DK’s step backward lasted less than a second.
That was enough.
Etzel saw it.
Maerin saw it.
Sivenne definitely saw it, because her smile disappeared.
Tessa’s hand tightened around her equipment.
The dungeon entrance waited ahead of them.
Cold air drifted up the stone descent.
Etzel looked at DK.
“You’ve never done that before.”
“No.”
“Do you know why?”
DK stared into the darkness.
Silence stretched.
Then:
“No.”
Etzel felt the Soul Link.
What came through it wasn’t simple fear.
Fear was immediate.
Sharp.
This was deeper.
Recognition.
The same impossible familiarity Etzel had felt near the black root.
Something inside DK knew this place.
Or knew something connected to it.
DK took the step forward again.
Sivenne watched him carefully.
“That looked reassuring.”
“It wasn’t,” Etzel said.
Maerin looked between them.
“Are we stopping?”
Etzel didn’t answer immediately.
He looked at DK.
“You don’t have to go in.”
DK turned toward him.
Etzel expected an objection.
Instead, the knight answered calmly.
“Whatever I remember, I would rather face it than leave you to enter without me.”
Etzel went quiet.
That was annoyingly difficult to joke about.
He managed anyway.
“You could have said something less dramatic.”
“I could have.”
“But you chose not to.”
“Yes.”
Sivenne leaned toward Tessa.
“I like him more every minute.”
Etzel pointed at her.
“You’ve known me longer.”
“That’s the problem.”
Maerin stepped toward the entrance.
“Last check.”
The humor vanished.
Weapons.
Supplies.
Signals.
Retreat markers.
Everyone confirmed.
Etzel looked once at the System prompt still waiting for him.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Enter Dungeon? │
│ [ YES ] / [ NO ] │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
He selected:
[ YES ]
The boundary accepted them.
Something shifted.
Not around them.
Through them.
Like crossing a thin layer of cold water.
The forest behind them remained visible.
But the dungeon ahead suddenly felt farther from the outside world than a few meters of stone should allow.
Etzel disliked that immediately.
“Everyone felt that?”
“Yes,” Maerin said.
Sivenne rolled one shoulder.
“Normal enough.”
Etzel looked at her.
“That was normal?”
“For a dungeon.”
“That qualification is doing a lot of work.”
They descended.
The first corridor looked disappointingly ordinary.
Gray stone.
Moisture.
Uneven walls.
A gradual downward slope.
Etzel had expected something more dramatic.
Glowing runes.
Skulls.
A giant sign reading: CERTAIN DEATH THIS WAY.
Instead there was moss.
He found that suspicious.
Then the stone changed.
Thin mineral veins appeared along the walls.
Pale.
Almost white.
They twisted through the rock like roots.
Etzel slowed.
Some disappeared into the floor.
Others climbed toward the ceiling.
A faint light pulsed through them.
Not enough to illuminate the tunnel.
Enough to make darkness feel alive.
Etzel stared.
“Please tell me dungeons normally breathe.”
Sivenne looked at the wall.
“They don’t.”
Maerin continued walking.
“That isn’t breathing.”
Etzel watched another faint pulse travel through the stone.
“Somehow worse.”
Tessa moved closer to one wall but didn’t touch it.
“The light is following something.”
“Energy flow?” Maerin asked.
“Maybe.”
DK said nothing.
Etzel noticed.
The knight was looking down.
Not at the glowing veins.
At the floor beneath them.
Etzel filed that away.
Later.
Assuming later remained available.
Their marching order settled naturally.
Maerin took the lead.
Sivenne moved slightly ahead and to the side where she had room to attack.
Tessa stayed near the center.
Etzel remained close enough to react in either direction.
DK moved wherever he pleased.
Which was apparently the privilege of being powerful enough to cut trees in half.
Etzel looked around the formation.
“So technically there are five of us.”
“Four Hunters,” Maerin said.
Etzel pointed at DK.
“He has feelings.”
DK spoke without looking back.
“Regrettably.”
Sivenne laughed.
“I’m starting to like him more than you.”
Etzel frowned.
“That’s betrayal twice in one dungeon, and we’ve only been here thirty seconds.”
“We’ve been here longer than thirty seconds.”
“That isn’t the important part.”
Maerin raised one hand.
Everyone stopped.
Etzel heard it a moment later.
Scratching.
Stone against stone.
Ahead.
Low to the ground.
Then several sets at once.
Sivenne lowered her weapon.
“Finally.”
Etzel looked at her.
“You say that like being attacked is good news.”
“It is compared to waiting.”
“That explains a lot about you.”
Three shapes rounded the bend.
Then a fourth.
Low creatures with six jointed legs.
Their backs were covered in overlapping stone-colored plates.
Each head was almost entirely hidden beneath a thick frontal shell.
The System responded.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ TARGET DETECTED │
│ Name: Burrow Skitter │
│ Classification: Common │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Etzel counted.
Four.
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Maerin lowered her hand.
A faint line spread across the floor. Claimed Ground.
The first Skitter entered.
Its front legs suddenly sank half an inch deeper into the stone dust.
Its charge broke.
Sivenne moved.
One strike.
The weapon slipped beneath the edge of its carapace.
The Skitter flipped sideways.
Dead.
The second lunged.
DK intercepted with his shield.
He could have killed it.
He didn’t.
The creature bounced off the silver surface and turned.
Straight toward Etzel.
Etzel waited.
Head protected.
Sides less so.
Six legs meant more contact points.
More contact points meant—
He moved left.
The Skitter corrected.
Too slowly.
Etzel stepped inside the arc of its front shell and buried the hatchet between the second and third legs.
The creature collapsed on one side.
Its shell scraped stone.
Etzel pulled the weapon free.
Second strike.
Joint beneath the neck plate.
Done.
Tessa shouted.
“Right!”
Etzel turned.
Third Skitter.
Sivenne was dealing with the fourth.
Maerin shifted her Ground.
The creature’s rear legs caught.
Not stopped.
Delayed.
Enough.
Etzel moved.
One clean hit.
Then another.
The Skitter stopped.
Silence returned almost immediately.
Etzel blinked.
“That was…”
Sivenne cleaned her weapon.
“Easy?”
“I was going to say organized.”
“Same thing.”
Maerin shook her head.
“No.”
Sivenne looked at her.
“No?”
“Easy makes people careless.”
Etzel pointed toward Maerin.
“I’m writing that down.”
“You aren’t.”
“I’m remembering it aggressively.”
Something clicked near his boot.
Etzel looked down.
A small object rolled free from the dead Skitter’s chest cavity.
Dark gray.
Hard.
Roughly the size of a large coin.
The System identified it.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ITEM OBTAINED │
│ Name: Burrow Core Fragment │
│ Description: Low-Value Dungeon Material│
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Etzel crouched.
Picked it up.
Looked at Maerin.
“This is worth money?”
Sivenne immediately answered.
“Now you’re asking the important questions.”
Maerin sighed.
“Not much.”
Etzel looked offended.
“Money has no ‘not much’ category when you currently have very little.”
Tessa smiled.
Maerin held out her hand.
Etzel gave her the fragment.
“Common dungeon materials usually sell in bulk. Core fragments. Carapace. Certain organs. Mineral deposits. Occasionally rune shards.”
Etzel looked at the remaining corpses.
“So I get stronger…”
“Yes.”
“And get paid.”
“Yes.”
He slowly smiled.
“Why did nobody explain Hunter work like this?”
Maerin looked at him.
“Because you would have entered a dungeon at Level One.”
Etzel thought about it.
“…Fair.”
DK moved past them.
Etzel followed.
“Still. Marketing problem.”
The next chamber was larger.
Wide enough for Sivenne to look visibly happier.
Etzel decided that was probably a bad sign.
The System gave them no warning before the first creature dropped from the wall.
Tessa saw it first.
“Above!”
Etzel looked up.
Too late.
A thin creature with hook-like limbs launched from the stone.
Sivenne struck it out of the air.
It hit the ground.
Two more began moving across the walls.
Then something farther back opened a swollen throat sac.
Green vapor gathered.
Etzel stared.
“Poison?”
Maerin:
“Likely.”
“Wonderful.”
The creature spat.
Maerin changed the Ground.
Etzel moved before she said anything.
The projectile hit stone.
Green fluid hissed.
Definitely poison.
Five creatures total.
Two Skitters.
Two wall-climbers.
One poison-spitter.
Maerin pointed.
“Etzel, stay with Tessa.”
Etzel turned.
“I’m Level Four now.”
“Congratulations.”
A beat.
“Stay with Tessa.”
Etzel stared.
“The ceremony was better in my head.”
Tessa laughed.
Then the poison-spitter fired again.
“Less ceremony,” Maerin said.
“More moving.”
They moved.
This fight lasted longer.
Not because the creatures were stronger.
Because they interfered with each other.
The wall-climbers forced attention upward.
The Skitters controlled the floor.
The poison-spitter punished anyone who stayed still.
Etzel nearly chased one wall-climber.
Stopped himself.
Wrong.
He looked at the room.
Routes.
Sight lines.
Pressure.
One wall-climber was using the left wall to reach Tessa.
The second shadowed Sivenne.
The poison-spitter’s line was blocked by its own Skitter.
Etzel saw it.
“Left wall. Two climbing!”
Maerin shifted without looking.
Her Claim expanded against the base of the wall.
One creature landed into altered footing.
Its body twisted.
Sivenne finished it.
The second dropped.
Etzel was waiting.
Hatchet.
Shoulder.
Then throat.
Sivenne glanced at Maerin.
“You trust him already?”
Maerin didn’t look away from the fight.
“He was right twice.”
Etzel blocked a Skitter’s shell with the hatchet handle.
“Only twice?”
“Fight.”
“Yes, boss.”
“I am not your boss.”
“That sounded like something a boss would say.”
The poison-spitter inhaled again.
Etzel saw its throat swell.
“Now!”
DK moved.
Shield.
The poison burst against silver metal.
DK rotated.
The liquid sprayed harmlessly against the wall.
Sivenne closed the distance.
One strike.
The poison-spitter died before it could inhale again.
The room fell quiet.
Etzel exhaled.
That had felt different.
Not harder than the Briar Shepherd.
Not even close.
But cleaner.
They weren’t five individuals standing in the same room anymore.
They were beginning to function like a party.
Etzel liked that.
Then he saw the corpse moving.
His smile disappeared.
“Uh.”
Tessa turned.
“What?”
Etzel pointed.
The dead wall-climber was sinking.
Not falling into a crack.
Sinking.
Its skin softened against the stone.
Blood spread beneath it—
then disappeared.
The creature’s body flattened slowly, as though the floor were absorbing it from underneath.
Etzel stepped closer.
“Is that normal?”
Nobody answered immediately.
That was answer enough.
Maerin crouched.
“No.”
The body continued to vanish.
Bone.
Blood.
Flesh.
All of it pulled downward.
A faint shimmer rose once from the corpse.
Spiritual energy.
Etzel had seen enough System effects now to recognize that much.
The shimmer should have dispersed.
It didn’t.
It sank into the floor.
Within seconds, only a small hardened core fragment remained.
Tessa stared.
“The energy went with it.”
Etzel looked at her.
“You saw that too?”
“I felt it.”
Another corpse began sinking.
Then another.
Sivenne watched.
“At least we don’t have to step over them.”
Maerin looked at her.
“That isn’t funny.”
Sivenne considered.
“A little.”
Etzel crouched beside the remaining fragment.
He picked it up.
“Where does the rest go?”
No answer.
The pale veins in the wall pulsed.
Etzel noticed.
Brighter.
Only slightly.
He looked at DK.
The knight was staring at the floor.
“DK?”
“It is taking something.”
“From the bodies?”
“Yes.”
Etzel held up the core fragment.
“Not everything.”
“No.”
The dungeon left the physical material.
Or at least part of it.
But the energy—
that disappeared.
Etzel put the fragment into the shared loot pouch.
“Adding that to the list of things I don’t like.”
Sivenne looked at him.
“How long is the list?”
“Becoming structurally significant.”
They continued.
The next corridor should have been empty.
Maerin stopped halfway through.
A creature rounded the bend.
Sivenne killed it quickly.
Etzel looked at Maerin.
“Was that one supposed to be here?”
Sivenne cleaned her weapon.
“Do monsters normally make appointments?”
Etzel pointed at Maerin.
“I’m asking the responsible person.”
Sivenne looked wounded.
Maerin studied the corpse.
“No.”
Etzel’s humor faded.
“No what?”
“That patrol was early.”
“How early?”
“Enough that I noticed.”
The corpse began sinking into the floor.
Again.
Etzel watched the wall veins brighten.
Again.
Small.
But real.
He said nothing.
Yet.
The deeper they went, the dungeon became more generous.
Etzel didn’t trust generosity anymore.
But he was willing to temporarily appreciate it.
A Skitter dropped part of its reinforced carapace.
Another creature left behind a pale mineral nodule.
Then one slightly larger burrowing predator collapsed after a short fight.
Something crystalline glimmered inside the wound.
Etzel crouched.
The System appeared.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ITEM OBTAINED │ │ Name: Vein Crystal │
│ Classification: Uncommon Material │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Sivenne saw it.
“Oh.”
Etzel looked at her.
“That sounded financially meaningful.”
“That one is actually worth something.”
Etzel immediately looked at Maerin.
“Define something.”
Maerin picked up the crystal and turned it in the light.
“Enough to cover a portion of basic treatment supplies.”
Etzel pointed at it.
“I love this dungeon.”
Maerin stared.
“You were warned not to enter it.”
“I have a complicated relationship with danger.”
“You have a complicated relationship with common sense.”
“That too.”
The crystal went into the shared pouch.
Etzel looked at it.
“How do we split everything?”
“Physical loot is shared.”
“Equally?”
“After expenses.”
Sivenne groaned.
“She says that because she enjoys ruining joy.”
“Healing supplies cost money.”
Tessa nodded.
“A lot.”
Etzel stopped joking.
He thought about the Potion.
Bandages.
Antiseptic.
Everything Tessa had used on him.
Everything his mother had used afterward.
“How much of a dungeon run normally disappears into treatment?”
Maerin looked at him.
“Depends how badly you fight.”
Sivenne:
“So for you?”
Etzel pointed at her.
“Unnecessary.”
Tessa smiled.
Maerin continued.
“Bad runs can lose money.”
Etzel frowned.
“You can clear a dungeon and come out poorer?”
“Yes.”
“That feels offensive.”
“Equipment repairs. Medicine. Travel. Replacement supplies.”
Etzel glanced at his hatchet.
The cracked handle.
The chipped edge.
Right.
Progression had costs.
Real ones.
That made the crystal in Maerin’s hand look much more important.
“Fair.”
They continued.
Etzel was beginning to understand Hunter economics.
Survive.
Get stronger.
Bring back enough valuable material to pay for surviving.
Repeat.
It was less glamorous than he'd imagined.
Also more believable.
DK became quieter.
Etzel noticed after the third chamber.
Then again after the fourth corridor.
The knight kept looking down.
At the floor.
At the pale veins disappearing beneath the stone.
Etzel moved beside him.
“Still familiar?”
DK didn't answer immediately.
“Not the stone.”
Etzel glanced at the wall.
“Then what?”
DK looked beneath their feet.
“What is beneath it.”
Etzel stopped.
“That sentence could have been much less disturbing.”
“I do not know another way to say it.”
“What is beneath it?”
“I don't know.”
Etzel exhaled.
“Of course.”
Through the Soul Link, he felt the unease.
It was stronger here.
Not enough to overwhelm DK.
Enough to matter.
Etzel looked ahead.
Maerin had stopped.
The corridor opened into another chamber.
She didn’t enter.
Sivenne came up beside her.
“What?”
Maerin counted.
Etzel stepped closer.
Then understood.
Creatures.
Too many.
Seven.
Maybe more in the shadows.
Several Skitters.
Two wall-climbers.
One broad creature with a flat plated back.
A poison-spitter farther behind.
Sivenne's smile vanished.
Maerin said:
“Too many.”
That was different.
Not a joke.
Not uncertainty.
A conclusion.
Etzel tightened his grip on the hatchet.
“How many should there be?”
“Three.”
Sivenne looked into the chamber.
“Maybe four.”
Etzel counted again.
Seven.
One of the wall-climbers screamed.
Everything attacked.
Maerin slammed her palm downward. Claimed Ground.
The front half of the chamber changed.
Not visibly.
Functionally.
Two Skitters entered her territory.
Their footing broke.
Sivenne hit the first.
DK intercepted the second.
The wall-climbers split.
Etzel saw it.
“Tessa, back!”
She moved.
One creature crossed overhead.
The second disappeared behind a stone column.
Bad.
Etzel tracked the shadow.
Poison-spitter inhaling.
Broad-backed creature advancing.
Too many simultaneous problems.
He stopped thinking in enemies.
Lines.
The room had three.
Center pressure.
Upper pressure.
Ranged pressure.
“Right side!”
Maerin shouted at the same time:
“Right side!”
They looked at each other for half a heartbeat.
Sivenne grinned.
“That’s adorable.”
“Fight,” Maerin said.
“Fighting,” Sivenne replied.
Etzel almost smiled.
Then a wall-climber dropped at Tessa.
He intercepted.
Hatchet upward.
The creature twisted.
His first strike missed the neck.
Caught the shoulder.
Tessa stepped away.
Etzel kicked the creature off balance.
It recovered.
Fast.
He didn’t chase.
Wait.
It jumped.
Etzel moved aside.
Second swing.
Clean.
It fell.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION │ │ > Level Progression gained. │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
No time.
Poison.
“Down!”
Etzel dropped.
A green spray passed over him.
DK’s shield caught the rest.
Sivenne moved toward the poison-spitter.
The broad-backed creature blocked her.
She struck its plate.
Metal rang.
Nothing.
“Rude.”
It slammed forward.
Sivenne dodged.
Tessa flinched anyway.
Etzel saw it.
Some consequence had shifted.
“Tessa?”
“I’m fine.”
“Liar.”
“Later.”
He almost laughed.
Apparently everyone was stealing everyone else's lines now.
A Skitter broke through the Ground.
Maerin turned.
Etzel saw the opening before she could close it.
“Left!”
Maerin shifted.
Too late.
DK moved.
His sword flashed once.
The Skitter split beneath its shell.
No flourish.
No struggle.
Just proof that DK had been holding back.
The broad-backed creature noticed.
It changed direction.
Toward DK.
Etzel almost felt sorry for it.
Almost.
Sivenne used the distraction.
Her weapon struck beneath the rear plate.
The creature screamed.
Again.
Same angle.
The Last Answer.
Etzel saw it beginning.
First strike tested.
Second confirmed.
Third—
Perfect.
The weapon entered between plates.
The creature collapsed.
The poison-spitter fired.
Maerin changed the Ground under it.
Its stance tilted.
The projectile went wide.
Etzel saw the window.
“Sivenne!”
“I know!”
She ran.
Poison-spitter dead.
The last two creatures tried to retreat.
One went for the wall.
Etzel threw the hatchet.
It struck stone.
Missed the creature completely.
Sivenne stared.
“That was terrible.”
Etzel pointed.
The creature had flinched away from the hatchet.
Straight into Maerin’s territory.
Its feet caught.
DK struck once.
Dead.
Etzel looked at Sivenne.
“Strategic.”
“You missed.”
“Strategically.”
The last Skitter charged Tessa.
Etzel had no hatchet.
He moved anyway.
DK was too far.
Maerin occupied.
Sivenne turning.
Etzel grabbed the nearest loose stone.
The Skitter lowered its shell.
Etzel threw the stone at its side.
The creature turned toward the impact.
Tessa moved clear.
Etzel ran past it.
Reached his hatchet.
Pulled it from the ground.
Turned.
The Skitter came again.
This time he was ready.
Step.
Angle.
Strike.
Joint.
The creature collapsed.
Second strike.
Done.
Silence.
Real this time.
Etzel leaned forward.
Hands on knees.
Breathing hard.
The System chimed.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ SYSTEM NOTIFICATION │ │ > Meaningful combat contribution. │
│ > Level Progression gained. │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
He waited.
Nothing else.
No Level Five.
Good.
Close.
But not yet.
He wanted that threshold to mean something.
Sivenne looked around the room.
“Seven.”
Maerin nodded.
“Seven.”
Tessa wiped sweat from her forehead.
“That was too many.”
DK looked down.
Etzel followed his gaze.
The corpses began sinking.
All of them.
At once.
“Everyone watch.”
Maerin turned.
Seven bodies softened against the stone.
Blood flowed downward.
Armor plates remained longer.
Flesh vanished first.
Then bone.
Then the faint spiritual residue.
The pale veins in the walls brightened.
Noticeably this time.
Etzel stood.
Nobody joked.
The first corpse disappeared in seconds.
Then the second.
Third.
Faster than before.
Tessa touched her own chest.
“The dungeon feels warmer.”
Maerin immediately crouched.
“It shouldn’t.”
DK's voice was low.
“It is taking more.”
Etzel watched the energy drain into the floor.
“Because there are more bodies?”
“Perhaps.”
One Skitter’s core fragment remained.
Then a second.
Physical material.
Loot.
But the rest—
gone.
Etzel picked up one fragment.
The stone beneath it felt warm.
He looked at Maerin.
“You said dungeons use energy.”
“Yes.”
“Do they normally take it directly from dead creatures?”
“Not like this.”
The walls pulsed.
Once.
Etzel looked toward the corridor ahead.
Something moved beneath his boots.
Not movement exactly.
Pressure.
Then—
THUMP.
Everyone froze.
Sivenne lowered her weapon.
“What was that?”
Nobody answered.
Another pulse.
THUMP.
The mineral veins brightened.
The System appeared.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ DUNGEON STATUS │ │ Dungeon Progress: 18% │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Etzel stared.
Then another line formed beneath it.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Ambient Energy Saturation: Increasing │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Maerin's face changed.
Etzel looked at her.
“That sounds bad.”
Sivenne glanced at him.
“You say that a lot.”
“Because things keep sounding bad.”
The stone beneath them pulsed again.
THUMP.
This time dust fell from the ceiling.
The System flickered.
A new message appeared.
┌────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ WARNING: │ │ Spawn Cycle Accelerated. │
└────────────────────────────────────────┘
Maerin stood instantly.
“That is not supposed to happen.”
From the corridor ahead—
scratching.
One creature.
Then another.
Then another.
More.
Too many to count by sound alone.
Tessa stepped into position.
Sivenne tightened both hands on her weapon.
Maerin's Ground began spreading across the floor.
DK drew his sword.
Etzel picked up his hatchet.
The dungeon veins pulsed again.
Brighter.
Warmer.
Almost eager.
Etzel stared into the dark corridor.
“I think the dungeon just noticed us.”
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