Soon enough, things started to roll at an avalanche’s speed. Cora’s mechanized forces—a combination of Gundams, self-propelled guns, and combat suits, both for infantry and airborne— were running and installing tents and improvised fortifications over the place, and so did the Carabinieri, Swat teams, and some refurbished US military from Calveor. Swarms of drones flew above, and when two crashed into each other, there was a fisticuff between one of the re-hired Neeks and an Italian engineer, stopped by Isla by banging their heads together.

  In truth, it was chaos. Each force was doing all right on its own, but not together, and only the troops in Elkins knew the area. Knowing it was impossible to care for everything, Rowan delegated the makeshift army to Isla and prioritized the raid. The two teams, his and Hubert’s, were waiting around him. The next step was to check if Cora had found the Dungeon’s entrance.

  [Rowan to Cora]: Give me an update, please.

  [Cora to Rowan]: Moment, I'm here. The Nekojin landed two hundred feet up the road and said something to her troops before approaching Rowan. “Good news or bad news first?”

  “Any news you tell me can’t be bad, baby,” Rowan smiled at her.

  "Such a sweet talker," Papa Allinder nodded, trying to pat Rowan’s head and receiving a slap on his hand. “I taught him well. He knew only two words when I adopted him: grr and no. As feral as it gets.”

  “Go on,” Rowan said, grinding his teeth.

  “As far as I could tell from outside, the Dungeon is fully formed," Cora continued. "No competition inside, or I would have received a notification. This is the good news. The bad news is it’s a level eighty in Extreme settings. It will be hard, and one cannot exit before it’s cleared.”

  “How many levels?”

  “Twenty when fully deployed, like every other Dungeon on the Traipenent.”

  “Do all dungeons in the universe have the same number of floors?” Papa Allinder asked.

  “No, but these cores have been adjusted for the ship. There’s a planet specializing in tuning dungeons,” Cora explained. “The entry is under the bridge, at the far side.”

  “OK, people, let’s move!” Rowan yelled.

  “Your party has only five members,” Hubert noticed.

  “Don’t worry, we’re fine. Wait for me at the entrance. What are you doing, Papa?” Rowan diverted his attention to the elderly man, who was sniffing in the air.

  "Training. Snemc told me I must train my senses permanently."

  Rowan interlocked his fingers imploringly. "Please, stop, you embarrass me."

  "OK… Oh… I hear Italian… Ciao, ragazzi!” Papa Allinder waved his hand. “I'll go say hello and introduce myself."

  "No, you won’t. We have to go."

  Taking the lead and dragging his father after him, Rowan walked to the other side of the bridge and then climbed down into the Tygart River’s valley. A patch of intense and swirling darkness waited on the side of a short concrete structure. As they approached, a notification appeared.

  Shore Dungeon, level 80 Setting: Extreme. A full Clear is required before you can Exit. Do you want to challenge the dungeon? Raid Leader, select Yes or No.

  “Priest Guy is the main tank; he should be the leader,” Rowan said, inviting the Paladin.

  “Good call, Father Hubert knows his job,” one of the members of the second team said.

  The Paladin nodded and selected Yes, stepping into the black whirlpool with the rest following. On the other side, the sun shone bright, but not with the light of the snow and clear air of the mountains, but that of the sea and the tropical sun.

  “Armor!” Hubert bellowed, giving a shove on Rowan’s shoulder. "C'mon, you enter the dungeon unequipped? Rookie mistake. Defensive formation, while his highness deigns to dress."

  "I don't need to dress," Rowan blurted back. In seconds, the new armor Viscardi gave him grew around him out of nothing. It had more or less the same shape as his previous segmented armor, only thinner and way more comfortable.

  “Wow. Is that an Armani?” Hubert sneered.

  [Cora to Rowan]: Don't forget to activate the targeting module I installed for your helmet.

  [Rowan to Cora]: Already did, baby. Feels great.

  It was a lie, and Rowan turned the module on as he inspected the surroundings. They were on a beach, with a few palm trees here and there, going forever to the left and right, and so did the blue sea. It was so hot that the ones wearing winter clothes or hiking gear and equipment took a moment to undress to lighter attire.

  “I remember now!” Cora yelped. “This is one of the entertainment dungeons. Sea resort thematic. My parents never allowed me in it. There are all sorts of… massage parlors,” she blushed, saying the last words in a low voice.

  “Then it’s our lucky day. Except for Father Hubert, he must keep his temptations in check,” another adventurer joked. Hubert’s people wore generic gear, and their tags turned off, so Rowan couldn’t tell what each class or job was.

  “Keep sharp!” Rowan barked. “This is a prison; treat every monster you see as a sentient. However, we talk first and shoot late— what the fuck?”

  A slight tremor was the only warning. A jaw opened under his feet, and only a last-second reflex to dodge saved him. A shark the size of a small car erupted up from the sand, falling back down with no grace but with a weight that could crush anyone caught underneath.

  In an instinctive swipe, Rowan's half-pike left a deep bleeding mark on the monster’s flank before the beast disappeared back into the ground. Calling for the weapon felt as easy as summoning the armor.

  You have inflicted a Critical Hit and a DOT of 2%/second on Sand Shark, level 80 (Elite). You have slain Sand Shark (1/20). XP is postponed until the entire pack is killed. Sonar has detected that the weak spots are the gills, eyes, and tail.

  “There are more!” he yelled. “Hit the gills, eyes, or tail.”

  “Get to the rocks,” the Paladin bellowed, showing them a cluster of solid ground patches.

  The sand trembled again. Rowan activated one of his Joint Trip stacks and plunged into the ground. Four large shades approached fast. Interposing himself between the incoming group and his raid, Rowan started to extract rebar pieces from his inventory, thrusting them into the monsters.

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  As soon they left his hand, the rebars reappeared in the real world, skewering the sharks. He killed them with twenty seconds to spare and took time to inspect the environment. A hundred yards away, a second group was advancing fast, and in its back, another, and a third, and fourth one, in the faraway. The pack was divided into groups of five. On his left side was the dungeon limit; he could see the bridge and the normal sky upward.

  He ran up, imagining there were steps under his feet, and reappeared on the stone formation in the middle of his group. “Incoming fast, this direction, fifty meters,” he pointed East.

  No unnecessary words were spoken. Those who had guns started to shoot. The Paladin and Bree, the tanks, went in front, spears at the ready, and the rest prepared to do whatever. Cora rose in the air, unleashing her firepower in the sand.

  There were notifications about the first group Rowan had killed and three more sharks from the incoming group. The remaining two monsters leaped out. One crashed atop the Paladin and the other on Bree. The Ranger roared and threw her shark head-first into a rock, killing it. The Paladin wasn’t so lucky, slipping on the wet rock while trying to block the attack with the shield, and the Sand Shark fell on the priest, thrashing his tail around wildly. Finally, its spastic moves relented, as he was hacked to death, but Rowan knew the next group would be there in no time.

  Dashing forward in the sand, he activated his Stormstorm, pushing it down into the ground and shaping it as a cone. A giant fist of icy wind crushed into the beach, throwing up sand and shark parts. Due to Sonar, Rowan could now feel the next group of monsters. Interrupting the spell for a few seconds, he ran onward, reactivating it when he neared the fourth group, rinse-repeating the move with the fifth.

  You and your Raid have slain a Sand Shark Pack (20/20). You have leveled x 2. You are now Level 71. To clear the floor, kill the remaining four Shark Packs.

  Snowstorm's cost has been reduced to 48 Mana/Second. A Harmony between Sonar and Snowstorm has been created. Snowstorm can now detect your enemies' location and weaknesses and apply Critical Damage. Its base damage against unarmored opponents and Living type creatures and constructs is increased by 25%

  His Mana was only two hundred now, at about fifteen percent, needing eighty-five minutes to regenerate it naturally. Shaking his head in disappointment, he returned to the group. Cora was back down, and Papa Allinder was healing the broken bones of an injured adventurer. The Paladin lay on his back, staring into nothingness.

  “Oh, fuck,” Rowan said, kneeling near the priest and closing his eyes. “I’m sorry… You were a nice guy, Albert, albeit bitchy. And I promised you a confession, so take it as a goodbye gesture. I did a lot of stuff in my life and regret some of it. May God rest your s—Whoa!”

  Hubert’s eyes were now alive and filled with anger. “You call that a confession?” he blurted, spitting out sand as Rowan jerked back on his feet, startled. “And it’s Hubert, you moron!”

  “A Paladin has a stack of Rezzes he can use daily, and it works on him too,” someone said.

  “Lucky bastard.” Rowan patted the Paladin’s shoulder, then helped the priest get back on his feet.

  “What did that?” Hubert asked, taking in the view of the huge trench.

  “Rowan. He killed eighteen out of the twenty sharks by himself,” Bree said.

  “You know what? Why don’t you take the lead?” Hubert gestured.

  “Nah, it’s OK. Let’s talk strategy. There are four more packs like this before we clear the floor and many more floors after this. It will be a slow grind; my Perks consume a lot of Mana. Any suggestions?"

  "I'll buff your Mana regeneration, son," Papa Allinder said. "Chugg a potion occasionally, and we're good.”

  “Thanks,” Rowan nodded.

  "Just doing my duty, kid. Like always. Remember when you—"

  [Rowan to Papa Allinder:] Stop embarrassing me, or I’ll let the sharks eat you.

  “There are solid ground patches here and there,” the Paladin said. “Running from one to another is clearly how the floor mechanics work. Let’s use as many skills as possible; the XP is low, but the skill progression is great.”

  “How much ammo and fuel do you have, baby?” Rowan turned toward Cora.

  “Moment… three hundred mini-rockets, ten thousand rounds, and about three hours left of fuel, flying time.”

  “We do as Hubert says. The path to the next safe spot must be clear, but I’ll run ahead to check. When the next monster group is in sight, fire some rockets in the sand. ”

  The plan started well. They ran safely to the next spot, a higher ground between palm trees. Cora fired two rockets to their left on the beach, and Rowan released his Sonar ability for a second. It revealed the first group underneath Cora.

  “Beneath you!” Rowan yelled.

  Cora nodded and kept her altitude. The sharks jumped up, but she was too high to reach, and the leap exposed the monsters to the Raid’s firepower. Trying to see if his Artifact weapon could change into a ranged weapon, Rowan was pleased to see a rewarding notification:

  Your Artifact is now a Mystical Rifle. Rate of fire: 1 Mana projectile/2 seconds.

  It was too late to shoot at the first group of monsters, as they had already been dispatched, but the second one was now aiming for Cora. Rowan took out a monster, and his friends killed the rest. The third group, though, had learned the lesson, sped up, and threw themselves at the Raid. Rowan stepped back, shape-shifting his weapon to a spear again. Luckily, the sand was shallower in front of the rock mound, and the Sand Shark shapes were fully visible before they reached their target.

  Cora shot at the monsters from behind with fantastic precision, considering her raid was already engaged in melee. Papa Allinder started throwing magical projectiles, aiming wildly but still finding the targets because of the monsters' size and his high fire rate. In a matter of twenty seconds, all the sharks died.

  The next shark group skimmed just underneath the surface, revealed by their fins, zigzagging to avoid the bullets. Rowan jumped to the first line, assisting Hubert. Only two sharks made it to the raid, but it was a hard fight. A shark threw a tail into Rowan’s chest before he could react, projecting him into the tree behind.

  Delayed Truth activated. You have 0% HP. You have ten seconds to heal. You are Dazed for 30 seconds.

  Fuck, they hit like a truck.

  “I need healing,” he yelled, casting a Combat Heal and activating a Health Potion Patch. Hubert and Papa Allinder helped with their channeled spells, and his HP recovered quickly.

  HP is easier to build back than Mana. I need a larger Mana Pool…

  As Rowan was still dazed and unprepared to face the last group. Papa Allinder threw himself in the first line, shooting a flurry of miniature Mana bolts into the sand. At the same time, the rest fired guns and bows. No shark managed to emerge from the sand this time, and the notification showed:

  You and your Raid have slain a Sand Shark Pack (20/20).

  Rowan XP bar has raised only a quarter to the next level. On the other hand, Papa Allinder was quipping happily: “I’m level thirty, I’m level thirty!”

  “When did you get so good at magic?” Rowan asked.

  “I told you, Snemc trained me. It’s all about following your instincts.”

  “It's his Will perk," Cora said. "Very fast spells, but little damage."

  “Little damage? I lost half my HP to him,” Hubert complained. “Sir, you have to aim. Friendly fire is a thing here.”

  “I’ll try, I’ll try…”

  “Papa, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you're a natural,” Rowan patted his father on the back. “You did well. I'm proud of you.”

  “Let's reassess our strategy. We spent half an hour for two groups,” Hubert said. “We’re slow. What if we try a new approach? This spot is better than the rest; the sand is shallower, and the trees stop them from surrounding us. Why don't you kite the rest of the monsters here?”

  “You think they’ll leave their designed area?” Rowan asked.

  “Can’t hurt to try.”

  “What if I fly on Cora’s back and shoot spells at the pursuing monsters to speed up the kills?” Papa Allinder proposed.

  “That's a terrific idea. Hop on,” Cora said.

  Nodding his approval for the overall plan, Rowan ran forward until he passed the next safe spot. Activating Sonar, he detected the first batch of sharks coming hot. As he ran back, the monsters followed, including the second group of five.

  “They’re all linked; once one group starts, they all start,” he shouted. Feeling in an experimental mood, Rowan decided to test something else. He ran to a side, and as soon as the sharks’ fins appeared over the shallow side, he tried to add more gravity and cold to his Snowstorm, reducing the wind.

  The effect was spectacular despite costing less mana. The monsters froze or were immobilized, squirming in place, and were killed in seconds by the Raid’s firepower.

  “You can freeze time or something?” Hubert yelled.

  “Gravity! Rinse and repeat.”

  Soon, they were notified about the demise of the third pack.

  “How are you on Mana?” Hubert asked.

  “I’m good,” Rowan said. “They’re still frozen after I stop my spell, so I can keep it short.”

  “Let’s move on; we have the upper hand now,” the Paladin proposed. “

  “I agree. See, kid, everything is about adaptivity,” Papa Allinder said like he had been dungeoning for a lifetime and had taken his son out to teach him the basics, not vice versa.

  In minutes, the next pack was disposed of. However, when they advanced toward the last presumed monster spot, they arrived back at the entry. The beach had made a full tour.

  “Where the fuck is the fifth group?" a melee-type adventuress from the second team asked.

  “In the water,” a voice said, and a whiff of cigarette smoke reached their nostrils.