Twenty-four hours were up.

  I stepped through the portal, returning right where I left from.

  The chamber–everything was tranquil. I was expecting that I’d have to fight off the giant Shadow Beast, but nothing. Did I get a pass?

  Leaving the battlefield for twenty-four hours could do that, I suppose.

  Still, it put me on edge. The place looked the same, but it didn’t feel the same. The pools of water were undisturbed, the tendrils gone. The eerie tension from before had dissolved, leaving behind an almost unnatural stillness. It was as if the entire struggle had been wiped away like nothing had ever been hunting me in the first place.

  “Kind of insulting, isn’t it?” I looked around, looking for any sign of my desperate struggling. “Nothing.”

  In a way, that made sense. Villagers were insignificant.

  I picked up a stone and threw it. A few newts jumped out of the water, but that was it.

  I exhaled slowly. "Yeah. That’s how it is.”

  I looked at that passage I saw last time. Couldn’t really climb up, so might as well just trudge on. I gulped down what I knew was fresh water and moved, boots skimming across the wet stone, my senses tuned for any sign of movement. Nothing lunged, nothing lashed out. Still humid, though.

  I poked my head into the passage when I heard the flow of water. There was water flowing down alongside the stone path. I put a foot in, testing the terrain, and sure enough, the smooth stone beneath my boot tilted slightly downward—it was a natural ramp into the depths.

  My gut twisted. I had options. I could backtrack and give scaling the slick rocks a serious go. But this passage… Was this natural? This incline into the depths?

  I sighed. “Guess I’m going into the depths.”

  The descent started simple. I slid down a few feet, and walked along the path through a passage illuminated by glowing moss. The walls here gave me a startle more often than not. The rock formations here looked like demonic hands reaching out to grab me. I half-expected one of them to be for real. A few of them had dim, pulsing red veins too, but that was a more common feature of these caves.

  I then reached the point where the path led into ankle-deep water. The space ahead was a little more open, and within eyeshot was the continuation of an above-water path. Didn’t like all the hand-like rock formations sticking out of the water. God, it looked like hundreds of demons had died with their hands sticking out of the graves. There were a few banana-shaped spires poking out of the water too.

  “Oh boy, this feels like it’s going to be a gamble.”

  I steeled myself. The next space was illuminated well-enough due to the glowing moss. I wouldn’t be attacked from the dark, at least.

  Unwilling to waste more time, I took my first step into the water. The cold water curled around my ankle, sending a shiver up my spine.

  The water sloshed softly around me as I moved, the sound bouncing off the cavern walls.

  The hands didn’t move. But they all reached up toward the ceiling. Each and every one of them, frozen in that same grasping motion.

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  I stopped after a few steps and looked around. Here I was expecting trouble, but all I was getting was silence.

  And then something dripped.

  I froze completely.

  And then another drip a few steps ahead of me. This drop was shadowy, and the ripples it made on the surface of the water distorted the light.

  Pulse racing, I lifted my gaze and saw it.

  A shadowy, headless black body, long and thin, hung from the ceiling like a rope had been fastened around its stomach. Its body was stretched long and thin, its arms and legs limp like a marionette without strings. Something of a rib cage was exposed, its silver bones jutting out of the black membrane with a sickly green glow radiating from its center.

  The drip caught the green glow just right. I saw it was dripping from the black, oily threads hanging from the tips of its fingers.

  I had never heard of a Shadow Beast like this.

  Then it happened. A sudden jolt–the hand closest to my ankle grabbed me. In the next instant, a rocky fist appeared inches from my face and smashed into me, knocking me backward. I didn’t even have a second to react before another hand clamped onto my arm, nails sinking into my flesh.

  Another hand snatched my hair and yanked my head back, slamming my skull into the smooth rock below. My eyes could only go one place–toward the hanging body. A silver eye had opened at the base of its neck, right above the glow in its chest.

  Suddenly, the grip on my arm tightened, the hand holding me flying and hauling me onto my feet, while the one on my ankle released. I was shocked up until a stone fist ran into my gut and pushed the wind out of me.

  Five more fists flew into me one after the other, blasting me backward with each bone-rattling impact.

  Right as I coughed and steadied myself, another rocky hand flew into my stomach and knocked me right through the damn banana rock. I hit the submerged surface, chunks falling beside me and rolled with haste, avoiding the hand coming from above.

  It struck the spot I had occupied, the water erupting beside me as I got onto my feet. I ran, but another hand latched onto my ankle, staggering me, only for another to warp in front of me. It flew into my neck and propelled me into the wall.

  A sharp, ringing crack filled the air. The impact shook the chamber. I let out a strangled cough, my body screaming in protest for a second.

  I clawed at the hand pinning me to the wall. Just then, two more hands warped into existence and flew into my torso, piercing into my flesh.

  I let out a pained roar as I hung there on the wall, impaled. The pain reverberated through my being, spiking every time the fingers wiggled inside of me. The shifting pressure, the squishing that was echoing in my ears–

  It all happened so quickly. The assault was so fast!

  And then, I heard an all-too-familiar laughter–that awful, mocking cackle… My eyes drifted upward. The shadow mouths were forming around the hanging body. All those crooked grins with grotesque misshapen teeth–they cackled at this display.

  I gritted my teeth and glared. “Level On.”

  My Levels activated. I felt the strength I needed. I tore the hand around my neck off, and then tore the two in my torso out, one at a time.

  My HP was at eight points.

  The hands I tore off sank into the water, but two more appeared in front of me. I ducked and ran, leaping over the one that tried to grab my ankle again. Then, another warped in a few paces away from me.

  The laughter filled the air, that grating, mocking sound drilling into my skull. The Shadow Beast was enjoying this.

  I exhaled sharply. “I think this is a mismatch, but…”

  I called for my Signature Weapon as I deactivated my Levels. It materialized into place. I swung at the stone hand and pulverized it like it was some brittle stone.

  The sprinkle of rock disturbing the water’s surface, I held the wrist of my new prosthetic arm and glared at the Shadow Beast. “Going to try out my new arm on you, but for that, I’ll need you to come down here.”

  I activated my Levels and ran to the banana rock that I had brought down with my back. I fished a chunk of rock half my size in one motion and lobbed it at the Shadow Beast.

  The impact was brutal—the rock crashed into it, pinning its twisted body against the ceiling. For a moment, it hung there, muffled and crushed by the weight.

  Cracks echoed, and the ceiling gave way. The Shadow Beast came plummeting down, along with a shower of falling stone.

  I held my new wrist with my right hand. My new prosthetic arm–my Signature Weapon–was already exceeding expectations.

  “It’s not a mismatch anymore.”