“What are you thinking?” Rosslyn asked quietly.

  What? was all Adon could think to reply.

  “You are not usually quiet for so long.”

  They had been walking for several minutes now. As the group came upon other monsters—only monitors at first, then more of the turtles—Rosslyn and the knights had joined in on the killing. The monitors died fairly easily under the mana-reinforced blades the Princess and the warriors wielded, but the turtles seemed too robust to engage in sword combat, and thus far, no one had tried.

  Rather, Rosslyn and the others had stepped back and allowed the brothers to hit the turtles with their lightning each time. Thus, although the collective number of kills grew, the brothers’ lead grew with it.

  I was not deliberately being quiet, Adon sent, but I am trying to keep my wits about me.

  He had been warning the group of the positions of each turtle as they came upon them, which was the primary method he had of contributing to the fight in the unfavorable environment that he found himself in, with his resources only partially recovered.

  Adon, please speak plainly with me, Rosslyn thought. Her inner voice had a slight coaxing tone. I know you do not need to remain silent to sense these creatures. What are you thinking about?

  It’s silly, he transmitted back in a cautionary tone.

  “Well, how convenient,” she replied. “I was hoping to hear something lighthearted and silly today.”

  All right, Adon sent. Well, you’re definitely going to laugh. I’m glad that we’re successfully moving through the dungeon, but I was thinking about whether there was some way that you could win the competition.

  Rosslyn let out a little snort.

  Men, she thought. Even if you reincarnate hundreds of times, some things never change, do they?

  Adon didn’t know quite how to respond to that. It felt a bit like a criticism, but it was also so lighthearted that he could not be insulted.

  I guess you’re right, he sent.

  “Oh, I am not trying to insult you,” Rosslyn clarified under her breath, frowning. She returned to communication via her inner monologue.

  I considered William turning the monster killings into a sort of contest to be a bit ridiculous, Rosslyn thought. He could have easily just asked for the wyvern hide after we kill it, and no one would have objected. He is here as a favor to me and the Kingdom, and Frederick is a second son. He has been accustomed, all his life, to giving up things he wanted if his brother wanted them too. William initiated a “contest” for the pure excitement of trying to win. It is absolutely silly, but it is not you being silly.

  That’s very logical, Adon acknowledged.

  “But men do not think that way,” Rosslyn whispered, barely holding back a smile. “Including you.”

  I am pretty oriented toward achieving goals, Adon replied, keeping his tone non-defensive. William probably is, too. He’ll think he’s beaten you trying your best as long as you don’t make it obvious that you’re letting him win. And—well, I was probably extra invested in the idea of you winning the contest, because there is a prize.

  His rationalization was a little feeble. He was grasping at straws. The truth was, he just did not want William to beat Rosslyn in any contest, and he felt a bit targeted by some of the things the young lord said and did—and thought. There was some degree of downside to being a literal mind-reader.

  Well, set your mind at ease about the prize, at least, Rosslyn thought. The only thing I have imagined I could get out of this dungeon besides the security of my homeland—of my people—is experience. Have you noticed the way I have been fighting on this floor? Anything different in the way I have been using my magic?

  Adon thought about it and briefly revisited the memories. He found the answer almost instantly, but it seemed counterintuitive, so he double checked it.

  You’re using less mana than usual, he finally replied. Why?

  That is the area I need to improve, the Princess thought. My fighting stamina. There are tournaments and competitions for knights and nobles to participate in, Adon. When my father was a young man, he used to dominate competitions like those. There was one type of competition—the melee, they called it—where every entrant fought in a large ring and everyone was the opponent of everyone else. My father stepped into a melee once and challenged anyone and everyone who wanted to fight to approach him specifically and then stood at the center of the ring for the duration of the melee. At first, only a few paid him any mind. They challenged him, and he quickly defeated the challengers, but most fought their own separate skirmishes ignoring him. He gradually got more attention as he remained undefeated and never left his starting position.

  Gradually, what had been a melee turned into an orderly contest to see who would defeat my father. It went on for two days and two nights without breaks for sleep. There were hundreds of knights and nobles there, and not one of them could take my father down. Her inner voice was filled to the brim with pride. He retired from combat sports after that. I remember when I first heard about it, I asked him how he could do it. He said it was about economizing his energy use. I lack the ability to crush people with sheer power the way my father can. But if I could learn to use the power I have more efficiently… if I was capable of fighting for days and nights without rest…

  I forget sometimes how much might makes right in a society like Rosslyn’s, Adon thought.

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  You would prove that you were your father’s daughter, at least, he sent. For those who doubt you.

  Rosslyn started to nod and then shook her head.

  No, I—well, I will not pretend that motivation has not occurred to me, Rosslyn thought. But it would mean I would be a bit better equipped to lead the Kingdom into battle. Perhaps including the battle to come when we leave this dungeon.

  Their conversation was cut off for a few seconds as Rosslyn engaged a monitor. She wrapped her sword in the minimum amount of mana she could so that the blade would not have to take damage, and as a result, it took her two swings to lop off the creature’s head instead of one.

  Your motivations make sense to me, Adon sent. They just aren’t exactly the same as mine. You can say it’s my ego talking or something. That seems fair.

  “It is not as though I have none myself,” Rosslyn murmured. “But it simply is not important to me right now.”

  Of course, Adon transmitted.

  That said, I may become a bit more competitive when it comes to killing the wyvern itself, she thought quietly. Look forward to that, if you wanted to see me compete with the brothers.

  Adon sent her a little ripple of his amusement. Since he had been experiencing other people’s emotions through the telepathic connection, it had been relatively easy figuring out how to reverse that flow and share his own feelings.

  A magma pool appeared ahead of them, near the center of the path, and Adon realized they were getting close.

  Speaking of the wyvern, it should not be too far now, he sent.

  Impeccable Memory sifted through his recollections and reconstructed the path from their location.

  We will be within the wyvern’s territory in a little over a hundred feet, Adon added.

  Please tell William, too, Rosslyn thought. We are allowing him to lead on this floor, so let him call the knights to a halt and send them backward.

  A giant turtle burst out of the magma by one of the knights nearer to Rosslyn, so she quickly turned, infused a significantly larger amount of mana into the edge of her blade than what she had last used, and hacked through the turtle’s neck.

  While she was doing that, Adon repeated what he had sent to Rosslyn in a message to William. The young lord looked at Adon and mouthed the words, “Thank you.”

  When the brief fight with the magma turtle was done, William cleared his throat and began to speak.

  “Everyone! I am informed by our scout that the wyvern’s base is only around a hundred feet ahead of us. As I mentioned earlier, everyone but the small party accompanying me must remain here. We will return and let you know when this last section of the floor is cleared. Thank you all for your fine efforts thus far. Use this time to recover your strength, cook some meat in our heat sources here—” He gestured at the magma pools, and there was some quiet laughter—“and perform any healing or other tasks that you need to do before we advance further. It is entirely possible that we will continue onto the fourth level today rather than making camp in the tunnel, since we did not end up losing time by becoming lost on this maze floor as the dungeon core undoubtedly intended.”

  Oh, he’s implicitly giving me credit for our fast clearing time, Adon thought. That is… suspicious.

  But the butterfly did not try to dig into what William might really be thinking under the surface. Adon had gotten enough mind-reading done for a day, as far as he was concerned. Now that he was using it as a radar for enemy turtles, he was also trying not to overuse it for anything else. His brain could only take so much activity in one day. Once they cleared this floor, he would have to let the group know his head needed quiet time to properly recover.

  At least the time between levels should be radio silent, if they could manage that.

  William, Frederick, Rosslyn, and the arthropods advanced further while the rest of the knights remained behind. They made no objection this time, perhaps conscious of the time pressure the party was under.

  As the tiny team walked on, the magma pits grew more common, just as Adon had remembered. The path slowly wound toward the end now, instead of having more frequent twists and turns. And the glowing orange cracks in the ceiling slowly diminished in number as the pools of molten rock increased in quantity.

  Everything was the same as Adon remembered it, except that unlike in his solo trip, the party now had to actually fight the monsters. More monitors, although not an especially large number, and a very noticeable share of the giant turtles.

  Still, the monitors were no threat to any of the remaining expedition members, while the turtles were, now that the group consistently knew they were coming, far too slow to be threatening. They needed the genuine element of surprise to be effective, Adon assessed.

  Instead of feeling any pressure or desire to help with what seemed to be a fairly easy mop-up task, Adon observed the lightning mana the brothers used. That was still what brought down a majority of the turtles, though the brothers applied it sparingly. They only fired single shots at each creature, and every hit was a kill, without fail. The sheer speed of charging and use made it a challenge for Adon to understand—though he was also aware that the only reason he had picked up fire magic so quickly was that Rosslyn had deliberately demonstrated and explained it, not because he simply observed her and copied her movements. For reasons that were completely reasonable according to the logic of this world, the brothers were not going to do that with their lightning affinity.

  It is a shame, though, Adon thought. It goes straight through that natural armor and penetrates all the way out the other side. If I had that, I’d be a butterfly bullet. He pictured himself, surrounded by lightning, simply flying through the body of a giant grasshopper or something.

  “How far are we?” asked Frederick.

  Adon turned his body to face forward, and he saw it in the distance. Now that he knew what he was looking at, it was very clear.

  We are just around the corner, Adon sent. There was a giant wingtip visible. Be prepared for a fight.

  “It is about time,” said William. “I was beginning to get bored of this level.” He looked up at the ceiling and added, loudly, “I know you can do better!”

  Some people believe the cores can understand us, Rosslyn thought in response to Adon’s unarticulated question. It is a controversial topic.

  The group fully rounded the bend ahead, and Adon saw the wyvern again, in its full glory. Reptilian features, of course. Almost triangular features. The skin wings—and, something Adon had not noticed before, it had claws attached at the ends of its wings, like a bat’s.

  So it can mix things up in close combat without only relying on that beak, Adon thought.

  Not that the group would have an easy time getting within close combat range.

  The party crossed some invisible line in the floor, and the wyvern responded with a loud squawk and immediately pulled mana from deep within. William and Frederick charged their lightning mana as well, but the wyvern was somehow faster than them.

  A moment later, Adon was once again looking at an incoming wall of magma.

  “This thing is worth ten kills!” William shouted, excitement obvious in his voice.

  The final test of the third level had officially begun.