who had he been kidding?

He pulled himself up onto his knees. Ryan helped him stand. He readied his spear and Micah his slingshot as they turned on the lake, waiting for whatever monstrosity might come out.

The lake was still. The only ripple came from a drop that fell off a stalactite and hit the water.

All they saw were their teammates staring up at them.

Had … nothing come out at all?

He slowly lowered his weapons and checked his left. A tunnel gaped at the end of the outcropping. It led further into the stone at a slight incline. A treasure chest stood next to it.

The Kobold’s crystal lay with the others.

Was that it?

What was he supposed to do? Put on a smile and say, Hey, look, there’s a treasure chest! Jason, want to open it up? He couldn’t. Micah glanced down, noticed their looks, and averted his eyes.

Nine enemies. One killed and three wounded, three to Ryan, two to Alex. Nothing else was left.

No.

He stalked back to recover his knife and looked around, feeling like there had to be something he was missing, something he could point at, attack, tell them to attack. How in the hell had that been a Guardian room? Nine enemies? A Kobold and eight Salamanders. It was laughable. That wasn’t even remotely as dangerous as the Golems they had fought months ago.

Second floor, he remembered and shook his head.

Why the hell had the school stuck them here? They should have assigned them the fourth floor from the start.

He started chuckling for no good reason—they already were assholes, having taken the entire room on by themselves—and had to sit down. His face was burning. He wished he could take a bath in ice cold water right about now.

Ryan sat next to him, legs dangling over the edge.

“Seems like I’m going to get some use out of my bow after all, huh?” he asked. A joke.

Micah smiled. “Yeah.”

Jason kicked a stone, looking sad. He had an unopened potion in his hand he hadn’t gotten to use. Kyle scowled. Brent sighed in annoyance and headed for the incline and treasure chest.

That said it all, really. They would have to handicap themselves somehow. Or find another solution while they were still down here. They couldn’t participate like this. If they did, there would be nothing left for their teammates.