The Boss Chamber for the second Zone of this Dungeon is actually a clear space about fifty yards from the hedges to the tower. The tower itself is constructed of dark grey stone with no visible windows and only the green stone archway on the ground providing access to it. Without a ceiling of hedge above the Tower Garden, there's nothing to obstruct our view of the sky – which does look like it's filled with dark grey clouds.

Waiting in front of the archway leading to the third Zone are two stone griffins, four statues of human males, fifty goblin swordsmen, ten goblin mages, ten goblin archers, and four snakes easily a hundred feet in length and a foot in thickness. One hundred monsters in total.

The biggest fight we've had yet.

"According to my research," I say as we examine them. "The griffins don't fly very high. However, that can still be troublesome. Archers, try to take out their wings if they take off. Otherwise, stick to the plan we used for the first Zone – focus on the ranged goblins and strategic strikes against others that may bring the three of us harm."

"Got it," the archers respond in unison.

I've already given them more [Mana Recovery Potion]s, so they should have enough to handle this job.

"Adam," I say. "You and I will deal with the snakes and normal goblins first. Engage the stone statues only if their attention is on you. Caleb, your job will be to focus on the stone statues with your magic martial arts. Don't be afraid to use the potions I gave you if you need to, but try not to waste Mana. If the statues aren't dead by the time we finish with the other goblins, then Adam and I will jump in to assist."

I could handle the statues about as well as Caleb can with the Levels I've gained in here and how much more Strength I've obtained as a result. However, the goblins and snakes are a bigger threat, so I should focus on taking those down first.

"Everyone clear on the plan?" I ask, and they confirm it. "Alright, now drink the potions I've handed out."

These extra potions were bought with the expectation we would take on the second Zone. Some of the monsters in this group can inflict status effects – can wield affliction magics – and these potions will help us deal with that.

You now have [Fear Resistance] Level 1 for 10 minutes and 31 seconds.

You now have [Poison Resistance] Level 1 for 10 minute and 27 seconds.

You now have [Stone Curse Resistance] Level 1 for 10 minutes and 32 seconds.

"Jeez, those tasted horrible," I say. "Let's try to at least get rid of the mages, archers, and snakes before those buffs run out. Let's go!"

I charge into the Boss Chamber with the others following after me and almost immediately need to deflect an arrow with my sword. I do so without hesitation and continue on, dodging past a goblin's sword swing before stabbing it in the back. My Attributes are technically a little too high for this Zone thanks to [Unlimited Potential] and my lower Levels working together to give me bigger amounts of Experience.

Fighting monsters with the purpose of getting stronger really helps out, too.

A goblin attempts to bash me with its shield only to find me kicking the shield hard enough to crack the wood and break the beast's arm. Another tries to conjure a cloud of poison gas where I am to weaken or possibly even disable me. One of the snakes attempts to bite me while I'm 'distracted' with dodging a poisoned arrow from a goblin archer.

None of their attacks manage to land or affect me. I never allow the blades to touch me, the poison cloud is ineffective thanks to the resistance potion I took for it, and the snake isn't sneaky enough to avoid being heard – or resilient enough to keep its head when I slash down on it with my 44 Strength after dodging the attack.

Some of the goblin mages try to conjure "clouds of fear", or what appears to be some sort of black fog, but we took resistance potions for those.

"You good?" I call out to Adam after noticing a slash mark on his left arm.

"Can we eat one of the snakes after?" Adam responds while bashing in the head of a goblin with the butt of his sword.

"Focus on not getting hurt!"

I ram my sword through the back of a goblin before pulling it out and stepping to the side to avoid another goblin before slashing with my sword to cut off its head. Judging by Adam's response, it was one of the snakes that cut his arm. Their venom can inject the stone curse, so it's good he drank that potion.

An arrow soars past my head and slams into the head of a goblin mage that was attempting to cast several stone spikes to shoot at me. I holler out a thanks as I return to slaughtering monsters. That's really what this is: a slaughter. While Adam and the archers are roughly as strong as the monsters in this chamber, Caleb and I can easily outdo the beasts.

Caleb finishes up with the statues before we finish up with the goblins, so he ends up joining us for the remainder of the battle.

+36.12% [Swordsman] Experience +35.71% [Martial Artist] Experience! +33.93% [Knifeman] Experience! +31.82% [Spearman] Experience!

You have cleared the Zone! You may now exit the Dungeon, return to the previous Zone, or advance to the next Zone.

Maybe I should have pulled out one of the staffs in my Inventory as well? No, I probably would have gained even less Experience for the other Classes if I had done that. It's already lame that I didn't even earn a full Level's worth of Experience for [Spearman] despite it being Level 1. Then again, I didn't use the spear all that much due to the fact that I'm still adjusting to wielding one.

"Anyone other than me disappointed by how little Experience we got here?" I ask.

"Jamie!" Katie exclaims. "I don't know how much you gained here, but normal people might have only gained one Level between all of their Classes here! If they were at the level of might for this challenge! And that's if they're lucky!"

"No, I get that," I say. "But still. I mean, we fought eighty monsters here. Even considering that we each shared some kills, we can probably safely say that each of us contributed to or directly killed thirty monsters each. Not just each, but during a fight against others, where we had to keep in mind where others were and make sure they were safe. I feel that we should've gained at least 1 Level to each Class used for that alone."

"Totally unfair," Adam mutters. "Jamie, you have medical stuff, right? I think this gash is deeper than it looks."

We treat Adam's wound – the only injury any of us sustained other than some light bruises on Caleb – and it turns out to be not as severe as Adam thought. In fact, it's barely a scratch at all.

"Adam," I say. "You gained more Levels this run than you mentioned, didn't you?"

"Huh?" Adam asks. "Oh, yeah. Why?"

"Because your Strength was definitely a bit too high for this Zone as well," I tell him. "And the damage isn't as much as it should have been."

"Oh," he says. "I forgot to tell you."

I roll my eyes, then look at the archers.

"His arm will be fine in an hour or so thanks to the salve," I tell them. "What are your thoughts on heading into the tower? From what I heard, it's actually one of the faster parts of this Dungeon."

At an estimate, I'd say that the circular tower is about two hundred feet in width and a little more than two hundred in height. The Dungeon information I received said that each level was fifteen feet in height with three feet of thickness for the actual floors of each level, or eighteen feet per level of the tower.

"It's taller than the reports said," Caleb comments. "By half. I guess you were right about it becoming taller due to this upgrade, Jamie."

"Yeah," I say. "Based on the information I received about it, the tower's monsters should be around 30-35 Constitution and either Strength or Magic, depending on what we face. There's a central staircase that goes straight up to the top, so the only monsters we'd be forced to face are the ones that attack us on the way and stop us from continuing up."

"However," Katie says. "There are a variety of things throughout it. The majority of the floors are libraries, but there are some workshop spaces spread throughout on the fifth through eighth floors. We don't know what the four new floors might have."

"Monsters for the known floors," Chance says. "Include stone statues – humanoid again – magic books, and mimics. If you come across a chest, it could either have loot or eat you. Most methods of determining the truth can typically cause damage to or destroy the contents. However, you can tell a difference by smell. I'm not sure if you'll be able to notice it, Jamie, but we beastkin and Adam should be able to detect a faint scent of something more alive than just wood and metal from the ones that are mimics."

"Yeah," I nod. "I probably won't be able to. According to what I found, you can use the looting trick on mimics to get some actual loot. Fortunately, I already taught it to you three, so if you come across one, make sure to use it after you kill the thing."

"Wait, so we're going in?" Caleb asks. "What about the vote?"

"All in favor, raise your right hand," I raise up my right hand, as do Adam and the archers. "We're going in after we loot this area and Adam recovers."

"Oh," Caleb says. "I guess we're going to Zone 3. In that case, the first puzzle involves finding a shelf where all of the books on it have the same color cover, but in different shades. Pull them off in order from left-to-right, then place them back on the shelf from left-to-right in order of lightest shade to darkest. If you do that, the books will vanish and leave behind a ring of some sort. This puzzle is somewhere on the first four floors, but a different location every run. The cover colors used for it can be different between runs as well."

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"How valuable are the books compared to the ring?" I ask.

"They're all empty books," Caleb shrugs. "But paper is expensive, so you can easily get fifty to seventy copper per book, minimum. But adding even one book to a pack increases the weight and takes up more space, so not many people loot the lib-dammit, Jamie! Stop looting everything!"

"More loot means more money," Adam says. "I suggest we loot a decent amount of the books to sell instead of just progressing immediately through the tower. It'll give us a chance to get more loot from other things. At this point, none of us will gain very much Experience from the monsters up there due to the differences in power, but we can definitely get loot. Mimics can drop trinkets or potions or salves if the looting technique is used on them."

I'm satisfied with my gains for the Dungeon so far in terms of Levels, so I doubt I'll really gain much more Experience thanks to [Unlimited Potential]. At this point, continuing the run is more to see what sort of loot we can get – and what the other puzzles for me are.

"All in favor?" Everyone except Caleb raises their right hand. "Since we're decently strong, we can probably pair off, one close-ranged fighter with one archer. Honestly, we could probably split up entirely, but let's be safe. Katie, your abilities would compliment Caleb. Elise, yours would compliment Adam's – being that you can put out any fires that he accidentally sets while trying to kill a flying book. Chance, that leaves you with me. Everyone agree to this?"

"I won't set any fires," Adam says.

"Sure, sure," I say. "The tower's floors aren't all that large, and even with bookshelves and stuff scattered throughout to create some 'halls' or a slight maze, I can probably get most books into my ring within an hour or two."

"No!" Caleb exclaims. "No looting the entire library!"

"When it comes to monsters," I say. "Just loot them and leave the loot behind, I'll grab it as I make a pass there. Everyone agree to the plan?"

"No!" Caleb exclaims as the rest agree.

"Alright!" I say. "Then let's loot the statues and snakes in here. Adam's arm is healing faster than expected, so we can move on pretty fast."

"What about my say?" Caleb asks.

"You mean the say of the guy who still wants to kill one of my Party members and is only along so that he'd fuck off and leave us alone after?" I ask. "The guy who wouldn't really have been missed if he didn't come with us as Adam and I could have handled the stone beasts on our own without him? The guy who lost the vote one-to-five? You can leave if you want, Caleb. There's a Dungeon Gate right over there to give you a way out."

All of those are important points, especially the fact that he literally lost the vote.

Caleb stares at me for several long seconds before looking away and muttering, "Fine."

We loot everything we can from the battle in this area, then rest a few more minutes before passing through the gate leading into the third Zone. Immediately, the smell of old books hits my nose, the air in here a little bit stale. Worn-out carpet covers the floor and bookshelves line the walls and cover them from floor to ceiling. There are a few additional bookshelves spread throughout the massive room, along with a few tables and chests. The shelves not against the walls are only about six feet in height and lanterns with glowing crystals inside rest atop them as well as hang from the ceiling in a few spots, providing us with light in here.

In the very center of the room is a spiral staircase leading up, just as I was told.

Two stone men stand guard at the staircase, awaiting someone to dare to approach them.

"Let's spread out and start looting," I say. "Adam, you go right. I'll go left. Caleb, you go straight forward and take on the statues, you can still gain some decent Experience for [Martial Artist] if you don't use magic. Adam, make sure to use your sword for the books, you should be able to cut through them. Archers, aim for the edges of the chests or any books we can't hit easily. The latter for protection, the former because that will minimize the chances of damaging the contents if it's not a mimic. Aye?"

"Aye!"

"Let's go!"

I immediately begin looting books, as all I need to do to send them into my cuff is touch them if that's what my want for them. There are even some helpful ladders to grant easier access to the higher shelves.

The first book to attack me is one with a red cover and it attempts to shoot me with blasts of wind. There's nowhere near enough strength in the blasts to actually affect me, and the book isn't fast enough to avoid my sword's slash. When looted, I find that the book monsters here can drop ink, quills, or paper. Mimics – which die to the archers – mostly drop a few pieces of jewelry along with some potions and salves, just as stated before. I loot not just the books and monsters, but also the standalone lanterns.

The ones fixed into the ceiling could potentially enter my cuff, but I can't remove them and they won't poof into it even though I can send trees still rooted into the ground into my cuff. That leaves me with looting just the ones on the shelves.

Caleb's grumblings about looting fade after he discovers the first puzzle, which rewards him with a decorative ring that's Item Quality 3. Since he's the one who solved the puzzle, we agree that he can keep it or sell if he wishes so he stores it in his pouch.

Actually looting the room doesn't take as long as I expected, partly because the others carry books and other goods over to me to send them into my cuff as well. Something that Adam learned was that even though only the wearer can pull things out of the cuff, anyone can put something in. That speeds things up massively.

The fifth through eighth floors are largely libraries as well, though we encounter a couple of alchemy stations that get looted for all they're worth – from the equipment to the alchemy reagents. The only monsters at the stairs are a pair of statues, and Caleb handles all of those.

For the final set of three floors, there are paintings as well as shelves and a couple of alchemy stations. All of the paintings are of the same god that's got a statue at the Dungeon Fountains. Always nude, in various poses or situation. The first one I saw had him chilling on a log that's fallen over a stream, his feet dangling over the edge, nearly touching the water.

"Art in Dungeons usually feature this being," Caleb tells me when I comment about that. "No one has any idea who he is, but some people theorize that he's a God of Dungeons or something like that."

"Makes sense," Katie says. "I've heard that he's always the prominent feature of the art in Dungeons. There would be no reason for that if he wasn't the God of Dungeons."

"Unless he was some significant Dungeon explorer in ancient times," I say. "One who earned a huge amount of favor from the gods and this is their way of honoring them."

Though I doubt that as I say it – the events at Ratton suggests it's a god that people have forgotten. My gut says he's not a God of Dungeons, though.

"That makes sense," Katie agrees. "Hadn't thought about that before."

We try to pull one of the paintings off the wall but find that we can't. Frustrated that we can't sell the paintings, Adam decides to try the looting technique on it – receiving a jar of paint for his efforts.

"Anyone else bored?" I ask as we take care of the monsters at the stairs on the twelfth floor. "I mean, this has taken up basically our entire day and there wasn't even a proper Dungeon Boss here, just four stone statues. This Zone really was easier than the last one."

"I just hope Zone 4 is more exciting," Caleb says. "We are doing that, right? I'll admit I was wrong to doubt your sage wisdom on that, Jamie. But now I want to know what, exactly, is through that Dungeon Gate in the ceiling."

The stairs here continue up into the ceiling, passing through a Dungeon Gate that's a circular ring of dark green stones rather than an archway.

"Of course," I say. "We found the other two puzzles here, but didn't see anything in this Zone for me yet. That means that the puzzle will-wait a moment."

Everyone looks at me.

"The books here," I say. "They all have letters on their spines."

"All of them for these four floors have," Caleb says. "One letter or rune each."

"Yeah," I say. "But these letters are in my native language. And there are exactly twenty-six books per shelf."

"So?"

"There are twenty-six letters in my native language," I tell him. "Give me a second. Don't touch the books."

I examine some of the nearest shelves and read the letters off. They're all slightly scrambled, but each shelf contains one of each letter of the alphabet.

PBEDGFCHWJKLMNOAQRSTUVIXYZ

"Don't touch the books," I say. "Kill all of the monsters up here, including the book monsters, but do not damage any of the books. Just like the previous two, they're the puzzle."

We spend the next ten minutes making sure to kill every monster that's up here, then I begin examining each shelf that doesn't have any missing books due to the monsters. Eventually, I find one that's extremely curious. All of the books have the alphabet out of order, but they only have one of each letter, meaning the full alphabet is there.

For the extremely curious setup, only five letters are out of place.

JBCDAFGHMIKLENOPQRSTUVWXYZ

The only books out of place on this one are the ones that spell my name – and they're set into the order that spells my name. Chances are, the solution is to put them back in their proper spots either in alphabetical order or in the order they appear in my name.

"Ears or tail?" I ask.

"Ears," Adam immediately answers before anyone else can respond.

I pull the books off the shelf and put them in their appropriate spots going in the order they appear in the alphabet, so A-E-I-J-M. The moment I place the M back into its proper spot, I find myself sucked through the wall, now inside of a stone room with a few lanterns providing light, a pedestal with a shadow orb floating above it.

"Well," I say. "It's a good thing I didn't just go and loot this room, huh?"

I approach the orb and examine the choices presented to me.

You may choose which reward you wish to accept, Summoned One. Box of Infinite Meal Bars Sword of Sacred Light Jar of Infinite Lube Golden Chicken Egg Grand Spirit Wings Charm of Sleep Recovery Pouch of Infinite Tricks ← Pick that one!

I ignore the fact that the gods are apparently able to write messages in the choosing menu to examine the choices. [Box of Infinite Meal Bars], [Jar of Infinite Lube], and [Pouch of Infinite Tricks] are all the same as before.

The [Spirit Wings] reward was upgraded to [Grand Spirit Wings], which can go up to twenty miles per hour without a Mana cost instead of ten miles per hour.

The [Golden Chicken Egg] is also from the God of Commerce, and it's a fertilized egg that will hatch after three days of incubation. Once the golden chicken is fully-grown, it will lay a golden egg once every ten days.

The [Charm of Sleep Recovery] provides a healing boost while the wearer is asleep, healing their body at a rate of 10% of their full health status per hour of rest. In other words, if less than ten percent of the wearer's body is damaged, they'll heal completely in under an hour.

Because of the previous Zone's rewards, I was thinking that gods can either leave it the same or downgrade their reward if they submitted one, but now I see that was wrong. While some of the gods do seem to be downgrading their rewards after I don't accept them, the fact that [Spirit Wings] became [Grand Spirit Wings] means that they can upgrade instead.

"In other words," I muse. "By not picking a choice, the gods may think that means I feel they're too powerful. But with the wings, he probably thought they were too weak. That's interesting."

The item I pick, however, is the [Sword of Sacred Light]. This time, the God of Combat's offering is a sword with a blade forged of 'crystallized sacred light', which can apparently only harm creatures of unholy or shadow forms, such as undead, demons, and shadow elementals. To determine the might of the light within the sword's blade, the sum of my Strength and Magic are used.

In other words, this sword is perfect if I encounter a Dungeon with undead monsters while I'm still seeing if adventures are what I like. If I decide to settle down, then I could sell the sword for a decent amount of coin.

The sword appears in the shadow orb, which grows larger just to accommodate the weapon. The sheath is pure white leather with golden caps, the hilt is silver and gold with a diamond in the pommel, and when I draw it, I find the blade to actually be made out of crystallized light.

"Damn," I say. "I can feel the holy power in it."

I sheathe the sword and send it into my cuff, then leave the room, finding myself in front of the bookshelf once more. Several piles of books have been set up in preparation for my return to quicken the remaining looting process.

"Let's loot this floor," I say. "Then either leave the Dungeon or rest for the night and tackle the fourth Zone tomorrow, yeah?"

"What did you get?" Adam asks.

"A sword."

"That's lame."

"That can only hurt undead, demons, shadow elementals, and the like."

"That's less lame."

"Yup," I say. "Now let's get looting, yeah? Today's already been long and we're well-past the point we should be heading to bed."