The dungeon’s entrance is a cave. A dank and gloomy cave. The outside light barely makes it a meter in, but there’s a faint glow to the wall that lets me make out the uneven walls and floor that winds ahead for a few meters before a bend blocks my view.

John: Chuck I just got a notification that our team entered a dungeon. What are you doing?

I stare at the window, silently cursing. He’s going to—

John: Chuck, don’t do anything. We’re on our way.

“Fuck.”

I glance at the team window, considering my options. I know his intentions are good.

I ignore my father’s snort.

But I don’t want any of them here for this. This is for me to let out steam. Have so fun without having to worry about what they’re going to think. Just mindlessly bash things for a while.

I am so fed up with having people around.

And yet, you don’t leave.

I leave the team.

I suppose that’s a start.

Just shut up.

I summon my bar and its green glow adds a little illumination to what turns out to come from moss growing in patches on the walls.

Terry: Chuck? What happened? You’re not part of the team anymore and John looks pissed

How? If I left the team, they shouldn’t—

Terry’s name is under its own heading. Ward.

Do you wish to remove Terry as your ward?

Yes/No?

I guess staring at it too long acts as a trigger.

Why are you hesitating?

I put his voice out of my mind and still it as best as I can.

Chuck: Terry, I just need to time on my own after dealing with all those people all day.

Terry: You’ve entered a dungeon. Those things aren’t safe.

Chuck: It’s wild, in the middle of nowhere, and it’s barely been a month since all this started. How dangerous can it be?

Terry: The Walmart was days after the change, and it almost killed us a few times.

Chuck: There was an intelligence behind it. I think someone got turned into its core, and they directed how it went. This one’s wild. At best, it’s got some animal’s intelligence. I’ve been fighting plenty of those. I can deal with this.

Terry: I don’t know. John’s gathering us to join you. The dungeon’s location vanished when you left the team, but he’s pretty sure he can find it. If you put me back on it, we’ll be there faster.

Chuck: Terry, please let me do this alone.

I dismiss the window as I sense the threat forming in my mind. I am not my father. I will not threaten him with abandonment to get my way.

Terry: okay.

The tightness in my chest loosens.

I look at Silver. “Alright, we get to have some fun.”

I make it around the bend and something jumps at me. A swing of the bar and it explodes in a gooey mess. Whatever it was, it was small. Another step, and another jumps at me. This time I make it out as a slug, before I kill it. Silver bounces off a wall, and swipes in the shadow. Another slug lands on the floor, shudders and goes still.

It’s like that for a few bends, then we reach fork.

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“Left or right?”

Silver’s washing his fur.

“I guess it’s on me. We stick to the right wall. If this is a maze, it keeps us from getting lost.”

The slugs that jump at me are larger, and they don’t all explode when I hit them. A few bounces and need a second hit before they die.

“They get tougher, that’s good. Means I’m going to get a fight, eventually.”

The next fork is three-way. I’m covered in goo at this point, while Silver’s fur is still pristine. Anytime a drop gets on it, he pauses to clean it off. I go right.

This time, the things that attack skitter about, spider-like. I’m reminded of the one in the Walmart and suppress a shudder as I kill them. One is faster, bobbing under my swings and cuts my leg before I kill it. It burns and I heal it, but the poison debuff remains for the full ten seconds. The loss of health isn’t noticeable, but it points out a limitation to the healing spell.

The one that cut me leaves a stone ring behind. It’s plain and rough. It only fits my little finger to the first knuckle. I’m not cluttering my inventory with something worthless like this. I drop it and move on.

In the next wave of attack, I spot the three faster than the rest and dispatch them before they can reach scratch me. The next junction is a five-way intersection. Again, the right. The next attack has less of the skittering things, but they’re all fast. I end up with six poison debuffs by the time I’ve dispatched them, and this time, the loss to the poison registers as a sliver in my health.

If I’m not careful, this could turn into a case of death by a thousand cuts.

A few of them drop stone rings.

The passage way opens into a larger cave and I hear skittering within it. The light from the patches of moss only illuminate the walls and floor close to them. I step into it, then out of the light. My bar isn’t bright enough to do more than hint at the floor around me. I focus on the sound. When the skittering changes, it’s getting closer. I hurry back into the light in time to see a dozen of those poison things.

Killing them earns me three debuffs.

There is still skittering inside. I step in, make it three paces further before the sounds change, and I retreat. Only eight this time, but they get in six cuts.

I take a step toward the cave once the debuffs expire before deciding I can’t be overconfident. I heal myself and I’m rewarded with another level in the spell.

I make it far enough in, I barely make out the walls. When the skittering changes, this time it doesn’t come at me, but spreads around. I step back, but it’s too late. I’m surrounded.

I hardly have time to react. When I see one, it’s close enough to scratch me, and I rarely see only one.

Silver’s more efficient, reacting to their presence before they enter my poor light’s range. I use him as a guide, stepping in the direction he attacks and swinging in the dark around him. I get in a few lucky hits this way, but after I nearly hit him a third time, Silver vanishes in the darkness, taking some of the skittering with him.

I lose track of the amount of cuts I receive. The debuff stack to the point where the countdown isn’t legible anymore, but I’m still standing when the skittering stops and Silver rejoins my side. He’s cut, dirty, and gives me a look that makes it clear he thinks it my fault.

I open my mouth to apologize, but his head snaps to the side just before a rhythmic clicking approaches. I look around for the exit, but I can’t see the walls. I settle for backing away as I cast aid after aid on myself and Silver. I don’t count them, but my health goes from half to just under three-quarter by the time I run out of mana and my back is against the wall.

The moss light reflects off a carapace that hints this thing is five or six times the size of the others. I have something to aim at, and that’s enough. I rush is, swinging fast and hard. I hit it a few times; it backs fully into the darkness, and my next swing hit the floor.

I curse in the silence. It pulled me away from the light. There’s clicking to my left, Silver hisses, then whines and something meaty hits the ground. I move in that direction, swinging blindly. My bar impacts and sends it away. Another step and Silver is visible in my bar’s light. He’s breathing, so I relaxing slightly. I heal him as much as I can, a dozen times before I’m out of mana, while facing the slow clicking of that thing circling us. Silver doesn’t move once I’m done, but the gash in his side is gone.

I swing my bar and slam my foot in its direction. It skitters away a bit. Good, at last it’s wary of me. It approaches and I do it again, sending it back. It comes again, faster, and I slam my foot down. It speeds up toward me and I swing hard.

The impact sends it skittering away.

You thought you had me, didn’t you? The end of my bar is wet. I broke its shell.

The silence stretched and anytime the blue sliver on my mana bar becomes visible, I heal Silver.

When the skittering comes again, it’s hurried and I’m not fact enough. A giant leg opens my chest before my bar smashes down on it and it retreats. I saw its blood splash out this time, but I focus on keeping from bleeding out as I find out I don’t have the mana for the aid spell yet. The one poison debuff, along with the bleed one are causing my health to drop visibly. It stays away long enough I can stop the bleeding with the spell, but there’s still fifteen second on the poison, and—

I move to face the approaching clicking and swing at the hint of reflected light, miss, and almost take another sharp leg in the chest. I bring down my bar and that leg breaks off, trailing liquid as it retreats.

My health is halfway between three-quarter and half. My mana’s just visible, but I don’t heal myself. Silver’s still unmoving, and I’m getting worried. How much health does he have? How does poison affect him? Is there a limit to the number of times he can ‘die’ and come back if no one touches his core?

Fuck, why did I—

I block reflexively, only afterward does it register there was no sound before the attack and it came at me higher. It leaped. I hit it, then try to impale my bar into its back to hold it in place, but it’s still faster.

Silver’s up, jaws clamped on a leg, hind feet clawing at its underside, spreading blood.

“Hold on.” I golf-swing at it, catching it and sending it up to land on its back. Silver yelps and lets go. I’m next to the thing as it struggles to right itself and stab my bar down in the center of its belly. It shrieks and struggles, then goes limp.

Silver glares at me as I use the bar to support my weight.

“I did tell you to hold on.”

He shakes a paw as if to get the blood off it and I realize it might not be that I sent him flying along with the thing that he blames me for. Will he let me give him a bath when we get out of here?

He’s still washing, sending me the occasional ‘look’, by the time I’ve caught my breath and look around. This was clearly what Terry calls a Boss Monster, and, according to him, those come with good rewards. Loot.

Kids and their slang.

It’s slow going in the dark, but find a depression in the ground with stuff in it. Bones, scales, what might have been uneaten flesh. That, I leave behind. The bones and scales are hard. Maybe something someone can use to… who knows. With that in my inventory, the light glints off something metallic.

I pick up the ring. It’s similar to the stone ones the small creatures dropped in the tunnels, but this one is polished metal. It’s unadorned. Wondering how it ended up here, I try it on. It slips over my ring finger easily, and once in place, the room lights up.

I’m up, bar in hand, scanning for whoever turned on the light, but the only one there is Silver, still washing. The timing registers, and I remove the ring. As soon as I pull, the room becomes dark again.

I focus on it.

System Query: Metallic Ring, Quality: Good, Type: Jewelry

A plain metal ring of the kind artisans make as part of their training

Perception check unsuccessful

I put it back on.

The lighting’s about that of a forty-watt bulb. The cavern is around twenty meters in diameter with two access. I know the one I came from because of the dead creatures around it. Which means there is more to this dungeon.

I turn the ring on my finger and smile.

That means more things to kill.