I ACCIDENTALLY MARRIED A DUNGEON

"I’m not interested. Didn’t you hear me?" Felix crossed his arms, planting himself firmly in the doorway.

Jackson’s eyes shifted past him toward Dune, an easy smile spreading across his face. "I haven’t even told you what the job is yet." He gave a small wave. "Hello, girl. I’m Jackson, your husband’s old friend."

"I already know what kind of job you’re offering." Felix’s jaw stayed tight.

"It’s actually very simple." Jackson nodded, relaxed. "We just need to retrieve some snake eggs. Sneak in quietly, grab what we need, get out before anyone notices."

"Which snake, and where exactly?" Felix’s arms loosened just slightly.

"Blackstone serpent." Jackson shrugged easily. "Found in the Death Forest, from what I hear."

Felix went quiet, working through it in his head. Death Forest’s got nothing left to its name but the reputation, nobody’s actually died out there in years. But a Blackstone serpent’s still nothing to laugh at if you’re careless. How much are we even talking about here?

"Not interested. I’ve got better work lined up already." He turned partway back toward the house.

"Twenty silvers per egg." Jackson said it plainly, watching him closely.

"Still no."

"Twenty silvers, per person, per egg."

"I’m in." Felix spun back around fast, already reaching out to grab Dune by the wrist. "We’re both in."

"That’s exactly what I was trying to tell you." Jackson’s smile widened.

Felix cinched the straps of his bag tight and headed out the door without further discussion.

Jackson explained on the way that the western edge of the Death Forest was their destination, deeper in where the trees grew thick enough to choke out most of the light before it ever reached the ground.

A tightness settled into Felix’s chest at the mention of it, because the western edge wasn’t only home to the Blackstone serpent’s cave.

He slowed his steps as they neared, glancing off to the right, where a wide stretch of bare, disturbed earth sat empty, all that remained of a certain mountain that no longer stood.

It’s already been a month since that whole mess. Time really doesn’t slow down for anyone.

"Something catches your eye?" Jackson asked, following his gaze.

"No. It’s nothing." Felix shook his head, forcing his eyes away from the empty patch of dirt. "You got a map or something? I’m not wasting energy wandering around aimlessly all day."

"Thought you already had a way to handle this." Jackson shot back, brow raised.

"What, how would I know without an exact location? How are we supposed to find it otherwise?"

"Use that tracking trick of yours. Should be nothing for you."

"No. I need to pick up its Numen signature first, and I don’t have anything of its to work with."

Jackson’s frown deepened. "Didn’t you used to be able to track without needing that?"

"That was before." Felix’s voice went flat, closing off the topic before it could open further. "I’ve changed how I do things."

"Disappointing." Jackson decided against pushing further, letting it drop. "West it is, then. Once we start seeing loose stone clusters, the cave shouldn’t be far off."

Felix spread both hands in a helpless shrug, offering nothing more useful than that.

Jackson took the lead, moving at a steady pace, and after nearly an hour of cutting through undergrowth and scanning the terrain, small stone formations began rising out of the tree line to the southwest. Jackson crouched here and there along the way, checking loose pebbles and patches of soil, searching for anything resembling shed scale.

Felix scrambled up the nearest stone rise for a better vantage point and spotted a stretch of broken, snapped trees further south. He narrowed his eyes, tracing the pattern in the dirt below, a straight, disturbed line cutting clean through the underbrush, unmistakable once he actually looked for it.

"Found it." He dropped back down, boots hitting soft earth.

"Where?"

"Follow me." Felix cut toward the broken trees, and up close the drag marks became obvious, deep grooves carved through the soil where something massive had hauled itself forward, over and over. He examined the nearest trunks and found long scratches raked into the bark at odd heights. He crouched and brushed his fingers across the disturbed ground, searching for any lingering trace of Numen. Nothing.

"Here, found one of its scales." Jackson approached and pressed a black, jagged shard into his palm.

Felix turned it over slowly. "It’s completely dried out. No charge left in it at all."

"Might still be some use in it."

"Let’s find out." Felix pulled a card free from his pocket and balanced the scale on top of it, raising both close to his mouth. He exhaled slowly, feeding a thin stream of Numen through the card. It trembled slightly. He released his grip, the scale slid off and dropped to the ground, the card lifting on its own, drifting forward at barely a crawl.

"At this pace we’ll be here till next season." Jackson watched it flatly.

"Best I’ve got right now." Felix kept his eyes on the floating card. "Feel free to show me something better if you’ve got it."

Jackson glanced at his left hand, wrapped tight in bandage cloth. "Was hoping to surprise you with this later, but I suppose there’s no point holding back now."

"Surprise me how, exactly?"

Jackson reached behind his back and drew out a black metal rod, about a foot long, etched with strange, angular symbols running its length, a small red circle set at its center marking where it split in two. He unwound the bandage from his fingers, revealing a fresh puncture wound on his index fingertip, and held it over the metal. A single drop of blood fell, landing dead center on the circle.

He gave the weapon a sharp snap, and both ends telescoped outward at once, extending to nearly two meters in a single fluid motion, the tips at either end honed razor thin.

"What in the hell is that?" Felix stared at the spear, unable to look away.

"Duran metal." Jackson said, grinning.

"Wait, hold on. You’re being serious? That’s actual Duran metal?" Felix stepped closer, examining every inch of it. "How the hell did you get your hands on something like this?"

"That part, I can’t tell you." Jackson lifted the spear overhead and hurled it hard, letting it climb high into the air above the tree line. "Let’s just say I did a good man a favor once, and he remembered it."

Felix craned his neck, watching the spear arc up and hang for a beat before gravity started pulling it back down, only for it to shift mid-fall, correcting its trajectory and drifting steadily off toward the southwest.

"Nice."

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