I said, as I headed for another golem. The fight went much the same way; I slowly walked around the creature while spamming Lecherous Strike on cooldown. And that was pretty much it.

Scores of golems fell to the same strategy over the next few hours, and though I had to use a couple of repair stones along the way, the creatures provided me with a pretty amazing haul of Armorsmithing materials. Still, I could feel Ezzie growing restless through the link.

Ezzie said.

I said.

Ezzie yawned through the link, preposterously loud.

I dropped yet another golem, and the creature was kind enough to leave a piece of gear behind:

{Golemplate Greaves}

Grade: F

Item level: 8

Slot: Legs

Type: Plate

Quality: Common

Armor: 11

Durability 50/50

I ditched my copper leggings and threw those on. But I didn’t love them.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

I said.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said. The Constructor sent an arrow of red light lancing across the ground.

I said.

Ezzie said. Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

I shrugged and sloshed over, giving the golems a wide berth. I slipped between two slime-coated trees and stepped into what could have passed for another world.

Here the water was emerald green, clear enough where I could make easily make out the rocks and sunken logs that sat at the very bottom of the lake.

An enormous oak tree rose from the center of the bright water, and a small cabin crowned its trunk. The tree’s bare limbs stretched out beneath it, curling up along its walls, not a leaf among them.

Ezzie said.

I said, already splashing my way back the way I had come.

Ezzie said.

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Ezzie said.

I glanced over my shoulder just as a pulse of green light flared out of the cabin, rippling the waters beneath as if a giant stone had been dropped into the center of the pool.

Ezzie said.

I paused at the edge of the pool, where a bright line divided the green waters from the slow, darker currents beyond.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

I suppressed a laugh, because it seemed like Ezzie would count a laugh as a point in her favor.

Ezzie said,

Ezzie said.

A thousand renown…that would get me halfway to Unheralded all on its own. <…damn.> I kicked my way toward the tree, wading through the chilly water until it became too deep to stand in.

I had to swim the last twenty feet, and with every stroke I made the water grew warmer, and the air began to smell increasingly of sulfur and rot.

A series of metal spikes had been driven into the tree to form a makeshift ladder, so I climbed up and pulled myself onto the wooden walkway above. The floor was rickety, the boards all cracked or set at weird angles, forcing me to test my footing before each step.

I made it to the door—which was a series of interlocking bones because of course it was—and raised a hand, about to knock.

Ezzie said.

I dropped the hand I’d been about to knock with and drew my short sword instead.

Ezzie said.

I took a deep breath and kicked in the door, which shattered inward into a thousand shards of flying bone. The door had given so easily that I toppled forward and almost tripped, having expected to meet much more resistance.

Thankfully, the cabin was unoccupied.

But it was still pretty horrifying. A green, smokeless fire blazed beneath a black cauldron at the center of the room, its rim bubbling over with green foam. The walls were lined with long bones, each of them much too large to have come from anything remotely resembling a human. Which was a plus, maybe?

I said, muttering through the link.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said, as another red arrow raced along the floor and illuminated a bone-handled lever set into the wood.

Ezzie said.

I blinked. For a little where there, I’d forgotten about the wild completely.

I spent a few more minutes examining every nook and cranny of the room, and eventually found an iron box suspended from the ceiling by a thin metal chain that hung directly over the cauldron.

The chain disappeared into a hole in the ceiling, so it seemed a fair bet that the lever would have something to do with whatever was inside the box.

Ezzie said.

I pulled my shield up to cover my face and kicked the lever, jumping back to avoid being splattered with foam when the box dropped into the cauldron. But its descent was gradual as the box click-clacked down link by link.

The bottom of the box turned red and began to glow as it neared the green flames, which licked up out of the cauldron to meet it, and soon the entire box was aglow. The container disappeared into the cauldron and the chain went slack—the box must have hit the bottom.

I looked around, scanning the room for threats while the Constructor did the same. I poked my head out through the remains of the door, but the swamp hadn’t changed.

Ezzie said.

I kicked it back into position and the chain pulled taut, its length being drawn back into the hole in the ceiling. The box rose in turn, green sludge dripping off its still-molten surface.

The chain jammed when the box was about halfway between the cauldron and the roof. Then one of its sides dropped open, revealing darkness within.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said, as the Constructor bobbed up in front of the box. She beamed the Constructor’s lasers into the box to no avail; its light seemed incapable of penetrating the box’s dark interior.

I swallowed, hard. My hands were sweating into my gauntlets, and the feeling was not pleasant.

Ezzie said.

I raised my hand to the box, but only made it about two feet away before I had to pull back. I tried again, to the same result.

I said.

<…what?>

I said. I squeezed my eyes shut. The following sensation was strange; my arm went numb at the shoulder, and all I could feel was the skin going taut around the joint, then relaxing.

Ezzie said.

Ezzie said.

I said.

Ezzie said, morose.

Ezzie said.

I steeled myself with a few more deep breaths, then jammed my hand into the box. And then…nothing.

But the box was much deeper than it had a right to be, and I kept prodding around, running hesitant fingers along smooth, warm spaces. It seemed empty, so I shrugged and tried to pull my hand back.

And it wouldn’t come free.