Adon thought that the descent into darkness was worse this time than on the previous occasion.

  The one positive about this tunnel was that, like the tunnel and caverns they had previously passed through, it was quite spacious—though Adon supposed it had to be, if there were larger and more ferocious monsters at the lower level that the dungeon was meant to unleash on the outside world.

  But in other respects, this passage was perhaps the most dangerous element of the journey so far.

  In addition to the deepening shadows that made it difficult even for Adon to see, there was now a constant, slow and steady drip of water. It was not from somewhere behind them, either. There were random drips of water within the tunnel that they were descending through. Despite the fact that this was a very steep tunnel that had no cut out stairs but was instead mostly smooth floor.

  The combination of ever-more-intense darkness with a slightly steeper shaft and the newfound presence of damp made this tunnel feel much more perilous than just facing some overgrown lizards.

  Adon was fairly certain the design of this environment was intended to cause unprepared adventurers to slip to their deaths. Without the climbing gear they had brought, Adon thought the party would have experienced its own brushes with death, at the very least, already. He himself would always be fine, of course, because he could fly, and even if he fell to the very bottom of this mineshaft-like place, he would be unlikely to suffer more than a bent antenna.

  In fact, aside from drops of water occasionally randomly falling from the ceiling and landing on him, Adon was not even inconvenienced by this situation. But it was disconcerting.

  The butterfly felt compelled to consider what the sudden presence of moisture in this space might mean about the next phase of the dungeon.

  Do you think the next level is a water level? Adon transmitted.

  “I have no idea,” Rosslyn whispered back immediately, clearly more focused on maintaining her footing than on speculation about the upcoming challenges.

  If it is, I look forward to catching some fish, Goldie sent from her position behind them, on Frederick’s shoulder. I think I may have liked fish—um, in my previous life.

  The spider sounded as vaguely nervous as she usually did whenever she mentioned some half-remembered aspect of her last incarnation.

  “If it is a fish level, we can all stop and gather some more food,” Frederick replied. “The knights cannot continue at this pace long into the evening, no matter how well trained they are or how much mana they have fueling them.”

  This sounded rather pointed to Adon, and he quickly picked up with Telepathy that the remark was aimed at William and Rosslyn, a reminder that they should make camp at some point. Frederick was not entirely confident in either his or Claustria’s knights being able to carry on into the evening. Though the cave setting—and the resulting distance from sunlight—disguised the situation, the young lord was very cognizant that time was passing, during which the warriors’ efforts were essentially nonstop.

  There was a little more chatter back and forth, speculating about the probable state of the next floor, but it became clear, especially with the context provided by Telepathy, that it was nothing but pure speculation.

  Adon was more interested in what Rosslyn was thinking about than anything that passed in the conversation happening around them—an exchange in which she barely participated.

  If we took one hour to make it down into the dungeon and through the first level, is it reasonable to assume two hours for the second floor? she questioned. Then, if we finish the second floor in that time, maybe twice as long again for the third? By the fifth floor, that would mean a total of over thirty hours spent in this place, not counting the time we will need to navigate out—which probably tacks on at least another twelve hours, even assuming incredible speed. Round that up to forty-eight hours total. Two days in which the city is under-defended and does not have leadership—unless the worst happens, and they are forced to awaken my father. Given the dungeon’s age, it could not have more than five floors, right? Unless it was developing in secret for longer than we realized—or it has rushed some of the lower floors out of sheer desperation. But then the later floors should be easily cleared—right? The stories of dungeons that rushed their development are so rare and diverge from each other so much, it is hard to draw anything useful from them. If only we had not sent those damned adventurers in before…

  So, Rosslyn was dealing with some stress-inducing questions.

  Adon wished he knew more, but he had only his own vaguely connected memories to try to help out, and they were far from helpful in this area. He remembered another lifetime in which he had been a monster in a dungeon, but he hadn’t had much sense of time in that incarnation, since he was no more than a wild beast to be pointed at a target and then unleashed—when he wasn’t attacking or being attacked by fellow monsters.

  He reflected for a moment that the life of a monster was a cold, lonely one. Aside from breeding, there was almost literally no companionship in the creatures’ lives. They lived to fight and kill.

  At least they seemed to enjoy it when I lived that life, though, he reminded himself. To the extent that you can assign that a label like joy.

  As Adon was trying to glean anything useful that he could, the group reached a certain threshold in the tunnel, and the lighting subtly changed.

  A colorful glow began creeping into the nearly pitch darkness, and as Adon observed, the knights began placing their steps more reliably on the more even parts of the floor.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  The cool blue-green glow quickly grew less subtle as the party advanced, and Adon saw the source. The walls and ceilings were growing fungi. Adon used Identify on the strange glowing substances and found that it was predominantly two species.

  Demonic Green Moss (Basic); and Monstrous Blue-Green Lichen (Basic).

  What does it mean for a fungus to be “basic?” Adon wondered. Is there an advanced moss? An expert lichen? Maybe I could get reincarnated again, but my punishment for failing at this life would be that I would have to figure out how to get good at being moss.

  Then he shared what he had noticed with the group. Adon thought he was probably the first to have observed the distinct shapes of the fungi that grew sporadically, but in ever-increasing quantities, on the walls and ceiling. But he was mistaken.

  “We had noticed the glowing fungi already, little friend,” Frederick said, speaking before anyone else—and trying, Adon noticed, to be nice about saying something that the young lord clearly thought was obvious.

  It’s so strange, though, Samson sent. Why would the dungeon put glowing fungi down here? After making the tunnel so difficult to navigate otherwise—steep, dark, and slippery—why would it add lights part of the way down? It drastically reduces the odds of people slipping and falling.

  This was repetitive of what Adon had observed—and commented to the group—but it was nice that someone besides him was questioning what was going on with the dungeon’s allocation of resources. If one thought of the dungeon as a sort of quasi-living thing that was trying to build its body and the creatures that inhabited that body to increase odds of survival, then what was the point of including a life form that would consume resources and only help the people wandering around the dungeon?

  “It is curious,” Rosslyn agreed. “Every dungeon environment is different—sometimes strikingly different even from one level to the next—though they often follow certain patterns. I think I have heard of the Monstrous Blue-Green Lichen existing in other dungeons before, at least.”

  What did you hear about it? Adon asked. He could simply probe her mind, but he preferred this.

  “I heard that it is food for certain species of monster,” William said, speaking before Rosslyn could open her mouth.

  The Princess nodded in agreement. “It indicates that the dungeon biome ahead is likely to be more complex than the one on the first level. There may be a whole sustainable ecosystem on the second floor, with some creatures consuming the mushrooms so that they do not have to consume each other. This requires much less investment from the dungeon than continuously spawning new creatures, some of which are eaten by the more mature ones, as some dungeons do.”

  Wait, what were the kobolds doing to survive? Adon transmitted, slightly horrified. Were they eating each other?

  The same thing that spiders do when they are in a confined space with only other spiders, Goldie replied gently. Common among nonhumans, since most are not as gentle as those of us here.

  Adon perceived a thread of thought underneath the one transmitted; Goldie was recalling a small population of spiders within the palace that she had completely wiped out, post-Evolution. Adon observed that she had done this despite already being a mystic beast who had little or no reason to fear other creatures her own size.

  And she seemed to feel a little bad about it in retrospect.

  We’re far from the garden now, Adon sent—directing the message to his friend only. And we’re getting better all the time, Goldie.

  I hope so, she replied. We are on a mission defending a human kingdom. It feels as if we are becoming more human-linked all the time. I still do not know if that is truly better, but I trust your judgment, Adon. And Samson agrees with me.

  Adon felt a renewed sense of confidence in his own judgment, just from hearing his friend’s words of affirmation.

  As he caught himself feeling that, he recognized something that might have been a struggle for him in this life—and in all the others before it.

  I probably care what other people think of me too much, he thought. That’s why I feel sort of mortified if I think someone disapproves of something I did or said, and I keep trying to win other people’s approval. That’s why Goldie has realized she needs to periodically inflate my ego like this. Rosslyn has said something sort of like this outright, too, hasn’t she? That I think too much about other people and need to worry more about myself? They were both probably putting a positive spin on something that’s really just a form of insecurity. I just really want to be liked, I guess. Maybe desperately. Has indulging that feeling of inadequacy ever helped me win someone over in the past, though? No, I think it has the exact opposite effect…

  Understanding people—the topic he had asked Rosslyn about back on the first level—was clearly not his primary weakness. At least not now that he could literally read minds. Even with that power, he still felt as if his social skills were his biggest struggle in life.

  Maybe this was the real problem. Maybe he just cared too much about his image in the eyes of others, and that led him to overthinking and to crippling anxiety in social situations. And to rash decisions that were motivated by fear, more than anything.

  Maybe…

  The group rounded a slight bend, and the sheer quantity of light in the passage increased by an order of magnitude, pulling Adon’s attention back to his surroundings.

  The mass of fungi present had increased dramatically, growing all over the walls and ceiling like some surreal form of inverted indoor carpeting, covering the parts of the space where people would never set foot.

  Everyone else’s eyes were drawn to the lush, blue-green, glowing surroundings, but Adon focused elsewhere.

  There, maybe fifty feet away…

  In the distance, Adon could see a small rectangle of space that was a different color and consistency visually than the rest of what he could see around him.

  They were coming to the end of the passage.

  Adon considered what he wanted to do next. He was in a dungeon now, so of course, his actions were not completely unconstrained.

  But he wanted to test out his theory of how he should be behaving.

  How would I behave right now if I didn’t care what the people around me thought?