Before four smoldering skeletons had a chance to slash weapons at me, I equipped the Hammer of Might, Slipstreamed behind the druid, and bludgeoned it from behind for 88 damage.

  The druid recovered from my flanking strike and attacked with a clubbed fist, a clump of knotted wood, causing 28 points of damage.

  Four skeletons rushed Fabulosa.

  I sent her a message through the battlefield chat because it was much faster than talking.

  Apache says Fab—hit one of the skeletons with your Returning Arrow. But don’t call it back yet.

  Fabulosa says On it.

  Without asking questions, Fabulosa switched weapons and shot another skeleton straight in the sternum. She scored a bullseye. The arrow hit for minor damage, but that’s when I played a trump card.

  Using my regular voice, I shouted over combat. “Get Ready!” Guessing the druid wasn’t a melee expert, I turned to expose my flank to it and Transposed with the skeleton she’d struck with her Returning Arrow.

  “To Me!”

  Since I’d positioned the creature facing away from us, the arrow punctured its sternum and spinal cord in a puff of splinters, killing it. Again, the arrow went through the druid’s chest, causing 245 damage. By the time the missile landed in her grasp, we’d taken out two skeletons, the swarm, and a third of the deadfall druid’s health.

  The benefits of the Transpose maneuver paid more dividends, putting me in a position to deliver another flanking attack on a skeleton focused on Fabulosa. The critical hit delivered 96 damage and pulled its attention away from my partner. Instead of four attackers, she had only two.

  We settled into melee after sustaining minor damage. Fabulosa cast her new spell, Rally. Like our fight in the star chamber, the spell healed us for 55 while dealing 110 damage to the skeletons. The druid, not being undead, also healed for 55. Rally had nearly killed the four I’d smoked with Moonburn, so we concentrated on them.

  That’s when the druid reached downward. Having liberated ourselves from the insects, we’d also freed it to concentrate on other spells. At first, I thought our foe would pick up one of the heads lying on the ground and chuck it at us. Instead, it stuck its fingers into the soil and channeled the same spell I’d Counterspelled minutes before. I inwardly cried to the universe that this wasn’t fair.

  The ground shook, sinking us to our knees in the gray earth. Two debuffs appeared in my interface, one for Rooted and another for Grappled.

  Apache says Switch to the two skeletons attacking me, I need to stop them from interrupting my spells.

  Fabulosa says On it.

  The heads on the ground suddenly made sense. The druid killed intruders by burying them up to the neck. I shuddered to think of what had happened to them afterward. We made short work of the skeletons between the two of us, but the druid’s channel hadn’t stopped. By the time I could cast spells, we stood up to our waists in gray dirt.

  While I couldn’t Counterspell the action, I had the next best thing. I downed a mana potion and channeled Dig.

  As the druid pulled us down, I removed the earth. Instead of being buried, we fought in a depression that grew deeper by the second. Dig removed both debuffs.

  When the skeletons returned, I threw up another Mana Shield. We held the low ground, but we could move. Any outcome would be better than being buried up to my neck.

  Dig disappeared earth into a transdimensional hole, which I could expel at will. I emptied the contents of my dirt inventory onto the druid. Some soil came from Hawkhurst, and some came from Fatberg’s polluted arena. Turnabout was fair play, and I did my best to inter the deadfall druid into its own neck-high grave.

  This druid proved less mobile than the skeletons. It pulled and stumbled away from the earth as I emptied Dig’s inventory. The dirt shower fouled the air, forcing us to cover our mouths while decrepit dust billowed.

  By the time the spell’s reservoir emptied, we killed all but two skeletons. Fabulosa and I already possessed the upper hand as the druid pulled itself out of the earth to engage in melee. Compared to us, it moved like a sloth, and its last desperate moves weren’t effective. We healed faster than the trio could inflict damage, and the battle ended soon enough.

  We collapsed, performing a Rest and Mend while covering our mouths, for we’d forgotten how stinky Fatberg’s dirt had been. While we recharged, Fabulosa laid back and shifted her arms and legs back and forth. “Check it out—I’m making a snow angel. Kids from Marshall, Texas, rarely get to do this.”

  Her antics made me laugh despite the stench choking the air. “We’re going to need so much therapy after this game.”

  I made another angelic impression in the gray soil while Fabulosa looted the druid. “Seeds, bones, poisons, mushrooms—this guy has nothing good on him. No weapons, no armor. Oh, here’s something.” She unraveled a swath of black fabric.

  I read the permanent hole’s description. “I can think of a few times when that would have come in handy.” It wasn’t a storage device like the void bag. It offered a one-time combat mechanic, which might prove helpful, but a ten-foot drop wasn’t as impressive as it sounds at our level.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “I wonder if we could collapse a building or a dungeon with it.”

  I shrugged.

  “Oh, and here’s something.” Fabulosa held up a pair of heavy spectacles that looked like they belonged in a steampunk game.

  I furrowed my forehead. “Those might help in the lookout tower.” I didn’t see how it would help ranged combat. Strength limited a person’s bow range, not their vision.

  Fabulosa handed me the goggles. “Grats to Lloyd—I guess.”

  The skeletons, of course, yielded no treasure or cores to take, but the druid had a yellow core.

  “Nurturing? I could think of descriptions about this druid besides nurturing.” The creature had been an odd mix of life and death magic, dabbling in animal and vegetable sorcery.

  Our loot from this dungeon included the magic rings and my Hammer and Wall of Might we’d taken from the ants. The haul satisfied me.

  Fabulosa looked at me. “No dings, huh? I’m a shave away from level 30. I thought this fight would put me over, but not quite.”

  The druid and the skeletons yielded 128 experience points, a paltry amount compared to the animated corpses.

  Fabulosa and I looked at each other with the implicit understanding of why we came to this dungeon in the first place—the relic. I’d blundered things with the first one, taking its core without telling my partner, but giving her this one made things even. Hopefully, we’d become gamers again, allied with a renewed mission to make new toys powerful enough to cruise us into the final two spots in the contest.

  Neither of us knew of a purple core’s potency for weapons, but we had high expectations. Perhaps all of this drama amounted to nothing. Maybe cores weren’t a big deal.

  “Let’s go get you a celestial core.”

  Fabulosa smiled and nodded.

  We gave the room a once-over to ensure no dangers lurked. Fabulosa collected the flame-sprouting sticks as we walked the room’s perimeter. She caught me grinning at her. “What? I think they’re pretty. These will look nice in the town hall. And look—” She passed her fingers over the flames. “They’re not even hot.”

  I re-buffed and took in my surroundings.

  I wiped my hand against the wall to remove a layer of chalky dust. The iridescent surface refracted colors from the intensity of Presence.

  The crypt bore similarities to the first, but not the lizardfolk chamber beside it. It featured no statue, crystal window, or magical puzzle. A giant pipe had once extended from the ceiling, but a partial collapse had crushed it.

  The lizardfolk installed a grill instead of a crystal wall, and the creepy druid punctured it using a giant spore. We crawled through the opening to the sarcophagus.

  Seven charred skeletons surrounded the elongated coffin, and I used Detect Magic to ensure we avoided walking into its deadly magic.

  Like the previous crypt, a podium-shaped protrusion jutted from the floor, though most of it remained buried in gray soil.

  I blew gray dust from a small socket, pulled out the same cylinder I’d used to deactivate the aura, and slid it inside. “It’s safe to approach the coffin. The magic field is gone.”

  “Do you think it did the same thing as the other aura—age people?”

  “It petrified the wooden skeletons, so I assume it’s the same effect.”

  Fabulosa nodded and pulled her scarf back over her mouth and nose. “You ready for this?”

  I nodded. “I hope we can kill whatever we find inside.”

  We expected to find another mummified anomalocaris bound and helpless in the sarcophagus. At least the coffin’s dimensions matched the previous one. It had taken all the mana reserves from me, Charitybelle, and Fabulosa to grind through its health. Though only two of us remained, we’d gained ten levels and had better equipment. Refresh Mana more than compensated for our reduced number.

  Fabulosa and I pried open the coffin lid, pushed it aside, and toppled it into the dirt with a heavy thump.

  Inside the sarcophagus lay another 10-foot-long, tentacled crustacean. Brittle, papery bands of fabric wrapped around the creature, and they turned to dust when it shifted its weight. I felt its malice bear down on me from its skull-sized eye sockets.

  The helpless creature still terrified me.

  “At least its difficulty isn’t orange anymore. It’s yellow this time.”

  “Let’s put it down.” Fabulosa’s visible breath confirmed that the air temperature had dropped. It wasn’t just the monster’s malice I could feel.

  We poured Rejuvenate into the mummy while it thrashed inside the coffin. Fabulosa downed a mana potion while I performed a Refresh Mana to end the wretch’s existence. The task felt as distasteful as before, but we earned 110 experience points.

  Fabulosa’s nameplate changed. She’d leveled to 30.

  “Grats on 30, my dear.”

  Baring a nervous smile, Fabulosa showed no pride in the takedown. “We are shamelessly insatiable.” The comment took me aback, but she didn’t explain herself.

  I shrugged. “It had to be done.”

  The creature itself left behind a cracked, worthless core.

  Because of its elongated, lobsterlike body, the crown it wore looked more like a girdle than a headpiece. A cursed relic wrapped around its midsection.

  Fabulosa studied the item description while I worked on the rune. Fabulosa chuckled to herself. “Wow. I forgot how tempting it was to take this thing. You better do this fast before I change my mind.”

  I pulled out a prepared rune. I’d made several copies of my relic-killing rune, omitting target names in case I lost or damaged the original.

  Inscribe Rune did more than turn metal into molten ink—it empowered magical functions and made the Cursed Band of Nature Ascendence the rune’s target.

  I performed a Rest and Mend to make sure I had enough mana. My mana pool had grown deeper since I’d last destroyed a relic, so I only needed a 50-point mana potion to empower it. Though I charged the parchment with magical energy without problems, I held it like a live grenade. “The rune is ready.”

  The Dark Room might be necessary for a quick escape if destroying the relic started another earthquake. I reached for my Dark Room rope, but the familiar coil wasn’t around my waist. I patted myself in a panic as if I couldn’t find my wallet or keys.

  As Fabulosa gave me a concerned look, I remembered giving it to the soldiers. Hopefully, the rune wouldn’t bring this place down upon us. “Are you ready for this?”

  Fabulosa nodded.

  I held the parchment in my hands. “Here goes nothing.”